A world without shrimp

Buffy S4E17 - E22

“Superstar”

Something nice and light after all the Faith stuff. We begin in a Sunnydale championed by hero Jonathan, writer, movie star, popular with the ladies, and way better at slaying vampires than Buffy. Jonathan paraphernalia is everywhere, as even Tara and Willow tape pictures of him to their wall.

His spell unravels, though, and the world returns to the way it was. Jonathan is again alone and inconsequential. In this season, he’s not even the butt of jokes. I think this is the only episode he appears in.

“Where the Wild Things Are”

Buffy and Riley have so much sex that they awaken disturbing spirits of the frat house during a party. Sunnydale frat houses are bad, bad news. I don’t think anything good ever happens in one during the entire run of Buffy. Anyway, this is a very dumb premise, but the episode’s not too bad.


Anya fights with Xander, and goes to the Bronze to hang out with Spike and reminisce about their evil pasts.

Anya seems to have gotten herself an ID since Doppelgangland
and can get beer now.

Giles brings his guitar to the coffee shop and sings. Xander’s horrified, the women are intrigued.

Me too, Wil. Me too.

And Riley and Buffy have so much sex that they miss everything that happens in the episode and almost die. No, really.

“New Moon Rising”

This is my favorite episode of Season 4. I mean, when I rewatch something, it’s usually “Something Blue” or “Hush”, but on a full-season watch-thru, this is the one that hits me hardest. Not “Wild at Heart”, but this follow up where Willow gets the one thing she wanted most of all, and it isn’t right for her anymore. Oz comes back, but things aren’t the same.

And Adam promises Spike that he’ll remove his chip if he helps take down Buffy.

“The Yoko Factor”

Everybody’s fighting. Most of it is Spike’s fault, but definitely not all of it.

Buffy comes back from LA after fighting with Angel in “Sanctuary”, and Riley is jealous. This is not helped by Angel following her home and beating up Riley in a very unsportsmanlike manner. Dude is human, after all. He’s then convinced that Buffy had sex with Angel and now he’s evil again. FFS, Riley. I mean, sure, last time she went to see Angel in LA, she totally did have sex with him but it technically never happened and anyway, they weren’t even dating then, he’s got no excuse for thinking Buffy cheated on him.

“Primeval” 

Yeah, I’m rushing through these. I’m kind of ready to be done with Season 4. Buffy’s ready to fight Adam. Riley would be, but can’t help, because he has a chip, too. Chips for everybody!

The Scoobies join up to do a spell to give Buffy the strength to take Adam down, and I really like when the gang all do magic together, it just seems so intimate that they’re there with Buffy when she’s fighting.

With Adam dead, Spike switches to the winning side.

And the Initiative is shut down.

“Restless”

I was struck during this watch of Buffy how much I enjoy Buffy’s dream sequences. Joss gets that weird interplay between significance and nonsense in a way I think few writers do. Despite all that, I was kind of dreading this episode, and it was kind of worth dreading. I mean, you can’t really criticise an episode composed entirely of multiple dream sequences for being unfocused, but this has no plot and the arc significance is not worth an entire episode.

Apparently there is critical acclaim all over over the internet for this episode, but I feel kind of like Principal Snyder at the end of “The Puppet Show”.