"Hush"

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Episode 10 of Season 4 

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“Fortune favors the brave.”

 

Original US airdate: December 14th, 1999 (aired directly before Angel episode "Parting Gifts")

Rewatched: June 18th, 2022

 

• Writer: Joss Whedon

• Director: Joss Whedon

• Guests: Marc Blucas, Emma Caulfield, Leonard Roberts, Phina Oruche, Amber Benson, Brooke Bloom, Jessica Townsend, Lindsay Crouse

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"Hush" is one of the greats. Creative in its execution, with no dialogue (except computer voices and news announcers) between 14 minutes and 38 minutes of the episode, this episode also packs a lot of firsts. The overall theme is communication. While the lack of voices allows the Gentleman to harvest hearts, it also allows the Scoobies to communicate.

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On the Giles front, Olivia is visiting again and the arrival of the Gentleman means she learns that monsters are real. While both she and Giles survive the episode unscathed (and Olivia was able to draw a picture of one of the Gentleman she saw from the window, helping to crack the mystery), the episode ends in uncertainty for the two. At the end, Giles and Olivia are caressing each other on the couch and talking. Olivia asks Giles if everything he told her was true, because she thought he was being pretentious. Giles says it was both – true and pretentious – and he only lied about being an original member of Pink Floyd. He asks whether it is too scary for her, and she says she doesn’t know. But… she never appears on the series again. For Olivia and Giles, the chance to communicate, to move to a level deeper than international sex buddies, put an end to their budding relationship.

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On the Xander front, Anya starts the episode claiming Xander is just using her, that they don’t have a deeper connection and he never talks to her. Once they lose their voices and Xander mistakenly thinks Spike has drunk from Anya, Xander doesn’t hesitate to attack Spike, showing that he does really care about Anya. The two end the episode closer together.

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Then, on the Willow front, this is the first episode with Tara. The two meet at Willow’s Wiccan group, although Willow is dissatisfied, as the group is not actually doing magic. When Willow suggests doing spells, she is ridiculed by the others, except Tara, who seems to agree, but is too shy to actually say anything. Tara searches out Willow once the voices are gone, hoping the two can do a spell to bring everyone’s voices back. However, Tara is pursued by the Gentleman and she and Willow must hide. While in the laundry room, they try to move a soda machine, first using their muscles, then Willow decides to use magic. Unable to do it alone, Willow and Tara join hands, share a moment together and manage to move the machine. The end of the episode has the two talking. We learn Tara’s mother practiced magic and so Tara grew up with it. She says that Willow has a lot of power and when Willow says she’s nothing special, Tara replies “No, you are”, foreshadowing both their love and Willow’s later journey as a witch.

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Finally, on the Buffy front, a lot is going on. The episode starts with a prophetic dream. Buffy is in class and Maggie Walsh calls her to the front, has her lie down on the desk, and has Riley kiss her. All very strange, as Buffy notes, but most interesting is when Riley says “Don’t worry. If I kiss you, it’ll make the sun go down.” Which does happen. This line is a bit reminiscent of Buffy saying to Angel “When you kiss me, I wanna to die” in season 2 and perhaps hints that Riley is not the normal guy Buffy is hoping for and perhaps even foreshadows that this relationship will end much like the one with Angel, with Riley leaving Sunnydale to fight evil elsewhere. Once the kiss is over, Buffy hears a girl with a box singing:

Can't even shout, can't even cry

The Gentlemen are coming by.

Looking in windows, knocking on doors,

They need to take seven and they might take yours.

Can't call to mom, can't say a word,

You're gonna die screaming but you won't be heard.

Which really gives the Scoobies enough to solve the mystery – if it weren’t a riddle. Then Buffy turns around and Riley turns into one of the Genltemen.

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When Buffy wakes up, we find out she was really in class when she had her dream. She and Riley talk afterwards, but their words distract them for their desires (and the secrets they are keeping from each other do, too). Once their voices are gone, both Riley and Buffy work to keep Sunnydale safe. Buffy and Riley meet while both patrolling and finally kiss – their words can no longer get in the way. On the second night, Buffy and Riley both find the Gentlemen and fight them in their clocktower headquarters. The box Buffy saw in her dream is there and Riley smashes it on Buffy’s request, allowing Buffy to scream and the Gentlemen’s heads explode. Evil is vanquished. The two have kissed. Their secrets are out. All is well. Except the episode ends in Buffy’s room, with the two claiming to need to talk, but sitting across from each other in silence. The return of their voices has not helped Buffy and Riley to continue to communicate.

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"Doomed"

 

Episode 11 of Season 4 

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“You don't go after a demon that size by yourself.”

 

Original US airdate: January 18th, 2000 (aired directly before Angel episode "Somnambulist")

Rewatched: June 25th, 2022

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• Writer: Marti Noxon, David Fury, Jane Espenson

• Director: James A. Contner

• Guests: Leonard Robert, Bailey Chase, Ethan Erickson

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While this episode is fairly standard monster-of-the-week fair, it does have some interesting themes. In terms of relevance for the main story-arc of this season, Buffy and Riley come clean to each other about their secret identities. However, Riley has never heard of the Slayer, indicating that the government is in over its head. This is also repeated when the Initiative and the Scoobies do a run down of the demons they are hunting. The Initiative is able to get a rough idea of the demon and use their tech to track the demons’ pheromone signature, but they are not able to figure out what the demons are up to. The Scoobies are. (Also, the language used is very different – military precision vs. poetic demon descriptions). In the end, Riley and Buffy team up to prevent the 5th apocalypse Sunnydale has seen and are successful.

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Buffy and Riley’s relationship takes a hit in this episode. Buffy, learning that Riley is in the Initiative, is worried about revisiting the drama she had with Angel, going so far as to say a relationship with Riley would be a “huge black pit of a mistake and I can’t go there again.” But at the end of the episode, the two are kissing. Having Riley at her back to prevent the end of the world strengthened their relationship.

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Finally, Willow and Xander are still adjusting to post high school life. Willow attends a party alone, but can’t really get into the grove. She sees Percy, who she tutored in high school, and says hi, but he leaves after a brief hello. Later, Willow overhears him telling his girlfriend that she was just a nerd who tutored him in high school. Xander is working another job – pizza delivery guy – and sharing the basement the Spike. Spike mocks both Willow and Xander for being stuck in the past, useless side kicks to the Slayer, too nice to tell them to get a life. While Spike was most likely trying to get them to kill him (after Xander told Spike he was useless, Spike tried to kill himself). But in the end, when the gang goes to the high school (now a charred ruin) to stop the apocalypse, they begin to realize they are not who they were in high school (and Spike realizes he can hurt demons, opening up a new path for him to take and starting him on his path to joining the Scoobies).

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In fun facts, Buffy tells Riley she’s a Capricorn on the cusp of Aquarius, cementing her birthday from “Surprise”. Buffy experiences her 2nd earthquake, this one also tied to an apocalypse.

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"A New Man"

 

Episode 12 of Season 4 

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“This new outfit is blundering into places it doesn't belong.”

 

Original US airdate: January 25th, 2000 (aired directly before Angel episode "Expecting")

Rewatched: July 1st, 2022

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• Writer: Jane Espenson

• Director: Michael Gershman

• Guests: Robin Sachs, Amber Benson, Emma Caulfield, Lindsay Crouse

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This episode is a rare fairly Giles-centric one. It’s Buffy’s birthday, and Giles meets Riley (and feels out of place at Buffy’s birthday and a bit jealous of Buffy’s love of her professor Maggie Walsh). Only after the party, and after Giles goes to Maggie’s office to track Buffy down, does he find out from Willow and Xander about the Initiative, Riley and Maggie. Giles is feeling left out. And hurt that Maggie said it was unhealthy for Buffy to take on adult roles at a young age and that Buffy lacked a strong father figure. While Maggie may be right about Buffy taking on adult roles at too young an age (I mean, how many adults save the world, and Buffy’s done so multiple times already), she is not right about Giles. But Giles is still at loose ends. He is no longer a watcher and no longer a librarian. And he is no longer the center of Buffy’s world.

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Then Giles runs into Ethan Rayne and the two, after a fight, go out drinking, as one does. Ethan and Giles reminisce and Ethan brings up the new bad in Sunnydale. Ethan claims the demon world is very afraid of the Initiative, especially 314 (the first mention of this very important part of the Initiative), and Giles laments that he’s been fighting demons for years and they’re not afraid of him. Ethan underlines that although he and Rupert are very different, they are both old mystics, and that the Initiative doesn’t understand what it’s doing. “It’s throwing the worlds out of balance.” Then Ethan turns Giles into a monster and stays in Sunnydale to watch the chaos, allowing Buffy time to thwart his plans and for the Initiative to arrest him. This is Ethan’s last visit to Sunnydale during the series.

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On the Buffy front, she is getting closer to Riley and closer to the Initiative. Maggie finds out Buffy is the Slayer, something she thought was a myth, and that Buffy has been a Slayer since she was 15. And that in comparison to Riley killing or capturing 17 HSTs, Buffy has killed more than 100. However, Maggie is cautious. At the end of the episode, she tells Riley to “be careful with her. She reacts on instinct, there’s no discipline there. Her loyalties are uncertain.” This is somewhat contradictory to what Riley himself experienced in this episode. At first, he is a bit overwhelmed by Buffy’s experience (and strength), but once he sees her take charge, and disregard his attempt to leave her behind when he confronts the demon, he says he likes that Buffy is the Slayer. While Riley can accept Buffy for who she is, this will not last. Buffy makes Riley’s world darker. She will eventually show him the gray areas of demon hunting as well as the lines that shouldn’t be crossed. The Initiative knows no gray (and is all bright and sterile to underline this) and the Initiative is also crossing lines. Riley’s experience with  Buffy will lead to disillusionment, but being with Buffy will not make him whole and he will eventually leave her to follow his own path. In this episode, his fear of her experience before his acceptance foreshadows this future.

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Returning to Giles, while the episode begins with him feeling left out, when Buffy comes to slay the demon she thinks has killed Giles, she realizes, after stabbing him, that the monster is Giles rather than his killer only by looking in his eyes. Despite growing up and growing apart, Giles is still important to Buffy. And when Giles gives Buffy the advice (somewhat mirroring Maggie’s advice to Riley) to “keep your eyes open. Make sure you know what you’re getting into”, Buffy listens.

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This episode highlights the mother/son relationship Maggie and Riley have, as well as the father/daughter relationship of Giles and Buffy, as well as the difference between science (Initiative) and magic (Slayer) that will continue to be important this season.

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In fun facts, Spike moves out the basement and into a crypt, attempting to steal from Xander on his way out. Giles also recruits Spike, the only one who can understand him in demon form, to help and Spike crashes Giles’s Citroen (it will never be seen again). Willow and Tara do a spell together. It kind of doesn’t work, and while doing it, Willow can sense Ethan.

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"The I in Team"

 

Episode 13 of Season 4 

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“No, it's not safe for any of us.”

 

Original US airdate: February 8th, 2000 (aired directly before Angel episode "She")

Rewatched: July 9th, 2022

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• Writer: David Fury

• Director: James A. Contner

• Guests: Amber Benson, George Hertzberg, Leonard Roberts, Bailey Chase, Jack Stehlin, Emma Caulfield, Lindsay Crouse

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Buffy is a very smart young woman. It took her all of three episodes (“Doomed”, “A New Man” and this one) to figure out that the Initiative is up to no good. While her love of Riley (and perhaps her desire not to be in the fight to save the world alone) led her to join the Initiative almost without question, this episode shows that Buffy went in with her eyes open.

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In this episode, Buffy joins the Initiative as some sort of external collaborator. She is given a tour of their facilities by Prof. Walsh and Riley, she patrols with them, and she gets a pager. But she is overly curious – asking too many questions at the briefing on a new HST and about the restricted areas – and she is overly casual – not really following military protocol and not changing out of her halter top to fight evil. Prof. Walsh feels Buffy is a danger, and that she may influence Riley to ask too many questions. Prof. Walsh tries to take Buffy out by trapping her with two demons. But as Buffy tells her, “If you think that’s enough to kill me, you really don’t know what a Slayer is. Trust me when I say you’re gonna find out.” Buffy ends the episode no longer a part of the Initiative.

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For Riley, his deepening relationship with Buffy is starting to change him as well. They sleep together in this episode for the first time. This happens after fighting a demon, very much in line with Faith’s comments on slaying making you horny, but also Buffy sleeping with Angel after fighting for their lives. In fact, this episode juxtaposes scenes of the fight with scenes of their sex, linking the violence and sex explicitly. (Two other parallels should be noted: like Parker, Riley has burgundy sheets and Riley is the first guy to be there in the morning when Buffy wakes up). But Buffy also brings up 314 to Riley and Riley is curious enough to peer through the window into the restricted area at the Initiative, something Prof. Walsh notices. So, while Riley is able to tell Buffy that he “know[s] all [he needs] to know. We’re doing good here, protecting the public, removing the sub-terrestrial threat. It’s work worth doing”, the seeds of doubt have already been laid.

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Outside of Buffy’s amazing ability not to be bamboozled by the swanky Initiative and Riley’s awakening, viewers see Adam for the first time (and see Adam kill Maggie Walsh at the end of the episode), showing us our first glimpse of the big bad Buffy will need to fight. Forrest, who is Riley’s right-hand man, is feeling pushed out by Buffy. As Riley slowly becomes disillusioned with the Initiative, Forrest’s feelings of resentment will prevent him from following Riley out of the Initiative. Xander is selling Boost bars, another job of the week for him. And Willow and Tara are getting closer. Tara wants to give Willow a crystal that belonged to her grandmother at the beginning of the episode, but Willow turns this down. However, when Willow’s hang time at the Bronze with the Scoobies is coopted by the Initiative, Willow seeks Tara out and spends the night. In the morning, she returns with the crystal. Also, Willow has taken down her Dingoes Ate My Baby poster. Willow has moved on from Oz (and from men).

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