Buffy The Vampire Slayer, "Into The Woods" Review (5x10)

Brief Synopsis: “Joyce’s surgery is a success! In celebration, Dawn spends the night at Xander and Anya’s house so that Buffy and Riley can spend a romantic night together. When Riley sneaks out the house in the middle of the night, Spike follows him and shows the Slayer just what her boyfriend has been getting up to recently.”


"Listening To Fear" (5x09) quick link here                                                                                                                   "Triangle" (5x11) quick link here

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With that being said, let’s get started, shall we?



I know that Riley isn’t the most loved character by the fandom, but I’ve always been a fan of his. In fact, in my teenage years, I would have considered myself a big fan of his. Therefore, I’ve been dreading rewatching this episode for a while now. There are some episodes that I’m dreading, but am also thirsty to write about, like “The Body” or “The Gift”. This is not one of those episodes. I hate it when Scoobies leave or are stolen away from us. This episode is every bit as heartbreaking as “Wild At Heart” for me because Buffy doesn’t have the wonderful arms of Tara to fall into quickly afterwards. Buffy spends the majority of the remainder of this season alone and struggling to fight Glory, her mother’s death, and dealing with her sister’s teenage angst. As I’ve mentioned before, characters dying sucks. Like, really sucks. However, they’re taken from us against their will. Both Oz and Riley voluntarily choose to leave Sunnydale (and by extension us), which in some ways is harder to swallow than death. Death is inevitable (way to cheer your audience up, Shangel!), death is often not up to the person that passes away, but leaving is. “Into The Woods” focuses on the breakup of Riley and Buffy’s rocky relationship, resulting in Riley leaving Sunnydale forever (almost), Buffy being heartbroken, and numerous terrific dialogue exchanges involving Buffy, Riley, Xander, and Spike. What makes this episode work is the conversations. Buffy and Riley have a big conversation about Riley allowing vampires to bite him, which means that all this under-the-surface drama that’s been bubbling away all season is brought to boiling point. Plus, Xander and Buffy have one of the best conversations of the season, Riley and Spike have a very interesting conversation about Buffy’s mental state regarding her attractions, and Xander makes me melt (in a manly way, of course) with his little love speech to Anya at the end of the episode. To conclude, I CANNOT CONTAIN ALL THIS EMOTION AND I FEEL LIKE I’M ABOUT TO EXPLODE! WHY, WHY DOES THIS HAVE TO HAPPEN WHILE “ANGEL” IS DEALING WITH “THE TRIAL” AND “REUNION”?! WHY ARE BOTH SHOWS SO EMOTIONALLY DRAINING AT THE MOMENT?! WHERE’S DEXTER MORGAN, I NEED A SEDATIVE!

Another interesting point to raise is that as Riley flies away from Sunnydale and the show, so does a certain lighter, carefree aspect of Buffy’s character. From this point until the end of the show, Buffy Summers isn’t the same character. Buffy becomes more shrouded in darkness. Dracula knew it, Spike knows it, and Buffy is discovering it too. With her mother’s imminent death and her own death looming at the end of the season, Buffy comes back a darker person. One that’s more about the big picture and less about sitting around happily with her friends. At Sunnydale High and college, Buffy was the Slayer and had responsibilities, but she also had time for a social life and some fun at the same time. She went on dates, she had movie nights with Willow and Xander, she went to the cinema, and she had quality family time with Joyce...that aspect of her character disappears almost entirely from this point forth. It doesn’t disappear altogether, but it is certainly on screen significantly less in seasons 5-7 than it is in seasons 1-4. In short, Buffy is forced to grow up. She’s already had to grow up a lot because of her Slayer responsibilities, but Riley’s departure mixed with Joyce’s death and her own death forces Buffy to grow up emotionally. She had a young teenage sister to raise and she has to deal with her own mortality. While this character growth is wonderful, I sometimes miss the Buffy Summers that was able to have a little more fun.

The episode opens with Joyce’s surgery at the end of “Listening To Fear” being a complete success! Woohoo! Everything is right in the world again!...those misleading, mean bastards. The ol’ bait and switch. Joyce has a brain tumour and might die...no wait, she’s fine...no wait, she’s dead from complications. I hate Joss sometimes.

The first half of season five is odd in that some of the characters serve very little purpose in the first 10 episodes at all. The show puts a lot of time and energy into establishing Dawn, exploiting Riley and Buffy’s struggles, and addressing Giles and Xander’s problems throughout season four, but it’s at the expense of Willow, Tara, and Anya getting very little screen time. Outside of “Family”, what has Willow done in season five thus far? Bearing in mind we’re halfway through the season, Willow has never had so little to do. Give Alyson Hannigan more screen time or I’ll riot. You have been warned. Luckily, the next episode has a lot of Willow and Anya time, so I can go back to joyous.

To celebrate Joyce’s good news, Xander and Anya take Dawn home with them for the night to give Buffy and Riley some ‘alone time’...

Dawn: “‘Alone time’ always translates into ‘let's get Dawn out of the house so we can have loud, obnoxious sex.’”
Anya (to Xander): “Does that mean we can't?”

Oh, Anya...please never develop tact.

Buffy and Riley’s celebratory romantic night is wonderful. It’s the last great moments between these two characters that have been dating for a year. Just when it appears that they’re on the same page again and might just be okay after all, the show tears them apart and stomps on the hearts of Biley (terrible pairing name) or Ruffy (worse) shippers everywhere...no, really, there are at least 12 of them out there. Riley tells Buffy that he’s proud of her for the way she’s handled her mother’s tumour and how impressed he is that she stayed so strong and didn’t even cry. Buffy remarks that she did cry – a lot – and the look that crosses Riley’s face is one of shock and confusion. Buffy never once cried in front of him or expressed how deep her fears were. You can see in that moment that Riley has realised how little Buffy needs him and how little she confides in him. You can literally see the pain streak across his face. Great facial expressions by Marc Blucas! This episode is arguably his best acting on the show (he’s always been great though) and it comes just at the right moment. In my opinion, here is the biggest problem in Riley and Buffy’s relationship. Above the biting, above Buffy being drawn to darkness, above Riley being insecure that Buffy is stronger than him...Riley is much more invested in the relationship than Buffy is. Buffy is a 19-year-old young woman and she isn’t in love with Riley. She has feelings for him, sure, but she isn’t ready for a commitment. She has responsibilities and the fate of the world to contend with. Plus, she’s nineteen! Very few nineteen years olds are ready for a huge commitment. Riley, on the other hand, is besotted with Buffy and would do anything for her, but he’s given up on the relationship because he knows that Buffy doesn’t feel the same way about him. He wants to marry Buffy. To have little Slayer babies and live in a nice house with a tea cosy, just like his perfect family life in Iowa. Buffy isn’t someone he can have that with, but he loves her and he wants it. He knows that Buffy isn’t ready for that and if she was it probably wouldn’t be him that she chose. So, he starts acting out like a child. He allows himself to be bitten by vampires to escape his problems and to see why vampires and darkness holds such power over his girlfriend. Why do these soulless creatures grab her attention and affection (in Angel’s case), but he can’t? Is he not good enough? Was Spike right, is he not dark enough? All of these questions go into Riley’s decision to allow himself to be bitten.

After their romantic evening together, Riley sneaks out of the house to go and get his adrenaline fix from the skanky vampire hoes. Spike, who is outside stalking Buffy (not creepy at all), witnesses this and wakes Buffy up to take her to where Riley has snuck away to. What a great plan for winning the fair maiden’s heart, Spike! Take her to see her boyfriend being sucked by a vampire. I’m sure that’ll earn you major brownie points with the Slayer! He really is a fool for love.

Buffy entering the abandoned house and discovering Riley getting his ‘fix’ is an obvious parallel to drug addiction. It started out with Riley allowing it to happen once and now he needs the vampires to feed on him to feel alive and needed. If he goes too long without it, he starts to crave it...just like a drug addict. I’ve recently been on a “Breaking Bad” binge, so I was half expecting Jesse to be in that house somewhere using blue meth. Buffy’s reacts to this discovery with anger and rage. One of the major differences between our two leading Buffyverse heroes is that when Buffy is facing hardship, she explodes outwardly, whereas Angel implodes internally. Angel takes the pain, keeps it to himself, and broods through the hurt. Buffy lashes out physically and verbally to work through her pain. The funny thing about this episode is that neither character is wrong (outside of Riley allowing himself to be bitten, I mean). Riley’s insecurities about Buffy are not unfounded. Buffy does keep him at arm’s length.  She doesn’t treat him much like a boyfriend this season. However, she’s distracted! Her mother has a brain tumour and she’s recently found out that her sister isn’t really her sister, but a big ball of energy. Plus, ya know, Glory drama. I understand Riley is feeling insecure, but man the fuck up, dude! You want attention? Look at your girlfriend’s life! She has a lot on her plate right now and doesn’t have the extra energy to feed your ego at the same time. If you want attention, ASK! That is Riley’s biggest mistake all season! He pouts and whines and feels sorry for himself, but he does nothing to improve his situation. Why didn’t he talk to Buffy about how he was feeling before getting so wound up that he needed to be bitten by vampires to feel better? Wouldn’t that have been the intelligent, adult thing to do? Buffy runs out of the abandoned house and into the night.

Soon after this, Graham and the Initiative offer Riley a choice to be someone again. To have a purpose outside of his crumbling relationship. Let’s not forget, Riley gave up The Initiative for Buffy. In “New Moon Rising” he chose to save Oz and turn his back on his career because of Buffy. Who is Riley outside of his relationship with Buffy? He has no identity anymore. He’s “Buffy’s boyfriend”, but what else is he? Who is he? He has no job, no career, no friends that we know of. Graham wants Riley to rejoin The Initiative and have a mission again. This proposal is appealing to Riley because he’s fully aware that all he has left in life is Buffy and that she doesn’t love him. So, all he can do is try one last time to get Buffy’s attention. Buffy witnessing him and the vampire hoe means that he’s forced to discuss his problems with their relationship in the open. He’s got one last chance. Get everything off his chest and see if Buffy really does love him. If she doesn’t, he can leave with The Initiative and have a purpose again.

While Riley is pondering The Initiative’s proposal, Buffy is working through her anger by having a spot of, you guessed it, violence. Buffy decimates seven or eight vampires in very quick succession before staking the vampire that she saw draining her boyfriend’s blood. It looked like it was a very therapeutic experience for her, which isn’t necessarily a good thing.

Before going to talk to Buffy, Riley pays a visit to Spike’s crypt and STAKES SPIKE! For a moment there, for one brief second, I yelped. Like a puppy whose tail had just been trodden on. I thought it was over. I thought it was real and that Spike was nothing but dust to be swept away. Understandably so, Riley wants revenge for Spike taking Buffy to the abandoned house. The conversation here between these two characters is fascinating, especially when you consider Riley’s brief return in the next season to discover Buffy sleeping with Spike...

Spike: “Look at you, all afraid I'm hot for your honey.”
Riley: “Because you are.”
Spike: “Well, yeah. But that's not your problem. Even if I wasn't in the picture, you're never going to be able to hold onto her.”
.......................................
Spike: “The girl needs some monster in her man and that's not in your nature. No matter how low you try to go.”
Riley: “You actually think you've got a shot with her?”
Spike: “No, I don't. Fella's gotta try, though. Gotta do what he can.”
Riley: “If you touched her, you know I'd kill you for real.”
Spike: “I had this chip outta my head, I'da killed you long ago. Ain't love grand? Sometimes I envy you so much it chokes me...and sometimes I think I got the better deal. To be that close to her and not have her. To be all alone even when you're holding her. Feeling her, feeling her beneath you, surrounding you, the scent...no, you got the better deal.”

In an odd sort of way, I think these two characters have a mutual respect for each other. They certainly don’t like each other, but they know where they stand with each other. Spike is right, Riley isn’t dark enough for Buffy. Buffy has always been and will always be attracted to a certain darkness. Perhaps it’s because of the demon essence of the Slayer, but Buffy needs a little darkness in her man. That’s not Riley. Riley is a corn-fed Iowa boy. Raised to be respectful to everyone and always have a polite word for your parents. On the other hand, Spike knows he has no chance with Buffy. He knows that Buffy despises him most of the time, but he’s still attracted to her anyway because that’s who Spike is. A fool for love, always searching for what he can’t have, always obsessed with Vampire Slayers and looking for the next big fight. So here these two characters are. Both loving the Slayer and both knowing that they’ll never have her heart. Who’s feeling happy and inspired?

This leads us swiftly into the big conversation between Riley and Buffy, which ultimately is the heart of the episode. This discussion has been coming for a long time. Some of these issues date back as far as season four’s “The Yoko Factor”. When Riley first allowed the vampires to bite him, it was a stupid, immature game because he feels as though Buffy ‘let’ Dracula bite her...I guess he forgot about Dracula’s thrall. He wanted to know why Angel and Dracula have access to this aspect of his girlfriend that he can’t reach. He was downtrodden and feeling directionless, so he turned to something that he thought might give him some answers. Was it idiotic? HELL YES! Do I understand it? HELL YES! After a while, Riley started to need the vampires because they made him feel needed, something that he’d been craving from Buffy, but not receiving. The vampires needed Riley’s blood to live and thrive (well, to a certain extent). They craved Riley, desired Riley, and made him feel like he was serving a purpose. What has Riley been craving from Buffy all season? Attention, affection, and the desire to feel important and needed. The vampires that he allowed to drain his blood were ticking those boxes for him that Buffy was unable to. Again, I go back to the fact that he should have stopped being a whiny bitch and just talked to Buffy, but at the same time I can’t help but feel a little sorry for him. Who can’t empathise with his situation? He’s madly in love with his girlfriend, but she doesn’t love him back. It’s not the easiest situation to be in. He handled it terribly, but I don’t envy the position he was in. Buffy, again, reacts to this conversation with anger and rage (understandably so). She’s unwilling to admit that her Slayer nature makes it hard to have a real relationship outside of darkness, which it does. Look at Scott Hope! Buffy being distracted by Angel’s return (a vampire) and her responsibilities as the Slayer is why he dumped her. Granted, he was a douche, but there is a pattern here. There’s a part of Buffy that regular, human men like Scott and Riley can’t touch. Call it her demon essence, call it her Slayer side, but Buffy does hold back with the human men she dates. Certainly more so than she does with Angel and Spike. She doesn’t let Riley in (which he says here), she doesn’t allow herself to be in a position to be truly hurt again like she was when Angel left her. It’s not her fault at all! She’s the Slayer. Think of the amount of pressure and responsibility that she’s had on her shoulders in this season alone!...mother’s illness, Dawn not being her sister, Glory, patrolling...she has bigger issues to deal with than her boyfriend being clingy. However, Riley doesn’t know half of this! Buffy hasn’t told Riley about Dawn, she hasn’t told Riley about a lot of things that she’s been battling. Honestly, they both SUCK at communicating. Buffy tells Riley that she’s given him everything she has – heart, body, and soul. Riley’s response might just sum up their relationship problems the best...“you say that, but I don't feel it. I just don't feel it”. I can see why he feels that way. Riley realises in this moment that it’s over, but he’s still unwilling to walk away without one last attempt. He tells Buffy that he’s leaving with The Initiative unless she gives him a reason to stay. He wants Buffy to fight for him, to show him that she does love him and is going to try to make it work. Buffy leaves the training room of The Magic Box, which leads us to yet another magnificent conversation...

Xander, who has slowly been turning into the man who sees everything, realises that Buffy and Riley are imploding and tries to open Buffy’s eyes to the situation from an outside perspective. Xander is the only person except Riley who saw this coming. Seven episodes ago, Riley confided in Xander that Buffy doesn’t love him and since then Xander has seen Riley drift further and further away. Xander doesn’t tell Buffy to go after Riley, what he tells Buffy to do is think about what she could be losing. There’s no denying that Buffy has never truly let Riley into her heart. Buffy admits this herself later in the season. Buffy has always kept Riley at a distance, especially in this season. Xander is telling Buffy this! Buffy has been treating Riley as the ‘rebound guy’. Since Angel walked away from Buffy, she shut down emotionally. She closed herself off from love. Xander explains to Buffy that if given the chance, Riley could be the best thing that ever happened to her. We’ll never know for sure as Buffy never truly let Riley in, but I personally don’t think that Xander is correct. In my opinion, Riley couldn’t deal with having a girlfriend who was stronger than he was, but who can say for sure? Xander lays everything on the table for Buffy and allows her to make an informed decision before it’s too late...if she doesn’t have the feelings for Riley that Riley needs from her, let him go and start a new life. If she can truly love Riley and let him into her heart, think about what she’s about to lose forever. Xander just wants to make sure that Buffy is fully aware of what she’s giving up before it’s too late. I don’t see this conversation as Xander telling Buffy to go after Riley, I see it as Xander telling Buffy to make sure she’s doing the thing that is best for her because Riley is about to leave Sunnydale, potentially forever, and he doesn’t want Buffy to live with that regret.

When you think about it that way, Xander’s speech to Buffy is absolutely beautiful. Xander used to be so immature and self-serving. He wanted Buffy to be with him at all costs and used to dislike every guy that got close to Buffy because he wanted Buffy for himself. Now, he’s here for entirely selfless reasons, making sure that Buffy doesn’t let a guy leave her life forever unless that’s what she wants. The amount of maturing and growing that Xander has done over the past two years is staggering. He’s certainly come a long way since “kick his ass” three years previously. I just can’t say enough good things about this speech. Plus, it leads to Xander assessing his own feelings for Anya and he goes home to proclaim his love for her in another amazing moment. So many Xander feels in this episode! Time and time again, Xander is the only Scooby that is always there for Buffy. Ever since season one’s “The Harvest”, when Buffy went down into the sewers to save Jesse, Xander has been Buffy’s shadow. He’s always been there to protect her. Not just physically (he usually fails at that part), not just bringing her back from the dead, but emotionally as well...more so than Willow and more so than Giles, in my humble opinion. Buffy tears up at Xander’s speech and runs after Riley...

In a scene that breaks the hearts of Biley fans and warms the hearts of Riley haters, Buffy arrives seconds too late and Riley leaves Sunnydale in a helicopter. In an odd way I’m okay with it. Riley’s story had come full circle and Buffy Summers and “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” was outgrowing him. The show had naturally reached the end of Riley’s story and it was time for Buffy to exit her ‘normal’ relationship and head back into that much loved darkness. As I’ve mentioned before, outside of the biting, nobody is to blame for this one. Some people aren’t well suited and sometimes relationships end simply because the chemistry isn’t right. This breakup is a perfect example of this. Oh, one final comment...Riley, when you’re riding away in a helicopter FOREVER, LOOK THE FUCK DOWN AS YOU LEAVE! THAT WAS SO FRUSTRATING TO WATCH! I can’t help but wonder though, what if Buffy and Riley were still together during “The Gift”? How would Riley have reacted to Buffy’s death? What role would he have played?

Goodbye, Agent Riley Finn. While a great portion of the fandom dislikes you, I will miss writing about you because if nothing else you were a fascinating character that always gave me a lot to work with. I’ll be seeing you next season. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go run through all these feels.


Quote Of The Episode

I’m picking two for this episode and it’s a Xander-fest...

Xander: “If you don't wanna hear what I have to say, I'll shut up right now.”
Buffy: “Good, ‘cause I don’t!”
Xander: “I lied. See, what I think, you got burned with Angel, then Riley shows up.”
Buffy: “I know the story, Xander.”
Xander: “But you miss the point. You shut down, Buffy. And you've been treating Riley like the rebound guy, when he's the one that comes along once in a lifetime. He's never held back with you, he's risked everything, and you're about to let him fly because you don't like ultimatums? If he's not the guy, if what he needs from you just isn't there, let him go. Break his heart and make it a clean break. But if you really think you can love this guy...I'm talking scary, messy, no-emotions-barred need...if you're ready for that then think about what you're about to lose.”
*Buffy tears up*
Buffy: “Xander...”
Xander: “Run.”
-------------------------------------
Xander: “I've gotta say something, 'cause I don't think I've made it clear. I'm in love with you. Powerfully, painfully in love. The things you do, the way you think, the way you move...I get excited every time I'm about to see you. You make me feel like I've never felt before in my life... like a man. I just thought you might like to know.”

FINAL SCORE: 7.5/10

What are your thoughts on "Into The Woods"? Did you enjoy this episode? Dislike it? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments section below!

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