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Perfect Buffy Episode Secretly Channels Greatest Movie Of All Time

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published

Normally, The Godfather is the last movie you’d associate with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. After all, the former is the greatest mafia film ever made, and the latter is a show about plucky teenagers fighting demons. As it turns out, though, one perfect episode of Buffy managed to honor The Godfather in a powerful way.

In the episode “Passion,” there is a fairly innocuous scene where a newly evil Angel harasses Joyce Summers, causing her to drop some oranges. Shortly after, Angel murders the Sunnydale High computer science teacher in a brutal attack. These may not seem like related events, but the whole thing is secretly an homage to The Godfather’s “orange motif,” which went on to inspire decades of groundbreaking cinema!

The Not-So-Annoying Orange

What the heck is the orange motif, you ask? If you go back and rewatch The Godfather, you’ll notice there are oranges in so many very important scenes. At first glance, they don’t seem to have much special significance, and you might be forgiven for thinking that director Francis Ford Coppola just has a thing for oranges.

However, what’s important is when the oranges appear: namely, they appear shortly before a character is killed. For example, Vito Corleone is killed, it is while he’s peeling oranges. When the titular Godfather is shot, he is buying oranges, which dramatically scatter on the ground. When the Five Families meet, you can see oranges near the Mafia leaders that would soon be killed.

Because The Godfather was so influential, “the orange motif” (as this phenomenon was eventually called after it was used in the subsequent Godfather films) started popping up in other movies, including Point Break, American Beauty, and Requiem for a Dream. Fittingly enough, the orange motif also popped up in The Sopranos, where we see Tony Soprano buy some orange juice shortly before someone tries to whack him. Before that, though, Joss Whedon hid an orange motif reference in an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Orange You Glad To See Him?

In “Passion,” Angel (who has recently lost his soul and become evil) harasses Joyce Summers outside of her own home, causing her to drop some oranges. While Joyce herself doesn’t die, those dropped oranges and the presence of the show’s scariest vampire foreshadow a major death right around the corner. Soon afterward, Angel kills Jenny Calendar, a beloved character whose death sends a chilling message to viewers: none of your favorites are guaranteed to make it out of Season 2 alive.

In retrospect, it’s not really all that shocking that Buffy the Vampire Slayer hid such a powerful reference to The Godfather in plain sight. After all, the show is filled with references to countless other movies and shows, mostly courtesy of quip-heavy characters like Buffy and Xander. Given how much of a film buff showrunner Joss Whedon and the rest of his team were, it’s not that surprising they wanted to homage one of the greatest movies of all time.

But is the orange motif from The Godfather the greatest cinematic trope of all time? It’s certainly one of the most prolific. As for me, I don’t really like this Godfather reference as much as some Buffy fans turned cinephiles. Why? Because, in the immortal words of Peter Griffin, it insists upon itself!


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Entertainment

AI stocks are cooling — this ChatGPT trading tool keeps delivering

TL;DR: A ChatGPT-powered investing platform that helps you find and manage stocks with clearer signals—lifetime access for a one-time $54.97.


Credit: Sterling Stock Picker

The AI trade has seemingly had its moment — big runs, big headlines, big expectations. The AI fun is not over by any means. But now that things are settling, the real question is what comes next?

Instead of chasing whatever’s trending, Sterling Stock Picker leans into a more grounded approach: using a ChatGPT-powered assistant (Finley) to help you understand what’s actually happening inside a stock. You can ask questions about companies, sectors, or your own portfolio and get explanations that are tied to real data — not just surface-level summaries.

Mashable Deals

By signing up, you agree to receive recurring automated SMS marketing messages from Mashable Deals at the number provided. Msg and data rates may apply. Up to 2 messages/day. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help. Consent is not a condition of purchase. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

It also handles the heavy lifting most people avoid. The platform analyzes financials, growth metrics, and risk, then surfaces signals like whether a stock is worth buying, holding, or avoiding. There’s even a “North Star” system that simplifies that call into something actionable.

If you’re building from scratch, there’s a done-for-you portfolio builder that aligns with your risk tolerance. If you already have positions, it can suggest adjustments based on your portfolio’s performance.

One thing that stands out is how it balances guidance with transparency. You’re not just handed picks — you can see the reasoning behind them, which matters if you’re trying to build a repeatable process.

Have a lifetime way to pressure-test your judgment — especially in a market that’s moving past hype and into something more selective.

Get lifetime access to the ChatGPT-driven Sterling Stock Picker while it’s on sale for a one-time $54.97 payment (reg. $486) through May 10.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

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Get 2TB encrypted cloud storage and collaboration tools for just $112.49

TL;DR: Lifetime access to 2TB of secure Drime cloud storage is on sale for a one-time $112.49 (reg. $299.99) through May 10.


$112.49

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Cloud storage is one of those things that quickly turns into a monthly bill you forget about. That’s what makes a lifetime option like Drime worth a closer look.

You can currently get 2TB of storage for a one-time $112.49 (reg. $299.99), which means no ongoing fees just to keep your files accessible.

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By signing up, you agree to receive recurring automated SMS marketing messages from Mashable Deals at the number provided. Msg and data rates may apply. Up to 2 messages/day. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help. Consent is not a condition of purchase. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

But this isn’t just a place to dump files and forget about them. Drime leans more toward being a full workspace. You can upload, sync, and access files across devices, but also edit documents, leave comments, and collaborate with others without switching tools. It’s useful if you’re juggling projects, clients, or even just shared folders with family.

Security is a big part of the pitch. Files stored in the encrypted Vault are protected by end-to-end encryption, and everything is hosted in Europe in compliance with GDPR standards. This means your data isn’t floating around unsecured, and you have more control over who sees what.

There are also a lot of small quality-of-life features that make a difference over time — like version history for restoring older files, advanced link sharing with passwords and expiration dates, and even built-in e-signature tools.

It’s a simple way to get more control over your files without adding another monthly expense.

Get lifetime access to 2TB of Drime Cloud Storage for a one-time $112.49 (reg. $299.99) through May 10.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

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The Bear still doesnt know how to write romance

Whenever The Bear introduces a new female character, I pray she doesn’t become a love interest for one of the male leads. Not because I hate romance, but because I specifically hate the way The Bear does romance.

The clearest offender is Carmy’s (Jeremy Allen White) relationship with Claire (Molly Gordon). A childhood friend who re-enters Carmy’s life, Claire is less a real human character than she is a walking self-help book for Carmy. She spends almost every moment she’s on screen talking about him: her memories of him, his mental health struggles, his relationship with his family. In theory, she has a life apart from Carmy — her defining character trait outside of being his girlfriend is vaguely “nurse” — but in watching The Bear, you wouldn’t know it.

Usually a great performer (see: Shiva Baby, Oh, Hi!, and more), Gordon is reduced to two modes here: luminous love interest hanging onto Carmy’s every word, or calming therapist. She’s not the only Bear character to meet this fate. As The Bear builds Ever staffer Jessica (Sarah Ramos) into a possible match for Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), it replaces her level-headed expertise with empty platitudes designed to ground him. (Season 4 line “honesty is sanity” made me want to drive my head through a wall.) Elsewhere, Richie’s ex-wife, Tiffany (Gillian Jacobs), acts as a similar pillar of support.

Their heads constantly askew, their eyes lit up in adoration, their mouths always ready to offer up an eager laugh or some cornball advice, these characters morph into The Bear‘s single idea of a Woman In Love. Now, The Bear‘s standalone episode “Gary” offers a new addition to this pantheon: Sherri (Marin Ireland) from Gary, Indiana.

Sherri is a woman whom Richie and Mikey (Jon Bernthal) meet at a bar while on a work trip to Gary. She immediately strikes up a rapport with Mikey, playing a private game of “Fact or Fiction” with him, listening to his complicated woes while nestled together in a bathroom stall, and stealing his beanie and wearing it like a middle schooler trying to get a rise out of a crush. It’s a level of blindly supportive compassion we haven’t seen since Claire Bear, and Ireland, typically a huge asset to any project, soon becomes trapped in The Bear‘s love interest archetype. (Someone please ban affectionate head tilts from the set of The Bear, effective immediately.)

While Sherri feels like she was meant to be a moment of bright connection in Mikey’s life, maybe even “the one that got away,” she really just comes across as an empty vessel for him to pour his trauma into. “What are you looking for, Michael?” she wonders. Later, when he asks permission to do a bump of cocaine, she simply responds, “I want you to be you.” It’s a series of faux-deep exchanges that even two great performers can’t sell. (It doesn’t help that Bernthal and Moss-Bachrach wrote the episode.)

That faux-deepness is what sinks The Bear‘s other romances, too. The show tries to force these deep, cosmic connections, but it forgets that these relationships should be a two-way street. Perhaps that’s why many viewers are drawn to shipping Carmy and Sydney (Ayo Edebiri). While the showrunners have affirmed that their relationship is platonic — and I personally agree with that choice — what sets this hypothetical pairing apart is that they each have such rich lives, both in their work together and their time apart. That’s because The Bear is invested in both of them as characters, rather than just using one as a device to unlock the other. You simply can’t say the same of The Bear‘s other romantic pairings, and the release of “Gary” further proves that romance is the recipe The Bear has yet to master.

“Gary” is now streaming on Hulu. The Bear Season 5 premieres this June on Hulu.

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