SEASON 4
The Harsh Light of Day
Brief Synopsis: After nearly a season of absence, Spike is back with a bang. While Buffy is cozying up to worthless Parker, Spike has hooked up with the new vampire Harmony Kendall. He is in search of the Gem of Amara, a ring that will give a vampire immunity to crosses, stakes, and sunlight. He has a few close calls to getting pounded on by Buffy at a party, but escapes with Harmony. Buffy (who, I feel the need to mention, is wearing a tie on black tank top) and Parker have sex, and Harmony and Spike have sex. (Did I mention Anya and Xander have sex?) Neither relationship is very satisfying because Harmony gets on Spike’s nerves, and Parker ditches Buffy. Once Spike takes the Gem of Amara from Harmony (after she finds it), he comes upon Buffy trying to get Parker back during the daytime. A really awesome fight takes place between Buffy and Spike with him insulting her sexual prowess using Angel references. Buffy then promptly kicks his butt and takes the gem. She decides to send it with Oz to Angel in L.A.
Spike-centric View:As his first episode back, Spike plays a crucial role throughout. He establishes himself as Harmony’s guy and explains where Dru is. (She left him for a fungus demon.) Buffy and Spike also get in their first good fight of the season. He gets his first chance to make fun of Buffy’s most recent romantic failure.
The Good:It was a really good episode. There were so many cool things in it, like seeing the famous shirt-less Spike. It also gave us the opportunity to have someone notice a connection between Spike and Buffy. (Parker: So did you two used to go out?) Buffy’s reaction was pretty funny. We were also treated to the ruthless side of Spike, the one that was as cruel as possible to poor rejected Buffy, though he didn’t know to quit when he was ahead.
The Bad:Not much to complain about here. No complaining here that Buffy beat him up again. (If you ever wanted Buffy and Spike to get together, you knew he had to lose because there would be no show if he killed her.)
In the Dark
Brief Synopsis:I know this is an Angel episode, but Spike appears. He shows up after Oz arrives in L.A. to deliver the Ring of Amara (notice it is the Ring of Amara in Angel) to Angel. Spike tries to beat up Angel, who has hidden it. Changing tactics, he lures Angel into the clutches of vampire torturer extraordinaire, Markus. While Angel is chained and tortured, Spike takes some verbal jabs at Angel about Buffy in reference to her sleeping with Parker. Spike gets bored and goes to Angel’s to find the Ring. Instead of finding it, he forces Doyle and Cordelia to find it for him. When they come to deliver, they throw it out of Spike’s reach and have Oz keep Spike pinned as they rescue Angel. During the rescue, Marcus takes the ring and walks into the sunlight. Spike decides no more partners before his hair catches on fire due to some sunlight. Meanwhile Angel and Marcus have a fight under a pier, which Angel wins. He, however, destroys the Ring because its temptation is so great.
Spike-centric View:This was the episode of Spike’s witty commentary. He got beat up a few times, yes, but he had so many cool things to say, like when he watched Angel save the blonde in the beginning. It also allowed us to view Spike in the history of Sunnydale according to Cordelia. Arm in a box, anyone?
The Good:From a Spike and Buffy relationship, Spike admits she is beautiful, even if she was dumb. (Do we detect a hint of jealousy? It’s debatable.) Otherwise the episode was pretty all around solid because Spike had lots to do and a whole bunch of ways to cause trouble with some good dialogue.
The Bad:Again, not much. He couldn’t have killed Angel because that would have ended Angel’s series for good. On the other hand, if he had killed Angel, there would be no way for Buffy to get back with Angel.
Wild at Heart
Brief Synopsis:Buffy fights and kills a vampire at the start, commenting on how lame it is. Unbeknownst to her, Spike is watching her, but before he does anything, he gets shocked and captured by some commandos.
The rest of the episode concentrates on Oz dealing with his love for Willow and the temptation of another werewolf Veruca. The Oz-wolf succumbs to the temptation, and Willow breaks up with him. Seeing Oz really loves Willow, Veruca goes to find Willow in hopes of transforming there and eating Willow. Willow is going to curse her boyfriend, but can’t. Veruca arrives, transforms, and would have killed Willow, but Oz-wolf kills Veruca-wolf instead. Buffy arrives in time to save Willow from Oz-wolf. The next day, now aware he cannot control his inner wolf, Oz leaves Willow and Sunnydale.
Spike-centric View:He has one line in this one before he gets zapped.
The Good:He’s back.
The Bad:He has just one line.
The Initiative
Brief Synopsis:As in the aforementioned episode, Spike was captured by the commandos. He wakes to find himself in a lab with drugged blood falling from the ceiling. Another nearby vampire, one that was captured during ‘The Freshmen,’ warns him not to drink it. Spike pretends to drink so that they let him out of the cell. He escapes, believing that Buffy was responsible for his imprisonment. After talking to Harmony, he heads off to find Buffy’s room via college computer records.
Meanwhile, Riley is trying to find a way to talk to Buffy since he likes her. Willow gave him advice, but he screwed it up anyway. At a party, Willow goes home because she is majorly depressed without Oz and mistakenly invites Spike in. However upon trying, Spike finds he cannot bite anyone without pain in his head. Xander picks a fight with Harmony and discovers that Spike is planning to kill Buffy. (Big surprise there.) He warns Buffy who tries to find Spike while beating off commando Riley with a stick. Eventually the whole group converges on the dorm room where Spike is not biting Willow. A fight breaks out, but in the confusion, Buffy beats the Hell out of the commandos, and Spike escapes. The last scene confirms two things, the commandos think Buffy was Spike’s accomplice, and the chip in Spike’s head will keep him from harming anyone.
Spike-centric View: Spike must have some faith in the abilities of Buffy. He believed that she was in charge of his entire capture. Good job nineteen-year-old poor college student Buffy! They don’t see very much of each other in the episode since they don’t meet until they pass each other in the smoky hall. Still, they continue to believe that they are each other’s biggest threat.
The Good: It became official that Spike and Harmony broke up. That was a such long relationship. It’s not like all of us didn’t know it was doomed from the start. The whole impotence conversation with Willow was very funny in general.
The Bad: Other than not really meeting much with Buffy, Joss did something that will be up for debate in fanfic forever. Exactly how old is Spike? According to Giles, he is just two centuries. According to himself in this episode, he’s only 125. So which is it? Personally, to be fair to both theories, I’d peg his age at 150, 125 years as a vampire and 25 as a human. That way both are satisfied and wrong.
Pangs
Brief Synopsis: Okay, Happy Sunnydale Thanksgiving. We are treated to the invasion of vengeful Chumash Indian spirits from an excavation site on UC Sunnydale. As Riley fortunately goes home for Thanksgiving, Buffy and the gang are going to celebrate at Giles’s house. It does get worse since the Indians magically inflict Xander with syphilis, Angel not-so-secretly stalks around the town since Doyle had a vision of Buffy , Anya acts all supportive girlfriend like, Willow gets in touch with Native American rights, and Spike wanders around town looking for a meal, including a visit to his ex, Harmony’s. The episode really picks up when Spike shows up at the Watcher’s house for help. After some arguing, they let him in, figure out the Indians are targeting authority figures, and Willow, Xander, and Anya head to the dean’s house because he is the ‘authority’ figure.
Apparently the Scooby Gang doesn’t have the strongest powers of deduction because the spirits are really after Buffy, the strongest warrior. Giles, Buffy, and tied-to-a-chair Spike are cornered in the house with the spirits attacking them. The rest of the gang runs back with Angel in tow and, the siege ends when Buffy stabs one of the spirits with his own knife. Angel disappears, and everyone, including Spike, sits down for a well-deserved meal (with the arrow still in the centerpiece). That is when Xander opens his mouth and mentions it being like old times with Angel here. Buffy is not happy.
Spike-centric View: Buffy and Spike actually get to interact on this episode! So they argue; it’s nothing new. Spike is forced to ask for help after we watched him stumble around in that ratty blanket for the first 40 minutes of the episode. (I must compliment Harmony for resisting the advances of Spike; how many of us could actually say we could do the same thing?)
The Good: The angry sparks between Spike and Buffy are still there. They don’t spare each other anything. (Buffy: So you haven’t murdered anyone lately? Let’s be best pals.) She even ties Spike to a chair, which forces him to be in trouble when the fight ensues. We are also treated to the Roman Legion version of Spike logic, ‘I came, I conquered, I felt really bad about it.’ And you have to admit, the looks on the faces of the gang when Buffy finds out Angel was around are just classic.
The Bad: Why was Angel really in this episode? He didn’t do very much at all. For someone dark and ‘shadowy,’ absolutely everyone but Buffy knew Angel was in town. And what did he do? He fought like two Indian spirits.
Something Blue
Brief Synopsis: Willow is having definite trouble dealing with Oz’s departure. No one is really sympathetic to her pain, partially because Buffy is busy cozying up to Riley. So Willow tries to deal with her pain, first with alcohol and then with spells. However, the ‘have-my-will-be-done’ spell has some great results. First of all, it makes Giles blind and Xander a demon magnet.
But, honestly, who cares about them because she makes Buffy and Spike want to get married!!! We are treated to watching them kiss, argue, kiss, argue, and kiss some more. Giles drinks like a fish while his Slayer and her vampire fiancée decide that they are not getting married in a church or outside. They go through the typical jealous couple discussions, old boy/girlfriends and parents, which leads to more arguing and kissing. However, eventually Xander and Anya, on the run from the demons, figure out Willow is the cause of this wrong (but oh-so-wonderful) scenario. Willow, incidentally, has been offered demonship, but turns it down to end the spell and save her friends. With the spell broken, our favorite Slayer and blonde vampire go back to their normal selves, and Buffy has to make up some lame excuses to Riley about why she told him she was getting married.
Spike-centric View: Everything kind of revolved around Spike. First he was the chained in the bathtub being interrogated about the Initiative. Mum was the word, since he kept shut even when Buffy offered him her neck, a scene that just sizzled with the UST of Spike and Buffy. Almost as fun as watching Spike and Buffy kiss was watching them argue, in both bespelled and on bespelled capacities.
The Good: Buffy/Spike kissage. The two of them as a couple was just hilarious as was watching the two of them ‘compromise.’ There were lines in this episode that killed me. (Buffy: What, you want me to stop working? Spike: Well, let’s see – do I want you to give up killing my friends? Yeah, I’ve given it some thought.) We also got to see Buffy turn Riley down flat in favor of Spike, a conversation that was worth its weight in gold. Again, do I need to mention the Spike/Buffy kissage?
The Bad:It had to end. Dammit! I loved it. They had more chemistry together than Parker, Angel, Riley, Oz, and Scott Hope squared.
Hush
Brief Synopsis: It opens with Buffy having a dream that starts with Riley and ends with the Gentlemen coming. Giles gets on Olivia, ahem, researching it and sends Spike to Xander’s who is just thrilled with that. Willow finds out that the only witch in her Wiccan group is a quiet girl named Tara, and the Gentlemen steal everyone’s voice in Sunnydale. After learning that the Gentlemen have stolen their voices, Buffy and Riley patrol the streets together trying to keep the Gentlemen from tearing out people’s hearts. The Gentlemen are killed when Riley opens the box with the voices inside, and Buffy screams. The episode ends with Buffy and Riley sitting in her dorm wanting to hear each other’s explanations.
Spike-centric View: For the first time, Buffy and Spike do not actually see each other. He is moved to Xander’s to take part in some absolutely hilarious scenes. Then he gets moved back to Giles’s house so Xander can beat him up when it looks like he sunk his fangs into Anya.
The Good:The whole half hour of where ‘not a word is spoken’ was neat. I’ve never seen that done on TV, though I can’t imagine how the episode would have been without music.
The Bad: Riley and Buffy had to kiss. I was so not happy.
Doomed
Brief Synopsis: There are three stories going on during this episode. Buffy tries to explain to Riley why they can never be together since she is the Slayer. Riley is annoyingly persistent at following her around while she tries to find the demons that are trying to open the Hellmouth. Willow deals with her insecurities now that she is single and alone. It probably doesn’t help her much to find the dead body of some guy at a frat party. Spike tries to kill himself because he feels worthless and he had to wear Xander’s clothes since he shrunk his own. (Willow and Xander, fortunately for the BTVS ratings, prevent him from doing so.)
Everyone eventually ends up back at the burned out Sunnydale High School since that is where the Hellmouth is. A fight with the demons trying to open the Hellmouth ensues, and the world is a wonderful place again when Spike figures out that he can hurt demons. Buffy manages to stop the demons from completing the apocalyptic sacrifices with help from Riley’s Batman bat-cable that completely violates the laws of physics. With the world saved, Willow and Xander chill out at Xander’s, slightly frightened by the suddenly helpful, let’s-save-the-world Spike.
Spike-centric View:They gave Spike a new outfit! Please give him back his old one! The Hawaiian shirt and short pants from Xander’s closet just don’t measure up. It was depressing to watch our favorite vampire reduced to suicide, especially since we watched Xander give him a bad time. Now this leads me to an off the subject question. Why is he living at Xander’s? Last I saw during Hush, he was living there only because Olivia was with Giles. And last, a review of this episode isn’t finished without laughing at Spike’s Midwestern accent, which allows me to return to Buffy who wondered why they weren’t allowed to stake him.
The Good:Spike can injure demons! He may have a future with the Slayerrettes after all.
The Bad: Buffy gets into a relationship with someone as dull as Riley.
A New Man
Brief Synopsis:Everyone celebrates (well, except Spike) Buffy’s birthday party, but Giles finds himself being left out. Maggie Walsh doesn’t make his time any better by being in competition with him since Buffy has decided to join the Initiative. Feeling worthless, Giles drinks his sorrows down with Ethan Rayne, who turns him into a demon the next morning. Meanwhile, Spike is moving out of Xander’s basement, which is great after living there for exactly two full episodes. I’d want to move out too. He is looking for a new nice crypt.
Demon-Giles turns out to be unable to speak English and has to resort to paying Spike to help him find Ethan. The rest of the gang, Buffy included, is sure that the demon killed Giles. Spike learns how to drive Giles’s ugly car while encouraging Giles to embrace the inner demon. Eventually both Giles, Buffy, and Riley locate Ethan and converge on his hotel (Spike had to go be a diversion elsewhere.). Not knowing that it is Giles, Buffy beats him up, but doesn’t kill him in part because she figures out that it is Giles and also because her letter opener was not really silver. Giles gets changed back, and everyone is happy.
Spike-centric View: It was cool to see Spike work with Giles. That hasn't ever really been done. He got to see Anya and Xander too, but why didn't he get to meet with everyone else? I also have to mention his wonderful driving because it is there.
The Good:Lots of Spike action here. He gets to move on with his life, though he wonders why the Slayer didn’t come see him off . . . (The real question here is, did he want her to?) Lots of fun to with him behind the wheel in the only car chase I’ve seen on BTVS yet.
The Bad:Spike doesn’t actually see Buffy in this episode.
The I in Team
Brief Synopsis: Buffy joins the Initiative where she has some serious trouble not telling them about Spike, and, after she and Riley get it on right in from of Maggie Walsh’s Riley-Cam, Buffy finds out that the Initiative has some serious ethics problems. Your commander sending you on a mission set up specifically to get you killed does tend to tell you that. On the same token, duh, whose show is this? Like Buffy was gonna die.
In the other half of Sunnydale, Spike gets his money from Giles for his help and turns down the idea that there is a higher purpose to his chip. He has to go back to the Watcher’s house and grovel for help after he is tagged with a homing beacon. Willow does a spell to mess up the readings, everyone’s hair sticks up, Spike gets drunk for the pain, and Giles pulls out the beacon. As Giles is telling Spike that he should get out of town, Buffy runs in and tells everyone that the town isn’t safe for anyone. Especially not for Maggie Walsh who is killed by her super toy, Adam.
Spike-centric View: Spike must be rather frustrated. He can’t win. No matter what he does, he always has to end up with the Scooby Gang. He even had to go outside during the day to use it. Again demonstrating his ability to adapt, Spike uses a brand new commando fighting technique, groceries as projectiles.
The Good: Spike takes his shirt off again, though I wonder how his T-shirt could have a hole in it and yet his duster was untouched. We also get to see him extremely drunk. The other interesting thing in this episode was Buffy. She, while promising her soul practically to the Initiative, purposely avoids telling them about Spike in the face of numerous chances. Why did she do that? It probably would her earned her Walsh’s trust, and it’s not like she and Spike have been on best terms, ever.
The Bad: Buffy and Riley had sex. Yuck! I need to tell you that Buffy was wearing a pink tie-on tank top. She was wearing a black one when she and Parker got together. And you know what, she was wearing this black full backed tank top during Something Blue. That meant she wasn’t going to have sex. It must be a sign.
Good-bye Iowa
Brief Synopsis:It starts right where the last episode ended, the team is trying to tell Spike to leave Sunnydale as Buffy rushes in, declaring Sunnydale unsafe for all. Riley appears at the house a little confused and is surprised to discover Xander’s ‘friend’ is Hostile 17. Buffy’s explanation is not satisfactory, but the problem is not worked out because Riley is called since Professor Walsh is dead. The entire commando force goes to look for Adam and goes slightly crazy for they are off their special Initiative diets. Riley finds Buffy at Willy’s and threatens the patrons at the bar. After spending the night with the gang at Xander’s, Riley goes back to the Initiative. Xander and Buffy sneak in to find out about Adam. Adam shows up and kills some commandos, seriously injuring Riley, but unfortunately doesn’t kill him. Adam escapes, and Riley is hospitalized. Meanwhile, some demons make it clear that Spike has sided with the Slayer and are willing to kill him.
Spike-centric View:He is in about two scenes. Yes, he makes fun of Buffy’s love life and decides soap operas are better than her life. “Though if you’re trying to kill her . . . :)” He also serves as a counterpoint again to see the Initiative from a different angle, like Riley could be a bad guy.
The Good:Spike does complain about Buffy’s numerous stupid/evil/bad boyfriends. Buffy also admits to Riley that she does not have a very good reason to not have staked Spike. It confuses even her.
The Bad:Yet again, not a whole lot to do this episode. Spike’s ‘secret’ identity is discovered, and he gets beat up. I guess even really hot vampires have bad days.
This Year’s Girl
Brief Synopsis: Part of a two part episode. Faith wakes up from her coma. Buffy hunts for her all over. The gang hunts for her all over too, even asking Spike, who laughs at them, for help. Eventually Faith holds Joyce hostage at the Summer’s Mansion, er, house, and Buffy shows up to kick her butt. However, Faith has a gift from the Mayor, a hand weapon that switches Buffy and Faith’s bodies. (For clarification, I will now refer to them as Buffy in Faith as NotsoFaith and Faith in Buffy as NotsoBuffy.) NotsoBuffy knocks out NotsoFaith, who is arrested. Did I mention this was part one of two? Just in case you believed the TV show ended that way.
Spike-centric View: He’s in a whole scene. With Xander and Giles. Spike pretends to be helpful and then breaks the new to them that he would give Faith directions to killing them. That was about it.
The Good: This is the first episode where we see that Spike must have really shrunk his special red shirt for over his black T-shirt. I know this because he is wearing a black over shirt. He must be entering a new phase of life, the Black on Black phase. Nice to know.
The Bad:Did Spike even need to make an appearance in this episode? He didn’t even see Buffy, for yet another episode. What did we establish here? He’s not a dependable ally. Like the Scoobies didn’t know that anyway. Glad they had to share that with me.
Who Are You?
Brief Synopsis: In part two, NotsoBuffy wreaks havoc on Buffy’s life. NotsoFaith is captured by members of the Watcher’s Council. NotsoBuffy has much more interesting things to do than NotsoFaith. Like insult Tara as Willow’s woman. And make comments about Xander and Anya. But much more importantly, she goes to the Bronze and talks dirty to Spike. Oh yeah, on a happy note, she sleeps with Riley, which will hopefully destroy a boring relationship that I hated to begin with.
NotsoFaith escapes from the bad Watchers, enlists Giles, Willow, and Tara for help, and then saves NotsoBuffy from vampires in a church. The two Notsos fight, and the bodies are switched back. Faith disappears, and Buffy tries to deal with the fact the Riley slept with NotsoBuffy.
Spike-centric View:He has one scene where he meets NotsoBuffy pretending to be Buffy. She’s partying and doesn’t recognize him. He thinks she’s just pulling his chain, but gets rather confused when NotsoBuffy starts hitting on him pretty heavily.
The Good: Wow! For the first time ever (in a non-bespelled capacity), we get a legitimate hint that Spike has unresolved sexual tension for our favorite Slayer. She got him pretty riled up with just words.
The Bad:Too bad, it was NotsoBuffy in that body, not Buffy. I wish she would have kissed him because that would have completely altered everything after that. (But she didn’t) And here are again, Spike doesn’t actually see Buffy in this episode either.
Superstar
Brief Synopsis:Welcome to the world according to Jonathan. He is loved by all. He’s cool, a better fighter than Buffy, a movie star, and even Spike respects him. However, he has a small monster problem because all of his unperfect qualities make this monster. The monster attacks one of Jonathan’s fans and Tara, so he and Buffy are going to have to kill it. Meanwhile, Buffy tries to work out her doubts about Riley since he slept with Faith in her body. Jonathan does eventually let the monster be defeated, thus reverting back to normal old Jonathan. Everyone’s memory is fixed, and Buffy and Riley get back together. (Darn it!!)
Spike-centric View:Spike appears all of two times. He makes a cameo in the beginning to establish the fact that now Jonathan is top dog. Later, while searching for the monster, Buffy and Jonathan run into him. He does a little personal space invasion on Buffy before Jonathan makes him back off. Reduced to her second fiddle status, Buffy is still able to push Spike around and get some information out of him.
The Good: We get another glimpse of that unresolved sexual tension again, when Buffy lets his hands go wandering on her skin. For someone who has issues with Riley right now, she didn’t resist Spike very much did she?
The Bad: Spike didn’t have a lot to do in this episode. It was like a ‘you are on contract so we need to use you’ when it came to his appearances. Can they give him something to do? Are we ever going to see him mention to the real Buffy something to the effect of, ‘Why did you come on to me like that a few days ago?’ Is Spike even aware that that was not the real Buffy?
Where The Wild Things Are
Brief Synopsis:Buffy and Riley have sex the whole time. Xander and Anya argue, thus leading her to some bonding time at the Bronze with Spike. Together they go to the Lowell house to the Initiative party that Xander is at where weird stuff is going on. What could be happening? Could Buffy and Riley be causing repressed ghost emotions to make earthquakes and people act strange? Guess so. Everyone runs out except Buffy and Riley who are under a spell that ‘forces’ them to keep going at it. When Xander asks for volunteers to go in after them, Spike instantly agrees to go save them before changing his mind and leaving. The Scooby Gang sees Giles singing, visit an old weird religious lady, and eventually sends Anya and Xander to rescue Buffy and Riley, which they do.
Spike-centric View:Finally Spike appears for more than five minutes in an episode! So what if he talks to Anya most of the time. He had something to do but only for the first half, then he disappeared completely. It was established that he does have some feelings still left for Dru but has also accepted it is over, even if he doesn’t want to stake her.
The Good:I’m gonna stretch for a good thing to say. Let’s see. Other than the bonding with Anya, the only thing that was cool was Spike going to the rescue. He instinctively volunteered to rescue Buffy, obviously without thinking. Though he reconsidered and left, it was interesting to notice he was temporarily willing to rescue Buffy. (He and Buffy didn’t see each other again!) That’s all I could come up with.
The Bad: This episode sucked. (I never thought I would say that about BTVS) But it’s true. Let’s get serious here. Was that not the dumbest plot ever? Riley and Buffy forced to have sex the entire episode? It completely turned me off, plus their cheesy dialogue in between kisses and more. I’m glad I watched it a second time with liberal use of the fast-forward button on my remote control.
New Moon Rising
Brief Synopsis: Another slow day in Sunnydale. Buffy’s kill count is down, and it looks like things are going to be boring. Wait, after a 12 episode absence, Oz just shows up, in control of the wolf. He wants to get back together with Willow, who is now in love with Tara. When he finds out about Tara, the wolf gets out, and he gets captured by the Initiative. Discovering that the captured hostile is Oz, Riley gets caught trying to rescue Oz.
The person who actually saves the day is Spike. He makes a deal with Adam to get his chip out, which gives him the inside scoop on the Initiative. The gang and Spike with Adam working behind the scenes break into the Initiative and rescues both Oz and Riley. Oz and Willow discuss their new lives, and Oz decides to leave because he can’t control the wolf around Willow. Tara and Willow get together, and Riley, no longer a member of the Initiative, hides out in the Sunnydale High School.
Spike-centric View: This was a moment we knew was coming all year. Spike finally actively tries to get rid of the Slayer in a round about way. Even better, Adam is constantly pointing out how much Spike respects the Slayer. The writers also gave him yet another outfit, which Willow referred to as the ‘evil olive.’ Stick with black.
The Good: Buffy and Spike see each other and interact! See what this season did to me? I’m happy because I got to see them argue. I just had to smile when Buffy called him ‘someone formerly dangerous and currently annoying.’
The Bad: I wish they had just left Riley to rot in jail. Seriously, is he boyfriend material if he deserts all of his ideals for some girl he’s been with for exactly 9 episodes?
The Yoko Factor
Brief Synopsis: Adam has made a deal with Spike: turn the Scooby Gang against Buffy and he’ll take the chip out. Spike does exactly that and has a merry time playing on Xander’s, Willow’s, and Giles’ insecurities. Meanwhile, Riley finds out about Buffy going to visit Angel, and freaks out when he actually meets and gets beat up by Angel. Riley went off to answer the call of Adam, and Buffy went to Giles’ house since she had seen Forrest killed and wanted to find a way to finish off Adam. At the house, her friends are less than cordial and helpful, which led to a huge screaming match featuring a drunk Giles and Willow’s and Xander’s respective girlfriends hiding in the bathroom. The episode ends with Buffy off on her own, and Riley meeting with Adam. I need to mention here that Spike gave Willow some disks from Adam because it will be important later.
Spike-centric View: He had a lot to do with the plot of this episode. No one really cared what was going on with Riley, except the part where Angel beat the Hell out of him. After spending so much time in their company, Spike knew just how to press the Scoobies’ buttons. He reminded Giles how worthless he was to the Slayer, Xander how much of a failure he was, and Willow about Buffy’s silent disapproval about Tara.
The Good: It was great fun to watch Spike cause trouble. Face it, we loved it. He was outwardly calm and friendly, but inwardly he was more conniving than a snake. As he pointed out, even if it didn’t stop the Scoobies forever, it would make Buffy miserable, and he never go tired of that. Such animosity toward her. I wonder why.
The Bad:What a surprise, Spike and Buffy don’t see each other in this episode! Who would have thought? I must also mention that I was extremely worried about the fate of Riley when he met Angel during this episode. NOT! Too bad they didn’t kill each other so the two main rivals of a Buffy/Spike relationship would have both conviently died...
Primeval
Brief Synopsis: After the fun fireworks in the past episode, Buffy is on her own, especially since Riley is being mind controlled by Adam, which makes him act not much different from his normal boring way, and is now going to help out Adam and the newly demonized Forrest. Spike has to go back and find Buffy since, by separating her from her friends, she was missing out on the necessary information on the computer disks Willow had. They meet in the caves, and Spike slips up, allowing Buffy to figure out he was behind the Scooby Gang break-up. The group makes up, and they decide to use this power-combining spell to fight Adam. They’re caught sneaking into the Initiative, which ticks Adam off at Spike because the gang came. Then Adam cut the power, releasing all the demons and starting a massacre for some pointless reason. As the Scoobies performed the spell in some empty room, Buffy was fights with Adam, Forrest, the newly resurrected Professor Walsh, and a doctor (whose name isn’t important enough to remember) that was killed back in “Good Bye Iowa.” Riley rips out the mind-control chip buried in his chest with a piece of glass (go DIY Surgery), fights, and kills Forrest. Meanwhile, Buffy is getting beat up Adam, but the spell takes effect just in time to save her. Using the powers of her friends, Super-Buffy does spells, kung-fu, and other fun stuff that lets her kill Adam. Then everyone, Buffy, the Scoobies, Riley, and Spike, break out of the Initiative, and the government decides to close down the project.
Spike-centric View: He had some scenes in this one. First of all, he got to make fun of Riley, “slightly stiffer than usual.” I’m sure Buffy was kicking herself for that long afterward because, like duh, Spike isn’t her best friend. Then he had to try to get Buffy to look at the computer discs Willow had, which gave up his game. Adam even betrayed him when the Scooby Gang showed up in the Initiative. With no where else to turn, Spike had to fight on their side, in exchange for not getting staked, of course.
The Good: This was a pretty fun episode for a few reasons. First of all, Buffy and Spike got to see each other. The special effects made it fun, in a Matrix sort of way, to see Buffy kick some serious demon-ass. The whole scene where they were climbing down the elevator was priceless, as was Xander’s reaction to it.
The Bad: I was hoping Riley was going to die. I prayed he did, but he didn’t. Also on a sad note, Buffy used the end of the episode to ignore Spike. Here is a good spot to say how it was a little too easy to kill Adam, but he wasn’t that great of a super-villan anyway. He just didn’t cut it.
Restless
Brief Synopsis:This is all dream set up around the fact that first Slayer is mad that the gang tapped into her power to defeat Adam. Everyone falls asleep watching movies at the Summers’ Mansion After Massacre party. Willow’s dream featured a play involving Harmony in a milkmaid costume, Willow’s own dorky sophomore self, and Oz, but she got killed in it. Xander’s dream had a French-speaking Giles and Anya, a Principal Synder right out of Apocalypse now, Spike outside during the day, and almost every woman on the BTVS trying to seduce him, but he got killed in it too. Giles’ dream involved a pregnant Olivia, Buffy as his daughter, Spike’s photo-op, and himself singing at the Bronze, but he got killed to. Buffy’s dream had her mom in a wall, Riley taking over the world with coffeemakers, Tara being super cryptic about Buffy’s existence, a fight with the first Slayer, and a lot more stuff no one but Joss understood. The first Slayer went away when Buffy started ignoring her and decided to wake up. That was basically the end, but I need to mention CheeseMan who faithfully appeared for no reason in everyone’s dream.
Spike-centric View:He showed up in Xander’s dream playing of the swings with Giles, training to be a Watcher. Giles had him as part of a vampire carnival getting his pictures taken. It was quite funny to see him in the almost strobe, though I wonder exactly how he was supposed to show up on film. (He is a vampire.)
The Good:I lived for watching the black and white photo shoot in Giles’ fantasy. I also have to give two thumbs up to Spike swinging on the swings in the sun. On a Giles note, him singing at the Bronze cracked me up to no end. I loved it.
The Bad: Spike wasn’t in enough scenes, or Buffy’s dream. And let’s face it, Joss was way too cryptic that entire time, which will drive us crazy past the final episode of BTVS.