"Primeval" (4x21) quick link here "Buffy vs. Dracula" (5x01) 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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With that being said, let’s get started, shall we?
I’m sat here with “Restless” paused ready to start, a notepad open, and a pen in my hand, wondering how the hell I’m going to review this episode. How do you review “Restless”? How do you review the most intricate, complex episode of television that you’ve ever seen? I could literally write a hundred pages on this episode and still miss interesting pieces of character exploration and foreshadowing. While some things in “Restless” are obvious, a great deal of “Restless” is so shrouded in cryptic dialogue and metaphorical imagery that it’s impossible to know for sure just what Joss Whedon was trying to convey. Hence, some of this review will be my interpretation of the episode and not necessarily what Joss was trying to broadcast. If you have a different theory on something or wish to express your own views, please do so in the comments section! I’d love to read your thoughts too (that goes for every episode, actually). However, after reading, re-reading, re-re-reading, and re-editing this review, I think I’ve done a pretty good job of picking up what Joss was trying to express.
More than any other episode of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” or “Angel”, you need to have seen all seven seasons of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” a few times to truly appreciate how amazingly detailed and spectacular that “Restless” is. To call this episode a masterpiece wouldn’t be hyperbole in the least. It goes to show just how far in advance Joss Whedon plans his stories. References to Dawn’s arrival were seen as far back as season three! In this episode, there’s foreshadowing towards Willow’s magic addiction, Dawn’s arrival, Giles leaving Sunnydale, the dissolution of Xander and Anya, Buffy’s death, Joyce’s death, and much more! Time and time again Joss Whedon proves why he’s such a genius. Most television shows don’t think much further than the current season arc they’re planning, let alone thinking years ahead.
In essence, “Restless” is a highly detailed character study of the ‘core four’ Scoobies. Like a cryptically disturbing version of “A Christmas Carol”, it explores the Scoobies’ past, present, and future. It looks at the journey the Scoobies have gone through since “Welcome To The Hellmouth” and how they’ve evolved, it looks at the struggles and tribulations that the Scoobies have faced in season four and are still facing, and it looks at what is to come for the Scoobies over the last three seasons through the use of dream sequences and difficult-to-decipher dialogue. Clearly, the Scoobies are still tied up in issues surrounding their sense of identity and struggling to find their place in the world (as most people are). What’s most interesting about this is that it’s the season finale! Joss has taken what is usually the episode that resolves a year’s worth of plot and resolved absolutely nothing. There’s no cliffhanger, no big “oh my God!” moments, and no emotional resolution for the Scoobies. Instead, we’re given the biggest mind-fuck I’ve ever seen on television. Thanks, Joss!
Due to the complex nature of this episode, I will be tackling it chronologically, separating the Scoobies’ dreams into their own sections. Buckle in, kiddies. This is gonna be a long review. Before diving into Willow’s dream, there are two important things to note before the dream sequences start...
1) I’VE MISSED JOYCE SO MUCH THIS SEASON I CANNOT PUT IT INTO WORDS. I’VE MISSED HER SO MUCH IT DEMANDS CAPITAL LETTERS AND ITALICS TO EMPHASISE MY POINT. For those of you unaware, it was Kristine Sutherland’s request to be in fewer episodes during the 4th season because she wanted to spend more time with her family (much like Anthony Head in seasons 6 & 7). Joss Whedon allowed her to do this, under the proviso that she’d come back for more episodes in the 5th season, ready for her death (which Joss had pre-planned from at least the beginning of season four). OH MY GOD, I HAVE TO REVIEW “THE BODY” SOON. Can I call in sick that day?
2) Riley finally meets Joyce. Took bloody long enough.
Oh, one last thing before we dive into the dream sequences....the Cheese Man. On a weekly basis, I get asked a question. That question is “what relevance does the Cheese Man have to ‘Restless’? What does he foreshadow?”. The simple answer is NOTHING. The Cheese Man foreshadows nothing. He’s the only part of the dream sequences that isn’t a cryptic message. Joss wanted something in the dreams that’s random and has no purpose to be there, just like in real dreams. Here’s a little trivia fact for you too...I once read that during season seven’s “Storyteller”, Willow is extracting memories from Andrew about what he knows. We see the Hellmouth, Andrew’s time in Mexico, etc. During that montage, if you look very quickly, you will see the Cheese Man make a one-frame appearance, quickly followed by a one-frame appearance of his plate of cheese slices. I have checked this out for myself and it’s legit. How amazing is that? Oh, Whedon. You rule.
Willow
Willow’s dream opens with Willow, Tara, and Miss. Kittyfantastico. In this section of the dream, I feel that Miss. Kitty is representing what will be known as the ‘First Slayer’ for the remainder of this episode. So, what is the First Slayer, aside from the obvious? The First Slayer was a vicious killing machine. She was captured by what would become the first Watchers, a demon was forced inside her, giving her superpowers, and she was tasked with protecting the world from vampires and other supernatural creatures. The First Slayer is different from Buffy because the First Slayer is much more emotionless and isolated than Buffy. The First Slayer acts alone, has no friends, and no life outside of slaying. Within the confines of “Restless”, the First Slayer represents the Slayer side of Buffy and the darkness and mystery that surrounds it. Dracula tells Buffy in the season five opener that her powers are “shrouded in darkness”, which we discover in this episode is true. Here, Tara makes reference to the fact that they don’t know anything about Miss. Kitty yet and should therefore be cautious.
Tara: “You don’t know everything about me.”
This is clearly foreshadowing the events of “Family” that are coming up in the next season. Tara’s family have told Tara that she’s part demon and that the demon will manifest on her 20th birthday. Tara’s 20th birthday happens in the next season’s “Family” and Tara does a spell so that the Scoobies can’t see the demon side of her. Remember, earlier in this season (“Goodbye Iowa”), Tara faked her half of a spell to locate all the demons in Sunnydale because she didn’t want Willow to realise that a demon was sat in the room with her. Of course, this is all bullshit. Tara’s family were lying to her the entire time in order to manipulate her into doing what they want. However, Willow doesn’t know that and this is Willow’s dream.
Next, Tara mentions that Willow is taking drama. I feel that this has a dual-meaning. Firstly, Willow does take drama at the beginning of season five at U.C. Sunnydale. Within the context of this episode, however, I feel that the drama talk relates to Willow’s more confident personality since she started college. The wonderful thing about Willow’s dream is that it ties together so perfectly. The biggest three fears and insecurities that Willow have are all tied up in her sense of changing identity. Almost everything we see in Willow’s dream sequence relates to her newfound relationship with Tara, her growing reliance on magic, and her desperately trying to prove that she’s not the geeky, insecure, bullied person she was during high school. The drama comes into play here because Willow’s new, more confident identity is, at least partially, an act. In reality, Willow is still that same shy, insecure girl that she was in “Welcome To The Hellmouth” to a certain extent and she’s desperate to ensure that nobody discovers this. She fears that if Tara knew the real her, she would leave. This also explains all the talk about ‘wearing a costume’ throughout Willow’s dream sequence. Willow is concealing both the person that she used to be and also her growing reliance and addiction to magic.
Willow has seemingly changed so much since the first season of the show. She dresses differently, she’s more confident in every aspect of her life, she’s a kickass Wicca, and she’s more of a leader than a follower by now. Yet again, at least a certain amount of this evolution is an act on Willow’s part and she’s terrified that someone will see through the mask. Oz being back for this episode is telling because Oz very much represents Willow’s life at Sunnydale High (the person that Willow is so desperately trying to escape from). This is also Seth Green’s last appearance on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”, so I want to take a moment to say I LOVE YOU, OZ! IT’S THE END OF AN ERA!
Xander: “Sometimes I think about two women doing a spell and then I do a spell by myself...”
How charming. Xander sexualising women, who’d have thought it (more on this during Xander’s dream sequence).
Willow: “This isn’t ‘Madame Butterfly’ is it because I have a whole problem with opera?”
This is obviously a reference to season one’s “Nightmares”. During that episode, the Scoobies were forced into living their greatest fears. One of Willow’s biggest fears is stage fright, so obviously she was forced to sing opera in public.
Harmony: “Props?”
Giles: “No.”
Riley: “Props?”
Giles: “Yes!”
There are a lot of call-backs to season one in Willow’s dream due to her hiding from the person she used to be during that time. In season one’s “The Puppet Show”, Giles led the talent show and formed a power circle in order to get everyone amped up and ready for the show. Here, Giles is very much playing that same role, only this time he’s actually confident in his abilities. He mentions that acting is all about hiding. Remember, this is Willow’s dream. Everything happening here is coming from Willow’s subconscious. Giles talking about ‘hiding’ is directed at Willow because that’s exactly what Willow is doing - hiding from the person that she used to be during high school and hiding her ever-growing reliance on magic from her friends and girlfriend. The thing I adore about Willow’s dream is how Oz and Tara are used. Oz is used as part of Willow’s insecurities about her old life. The majority of Willow and Oz’s relationship took place at Sunnydale High. Willow was bullied there, Willow was insecure there, and Willow was unhappy with who she was there. In contract, Tara is used in a positive light. Tara is very much a part of Willow’s new life and she represents all the positive changes that Willow has made in her sense of identity and self-esteem over the past six months. Oz is used as a form of escape, whereas Tara is used as a form of concealment. Very interesting stuff!
We next see Willow finding Tara behind some red curtains. Red is obviously the colour of love and lust. The most brightly coloured section of Willow’s dream involved Tara, which is yet again reinforcing that Tara is the brightest spot in Willow’s life. It’s why Willow is so desperate to conceal the person she used to be from Tara. Tara never knew that Willow and Willow wants to keep it that way. Tara mentions to Willow that the play has already started, representing that Willow is very much still in the middle of her own fears and deceptions. Tara also mentions to Willow that the people around her are starting to worry about the person she’s becoming. Is this foreshadowing Willow’s increasing reliance on magic to fix her life? Is this a reference to Willow’s insecurities about how her friends feel about her entering a lesbian relationship? I feel it’s a mixture of both, but after Tara’s comment about “if they find out, they’ll punish you”, I’m more inclined to believe it’s in relation to magic. After the events of “Once More With Feeling”-“Wrecked”, Willow’s friends do punish her for her addictions. Tara leaves her, Dawn slaps her, and Buffy gives her a big reality check by telling Willow exactly what she’s become.
As far as the play itself goes, I think that it’s Willow’s perception of the people around her, as opposed to Willow’s perception of how the people around her view her (which is what the rest of her dream sequence is about). Willow views Riley as an all-American type who wants to swoop in and save the damsel in distress. This is perfectly fitting with Riley’s character, as he’s mentioned before that girls need boys to save them (“The Initiative”). He didn’t put it quite that sexist, but the notion was there. The way that Buffy acts in this scene would also fit this theory, as she seems to reject Riley’s all-American, happy-go-lucky personality. As we discover in season five, Buffy isn’t attracted to that type of ‘normal’ man at all. She’s attracted to the dark and dangerous type like Angel and Spike. Willow is clearly aware of this trait in Buffy’s personality.
Willow’s dream comes to a close with Buffy telling Willow that Willow must have done something for the First Slayer to come after her. In a roundabout sort of way, this is true, as Willow was the person who performed the enjoining spell in “Primeval” that brought the First Slayer forth. The First Slayer is so pissed at Buffy and the Scoobies because she is against the notion of a Slayer working alongside friends. The First Slayer didn’t even have a Watcher (as we discover in Giles’ dream sequence). A Slayer should live alone, act alone, and die alone. Sounds rather lonely to me. Someone should have given the First Slayer a Tamagotchi or something. Willow tries to explain to Buffy that it wasn’t her fault and she didn’t do anything wrong. Is this inability to take responsibility for her actions foreshadowing season six? During that season, Willow blames everybody but herself for her over-reliance on magic. Buffy then asks Willow “why are you still in costume?”. Willow tries to explain to Buffy that her more confident personality is just who she is now, but Buffy isn’t buying it. When she tries to remove Willow’s costume, Willow freaks out and pleads with Buffy not to remove the costume because she needs it. Willow knows that deep down she’s still the same person she was in high school at her core, but she doesn’t want to be that person. She doesn’t want to be the shy, insecure, pushover she once was. She needs to wear the costume as armour so that nobody sees the real her. Buffy ripping the costume off to reveal the same dress that Willow wore in “Welcome To The Hellmouth” further proves this point. Notice that as soon as the costume is removed, Willow is back to being awkward and unable to speak in public. She’s back to being heckled and ridiculed by the people around her. Even though a large part of Willow’s newfound confidence is an act, she needs that act in place to move forward in life and actually develop that confidence for real. If you remove the costume, her world comes apart at the seams and Tara disappears with it.
The First Slayer appears and seems to suck the life out of Willow. It’s interesting to note that we get to experience the core four’s dreams in the same order that was used for the enjoining spell in the last episode. It makes sense because the basic premise of this episode is that the First Slayer is angry with Buffy about the spell. The Scoobies are killed by the First Slayer in a method that represents the aspect of the super-Buffy that they played in “Primeval”. Willow was the spirit section of super-Buffy, so she was killed by the First Slayer somehow sucking the spirit out of her.
Xander
I did warn you this review was going to be long. We’re up to six A4-pages already and we’ve only covered the introduction and Willow’s dream.
Xander’s dream is much less complex than Willow’s because Xander has always felt insecure about himself and how useful he is to the Scoobies. The only new aspect to Xander’s dream is the part that involves his parents, which is actually his biggest fear. Xander is terrified, absolutely terrified, that he’ll turn into his parents. What do we know about Xander’s parents? He sleeps outside on Christmas Eve to avoid their drunken Christmas fights, they order takeout a lot and barely cook things for themselves...what else? THAT’S IT! Not meeting Xander’s parents until season six is a travesty because it explains so much of why Xander is the way he is. The amazing thing about “Restless” is that Joss uses character deconstruction in order to explore issues that we know the Scoobies have been facing for a long time (the entirety of season four at the very minimum). It’s not made up issues that work within the confines of this episode, it’s deep-rooted insecurities that have been there for years. I’ve never seen anything like this on television before. It’s so detailed and so intricate!
It’s often been mentioned that Xander is the heart of the Scoobies, so having Xander’s dream sequence start with him watching “Apocalypse Now” works perfectly because that film is about a journey into the heart of darkness. Before Xander’s dream sequence really begins, Buffy calls Willow a “big faker”. To me, this shows that on some level Xander is aware that Willow’s newfound confidence and personality overhaul is an act to a certain extent. It makes sense considering that Xander has known Willow since they were four years old. Nobody knows Willow like Xander does. If anyone would be able to see through her costume, it would be Xander.
Soon after this, Xander travels upstairs and bumps into Joyce. The second section of Xander’s dream revolves around him not wanting to go upstairs in his own house because his parents are up there and he doesn’t want to become them. Here, Xander is perfectly happy to go upstairs in the Summers’ house. This is because Xander trusts and loves Joyce. He doesn’t fear her like he does his own parents. Then, Joyce hits on Xander and everything gets majorly creepy for a while.
Some psychologists say that you’re drawn to people who can give you something that you were missing from your own parents. Xander’s mother never gave him love, so it makes a certain kind of twisted sense than Xander would be attracted to Joyce here. It’s also clear that Xander still has major insecurities about his masculinity and his sexuality, which is something that Xander has struggled with since the first season. Xander always tries to show off how manly he is whenever he can. The reason for this is that Xander feels like he isn’t that manly deep down. All of his friends are stronger and more powerful than him, so he feels like he has to prove that he can keep up. I think this explains why Xander sexualises women as much as he does. He’s not confident enough in his masculinity to act on his impulses so he lives vicariously through them in his dreams and daydreams. His daydream about saving Buffy in “Teacher’s Pet” is an example of this. This is why Joyce is sexualised in Xander’s dream here and it’s also why Willow and Tara are sexualised so much later in his dream. Deep down, however, Xander knows that he’s not ‘manly’ (or at least not manly in the way his father expects him to be). Xander isn’t the type of guy to sleep with women and then dump them. He isn’t the type of guy to intentionally treat a girl like shit (which his father does with his mother). Instead, Xander’s a ‘comfortador’. He wants love and comfort from Anya and the other people in his life, which is something he’s never received from his own parents. This hyper-masculine persona that Xander portrays is just an act. Really he’s just a “scared, insecure little boy”, as Anya puts it in season six. Time and time again we’ve seen Xander talk big and then shy away when he gets the opportunity. When Anya first tried to sleep with Xander, he was scared. When Faith slept with Xander, he was scared. When Joyce offers Xander the chance to ‘rest’ in this episode, Xander makes an excuse and disappears.
Joyce: “Don’t get lost...”
This line is great because it sums up Xander’s dream. Xander gets lost physically in this dream and he’s lost and directionless in real life. Little does he know, he’s soon going to pull out of this directionlessness and start to take control of his life. Xander heads to the Summers’ bathroom, where he discovers The Initiative watching him pee. This is clearly a metaphor for Xander’s life. He feels like everyone is watching and analysing his life and mocking him behind his back. Just look at how easy it was for him to believe Spike in “The Yoko Factor”, when Spike told him that the Scoobies were laughing about him behind his back. Xander was so ready to believe it because that’s how he feels about himself. He feels like a joke. He feels like a failure.
Next, Xander ends up in the basement he lives in, which is probably his least favourite place on Earth. What’s interesting here is that Xander’s not afraid of the monster that’s following him, he’s afraid of what’s knocking on the door upstairs (his parents). Xander is more scared of becoming his parents than he is of a monster. To Xander, his parents are the real evil in his life. Draining the happiness and hopefulness out of him. So why does Xander forcefully proclaim that going upstairs isn’t the way out? Because Xander knows that becoming his parents won’t lead to a life of happiness. However, notice that however hard Xander tries in this episode, he always ends up back in the basement, where his parents are. This ties in to both his fear of becoming his parents and his sense of failure about his life at the moment.
After successfully escaping the basement (for now), Xander finds Buffy. Buffy tells Xander that his friends can’t help him. Remember, this is all coming from Xander’s own head. What Buffy means is that his friends can’t help him fix his life and stop him from turning out like his parents. He must do that himself. I’ve heard a lot of people complain about Xander leaving Anya at the altar over the years (which I agree with to a certain extent), but when you couple this episode with “Hell’s Bells”, you can absolutely see why Xander is terrified of marrying Anya. Xander thinks that if they get married, he’ll become his father. Something he’s been desperately trying to avoid. After the demon gives Xander the fake visions, it finally tips Xander over the edge.
Giles stating that “Spike’s like a son to me” is foreshadowing the events of “Tabula Rasa”, where Giles and Spike genuinely think that they’re father and son. They also mention that there’s a shark on land. This is foreshadowing Teeth’s arrival in the same episode, “Tabula Rasa”. Spike then goes on to say that Giles is teaching Spike how to be a Watcher. Glossing over the greatest line in history (“a Watcher scoffs at gravity”), this also ties into Xander’s deep-rooted feelings of inadequacy. Even though Giles isn’t as close to Xander as he is to Buffy and Willow, Xander views Giles as his surrogate father figure...even if the feelings aren’t shared by Giles. Here, Giles is choosing Spike (a soulless vampire who Xander despises) over Xander as his successor.
Buffy: “I’m way ahead of you big brother.”
Buffy referring to Xander as “big brother” is significant. I think this statement gives us some closure on Xander’s four-year crush on Buffy. Xander has finally accepted that Buffy only views him as a brother figure and he’s chosen to move on. At the beginning of season five, Xander remarks to Riley that he isn’t into Buffy anymore. Furthermore, when Riley and Buffy are dissolving, Xander is the one trying to keep them together, which further proves that Xander truly is over Buffy in the romantic sense. Also interesting is that like Giles’ dream later on, Xander views Buffy as a child in his dream. I believe that this represents that Xander wants to protect Buffy and keep her safe from the world that she’s living in.
I’ve got to mention here how breathtaking the directing and musical scoring is during this episode. Up until this point, the only episode that can compete with “Restless” on a musical scoring level is “Hush”. As far as directing goes, no episode can compete with “Restless”. Trying to tie together four dream sequences in a coherent way must have been next to impossible, but Joss seems to do it with relative ease. Some of the camera angles and subtle nuisances that are used through this episode are truly remarkable.
Xander’s dream then morphs into himself and Anya sitting in the ice cream truck that Xander used to drive when he was working as an ice cream man. Anya very bluntly asks Xander the most important question of his dream – “do you know where you’re going?”. Truth is, no, he doesn’t. He has no direction in life. He hasn’t since “Graduation Day Part Two”. Anya then mentions that she wants to get back into the Vengeance Demon world because she misses it. Xander’s fear is that Anya will indeed one day become or want to become a Vengeance Demon again. Of course, this actually happens, but only after Xander leaves Anya at the altar. Anya’s reasoning for wanting to become a Vengeance Demon again in this episode is because she’s felt lost since she was forced to give it up. This is absolutely true. Anya hasn’t really done anything with her life since she was forced to be a human, mortal woman. When she breaks her arm in the next season’s “Real Me”, she goes into full panic mode about her life and the fact that she will one day wither and die. If she was a Vengeance Demon again, she would once again be immortal. Xander lives in fear that if things end badly between them, Anya has a thousand years of exacting vengeance against men under her belt. This is all foreshadowing not only Xander and Anya’s breakup and the fact that Anya will once again be a Vengeance Demon, but also the fact that Anya is still discovering who she is and what she wants, much like Xander.
Have you noticed that in Xander’s dream, everyone is always saying “way ahead of you” or something similar? That is because that’s how Xander feels - like everyone around him is further ahead in life than he is. Buffy and Willow are at college, Giles is the most intelligent man he knows, but where is Xander? Since leaving high school, Xander has literally made it as far as the basement.
Like with Joyce earlier, Xander sexually objectifies Willow and Tara in his dream. Notice that whenever a situation like this occurs, Joyce, Willow, and Tara say things to Xander of a sexual nature without their lips moving sometimes. This is because even in Xander’s dream, he knows deep down that they would never say these things to him. As I mentioned previously, Xander is objectifying the women in his life because he’s insecure about his sexuality. I don’t mean that he might be gay (although, Joss did contemplate this before ultimately turning Willow lesbian instead), I mean that Xander has zero self-worth and therefore feels like people would never act this way around him in real life.
Giles then starts speaking to Xander in French, which again is representing Xander’s feelings of inadequacy to those people around him. Everyone around him is speaking another language (their new college life), while Xander is running in place. For those of you unaware, here’s the translation for what Giles says :-
Giles: “The house where we’re all sleeping. All of your friends are having a wonderful time and getting on with their lives. The creature can’t hurt you there.”
Xander: “What? Go where? I don’t understand.”
Giles: “Oh, for God’s sake, this is no time for your idiotic games!”
Anya: “Xander you have to come with us, everybody’s waiting for you!”
Giles: “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell him.”
Of course, Xander takes the wrong direction and bumps into PRINCIPAL SNYDER. THE SNYDE-MAN IS BACK, BABY! In addition to Seth Green, this is also Armin Shimerman’s last appearance on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”. It’s like closing out the high school era! Just like he did in “Gingerbread” last season (“I love the smell of desperate librarian in the morning” is a paraphrase of “I love the smell of napalm in the morning”), Snyder quotes “Apocalypse Now”. Snyder asks Xander “where are you from?”, before reiterating Anya’s question earlier, “where are you heading?”. Xander, of course, makes a joke about heading towards females. Snyder tells Xander that the time for joking is over and that he must face his life. The truth is that Xander doesn’t want to face what’s after him. Not just the First Slayer, but his parents. He’s trying to run as far away from his parents as possible. Next, Snyder asks Xander is he’s a soldier, which is a call-back to Xander’s time as a solider in season two’s “Halloween”. Xander remarks that he’s a ‘comfortador’, not a solider, thus implying again that he’s a lover, not a fighter. Snyder tells Xander that he’s neither, but is instead a whipping boy that’s destined to turn into his parents. Xander runs away from Snyder after this comment and where does he find himself? Back in the basement.
This really gives you an insight into Xander’s mental state. No matter how hard he tries or how fast he runs, he always ends up back where he started...with his parents. Xander’s father appears at the top of the stairs and demands a reason why Xander refuses to go upstairs. Simply, Xander refuses to go upstairs because he refuses to become his parents. Xander is afraid that if he goes upstairs, he’ll turn into his mean-spirited, alcoholic, hateful father. This is the first time that we meet Xander’s father. Granted, it’s a dream, but it’s coming from Xander’s head so it’s an accurate picture (as we discover in “Hell’s Bells”). Seeing Xander’s father instantly makes you see why Xander acts the way he does. His insecurities, his using humour to cover up genuine emotions, his lack of self-esteem...they all stem from his parents, more specifically his father. His father is an aggressive, overly-masculine creature, which completely explains Xander’s obsession with being viewed as ‘manly’. Like Willow before him, Xander is killed by the First Slayer in a way that embodies his section of super-Buffy from “Primeval”. As Xander was the heart, the First Slayer kills him by ripping his heart out of his chest.
Giles
Giles’ dream is much shorter than Willow, Xander, and Buffy’s dreams because Giles’ insecurities are much less complex. Giles is an adult. He doesn’t need to find out who he is, he already knows that. Giles’ fears are tied up in his responsibilities...the Watcher vs. the man. How can he be a Watcher and have a life outside of that? Is he still needed by Buffy? Should he move on? Giles’ dream fittingly opens with a watch because that’s how Giles views his entire identity – a Watcher. Giles is dressed in full Watcher apparel. His old tweed jacket and glasses, which represents a time where Giles felt needed by his Slayer.
Soon after this, we see Giles, Buffy, and a pregnant Olivia strolling through a carnival. Much like in Xander’s dream earlier, Buffy is portrayed as a child. While Xander viewed Buffy as a younger sister that he needed to protect, Giles views Buffy as his child that he needs to protect. That’s how Giles views Buffy. Buffy is his daughter. Ugh, I’m being overwhelmed with feels right now. What’s also interesting is that in his dream, Giles is back with Olivia and she’s pregnant. Clearly, deep down, Giles doesn’t want to be a Watcher anymore. He wants to take Buffy away from a life of agony and young death and into a life of family and no mortal danger. Giles wants the traditional family life. A wife and children. Olivia makes reference to the fact that Buffy desperately wants to train, which brings us back to the other insecurity that Giles is having (how relevant he is to Buffy’s life now). It’s clear that Giles misses the connection he once had to Buffy. They’re still close, but Giles is no longer her mentor. Buffy is much more self-sufficient now. Giles misses training and shaping Buffy, which is understandable as Giles still feels like her father. The difference is that he no longer feels needed. Buffy didn’t tell Giles that Riley was a commando, Buffy didn’t tell Giles that she was dating Riley, Buffy didn’t tell Giles that Maggie Walsh was the head of The Initiative. Giles feels neglected and snubbed. Also, Buffy throws a ball at a vampire cut-out that’s labelled “Drac”. This is clearly foreshadowing Dracula’s arrival in the next episode.
It’s not lost on me that the first section of Giles’ dream is all about Buffy and the second section is all about him. Even in his dream, Giles is putting Buffy before himself. This is the reason why Giles hasn’t left Sunnydale already even though he’s been contemplating it. He wants to remain by Buffy’s side in case she needs him. Giles is directionless in Sunnydale and has no friends there, yet he remains in a location that makes him miserable because he wants to be there for his surrogate daughter, even though he feels as though she no longer needs him.
When Giles looks at Buffy and sees the reverse image of Buffy wearing the mud, he knows that the First Slayer is hunting them. The mud on Buffy’s face represents the Slayer side of her personality, the demon side where her darker instincts reside. Giles being the fastest to realise that something is hunting him and being the one to figure out that it’s the First Slayer is not surprising because Giles is the ‘mind’ aspect of super-Buffy. Giles has always been the font of all knowledge, the man who always knows what’s going on.
Next, Giles bizarrely ends up inside Spike’s crypt and Spike delivers the ultimate message behind Giles’ dream...
Spike: “You’ve got to make up your mind, Rupes. What are you wasting time for?”
That is what Giles has been wrestling with all season! Does he leave his Slayer behind and concentrate on his own needs or does he remain by her side where he feels he belongs? Giles continues to struggle with this decision over the next 12 months. In “Buffy vs. Dracula”, Giles has decided to leave Sunnydale, but soon after he makes this decision, Buffy confides in Giles that she needs him to be her Watcher again so he stays. After Buffy’s temporary death in “The Gift”, Giles does leave because he has no reason to stay in Sunnydale without her. Foreshadowy goodness. In addition to this, while inside Spike’s crypt, Olivia is crying and the pram that she’s been pushing around throughout Giles’ dream is knocked over. The way that Giles’ dream has played out makes me think that the pram represents Buffy’s childlike innocence. The pram being knocked over is foreshadowing Buffy’s loss of innocence after she’s torn out of heaven in “Bargaining Part One”. Before leaving Spike, Giles tells Spike that he still thinks that Buffy should have killed him. This is a notion that Giles maintains throughout the rest of the show and eventually leads him to conspire with Robin Wood to try and kill Spike in “Lies My Parents Told Me”.
Giles sings the exposition for this episode and explains what is happening. What did Joss decide to call this song? “The Exposition Song”. How creative. As I’ve mentioned before, any episode that involves Anthony Head singing is instantly a million times better. I’ve heard him sing live, guys. His voice is so soothing. If you listen to Joss’ DVD commentary for the episode, you will know that Giles’ song here was the inspiration behind “Once More With Feeling” 18 months later. This, coupled with Shakespeare readings at Joss’ house, made Joss realise what a talented cast he had at his disposal musically and the seeds for a musical Buffy episode were planted.
After following a trail of wires from The Bronze’s stage to the backstage area, Giles becomes fully aware that the First Slayer is behind him (before this moment, Giles knew that a primal force was hunting them, but he wasn’t sure exactly what that force was). Before the First Slayer slices Giles’ head open (yet again, in a way that represents Giles as the ‘mind’ of the super-Buffy in the last episode), Giles mentions to the First Slayer that she never had a Watcher. To Giles, of course, this means everything. Potentially, without his guidance, this is what Buffy could have become. Both Buffy and the First Slayer have the same primitive, vicious nature inside themselves. The most significant difference between the two is that Buffy has Giles, her mother, and her friends to keep her grounded. That’s what this whole episode is about! Should the Slayer work alone (the First Slayer) or should she use the people around her to help (Buffy)?
Buffy
“Restless” is the catalyst for Buffy wanting to delve deeper into the history of Slayers and her power throughout the 5th season of the show. What does it mean to be a Slayer? Where does her power come from? How did the other Slayers operate and die? For four years now, Buffy has been the Slayer and defended the Hellmouth, but what does that mean? Until this episode, we’ve been told nothing about the Slayer’s power being shrouded in darkness, nor about the fact that a Slayer’s power originally stems from a demon. More so than the other three, Buffy’s dream gives us what’s to come for the remaining three seasons. Buffy and Riley’s breakup? Foreshadowed here. Joyce’s death? Foreshadowed here. Dawn’s arrival? Foreshadowed here. Buffy’s death? Foreshadowed here.
Buffy’s dream opens with Anya in Willow’s dorm room bed, begging Buffy to wake up. Why is Anya there? Is she pleading with Buffy to wake up from this particular dream or is it something else? It could be about this particular dream, as Anya is the only Scooby other than Tara that hasn’t been killed in dreamland by the First Slayer. Going down an entirely different avenue here, Anya could be pleading with Buffy to wake from her grave in “Bargaining Part One”. Perhaps Anya wants Buffy to ‘wake up’ (return from Heaven) because the world has gone to shit without her. Anya is one of the Scoobies responsible for bringing Buffy back from the grave, after all. Buffy telling Anya that she doesn’t want to wake up would also fit this theory. Buffy was happy and at peace in Heaven (notice that Buffy is covered in sunlight before Anya wakes her up), why would she want to wake up? Joss had definitely already decided that Buffy was going to die in the season five finale by this point, so it’s certainly a feasible theory.
Buffy: “Faith and I just made that bed.”
This is in reference to Buffy and Faith’s dream sequence at the beginning of “Graduation Day Part Two”. During that dream, Buffy and Faith were seen making a bed because “little sis’ is coming”. THAT WAS TWO SEASONS BEFORE DAWN’S DEBUT! I swear, this episode is like a continuity lover’s wet dream. Tara arrives and acts as a guide for the First Slayer. Why Tara? If you listen to the “Restless” commentary, Joss answers that very question. He chose Tara because she was barely used in this episode and because Tara had an air of mystery that the other Scoobies simply didn’t. Plus, you know, Tara and Anya are the only people that he could realistically use anyway and Tara makes more sense than Anya. Tara, acting as the First Slayer, explains to Buffy that she can’t find her friends because she’s lost them. This becomes a recurring theme in Buffy’s dream. Buffy can’t find her friends because the First Slayer is adamant that a Slayer should act alone and not have friends at all...like Kendra in a lot of ways. Kendra was very much a traditional Slayer. No friends, no family she was allowed to see, and her entire life was about slaying. She wasn’t allowed to date or even talk to boys. I bet the First Slayer would have loved Kendra. She’d have visited Kendra in a dream to simply give her a thumbs-up and a winning smile.
Buffy then glances towards the clock from her dream sequence with Faith in “Graduation Day Part Two”. It still reads 7:30. At that time, 7:30 was a countdown to Buffy’s death in “The Gift” (730 days). Tara tells Buffy that the clock is completely wrong, which makes sense as there are now only 365 days until Buffy’s death. You can’t have 3:65 on a clock. Tara gives Buffy the ‘Manus’ Tarot card (representing her as the ‘hand’ of super-Buffy in the last episode) and states this very important piece of dialogue...
Tara: “You think you know, what’s to come, what you are, you haven’t even begun.”
This is a line that Dracula later repeats to Buffy in the next episode. The meaning behind this is much more simple than most of this episode. Buffy has no idea what a Slayer is all about, where her power comes from, or what the future will hold for her. Unlike Buffy’s quest in season five, Buffy isn’t ready to learn about the history of Slayers yet. Instead, she goes on a quest to find her friends, the one piece of her life that keeps her from becoming a more traditional Slayer. Buffy is rejecting the essence of her Slayer side because she’s more attached to the human side of herself. For four years we’ve witnessed Buffy want nothing more than to be a ‘regular girl’. She doesn’t want to be the Slayer, she doesn’t want to be the Chosen One. By the end of season five, Buffy’s mind has changed entirely. Buffy realises that death is her gift to the world and she sacrifices herself to save it. Buffy grows to appreciate her Slayer side and wants to learn more about it and her power. “Restless” is actually the reason why Buffy wants to learn more about being the Slayer. Alas, that hasn’t happened yet, so Buffy leaves to find her friends. As Buffy is departing, Tara gives us a very simple piece of foreshadowing for the end of “Buffy vs. Dracula”...
Tara: “Be back before dawn.”
She obviously doesn’t mean the time of day, she’s referring to Dawn Summers.
While searching for her friends, Buffy comes across Joyce in one of the walls at U.C. Sunnydale. I feel that this represents two things...
1) Since Buffy moved away to college, Buffy and Joyce aren’t as close anymore. Understandably so, Buffy is wrapped up in her new world with her new boyfriend. At the conclusion of “This Year’s Girl” earlier this season, Faith noted that Buffy has forgotten about both Faith and Joyce because of her exciting new life. Notice that Joyce is inside a wall of U.C. Sunnydale, the thing that has taken Buffy away from her? This is all that Joyce can see now. A snippet of her daughter’s life.
2) Joyce being inside a wall and partially insane is foreshadowing the mental health problems that Joyce will develop during the next season.
Next up during Buffy’s search for the Scoobies is Riley and a human-looking Adam. Riley instantly refers to Buffy as a “killer”. This is interesting because it’s something that we’ve seen both Buffy and Faith struggle with before. Is a Slayer simply a killer? Is a Slayer better than a regular human? Do they require a different set of laws? This also represents the struggles that Buffy and Riley will have in the next season. Riley can never learn to cope with the Slayer side of Buffy. He can’t deal with Buffy being stronger and more powerful than him. He wants the human side of Buffy, but not the Slayer side. Eventually, Riley gets fed up of feeling like Buffy is keeping him at a distance and departs Sunnydale. Furthermore, the talk about Riley still being part of The Initiative is Buffy’s worries that Riley will easily be led into a lifestyle involving the government again, which is exactly what happens in the next season. Buffy fears that The Initiative is so ingrained into Riley’s life that he’ll never truly be able to leave it. She’s correct.
The focus then shifts to Adam, who is human here. Adam tells Buffy that she’s uncomfortable with her Slayer essence and superpower abilities. Like Buffy, Adam has superpowers and has an element of demon that resides within him. Of course, Buffy isn’t aware of it yet (nor are we), but Buffy does have demon inside of her. Like Tara before him, Adam’s words are partially coming from the First Slayer. The First Slayer appears behind Buffy for a section of Adam’s speech. When Buffy asks Adam (the First Slayer) what his name used to be, he says that no-one knows. This is fitting with the First Slayer theory because we genuinely don’t know the First Slayer’s name. What was she called? What was her life like before a demon was forced inside of her? Nobody knows.
What happens next is basically a mini-version of Buffy’s journey throughout season five...Buffy opens a leather bag and pulls the mud out that we’ve seen in Willow, Xander, and Giles’ dreams. As I mentioned before, the mud represents the Slayer side of Buffy’s identity. It’s also the same leather bag that Robin Wood gives to Buffy in season seven’s “Get It Done”. A bag that has been handed down from Slayer to Slayer as an emergency kit that would allow the current Slayer to have more demon put inside of her so that she’d be more powerful. Upon discovering the mud on Buffy’s face, Riley tells Buffy “I guess you’re on your own”, calls her a “killer” again, and then disappears into the darkness. No guess work needed on this one, Riley is foreshadowing his departure in “Into The Woods”. It’s not just that Riley is leaving, it’s that he’s leaving because of the Slayer nature of Buffy. He’s telling Buffy here that her Slayer nature is too much for him to handle so he’s leaving.
Keeping in theme with Buffy’s journey throughout season five, after Riley disappears from Buffy’s view, she finds herself in the middle of a desert. This is the same desert that Buffy goes to in order to speak to the First Slayer, where the First Slayer reveals to Buffy that death is her gift. Buffy goes to this desert in the next season just after Riley leaves, just like her dream here. I’ve always found it pretty cool that we get to meet the first ever Slayer and the First Evil on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”. We get to see the First Evil in action, which shows us why the First Slayer was created in the first place. Awesome stuff.
It’s at this point that we finally get to the crux of the episode. Buffy arrives in the desert in an attempt to get her friends back from the First Slayer. Through Tara, the First Slayer explains to Buffy who she is and that Buffy is supposed to act alone. A Slayer is supposed to live, act, and die alone. No ties to the world, no friends. Buffy counters this argument by telling the First Slayer that she has friends who’ve helped her and that she needs them. The First Slayer tells Buffy that Buffy didn’t come all the way to the desert to find her friends, she went there to find out more about her Slayer nature. To a certain extent, this is true. After this episode and the things she learns during this dream sequence, Buffy is certainly more aware and focused on discovering what it means to be a Slayer. In “Buffy vs. Dracula”, we see Buffy ‘hunting’ for the first time as opposed to patrolling. Is Buffy destined to be as isolated as the First Slayer? More importantly, should she be as isolated? Is having friends beneficial to the world that Buffy is trying to protect? They’ve helped Buffy before, but they’ve also been a hindrance as Buffy has to worry about saving their lives. Is she less focused because of them? The First Slayer tells Buffy that a Slayer is not a human and does not walk in a human world. She should fight, live, and die alone (notice how often the word ‘alone’ has been used during this review?). Then, Buffy Summers comes through. She tells the First Slayer that she belongs in the human world and that she wants her friends back. Now.
The interesting thing here is that Buffy doesn’t kill the First Slayer. She eliminates the First Slayer by ignoring her and waking from her dream. This ultimately resolves nothing. The burning questions that she has about her powers are still there. Buffy is a completely unique Slayer in that she operates with friends and family around her, but ultimately she must walk the Earth alone. Jumping forward to season seven’s “Selfless”, Buffy tells Xander that she is the law and she alone has to make the hard decisions. That certainly sounds more like the First Slayer than Buffy Summers. I CANNOT WAIT to go through the journey of season five alongside Buffy as she discovers exactly what it means to be a Vampire Slayer.
Buffy wakes from her dream and in doing so the First Slayer’s power is broken. Remember, it was the enjoining spell in “Primeval” that caused all of this mess in the first place...
Buffy: “You know, you could have brought that up to us before we did it.”
Giles: “I did. I said there could be dire consequences.”
Buffy: “Yes, but you say that about chewing too fast.”
I love that Xander is now uncomfortable around Joyce.
The episode closes with Buffy looking into what will become Dawn’s room, on a line that we heard earlier in the episode...“you think you know, what’s to come, what you are, you haven’t even begun.”, which sets up the next season of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” nicely. The interesting thing about this finale is that it resolved nothing. Joss spent 42 minutes dissecting his primary four characters, only to tell them (and us) that they have no idea what’s to come and that they aren’t prepared for it. Hold me?
Well, what a fantastic episode! If you’ve made it through all 18 A4-pages of the review, I commend you. I hope you’ve enjoyed dissecting and reliving this masterpiece as much as I have. If you have your own theories on the episode, please let me know in the comments section!
Quote Of The Episode
Giles: “A Watcher scoffs at gravity.”
Best. Line. Ever.
FINAL SCORE: 10/10
What are your thoughts on "Restless"? 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?
I’m sat here with “Restless” paused ready to start, a notepad open, and a pen in my hand, wondering how the hell I’m going to review this episode. How do you review “Restless”? How do you review the most intricate, complex episode of television that you’ve ever seen? I could literally write a hundred pages on this episode and still miss interesting pieces of character exploration and foreshadowing. While some things in “Restless” are obvious, a great deal of “Restless” is so shrouded in cryptic dialogue and metaphorical imagery that it’s impossible to know for sure just what Joss Whedon was trying to convey. Hence, some of this review will be my interpretation of the episode and not necessarily what Joss was trying to broadcast. If you have a different theory on something or wish to express your own views, please do so in the comments section! I’d love to read your thoughts too (that goes for every episode, actually). However, after reading, re-reading, re-re-reading, and re-editing this review, I think I’ve done a pretty good job of picking up what Joss was trying to express.
More than any other episode of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” or “Angel”, you need to have seen all seven seasons of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” a few times to truly appreciate how amazingly detailed and spectacular that “Restless” is. To call this episode a masterpiece wouldn’t be hyperbole in the least. It goes to show just how far in advance Joss Whedon plans his stories. References to Dawn’s arrival were seen as far back as season three! In this episode, there’s foreshadowing towards Willow’s magic addiction, Dawn’s arrival, Giles leaving Sunnydale, the dissolution of Xander and Anya, Buffy’s death, Joyce’s death, and much more! Time and time again Joss Whedon proves why he’s such a genius. Most television shows don’t think much further than the current season arc they’re planning, let alone thinking years ahead.
In essence, “Restless” is a highly detailed character study of the ‘core four’ Scoobies. Like a cryptically disturbing version of “A Christmas Carol”, it explores the Scoobies’ past, present, and future. It looks at the journey the Scoobies have gone through since “Welcome To The Hellmouth” and how they’ve evolved, it looks at the struggles and tribulations that the Scoobies have faced in season four and are still facing, and it looks at what is to come for the Scoobies over the last three seasons through the use of dream sequences and difficult-to-decipher dialogue. Clearly, the Scoobies are still tied up in issues surrounding their sense of identity and struggling to find their place in the world (as most people are). What’s most interesting about this is that it’s the season finale! Joss has taken what is usually the episode that resolves a year’s worth of plot and resolved absolutely nothing. There’s no cliffhanger, no big “oh my God!” moments, and no emotional resolution for the Scoobies. Instead, we’re given the biggest mind-fuck I’ve ever seen on television. Thanks, Joss!
Due to the complex nature of this episode, I will be tackling it chronologically, separating the Scoobies’ dreams into their own sections. Buckle in, kiddies. This is gonna be a long review. Before diving into Willow’s dream, there are two important things to note before the dream sequences start...
1) I’VE MISSED JOYCE SO MUCH THIS SEASON I CANNOT PUT IT INTO WORDS. I’VE MISSED HER SO MUCH IT DEMANDS CAPITAL LETTERS AND ITALICS TO EMPHASISE MY POINT. For those of you unaware, it was Kristine Sutherland’s request to be in fewer episodes during the 4th season because she wanted to spend more time with her family (much like Anthony Head in seasons 6 & 7). Joss Whedon allowed her to do this, under the proviso that she’d come back for more episodes in the 5th season, ready for her death (which Joss had pre-planned from at least the beginning of season four). OH MY GOD, I HAVE TO REVIEW “THE BODY” SOON. Can I call in sick that day?
2) Riley finally meets Joyce. Took bloody long enough.
Oh, one last thing before we dive into the dream sequences....the Cheese Man. On a weekly basis, I get asked a question. That question is “what relevance does the Cheese Man have to ‘Restless’? What does he foreshadow?”. The simple answer is NOTHING. The Cheese Man foreshadows nothing. He’s the only part of the dream sequences that isn’t a cryptic message. Joss wanted something in the dreams that’s random and has no purpose to be there, just like in real dreams. Here’s a little trivia fact for you too...I once read that during season seven’s “Storyteller”, Willow is extracting memories from Andrew about what he knows. We see the Hellmouth, Andrew’s time in Mexico, etc. During that montage, if you look very quickly, you will see the Cheese Man make a one-frame appearance, quickly followed by a one-frame appearance of his plate of cheese slices. I have checked this out for myself and it’s legit. How amazing is that? Oh, Whedon. You rule.
Willow
Willow’s dream opens with Willow, Tara, and Miss. Kittyfantastico. In this section of the dream, I feel that Miss. Kitty is representing what will be known as the ‘First Slayer’ for the remainder of this episode. So, what is the First Slayer, aside from the obvious? The First Slayer was a vicious killing machine. She was captured by what would become the first Watchers, a demon was forced inside her, giving her superpowers, and she was tasked with protecting the world from vampires and other supernatural creatures. The First Slayer is different from Buffy because the First Slayer is much more emotionless and isolated than Buffy. The First Slayer acts alone, has no friends, and no life outside of slaying. Within the confines of “Restless”, the First Slayer represents the Slayer side of Buffy and the darkness and mystery that surrounds it. Dracula tells Buffy in the season five opener that her powers are “shrouded in darkness”, which we discover in this episode is true. Here, Tara makes reference to the fact that they don’t know anything about Miss. Kitty yet and should therefore be cautious.
Tara: “You don’t know everything about me.”
This is clearly foreshadowing the events of “Family” that are coming up in the next season. Tara’s family have told Tara that she’s part demon and that the demon will manifest on her 20th birthday. Tara’s 20th birthday happens in the next season’s “Family” and Tara does a spell so that the Scoobies can’t see the demon side of her. Remember, earlier in this season (“Goodbye Iowa”), Tara faked her half of a spell to locate all the demons in Sunnydale because she didn’t want Willow to realise that a demon was sat in the room with her. Of course, this is all bullshit. Tara’s family were lying to her the entire time in order to manipulate her into doing what they want. However, Willow doesn’t know that and this is Willow’s dream.
Next, Tara mentions that Willow is taking drama. I feel that this has a dual-meaning. Firstly, Willow does take drama at the beginning of season five at U.C. Sunnydale. Within the context of this episode, however, I feel that the drama talk relates to Willow’s more confident personality since she started college. The wonderful thing about Willow’s dream is that it ties together so perfectly. The biggest three fears and insecurities that Willow have are all tied up in her sense of changing identity. Almost everything we see in Willow’s dream sequence relates to her newfound relationship with Tara, her growing reliance on magic, and her desperately trying to prove that she’s not the geeky, insecure, bullied person she was during high school. The drama comes into play here because Willow’s new, more confident identity is, at least partially, an act. In reality, Willow is still that same shy, insecure girl that she was in “Welcome To The Hellmouth” to a certain extent and she’s desperate to ensure that nobody discovers this. She fears that if Tara knew the real her, she would leave. This also explains all the talk about ‘wearing a costume’ throughout Willow’s dream sequence. Willow is concealing both the person that she used to be and also her growing reliance and addiction to magic.
Willow has seemingly changed so much since the first season of the show. She dresses differently, she’s more confident in every aspect of her life, she’s a kickass Wicca, and she’s more of a leader than a follower by now. Yet again, at least a certain amount of this evolution is an act on Willow’s part and she’s terrified that someone will see through the mask. Oz being back for this episode is telling because Oz very much represents Willow’s life at Sunnydale High (the person that Willow is so desperately trying to escape from). This is also Seth Green’s last appearance on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”, so I want to take a moment to say I LOVE YOU, OZ! IT’S THE END OF AN ERA!
Xander: “Sometimes I think about two women doing a spell and then I do a spell by myself...”
How charming. Xander sexualising women, who’d have thought it (more on this during Xander’s dream sequence).
Willow: “This isn’t ‘Madame Butterfly’ is it because I have a whole problem with opera?”
This is obviously a reference to season one’s “Nightmares”. During that episode, the Scoobies were forced into living their greatest fears. One of Willow’s biggest fears is stage fright, so obviously she was forced to sing opera in public.
Harmony: “Props?”
Giles: “No.”
Riley: “Props?”
Giles: “Yes!”
There are a lot of call-backs to season one in Willow’s dream due to her hiding from the person she used to be during that time. In season one’s “The Puppet Show”, Giles led the talent show and formed a power circle in order to get everyone amped up and ready for the show. Here, Giles is very much playing that same role, only this time he’s actually confident in his abilities. He mentions that acting is all about hiding. Remember, this is Willow’s dream. Everything happening here is coming from Willow’s subconscious. Giles talking about ‘hiding’ is directed at Willow because that’s exactly what Willow is doing - hiding from the person that she used to be during high school and hiding her ever-growing reliance on magic from her friends and girlfriend. The thing I adore about Willow’s dream is how Oz and Tara are used. Oz is used as part of Willow’s insecurities about her old life. The majority of Willow and Oz’s relationship took place at Sunnydale High. Willow was bullied there, Willow was insecure there, and Willow was unhappy with who she was there. In contract, Tara is used in a positive light. Tara is very much a part of Willow’s new life and she represents all the positive changes that Willow has made in her sense of identity and self-esteem over the past six months. Oz is used as a form of escape, whereas Tara is used as a form of concealment. Very interesting stuff!
We next see Willow finding Tara behind some red curtains. Red is obviously the colour of love and lust. The most brightly coloured section of Willow’s dream involved Tara, which is yet again reinforcing that Tara is the brightest spot in Willow’s life. It’s why Willow is so desperate to conceal the person she used to be from Tara. Tara never knew that Willow and Willow wants to keep it that way. Tara mentions to Willow that the play has already started, representing that Willow is very much still in the middle of her own fears and deceptions. Tara also mentions to Willow that the people around her are starting to worry about the person she’s becoming. Is this foreshadowing Willow’s increasing reliance on magic to fix her life? Is this a reference to Willow’s insecurities about how her friends feel about her entering a lesbian relationship? I feel it’s a mixture of both, but after Tara’s comment about “if they find out, they’ll punish you”, I’m more inclined to believe it’s in relation to magic. After the events of “Once More With Feeling”-“Wrecked”, Willow’s friends do punish her for her addictions. Tara leaves her, Dawn slaps her, and Buffy gives her a big reality check by telling Willow exactly what she’s become.
As far as the play itself goes, I think that it’s Willow’s perception of the people around her, as opposed to Willow’s perception of how the people around her view her (which is what the rest of her dream sequence is about). Willow views Riley as an all-American type who wants to swoop in and save the damsel in distress. This is perfectly fitting with Riley’s character, as he’s mentioned before that girls need boys to save them (“The Initiative”). He didn’t put it quite that sexist, but the notion was there. The way that Buffy acts in this scene would also fit this theory, as she seems to reject Riley’s all-American, happy-go-lucky personality. As we discover in season five, Buffy isn’t attracted to that type of ‘normal’ man at all. She’s attracted to the dark and dangerous type like Angel and Spike. Willow is clearly aware of this trait in Buffy’s personality.
Willow’s dream comes to a close with Buffy telling Willow that Willow must have done something for the First Slayer to come after her. In a roundabout sort of way, this is true, as Willow was the person who performed the enjoining spell in “Primeval” that brought the First Slayer forth. The First Slayer is so pissed at Buffy and the Scoobies because she is against the notion of a Slayer working alongside friends. The First Slayer didn’t even have a Watcher (as we discover in Giles’ dream sequence). A Slayer should live alone, act alone, and die alone. Sounds rather lonely to me. Someone should have given the First Slayer a Tamagotchi or something. Willow tries to explain to Buffy that it wasn’t her fault and she didn’t do anything wrong. Is this inability to take responsibility for her actions foreshadowing season six? During that season, Willow blames everybody but herself for her over-reliance on magic. Buffy then asks Willow “why are you still in costume?”. Willow tries to explain to Buffy that her more confident personality is just who she is now, but Buffy isn’t buying it. When she tries to remove Willow’s costume, Willow freaks out and pleads with Buffy not to remove the costume because she needs it. Willow knows that deep down she’s still the same person she was in high school at her core, but she doesn’t want to be that person. She doesn’t want to be the shy, insecure, pushover she once was. She needs to wear the costume as armour so that nobody sees the real her. Buffy ripping the costume off to reveal the same dress that Willow wore in “Welcome To The Hellmouth” further proves this point. Notice that as soon as the costume is removed, Willow is back to being awkward and unable to speak in public. She’s back to being heckled and ridiculed by the people around her. Even though a large part of Willow’s newfound confidence is an act, she needs that act in place to move forward in life and actually develop that confidence for real. If you remove the costume, her world comes apart at the seams and Tara disappears with it.
The First Slayer appears and seems to suck the life out of Willow. It’s interesting to note that we get to experience the core four’s dreams in the same order that was used for the enjoining spell in the last episode. It makes sense because the basic premise of this episode is that the First Slayer is angry with Buffy about the spell. The Scoobies are killed by the First Slayer in a method that represents the aspect of the super-Buffy that they played in “Primeval”. Willow was the spirit section of super-Buffy, so she was killed by the First Slayer somehow sucking the spirit out of her.
Xander
I did warn you this review was going to be long. We’re up to six A4-pages already and we’ve only covered the introduction and Willow’s dream.
Xander’s dream is much less complex than Willow’s because Xander has always felt insecure about himself and how useful he is to the Scoobies. The only new aspect to Xander’s dream is the part that involves his parents, which is actually his biggest fear. Xander is terrified, absolutely terrified, that he’ll turn into his parents. What do we know about Xander’s parents? He sleeps outside on Christmas Eve to avoid their drunken Christmas fights, they order takeout a lot and barely cook things for themselves...what else? THAT’S IT! Not meeting Xander’s parents until season six is a travesty because it explains so much of why Xander is the way he is. The amazing thing about “Restless” is that Joss uses character deconstruction in order to explore issues that we know the Scoobies have been facing for a long time (the entirety of season four at the very minimum). It’s not made up issues that work within the confines of this episode, it’s deep-rooted insecurities that have been there for years. I’ve never seen anything like this on television before. It’s so detailed and so intricate!
It’s often been mentioned that Xander is the heart of the Scoobies, so having Xander’s dream sequence start with him watching “Apocalypse Now” works perfectly because that film is about a journey into the heart of darkness. Before Xander’s dream sequence really begins, Buffy calls Willow a “big faker”. To me, this shows that on some level Xander is aware that Willow’s newfound confidence and personality overhaul is an act to a certain extent. It makes sense considering that Xander has known Willow since they were four years old. Nobody knows Willow like Xander does. If anyone would be able to see through her costume, it would be Xander.
Soon after this, Xander travels upstairs and bumps into Joyce. The second section of Xander’s dream revolves around him not wanting to go upstairs in his own house because his parents are up there and he doesn’t want to become them. Here, Xander is perfectly happy to go upstairs in the Summers’ house. This is because Xander trusts and loves Joyce. He doesn’t fear her like he does his own parents. Then, Joyce hits on Xander and everything gets majorly creepy for a while.
Some psychologists say that you’re drawn to people who can give you something that you were missing from your own parents. Xander’s mother never gave him love, so it makes a certain kind of twisted sense than Xander would be attracted to Joyce here. It’s also clear that Xander still has major insecurities about his masculinity and his sexuality, which is something that Xander has struggled with since the first season. Xander always tries to show off how manly he is whenever he can. The reason for this is that Xander feels like he isn’t that manly deep down. All of his friends are stronger and more powerful than him, so he feels like he has to prove that he can keep up. I think this explains why Xander sexualises women as much as he does. He’s not confident enough in his masculinity to act on his impulses so he lives vicariously through them in his dreams and daydreams. His daydream about saving Buffy in “Teacher’s Pet” is an example of this. This is why Joyce is sexualised in Xander’s dream here and it’s also why Willow and Tara are sexualised so much later in his dream. Deep down, however, Xander knows that he’s not ‘manly’ (or at least not manly in the way his father expects him to be). Xander isn’t the type of guy to sleep with women and then dump them. He isn’t the type of guy to intentionally treat a girl like shit (which his father does with his mother). Instead, Xander’s a ‘comfortador’. He wants love and comfort from Anya and the other people in his life, which is something he’s never received from his own parents. This hyper-masculine persona that Xander portrays is just an act. Really he’s just a “scared, insecure little boy”, as Anya puts it in season six. Time and time again we’ve seen Xander talk big and then shy away when he gets the opportunity. When Anya first tried to sleep with Xander, he was scared. When Faith slept with Xander, he was scared. When Joyce offers Xander the chance to ‘rest’ in this episode, Xander makes an excuse and disappears.
Joyce: “Don’t get lost...”
This line is great because it sums up Xander’s dream. Xander gets lost physically in this dream and he’s lost and directionless in real life. Little does he know, he’s soon going to pull out of this directionlessness and start to take control of his life. Xander heads to the Summers’ bathroom, where he discovers The Initiative watching him pee. This is clearly a metaphor for Xander’s life. He feels like everyone is watching and analysing his life and mocking him behind his back. Just look at how easy it was for him to believe Spike in “The Yoko Factor”, when Spike told him that the Scoobies were laughing about him behind his back. Xander was so ready to believe it because that’s how he feels about himself. He feels like a joke. He feels like a failure.
Next, Xander ends up in the basement he lives in, which is probably his least favourite place on Earth. What’s interesting here is that Xander’s not afraid of the monster that’s following him, he’s afraid of what’s knocking on the door upstairs (his parents). Xander is more scared of becoming his parents than he is of a monster. To Xander, his parents are the real evil in his life. Draining the happiness and hopefulness out of him. So why does Xander forcefully proclaim that going upstairs isn’t the way out? Because Xander knows that becoming his parents won’t lead to a life of happiness. However, notice that however hard Xander tries in this episode, he always ends up back in the basement, where his parents are. This ties in to both his fear of becoming his parents and his sense of failure about his life at the moment.
After successfully escaping the basement (for now), Xander finds Buffy. Buffy tells Xander that his friends can’t help him. Remember, this is all coming from Xander’s own head. What Buffy means is that his friends can’t help him fix his life and stop him from turning out like his parents. He must do that himself. I’ve heard a lot of people complain about Xander leaving Anya at the altar over the years (which I agree with to a certain extent), but when you couple this episode with “Hell’s Bells”, you can absolutely see why Xander is terrified of marrying Anya. Xander thinks that if they get married, he’ll become his father. Something he’s been desperately trying to avoid. After the demon gives Xander the fake visions, it finally tips Xander over the edge.
Giles stating that “Spike’s like a son to me” is foreshadowing the events of “Tabula Rasa”, where Giles and Spike genuinely think that they’re father and son. They also mention that there’s a shark on land. This is foreshadowing Teeth’s arrival in the same episode, “Tabula Rasa”. Spike then goes on to say that Giles is teaching Spike how to be a Watcher. Glossing over the greatest line in history (“a Watcher scoffs at gravity”), this also ties into Xander’s deep-rooted feelings of inadequacy. Even though Giles isn’t as close to Xander as he is to Buffy and Willow, Xander views Giles as his surrogate father figure...even if the feelings aren’t shared by Giles. Here, Giles is choosing Spike (a soulless vampire who Xander despises) over Xander as his successor.
Buffy: “I’m way ahead of you big brother.”
Buffy referring to Xander as “big brother” is significant. I think this statement gives us some closure on Xander’s four-year crush on Buffy. Xander has finally accepted that Buffy only views him as a brother figure and he’s chosen to move on. At the beginning of season five, Xander remarks to Riley that he isn’t into Buffy anymore. Furthermore, when Riley and Buffy are dissolving, Xander is the one trying to keep them together, which further proves that Xander truly is over Buffy in the romantic sense. Also interesting is that like Giles’ dream later on, Xander views Buffy as a child in his dream. I believe that this represents that Xander wants to protect Buffy and keep her safe from the world that she’s living in.
I’ve got to mention here how breathtaking the directing and musical scoring is during this episode. Up until this point, the only episode that can compete with “Restless” on a musical scoring level is “Hush”. As far as directing goes, no episode can compete with “Restless”. Trying to tie together four dream sequences in a coherent way must have been next to impossible, but Joss seems to do it with relative ease. Some of the camera angles and subtle nuisances that are used through this episode are truly remarkable.
Xander’s dream then morphs into himself and Anya sitting in the ice cream truck that Xander used to drive when he was working as an ice cream man. Anya very bluntly asks Xander the most important question of his dream – “do you know where you’re going?”. Truth is, no, he doesn’t. He has no direction in life. He hasn’t since “Graduation Day Part Two”. Anya then mentions that she wants to get back into the Vengeance Demon world because she misses it. Xander’s fear is that Anya will indeed one day become or want to become a Vengeance Demon again. Of course, this actually happens, but only after Xander leaves Anya at the altar. Anya’s reasoning for wanting to become a Vengeance Demon again in this episode is because she’s felt lost since she was forced to give it up. This is absolutely true. Anya hasn’t really done anything with her life since she was forced to be a human, mortal woman. When she breaks her arm in the next season’s “Real Me”, she goes into full panic mode about her life and the fact that she will one day wither and die. If she was a Vengeance Demon again, she would once again be immortal. Xander lives in fear that if things end badly between them, Anya has a thousand years of exacting vengeance against men under her belt. This is all foreshadowing not only Xander and Anya’s breakup and the fact that Anya will once again be a Vengeance Demon, but also the fact that Anya is still discovering who she is and what she wants, much like Xander.
Have you noticed that in Xander’s dream, everyone is always saying “way ahead of you” or something similar? That is because that’s how Xander feels - like everyone around him is further ahead in life than he is. Buffy and Willow are at college, Giles is the most intelligent man he knows, but where is Xander? Since leaving high school, Xander has literally made it as far as the basement.
Like with Joyce earlier, Xander sexually objectifies Willow and Tara in his dream. Notice that whenever a situation like this occurs, Joyce, Willow, and Tara say things to Xander of a sexual nature without their lips moving sometimes. This is because even in Xander’s dream, he knows deep down that they would never say these things to him. As I mentioned previously, Xander is objectifying the women in his life because he’s insecure about his sexuality. I don’t mean that he might be gay (although, Joss did contemplate this before ultimately turning Willow lesbian instead), I mean that Xander has zero self-worth and therefore feels like people would never act this way around him in real life.
Giles then starts speaking to Xander in French, which again is representing Xander’s feelings of inadequacy to those people around him. Everyone around him is speaking another language (their new college life), while Xander is running in place. For those of you unaware, here’s the translation for what Giles says :-
Giles: “The house where we’re all sleeping. All of your friends are having a wonderful time and getting on with their lives. The creature can’t hurt you there.”
Xander: “What? Go where? I don’t understand.”
Giles: “Oh, for God’s sake, this is no time for your idiotic games!”
Anya: “Xander you have to come with us, everybody’s waiting for you!”
Giles: “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell him.”
Of course, Xander takes the wrong direction and bumps into PRINCIPAL SNYDER. THE SNYDE-MAN IS BACK, BABY! In addition to Seth Green, this is also Armin Shimerman’s last appearance on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”. It’s like closing out the high school era! Just like he did in “Gingerbread” last season (“I love the smell of desperate librarian in the morning” is a paraphrase of “I love the smell of napalm in the morning”), Snyder quotes “Apocalypse Now”. Snyder asks Xander “where are you from?”, before reiterating Anya’s question earlier, “where are you heading?”. Xander, of course, makes a joke about heading towards females. Snyder tells Xander that the time for joking is over and that he must face his life. The truth is that Xander doesn’t want to face what’s after him. Not just the First Slayer, but his parents. He’s trying to run as far away from his parents as possible. Next, Snyder asks Xander is he’s a soldier, which is a call-back to Xander’s time as a solider in season two’s “Halloween”. Xander remarks that he’s a ‘comfortador’, not a solider, thus implying again that he’s a lover, not a fighter. Snyder tells Xander that he’s neither, but is instead a whipping boy that’s destined to turn into his parents. Xander runs away from Snyder after this comment and where does he find himself? Back in the basement.
This really gives you an insight into Xander’s mental state. No matter how hard he tries or how fast he runs, he always ends up back where he started...with his parents. Xander’s father appears at the top of the stairs and demands a reason why Xander refuses to go upstairs. Simply, Xander refuses to go upstairs because he refuses to become his parents. Xander is afraid that if he goes upstairs, he’ll turn into his mean-spirited, alcoholic, hateful father. This is the first time that we meet Xander’s father. Granted, it’s a dream, but it’s coming from Xander’s head so it’s an accurate picture (as we discover in “Hell’s Bells”). Seeing Xander’s father instantly makes you see why Xander acts the way he does. His insecurities, his using humour to cover up genuine emotions, his lack of self-esteem...they all stem from his parents, more specifically his father. His father is an aggressive, overly-masculine creature, which completely explains Xander’s obsession with being viewed as ‘manly’. Like Willow before him, Xander is killed by the First Slayer in a way that embodies his section of super-Buffy from “Primeval”. As Xander was the heart, the First Slayer kills him by ripping his heart out of his chest.
Giles
Giles’ dream is much shorter than Willow, Xander, and Buffy’s dreams because Giles’ insecurities are much less complex. Giles is an adult. He doesn’t need to find out who he is, he already knows that. Giles’ fears are tied up in his responsibilities...the Watcher vs. the man. How can he be a Watcher and have a life outside of that? Is he still needed by Buffy? Should he move on? Giles’ dream fittingly opens with a watch because that’s how Giles views his entire identity – a Watcher. Giles is dressed in full Watcher apparel. His old tweed jacket and glasses, which represents a time where Giles felt needed by his Slayer.
Soon after this, we see Giles, Buffy, and a pregnant Olivia strolling through a carnival. Much like in Xander’s dream earlier, Buffy is portrayed as a child. While Xander viewed Buffy as a younger sister that he needed to protect, Giles views Buffy as his child that he needs to protect. That’s how Giles views Buffy. Buffy is his daughter. Ugh, I’m being overwhelmed with feels right now. What’s also interesting is that in his dream, Giles is back with Olivia and she’s pregnant. Clearly, deep down, Giles doesn’t want to be a Watcher anymore. He wants to take Buffy away from a life of agony and young death and into a life of family and no mortal danger. Giles wants the traditional family life. A wife and children. Olivia makes reference to the fact that Buffy desperately wants to train, which brings us back to the other insecurity that Giles is having (how relevant he is to Buffy’s life now). It’s clear that Giles misses the connection he once had to Buffy. They’re still close, but Giles is no longer her mentor. Buffy is much more self-sufficient now. Giles misses training and shaping Buffy, which is understandable as Giles still feels like her father. The difference is that he no longer feels needed. Buffy didn’t tell Giles that Riley was a commando, Buffy didn’t tell Giles that she was dating Riley, Buffy didn’t tell Giles that Maggie Walsh was the head of The Initiative. Giles feels neglected and snubbed. Also, Buffy throws a ball at a vampire cut-out that’s labelled “Drac”. This is clearly foreshadowing Dracula’s arrival in the next episode.
It’s not lost on me that the first section of Giles’ dream is all about Buffy and the second section is all about him. Even in his dream, Giles is putting Buffy before himself. This is the reason why Giles hasn’t left Sunnydale already even though he’s been contemplating it. He wants to remain by Buffy’s side in case she needs him. Giles is directionless in Sunnydale and has no friends there, yet he remains in a location that makes him miserable because he wants to be there for his surrogate daughter, even though he feels as though she no longer needs him.
When Giles looks at Buffy and sees the reverse image of Buffy wearing the mud, he knows that the First Slayer is hunting them. The mud on Buffy’s face represents the Slayer side of her personality, the demon side where her darker instincts reside. Giles being the fastest to realise that something is hunting him and being the one to figure out that it’s the First Slayer is not surprising because Giles is the ‘mind’ aspect of super-Buffy. Giles has always been the font of all knowledge, the man who always knows what’s going on.
Next, Giles bizarrely ends up inside Spike’s crypt and Spike delivers the ultimate message behind Giles’ dream...
Spike: “You’ve got to make up your mind, Rupes. What are you wasting time for?”
That is what Giles has been wrestling with all season! Does he leave his Slayer behind and concentrate on his own needs or does he remain by her side where he feels he belongs? Giles continues to struggle with this decision over the next 12 months. In “Buffy vs. Dracula”, Giles has decided to leave Sunnydale, but soon after he makes this decision, Buffy confides in Giles that she needs him to be her Watcher again so he stays. After Buffy’s temporary death in “The Gift”, Giles does leave because he has no reason to stay in Sunnydale without her. Foreshadowy goodness. In addition to this, while inside Spike’s crypt, Olivia is crying and the pram that she’s been pushing around throughout Giles’ dream is knocked over. The way that Giles’ dream has played out makes me think that the pram represents Buffy’s childlike innocence. The pram being knocked over is foreshadowing Buffy’s loss of innocence after she’s torn out of heaven in “Bargaining Part One”. Before leaving Spike, Giles tells Spike that he still thinks that Buffy should have killed him. This is a notion that Giles maintains throughout the rest of the show and eventually leads him to conspire with Robin Wood to try and kill Spike in “Lies My Parents Told Me”.
Giles sings the exposition for this episode and explains what is happening. What did Joss decide to call this song? “The Exposition Song”. How creative. As I’ve mentioned before, any episode that involves Anthony Head singing is instantly a million times better. I’ve heard him sing live, guys. His voice is so soothing. If you listen to Joss’ DVD commentary for the episode, you will know that Giles’ song here was the inspiration behind “Once More With Feeling” 18 months later. This, coupled with Shakespeare readings at Joss’ house, made Joss realise what a talented cast he had at his disposal musically and the seeds for a musical Buffy episode were planted.
After following a trail of wires from The Bronze’s stage to the backstage area, Giles becomes fully aware that the First Slayer is behind him (before this moment, Giles knew that a primal force was hunting them, but he wasn’t sure exactly what that force was). Before the First Slayer slices Giles’ head open (yet again, in a way that represents Giles as the ‘mind’ of the super-Buffy in the last episode), Giles mentions to the First Slayer that she never had a Watcher. To Giles, of course, this means everything. Potentially, without his guidance, this is what Buffy could have become. Both Buffy and the First Slayer have the same primitive, vicious nature inside themselves. The most significant difference between the two is that Buffy has Giles, her mother, and her friends to keep her grounded. That’s what this whole episode is about! Should the Slayer work alone (the First Slayer) or should she use the people around her to help (Buffy)?
Buffy
“Restless” is the catalyst for Buffy wanting to delve deeper into the history of Slayers and her power throughout the 5th season of the show. What does it mean to be a Slayer? Where does her power come from? How did the other Slayers operate and die? For four years now, Buffy has been the Slayer and defended the Hellmouth, but what does that mean? Until this episode, we’ve been told nothing about the Slayer’s power being shrouded in darkness, nor about the fact that a Slayer’s power originally stems from a demon. More so than the other three, Buffy’s dream gives us what’s to come for the remaining three seasons. Buffy and Riley’s breakup? Foreshadowed here. Joyce’s death? Foreshadowed here. Dawn’s arrival? Foreshadowed here. Buffy’s death? Foreshadowed here.
Buffy’s dream opens with Anya in Willow’s dorm room bed, begging Buffy to wake up. Why is Anya there? Is she pleading with Buffy to wake up from this particular dream or is it something else? It could be about this particular dream, as Anya is the only Scooby other than Tara that hasn’t been killed in dreamland by the First Slayer. Going down an entirely different avenue here, Anya could be pleading with Buffy to wake from her grave in “Bargaining Part One”. Perhaps Anya wants Buffy to ‘wake up’ (return from Heaven) because the world has gone to shit without her. Anya is one of the Scoobies responsible for bringing Buffy back from the grave, after all. Buffy telling Anya that she doesn’t want to wake up would also fit this theory. Buffy was happy and at peace in Heaven (notice that Buffy is covered in sunlight before Anya wakes her up), why would she want to wake up? Joss had definitely already decided that Buffy was going to die in the season five finale by this point, so it’s certainly a feasible theory.
Buffy: “Faith and I just made that bed.”
This is in reference to Buffy and Faith’s dream sequence at the beginning of “Graduation Day Part Two”. During that dream, Buffy and Faith were seen making a bed because “little sis’ is coming”. THAT WAS TWO SEASONS BEFORE DAWN’S DEBUT! I swear, this episode is like a continuity lover’s wet dream. Tara arrives and acts as a guide for the First Slayer. Why Tara? If you listen to the “Restless” commentary, Joss answers that very question. He chose Tara because she was barely used in this episode and because Tara had an air of mystery that the other Scoobies simply didn’t. Plus, you know, Tara and Anya are the only people that he could realistically use anyway and Tara makes more sense than Anya. Tara, acting as the First Slayer, explains to Buffy that she can’t find her friends because she’s lost them. This becomes a recurring theme in Buffy’s dream. Buffy can’t find her friends because the First Slayer is adamant that a Slayer should act alone and not have friends at all...like Kendra in a lot of ways. Kendra was very much a traditional Slayer. No friends, no family she was allowed to see, and her entire life was about slaying. She wasn’t allowed to date or even talk to boys. I bet the First Slayer would have loved Kendra. She’d have visited Kendra in a dream to simply give her a thumbs-up and a winning smile.
Buffy then glances towards the clock from her dream sequence with Faith in “Graduation Day Part Two”. It still reads 7:30. At that time, 7:30 was a countdown to Buffy’s death in “The Gift” (730 days). Tara tells Buffy that the clock is completely wrong, which makes sense as there are now only 365 days until Buffy’s death. You can’t have 3:65 on a clock. Tara gives Buffy the ‘Manus’ Tarot card (representing her as the ‘hand’ of super-Buffy in the last episode) and states this very important piece of dialogue...
Tara: “You think you know, what’s to come, what you are, you haven’t even begun.”
This is a line that Dracula later repeats to Buffy in the next episode. The meaning behind this is much more simple than most of this episode. Buffy has no idea what a Slayer is all about, where her power comes from, or what the future will hold for her. Unlike Buffy’s quest in season five, Buffy isn’t ready to learn about the history of Slayers yet. Instead, she goes on a quest to find her friends, the one piece of her life that keeps her from becoming a more traditional Slayer. Buffy is rejecting the essence of her Slayer side because she’s more attached to the human side of herself. For four years we’ve witnessed Buffy want nothing more than to be a ‘regular girl’. She doesn’t want to be the Slayer, she doesn’t want to be the Chosen One. By the end of season five, Buffy’s mind has changed entirely. Buffy realises that death is her gift to the world and she sacrifices herself to save it. Buffy grows to appreciate her Slayer side and wants to learn more about it and her power. “Restless” is actually the reason why Buffy wants to learn more about being the Slayer. Alas, that hasn’t happened yet, so Buffy leaves to find her friends. As Buffy is departing, Tara gives us a very simple piece of foreshadowing for the end of “Buffy vs. Dracula”...
Tara: “Be back before dawn.”
She obviously doesn’t mean the time of day, she’s referring to Dawn Summers.
While searching for her friends, Buffy comes across Joyce in one of the walls at U.C. Sunnydale. I feel that this represents two things...
1) Since Buffy moved away to college, Buffy and Joyce aren’t as close anymore. Understandably so, Buffy is wrapped up in her new world with her new boyfriend. At the conclusion of “This Year’s Girl” earlier this season, Faith noted that Buffy has forgotten about both Faith and Joyce because of her exciting new life. Notice that Joyce is inside a wall of U.C. Sunnydale, the thing that has taken Buffy away from her? This is all that Joyce can see now. A snippet of her daughter’s life.
2) Joyce being inside a wall and partially insane is foreshadowing the mental health problems that Joyce will develop during the next season.
Next up during Buffy’s search for the Scoobies is Riley and a human-looking Adam. Riley instantly refers to Buffy as a “killer”. This is interesting because it’s something that we’ve seen both Buffy and Faith struggle with before. Is a Slayer simply a killer? Is a Slayer better than a regular human? Do they require a different set of laws? This also represents the struggles that Buffy and Riley will have in the next season. Riley can never learn to cope with the Slayer side of Buffy. He can’t deal with Buffy being stronger and more powerful than him. He wants the human side of Buffy, but not the Slayer side. Eventually, Riley gets fed up of feeling like Buffy is keeping him at a distance and departs Sunnydale. Furthermore, the talk about Riley still being part of The Initiative is Buffy’s worries that Riley will easily be led into a lifestyle involving the government again, which is exactly what happens in the next season. Buffy fears that The Initiative is so ingrained into Riley’s life that he’ll never truly be able to leave it. She’s correct.
The focus then shifts to Adam, who is human here. Adam tells Buffy that she’s uncomfortable with her Slayer essence and superpower abilities. Like Buffy, Adam has superpowers and has an element of demon that resides within him. Of course, Buffy isn’t aware of it yet (nor are we), but Buffy does have demon inside of her. Like Tara before him, Adam’s words are partially coming from the First Slayer. The First Slayer appears behind Buffy for a section of Adam’s speech. When Buffy asks Adam (the First Slayer) what his name used to be, he says that no-one knows. This is fitting with the First Slayer theory because we genuinely don’t know the First Slayer’s name. What was she called? What was her life like before a demon was forced inside of her? Nobody knows.
What happens next is basically a mini-version of Buffy’s journey throughout season five...Buffy opens a leather bag and pulls the mud out that we’ve seen in Willow, Xander, and Giles’ dreams. As I mentioned before, the mud represents the Slayer side of Buffy’s identity. It’s also the same leather bag that Robin Wood gives to Buffy in season seven’s “Get It Done”. A bag that has been handed down from Slayer to Slayer as an emergency kit that would allow the current Slayer to have more demon put inside of her so that she’d be more powerful. Upon discovering the mud on Buffy’s face, Riley tells Buffy “I guess you’re on your own”, calls her a “killer” again, and then disappears into the darkness. No guess work needed on this one, Riley is foreshadowing his departure in “Into The Woods”. It’s not just that Riley is leaving, it’s that he’s leaving because of the Slayer nature of Buffy. He’s telling Buffy here that her Slayer nature is too much for him to handle so he’s leaving.
Keeping in theme with Buffy’s journey throughout season five, after Riley disappears from Buffy’s view, she finds herself in the middle of a desert. This is the same desert that Buffy goes to in order to speak to the First Slayer, where the First Slayer reveals to Buffy that death is her gift. Buffy goes to this desert in the next season just after Riley leaves, just like her dream here. I’ve always found it pretty cool that we get to meet the first ever Slayer and the First Evil on “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”. We get to see the First Evil in action, which shows us why the First Slayer was created in the first place. Awesome stuff.
It’s at this point that we finally get to the crux of the episode. Buffy arrives in the desert in an attempt to get her friends back from the First Slayer. Through Tara, the First Slayer explains to Buffy who she is and that Buffy is supposed to act alone. A Slayer is supposed to live, act, and die alone. No ties to the world, no friends. Buffy counters this argument by telling the First Slayer that she has friends who’ve helped her and that she needs them. The First Slayer tells Buffy that Buffy didn’t come all the way to the desert to find her friends, she went there to find out more about her Slayer nature. To a certain extent, this is true. After this episode and the things she learns during this dream sequence, Buffy is certainly more aware and focused on discovering what it means to be a Slayer. In “Buffy vs. Dracula”, we see Buffy ‘hunting’ for the first time as opposed to patrolling. Is Buffy destined to be as isolated as the First Slayer? More importantly, should she be as isolated? Is having friends beneficial to the world that Buffy is trying to protect? They’ve helped Buffy before, but they’ve also been a hindrance as Buffy has to worry about saving their lives. Is she less focused because of them? The First Slayer tells Buffy that a Slayer is not a human and does not walk in a human world. She should fight, live, and die alone (notice how often the word ‘alone’ has been used during this review?). Then, Buffy Summers comes through. She tells the First Slayer that she belongs in the human world and that she wants her friends back. Now.
The interesting thing here is that Buffy doesn’t kill the First Slayer. She eliminates the First Slayer by ignoring her and waking from her dream. This ultimately resolves nothing. The burning questions that she has about her powers are still there. Buffy is a completely unique Slayer in that she operates with friends and family around her, but ultimately she must walk the Earth alone. Jumping forward to season seven’s “Selfless”, Buffy tells Xander that she is the law and she alone has to make the hard decisions. That certainly sounds more like the First Slayer than Buffy Summers. I CANNOT WAIT to go through the journey of season five alongside Buffy as she discovers exactly what it means to be a Vampire Slayer.
Buffy wakes from her dream and in doing so the First Slayer’s power is broken. Remember, it was the enjoining spell in “Primeval” that caused all of this mess in the first place...
Buffy: “You know, you could have brought that up to us before we did it.”
Giles: “I did. I said there could be dire consequences.”
Buffy: “Yes, but you say that about chewing too fast.”
I love that Xander is now uncomfortable around Joyce.
The episode closes with Buffy looking into what will become Dawn’s room, on a line that we heard earlier in the episode...“you think you know, what’s to come, what you are, you haven’t even begun.”, which sets up the next season of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” nicely. The interesting thing about this finale is that it resolved nothing. Joss spent 42 minutes dissecting his primary four characters, only to tell them (and us) that they have no idea what’s to come and that they aren’t prepared for it. Hold me?
Well, what a fantastic episode! If you’ve made it through all 18 A4-pages of the review, I commend you. I hope you’ve enjoyed dissecting and reliving this masterpiece as much as I have. If you have your own theories on the episode, please let me know in the comments section!
Quote Of The Episode
Giles: “A Watcher scoffs at gravity.”
Best. Line. Ever.
FINAL SCORE: 10/10
What are your thoughts on "Restless"? Did you enjoy this episode? Dislike it? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments section below!
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Brilliant! Like to say more but its nearly midnight and i have to be up early. Just had to read it all though. Really enjoyed this one, great writing. Christina
ReplyDeleteI like the connection you made between Miss Kitty Fantastico and the First Slayer. Very interesting! That would have never occurred to me.
ReplyDeleteAlso, this post represents some enviable, comprehensive Buffy knowledge.
Great review
ReplyDeleteI hated this episode the first time I saw it. Felt such a let down after the battle and the awesome enjoining spell.
Now I like that the season ended like this...stuff (normality) always happens after big battles and it amuses me highly that the scoobies chill with a movie and popcorn night.
I found Willows dream fairly simple to understand. Xanders was sad and a bit long for me. Gile's dream made me sad! I also read the empty pram as him giving up his normality...no chance really of wife/kids/being a grocer because of his responsibilities.
Buffy's dream I found odd and didn't really *get* it until season 5.
interesting episode, definitely not one of my favourites but typically Joss and therefore very thought provoking. In what other tv show do you get such subtle analysis of characters and plot??!!!
I thought it was very mind boggling when I first watched it :p But I really liked the dream-like qualities of this episode. My favourite part was definitely Giles singing!
ReplyDeleteAs always, awesome review Shane! It's a great episode, and you truly do it justice.
ReplyDeleteSorry Shangel, still HATED this ep, I kept waiting for something to happen and what I expected to happen DIDN'T. I guess I am used to the formulaic cliff hanger season finale. However like you I am going to dissect my comment to explain my hatred for this ep.
ReplyDeleteWillow is still the same insecure kid she was in HS. We get lots of clues about this during the season. Particularly in Fear Itself. I found it particularly poignant that Tara and Oz were portrayed as dating in Willow's dream. This could suggest that Willow is bisexual and NOT a lesbian, as I have heard others argue. OR it could suggest that Oz and Tara love Willow unconditionally.just as she is and are willing to help her through her insecurities. I tend to believe the latter. This dream shows that a witch as powerful as Willow is becoming still has insecurities She feels she needs to hide her gf from the group and her reliance soon to be addiction to magic. I found the costume metaphor interesting. Thinking that without the confident act she would lose Tara and be unable to make new friends. Notice the suit of armor she wore in Fear Itself
Xander as the every man has a dream that every audience member can relate to, the fear of becoming our parents. Funny that Joyce the parent he likes and trusts hits on him. Perhaps this is foreshadowing his serious relationship with Anya. He had trust issues with her and technically she is older than him. As Shangel mentioned Xander objectifies even women he has NO CHANCE with Buffy, Willow, Tara. He is intimidated by men. Spike, Xander and Giles. All of whom treat him as if he is "less than." Only Oz halfway respected Xander, even AFTER he and Willow had their little tryst in season 2. Riley was a new character at the time and seemed to want to keep Xander at arms length because he was the only male in the group that was suitable in age to Buffy and had known her a long time. Jealous much? Giles chooses Spike over Xander as a mentor because in Xander's mind even Spike has more value to the team than he does, despite the fact that he has been there since the beginning, despite the fact that HE saved Buffy's life in Prophecy Girl, got Buffy out of her funk in The Freshman he still feels very much The Zeppo. This dream pounds into our head what Spike said in the Yoko Factor. "All your friends are going to university and you've made it as far as the basement."
It can be argued that the way Xander is killed is by having his heart broken by not being able to escape what he thinks is his destiny, becoming like his parents, not having a purpose in the world or to the group.
Continued from Anonymous above:
ReplyDeleteRipper- In a lot of ways this is the saddest dream of all. Like Shangel mentioned Giles is an adult so he should have less insecurities. But his insecurities are adult ones. Do I put myself or my child first and in putting myself first am I helping or hurting my child? If I don't take care of myself how can I take care of said child? In closing it is interesting to note that Giles mentions the First Slayer never had a Watcher, or father figure. So she was essentially alone, like Faith was in Sunnydale until the mayor and then he was no more. Perhaps the early council learned eventually that Slayers need Watchers not only for physical training and knowledge but also to give them a tie to the human world. Slayers may have the heart of a demon (as we learn in season 7) but they are human. Buffy had many ties to the world friends, family, a Watcher (two, unofficially in season 2), a social life, boyfriends, an education, brains etc. Speaking of brains
The First Slayer attacked his head which in a sense is better than him getting knocked out...
And now to our heroine, yes having Anya plead for Buffy to wake up could mean she needed to wake up to what was going on around her with her friends and their insecurities or it could be a foreshadowing element as Shangel mentioned.
Our heroine goes through the same struggles she has had since WTTH. Am I a normal girl or the Slayer shall the twain ever meet? Well obviously she is both. At the beginning of this rant I mentioned I kept waiting for something to happen. Joss doesn't have the First Slayer defeated just ignored. I would have preferred if she was absorbed as if to say yes I am Buffy Summers AND I am the Slayer. In Joss' sense the issue is never resolved and Buffy cannot face that part of herself until much later in the series. As far as the much debated meaning of the Cheeseman I suspect that is what he was literally showing us with ALL the characters dissected in this ep. Willow is both the insecure girl and the emerging powerful wicca. Xander is both the insecure boy cracking jokes AND later the confident construction (very manly job there Harris) worker. Giles is BOTH the independent man and a father figure. I found this THE weakest finale of this show and any other after season one.
You mentioned Restless like 4 times in your new review and I decided to read this one too. Again, great job! I didn't like this episode that much, and now I need to watch it again.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I really don't know what "A Watcher scoffs at gravity" means. You need to tell me!
Clari
I hate this because I absolutely does not like this episode. I feel it's weird and boring and messy and I can't see the brilliance others sees!!
ReplyDeleteI have to lean towards your side of the opinion of this episode. I do not understand the love for this episode. That being said, Shangel's review did shed some much needed light on it and I can see the appreciation for this episode. I was surprised he didn't mention that during Xander's dream when he first saw Giles that Giles was talking to a woman. I always thought that woman was Jenny Calendar.
DeleteI give your flawless dissection of this incredible episode a 10/10.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I disagree with you on one point. The poignancy of the cheese man. "The cheese stands alone". That's what I always took from it, anyway... :)