#riley punched parker and it was so satisfying

[sunnydaleslayer]

I LOVE season 4. Especially 4x01, 4x03-4x05, 4x07-4x15 and 4x18-4x21. I don't like 4x16 or the 4x06 woz cheating episode.

[catty-words]

So you're now famous for loving S4---as do I, by the way :) Tell us what you love about it!

dude!! yes i will. 

the major reason i love that season is that it’s so relatively light?? like. we get to watch buffy and willow and xander cross the bridge toward independence without being too burdened or preoccupied with the forces of darkness. for most of the season they’re just kinda hanging out. it’s fun in a way most of the other seasons are not.

it doesn’t even bug me that the big bad and the overarching plot isn’t all that engaging. as long as i can watch buffy laugh and speculate on the beautiful differences between pancakes and waffles and pun to her heart’s content (painstakingly thought out puns, anyone?), i’m 1000% satisfied.

other things i love about the season:

tara!!!!!! 

what can i say, i’m trash. i love that spike returns

“i always worried what would happen if that b*tch got some funding”

the bodyswap episodes?? masterpieces 

beer bad. fight me.

R E S T L E S S 

buffy hits parker in the head with a giant stick!!!!

“foamy!”

lesbian magic sexytimes

“xander got fired from the phone sex line!”

spike being kinda really intuitive when it comes to the scoobies newfound distance 

superstar – serenade in blue especially? it sounds so nice i get why xander and anya ran off to have sex because of it tbh

“well nobody really likes him.”

i even like riley for a lot of season four? some of his best moments include: a) “i showed up early so i get to be cowboy guy!” b) “gee, i hope i didn’t walk in on anything really depressing.” c) he punches parker in the face!!!

FUCKING RESTLESS (”you think you know who you are, what’s to come. you haven’t even begun.”)

“a girl so hot she’s buffy”

forrest ‘i’m so gay for riley’ gates

miss kitty fantastico

i just love it all so much i can’t even alskfjdgsn

[tialovestelevision]

Fear, Itself

Back over to Buffy, now, for another one-shot episode. These have habitually been where the series has hit both its biggest highs and its worst lows, though season finale arcs are the most reliably good content it produces. Hopefully, we’re heading for a high with this one. It’s a Halloween episode. That might help… the last one of those was wonderful. 1. Our Previously On is reminding us of the worst part of the most recent episode. That’s fun. 2. Oh, hey, commando guys. I could go for that plotline getting picked back up. 3. Pumpkin carving! Xander’s pumpkin is mocking him. And has self-loathing. 4. Oz made a spider. 5. Oz is also not scared of hippos in tutus, but Fantasia is scary. Night on Bald Mountain is great Halloween viewing. 6. Xander, not being in college, is out of the loop. He lied about having better things to do. 7. Buffy didn’t touch her pumpkin. Because she has had her guts ripped out and doesn’t want to inflict that on others. 8. Xander wants to smack Parker. For once, we are in agreement. Though I could also go for Angel-style photoexplosive defenestration. 9. Guy jumped out in front of Buffy in a demon mask and got punched. You shouldn’t do that in Sunnydale. You shouldn’t do that anywhere. 10. “Guest starring Kristine Sutherland.” 11. Insert complaint about them using “wicca” to describe the show’s fictional magic here. Insert it retroactively into every episode summary where they did this before. Insert it forward into every episode summary where they do it hereafter. I’m not a neopagan of any sort, so I don’t have a ton to say on the subject, but it’s not a great thing to do. 12. Willow is using college to experiment with magic. Oz is expressing concern but also being supportive. Parker is hanging out with girls in the dining hall. 13. Buffy can take a holiday from dealing with stuff. It’s Halloween. Nothing ever happens on Halloween. 14. Giles is in a racially insensitive costume. He thinks it’s festive. He cares about Halloween. He has an electronic dancing Frankenstein monster hanging from a rope. Buffy does not like his hat. 15. Giles is offering Buffy chocolate. She should take some. 16. The frat guys are setting up a haunted house. They need Oz’s help, because Halloween is about getting laid. Arbor Day is not about getting laid. 17. They’re also going to paint a mystical symbol upstairs. From an old book. Stupid frat boys. 18. Anya is visiting Xander. Xander accepts the words people say at face value, unless those words are a rejection, in which case he continues to pursue you or blackmails someone who will later become a rat to overwrite your free will. 19. Anya says that Xander has little in common with Willow and Buffy. She is right. 20. Anya and Xander have a date to the party. 21. Professor Walsh doesn’t have mercy. I’ve never seen a college professor threaten to drop a student for two unexcused absences. 22. Does Riley know that the things that go bump in the night don’t bump on Halloween? 23. Xander had a chance to defuse the plot of the episode. He got distracted by seduction grapes. 24. Now Oz cuts himself and drips blood into the magic circle. It brought a plastic spider to life. 25. Joyce is fixing Buffy’s Little Red Riding Hood hood. 26. I imagine Joyce avoids candy these days. 27. Buffy is full of sad because men are awful. 28. Joyce made no new friends their first year in Sunnydale. Then she met Pat. 29. Joyce says she will always be there for Buffy. I have no comment. 30. Now there’s people TPing campus. 31. Willow is a Crusader, and intends to axe murder Parker. 32. There is a lobster having a relationship fight with a present. 33. The eyeball grapes are eyeballs, now. Xander and Oz are bad at things. 34. Xander is James Bond. Buffy has weapons in her basket. Willow is Joan of Arc, apparently, because of that whole stake thing. 35. Oz is God. It says so on his nametag. 36. They just ran across the commando guys. Oz said they’re dressed as NATO 37. Party broke up because of the things that are happening. And I think someone died. 38. Nope. She’s still alive. 39. But someone else fell down the stairs and possibly died. A demon wants to be released. 40. “If I were Abbott and Costello, this would be fairly traumatic.” 41. There is an actual spider on Willow. But it’s a tarantula. They aren’t terribly dangerous. 42. Buffy found actual blood. And they all found bats. All kinds of bats. 43. The bats vanished. One of them turned to rubber. 44. Demon really wants to get released. 44. Anya is a bunny! 45. Bunny Anya can’t find the door. 46. And now the windows are going away. Anya does not like this. 47. Xander has turned invisible and inaudible, or something. The pop-out skeleton is alive now and has a knife. 48. Buffy killed the skeleton. She got a little cut. Nobody can perceive Xander still. 49. That was not the best comeback, Willow. 50. Now the house has split the party. 51. And Oz is starting to shift. Slowly. This is a very bad thing. 52. He scratched Willow. Now Willow is alone. 53. Oh, look. The evil face can see Xander. He can hang out with the evil face. 54. Willow summoned a light. She wants to find Oz, but indecision has got her surrounded by glowy bug things that hate her indecision. 55. Now Buffy falls into a basement. There’s sand and graves. 56. Frat boy has a broken neck and is beating on Buffy’s self esteem. And summoning death hands. 57. “We’re going to have to create a door.” “Create a door? You can do that?” “I can.” Chainsaw. 58. Are those hellhounds chasing Buffy? 59. Not hellhounds. And she got away. She’s upstairs. 60. Everyone is terrified. Things really have come apart. And everyone is hallucinating, apparently, because what was happening to them isn’t any more. 61. Oh, look, they found the mark and the book.The demon is Gachnar. 62. Giles is here, with a chainsaw. And Anya too. This is helpful. Except he reads aloud and stops talking when someone does something ill-advised. Now Buffy’s summoned Gachnar. 63. Who is about four inches tall. 64. “Xander, don’t taunt the fear demon.” “Why? Can he hurt me?” “No. It’s just tacky.” 65. Buffy squished Gachnar. 66. Buffy is having chocolate. As she should. 67. Anya is scared of bunnies. 68. The picture of Gachnar in the book was at actual size. Overall: Was having the demon be tiny part of the original idea for the episode and they threw in all the terror and death and general mayhem to build to that moment, or was it a way out without going over their allotted time for the episode? Either way, it worked, though it’s a little strange to be giggling madly at a being that managed to murder at least one person and horribly traumatize dozens of others. I enjoyed that. It was a horror episode with a comedy climax, and was oddly satisfying. I think I’m done with TV blogging for the night. I’m seriously not looking forward to the next episode of Angel.