There is this great movie called Mystery Men. Okay, it isn't so great but it does have this one line that applies to Restless. The character Sphinx (who's superpower is to be mysterious) has been coaching the super team with his own brand of wisdom; In order to release the power without you must harness the power within, you must control your rage
least your rage control you, stuff like that. Anyway, (gosh, what a long set up) the team is listening and nodding their heads because what he is saying *seems* to make sense when Invisible Kid says, "That's deep. Almost to the point of ... confusing."

Restless is good. Almost to the point of confusing.

Prologue
Buffy, Giles, Willow and Xander are at Joyce's house with Joyce and Riley. Riley heads out to talk to the government to get a honourable discharge in exchange for his silence and cooperation in the whole Initiative Project (patriotic blackmail in the words of Willow). Joyce heads up to bed and the core Scooby Gang, too wired after the joining spell, heads off for an all night video fest. By the end of the FBI warning they are all asleep. And, in the words of the Bard, perchance to dream.

Prologue Quotes:
Xander: "Dinner is served. And my very own recipe." 
Willow: "Ooh, you pushed the button on the microwave that says 'popcorn'?" 
Xander: "Actually, I pushed 'defrost,' but, um, Joyce was there in the clinch." 

Little Aside
The dreams have a few common threads. In each dream the central person builds on what happened to the previous central person. Therefore Xander takes what Willow found out, Giles' builds on Willow and Xander and Buffy has the knowledge of all three dreams. All four know that they're being stalked or that they are hiding from some danger. Everyone and their uncle makes a reappearance for this episode including Harmony, Oz, Adam, Joyce and Principle Snyder. Absent only are Faith (but she gets a mention) and the Mayor. Most of the dreams seemed to have two plots: a personal one and a group one. The dream monster seems to torture each with personal dream before attacking through the group.

Willow's Dream
Willow dream starts in Tara's room where Willow is writing out her homework. With an ink brush. On Tara's naked back. Apparently the class is female Greek poets of the 600s living on the island of Lesbos. Willow is finishing up the homework before heading of to the first day of drama class. Once she arrives she finds that instead of class she is to act in a play in front of everyone she knows, including her parents (who look really angry.)  As the play progresses the dream switches from the play to Willow trying to figure out what is chasing her. Tara reappears to offer some cryptic answers but eventually Willow ends up back in high school with her long hair and geeky clothes, reading a book report with all the Scoobies, Oz and Tara laughing at her.

Willow Dream Quotes
Xander: "So whatcha been doin'? Doing spells? <to Oz> She does spells with Tara." 
Oz: "Yeah, I heard about that." 
Willow: "I'm gonna be late." 
Xander: "Sometimes I think about two women doing a spell... and then I do a spell by myself."

Giles: "Acting is not about behaving, it's about hiding. The audience wants to find you, strip you naked, and eat
you alive, so hide.  and  "Yes! It's all about subterfuge. That's very annoying. Now go on out there, lie like dogs, and have a wonderful time."

Tara: "Everyone's starting to wonder about you. The real you. If they find out, they'll punish you, I... I can't help
you with that." 

Willow Psychobabble
The first thing you have to understand is that whenever the topics of Wicca or spells are used it is a metaphor for lesbianism. Not just in the dreams but in the show in general. The sponsors and time slot is such that Buffy is geared to a much younger audience than say Xena or Dawson's Creek, which means they have to use the spell such as in Who
Are You? (To prove this, try this at home. Simply exchange the word "sex" for the word "spell" in the scene from Goodbye Idaho when Willow goes to Tara and suggests the Thespian spell.)

The Willow dream is being punished and hated for being what she now is.  The changes that Willow has gone through since the first season have been rather gradual but, when compared baldly from then until now, very startling. (Aside: like XWP you really only see the huge difference in Gabrielle if you go back and see a first season episode.) Tara appears in Willow's dream as the guide as well as hinting that Willow doesn't know Tara as well as she thinks she does.

Cheeseman ala Willow
The Cheeseman gestures at four slices of cheese laid out in overlapping diamonds. He says, "I made a little room for them."

Xander's Dream
Xander's dream starts with him awaking and asking what he missed.  Buffy, Giles and he watch a bit of a pseudo-Apocalypse Now while Willow gasps for breath. (Buffy: Don't worry about her. She's a big faker.)  Giles comments that the movie is about the journey and Xander leaves to go to the bathroom. Once upstairs Joyce appears and does a Mrs. Robinson on him. He again excuses himself to go to the bathroom that is full of Initiative guys watching him. He excuses himself to look for a less crowded bathroom and ends up in his basement where something is rattling the upper door trying to get in. He retraces his steps and ends up in a park where Spike and Giles are swinging on swings and Buffy is playing in the sand box while another Xander is selling ice cream from his truck. They talk a bit in cryptic phrases and then Xander's POV switches to the other Xander in the ice cream truck. Xander starts driving the truck away with Anya in the passenger seat talking about going back into vengeance. Xander objects but is thoroughly distracted by Willow and Tara dressed in Faith's wardrobe and *obviously* a couple. A close couple. An "about to do it in the back of an ice cream truck" couple who then invite Xander back to join them. Xander gets Anya's permission and off he crawls. Ending up in the basement with the scratching and the cheese guy. Back in high school he meets Giles and then Anya, both who tell him to listen carefully and then begin speaking in badly dubbed French. After being called idiot in French a bunch of students grab a now army clad Xander and drag him into a dark room where Principal Synder is filling in for Marlon Brando. (I think I fell asleep during Apocalypse Now. Ironic, isn't it?) They determine that Xander is now in the basement, may have started in the basement and there is the definite suggestion that he will die in the basement.  Snyder tells Xander that he is neither a warrior nor a comforter; he is a whipping boy, raised by mongrels and left on a sacrificial stone.  Xander takes that well and leaves, going through a series of rooms to end up in the basement and the rattling door. Suddenly the door opens and his father comes down yelling at Xander. He ends with "The line ends here and you're not going to change that. You don't have the heart." Where upon he reaches into Xander's chest and rips it out.

Xander Dream Quotes
Okay, it's not a quote but the look on Xander's face when Willow and Tara kissed is worth a thousand words.

Snyder: "I walked by your guidance counselor's office one time. A bunch of you were sitting there ... waiting to
be shepherded. I remember it smelled like dead flowers. Like decay. Then it hit me. The hope of our nation's future
is a bunch of mulch". 
Xander: "You know, I never got the chance to tell you how glad I was you were eaten by a snake." 

Xander Psychobabble
Well, it is rather a no brainer that Xander sees his life as that of a loser, that his basement flat is a trap that he can't escape. Or rather, that the only way he knows how to escape - through the door and becoming his parents- is not the way he wants to go. Xander, like a lot of kids, is afraid of becoming his parents.

Like Giles says, Xander's dream is about a journey. However, it is a journey that is stalled. At the end of season three Xander had left for a road trip across America that got no further than LA. In his dream he is presented with what he is not. He isn't Buffy's lover; he's her big brother. He isn't Giles replacement Watcher; he isn't a Comfortador or a Conquistador. Even Anya is bored with him and looking for a little hobby. He's also having a lot of problems with Willow and Tara's relationship waffling between the acceptance, rejection and the lesbian porn aspect. Which is understandable, as he's had less than 24 hours to deal with the fact that his best friend is living one of his fantasies and get his male hormones under control.

Cheeseman ala Xander
The Cheeseman holds a plate with the pieces of cheese on it. He gestures to his cheese and says, "These will not protect you."

Giles' Dream
Giles dream starts with him hypnotizing Buffy with a pocket watch but flash changes to another no brainer dream with Giles as Buffy's dad and Olivia as her mom. They are at an amusement park where Buffy is training her slayer skills on the sideshow games of skill. Giles is his old stuffy British self. He comes to a crypt and, ignoring a crying Olivia with an overturned baby stroller, chats up Spike. Spike has decided to make some money by cashing in on the fact that he's a big scary monster and is in the middle of a photo shoot. Unlike Willow who had Tara and Xander who had no one, Giles guide is Spike (betcha Giles loves that) who tells Giles that he really should be able to figure this out with his great squishy frontal lobe. Okay, so not a very helpful guide.

Giles dream switches to the Bronze where he meets with Willow and Xander who are doing research and watching Anya's comedy routine. Willow tells Giles that this is all his fault and Giles breaks into song. (Which kinda reminded me of a cross between Richard Harris' McArthur Park (thank god there was no go-go dance routine) and the Rocky Horror Picture Show.) The microphone stops working and when Giles traces the wires back he finds the pocket watch. He tells the shadowy figure which we can now see that it will lose, as it never had a Watcher while the creature does a lobotomy on him.

Giles' Dream Quotes
Giles: (singing) "It's strange, it's not like anything we've faced before. It seems familiar somehow. Of course! The
spell we cast with Buffy must have released some primal evil that's come back seeking I'm not sure what... Willow,
look through the chronicles for some reference to a warrior beast. I've got to warn Buffy- there's every chance
she might be next. Xander, help Willow and try not to bleed on my couch I've just had it steam-cleaned. No,
wait..."

Giles' Psychobabble
Okay, Giles sees himself as Buffy's father and pretty much a failure as such. The hypnotizing bit at the very beginning is a direct link to Buffy's 18th birthday when he purposely poisoned her so that she could undergo a Council ritual. That event pretty much marks the low point of Giles' life. Like all parents he has to walk a fine line between loving support and strict discipline and he thinks he was too strict on Buffy, especially when she was younger. His relationship with Olivia (and therefore probably women in general) is presented as something to be set aside whenever he is needed as a Watcher, regardless of her feelings.  Spike he sees as a poser and money-grubbing parasite (pretty accurate, actually). Giles personal dream taunts him with the relationships he messed up either by focusing on being a Watcher too much or not enough. 

Cheeseman ala Giles
The Cheeseman has a slice of cheese on his face and says, "I wear the cheese, it does not wear me."

Buffy's Dream
After first waking in her dorm and chit chatting with Anya Buffy awakes again in her bedroom at Joyce's house. She suddenly shifts from inside the bed to standing at the foot of it with Tara and Buffy comments that this is the bed she made with Faith. (And a Ph.D. could be written on that one line.) Buffy says the guys (slang guys meaning Giles, Xander and Willow) aren't here and Tara tells her that she lost them. There is a bit of cryptic dream talk about time before Tara hands Buffy the "mannus" card from the joining spell and then speaks her line "You think you know; what's to come, what you are, but you haven't even begun."

Buffy shifts to the college where she finds her mom being bricked up in a wall but before Buffy can get her out she is distracted by a glimpse of Xander. She follows Xander into a room where Riley and Adam in natty suits are sitting. Riley tells Buffy that the debriefing went well, that they made him Surgeon General and now he and Adam are going for the old world domination thing. Suddenly the room goes into red alert and when Buffy looks into her weapon duffle bag all she finds is mud that she uses to cover her face. Riley appears to tell her that he thought she was looking for her friends but now she is alone. Buffy starts walking and ends up in the desert (and I don't care what the sound track
was playing - I had Sinead O'Connor in my head).

Buffy comments that she'll never find them here and Tara agrees but isn't that why she (Buffy) came here? Tara tells Buffy that she (Tara) is borrowed to act as the voice for the being that has no voice. The creature appears looking like a Quest for Fire extra.

Now, here's the deal. The creature is really the original slayer who rather thinks that Buffy is going about this whole slay thing totally wrong. In her book the Slayer just kills and lives alone and in solitude from the rest of humanity. Buffy disagrees saying, "I walk. I talk. I shop. I sneeze. I'm gonna be a fireman when the floods roll back. There's trees in the
desert since you moved out. And I don't sleep on a bed of bones. Now give me back my friends."  Slayer-One says "No friends, just the kill. We are alone." The Cheeseman shows up and Buffy decides that the dream has gone far enough. Slayer-One attacks her and Buffy fights more and more defensively until she goes totally passive and tells Slayer-One enough.  Buffy wakes on Joyce's floor.

FAKE OUT!! hahahaha gotcha!. Sorry. Anyway, Slayer-One leaps onto Buffy and starts stabbing her but Buffy just lies there. Buffy gets up, goes back to her place on the couch and, as she's telling Slayer-One how much she's going to ignore her she wakes up for real along with the rest.

Buffy Dream Quotes
Tara: You think you know; what's to come, what you are, but you haven't even begun.

Riley: "Oh. We're drawing up a plan for world domination. The key element? Coffeemakers that think." 
Buffy: "World domination? I-is that a good?" 
Riley: "Baby, we're the government. It's what we do." 

Majel Barrett Sound-a-like: "The demons have escaped.  Run for your lives."
Adam: "This could be trouble." 
Riley: "We better make a fort." 
Adam: "I'll get some pillows." 

Buffy Psychobabble
Again we have the name thing from Willow's section. Riley and Adam are naming things but Adam, when asked by Buffy, cannot remember the names of who he was before becoming Adam. Slayer-One attacked the other three through their strengths that are also their weaknesses. Willow's spirit is strong to the outside world but her friends can break it with a harsh word. Xander is courageous and Giles knows things but both are afraid that courage and knowledge alone isn't enough. Slayer-One assumed that Buffy's strength was in her physical abilities but it isn't and Buffy rejected that the first time it was offered to her in the dream by Tara in the form of the Tarot card. By focusing on her true strength, her friends, and refusing to play by the rules Buffy defeated Slayer- One. And that bit with her mom being walled up from Buffy was priceless.

Cheeseman ala Buffy
The Cheeseman is suddenly in front of Buffy when she turns abruptly. He waggles two pieces of cheese in front of her but she brushes him aside before he can say anything.

Epilogue
The four and Joyce are self de-briefing in the kitchen, talking about Slayer-One. Joyce nabs a stuttering Xander as her kitchen buddy in the quest for hot chocolate. Buffy is mildly ticked off at Giles for not warning them that the joining spell could be dangerous and Giles is mildly surprised that his warning that there might be "dire consequences" actually came true. As Buffy heads off to freshen up she pauses and looks at her old bed, hearing in her head Tara's warning.

Epilogue Quotes:
Buffy: "You know, you could have brought that up to us before we did it." 
Giles: "I did. I said there could be dire consequences." 
Buffy: "Yes, but you say that about chewing too fast." 

Buffy: "Ah... Well, at least you all didn't dream about that guy with the cheese. I don't know where the hell that
came from." 

Tara: "You think you know ... what's to come ... what you are. You haven't even begun."

The Cheese Theory
I've been thinking a lot about cheese, something I'm not exactly prone too. After all it's pretty straight forward - spiced gouda for me and mozerella or mild cheddar for the rest. However, for the last week the ubiquitous, mass produced, insidiously convenient, individually wrapped, nutritionally challenged processed American cheddar cheese slice has
haunted me.

Yeah, scary.

And, after a week, here's what I think.

There is nothing (save mom, apple pie, baseball and eagles) that is more American (to the foreigner at least) than cheese slices. In fact moms make grilled cheese sandwiches, you put it on apple pie (well, some do) and they're shaped like baseball bases. (I can't link the eagle to cheese yet but am working on it.) They are all the same size, all the same weight, all the same taste and come individually wrapped yet in a package with 23 buddies.  It speaks of the conforming masses, the weight of society and rules and regulations that peer pressure bring.

To wit...

The Cheeseman showed Willow the cheese slices all laid out in a pattern, having "made a little room for the cheese slices". This could represent the "old Willow" who followed society's conventions, who was an obedient daughter and conscientious student. The "new Willow" is walking away from her neatly ordered life, leaving "little room" for it.

The Cheeseman told Xander that "these" will not protect him.  And they haven't. Society has failed Xander in not helping him find a career path (and yeah, I'm a wishy-washy liberal that believes that the education system has to help, at an early age, instill a desire to learn), in giving him a family from hell and in beating him when he's down. Following the rules has got Xander nothing; not the girl, not the prestige, not the respect.

The Cheeseman told Giles that he wears the cheese, the cheese doesn't wear him. Giles's past has been presented as a rebellious youth that rumbled beneath his stuffy British facade. Giles spent most of the first two seasons having the cheese wear him; of following the rules blindly. This season he's been adrift, trying to follow convention but still breaking into little alternative outbursts; like the singing and the earring. Giles, the Cheeseman implies to me, needs to use convention - not be ruled by it.

Whatever the Cheeseman had to say to Buffy was ignored. Buffy, apparently, has no use for convention or rules.