Since we’re far enough in that Angel‘s been added to the mix, I’m going to go ahead and assume you know how Buffy the Vampire Slayer: A Retrospecticus works by now. On we go!

Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: A Retrospecticus…

4.6 Wild At Heart

• Written by Marti Noxon / Directed by David Grossman
• Spike shows up again and promptly gets taken by commandos before the opening credits even start, not to be seen or heard from again this whole episode. I remember being both curious and amused by that strange cameo.
• As for the credits, this is the end of Oz as a regular. I’m sure some people had an inkling of what was going on if they followed the behind-the-scenes goings on more than I did, but I made every effort to avoid spoilers (to perhaps a crazy degree) so it was certainly news to me.

• There’s one last group hangout scene when Giles shows up at the Bronze, which I never object to. I do object to Veruca’s awful lip syncing, though. If I knew that actress in real life I don’t think I’d be able to not poke fun about that. Hopefully she put those “skills” on her resume. Anyway, everything with Oz has a heavy “one last time” feeling, because it is.
• Willow, Oz, and Veruca have quite the brief & awkward lunch (I’d think Veruca would want a rarer burger than what we see) before Oz suddenly deserts Willow like a big jerk, and then Veruca also peaces out in quick succession. At least Buffy arrives so Willow’s not left in her crazy birthday cake shirt feeling confused, alone, and upset about what the hell is going on.

• Maggie doesn’t handle herself around these werewolves at all like what I’d expect from a government big wig who’s secretly experimenting on demons (in the hope of creating a freakish army). She doesn’t seem to send any guys after them, as they get all distracted with sex and don’t really go anywhere.
• Veruca’s really condescending, full of herself, and an unrepentant murderer–what a prize.
• So, if a werewolf got pregnant while in wolf form would they have a wolf-like gestation period and birthing process? By that I mean in only a couple months time she has 10 pups. I think that would’ve been an interesting thread to pursue now that I’m thinking about it.

• Surely Maggie would have already told Riley all about her demon encounter at the Initiative, so why this show for Buffy?
• It appears the cat is out of the bag and Giles’ TV is just a mainstay now–there it is when Buffy pops in to talk wolf.
• Willow says “make love” during her chat with Xander and I can’t help but wonder–who really says that? I’ve never heard anyone in life use that phrase. Also, Xander sure generalizes the male side of things, but he is just a teenager so that’s to be expected.

• Oz really reasons away why Veruca sleeping with him locked in his werewolf cage all night would be the best, most sensible choice when obviously he had other options. Wolf boner wins.
• Willow and Oz’s morning scene in the crypt is quite good. Oz yells, Willow cries (Willow crying is always extremely effective.), and it’s all around very effective. I could say more about it, but ultimately it’d be different versions of “it’s great and I love it” so I think you get the picture.

• Okay, was that car trying to kill Willow? I know she’s wandering into the street, but jeez. Thanks to Riley for helping, but not so much for the Dad advice. Streets in TV shows are full of murderous drivers happy to kill any random pedestrian.
• Hey look, the tranq gun reappears and Willow comes quite close to dark magic revenge. One day she’ll actually cross that line, as we all know, but it takes more than being cheated on to get there.

• Willow could just shove past Veruca and leave the room, really. It’s not locked or barricaded or anything. Plus, as far as werewolves go, the BtVS ones aren’t exactly geniuses.
• And I have to say it now, Paige Moss is not good in this role at all. From the horrendous lip syncing to her awkwardly laughable animalistic head moves to how she delivers her lines–none of it is good. That’s a shame, as this could have been quite an effective character otherwise.

• Boom, suddenly Oz leaves. I remember being quite surprised at the time, especially since there were only 5 regulars. They lost 20% of the cast in one blow. Plus, this was the first time there was this kind of cast mix-up during a season instead of the start or end.

1.6 Sense and Sensitivity

• Written by Tim Minear / Directed by James A. Contner
• Kate and her cop stuff right away to start things off is odd (a taste of the actress’ Law & Order future to come). Also, Kate’s dad is really a fountain of fatherly love.

• Angel looking back and forth from the guys on the dock to the boat over and over as he puts together what’s going on is rather funny, like this is a skit. Then of course he does his tourist impression, which you’d think some career criminal would see through immediately.
• More W&H, this time Lee Mercer (easily the lesser of the three lawyers we come to know in S1).
• This whole episode is weird, like it’s a backdoor pilot to The Kate Show. As for this talking stick stuff, it takes way too long to get to it in this weird tangent of an episode.

• In addition to being so loving and supportive, Kate’s dad thinks negatively of gay people. Shocker. Kate’s speech is wonderfully awkward, at least. She’s partially mad that her dad didn’t say she was pretty? Why is this episode even a thing? Sensitive Drunk Kate can be pretty amusing, at least.
• So…these criminals the cop lets out of their cells probably beat him to death or within an inch of his life? I find that an odd turn to take in this otherwise silly nonsense episode. Sensitive Angel and the cop stuff is a case of how a little goes a long way.

• As you can tell from my very light input, I mostly find this one to be a waste of time (in the nicest possible way). I understand wanting to fill out the ranks over here on Angel so there are more characters to work with aside from just Angel, Cordy, & Doyle. This episode, however, didn’t exactly entice me to want more of Kate on a regular basis. A misfire.

4.7 The Initiative

• Written by Douglas Petrie / Directed by James A. Contner
• Forrest likes looking at girls and rambling about how hot they are, how unique and not at all a huge cliche frat boy. Bleh.
• We get more intel via Spike on the Initiative and what’s up down there. Frankly, I already don’t really care about this kind of government testing stuff (also that’s quite an obviousliy mirrored hall).

• And hey look, Spike’s in the opening credits! While teenage Adem was sad to see Oz go, we immediately get Spike on a regular basis and I’m on board. His ranting about what Buffy might get up to “when that bitch got some funding” is something the US government will also find themselves up in arms about circa S8.

• Xander and Giles spend a good deal of time together in S4, which I’m happy with as they’re an amusing pair.
• Oz’s name is Daniel Osbourne, fun fact. I don’t recall ever wondering too much what his name was, really, but now we know. And Walsh may like Buffy pushing back against her now, but let’s see how she feels in a couple months.
• Xander’s Halloween soldier know-how appears to have largely faded away. He’ll have some first hand experience one day, though.
• That’s a series wrap on Parker, enjoy the broken face (except I don’t actually agree with Riley hitting him for not liking what he said).

• Spike’s Initiative break out is rather simple and easy–how come more demons don’t get out? Their response time to the problem area isn’t great. Bad soldiers!
• Riley’s quite a gentleman as he helps Willow put weapons under the bed. All around he’s quite an old-fashioned kind of guy, which may rub some the wrong way (obviously not Buffy).

• Willow’s pre-summary of the Buffy/Riley romance (“you start a conversation, it goes great, you like Buffy, she likes you, you spend time together, feelings grow deeper, and one day, without even realizing it, you find you’re in love. Time stops, and it feels like the whole world is made for you two, and you two alone, until the day one of you leaves and rips the still-beating heart from the other, who’s now a broken, hollow mockery of the human condition”) turns out to be entirely correct.
• Riley choking during his conversation and offering Buffy cheese is nicely lame.

• Xander and Harmony’s slo-mo slap fight is fun and all, but he’s proven to be slightly more effective in the past–even if only slightly.
• I like the very casual reveal of Riley and the frat being Initiative guys. No biggie. Now’s as good a time as any–Riley’s hair is awful. Lots of awful hair on display throughout the series, but it’s also awfully amusing.

• Buffy and Riley’s park bench screwball comedy scene is a nice scene. As for Riley trying to physically move Buffy, well that would be quite the failed endeavor.
• Spike attacking Willow in the dorm room is creepy and rapey, then switches on a dime to being an amusing tangent about impotence and attraction. This whole scene nails the disparate tones well.

• Why is their dorm so cold? The Initiative guys clock Spike’s body temp at 62 degrees and describe that as “room temperature”–that’s way too chilly. Also, Spike’s not 126–1880 to 1999 is 119, not 126. Error. And Spike’s getting away with quite a bit of hitting during this hall fight. Also, Buffy takes too long to wrap this exchange up–they’re all just some humans. I know she’s surely holding back, but it still takes too long (she was “big” and “strong” per Initiative guys).

1.7 The Bachelor Party

• Written by Tracey Stern / Directed by David Straiton
• Cordy’s still quite shallow when it comes to what she looks for in guys to date and Angel’s still a big baby when it comes to all things Buffy. What a surprise.

• I like Angel being so nonchalant about pretending Doyle’s the boss so he can try to impress his ex-fiancee. Doyle getting married at 20 and talking about kids at 21? Jeez, pump the breaks and take a breath. Also, he was already a 3rd grade teacher at 21? I don’t get the impression he skipped any grades, so how’d Doyle manage that?
• Angel on rooftops is silly Batman stuff and I think they should stop it.

• These jokes about Angel being gay were lame then and are lame now. Boo, hiss.
• Angel’s out for way too long from just falling down one story (kind of) and some punches. What happened to the Angel of the pilot who got shot a whole bunch and kept going like it was nothing?

• Doyle’s demon side isn’t a great visual, now or ever. Since the vamp makeup still sucks, too, I guess that makes him even with Angel. The red demons actually look pretty okay.
• I used to live in the 818 netherworld they mention.
• Series wrap on Harry and the red demon family, which I’m not exactly broken up about.

• So, this Buffy vision really ends up amounting to nothing and is more about Angel than her. It doesn’t even pertain to any of her Thanksgiving battle and is just about one random vampire she easily dusts at the start of BtVS’ next episode. Angel goes to “help” but he doesn’t really do anything noteworthy and then Buffy comes to see him, which gets paved over, so what the hell was all this? I’m sure it could be argued this was all a test of Angel’s gumption, or something, but surely there are less convoluted methods to try first.

4.8 Pangs

• Written by Jane Espenson / Directed by Michael Lange
• This is easily one of my favorite episodes, FYI–thanks to Jane Espenson. It’s been pretty much a Thanksgiving fixture for at least the last decade and it’s still funny. I appreciate the differing views being expressed throughout this episode without necessarily taking any particular side. Willow and Giles each speak their peace and it’s largely up to the viewer to decide where they land.

• As for the episode itself, Buffy can finally kind of sense Angel (even if it’s only barely).
• Buffy, Willow, and Anya don’t look good in these outfits–a cowboy hat? I mean, I get why they have Buffy as a kind of cowboy to start things off, but the hat still looks stupid. I may not be a hat fan in general. Anya is such a welcome, blunt presence as she explains what Thanksgiving is–“To commemorate a past event you kill and eat an animal. It’s a ritual sacrifice, with pie.”

• No Joyce for Thanksgiving. She’s at Aunt Arlene’s this year (but in Italy in real life). While I love this episode, I wonder what other laughs could have been had if we lost Angel and used that extra screen time to involve Joyce in things.
• Seems like whoever scouted out this new cultural center location did a pretty shitty job, considering there’s a Chumash burial ground right there. Or–conspiracy theory–maybe it was on purpose for some reason?

• Why does Spike have a crappy blanket wrapped around him? It’s not like he gets cold or has a body temperature. And I guess the Initiative soldier boys are over having to wear masks now that the audience knows what’s up?
• In Xander’s syphilis ramblings he refers to Anya as his girlfriend, which she’s happy about (“We’ll die together! It’s romantic”).
• Whoever this dean lady just spoke to on the phone missed her death by a matter of seconds. They nearly overheard all of it.

• Angel’s points of why he needs to protect Buffy but she can’t know are all garbage, honestly. He just wants to be in control as much as possible, I suspect. Angel spews more of this idiocy to Willow while Buffy continues her Riley flirtation. Willow’s understandably quite amused that Cordy’s working for Angel (presumably heard from Oz).
• I know Hus is a vengeance spirit, or whatever, and not a person, but Buffy didn’t “slaughter [his] people.” She couldn’t have had less to do with any of that. Buffy corrects Giles from “Indian” to “Native American,” but now Buffy would have to be corrected to “Indigenous”–which is all a good glimpse into how the “preferred term” for things often change over time.

• Anya going over Xander’s diseases/symptoms is fun.
• I find Willow fairly foolish in her approach to Hus, but I think it’s a good representation of many people who feel similarly. Personally, I think Giles pretty much says all the sensible things and Willow’s is the head things would roll off of.
• Yay, Spike finally shows up at Giles’ place and his integration into the gang gets going. Everything about the interplay between everyone is endlessly entertaining. Spike also makes many of Giles’ points, only with more attitude, and we learn that vampires who don’t feed look like famine pictures from those dusty countries “only not half as funny.”

• Willow, Xander, and Anya bump into Angel (who Anya’s seen already, if not met, despite what she indicates here) and I have to wonder how much he wanted his presence to actually be a secret. I mean, he’s a fool if he thought someone wouldn’t mention him being there. Also, Angel saying he hasn’t been evil “for a long time” is a stretch–it’s been a little over a year.

• The whole climax is a good time and everyone gets to play. “You made a bear! Undo it, undo it!” & “Hey gentle Ben, over here!”–Xander throwing a roll ends up being rather helpful for Buffy as it gives her a good stabbing window.

• At least they get to have a nice meal as Xander’s “syphilis is clearing right up” (“and they say romance is dead, or maybe they just wish it?”) before Buffy gets the Angel news.

1.8 I Will Remember You

• Written by David Greenwalt & Jeannine Renshaw / Directed by David Grossman
• Buffy shows up (she says to see her father, but that’s pure bullshit) and rightfully reams Angel for popping by Sunnydale to secretly protect her when boom, Angel’s accidentally human (after a too long sewer exchange). He also seems to constantly forget that Buffy’s quite capable and doesn’t exactly need his help–she kicked his ass all the way to hell, remember?

• Angel has The Hunger upon becoming human, both for foods and sex with Buffy.
• It’s pretty easy for Angel to contact these “Oracles,” who are pretty lame all-around and have genius input like telling Angel his “heart is pure.” Uh, sure it is–he’s a great guy. Anyway, Angel finds Buffy with ease when she’s demon hunting–did he have a GPS tracker on her?

• I don’t think it’s possible for me to be less interested in the whole Buffy/Angel love affair. I like both of them better when they aren’t together. I don’t mind Angel getting his ass kicked, though–he needs that on occasion. And I guess Buffy has a GPS on Angel, too, so everyone’s even.
• The Mohra demon rambling about a “coming darkness” is very ho-hum, especially if it has anything to do with the horrible Nazi demons who show up next episode.

• Angel has such a god complex–if he can’t be the one doing the saving, then change everything else around him so he’ll be Hero Man again. I don’t care for this episode much (or at all), if that wasn’t completely obvious by now.

4.9 Something Blue

• Written by Tracey Forbes / Directed by Nick Marck
• This makes the second consecutive episode that’s rather hilarious and is part of one of the best three episode stretches of the show’s run.
• Willow still hanging out in Oz’s room, around his things, to feel a little less sad whenever possible seems nicely human.

• ”I am a lesbian”–Riley technically comes out before Willow.
• Buffy mentions her brief Angel visit while patrolling with Willow and then we never speak of it again. Works for me.
• I love everything about Buffy, Giles, and Spike at Giles’ place. Great interplay between everyone throughout this entire episode.

• Buffy and Giles have weapon chests, Willow has a magic chest, and Xander has a porn chest?
• Willow doing this spell right there in the shared bathroom is a questionable decision, but this whole magical effort is a rather questionable decision.

• Giles should have picked up on what was going on right away–Willow says “You don’t see anything” and then he has vision problems. Also, why does he slowly lose his sight instead of instantly? 
• Amy gets to be a person for a hilarious moment–what a tease. I wonder if she thought it was a dream to her. Also, if Spike had actually found his way to the Initiative entrance he fled from then he’d certainly be screwed, so Willow kind of saved his life.

• And here it is, Buffy and Spike–they get a crash course in their future love. Everything about their engagement is gold. They both play it wonderfully. Giles appreciates the “like family” comment/request to give her away before reality sets in, and he goes more (fully?) blind. “It’s alright. I have more scotch.” continues the hilarity.

• Buffy gleefully telling Riley about her engagement (to a guy named Spike) is another fun scene in a whole episode of them (“Well, nobody *really* likes him.”).
• Xander and Anya kill that demon who attacks them in the basement pretty well together–good team work.
• “Stop that right now–I can hear the smacking,” “Stop whatever you’re doing. You smell like fruit roll ups,”  & “Can I be blind, too?”

• D’hoffryn returns and I like how casual/reasonable he is about the whole thing. What Anya says here re: her vengeance origins doesn’t exactly jive with what we learn in “Selfless” a few years from now, but it’s close.
• Why do all the demons disappear? I guess because magic, but huh?

• I always want some cookies when I watch this one due to Willow’s end baking–Buffy wanted “Wind Beneath My Wings” for the first dance–“It was the spell.” Buffy has a good save re: Riley engagement stuff by just saying it was all a joke.

1.9 Hero

• Written by Howard Gordon & Tim Minear / Directed by Tucker Gates
• This silly Angel Investigations opening commercial (“low rats”) is the episode’s highlight. Yes, sadly this is the second episode in a row that I find actively not good.

• Doyle lusts after Cordy too much on a regular basis, per me. I’m never a big fan of this kind of dynamic, where someone has to learn to love an inappropriate & bothersome suitor.
• All this drumbeating about something bad coming doesn’t really mesh with the underwhelming one-off Nazi demons we’re treated to this episode. As far as fun fan theories go, do you remember those Hell demons from the BtVS S3 premiere? Some think all that stuff Buffy interfered with was the prep for the Scourge demons of this episode. It’s trivial and doesn’t help the episode, just a fun tangent. And what part of LA is this where Nazi demons can march through the streets while other demons flee like it’s 1940s Germany?

• The Doyle flashbacks (Sean Gunn pops up) are also a dud as the Nazi demons/Jew demons is laid on so thick. Doyle’s excessive drinking, smoking, and rage hitting a pillow almost plays as comedic in how cliche it all is.
• This moody teen Jew demon, Reef, is such a whiny schmo and the “promised one” crap is just that–crap. More vague feelings of bad stuff coming. All this hype about the Scourge really ends up falling flat. Jeez, now Nazi demons are roaming around with torches looking for Jew demons like this is some small European village–this whole episode is such a misfire.

• The Angel kills Doyle fakeout followed by joining the Nazi demons is such a waste of time/foolish endeavor. At least Angel’s lucky enough the Nazi demons are so amazingly stupid and willfully accept some random vampire onto their team right before a big move with open arms. The in-your-face somber score of this episode isn’t helping matters, either.
• Being a half demon is less of a turn-off for Cordy than short & poor.

• So was Angel hoping to get everyone killed? Because his plan of action is pure idiocy and the fact that everyone isn’t massacred is almost too hard to believe. Why all the Nazi demons just disappear after lowering the light bomb into the ship is perplexing.
• The demon killing light is already all over everyone’s faces/etc, so do they at least feel a little under the weather? This all actively makes no sense and pulls me out of what’s happening.

• Cordy getting the visions is when the show finally seems like it gets closer to getting started–the next episode moreso. These first 9 are more lows than highs, but they kind of figure out their groove by the end of the season. Takes way too long, though.
• Oh, as for Doyle–everything about his sacrifice seems poorly thought out. Him jumping onto the light bomb then wasting so much time looking at people, for one. It also appears like it was a rather painful death, so yay for him? Anyway, goodbye Doyle, I won’t exactly miss you.

4.10 Hush

• Written & Directed by Joss Whedon
• Buffy’s vaguely informative dreams always struck me as odd. They aren’t consistent in any way and are obviously more narrative-based than anything else. Anyway, the Gentleman’s nursery rhyme is pretty effective (I can still remember it now) and could be just another creepy jingle for kids even without the BtVS connection.

• “Oh, patrolling” to “Petroleum” and then finally “Homework”–I love this word salad nonsense from Buffy and that Riley just moves on.
• So Giles and Spike have progressed to just being roommates now, pretty much? I guess Spike’s more of a boarder, actually. No wonder Giles gives serious thought to leaving town, even if he does unload him on Xander for now.
• Anya’s backless shirt is awful, like it was only partially assembled before being sold, but her and Xander bringing their personal sexual discussion/argument (“You mean orgasm friend?” “Yes, that’s exactly the most appalling thing you could have said”) is entirely worth it.

• Willow’s Wicca group turns out to be nothing but a “bunch of wanna-blessed-bes” rambling about candles and power shrines, the exception being Tara. Say what you want about S4 as a whole, but it adds Spike, Anya, & Tara to the mix on a regular basis. 
• Olivia shows up and proceeds to jump Giles’ bones, pretty much, which I’m sure he needed. I wonder if he had any flings between Joyce last year and Olivia popping by.
• The Gentleman are probably the series’ best one-off villains, off the top of my head. They’re memorably unique and amusingly horrific.

• Buffy and Willow’s speechless morning begins the fun of a more visual and score-based episode that certainly stands the test of time.
• Riley and Forrest use the elevator, which they know needs voice ID–for secret soldiers who hunt demons they aren’t too bright.
• What do people do in the face of scary uncertainty? They turn to booze, money, and religion. Seems pretty accurate to me.
• The newsman on TV was a local news personality where I lived, which always lent an air of authenticity to things for me.
• I like how Riley tries to reason with the two guys about to fight before Buffy just breaks the one moron’s arm–plunge and move on.

• Buffy and Riley get a musical theme as they embrace in the street and it’s pretty good.
• The Gentlemen floating through town and Olivia being frightened sequences are delightfully creepy. Also, this poor guy in his pajamas really shouldn’t have answered the angry sounding random door knock in the middle of the night.

• The little golf claps and bizarre interactions of the Gentlemen are wonderful to behold.
• Olivia’s a pretty damn good sketch artist. They should have her on retainer, or something.

• Everything–every single thing–about Giles’ overhead projector exposition scene is top notch Buffy. There’s nothing to say that hasn’t been said about this wonderful scene, so I’ll just say this is some peak BtVS gold right here. Not a wasted moment or shot and with plenty of humor that lands wonderfully from our solid cast of performers. Giles’ face re: Buffy’s jerk-off motion always makes me laugh, as does all of it really.

• The music as Buffy kicks some demon ass continues to elevate the visuals, a far cry from earlier in the series.
• Nice The Silence of the Lambs nod with the Tara/Willow/Gentleman door knocking misdirect.
• Buffy and Riley aim weaponry at each other and their secrets are out, thankfully. On to the next step.
• The whole Xander/Spike/Anya situational comedy moment works well, as does Anya’s finger hole motion–she likes the sex.

• How anyone didn’t immediately get the Willow/Tara connection from that vending machine scene is a little perplexing to me–it seems clear as day from that moment the end game is lesbian. I picked up on the subtext and I’d just turned 13.
• Riley’s little puppy grin and Buffy’s exasperated eyeroll is another wonderful moment in an episode full of them.

• Sadly both for Giles and the viewer, Olivia opts out of future adventures as she isn’t interested in this life. It won’t be the last we see of her, though.
• Buffy and Riley’s awkward silence has always been one of my favorite episode endings.

1.10 Parting Gifts

• Written by David Fury & Jeannine Renshaw / Directed by James A. Contner
• Hey look, more of the stupid Oracle siblings. I’m glad we don’t see them much and then they die.
• Barney the empath demon coming to Angel for help seems unwise, considering he’s actually up to quite a lot of no good.

• Okay, this commercial audition is one of my favorite Cordy scenes. From the sad crying about Doyle (as she rambles about grass stains) to the manic and demented screaming (still about grass stains) brought on by her first vision, I always laugh.
• Cordy barging into Angel’s office and kissing him is also amusing (she sexually harassed her boss, technically).

• Random observation: there’s a blinking light by the elevator that sounds like it’s going to blow up.
• Wesley’s arrival is a great addition and adds a different dynamic to things. I also appreciate the lack of any lovey dovey crap between our three regulars (for now, anyway). Wesley’s presence makes this feel more like a BtVS extension than its own show, if you ask me, but they’ll get to that.

• Cordy kisses Wes, too, as it couldn’t hurt to try–at least it goes better than last time. Also, “What’s a rogue demon?”
• Sorry to tell you, Angel, but you’ll actually be losing a lot more friends in the future despite what you say now.
• I don’t think Doyle chose to give Cordy visions so much as they *had* to find a new home and she was the most logical choice since Angel had no other connections.

• I bet Buffy’d be slightly amused to know she’s regarded as a “renegade” by the Watcher’s Council.
• Fun fact: this is the fewest regulars ever on any Buffyverse medium–only two of the three are present.
• We don’t ever see this lawyer again, but W&H pops up again at the demon parts auction. And I agree with Cordy that 2K seems rather low for the eyes of a seer, provided they can do something aside from rot.

4.11 Doomed

• Written by Marti Noxon & David Fury & Jane Espenson / Directed by James A. Contner
• Fun fact: as a “capricorn on the cusp of Aquarius” Buffy should have a birthday ~January 19th.
• Buffy does a solid job of summarizing Riley’s secret military life, to his chagrin, while Riley doesn’t even know about slayers. And Buffy sure doesn’t respond well to the earthquake.

• Riley joins the credits, continuing the cast changes for the third time in half a dozen episodes.
• Xander and Spike are still rooming together, but despite Spike moving on by time we’re done here they’ll cohabitate more in the future on more than one occasion.
• I don’t know what’s up with Giles’ ADR this episode, but it’s very noticeable. I used to think it was my DVD, except then Hulu came along and it still sounds weird. What’s up with that?

• I know humans are like this, but I don’t know why Willow cares if Percy thinks she’s a nerd. They haven’t even seen each other since high school and were never close. Also, nobody sees these green demons wandering around the frat house? It’s not as if this is a costume party and they could somehow blend. I guess everyone’s rather drunk, high, and other things. Anyway, I think Willow wandering into a random room and laying in some person’s bed is kind of weird.
• Spike hits rock bottom in Xander’s sad basement, thanks to awful clothes and general misery.

• ”Poo poo, Southern California, poo poo.”
• Riley just happened to pick the one cemetery out of 12 in city limits that Buffy was at? Lucky. Or, I suppose not so lucky considering he gets an earful of Buffy’s “It’s just doomed” perspective (which is accurate).

• Xander’s especially slow re: “Three people are gonna die?” What the hell else does he think “the sacrifice of three” would be?
• Spike sure has fun laying into Willow & Xander since a guy’s gotta enjoy life somehow, after all.
• The fact these vicious demons don’t kill Giles is a little unbelievable.

• Hey look, our first tour of the Sunnydale High ruins (Amy’s mom statue is amongst the debris).
• Spike learns he can kill demons and his journey to being a good guy continues.
• Buffy certainly seemed to fall way further down that hole than Riley has to pull her up.

• “No, no sir. I’m just an old pal of Xanderrr’s herrre.” Good cover, Spike. Riley’s also not exactly stealthy when it comes to explaining his presence to Xander & Willow. Maybe falling on his face like that helped Buffy along in deciding to give him a shot.

1.11 Somnambulist

• Written by Tim Minear / Directed by Winrich Kolbe
• Angel has vivid dreams of old time killings and feels confused about things just in time for Wesley popping in with an ominous newspaper headline. Angel also acts super weird at the police station, but at least he gets to the point with Kate rather quickly.

• “Do you trust me?” Are you trying to sound odd and not-quite-right, Angel? Because you do and it’d be pretty valid to *not* trust you now.
• Jeremy Renner looks roughly the same as today.

• Kate wanders around alone to search for some serial murderer–good choices really aren’t her friend. She watches a vampire fight for her trouble and finally gets in on things, at least. Except now she’s no fan of Angel. I find it amusing that teenagers in Sunnydale respond to news of vampires existing (and that Angel is one) so much better than this adult does.

• Wesley doesn’t live at the address they’re checking out, so why would he be able to invite Angel in? Error.
• The school bus shooting fake out reminds me of Zodiac.
• For whatever reason, this whole episode feels like an overall misstep. There’s simply not much going on here.
• No cops mind Angel pulling up that sewer grate and using it as he sees fit? Hm. To paraphrase Snyder, the police of LA are deeply stupid.

• Kate does pretty well at ramming that rather blunt looking huge piece of wood through TWO people. The fact that she manages to miss Angel’s heart while staking the guy behind him is fairly unbelievable.
• I wonder what Kate told the other cops about what happened to their murder suspect? As far as they know he disappeared while being chased by Kate and then vanished, never to be seen or heard from again.

See you next week for episodes 12-17. Now, trivia!

1. What TV station did we see the Scooby Gang watch numerous times in their freshman year of college?
2. When is Tara’s birthday?

*Last week’s answers: 1) 2FAN321, 2) Red VW Bug, 3) Kyle, Tor, Heidi, & Rhonda