'Hush' (Episode 10 of Season 4) was the result of Joss Whedon challenging himself. Many people told him that his television series was a smash hit because of his dialogue, so he wrote an episode without dialogue for the heck of it.
This episode features the ghoulish, floating, 'Gentlemen' and their Igor-like 'Footmen' as their villains. The Gentlemen are fairytale creatures who enter a town, steal the townsfolk's voices and put them in a box, then select seven people and cut their hearts out while they can't scream. This plays on our primal fear of a monster attacking us and not being able to cry out. It is like something out of a nightmare watching the Gentlemen float around Sunnydale with metallic smiles on their faces and scalpels in their hands.
The underlying idea is that communication is more than talking. In the beginning of the episode there are several boy-girl scenes in which the romance is broken by too much talking or not knowing what to say. It is interesting to notice how different people react to losing their voices. Some think they are deaf and others try to telephone friends before they realize that they have no way to communicate over the phone. The relationships are resolved when action and body language is used, which is a reference to our lives that actions speak louder than words. This episode is a wonderful demonstration of Joss Whedon's ability to tell a story and make a deep impression without witty dialogue.
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