"New Moon" was very touching and tough to watch as Oz returns, but finds that his Willow has grown into something he never expected. One of the better Buffy episodes to me.

"The Yoko Effect" was up and down, but seeing Riley get his a$$ kicked by Angel was a highlight. Amazingly enough they squeezed a ton of plot points into the last 5 minutes. Giles had the line of the episode: "Fort Dix? Bwa-heeeheeeee!"

If they did a feature film, it would be best to wait until the show is over and carry the story through film exclusively like they did with both generations of Star Trek.

I agree that SMG should leave after 7 seasons and try to become a serious actress; being Daphne in a live action Scooby-Doo doesn't count either! SMG plays a good heroine, but she does a superb job of playing a villainess; her best work IMO is Cruel Intentions and the episode where she played Faith.

I love "The Yoko Effect". One of the great things about 'Buffy' is how they can do a very serious episode in such a comedic way. Some of Giles' lines in this episode are just priceless.

das

Spike was in fine form in "The Yoko Effect". It allowed him to be mischievous, but not overly mean and nasty. For some reason Spike looks younger in Season 4 than he did in season 2 or 3, but now he definitely looks older in season 6.

Season 4 really missed on the impending dread of the Big Bad (tm) with this Adam dude.

ANGEL: "Oh,... and about Riley... I dont like him." (insert coy smile).....I'm not as down on WonderBread Riley as most folks, but even I still get a hearty giggle out of that one.

Wow, hard to believe the Season Four finale is tonight. It came so quick. Really makes you realize how ill-defined Adam was as a Big Bad in comparison to The Mayor and Spike and Dru... Govt wants to make supersoldier, from parts of demons and tech,... I guess they didnt weed out all the evil? He turns on them... he tries to unite the monsters... but its all so scetchy in its execution. Beyond that breif descrpition of events, they dont really go into much more about it. Before we know it, he and Buffy go toe-to-toe, and well, you'll see tonight... No big deal, really.

But, I will say this. No matter how ill-concieved the whole Adam mess was... He beats the Hell out of that annoying actress playing Glory. Nothing grates on my nerves more than that chick trying to be menacing-crazy- and funny at the same time. Bleh, at least Adam wasnt given as much screen time.

Oh well, next week- SEASON FIVE- the biggining of Glory teaching us what happens when you hire your villians from Bad Actress Training Camp- Dawn, that pesky kid sister- Fatal Attraction Spike- Ben the I've got a Secret weirder than my chin cleft doctor- Sick Mom- Willow and Tara sittin' in a tree..., the further adventures of How to Date a Vengeance Demon, Giles gets a real job, another Buffy relationship goes sour, and the Knights who say "Key".

ROFLMAO!!! We are the knights who say "key!" - we are no longer the knights who say key. We are now the knights who say "icky, icky, icky."

Did you see Bring It On? The actress who played Glory was in it, and she was basically the same character (minus any ability to back up the attitude) - truly a bad actress.

She didn't play Big Red, did she?

BTW, I enjoyed Eliza Dushku in Bring It On...

Hey Patman!
Nope - Big Red was on Gross Pointe, though. The actress who played Glory was one of the cheerleaders who tried to take over the squad from Kirsten Dunst. I think her name was Courtney...I'll pop over to imdb to check...
Yep - Courtney. The actress' name is Clare Kramer.

Gah. I'd forgotten how cool the final fight with Adam COULD'VE been, and how goofy it actually was.

Machine Gun Arm?

They killed Maggie off so soon because the actress only committed for a certain amount of episodes.

I for one liked Season four and liked Adam more than the Mayor in season 3. He was a bit too coy for me. Ha haa. I am the Mayor. I am toung and cheek.

I also liked that season more so than season 5 and the whole valley girl Glory thing.
I have the first three season on DVD and I have been watching them all over again and I just dont think you can top the whole evil Angel thing and Spike and Drew from Season 2.

This season. The verdict is still out but I have been dissapointed.

Granted, I haven't watched it again yet (only saw it once when it first aired) but I remember really liking the final fight with Adam. I loved how the scoobies helped Buffy

Primeval:

Good grief! An homage to "Magic Matrix" for the final showdown between Buffy and Adam? Sigh... I was really hope Riley would have gotten "offed" in the chaos (I take it he gets written out quickly in Season 5?). I did like the "Team Buffy" aspect of the Scoobs helping Buffy at the end for the final/quick confrontation with Adam, but it did seem like they certain performed a semi "deus ex machina" type of spell to get them out of a jam. Adam's arm modification was over the top, but then Buffy was channelling the past slayers, and Adam was playing with a harmless pop gun.

If they couldn't get Lindsay Crouse to do the full season, what sort of deal did they make o get her to appear in "Primeval"? "Lindsay, we'll dress you up as a medical zombie, and you'll just 'ugh' your way through the scene."

Restless:

A strange, David Lynch "lite" directing style for this episode. Obviously Willow's dream was about her having to embrace the new drama in her life (Tara) because Willow is never in a dramatic situation until just recently. Harmony pretending to nip at Giles like a cute puppy was also a nice touch. Loved Xander's dream the most. Having the principal coming back as "Kurtz" in Xander's dream was genius. Giles dream was okay, and he sings yet again! The Buffy dream does set in motion the Season 5 episode right before "The Gift" where she finds out But Buffy is more than convinced that with Team Buffy behind her, she doesn't have to go down that lonely road of slayerhood (though Season 6 might put on her that road by the end of the season). And I almost didn't recognize the dude that played Adam when he was all cleaned up.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS



The reason why I think they didn't unite again for Glory is because they have to be within a certain proximity of Buffy and the minions could have attacked them and if you remember, when Willow attacked Glory, she could only do so much damage for so long because Glory could counter a lot of it.

What they did for Adam was perfect because he really couldn't comprehend it and couldn't counter it.

I overall liked season 4. I kinda of like Riley and Adam wasn't very scary in the sense of evil Angel or Dru, but in the sense that he wasn't going to be easy to stop.

Good call, Elektra - I bet you're right.

Potential Trivial Spoiler

I rewatched Restless again tonight. I didn't see the connection between the current season's memory loss episode with Spike thinking he was Giles' son/ the way he was dressed, and the swingset scene in Buffy's dream where Spike was dressed almost exactly the same way and Giles said "He's like a son to me."

I'll say. Some of it was downright prophetic - the Willow and Tara scene in Xander's dream was reminded me of Mulholland Drive.

You know, I had thought for sure they were going to stop Adam by doing an "Independence Day" on him. That is, they had established he had that disk drive thing in his chest. I figured that Willow would create a virus or other program to make him stop and that Buffy would have to shove it in during battle.

Ladeeeezzzz and Gentlemen! I think have the answer. Last night it hit me...I know How to Make Adam an Interesting Villain! Blasphemy you say? Well, try this...

First, we move up the whole Initiative aspect, introduce it earlier, as well as the fact that Riley and Prof Walsh are part of it. We move up the whole Riley-Buffy relationship, abandoning the episode or two where Riley doesn’t know he likes her; he likes her from the start but takes his time, with the Parker thing getting in the way... Yank “Beer Bad” (funny, but rock-stupid) and replace it with a different episode that helps move these points along better...

Here is the kicker, not only introduce the Initiative goings-on sooner, but Adam, and he is awake! Instead of being all cryptic, show the damn creature and that he is supposed to be some patchwork super-soldier. How do you keep him from being deadly and set him up as an evolving villain? You make him a clean slate, childlike, unformed, like they were starting from scratch, trying to remove all the man and demon from him and program the rest in *see scene below*. This will put an entirely different spin on the whole “mother” business, and instead of him just waking up evil (which made the Initiative look dumb), you have him covertly discover his evil demonic nature that the Initiative thought they could remove scientifically. Instead of- BANG! He’s awake and evil, he begins innocent and we see his evil develop unnoticed by the Initiatives eyes, he plots, and a little over midway through the season he breaks free and starts his plan... You also take the remote controlling Riley business and inject it earlier, hint at it, have him take over Riley a few episodes before the finale, making Buffy think Riley has abandoned her (thus helping the whole solo Buffy thing more)... Also, have Tara reading one of Giles/Willows books early in the season and have her mention the SuperSlayer spell at least in a incidental manner instead of just springing it on us.

Secondly, with Adam, rewrite all of his dialogue, because he was a villain of contrasts. On one hand he was supposed to be all superior in his plotting and intellect, yet he couldn’t figure out some very simple human-demon behavior stuff, which was weak. Show him preaching to throngs of monsters (instead of three damn vamps), making him into part Messiah part Military Leader. “I am made of what you are. I know your strength, because your strength is part of me. It is time for us to rise from the shadows and no longer be the minority.” You know, junk like that would beef him up a little, making him less solo and having his grand plan be shown instead of mentioned/implied. Have this be the way that Spike meets him, and have it be that Spike doesnt buy into the whole "televangelist/General" bit, but he does still want his chip out.

This new backstory and behavior plus some minor tweeking with the rest of the general Buffy arc, could have made it work...maybe not great, but a Hell of a lot better.

*A Scene: In an homage to Psycho- Inside the Initiative show a lab rat escaping its cage and running to the feet of the seemingly blank, childlike, innocent (but implied to the viewer- evil) Adam. Adam gently picks up the mouse and is caring, curious and not deadly with it- like Norman/Mrs Bates, “They’ll see,...I wouldn’t hurt a fly.” bit. The doctors state to each other how this shows they are on the right track, steering Adam towards only being harmful to what they want him to attack.*

somebody's in need of a hobby...

For the first time I finally saw some foreshadowing for Dawn. I've heard that they had been dropping clues since season 3 for her arrival but I had never picked up any. Until Restless....In one of the dream sequences Tara says to Buffy Although I could be reading more into this then was intended.

They hinted at Dawn all the way back at the end of Season 3.

It's generally taken to mean that Faith's "dream" apperance in "Graduation Day II" has many references to Dawn.

Spoiler for Season 5

I love the show but I agree after season 7, it should go away and they should make movies.

Ah yes, this from someone who still watches the X Files and rattles on about it... At least Buffy is still a little fresh. just funnin' ya', no offense

at least i don't spend my time coming up with alternative plots to seasons that have long since passed, mate.

how does a person "rattle" on anyway? 'cause i "rattle" on about the fresher buffy too.

just funnin' ya too, though, no offense meant, mate.

cheerio!

I wonder if the show will ever tackle the issue of human evil? Terrorists could attack Sunnydale and Buffy could realize how powerless she is in "real" situations. Kind of like "The Body", only on a massive scale.

IMO, I would love to see an innovative episode that is entirely animated, maybe directed by Don Bluth who worked with Whedon on Titan A.E.

Also, the only time we should ever see Faith again IMO is if she appears in the movie. Would Faith ever allow herself to be turned into a vamp?