Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Episode Discussion: 4x08 Pangs - Page 2

**ashleyt** · 10-21-2009, 11:02 AM

I agree so much. Riley wasn't a normal guy. He was almost as apart of her world as she was.

**Burning Up A Sun** · 10-21-2009, 11:10 AM

That's why I don't get why they went that way with Riley. Why couldn't he just have been a normal guy from Iowa without the Initiative?

**ashleyt** · 10-21-2009, 11:25 AM

I believe that Joss didn't feel that Buffy could be with someone who didn't have the same darkness that she had which is why her relationships with Angel and Spike were better? (IMO). Buffy and Riley couldn't connect because she's both goodness and darkness while Riley couldn't relate to that.

But then again Buffy's longest lasting relationship on the show was with Xander and he's even more of a regular Joe than Riley is.

**Burning Up A Sun** · 10-21-2009, 11:43 AM

But her relationship with Xander wasn't a romantic one... it was strictly friendship. Maybe that's why it lasted so long.

With Riley he was human and didn't get what being a slayer really meant, he just saw power and was jealous. Angel was more towards her good side and Spike was more toward her dark side.

**ashleyt** · 10-21-2009, 11:50 AM

I think that's why it lasted as long as it did

She just wasn't interested on the show.

Riley didn't understand her and he became so caught up in his jealousy towards Angel, Spike and her strength that he failed to see how weak she was at the same time. They couldn't work.

saturn5 · 12-07-2009, 01:22 PM

Pangs

The Good;
The siege of Fort Giles and Buffy's cooking preparations are both excellent. Love Buffy's stetson hat and the Xander digging scene plus the Angel lurking scenes. Favourite though has to be the Scooby cavalry riding to the rescue.
The Bad;
In all the dodgy lessons I've learnt from Buffy perhaps the most disturbing is the idea that when threatened by the vengful spirit of a wronged Native American tribe the solution is to wipe them out entirely so you don't have to worry about them any more.

Best line;
Spike; "You won, alright? You came in and killed them and took their land....The history of the world isn't people making friends. You had better weapons and you massacred them. End of story". Of course Spike is a Victorian, the days when (as Blackadder the 4th put it) "You saw a bloke in a grass skirt you shot him and nicked his country"
Wheldon Cliches;

Character death;
The priest, the professor, the poor guy captured by the vamps. Buffy kills Hus.
Shot;
Buffy hit by an arrow as is Spike
Tied up;
Spike to the chair
Knocked out;
Women good/men bad;
Harmony smartens herself up and kicks Spike out, about time too! Whenever you get the die-hard Spikettes I always think they resemble Harmony a lot more than Buffy or Dru.
Jeez!;
The poor priest! Hung and has his ear cut off not to mention the professor having her throat slit. Spike considers pictures of famine victims funny, not suprising from a soulless vamp but amazed they left it in. Angel snapping the warrior's neck is also pretty cringeworthy.
Kinky dinky;
Anya get's turned on by Xander performing manual labour. Buffy comments that imaginary Xander is 'quite the machine' (she should talk!). Anya also likes the idea of playing nurse for Xander as indeed does Buffy for Riley later and for Angel in both seasons 2 and 3. Xander proposes sex with Anya at the end of the ep by commenting that his syphilis has cleared up. Buffy says she likes her men 'evil', in Get It Done we find out why.
Calling Captain Subtext;
Spike compares his inability to kill as akin to being neutered, do we need any more evidence that to vamps biting equals sex? Buffy observes that Xander looks quite Village People. Well, he's been a soldier, construction worker, cowboy, leather clad vamp and this ep is filled with native americans. Just sailor, and cop to go really?
Guantanamo Bay;
The Scoobies are quite prepared to let Spike broil
Scoobies to the ER;
Poor Xander getting syphilis amongst other diseases
Where's Dawn?
Presumably gone to Aunt Arlenes with Joyce. Arlene must be Joyce's sister rather than Hanks?
Questions and observations;
Xander has previously been working at Hot-Dog-on-a stick which is where Snyder suggested Buffy work in season 3. He gives the rest of the Scoobs freebies as will Buff at the DMP. Giles and Angel have put their differences behind them. Anya doesn't seem to have met Angel before despite them having been in the same room together in Dopplegangland and The Prom. Buffy seems to have inkling that Angel is near, her vamp sense or something stronger? Buffy comments how one person can make a difference, certainly Dopplegangland proves that. Asian Joe has obviously survived the events of Harsh Light of Day and is in the stands at the ceremony. Sunnydale has been around since 1812 so before the Mayor was around. Still plenty of Anya and Will tension. Why does Riley cam-up his face but not his neck? Xander refers to Anya as his girlfriend. Note the sign saying US Army over Angel's head when Riley is talking to Buffy. Hus rather reminds me of an old ep of the TV series Kolchak;The Night Stalker which apparently inspired the X-files. In fairness to Custer he was actually a lot more sympathectic to the Native Americans than most.
Marks out of 10; 9/10 I really like this one, perhaps one of the strongest of season 4