YMMV / Buffy the Vampire Slayer S4 E9 "Something Blue"

• Fan-Preferred Couple: Ironically, though the episode was meant to poke fun at the idea, it pretty much single-handedly pushed Spuffy into this status.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Some of the major events that most polarized the fandom in Seasons 6 and 7, including Buffy and Spike hooking up in a relationship ^note  Granted, the ire there was more from it being a Destructive Romance rather than from the fact that that they hooked up at all. and Willow's witch powers spiraling out of control following her relationship ending, are (coincidentally or not) foreshadowed, to the point of the whole episode seeming Harsher in Hindsight. Heck, it even brought Amy back! (Albeit for only two seconds on-screen.)
  • Xander asks to be blind along with Giles after watching Spike and Buffy kiss. This becomes less funny in season seven, when he gets an eye gouged out by Caleb.
  • After Willow's spell-gone-awry is broken, Buffy jokingly tells her that "we may be into a forgetting spell later". Loses its funny after season six, where Willow uses magic to erase Tara's memories.
  • Buffy and Spike's "love" being portrayed, beneath the veneer of their magically-induced adoration for each other, as largely dysfunctional hits a lot harder after their Destructive Romance in season 6.
  • While under the spell, Buffy and Spike have a small squabble because Spike implies that he believes he needs to protect Buffy... come the midpoint of Season 5, Buffy and Riley will break up after a long pile-up of conflicts, the catalyst of which is Riley carrying this same belief.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight:
  • Spike freely offering to help out Giles with his blindness simply because he loves Buffy will end up mirroring his Character Development down the line.
  • Buffy and Spike's tendency to hold hands and be very casually affectionate is very similar to how they're portrayed when they're dating in earnest in the season 10/11 comics.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The episode was largely made in response to the Buffy/Spike shippers, to point out how ridiculous a relationship between them would be. Less than two years later, the show bowed to the pressure and began to move toward pairing them up for real. By the end of the series, Spike was generally considered Buffy's second main Love Interest alongside Angel, edging out and overshadowing Buffy's current-to-this-episode Love Interest. Ironically, Joss Whedon admitted in a 2016 interview that despite how much he was originally against another vampire boyfriend for Buffy, Spike is now his personal preferred Love Interest for Buffy.
  • Buffy declares she's completely over the "Bad Boy thing" at the end of the episode. Oh, Buffy... give it a couple of seasons.
  • In the season 10 comics: The same Scoobies who expressed horror and disgust with the Spike/Buffy pair are, after several years of healthy friendship, ensoulment, and Character Development, actively urging them to get together. Yes, even Xander.
• Values Dissonance: Buffy reacting with shock at Willow drinking beer can be laughable to viewers from countries with a lower drinking age. Particularly in the UK and Ireland, where the legal age is eighteen, but it's considered normal for sixteen-year-olds to drink. The idea that everyone is freaking out at Willow - a nineteen-year-old - having a beer makes the scene quite Narmy in other territories.

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