Episode Poll: Season Four

[gabrielleabelle]

Please forgive me if I don't reply to comments on this one. I'm on the sick side of things. Discuss with each other!

Also, next week will be my customary post-season week off. The S5 polls will start the week after, 12/27, with Buffy vs. Dracula.

But now we're wrapping up S4! You all know what that means!

Comments

[blackfrancine]

THANK YOU. It may not be the finest episode of all the episodes, but it's darn funny.

[frelling_tralk]

Aww yeah I love that episode, I'm always surprised when I saw it grouped in with the really bad MotW episodes.

SMG is especially hilarious in that one :needs a gif of her gulping the milk:

[mcjulie]

I have some love for it, if only because I had a college roommate who was pretty much Kathy, and the idea of her having secretly been a soul-sucking demon from another dimension makes me all kinds of happy.

But I have some love for all Buffy episodes.

[pfeifferpack]

Hope you get feeling better soon!

Living Conditions bothered me because Buffy was SO out of proportion nasty to her roommate even before finding out she was a demon. Really....she was happy the girl was a demon so she could kill her with good conscience????? WHY??? The girl only wanted to live like a human and go to college for the most part.....it made Buffy look petty and mean-spirited and she's not like that.

*hugs*
Kathleen

[botias]

I think Buffy was acting nasty because the demon girl had been stealing Buffy's soul for her own use, but it's been awhile. :)

[tigerpetals]

Yes, that's why she was increasingly over-the-top mean.

[relurker]

Buffy has Slayer intuition! She could feel the inherent wrongness of Kathy, and then there's the soul sucking thing: she wasn't working with her full set of good qualities.
Actually, I think about this episode every time Giles or someone else underestimates and undermines Buffy: here's another proof that she gets these things on a level that's different from that of us non-supernatural people.
(And, wow! I'm disagreeing with Pfeifferpack! There must be something wild in the air.)

[tigerpetals]

1. and 2. Restless

[gabrielleabelle]

It's Buffy-related so it's on-topic! :)

[rebcake]

IMO, Adam might be the big monster, but the Big Bad is actually unchecked covert military organizations, with their big jocks, big guns, and unintended consequences. (The Council is another, smaller Bad of this type.) I also have thoughts about technology (anti-nature) being equated with The Patriarchy, whilst magic is symbolic of Womyn Power, which prevails in this (and other) seasons.

So, even if Adam is sorta lame, the ground from which he sprang is legitimately terrifying. They even manage to co-opt Jonathan! Imagine! It's a little preview of the Humans Are the Evilest Monsters ('cos they don't even know it) idea of Season 6.

I love this season to bits, as it's the last full season where Buffy gets to be whole and relatively healthy. Plus: Down with the Patriarchy. I don't love the season opener, though. It overplays the "Buffy's on a bummer" motif that worked okay in S2 and S6. Sunday and her posse were ridiculous. Sunday can't hold a candle to Cordelia in the mean girl stakes, which I usually don't buy anyway.

[relurker]

Amen!

[doublemeat]

I completely agree. The real story of S4 is the yin-yang opposition of the Scoobies and the Initiative, with Riley representing the contested ground. Adam did kind of derail that, though, or at least shift it too much into subtext.

[brutti_ma_buoni]

I actually think this season is very consistent and high quality. It isn't one I love to pieces, but most eps are good (I stand up for Doomed, The I in Team and Goodbye Iowa, btw, almost alone but persevering. There's much to enjoy in all three). There isn't a long draggy patch of MOTW eps or endless-nearly-season-climaxes (which respectively I'd say s2 and s3 suffer from).

And yet, emotionally, it's probably the least engaging of the lot, which is perhaps why I'm not in the love it to pieces camp. It's just happy-making TV.

[relurker]

You make a really good point, putting into words the reason why it's one of the seasons from which I choose my re-watches so often.