Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Episode Discussion: 4x22 Restless

Bronson · 05-28-2004, 06:01 AM

This episiode is where we were introduced to the very first Slayer who decided to invade the Scoobies and Giles's dreams because she apparently did not like them using her to fight Adam. The plot made no sense since they were defeating an evil being and she being the Slayer should not have have a problem with it. And the nightmares did not make too much sense either. But it was nice to see what the First Slayer must have looked like.

I am not sure if I was disappointed or not. I mean her being from the African Continent was no surprise but her being a cave person was.

I did catch the foreshadowing when "Tara" in Buffy's dream said: "Be back before Dawn"

Spawn of Ragnarok · 05-28-2004, 07:08 PM

When I first saw this episode, I didn't get it. My dad and I were watching the episode repeat on FX and we had no idea if this was the last episode of the fourth season or the first episode of the fifth season, we were thoroughly (sp?) confused. And I don't like being confused. But I gave it a second shot, and now I love it!

I appreciated the way they protrayed the first slayer. After slayers like Buffy, Faith and Kendra (less so with Kendra) we were used to seeing hot chicks kick butt. But with the appearance of the first you really got to see that it wasn't just the hot chicks who got the cool gigs. Then they expanded on that later with the episode that centered on Spike and the slayer he killed (can't remember the name)

The first slayer scared me when I first saw her and that was a very good thing. These elder guys tied her down and envoked and evil spirit to posess her (or something like that, my mind is not working well tonight) That would not be a pleasant thing to go through. She came out of it traumatized with a great sense of what her duty was. Kill bad guys, don't trust anyone.

The line of slayers was diluted a little over time. You could see it with Nikki and the fact that she had a slayer. If the first slayer had a child, she would have abandoned it for her cause, Nikki couldn't abandon her child physically, though she did do it mentally. Kendra's family sent her away as a child to train to be a slayer she wasn't allowed to have friends or such, Kendra's people thought along the same lines as the first. She had to do it alone.

Which would explain why the first was pissed off when they envoked her to help them defeat Adam. She probably saw it as a weakness, and Buffy relied on other people for help, that was unheard of for the first. She was probably a little ashamed at how weak she saw the slayers had become.

At least those are my opinions only.

And I have said it once, I will say it again, I really wondered about Joss Whedon's mental health. What was up with the guy and the cheese?!

silver_lined_cloud · 06-01-2004, 04:28 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Spawn of Ragnarok
And I have said it once, I will say it again, I really wondered about Joss Whedon's mental health. What was up with the guy and the cheese?!

The cheese guy was really amusing.

saturn5 · 12-22-2009, 12:31 PM

RESTLESS
The Good;
All of it, pretty damn wonderful. I especially like ASH's impersonation of a panicking theatre director, based on personal experience?
The Bad;
?
Best line;
Cheeseman; "I wear the cheese, it does not wear me"
Women good/men bad;
Dark haired Buffy's rant against Cowboy guy Riley
Jeez!;
The First Slayer scalping Giles
Kinky dinky;
Willow and Tara hooker up! How gorgeous is Joyce in her nightie? What a MILF! I never appreciated it until just this moment. About the weirdest fanfic I ever read concerned Willow having S&M sex with the cheese guy, him melting cheese over her nude body. Joss says that when Buffy rubs the mud over her face the idea was that she was being overwhelmed by her primal Slayer instincts but actually looks like she was having a facial. I'd say it looks more like she's a stripper/porn star (which she plays in Southland Tales) doing her 'tigress in heat' leer? Harmony in her milkmaid outfit is also very cute. The sign at the funfair vamp actually says 'I crack for a buck' but that's not what I thought it said first time I saw it.
Calling Captain Subtext;
ALL OF IT! Especially Willow and Tara in the sexiest scene you never saw but fervently imagined. What's the poem in Greek letters Willow is writing on Tara's back? By Sappho perhaps? (very Xena). And how lovely is Amber, such an unothordox beauty. Xander refers to Willow and Tara 'doing spells'. Hmmmm? Tara also tells Willow she doesn't know everything about her, her supposed demon side.
Check out dark-haired Buffy berating gun toting Riley over the death of Xander and the evil of men. Substitute Warren for Riley, DarkWillow for Buffy and Tara for Xander and you have the end of season 6. Riley has often been compared to Gary Cooper and here he's a cowboy. Of course the irony is that Gary Cooper despite his wholesome image was a notorious womaniser and Riley will go to his vampwhores in season 5. The scene with Adam and Riley and the gun between them also refers to Warren and Tara. Adam challenges Buffy that she has demon essence in her which we'll find in out in 'Get it done'. Riley leaves, Joss already thinking about him going.
Spike's sideshow freak appearance is indicative of his role in later seasons, vampire in love with the Slayer and then vamp with soul, sacrificial lamb in the end. The scenes with Spike and Giles on the swings seem to suggest that Spike will fufill the role of Giles to Buffy once Giles leaves again for the UK, her 'daddy' figure. You wonder what might have happened if Giles had hung around in season 6? Guffy? Their conversation also portends to the Loan Shark from Tabula Rusa (and Angel Season 6) The clock reads 730 which is the same as in Graduation Day pt2, counting down to Dawn and Dawn is the kitten (as she was the cat in Faith and Buffy's dream in GDpt2).
Buffy refers to Xander as big brother, wonderful and loving but not sexual. In fact Buffy is the one girl Xander never thinks about sexually in his dream. He says 'it get's better' and indeed it does for him, he's not left behind by his friends as he fears. Although Xuffers still hold out for something to happen in season 8 (and given Buffy's fantasy in issue 2 maybe they still have a point?). Anya talks about getting back into vengence which she will in seasons 6/7. Xander's dad is not the same actor we meet in season 6, he rather reminds me of an angry version of Willy the snitch.
Buffy refers to being a fireman which portends to 'Once more with feeling'. We see Willow having a fit on a sofa and Buffy saying 'I can fight this thing' portending to Joyce dying on the couch and Buffy's inability to fight a disease despite all her Slayer powers. We later see Joyce entombed in the wall with Buffy leaving her behind to go on with her friends. And her little sis.
Giles tells Buffy 'it's been like this between men and women since the beginning' but she rejects that, she won't play the Shadowmen's/Councils game as we see from her rejection of the First Slayer's values, that the First Slayer is not 'the source of me'. Note the vamp at the funfair is 'Drac'. In Spike's tomb Buffy is gone with Olivia weeping over an empty pram, portending Giles' leaving a Buffy who no longer needs his guidance.
Guantanamo Bay;
Riley and Adam plotting world domination because "We're the goverment baby, it's what we do".
Scoobies to the ER;
Where's Dawn?
Missing scenes;
Apocalypses; 5,
Wheldon Cliches (with kind permission from Boo)

Scoobies in bondage: Xander tied in his confrontation with Snyder (amazingly unless someone can correct me his first time?).
Buffy: 8
Giles: 4
Cordy: 5
Will: 3
Jenny: 1
Angel: 4
Oz: 1
Faith: 3
Joyce: 1
Wes: 1
Xander; 1

Scoobies knocked out:
Buffy: 15
Giles: 10
Cordy: 6
Xander: 8
Will: 5
Jenny: 2
Angel: 6
Oz: 3
Faith: 1
Joyce: 2
Wes: 1
Kills:
Buffy: 79 vamps, 28 demons, 6 monsters, 3 humans, 1 werewolf, 1 spirit warrior & a robot
Giles: 5 vamps, 1 demon
Cordy: 3 vamps, ½ a demon
Will: 4 vamps
Angel: 3 vamps, 1 demon, 1 human
Oz: 3 vamps, 1 zombie
Faith: 16 vamps, 5 demons, 3 humans
Xander: 5 vamps, 2 zombies, ½ a demon, ½ a demon
Anya: ½ a demon
Riley; 12 vamps + 7 demons

Scoobies go evil:
Giles: 1
Cordy: 1
Will: 2
Jenny: 1
Angel: 1
Oz: 1
Joyce: 1
Xander: 2

Alternate scoobies:
Buffy: 6
Giles: 3
Cordy: 1
Will: 2
Jenny: 2
Angel: 3
Oz: 2
Joyce: 2
Xander: 3

Recurring characters killed: 10, no but wonderful to see Snyder back again, Armin Shimmerman giving a terrific performance as a much thinner Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now
Jesse, Flutie, Jenny, Kendra, Larry, Snyder, Professor Walsh, Forrest, McNamara

Total number of scoobies: 7
Giles, Xander, Willow, Buffy, Anya, Tara, Riley

Xander demon magnet: 5
Preying Mantis Lady, Inca Mummy Girl, Drusilla, VampWillow, Anya (arguably Buffy & Faith with their demon essences?)

Scoobies shot:
Giles: 2
Angel: 3
Oz: 4

Notches on Scooby bedpost:
Giles: 2; Joyce & Olivia, possibly Jenny
Cordy: 1?
Buffy: 3; Angel, Parker, Riley
Angel: 1;Buffy
Joyce: 1;Giles, possibly Ted
Oz: 3; Groupie, Willow & Verucca
Faith:2 ;Xander, Riley
Xander: 2; Faith, Anya
Willow: 2;Oz and Tara
Questions and observations;
How lovely to see season 1 Willow again, she's just so cute. In case you didn't know the Bay of Pigs was the ill-fated CIA backed invasion of Castro's Cuba by anti-communist exiles. Will also refers to her experience of stagefright in 'Nightmares'. Once again great to see Oz back, the last appearance of him in the show and for Olivia too. Once again Buffy triumphs because she is the unconventional Slayer, she's more than just the Slayer, she lives in the world too. No matter how many times I watch this I can never tell, is it Tara or Anya in bed telling Buffy she has to wake up?
Asian Joe sitting behind Oz in class, great to see him again. The clip they watch of Apocalypse Now isn't much like the film, sounds more like Hamburger Hill. After hearing Joss commentary I duly looked up Twin Peaks on IMDB and Wiki and it was a supernatural detective show Kyle Machaclan made before Desperate Housewives but I'm still none the wiser as to what the significance of the red curtains is?
Marks out of 10; 10/10, no trouble.

Rumours about season 5;

I heard a load of rumours about plotlines in season 5, more than any other year of the show. In no particular order;
1) Xander would turn out to be Glory or one of the other Hellgods from her dimension, Willow would turn evil and be the one to bleed Dawn
2) Dawn would touch Joyce's corpse at the end of The Body and bring her back to life with her Key powers
3) Faith would be released from jail and end up sacrificing herself to save Buffy in the final battle with Glory
4) Drusilla/Dracula would seduce Buffy who'd then allow herself to be sired. VampBuffy would then be the big bad for the season with Faith leading the Scoobies against her and her undead anti-Scoobies. In the season finale VampBuffy would taste Dawn's blood and be restored to normal by The Key's power.
5) Spike falling in love with Buffy and then siring her because he thinks that's the only way to make her love him. In the end he realises he doesn't love unsouled Buffy so uses magic to turn her back to normal.
6) Buffy and Xander get zapped by some demon and he gets her powers. She has to adapt to being ordinary whilst he revels in being a superhero but starts to lose control which is why the Slayer is always a girl.
7) Xander and Buffy would end up in Caritas singing karoke to get some guidance ('Wind beneath my wings'?)
8) Angel Investigations would show up for the final battle with Glory in Sunnydale along with Riley and Oz.

Now you can see how some of these ideas worked out. Ben rather than Xander is Glory whilst Willow will go evil and threaten Dawn in season 6. Rather than bring Joyce back to life Dawn gives Buffy the will to live in season 6. Faith will be released from jail to hunt Angelus on Angel season 4, Buffy will be the one who sacrifices herself. The Dru-sires-Buffy scenario sounds like a dark- slasher's fantasy but has elements of Buffy-vs-Dracula and Riley and his vampwhores. Dru actually sires Darla instead, Dawn's blood will play a major role in the season 5 finale and Buffy will turn temporarily against her friends in Normal Again. Faith will defeat Angelus by getting him to taste her blood in season 4 of Angel. Spike will fall in love with Buffy but get's his own soul back rather than take her's away. The Xander gets Buffy's powers idea becomes The Replacement, we find out in season 7 why the Slayer is female whilst Riley will return in season 6.

**ashleyt** · 12-22-2009, 12:40 PM

Quote:

The scenes with Spike and Giles on the swings seem to suggest that Spike will fufill the role of Giles to Buffy once Giles leaves again for the UK, her 'daddy' figure.

Uh when does Spike fufill the role of "daddy" figure to Buffy?

**Burning Up A Sun** · 12-22-2009, 12:42 PM

Yeah I was going to ask that too.

Unless you mean a "Who's your daddy?" type role.

**ashleyt** · 12-22-2009, 12:55 PM

Yeah even that's messed up

**Burning Up A Sun** · 12-22-2009, 01:07 PM

True.

It makes me shudder just a bit.

I can't really see Spike in Giles' father type role. Maybe if it's that in the early part of S6 he was the one she could talk to and open up to. IDK.

**ashleyt** · 12-22-2009, 04:39 PM

But that's being a confidant and not being a father figure.

saturn5 · Yesterday, 02:45 PM

No offence to Xander but what I meant was that he was the major male figure in her life and the one she felt she couldn turn to when she felt she couldn't go to Dawn and the rest

bh11000 · Yesterday, 02:51 PM

I saw this episode for the 1st time a couple of days ago and I think is really good. All the alternate reality is very awkward but shows a lot about the characters that we didn´t know! Xander´s dream was really strange!