Why Andrew?

Well Giles was out of the question because Tony Head was in England, and Joss said that bringing him in for a guest spot wasn't cost feasible.

Tranquillity makes a good point with the brother dynamic where Andrew now acts towards Spike the way he acted towards Angelus. Honestly, that's the best reason I've heard for Andrew instead of Xander.

After all, Xander was far more popular a character, and he had a history with Spike, Angel and Wes (he hated them all, lol). Like I said in the OP, when I first heard people saying Xander should've shown up in Angel, I thought it sounded unnecessary, but now I think it would be interesting to see him faced with dealing with two guys he doesn't trust.
 
B
BillyidolwannaB
That would have been amazing if Xander was in season 5
I loved that it was Andrew. Andrew did bring some fun into the dark storylines, and frankly I would have hated to see Xander on Angel. It needed to be Andrew.
 
Frketson said:
i highly doubt that 😀
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Actually he was busy with a TV movie where he played gay at that time. I wish he went on AtS instead. Love me some Xander/Angel/Spike threesome... prrrrr

I buy Xander being in Buffy's apartment way more than Andrew, and the speech about moving on would have more emotion and more touching if Xander said it, he'd been there.
 
Now that I've actually watched S5, I, too, am going "Huh? Why Andrew?" I think it would have been so much better of a "crossover" if anyone BUT Andrew had been the one they saw. Giles, Dawn, Xander, Willow... Any of those would have been a better choice. I mean, Andrew brought a little touch of comic relief, but still.... I felt it should have been a character who had deeper ties to both Spike AND Angel. Andrew only really knew Spike, so it felt weird to me.
 
HisMrs said:
Now that I've actually watched S5, I, too, am going "Huh? Why Andrew?" I think it would have been so much better of a "crossover" if anyone BUT Andrew had been the one they saw. Giles, Dawn, Xander, Willow... Any of those would have been a better choice. I mean, Andrew brought a little touch of comic relief, but still.... I felt it should have been a character who had deeper ties to both Spike AND Angel. Andrew only really knew Spike, so it felt weird to me.
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Joss had written both Giles and Dawn into guest roles in S5, but Tony Head was in England and Michelle was working on another project.

I can see why Willow didn't show up, she would have been too sympathetic to Angel and probably wouldn't have betrayed him. She's also too powerful.

sosa lola said:
Actually he was busy with a TV movie where he played gay at that time. I wish he went on AtS instead. Love me some Xander/Angel/Spike threesome... prrrrr

I buy Xander being in Buffy's apartment way more than Andrew, and the speech about moving on would have more emotion and more touching if Xander said it, he'd been there.
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Well it wasn't really Buffy's apartment. We later find out that "Buffy's still not home" thing was a rouse. Andrew was really staying with a Buffy lookalike (one of many) to keep everyone outside of the Scooby-Gang in the dark about Buffy's location for safety reasons. And the Immortal thing was Andrew's way of messing with Spike and Angel, because he read up on their history together.
 
BuffyElevated
BuffyElevated
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Buffyverse Fan said:
Well it wasn't really Buffy's apartment. We later find out that "Buffy's still not home" thing was a rouse. Andrew was really staying with a Buffy lookalike (one of many) to keep everyone outside of the Scooby-Gang in the dark about Buffy's location for safety reasons. And the Immortal thing was Andrew's way of messing with Spike and Angel, because he read up on their history together.
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When do we find this out??? Did I miss something in another ep??
 
The one thing that bugged me was Andrew's physical appearance in this episode. He looked like he was trying too hard to look like a Watcher (or Doctor Who 😉 )--basically, too stereotypically British. Given that, it doesn't make sense that Andrew looks more American (as he should) at the beginning of Season Eight, but it's a better choice from a character standpoint. It's a minor quibble, but Andrew's clothes and hairstyle seemed way out of character for him, unless we're supposed to believe that he's taking his job way too seriously (which makes sense, then).
 
Tranquillity said:
It was for the Girl in Question that Dawn/Michelle Trachtenberg was wanted. Damage was always going to use Andrew. And when Michelle wasn't available they re-used Andrew in TGIQ.

In Damage, Andrew is the logical choice because it had to be someone who loved Spike and Xander doesn't fit that bill. The episode is about, amoung other things, Angel being given a new perspective of Spike. Angel has Spike pidgeon-holed as 'a bad guy only pretending to be good for his own purposes' and then in comes Andrew, who is acting as Buffy's representative, seeing Spike as something totally different, having a whole other perspective of him:

Spike? It's you. It's really you! My therapist thought I was holding onto false hope, but... I knew you'd come back. You're like... you're like Gandalf the White, resurrected from the pit of the Balrog, more beautiful than ever. Ohh... he's alive, Frodo. He's alive.

And also, Spike's tolerance of Andrew is a nice contrast to Angel's lack of tolerance for Spike; the two metophorical "big brother/little brother" relationships are a huge feature of the episode and that certainly wouldn't have worked with Xander as the guest.

I do think that Dawn would have worked better in The Girl in Question though 🙂
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That's a really good point about the episode being about Spike being seen differently and now i feel certain that Andrew was a good choice. It would have been interesting to see Xander's thoughts about Spike after he saved the world though.
 
Kanazaka said:
The one thing that bugged me was Andrew's physical appearance in this episode. He looked like he was trying too hard to look like a Watcher (or Doctor Who 😉 )--basically, too stereotypically British. Given that, it doesn't make sense that Andrew looks more American (as he should) at the beginning of Season Eight, but it's a better choice from a character standpoint. It's a minor quibble, but Andrew's clothes and hairstyle seemed way out of character for him, unless we're supposed to believe that he's taking his job way too seriously (which makes sense, then).
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I believe that was the point. And we see in S8 that Andrew has really become part of the inner-circle, where he was still transitioning during AS5.
 
I liked seeing Andrew in the episode with the Slayer however, it would have been much more "credible" for me to see Dawn in The Girl In Question! However, I am not too crazy about TGIQ, so I am glad the comics changed all that nonesense!
 
Damage was a decent episode, but I hated seeing Andrew again. Dude annoys me, plain and simple.

I would've preferred Xander, Giles or even Robin Wood instead.
 
R
Revolver
Well, bad news. You still haven't seen the last of Andrew
C
charmingslayer
Giles isn't too fond of Angel as you'll see in on of the episodes. Originally it was gonna be Michelle(Dawn) but she was shooting Eurotrip.
Aww, I love Andrew! He's so funny, and at least for the episode Damage, I feel like he worked great. He was the perfect one to give that "brotherly" (as someone called it) perspective on Spike/Angel.

And just wondering, wasn't the fact that Buffy didn't know Spike was alive kind of important too in these episodes? I've read the comics, but it wasn't clear to me whether Andrew ever told her.

For the episode Damage, it seemed to me like this was a trivial matter for the slayers and they just sent Andrew to get Dana because it was something for him to do. 🙂

For The Girl in Question though, I agree that Dawn would have been a better character to greet Spike and Angel at Buffy's house. The Andrew thing wasn't exactly convincing and they were too resigned to just leaving.
 
Mumrik
Mumrik
No one knows for sure if Andrew told her. Hope that's going to be explained. Soon.
Just finished watching "The Girl in Question" where Andrew shows up again.


He was annoying as usual and I didn't care for the episode at all. It was awful.
 
I didn't mind about Andrew appearing in Damage...i really loved that episode!But i was a little disappointed by the fact that Buffy doesn't trust Angel anymore...couldn't they have a talk of some sort?i mean just the two of them meet in some place discuss the latest events...
I liked Andrew's quote to Angel:"i have 12 slayers with me and none of them has ever dated you!" or sth like that...lol!
 
I ADORE Andrew. I love Tom Lenk and I got excited whenever Andrew was on the screen. He was a bit annoying before season 7, but he was great in season 7. That he was in Damages? I would not have it any other way. Not only because I love him, but also because I wanted to see if he had matured at all! Of course, the minute he started quoting storyteller by saying "She is the Vampyyyyre slayer." I knew he was good 'ol Andrew. And I would not have it any other way! I enjoyed this episode because of him and I'm sorry to say that I would not want to see Xander again. I can just picture him going on and on about how much he hates the fang-boy Angel and how he is working with Wolf-ram and Hart and yada yada yada.
 
I think having Andrew in both Damages and The Girl in Question was probably the right move. If they had Giles or Xander in Damages, I don't think that the twist at the end would have worked because both Giles and Xander have very strong reservations about both vampires so it wouldn't exactly be a revelation that they viewed Spike and Angel as bad guys. With Andrew it definitely is a shock because he idolizes Spike like crazy.

As for The Girl in Question? Again I don't think that either Giles or Xander would have tried to give Spike and Angel some important life advice let alone Spike and Angel taking it to heart. While Dawn might have made more sense to have been living with Buffy, I'm personally glad they didn't because I don't really like the character and I'd have been sad she took that opportunity to talk to Angel about his relationship with Buffy. Any time a character talks about events in seasons 1-4 of Buffy but include Dawn in them I always cringe a little as I dislike retcons.
 
Buffyverse Fan said:
I've heard this brought up before, but I didn't agree with it until recently... Why would they use Andrew in S5 of Angel over Xander?

I think Xander would have added a lot more dynamic because now he's in this position of power and he gets to stare down two of the guys he hates most.

Not to mention how funny it would have been when he saw Spike walk into Angel's conference room, since his first conclusion would be that Angel went bad again and it was some kind of trap (since the last time the two vamps worked together they were trying to kill the Scoobies).
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My guess? In the first episode with him in it, Spike, who is usually comic relief, took on a more serious role. That episode was in desperate need of some comic relief. The second episode with them in it was all about comic relief. And the cahracter of Xander is meant to be rather busy at the time, whereas the character of Andrew is meant to be rather useless in general. They wanted to give the impression that Buffy was still continuing with her own story.
 
***WARNING--Contains Spoilers for "The Girl In Question" and "No Future For You" arc in Buffy Season 8 *********



I think that it's significant that whoever showed up was working directly for Giles and not Buffy. It supports my pet theory that Giles learned of Spike's return and purposely kept the knowledge from Buffy (the same goes for refusing to help Fred during the Illyria mutation. There's no way that Willow would have refused to come and help Fred, given the kind of instant rapport that they had in Season 4. The fact that it was Andrew further enforces the theory that Buffy didn't know about Spike's return, at least at that time, because Andrew wasn't as close to her as Willow, Dawn, of Xander were, and either of them would have been more likely to defy Giles and tell Buffy, and, also, Andrew would be more apt to go along with the deception in Rome (that would also explain his James Bond get up, complete with a girl on each arm. He was obviously Timothy Dalton on a covert operation) It might even explain the reason for the rift that existed between Giles and Buffy later in the "No Future For You" arc in Season 8.
 
Mumrik
Mumrik
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