"The Yoko Factor" (4x20) quick link here "Restless" (4x22) quick link here
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1) This review will almost definitely contain spoilers for episodes after this one.
1) This review will almost definitely contain spoilers for episodes after this one.
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“Primeval” completely splits me down the middle as a diehard fan of this show...I feel like Caleb. It’s like I’ve been sliced open from balls to brain. Half of me adores this episode and thinks that it’s inspiring and a rare happy ending to a “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” season (as “Restless” isn’t part of the season arc). The other half of me is disappointed. Adam is the weakest ‘Big Bad’ of the show, The Initiative arc leaves a lot to be desired, and “Primeval” is easily the weakest season finale of any “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” season (again, I’m considering “Primeval” to be the season finale in this context because it’s the end of the primary season arc). I think the biggest problem with “Primeval” when compared to other season finales of the show is that it lacks emotional depth. “Prophecy Girl” gave us Buffy’s death, “Becoming Part Two” gave us Angel’s death and Buffy leaving Sunnydale, “Graduation Day Part Two” blew up Sunnydale High and closed out the high school era, “The Gift” gives us Buffy’s death...again, “Grave” gives us the ‘Yellow Crayon’ speech, “Chosen” destroys Sunnydale...what does “Primeval” give us emotionally? No deaths, no major attachments between the Scoobies and the ‘Big Bad’, and there was never a moment where I felt like the Scoobies were really in peril. The problem isn’t “Primeval” itself, however. It’s the season arc as a whole. In fact, “Primeval” is a much better closing episode to the Initiative arc than I could have envisioned before I watched it. The enjoining spell is absolute perfection and it’s the most wonderful way to bring the Scoobies back together as a group after all the distance, drifting, and arguing of the past 21 episodes. It almost feels like the Scoobies go from friends to family in this episode. Think about it. During the 5th season, the Scoobies are a lot more like a family than a close friendship group (excluding Buffy and Giles, of course, who have always been like a father and daughter). It feels as though the enjoining spell brought the Scoobies together in more ways than just stopping Adam.
As a standalone episode or two-part episode, “Primeval” would have been terrific. It tells an interesting, coherent story that uses the Scoobies’ identities, insecurities, and failing friendships in order to bring them together to stop the ‘Big Bad’. As a season arc finale? Not so much. It’s underwhelming to say the least. When I first saw “Primeval”, I was HIGHLY CONFUSED. How has all of this been resolved with an episode left in the season?! Will Adam come back to life?! Is Riley going to randomly turn evil after he hears that The Initiative project has been terminated?! Honestly, one of the best things to come out of season four is “Restless”. If the Scoobies hadn’t drifted and had their identities torn apart since leaving Sunnydale High, “Restless” couldn’t work. “Restless” is an episode that simply couldn’t have happened during the first three seasons of the show. However, more on that cryptic, foreshadowing, multi-layered, confusing, TV perfection during the next Buffy review. OH GOD! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO REVIEW “RESTLESS”?! IT’S LIKE TRYING TO REVIEW THE WEIRDEST ACID TRIP YOU’VE EVER HAD...or so I’d imagine.
I don’t mean for it to sound like I dislike “Primeval”. In fact, as you’ll see with the ‘final score’ I’ve given the episode, I think highly of it. I just expect more from a season arc finale.
The episode opens with Adam explaining to Riley that he has a behaviour modification chip above his heart and that he’s just activated it. Adam has complete control over Riley. Riley can’t talk if Adam desired it, Riley can’t move if Adam desired it...it does raise a very disturbing question. How did Maggie install the chip inside Riley’s chest? Did she wait until he was asleep one day, drug him, and perform a modified version of open heart surgery? You’d think that Riley would notice a new scar on his chest. Perhaps Maggie convinced Riley to play a human version of ‘Operation’, you know, for funsies, and then she slipped a chip in. It’s obvious that Riley is unaware of the chip’s existence, so how the frick (keeping it P.G., folks) did it get in there?! It also means that Riley sought out Adam at the end of “The Yoko Factor” because he was forced to, not because he wanted to confront Adam over Forrest’s death. That’s downright unsettling. You can definitely tell that Adam has no sense of humour though! Imagine if Spike had the ability to control Riley’s every action! He’d whip out the women’s clothes and make Riley a catwalk model before you could blink and then send the pictures to Buffy under the caption ‘Captain Cardboard Develops A Personality’. Okay, where was I? I got far too distracted by a walking, talking commando doll.
Ah, yes. Xander-Anya feels.
Anya: “You can’t go like that. They won’t even interview you if you’re naked.”
It’s nice to know that after 1,000+ years of living, Anya has learned a lot. After the fight with Buffy and Willow the night before, Xander is feeling heartbroken. The difference between Xander’s sadness as opposed to Buffy and Willow’s sadness is that Xander has already been thinking these things for months before this argument. Xander is so down because he thinks they might be right. Perhaps he is a directionless loser that hasn’t even managed to get out of his parent’s basement yet. The wonderful thing about this scene is Anya’s behaviour. Anya’s never been one to understand human emotion, yet she builds Xander up again by telling him that he’s a good person and a good boyfriend and that she loves him. I believe this is the first time Anya tells Xander that she loves him. I’m having major Xander-Anya feels right now, guys. I like to think that Anya’s words here have a profound impact on Xander over the next few months. Anya reiterates to Xander that he’s worth something and it’s a big turning point for him. He finds the strength to be a part of the enjoining spell, he declares that he’s done being everyone’s ‘butt monkey’ in “Buffy vs. Dracula”, and by the time “The Replacement” rolls around, Xander has his own house and has found a lasting career in construction. That’s a lot of personal growth in just a few months!
Outside of the lack of emotional depth when compared to other finales, I think I’ve put my finger on why “Primeval” pales in comparison to the others. It takes so damn long to get going! To a certain extent, after the ending of “The Yoko Factor”, it has to. It needs time to pull the Scoobies back together. However, it means that the actual skirmish and big fight with Adam gets very little time dedicated to it. It’s half a season’s worth of build up for a fight that lasts 150 seconds.
Maggie Walsh and Dr. Angleman being revealed as reanimated corpses was beyond creepy (in a good way). It shows how little emotion and caring that Adam actually has. Dr. Angleman helped bring Adam to life and Maggie was literally his creator. Here he is using their corpses to do his bidding. He doesn’t even give them high brain function like he does with Forrest! Speaking of Forrest, that makeup looks terribly fake. I’ve come to expect better of the show by this point. Season four and onwards have very realistic looking demons for the most part.
Due to Spike being a gloating ninny, Buffy is able to figure out that Spike masterminded the argument the night before by whispering doubts into the Scoobies’ ears. I like that Buffy is the one to figure it out. With Giles and Willow not really talking to her, she has to rely on her own intelligence to solve the problem, which she does. While that is happening, Willow is trying to decrypt some Initiative files that Spike helped them steal earlier in the season (it was orchestrated by Spike and Adam, which the Scoobies are unaware of).
Willow: “It must be programmed to self decrypt at a certain point. That is so annoying! It’s like someone blurting out the answer to a riddle when you’ve...I mean, yippee! We have the information.”
There is no greater actress in the world for nerdy exclamations and annoyances. Adam has secretly decrypted the files for the Scoobies because he wants Buffy inside the Initiative to help even the odds between the monsters and the humans. Silly, silly Adam. That was your biggest mistake. Why would you actively help the Slayer gain entry into your base of operation? That’s just suicidal. Clearly Spike hadn’t filled Adam in enough on Buffy’s ability to ruin villain’s plans.
The Scoobies come together and meet outside to discuss the argument the night before. They all agree that what they said the night before was because of Spike. PUH-LEASE! That did not come from Spike! Spike just brought it to the surface! All these issues have been bubbling away under the surface for almost a year! Spike did the Scoobies a favour in a way by bringing these issues to the surface. Without the argument the night before, would Buffy and Willow have had the adorable falling elevator snuggle here?
As with the Initiative arc in general, Adam’s ultimate plan of creating a hybrid demon-human army of monsters falls flat. It sounds cool on paper, but it doesn’t translate well to TV in this case. I never felt a Scooby would die, I never felt like Adam was a threat, and I never felt like his plan would succeed. The Master succeeded in escaping from his prison, Angelus succeeded in awakening Acathla, and The Mayor succeeded in his ascension. What does Adam accomplish? He brought Forrest back and made him his first soldier. Ooh, scary. The problem is that Adam doesn’t even get close to completing his plan before he’s quickly disposed of. Throw in the lack of emotional turmoil and you can see why Adam is considered the weakest ‘Big Bad’ and why “Primeval” is considered the weakest season arc finale.
Like with Buffy earlier in the episode, I get a great deal of satisfaction in watching Xander come up with the idea of the enjoining spell. Granted, he does it accidentally, but it’s still a point in the plus column, damn it! Xander, the character above all others that is constantly questioning his usefulness to the Scoobies, is the one who creates the idea to bring down Adam.
Giles: “Xander, just because this is never going to work, there’s no need to be negative.”
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Outside of the enjoining spell, my favourite part of the episode is watching the Scoobies make up while they’re abseiling down the elevator shaft. IT’S ABOUT TIME! I’VE BEEN WAITING ALL SEASON FOR THIS MOMENT!
Buffy: “Xander.”
Willow: “Wonderful Xander.”
Buffy: “You know we love you, right?”
Willow: “We totally do.”
Xander: “Oh God, we’re going to die, aren’t we?”
He’s seen too many Joss Whedon TV shows, clearly. I must admit, even though I was never scared for a Scoobies’ life in this episode, I did have a brief moment of insecurity over Xander surviving the episode after this exchange.
Adding to my “Adam gives a shit about nobody” theory, it appears that Adam never intended to remove Spike’s chip..not in the way that Spike envisioned, anyway. Adam orders Forrest to remove the chip from Spike’s head by decapitating Spike...how charming. Spike putting his cigarette out on Forrest’s face was another cool little moment. My only complaint is that I wish Spike had screamed “that’s for breaking my TV, you wanker!” as he was running away.
Does anyone else feel like the battle here was a wasted opportunity to bring back former vampires and demons that had been on the show before? It would have made perfect sense for The Initiative to have captured some of them over the years and that they’d be a part of the skirmish. You could have had one of fake Natalie French’s hatchlings from “Teacher’s Pet” appear, or Tom from Sunday’s gang in “The Freshman”, or Lyle Gorch from “Bad Eggs” and “Homecoming”, or perhaps even a ‘Bringer! It would have been a nice little shout-out to the diehard fans of the show. Even though I’ve complained about various aspects of this episode, I must give credit where credit is due and say that the big fight scene down on the Initiative floor is spectacular! It’s beautifully shot, the musical score is terrific, and the fight has an epic, grand scale feel to it.
All of this leads us to the enjoining spell, where Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Giles combine their essences to create a super-Buffy that is able to take down Adam. If I created a list of my top 25 favourite “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” moments, the enjoining spell would make that list. It’s the definitive moment for the ‘core four’ as a friendship group in a lot of ways. Buffy couldn’t defeat Adam by herself, but with the power of Willow, Xander, and Giles beside her (technically ‘in her’, I suppose...), Buffy was able to extract the reservoir of uranium 235 from Adam’s chest (in spectacular fashion, might I add) and destroy the man-machine-demon creation once and for all. As I’ve mentioned before, what makes this work is that the Scoobies have been drifting apart for a long time. The enjoining spell bringing them back together is a solution to a long term problem, which makes it all the more memorable. We witness the Scoobies being sewn back together as a group, both metaphorically and somewhat physically, with them all sharing one body and one mind.
The choice of which Scooby represented which aspect of the super-Buffy was also excellently handled. Buffy is obviously the hand of the Scoobies. She’s the warrior, the Slayer, the person who lays down the law and saves lives with her hands. Giles is the mind. He’s the Watcher, the man who does all the research and has all the wisdom and the answers. Willow is the spirit. She’s the adorable glue that holds them all together. Xander is the heart of the Scoobies. He’s the one that sees everything and tries to fix everything because he loves everyone, regardless as to whether or not he has a superpower. These parts will be explored in much more depth during my review of “Restless”, as these aspects are still very, very relevant to that episode. As much as I love having Tara and Anya as part of the Scoobies now, the enjoining spell had to be the ‘core four’. They’re the only main characters that have been around since the beginning and they’re the characters that have been drifting apart all year. The enjoining spell should have been exclusive to the ‘core four’ and it was. The entirety of season four has been about the ‘core four’ struggling to find their identities after leaving Sunnydale High, so it was only fitting that all four of them took down Adam as a team. Not only that, but it’s a powerful message to send out into the world! When the Scoobies combined their essences, they were unstoppable. It enforces the message that united we stand, divided we fall. It’s a beautiful, powerful moment of television...however, it does raise the question of why the Scoobies didn’t pull this little trick out again against Glory or another villain.
Forrest’s explosive death (see what I did there? With the ‘explosive’?...Forrest died due to an explosion...nevermind...) was a terrific visual and might be my favourite death of the season outside of the headbanging Gentlemen. It’s only fitting that Riley was the one who was fighting Forrest when he died. Forrest’s journey has been tied up in Riley and almost nobody else during this season. If Giles or someone else had killed Forrest or been fighting Forrest, it wouldn’t have made an impact.
As far as the super-Buffy vs. Adam fight goes, it was visually impressive, but it leaves a lot to be desired. I wish we’d seen more of Adam’s upgrades before he was killed. He had a frickin’ machine gun for an arm! It had all the makings of a truly memorable fight scene, yet it was cut to a few minutes! I do enjoy Adam looking more and more worried as the fight wore on, though. After Buffy turns his bullets into doves, he looks like he’s about to cry. Speaking of super-Buffy, those yellow and red contact lenses look absolutely badass!
I’m happy to see that Graham lived and I get uncomfortable levels of joy in the Scoobies not killing Spike for manipulating them all just because they’re too tired to care. ‘Hostile 17’ lives to fight another day because the Scoobies need their sleepy sleep. Ha!
The episode concludes with the government declaring that the Initiative project was a failure...yep, gotta say I agree with them there. They decide to burn the Initiative HQ down, fill it with concrete, and salt the earth...which they don’t. They just abandon it, as we see when Spike and Buffy go there in season seven. Man, they’re even incompetent when it comes to destroying their own stuff!
Quote Of The Episode
Buffy: “This is not your business, it’s mine. You, The Initiative, the boys at the Pentagon, you’re all in way over your heads. Messing with primeval forces you have absolutely no comprehension of.”
Colonel McNamara: “And you do?!”
Buffy: “I’m the Slayer. You’re playing on my turf.”
FINAL SCORE: 8/10
What are your thoughts on "Primeval"? Did you enjoy this episode? Dislike it? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments section below!
With that being said, let’s get started, shall we?
“Primeval” completely splits me down the middle as a diehard fan of this show...I feel like Caleb. It’s like I’ve been sliced open from balls to brain. Half of me adores this episode and thinks that it’s inspiring and a rare happy ending to a “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” season (as “Restless” isn’t part of the season arc). The other half of me is disappointed. Adam is the weakest ‘Big Bad’ of the show, The Initiative arc leaves a lot to be desired, and “Primeval” is easily the weakest season finale of any “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” season (again, I’m considering “Primeval” to be the season finale in this context because it’s the end of the primary season arc). I think the biggest problem with “Primeval” when compared to other season finales of the show is that it lacks emotional depth. “Prophecy Girl” gave us Buffy’s death, “Becoming Part Two” gave us Angel’s death and Buffy leaving Sunnydale, “Graduation Day Part Two” blew up Sunnydale High and closed out the high school era, “The Gift” gives us Buffy’s death...again, “Grave” gives us the ‘Yellow Crayon’ speech, “Chosen” destroys Sunnydale...what does “Primeval” give us emotionally? No deaths, no major attachments between the Scoobies and the ‘Big Bad’, and there was never a moment where I felt like the Scoobies were really in peril. The problem isn’t “Primeval” itself, however. It’s the season arc as a whole. In fact, “Primeval” is a much better closing episode to the Initiative arc than I could have envisioned before I watched it. The enjoining spell is absolute perfection and it’s the most wonderful way to bring the Scoobies back together as a group after all the distance, drifting, and arguing of the past 21 episodes. It almost feels like the Scoobies go from friends to family in this episode. Think about it. During the 5th season, the Scoobies are a lot more like a family than a close friendship group (excluding Buffy and Giles, of course, who have always been like a father and daughter). It feels as though the enjoining spell brought the Scoobies together in more ways than just stopping Adam.
As a standalone episode or two-part episode, “Primeval” would have been terrific. It tells an interesting, coherent story that uses the Scoobies’ identities, insecurities, and failing friendships in order to bring them together to stop the ‘Big Bad’. As a season arc finale? Not so much. It’s underwhelming to say the least. When I first saw “Primeval”, I was HIGHLY CONFUSED. How has all of this been resolved with an episode left in the season?! Will Adam come back to life?! Is Riley going to randomly turn evil after he hears that The Initiative project has been terminated?! Honestly, one of the best things to come out of season four is “Restless”. If the Scoobies hadn’t drifted and had their identities torn apart since leaving Sunnydale High, “Restless” couldn’t work. “Restless” is an episode that simply couldn’t have happened during the first three seasons of the show. However, more on that cryptic, foreshadowing, multi-layered, confusing, TV perfection during the next Buffy review. OH GOD! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO REVIEW “RESTLESS”?! IT’S LIKE TRYING TO REVIEW THE WEIRDEST ACID TRIP YOU’VE EVER HAD...or so I’d imagine.
I don’t mean for it to sound like I dislike “Primeval”. In fact, as you’ll see with the ‘final score’ I’ve given the episode, I think highly of it. I just expect more from a season arc finale.
The episode opens with Adam explaining to Riley that he has a behaviour modification chip above his heart and that he’s just activated it. Adam has complete control over Riley. Riley can’t talk if Adam desired it, Riley can’t move if Adam desired it...it does raise a very disturbing question. How did Maggie install the chip inside Riley’s chest? Did she wait until he was asleep one day, drug him, and perform a modified version of open heart surgery? You’d think that Riley would notice a new scar on his chest. Perhaps Maggie convinced Riley to play a human version of ‘Operation’, you know, for funsies, and then she slipped a chip in. It’s obvious that Riley is unaware of the chip’s existence, so how the frick (keeping it P.G., folks) did it get in there?! It also means that Riley sought out Adam at the end of “The Yoko Factor” because he was forced to, not because he wanted to confront Adam over Forrest’s death. That’s downright unsettling. You can definitely tell that Adam has no sense of humour though! Imagine if Spike had the ability to control Riley’s every action! He’d whip out the women’s clothes and make Riley a catwalk model before you could blink and then send the pictures to Buffy under the caption ‘Captain Cardboard Develops A Personality’. Okay, where was I? I got far too distracted by a walking, talking commando doll.
Ah, yes. Xander-Anya feels.
Anya: “You can’t go like that. They won’t even interview you if you’re naked.”
It’s nice to know that after 1,000+ years of living, Anya has learned a lot. After the fight with Buffy and Willow the night before, Xander is feeling heartbroken. The difference between Xander’s sadness as opposed to Buffy and Willow’s sadness is that Xander has already been thinking these things for months before this argument. Xander is so down because he thinks they might be right. Perhaps he is a directionless loser that hasn’t even managed to get out of his parent’s basement yet. The wonderful thing about this scene is Anya’s behaviour. Anya’s never been one to understand human emotion, yet she builds Xander up again by telling him that he’s a good person and a good boyfriend and that she loves him. I believe this is the first time Anya tells Xander that she loves him. I’m having major Xander-Anya feels right now, guys. I like to think that Anya’s words here have a profound impact on Xander over the next few months. Anya reiterates to Xander that he’s worth something and it’s a big turning point for him. He finds the strength to be a part of the enjoining spell, he declares that he’s done being everyone’s ‘butt monkey’ in “Buffy vs. Dracula”, and by the time “The Replacement” rolls around, Xander has his own house and has found a lasting career in construction. That’s a lot of personal growth in just a few months!
Outside of the lack of emotional depth when compared to other finales, I think I’ve put my finger on why “Primeval” pales in comparison to the others. It takes so damn long to get going! To a certain extent, after the ending of “The Yoko Factor”, it has to. It needs time to pull the Scoobies back together. However, it means that the actual skirmish and big fight with Adam gets very little time dedicated to it. It’s half a season’s worth of build up for a fight that lasts 150 seconds.
Maggie Walsh and Dr. Angleman being revealed as reanimated corpses was beyond creepy (in a good way). It shows how little emotion and caring that Adam actually has. Dr. Angleman helped bring Adam to life and Maggie was literally his creator. Here he is using their corpses to do his bidding. He doesn’t even give them high brain function like he does with Forrest! Speaking of Forrest, that makeup looks terribly fake. I’ve come to expect better of the show by this point. Season four and onwards have very realistic looking demons for the most part.
Due to Spike being a gloating ninny, Buffy is able to figure out that Spike masterminded the argument the night before by whispering doubts into the Scoobies’ ears. I like that Buffy is the one to figure it out. With Giles and Willow not really talking to her, she has to rely on her own intelligence to solve the problem, which she does. While that is happening, Willow is trying to decrypt some Initiative files that Spike helped them steal earlier in the season (it was orchestrated by Spike and Adam, which the Scoobies are unaware of).
Willow: “It must be programmed to self decrypt at a certain point. That is so annoying! It’s like someone blurting out the answer to a riddle when you’ve...I mean, yippee! We have the information.”
There is no greater actress in the world for nerdy exclamations and annoyances. Adam has secretly decrypted the files for the Scoobies because he wants Buffy inside the Initiative to help even the odds between the monsters and the humans. Silly, silly Adam. That was your biggest mistake. Why would you actively help the Slayer gain entry into your base of operation? That’s just suicidal. Clearly Spike hadn’t filled Adam in enough on Buffy’s ability to ruin villain’s plans.
The Scoobies come together and meet outside to discuss the argument the night before. They all agree that what they said the night before was because of Spike. PUH-LEASE! That did not come from Spike! Spike just brought it to the surface! All these issues have been bubbling away under the surface for almost a year! Spike did the Scoobies a favour in a way by bringing these issues to the surface. Without the argument the night before, would Buffy and Willow have had the adorable falling elevator snuggle here?
As with the Initiative arc in general, Adam’s ultimate plan of creating a hybrid demon-human army of monsters falls flat. It sounds cool on paper, but it doesn’t translate well to TV in this case. I never felt a Scooby would die, I never felt like Adam was a threat, and I never felt like his plan would succeed. The Master succeeded in escaping from his prison, Angelus succeeded in awakening Acathla, and The Mayor succeeded in his ascension. What does Adam accomplish? He brought Forrest back and made him his first soldier. Ooh, scary. The problem is that Adam doesn’t even get close to completing his plan before he’s quickly disposed of. Throw in the lack of emotional turmoil and you can see why Adam is considered the weakest ‘Big Bad’ and why “Primeval” is considered the weakest season arc finale.
Like with Buffy earlier in the episode, I get a great deal of satisfaction in watching Xander come up with the idea of the enjoining spell. Granted, he does it accidentally, but it’s still a point in the plus column, damn it! Xander, the character above all others that is constantly questioning his usefulness to the Scoobies, is the one who creates the idea to bring down Adam.
Giles: “Xander, just because this is never going to work, there’s no need to be negative.”
Outside of the enjoining spell, my favourite part of the episode is watching the Scoobies make up while they’re abseiling down the elevator shaft. IT’S ABOUT TIME! I’VE BEEN WAITING ALL SEASON FOR THIS MOMENT!
Buffy: “Xander.”
Willow: “Wonderful Xander.”
Buffy: “You know we love you, right?”
Willow: “We totally do.”
Xander: “Oh God, we’re going to die, aren’t we?”
He’s seen too many Joss Whedon TV shows, clearly. I must admit, even though I was never scared for a Scoobies’ life in this episode, I did have a brief moment of insecurity over Xander surviving the episode after this exchange.
Adding to my “Adam gives a shit about nobody” theory, it appears that Adam never intended to remove Spike’s chip..not in the way that Spike envisioned, anyway. Adam orders Forrest to remove the chip from Spike’s head by decapitating Spike...how charming. Spike putting his cigarette out on Forrest’s face was another cool little moment. My only complaint is that I wish Spike had screamed “that’s for breaking my TV, you wanker!” as he was running away.
Does anyone else feel like the battle here was a wasted opportunity to bring back former vampires and demons that had been on the show before? It would have made perfect sense for The Initiative to have captured some of them over the years and that they’d be a part of the skirmish. You could have had one of fake Natalie French’s hatchlings from “Teacher’s Pet” appear, or Tom from Sunday’s gang in “The Freshman”, or Lyle Gorch from “Bad Eggs” and “Homecoming”, or perhaps even a ‘Bringer! It would have been a nice little shout-out to the diehard fans of the show. Even though I’ve complained about various aspects of this episode, I must give credit where credit is due and say that the big fight scene down on the Initiative floor is spectacular! It’s beautifully shot, the musical score is terrific, and the fight has an epic, grand scale feel to it.
All of this leads us to the enjoining spell, where Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Giles combine their essences to create a super-Buffy that is able to take down Adam. If I created a list of my top 25 favourite “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” moments, the enjoining spell would make that list. It’s the definitive moment for the ‘core four’ as a friendship group in a lot of ways. Buffy couldn’t defeat Adam by herself, but with the power of Willow, Xander, and Giles beside her (technically ‘in her’, I suppose...), Buffy was able to extract the reservoir of uranium 235 from Adam’s chest (in spectacular fashion, might I add) and destroy the man-machine-demon creation once and for all. As I’ve mentioned before, what makes this work is that the Scoobies have been drifting apart for a long time. The enjoining spell bringing them back together is a solution to a long term problem, which makes it all the more memorable. We witness the Scoobies being sewn back together as a group, both metaphorically and somewhat physically, with them all sharing one body and one mind.
The choice of which Scooby represented which aspect of the super-Buffy was also excellently handled. Buffy is obviously the hand of the Scoobies. She’s the warrior, the Slayer, the person who lays down the law and saves lives with her hands. Giles is the mind. He’s the Watcher, the man who does all the research and has all the wisdom and the answers. Willow is the spirit. She’s the adorable glue that holds them all together. Xander is the heart of the Scoobies. He’s the one that sees everything and tries to fix everything because he loves everyone, regardless as to whether or not he has a superpower. These parts will be explored in much more depth during my review of “Restless”, as these aspects are still very, very relevant to that episode. As much as I love having Tara and Anya as part of the Scoobies now, the enjoining spell had to be the ‘core four’. They’re the only main characters that have been around since the beginning and they’re the characters that have been drifting apart all year. The enjoining spell should have been exclusive to the ‘core four’ and it was. The entirety of season four has been about the ‘core four’ struggling to find their identities after leaving Sunnydale High, so it was only fitting that all four of them took down Adam as a team. Not only that, but it’s a powerful message to send out into the world! When the Scoobies combined their essences, they were unstoppable. It enforces the message that united we stand, divided we fall. It’s a beautiful, powerful moment of television...however, it does raise the question of why the Scoobies didn’t pull this little trick out again against Glory or another villain.
Forrest’s explosive death (see what I did there? With the ‘explosive’?...Forrest died due to an explosion...nevermind...) was a terrific visual and might be my favourite death of the season outside of the headbanging Gentlemen. It’s only fitting that Riley was the one who was fighting Forrest when he died. Forrest’s journey has been tied up in Riley and almost nobody else during this season. If Giles or someone else had killed Forrest or been fighting Forrest, it wouldn’t have made an impact.
As far as the super-Buffy vs. Adam fight goes, it was visually impressive, but it leaves a lot to be desired. I wish we’d seen more of Adam’s upgrades before he was killed. He had a frickin’ machine gun for an arm! It had all the makings of a truly memorable fight scene, yet it was cut to a few minutes! I do enjoy Adam looking more and more worried as the fight wore on, though. After Buffy turns his bullets into doves, he looks like he’s about to cry. Speaking of super-Buffy, those yellow and red contact lenses look absolutely badass!
I’m happy to see that Graham lived and I get uncomfortable levels of joy in the Scoobies not killing Spike for manipulating them all just because they’re too tired to care. ‘Hostile 17’ lives to fight another day because the Scoobies need their sleepy sleep. Ha!
The episode concludes with the government declaring that the Initiative project was a failure...yep, gotta say I agree with them there. They decide to burn the Initiative HQ down, fill it with concrete, and salt the earth...which they don’t. They just abandon it, as we see when Spike and Buffy go there in season seven. Man, they’re even incompetent when it comes to destroying their own stuff!
Quote Of The Episode
Buffy: “This is not your business, it’s mine. You, The Initiative, the boys at the Pentagon, you’re all in way over your heads. Messing with primeval forces you have absolutely no comprehension of.”
Colonel McNamara: “And you do?!”
Buffy: “I’m the Slayer. You’re playing on my turf.”
FINAL SCORE: 8/10
What are your thoughts on "Primeval"? Did you enjoy this episode? Dislike it? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments section below!
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I liked the super-slayer fight with Adam. That was about it. You're right, it was an underwhelming finale compared to the greatness we get every season.
ReplyDeleteGreat review Shangel, as usual. Really looking forward to Restless review, it will be bloody tricky ha ha, if anyone can do that one, you can :) Christina
ReplyDeleteI was really impressed that Riley was able to perform surgery on himself, and using a piece of broken glass, no less. That takes major, major guts!
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