Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The Good;
Love the fact that when the argument starts Tara and Anya head to the bathroom, they have a few scenes like this together through the series, the newcomers to the Scooby gang bonding. Miss Kitty is the cutest ever. Lovely to see Angel and Buffy make up.

The Bad;
Spike can't even hold a fake gun without getting pain, so how come he's able to get his shotgun out in season 5?

Best line;
Buffy; "Xander? Oh he's the deadest man in deadonia!"

Women good/men bad;
Buffy refer to Riley and Angel suffering from 'testosterone poisoning'.

Jeez!;
Poor Forrest gets skewered.

Kinky dinky;
Anya declares Xander a 'Viking in the sack'. As she is from medieval Sweden that's quite a compliment and once again suggests she enjoys rough/exotic sex (as we'll see later with Spike). Xander used to work at a telephone sex line.

Calling Captain Subtext;
Xander used to work at a telephone sex line. You know I've never seen one advertised for straight women, was this a gay sex line? Willow refers to Tara as her girlfriend for the first time. Spike twigs Will/Tara long before Xander/Giles do. Wicca is once more used as a euphanism for lesbianism. Buffy asks Forrest if the Initiative is a 'boys club'. Spike seems to have a high opinion of Buffy. Willow talks of doing 'drama' which foreshadows Restless. Willow refers to the umbilical chord between Xander and Anya, jealousy rising.

Guantanamo Bay;
The demons are starting to rip one another apart and the Colonel really doesn't care.

Apocalypses; 5,

Scoobies in bondage:
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 trips and falls like a horror heroine
Buffy: 16
Giles: 10
Cordy: 6
Xander: 8
Will: 5
Jenny: 2
Angel: 6
Oz: 5
Faith: 1
Joyce: 2
Wes: 1

Kills:
Buffy: 79 vamps, 27 demons, 6 monsters, 3 humans, 1 werewolf, 1 spirit warrior & a robot
Giles: 5 vamps, 1 demon
Cordy: 3 vamps, 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, a demon, a demon
Anya: a demon
Riley; 12 vamps + 6 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:
Jesse, Flutie, Jenny, Kendra, Larry, Snyder, Professor Walsh

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

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

Scoobies shot: Riley threatens Angel with his pistol saying it's 'all he's got left'. Forrest zaps Adam but it only makes him stronger.
Giles: 2
Angel: 3
Oz: 4

Notches on Scooby bedpost:
Giles: 2; Joyce & Olivia, possibly Jenny
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;
Lovely to see Angel back, lovely to see his reconcilliation with Buffy. Sorry Spuffers BuffyandAngel4ever. Angel can defeat Riley in single combat, even with all Riley's hi-tech gear. Xander's famous big mouth makes another appearance. In later seasons this role will be taken over by Dawn. Adam likes 'Helter Skelter' which is the Beatles song Charles Manson cited for the motivation for his infamous massacre. Riley refers to Angel as 'Mr Billowy-Coat King of Pain' and thinks girls like that. More than Gary Cooper in camoflauge actually. Spike is 100% right of course, what makes Buffy different and more successful than all the other Slayers is that she has her friends and family around her.

Marks out of 10; 6/10

This episode was well writen, and it had a great story line. I loved seeing Angel meet Riley, but I don\'t undertand why Angel had to apologies for Buffy\'s b!tchy behaviour. He had a reason to tell her to leave- she acted like she owned the world because she\'s the slayer, and she could do no wrong. Other than the fact that Angel shouldn\'t have come to apologise, it was a good episode. I really enjoyed seeing Willow come out of the closet. I also liked how it was different, with the characters all going against each other. It was really well thought out.

The Yoko Factor (1) was a perfectly great episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This episode was exciting because Spike was working with Adam yet pretending to work with Buffy and the Gang. Spike did a great job of exploiting every one's insecurities. It was interesting to watch that all unfold. This episode also saw an Angel crossover which was cool. Angel and Riley didn't exactly see eye to eye, and got into a fight. When everyone was turning on each other Buffy called them out and left, and I the ending of this episode was shocking. I can't wait to see what happens in the next part of this two episode story!!!!!

Spike teams up with Adam and uses his manipulative ways to turn all the Scoobies against each other, leaving Buffy alone and helpless. Meanwhile, Angel returns to Sunnydale and clashes with Riley.



I enjoyed watching this episode. I liked when Buffy and Forrest went in the cave and found Adam. I knew he was going to die. The Angel and Riley fighting thing was good. Buffy looked really good in this episode too, even with that big gash on her forehead. I liked the scenes in Buffy's dorm. I love whenever they all have a gigantic fight. Haha, Giles was drunk. Haha, Tara and Anya liked the tile in the bathroom. Haha. I loved this episode. Great job on the writers' parts.

The Yoko Factor is a fantastic episode; it's not the best or most interesting but has some really memorable scenes and some great acting- especially in the final scene!



The whole Adam thing really doesn't hold my interest. He's such a shockingly uncharismatic villain, has no presence and is basically just sits around talking in a monotone voice until an enemy visits where he spouts off computerised nonsense and then punches the enemy about lots. He's just so badly written and George Hertzberg is just stripped of all acting when playing him (a shame as I thought he had really good charisma in Restless for those 4 lines he had).



I'm glad Spike joined Team Adam to inject some life into the arc. Spike is simply a fantastic villain and can get the job done even when he cannot actually do any physical harm. This is the last we really see of Spike the villain as in the next three seasons he's in love with Buffy and so joins the good side.



Angel coming back was surprisingly good- him and Buffy only had a short scene together where the whole Bangel whinging was practically non-existent (from the only time in the entire verse probably). Also, he smacks Riley around lots! I was so, so, so happy and it was just such fun to watch Angel put the annoying soldier boy in his place. Angel is so much better when he's on his own show. He was actually Angel here rather than just Buffy's boyfriend. By the way, if you haven't seen the show "Angel" watch it! It's almost as good as the original show.



The arguement scene at the end was really brilliant. We've seen all season how the Scoobies have drifted apart and it all comes to a head in this episode. I thought each one of them had valid points and I wasn't on anyone's side (unlike the dreaded arguement scene in Empty Places where I felt they were all nasty, annoying, evil idiots to Buffy). Giles being drunk was hilarious and I love that he burst out laughing at "Fort Dick's"! I always laugh at silly things like that and it was so funny to see Giles do it.



The "cliffhanger" at the end was an all round meh. Maybe because I already know it's useless and doesn't result in much but maybe because Riley + Adam = an extreme not caring. Sorry, they're just boring.



The Yoko Factor is a brilliant episode, the beginning of the end of The Initiative arc. It's very strong in all aspects and one that I really like.

An excellent episode with cameo from Angel - a great wrap up for the Buffy/ Angel story and a progression of the Willow/ Oz saga. At this stage we are very fond of Buffy's beau Riley, but still have such loyalty to the history between Buffy and Angel - so a face off between these boys was fantastic to watch. But also distinguished the differences between the different relationships and affection Buffy had for each of these men. It was great to see the character development peak to some tension here - the old high school gang have grown into their own skins, forging individual strengths and relationships - a necessary realism here.

So much was going on here - each story thread treated as important as the next, for example, this also preludes to what is to come with Spike with regard to his relationship with the Scooby gang. An action packed, dramatic and fierce part 1 of the final battle of the current big bad, Adam. Definately one of the best baddies ever.

Love it!

The Yoko Factor-Adam enlists Spike to turn the gang against each other, leaving Buffy alone and helpless. Playing on their fears about how the others perceive them, Spike begins to sow discord among the Scoobies. Meanwhile, into the chaos walks Angel, who has come to apologize to Buffy for the fight they had in L.A., but Riley sees only that there is another vampire in town.



A very entertaining episode that sees Buffy returning after a bittersweet visit in L.A. after she gets in a fight with Angel at the end of "Sanctuary". I'm glad the writers continued that development as it makes for one of the coolest scenes of the series when Riley and Angel run into each other. Of course, this is just the writers playing favorites for fans having Buffy's ex and new boyfriend go at it doesn't really make sense how Angel knew exactly who Riley was when he first saw him, but it does make great action sequence between the 2, not to mention, Angel delivers some priceless lines like:



Angel: "Do you actually sleep with this guy?"



I liked Spike's team-up with Adam, which actually starts to make Adam's storyline slightly interesting. Considering Adam has as much personality as a terminally ill patient, Spike's witty banter and clever sarcasm are a funny constrast to Adam's monotone demeanor. It's without a doubt the best storyline Spike got all season and I loved how he manipulated the core gang, playing the Yoko of the factor as he splits Buffy away from her friends. The fight between Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Giles are well written with our 4 leads being so perfect in that scene. I especially loved Giles' drunken outbursts like: Giles: "You never trained with me, his gonna kick your a$$!"



and



Giles: "Fort D!@%s...excuse me...(bursts out laughing)



It would make sense that core gang would be drifting apart during their first year of college and I'm glad that development was explored head on in this episode. With some cool fight scenes, nice developments, a neat ending twist with Riley at Adam's side, and Forrest getting killed by Adam (finally, I hated the character!), "The Yoko Factor" is solid lead-in to the conclusion of the overall arc next episode.

I loved that Spike got them all going. Xander being all he can be. Willow being all witchy with Tara. Giles not meaning anything at all. It was Brilliant!!!



I liked the beginning with Xander and Riley talking because Xander and Riley kind of needed to get that talking thing out.



I loved Riley getting his butt kicked by Angel because we were all waiting for that to happen. The whole Angel Buffy drama was good.



I loved the part towards the end where Buffy Willow and Xander were fighting about everything that had happened between them over the past year. I loved that Giles was completely wasted it made for extra humor and Tara and Anya talking in Giles' bathroom was great too.



I can't believe that Riley's friend died I hated that Buffy had to tell him that too. Riley was really stupid to go to find Adam at the end.



Brilliant episode I really enjoyed it!

Yes yes yes, but we need more than a two second “and previously on Angel” to explain what’s been going on between the Slayer and the Vamp with a soul this season. We need to see both I Will Remember You and Sanctuary to understand why Angel is so miserable and rude to Buffy - who doesn’t know that he gave up humanity, sex and ice-cream to be able to save her when the time comes. Similar to the ep End of Days (when his sacrifice is finally vindicated), his arrival is a catalyst to make Buffy’s beau jealous. Whilst Buffy doesn’t trust Riley enough to tell him about Angel – either his trigger to make him evil or what exactly happened in LA, and Riley doesn’t trust Buffy enough to assume that she didn’t sleep with Angel and he concludes that she’s going to dump him. Trust is, obviously, the theme of the episode, with the Scoobs putting their faith in the one person they should not: Spike.



We saw in Doomed how Spike discovered that he could hurt with words, and how he took pleasure from it. The Scoobs have forgotten that Spike is an evil vampire, not a sometimes-helpful gang mascot. They’ve overlooked how many times he’s tried to kill the Slayer and how he’d be quite happy for all of them to die, even after they’ve saved his un-life several times. Just because he can’t hit, it don’t mean he can’t hurt. But not only do they trust him with his “information” from the Initiative, but they listen to what he has to say about each of them. Spike has known the gang since S2 and, as previously seen, is as observant as only an outsider can be and his forte is picking at people’s vulnerabilities. Thus Xander’s fears that the others see him as useless - not only superpower-less but also jobless (fired from Starbucks and a sex chat line (perhaps he should try for school caretaker, then his life would at least be short)) and outside of college life – are easily exacerbated. Giles, also unemployed, is effortlessly made to feel that Buffy no longer needs him, because this is what he feels himself. More complex is Willow and Tara – Willow doesn’t feel vulnerable about her new relationship, but she is concerned that Buffy might be “freaked” by her lesbianism, even as she inadvertently comes out to Xander and Giles. The Wicca metaphor is amusingly turned on its head as Spike says that her friends thought “the new stuff” with Tara was just a “trendy” “phase”, but that he thinks there’s nothing wrong with being a “witch”. To add a little extra spice to the pot, Spike also claims that Willow isn’t so hot at the computer stuff anymore, which makes Willow feel that her place in the group is threatened. In Fear Itself we saw how Xander was afraid of being invisible to his friends, Buffy was frightened of the gang deserting her and Willow, as well as her Oz issues, was scared of being an unimportant sidekick, as she told Buffy: “Being the Slayer doesn\'t automatically make you boss”. In the same ep, Willow also feared her friends dissing her magic, before Wicca-dom became synonymous with lesbianism. All of these things have now come to pass and, just as in the haunted house, the Scoobs must separate before they can come back together to defeat the Big Bad.



The gang don’t meet up until the 36th minute of the episode. Instead, we have the arrogance of Colonel McNamara as he attributes the high capture rate of HSTs to his “exceptional boys”, rather than Adam, and his notion of Buffy as “just a girl”. Underestimation of Buffy has always been one of her strengths. We also have Spike bonding with Adam, Riley and Xander forming a friendship over shared dislike of Angel, Tara and Willow with their new baby Miss Kitty Fantastico (watch out for the bow and arrow, Miss Kitty!) and Forrest and Buffy teaming up to attack Adam (which doesn’t go so well for Forrest). Even Tara and Anya have their first scene together in the bathroom as the gang fights. In an episode about falling out, there are a few friendships forged. The only true bit of gossip, Xander telling Riley about Angel’s trigger, brings Buffy and Riley closer together as he tells her that he loves her for the first time (without Faith being there). Oh yeah, and we have the Angel/Riley smackdown. Angel’s childishness (“He started it”) and pointless jealousy makes us feel for Riley and want him to win the scrap, even though we know he’s not going to. Mind you, Riley is pretty infantile as well as he refuses to move from the room, forcing Buffy to take the conversation outside. She has to get between the two, with force. But just as Riley and Buffy eventually reconcile, so do Buffy and Angel, as she accepts his apology. Unfortunately, no-one else gets any closure.



“You know how it is with kids, they go to college, they grow apart”. Spike, with his usual incisiveness, sums up S4. He compares himself to a female Japanese conceptualist artist, or, the catalyst that broke up the Beatles. With the Scoobs as The Beatles, it’s unsurprising that each of them, (except Buffy) thinks that they are Ringo. If Giles wasn’t so drunk, he would have seen what Spike has done, but we know that drinking in the Buffyverse only leads to Bad Things. The tragihilarious denouement is brilliant as not only Spike’s lies come to the surface, but also other issues, Buffy’s superiority complex, Willow’s jealousy of Anya and the whole falling apart of the gang begins.



“Things have been wrong for some time”, says Willow echoing her earlier thought about it hardly feeling like she and Buffy are roomies anymore. Buffy telling Riley that she and Angel are in different worlds now also applies to the gang. “I need you, both of you, all the time. But not right now,” she tells them. All of them feel that s/he is the put upon one, each so wrapped up in their own issues that they fail to see how they’re being manipulated.



The growth in each character, and the conflict that this causes, becomes an important plot point. “How can you possibly help?” asks Buffy, rhetorically, and that is the pivot that the next episode turns upon.



And if the gang split wasn’t dramatic enough, we see that Buffy’s new boyfriend also has a trigger, as Riley goes off to confront Adam!

I like this episode very much. Maybe for 3 reasons: 1-Spike's intellegence 2-Angel is back for awhile

3-Riley got hurt :)

Spike is really good at convincing people or making them believe what he wants. Also he can see the debilities of Scooby Gang better than everyone. His cooperation with Adam was so bad for Scooby Gang. He caused the Scoobies fought so bad.

Angel was so cool :) . Buffy and he finally understood that they're not in eachother's life anymore and that they're seperated. Angel's 'He started..' thing was so funny :D

Giles' drunkenness made me laugh so hard. He was so cute. Xander-Buffy-GÝles-Willow arguement was so bad but that's gonna make them understand how precious their friendship was...

This was so good!! I mean it was incredibly funny and entertaining. Ha, Angel coming back for a while, I love it!!! Sorry for the Riley-fans, but I am pro Angel. I mean Riley is a total wuss. Try to prove me te opposite. I like the new Angel, he's darker. Still, I could not forgive him for the things he said to Buffy in LA. God, I hated that! I would have loved to punch him in the face myself!! The fight between Riley and Angel was so amazing!!! Jealousy and both sides you know. I did think that Riley had no right to ask Angel about his soul, or even say anything about his soul. The funniest part was at Buffy's dorm, when Angel arrived there before Riley. Buffy was so mad at both of them. And when Angel walked out the dorm after Buffy, giving Riley this smirk, that only he could give! I was rolling on the ground!! The conversation outside was beautiful, there is no other word. And when Angel said: "And about Riley? I don't like him" and Buffy answered, smiling "thank you" I was just... haaaamazing!! I was very happy that there was still a sign of their (never ex-) love.

After an entire season where the Scoobies are doing their own thing and not really hanging out much, resentments and fears come to light. Unfortunately they come to light in the worst way, with Xander and Willow slamming on Buffy right when she doesn't need their crap.



The impetus is Spike, who has joined up with Adam in exchange for the promise of losing that pesky chip. With just some shrewd observations and a few vague statements he's able to cause the Scooby-gang to turn on their own.



Xander's insecurity and feelings of being directionless; Willow's relationship with Tara and her fear of what her friends will think of her lesbianism; Giles feelings of inadequecy now that Buffy apparently doesn't need him.



And poor Buffy has enough problems trying to keep Angel and Riley from beating on each other. Riley also finds out that Buffy hasn't really told him the entire story about her ex and is angry when he shows back up in Sunnydale.



We also end up losing Forrest, who's skewered by Adam. And Buffy really gets a beating from Adam as well.



Somehow, though, this should have been a stronger and more nail-biting episode than it was. With everything going on and all the high drama, you'd think this episode would be in '9' territory easily. But like the entire Adam storyline, there is just a missing spark somewhere.

Spike here hits on another fact of life, friends grow apart. The Yoko Facotr is a good example and way of putting it. Spike here proves that he is only out for himself whilst each of the gangs insecurities are laid out for everyone to see.



And the best part: Angel lays the smackdown on Riley. This is the whole ex verses new boyfriend, a fight that most people want to avoid. Its clear that both men have strong feelings for Buffy even if Angel left to get away from them. Rileys protectiveness is heavy handed considering that Buffy can take care of herself, but in a normal situation a new boyfriend would feel serverly bruised ego wise seeing the way Buffy reacts to Angel.



A great build up.

‘The Yoko Factor’ was a decent attempt to improve the storyline, and it sort of succeeded.



Spike still managed to be as interesting as nothing. He now works for Adam and he has to take away Buffy’s friends.

He first does an attempt to get rid of Giles by telling him he has information, as soon as Giles asks and says that he will tell Buffy, Spike tells him that Buffy never listens to him and that Giles is just an unemployed librarian which hits Giles rather hard and immediately begins to drink.



When Xander and Anya bring Spike some stuff to his new home, Spike tells Xander that his friends were talking bad behind is back and that they said that he was going to boot camp which makes Xander upset and believes they disrespect him.

Then Spike brings some disks to Willow and she is having trouble decrypting them so he tells her that she isn’t how she used to be and that her friends were talking about her and that she was being trendy with the witch stuff, he did a good job I have to say.



This episode also continues the storyline of ‘Sanctuary’, Xander tells Riley about Angel and the curse, he gets evil when he sleeps with Buffy. So Angel is back in town and Riley finds him and they both have a big fight, Riley believes that Angel is evil again and that he slept with Buffy.



Meanwhile in a cave Buffy is looking for Adam but instead finds Forrest. Then they both find Adam who kills Forrest and wounds Buffy badly. When she comes back home she finds Angel and Riley following him which makes Buffy believe that he attacked her boyfriend. But Angel explains everything to her and that he will explain through phone next time.

I found the storyline a bit unnecessary, especially Angel apologizing while he didn’t do anything wrong.



The best part was without a doubt the Scooby meeting, things hadn’t been right for a while and they all burst into a fight and seem to be saying everything wrong. Giles is completely drunk while Willow thinks that they don’t accept Tara and Xander think that they don’t accept him because he doesn’t go to collage. After a big fight Buffy walks away and says that she will go to someone she can count, but Riley appears to be at Adam’s who was waiting for him.

A neat episode with a few corny and cheesy moments but as an overall, it was a great episode compared to most of season 4.

This is an important episode not only to this season to the entire show. The gang falls apart for the first time, they will be always in some kind till the last episode of the show, everything between it is just some temporarily good time.

We see also for the first time, that Buffy only needs her friends only to fight the really big evil, in the rest of the time she’s (as a slayer) would live far better without them, but feel more lonely than she already does.

In the whole sadness of this episode some important things happen too, in the character development. First Willow fights for her girlfriend Tara and so she doesn’t needs the approval from her friends. That’s might also be the easier way to tell them. But this is a funny moment (maybe the only one) in this episode: When Xander shouts “What? Tara’s your girlfriend?” and we hear the drunken Giles “Bloody Hell” (a typical Spike sentence). After this episode everything is fallen apart and you really have to doubt if they really are going to make it.

With the season arc taking several unexpected turns during the course of the season, largely unanticipated by the writing staff, it was a bit of a surprise to find that the arc still wasn’t apparent going into the two-part finale in episode 20. Certainly the writers did everything to make it all come together, and there’s evidence that many plans and character arcs were coming to fruition. Unfortunately, some of those elements don’t come together as well as the writers might have intended, largely due to mixed messages earlier in the season.



The haphazard nature of the Initiative arc is in evidence right from the beginning. There’s the distinct impression that the military doesn’t know what to do about Sunnydale in the wake of Walsh’s death. Ironically, the final season of “Angel” would reveal that the Initiative has been around since at least World War II. That being the case, why would they be so blind and foolish as they are in this episode? And why wouldn’t they understand the role and nature of the Slayer?



Meanwhile, Adam’s plan evolves in a way that salvages much of the wasted opportunities, and by bringing Spike into the fold, the writers turn the arc in a direction that aligns with the season’s main theme. The characters have been more or less discovering themselves, but they’ve done a poor job of revealing themselves to each other. That leaves them vulnerable to their own fears of acceptance and self-doubt.



Spike is right about one thing, at least to a certain extent: Buffy is special because of her unique and loyal support system. Eliminate the support system, without making them rallying points by killing them, and Buffy is weakened as a result. It all makes a great deal of sense, but to get to that point, the writers have to make it seem like this is the end of a process that has been building towards a break for quite some time. And looking back at the season as a whole, that isn’t where the writers took the season at all.



To be fair, Buffy does set herself up when it comes to Riley. By only telling him part of the story with Angel, she leaves an opening for someone else to make an offhand comment and tip him off to the nature of the curse. Considering how important that was to the whole equation, she really should have said something to him. Buffy really betrays Riley in a fundamental way, and while it’s never said explicitly, it begins building the case that takes Riley in a horrible direction in the fifth season.



Giles, on the other hand, has been jumping in and out of Buffy’s life all season. Initially it was his choice to distance himself and find a new purpose, and so those seeds were planted by his own sense of impending freedom. Yet in several episodes, Buffy seeks out Giles for advice and support, and his apartment has been a gathering place for the gang week after week. It all sounds very convincing within the context of the episode, and it was clearly the intention of the writers to place Giles in this position over time, but the process wasn’t that straightforward.



While Buffy has been centering her life around Riley for quite a while (ever since “Hush”, actually), she hasn’t been all that distanced from Willow until very recently. When Buffy and Willow have been at odds, it’s been more on Willow’s part, in response to her depression over Oz and his departure. Buffy did distance herself from the others for a short time when she joined the Initiative, but she and Willow have been working through the recent troubles together. This is one area where the case is well overstated.



Earlier in the season, there was a lot made of the fact that Xander, like Giles, wasn’t part of the college gang. So to a certain extent, Xander has every reason to feel like he’s been left behind by the others. Yet the same issue that comes with Giles applies to Xander: when push comes to shove, Xander has been there, week after week. Xander’s reaction to the suggestion that he might join the Army is out of proportion to the fact that he himself has bemoaned his many, many jobs. But if it wasn’t a strong reaction, of course, then it wouldn’t culminate in the argument at the end of the episode.



What does move the arc forward is the clash between Buffy, Forrest, and Adam. This seems more like the logical progression of a season arc, since the clash between Buffy and Forrest was destined to end badly. It also serves to demonstrate that Adam doesn’t need Buffy dead. He lets her live for a purpose, even if that is still left unclear.



Spike makes a point of insinuating that the others have a problem with Willow’s relationship with Tara, and there’s a certain extent to which that works thematically. Yet it takes a bit of a leap for that to occur, and Willow takes it a bit out of proportion. Granted, Spike is meant to come across as the double agent, getting his revenge on the Scoobies for all they’ve done to him over the past several months, but even he shouldn’t have it so easy.



The arrival of Angel, and his nearly immediate clash with Riley, come out of left field. It makes sense that Angel would want to make good after the debacle at the end of “Sanctuary”, but this seems designed to place Angel and Riley at odds, as if the audience needed to see that. It’s a situation that Angel could have easily defused, even if Riley was looking for a fight. Angel never explains himself, and so it just seems out of place with the rest of the episode.



Once the silly Angel/Riley posturing is over, there is a nice scene between Buffy and Angel that brings their relationship to the post-hostility phase, as it should be. It’s nothing that couldn’t have been done at the end of “Sanctuary”, of course, but since that episode was about making Angel’s mission palpable and this episode is about showing Buffy in a good light, there is a method to the madness. It’s good to see them laugh and talk to each other like people with a history, who also understand that they can’t be together like they were.



Of course, history isn’t always the best thing, especially when people get to thinking about things in a negative light. If one accepts the premise that Spike has reminded everyone of the things that have been bothering them all season, even if the episodes themselves don’t quite add up to the conclusions made, then the final act makes a lot of sense and follows up nicely on the issues Joss brought up in “Fear, Itself”.



It also poses the question that gets answered in the next episode: what can Buffy’s friends really bring to the table, when all is said and done? More correctly, the question is, what can they bring to the table now? As it turns out, the answer to that question helps to bring some of the themes for the season to a head. Not only have the characters spent a significant amount of time figuring themselves out, but now they have the chance to figure out who they are in relation to Buffy and her destiny. All of which, in the end, serves to ask the primary question of the fifth season: Buffy may finally have some idea of who she is, but what does it really mean to be a Slayer?



At the same time, this season arc, while a nice metaphor for early college life, doesn’t really culminate in the kind of definitive answers provided in the second and third season arcs. It’s more correct to say that this is the second part of a three-season arc about self-awareness. The third season taught Buffy how her support system helps her to resist the extremes that can take control of a Slayer otherwise, since Faith is a Slayer ruled by the primal instincts of the Chosen line.



The fourth season comes in direct consequence: if Buffy is a relatively stable mixture of varying influences, then who is she when her support system begins to break down? Inevitably this leads to introspection and an attempt to understand choices and personal moralities, but the end result must be one final question: how much of Buffy is driven by the subconscious demands of the Chosen line? Where does the Slayer end and Buffy begin? And that means figuring out what the Slayer is at the core.



Up to this point, Buffy has managed to survive through her support system and by tapping into the basic Slayer abilities without care or concern for where they come from. The point of this episode is to set the stage for a situation where Buffy only has that wellspring to rely upon. Stripping away her support system is vital to that goal, but it would have worked better if the season itself had organically and consistently developed towards that end.

If this episode had a theme, it would have have to be insecurity. Each member of the show, with the exception of possibly ADAM because he's a robot, experiences this emotion in one way or another. Buffy comes back from visiting Angel in Los Angeles, completely insecure in seeing him comfort Faith. Although the couple broke up a year ago, obviousely she is still in love with him and she can't stand to see him be so cozy with her mortal enemy. Spike is insecure with his neutered vampire act and looks to ADAM for security in restoring his evilness soon. So, Spike gets in the heads of the scooby-gang to make each of their own insecurities arise. For Giles, it has everything to do with Buffy being in college and nearly a grown adult. Since he quit the Council and since Buffy quit, he has not been her watcher, on an official capacity. And with the advent of Riley, she is not in need of a male figure in her life for stability. Both Xander & Willow have the same insecurity just in different ways, with their "lifestyle" decisions. For Willow, it's her newfound gayness and for Xander it's his decision not to go to college and work as a blue-collar man. Thus the gang fights about this, all fearing Buffy thinks she is all-mighty. Meanwhile Riley feels intimidated and insecure when he finds out the real truth about Angel & Buffy's relationship. And one might say this is the beginning of the end of their relationship as he never can fully think she can love him as much as he loves her. And Angel makes a hilarious cameo playing the jealous ex-boyfriend who is insecure when he meets Buffy's new boyfriend, Riley. In lesser news, ADAM is growing more powerful and kills Forrest, Riley's best friend and nearly kills Buffy.