Covering
from “The Initiative” to “Something Blue,” in which, not to be all obvious, but
a bear is made, and will is done.
Man,
this here, this is a great run.
So, Riley Finn. I don’t think he’s
anyone’s favorite character, and based on this poll I found, he’s very few
people’s favorite Buffy beau, and I certainly didn’t think much of him when I
started. But I wonder, how did people think about him at the time, watching
these live? He’s been around all season as a background player, a little bit of
college color (hey, “beige” is a color), and was increasingly positioned as the
anti-Parker. Did it work? Was there an outcry that Buffy was crashing over that
piece of shit while ignoring the actual nice guy who’s right there!? Was it a huge shock when that guy who’s had a
scene or two all season turned out to be one of the mysterious commandos, and
just when he actually became something of a character and showed an interest in
Buffy? I wonder.
I actually appreciate Riley’s role
much more this time around. He’s not exactly flashy, and the words you’d use to
describe him—“nice,” “decent,” “uncomplicated”—are not exactly the sexiest
narratively, compared to things like “forbidden,” “tempestuous,” and
“passionate.” But especially at this stage, Buffy needs nice, decent, and
uncomplicated to mack on. Though come to think of it, his role as a member of
the Initiative complicates things plenty. How about “little baggage” then. Or
how about just “not the immortal undead.” Dude uses “court” as a verb
unironically, and it’s kinda fun to see Buffy unwittingly pursued for a change
(he’s also good with Willow, who gets kinds of attention from two boys in “The
Initiative,” in some doubly unfortunate irony). Anyway, such a character type
had been truly uncommon so far, especially in an extended capacity.
He isn’t so simple, though, as he’s
connected to the Initiative, who are named here and obviously operate under some
sort of governmental aegis, but we don’t learn a whole lot about them. They’ve
got monsters in cells, and are experimenting on them, and at this stage, that
doesn’t seem particularly bad. The implant they’ve put in Spike, after all,
unquestionably saves Willow’s life. At the same time, though, it’s undeniably a
cruel thing to inflict on him. Are they justified?
Questions of justification are at
the center of “Pangs,” along with being incredibly funny. The full
ramifications of the implant become clear, and Spike goes from a magnetic,
dangerous menace to a pathetic, helpless outcast almost instantly. Is that fair,
or is it absurd to ask about fairness in regard to such a creature? He’s evil,
but he’s still intelligent and has feelings, shouldn’t that be a factor? Is
this implant worth the effort? Well, it gave the writing staff an excuse to
bring him more directly into the cast, and given his role in “Pangs,” we can
say immediately Yes, it was worth it. In addition to the humor he brings to an
already quite humorous episode, he says the truest thing in it.
“Pangs” isn’t really about America’s
history of atrocity as much as it is about how white, privileged college
students deal with America’s history of atrocity, which is to say poorly and
ineffectually. Spike, however, cuts through the rarified lofts of what to do
about the rampaging Chumash spirit of revenge pretty succinctly—“You
exterminated his race. What could you possibly say to make him feel better?”
Which, you know, really gets to the heart of it. History happened, and talking
can’t fix it. You actually have to do something about it. Redressing of
grievances takes more than letting a spirit give Xander funny syphilis.
“Pangs” crosses over with Angel by way of a pretext so thin and
threadbare, it’s almost genius in a way—his new friend had a vision she was in
trouble. So he comes back to Sunnydale to make sure she’s ok. Except he doesn’t
actually go to her or anything, he hides out, lurking in the shadows and sneaking
furtive glances (rather inadvertently highlighting the virtues of a nice guy
like Riley) in a real patronizing way, such that everyone assumes he’s evil
again when he comes to them (though, as Anya notes after some of his trademark speedy
violence “What’s he like when he is evil?”).
So in “I Will Remember You,” Buffy goes to LA to chew him out. In the process
he touches some restorative demon blood and becomes human again, and basically
the episode is shipper wish-fulfillment, giving those fans some time for Buffy
and Angel to languish naked and hang on the beach before order is restored, and
as far as that goes, it’s fine.
Now, as much pain as Willow has been
in since Oz left, she really crosses a line in “Something Blue.” Yes, you all
know what I’m talking about. Blink 182, Willow? Really? Really! I understand
you are hurt, but that is no excuse
for dancing to Blink 182. “All The Small Things,” Willow? My tongue clucks.
The dance scene also features the
gang getting super judge-y over the one mostly-full beer they find on Willow.
Their humorless teetotalling is a particularly inauthentic note.
In all other respects, this episode
(like the other two here) is really great. “Something Blue” is mainly about
Willow’s injudicious use of magic, a long-running story thread that, well, we’ll
get to later. Right now, it’s another of the show’s trademark excuses for
people to put on new personae, even if this time it’s limited to Buffy and
Spike (Giles and Xander get circumstances inflicted upon them by Willow’s
spell), and to say they’re in “new personae” is a bit of a stretch. They’re
actually just themselves—Buffy’s daffy, starry-eyed romanticism is well known,
and Spike’s twisted gallantry has been hinted at, but becomes apparent here,
and, of course, they’re both pretty lusty. It exemplifies many of season 4’s
virtues—it finds a clever new twist on a set-up (“Spell goes wrong” is one of
the show’s standards), and executes it great.
Not as great as the next one,
though.
Costuming
Alert!: The garment that inspired the Season 4 Theory. I don’t even know
what the fuck this is. A toaster cover? A tea cozy? A hand-knitted straight
jacket? An ironic death shroud? Why are you wearing this, Willow? Why?
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