Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 4, Episodes 20 and 21: The Yoko Factor/Primeval
The Yoko FactorWritten by Douglas Petrie; Directed by David Grossman
Who Are You?
Written by David Fury; Directed by James A. Contner
Well, who expected this? The Big Bad is defeated and everything is tied up in a neat package with an episode still to go. The reason, it seems, is that, when Season 4 was drawing to a close, Joss Whedon, for once, actually knew that the show would be back for a fifth season, so he decided to use the final episode to set up what was to come while capping off the themes of the fourth. Another reason, perhaps, is that the Big Bad this season sucked, so probably wasn't the strongest note to end on.
Anyway, with this two-parter, as usual, the material with the Initiative and Adam is pretty bad, but the character stuff, which to me is what matters, is top notch. Here, everything comes to a head as all the tensions that have been boiling for the past year come to the surface, resulting in Buffy, Willow, Giles and Xander having a massive falling-out. That the group were so easily manipulated by Spike of all people only serves to underscore just how thinly stretched their friendship was by this stage.
Of course, the second part has them coming back together, their friendship arguably stronger than ever before, as they realise that defeating Adam will require the cooperation of all four of them. Buffy being a show that loves its overbaked metaphors, this is realised literally with the four friends temporarily merging together to create a single, all-powerful entity, combining the strength of them all (Buffy is the physical power, Willow is the spirit, Giles is the mind, Xander is the heart). The result is a little odd, but it's a means to an end, and luckily the budget is high enough to spare us anything as jaw-droppingly bad as the Season 3 finale's CGI snake.
8/10 for both.
Next time: the season concludes with Restless.
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