Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 4, Episode 22: Restless
Written and Directed by Joss WhedonHere it is: the final episode of Season 4 and my favourite episode of Buffy. I'm a big admirer of Mulholland Dr., so it's no surprise that I like this extremely thematically similar episode (although it actually aired a full year before David Lynch's film). The plot is essentially this: Buffy, Willow, Giles and Xander sit down to watch Apocalypse Now. Almost immediately they fall asleep, at which point they are each stalked in their dreams by the First Slayer, who is angered by their having evoked her essence when they merged to defeat Adam.
The great thing about Restless is that, on one level, it doesn't make a blind bit of sense, but on the other, it's probably the most meaningful episode ever created, recapping where the characters have come in the past four seasons and laying out where they still have to go. Everyone's dreams somehow connect to their situation in the past, present and future. Buffy begins to wonder about who she is and what being a Slayer means, which will form a major part of Season 5. Willow is convinced that people are whispering behind her back about her relationship with Tara, while on a deeper level she is worried that the new personality and style she has assumed at college will be revealed as nothing more than a disguise behind which the same shy, awkward Willow from Season 1 hides. Giles struggles with the fatherly feelings he has towards Buffy, and with the fact that he is no longer as important a part of her life as he once was. Finally, Xander struggles with the realisation that his life is going nowhere and that, no matter what he does, he always ends up back in his parents' basement.
Once again, there's a fascinating amount of foreshadowing going on in this episode, much of it hinting at the arrival of Dawn in the very next episode. For example, Tara tells Buffy to "be back before dawn" when she leaves to find her friends, and the bedroom that she stares into in the final scene (and also the one containing the bed which she and Faith were making in This Year's Girl) is what will become Dawn's. Somewhat surprisingly, we also get hints about Anya's going back to being a Vengeance Demon (which eventually happens late in Season 6). Oh, and the whole episode is fantastically shot, employing all sorts of slow motion effects, filters and moments of complete silence.
This is excellent stuff, and I'm afraid I can't really do it justice in words. This guy, however, does a very good job of explaining all the nuances that are taking place in his excellent review of the episode, which describes precisely what is going on for each character and tries to provide solutions to some of the more cryptic imagery. Anyway, Restless is not only my favourite Buffy episode but also, in my humble opinion, one of the best pieces of television ever created, naysayers be damned.
Overall rating: 10/10.
Next time: an overview of Season 4, then on to Season 5.
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