So I figured out why I hate Riley so much. It's not just that he's insecure, needy, jealous, and incredibly passive-aggressive --- it's that he has no real reason to be. I mean, life must be so hard for a straight white guy who's tall, handsome, likeable, intelligent, athletic, and with a promising military career. The dude's got practically every social priviledge I think it's possible to have, and he's such a big baby. Xander has similar issues, but I'm more sympathetic to him, because he's actually got reason for them. I just wish the show addressed them more fully and quit giving him a pass every time he's a jerk.
Actually, Season 4 is when I tend to like Xander more. He really irritates me in the first 3 seasons. But Season 4 gives you a better understanding of his situation, and I like his hapless determination to improve his life. And the beginning of his relationship with Anya is priceless.
The constant parallels the show draws between Spike and Riley as competitors for Buffy's attention is really striking. Hard to believe it wasn't intentional.
I love how "Superstar" is like a homage to Mary Sue fics.
"Something Blue" is one of my favorite episodes, but it suddenly struck me this time how all the Scoobies get really pissy as soon as Willow puts her own emotional needs ahead of theirs. No wonder she spends the rest of Season 4 avoiding the Scoobies with Tara. I wish they'd developed that trend a bit more, it would have made Dark!Willow a bit more plausible.
It's funny, the first time I watched the show I found the "Willow's suddenly gay!" plot contrived. But this time around, it really is a classic baby dyke coming out story. Repressed girl fixates on safe male childhood friend; sabotages first real relationship when it becomes more serious; relationship falls apart pretty quickly after becoming sexual. Meets the right girl in new college life, and hey, all the pieces fall into place.
I'm just really fascinated by the competeing gay themes in Season 4. There's the overt, positive storyline with Willow, which the show constantly subverts with not one, but two homophobic subtextual stories. There's Walsh, the Evil Dyke Monster of Hell, a Lacanian phallic woman if ever there was one (hey, I've gotta use that post-structuralist theory I learned for something in my life). Her behavior wouldn't be remarkable if she was a man; but as a woman, it makes her threatening. Giles is totally out of line when waltzes into her office and lectures her on Buffy's education, but she's the one who comes across as a jerk. And then there's the fact that she's literally penetrated to death by her monstrous child. So essentially Walsh's story is about a perverted woman with illegitimate power; resulting in a monstrous parody of "natural" reproduction and who is then punished for her arrogance and pride.
The other coded queer who also, interestingly, gets penetrated to death is Forrest. Forrest is so gay for Riley it's ridiculous. The overcompensating masculine posturing ("mattressable, n'est-ce pas?" Like a straight guy would ever say that), the irrational hatred of Buffy, the INCREDIBLY GAY TURTLENECKS.
Forrest is allied with Walsh in the show; they're both positioned as having access to power that, under patriarchy, they musn't have: Walsh as a queer woman, Forrest as a queer man of color. So they're both demonized and destroyed.
I don't get what the Initiative. Like, the show spends 3 seasons going Demons Bad! So why is it a bad thing if the Initiative contains and neutralizes them?
The Adam storyline should work, but it doesn't because they get the Frankenstein metaphor all wrong. On a superficial level, I like that the communal power of the Scoobies defeats the evil embodiment of the military-industrial complex. "Primeval" is such a great episode. But really it's just a messy concept. The whole point of the Frankenstein story is that the monster is not monstrous. Instead we get a villain who mostly talks to much and doesn't do anything particularly scary.
Right, high theory analysis aside, I love Season 4. It's a really tight season despite the weak arc. The emotional dynamics between the characters makes up for that.