Buffy and Riley find things getting increasingly steamy between them while Anya and Xander’s relationship cools off. However, Riley and Buffy’s action at a frat party leads the house to exhibit strange phenomena.
Bearing a certain resemblance to Fear, Itself from earlier this season, and indeed written by the same person, this episode is a mix of some great ideas and some ill-thought-out ones. Sarah Michelle Gellar and Marc Blucas don’t figure too prominently in the story, as they spend all their time gazing at each other or having sex, so the focus is (and not before time) more on the rest of the gang, who work as more of a cohesive team than they have most of the season. It’s particularly good to see Anya and Xander getting the lion’s share of the screen time at last. Spike gets some good comic moments once again, although it still seems suspiciously as if no-one’s sure what to do with him.
What the episode does have are some interesting touches. Giles’s nightly musical soirees are a hilarious surprise, especially when the girls all think he’s cool, Tara’s recoiling from Willow should make for some later sparks and there are some horribly scary images like a drowning Xander and Anya getting a plant tendril through her hand.
What it doesn’t have is much coherency. After a mind-numbingly slow start, the episode starts to get going, only to come to an abrupt stop. The spirits in the house aren’t put to rest and it seems that all the gang had to do was open a door and everything would be alright. It’s lazy, it’s not really a climax and it makes for a very uneven episode. It’s not particularly bad overall, it’s just not very good either.
***
Would you like to go to the Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Four guide, head back to the main TV reviews page, read older reviews in the Reviews Archive or return to the front page?
Get your own Free Home Page