Soul Purpose (Angel) - Cultural References

Cultural References

• Jaws: In a nightmare scene, Fred extracts a license plate from Angel's chest, a reference to this film.
• Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd song): In the same nightmare scene, Fred extracts Angel's soul represented as a dead goldfish in a fishbowl.
• Pinocchio: In another nightmare scene, Spike is transformed into a "real boy" by a blue fairy, as in Disney's version of the fairy tale.
• Miami Vice: Spike calls Wesley and Gunn "Crockett and Tubbs", the main characters from this 1980s television series.
• Star Wars: Spike responds to Wesley's request to join them by calling him 'Mr Vader' and saying that he will not 'join the evil empire'
• Superman: Lindsey says that Spike hasn't "sewn a big red S on his chest, but he's getting there." Angel's predicament in this episode is similar to Superman's in the comic book story For the Man Who Has Everything.
• Gypsy: Lorne tells Angel to 'sing out, Louise'.
• M*A*S*H: The singing of "For he's a jolly good fellow" to Spike by other members of Team Angel and Wolfram & Hart employees, followed by shouts of "speech". This is reminiscent of the same song being sung in episodes of M*A*S*H by officers, followed by the shouts of "speech" in celebration of a main hero in an episode. It was common in episodes of M*A*S*H for this to take place after a commercial break (blackout) as it does in this Angel episode.