Great individual episodes stand out in Season Four of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Themes of disconnection, life’s changes, and evolving relationships occur throughout the season and the main story arc examines the idea of science versus magic in the Buffy universe. New characters as well as the return of old friends set up a season that although is one of the weakest, provides some individual great moments and lays the groundwork for themes and stories that will be explored through the end of Season Seven.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Season 4
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Great individual episodes stand out in Season Four of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Themes of disconnection, life’s changes, and evolving relationships occur throughout the season and the main story arc examines the idea of science versus magic in the Buffy universe. New characters as well as the return of old friends set up a season that although is one of the weakest, provides some individual great moments and lays the groundwork for themes and stories that will be explored through the end of Season Seven.
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| The Slayer does not walk in this world |
Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Willow (Alyson Hannigan), and Oz (Seth Green) have graduated high school and moved onto college at UC Sunnydale. Xander (Nicholas Brendon) returns home after a summer of misadventure to live in his parents basement and try and understand his relationship with Anya (Emma Caulfield ). New faces abound as Buffy gets a new beau in undercover soldier Riley Finn (Marc Blucas ), Willow begins a new stage in her life with Tara (Amber Benson), and an entire army appears underneath the campus known simply as the Initiative. The theme of science versus magic will be explored throughout the season as the government run Initiative delves into the world of the supernatural and tries to harness the power for new weapons, the last of which, a human/demon/cyborg called Adam (George Hertzberg), will bring down the fall of the Initiative and threaten the safety of Sunnydale. Buffy will need to reunite the Scoobies, who have moved further and further apart during the year, to stop Adam and once again save the day.
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| Adam |
Where Season Three played on graduation and completion of a stage of life, this season focuses mostly about being in a new world and trying to find your place in it. Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) and Xander both begin to feel useless to the group, Buffy struggles with fitting in at college and trying to live in Riley’s world, Willow deals with the heartbreaking betrayal and abandonment of Oz and goes through an emotional upheaval and onto a new relationship with Tara, and Spike (James Marsters) is neutered to the point that he can no longer hurt humans and is forced to ask the Scoobies for help.
The season is something of a mixed bag. The Initiative storyline never really reaches the level of other Buffy season arcs. If you like the final battle sequence between Buffy and Adam in Primeval you might want to rummage through your local comic shop as it’s stolen from an Alan Moore book called Promethea. Aside from the main arc we do get some very good stand alone episodes.
Hush
Language can often get in the way of communicating, trying to say what you actually want to express. For twenty-five minutes no one speaks in this episode as the entire population of Sunnydale is rendered without speech by the Gentlemen. It’s a great stand alone episode, but at the same time the style is used to push plot and story. Xander is finally able to express how he feels about Anya, and Riley and Buffy finally stop dancing around the issue and kiss. The Gentlemen and their straightjacket wearing servants are creepy villains and the score greatly adds to the feel. Also worth noting is this episode introduces the character of Tara.
Superstar
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| Jonathan Superstar |
A creature is terrorizing Sunnydale and Buffy and the Scoobies call on Jonathan (Danny Strong) to help. Jonathan? A very nice stand alone episode where Jonathan has altered reality to his will making himself a paragon, the best of all things. The episode also is important because it is Jonathan who heals the wounds Faith caused in the Buffy / Riley relationship and Jonathan who comes up with the source of Adam’s power. Cool moments abound here, I especially like Jonathan’s performance at the Bronze and all the specially created product placements and advertisements for our new hero.
This Year’s Girl / Who Are You?
Faith (Eliza Dushku) awakes from her coma and seeks revenge against Buffy for taking everything away from her. It’s great to see Dushku return to reprise her role in this two-parter where Faith switches bodies with Buffy and takes over Buffy’s life. Suberb acting by both actresses. The conclusion of the story takes place in Season One of Angel.
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| Restless Slayer |
Restless
Whedon’s finale is an out of body dream sequence that explores the different characters subconscious as they are hunted by the force of thePrimitive (Sharon Ferguson), the first Vampire Slayer, they called on to help them defeat Adam. Some really cool stream of consciousness stuff here. The episode also sets up Season Five, Buffy’s need to come to an understanding what being a Slayer means, and the coming of Dawn.
Season Four gives us some nice extra features. We get featurettes about Spike and Oz, an interview with set designer Carey Meyer and a look at the sets of Sunnydale, original scripts, and commentary for an amazing seven episodes. There is a short documentary about the making of Hush as well. My favorite extra is the featurette which examines the use of music in Buffy. We are given a look and listen to the theme song and the use of score throughout the season and discussing Anthony Stewart Head’s performances of Freebird and Behind Blue Eyes as well as his singing an exposition song written by Whedon in another episode. Some really good extras that help round out this set.
Season Four is my least favorite of all seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The problem arises in the main story arc – Science vs Magic. It’s an interesting idea that could have been explored in one or two episodes, but the theme is drawn out over the season as the government starts to interfere in Buffy’s world. The villain of Adam is one of the least interesting of the series and I give the season bad marks for introducing the much hated character of Riley Finn to the Whedonverse. Also we get some of the worst written shows of the series such as Beer Bad, The Freshman, and Where the Wild Things Are.
That having been said, a less than brilliant season of Buffy is like coming in fourth at the Olympics – still pretty damn good. There are still numerous reasons to check out these episodes as they lay the foundation for all the seasons to follow. There are some great individual episodes, some great building blocks and development of these beloved characters, and some pretty cool extras including the commentary and the featurettes.
The series breaks down into two blocks: the high school years (Seasons 1 – 3) and the adult years (Seasons 5 – 7). This season is all about not belonging to either world and rediscovering your place, making new realtionships, struggling to keep old relationships, and moving onto a new world.