S4 underrated episode apologia

Hi everyone

Pick your S4 episode that you think is underrated and give a brief or expansive apologia.

S4 is a truly schizophrenic season with the Joss episodes arguably being the best representation of Buffy full stop. On the other hand there is Beer Bad and Where The Wild Things Are which perhaps represent Buffy imploding.

The Riley question? Was he a good thing or a bad thing? He was definitely the right idea though mishandled. I would take Riley a million times over Spike.

John's choice of a S4 episode that is very hard to defend: Where The Wild Things Are. Will anyone go for that, it seems to me, difficult choice? What is it trying to say? Repression is bad maybe? Something else? sk

John's choice: The Freshman

When I first watched The Freshman I did not understand it at all. I watched it wondering what Joss was going to do next after S3. My heart sank when I thought S4 was going to be about a vampire gang and then Joss threw in that curve ball ending which instantly raised my spirits. I made the serious error of not attending to what The Freshman is doing and not paying attention to the script which, with hindsight, is up there with Doppelgangland.

The Freshman is almost Welcome To The Hellmouth Part 2. We are introduced to familiar characters but in a totally different context. The Freshman brillianty captures those initial feelings of disorientation every student feels when starting university though Buffy, as usual, has to deal with events in typically supernatural fashion.

As prophecy girl pointed out, with some degree of genius, Buffy and Willow are almost role reversed compared to Welcome To The Hellmouth. The Freshman Buffy is all at sea compared with her confident High School self. The Freshman Willow is instantly at home compared to her supremely nerdy, if optimistic, High School self.

This gives a hint as to The Freshman's raison d'etre. It is about Buffy finding herself in a new social context. Sunday is the anti-Buffy who displays a level of confidence similar to Buffy in Welcome. Buffy has to knock the anti-Buffy Sunday off her perch and assume her rightful place at the top of the hierarchy. Shades of The Right Stuff?

All this is delivered with an absolute hoot of a script as Joss punctures the absurdity of student life left, right and centre. I will not bother to quote any of it as it is best just to go with the flow of the script. One thing I will mention is the girly who asks Buffy "Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal saviour?" is rather delightfully called "conservative girl" in the credits.

Sunday is wonderfully sassy and could have been a pre-season tease episodes 1-6, it seems to me, then the Initiative arc could have taken over. An argument against this is Joss clearly wants Buffy to instantly assert herself hence Sunday must be bested at the end of play.

After the rather gloomy looking S3, though it is not depressing, I love how S4 is presented as sunlit to really push that this is a new beginning. Then S5 has a sunset look.

If I had to take three seasons of Buffy to a desert island it would definitely be S2, S3 and S4 and The Freshman is a big part of that. 8/10. sk

beer bad

Yes the subtext is waaaayyyy too obvious: alcohol = bad but for some reasons (or because xander sent buffy home early), buffy is acting a bit less cavernman (or woman) than the other students and at least cave buffy do what normal buffy was unable to: move on after Parker break up ( knocking him twice)

also the start of willow/oz trouble due to Veruca but he gave Willow the strengh to go tell Parker what the what and a chance of fooling him into thinking she is going to be an other victim, showing us how far she has gone since season one and that with even less experience than buffy when it come to dating

You have certainly picked one of the tougher choices to defend.

I suppose Wrecked, by comparison, makes Beer Bad seem a model of restraint. I am clutching at straws here. Only 134 degrees in the desert rather than 140 etc

Mehitabel seemed to suggest it is better to go with the flow when it comes to Beer Bad and, as you seem to agree, maybe I should treat it like a S2 spoof ie it is a spoof of caveman films in general eg maybe that one with Raquel Welch. That is as generous as I can be.

I think the main weakness is the one you mention straight off namely that the subtext is too obvious. A little restraint and faith in the audience would have gone a long way to alleviate my critical instincts. As you seem to hint treating it as a spoof and treating the alcohol=bad aspect as merely a means to an end does draw the sting somewhat ie the caveman aspect allows Willow to show her intelligence and increased social confidence.

Next time I watch it I will try and go with the flow rather than sitting there arms folded looking crosser than Ice T in Law and Order SVU.

Rather than 1/10 a la Wrecked maybe 3/10 or 4/10 due to the spoof aspect. sk