This short essay discusses the relationship between Leonard Roberts' BtVS character, Forrest Gates, and his friend Riley Finn. It is reposted here without permission. If you would like to go to the original essay site, click here. You can also get to the author's main web page by clicking here.
The first time we see Riley and Forrest together is at the beginning of "The Initiative," as they eat their lunch in the UC Sunnydale cafeteria. The contrast between their personalities is immediately obvious: Forrest is relaxed and chatty, happily ogling the girls as they walk by; Riley is focused and serious, more concerned with the papers he's grading than with the "hotties" Forrest keeps pointing out. But despite these differences, the easy banter between the two suggests affection and close friendship. This impression is reinforced in later episodes, as we see Riley and Forrest working together at the Initiative and hanging out in Lowell House. Forrest pokes fun at Riley's straight-arrow persona, his status as Maggie Walsh's favorite, and his infatuation with Buffy. Riley bears all this with good-humored resignation; he seldom teases back, and when he does, Forrest just shrugs it off. Obviously these are two guys who know each other well enough to give each other a hard time without having it turn into a real fight.
Initially, Forrest shows no disapproval of Riley's attraction to Buffy. He seems to find it amusing, and even encouragers it (in "Hush," he advises Riley to "stop with the talking and get with the kissing"). But this changes once Buffy is revealed as the Slayer, and Riley attempts to bring her into the Initiative fold. At the beginning of "The I in Team," we see a training exercise where Buffy single-handedly takes out an Initiative team. Afterwards, Riley is beaming with pride and Graham is quietly friendly, but Forrest is noticeably pissed off. In "Goodbye, Iowa," when Riley reveals that Maggie Walsh tried to have Buffy killed, Forrest expresses a deep, almost paranoid distrust of Buffy, and suggests that she may have "needed killing." When Maggie is found dead, Forrest's first impulse is to accuse Buffy. Riley, already showing early symptoms of withdrawal from the Initiative's drugs, reacts angrily an violently. Even the eventual revelation that Maggie was killed by Adam does nothing to diffuse Forrest's hostility.
In "This Year's Girl," there is a tense confrontation as an injured Riley tries to walk out of the Initiative hospital, and Forrest tries to stop him. Graham manages to keep the peace long enough for Riley to leave, but Forrest clearly feels betrayed by his departure.
From then on, Riley and Forrest's friendship is seriously strained. Forrest still feels personal loyalty toward Riley, but he feels that this loyalty has been betrayed. In confrontations with Faith-as-Buffy in "Who are you" and with Buffy herself in "The Yoko Factor," he states his belief that Riley has neglected his duty and his Initiative "family" in favor of his girlfriend. In "Where the Wild Things Are," he makes some jokey remarks to Graham about Buffy and Riley's continuous love-making, but the comments don't have the good-humored feel of his early-season teasing; he seems genuinely resentful rather than amused.
Riley, for his own part, shows no sign of personal hostility toward Forrest. But he no longer trusts the Initiative or anyone connected with it, and his allegiance lies firmly with Buffy from "Goodbye, Iowa" onwards. Any enemy of Buffy's is an enemy of his, and Forrest has pretty openly declared himself to be her enemy. Yet when Forrest is killed by Adam in "The Yoko Factor," Buffy knows Riley will be devastated -- and he is.
Unfortunately, Riley gets no chance to process his reaction before Adam activates his chip. Before long, he's confronted with Zombie Forrest, whom he has to fight and kill to protect Buffy. Even in this horrible new incarnation, Forrest retains a twisted affection for Riley; he's reluctant to fight him, despite his stated conviction that things will be better once Riley is a zombie too. Without this reluctance, Riley may not have been able to defeat him.
Since Forrest was a minor supporting character, the show did not explore him or his relationship with Riley in great depth. We don't know how long he and Riley knew each other, or under what circumstances they met. We don't know the reasons for Forrest's sudden shift in attitude toward Buffy. He may have been resentful of Buffy's physical strength, or prejudiced against her because she is, to some degree, a supernatural being. He may have become jealous once he realized how strong Riley's attachment to her really was. He may have felt that she was "bad" for Riley, for any number of reasons. None of these things are likely to be explored on the show, but they can be effectively explored in fanfic.