Getting Buffed
The final part of our Buffy guide: a look at seasons three and four.
      by Lisa Kincaid

THE FOURTH SEASON

I don't have any pictures of Sunday kicking Buffy's ass, so uh... here's one of Spike, instead.

"The Freshman"
Summary: Buffy's having a hard time adjusting to her first day of college life, but Willow and Oz are taking to the environment at UC Sunnydale like birds to... uh... something that birds like. Buffy's worried that she's losing her edge as the Slayer, but more than that, she's getting trounced by her teachers and making a fool of herself in front of cute boys (most noteably Riley, who's introduced in this episode as the teacher's assistant in Willow and Buffy's psychology class). She also has a new roommate, Kathy, who's incredibly perky, snores loudly, and listens to Celine Dion. The first almost-friend Buffy makes at college, Eddie, disappears from campus with all his things packed up and a letter saying he couldn't take the pressure... but he's really been turned into a vampire, and Buffy's forced to stake him. She also has to take on the gang that turned him, a group of college student-vampires who, strangely, give Buffy a sound thrashing and force her to flee. When she goes to Giles for slaying help, his lady friend Olivia is there and he doesn't want to help, telling Buffy she needs to learn to slay independently. Back at her dorm, Buffy finds her things cleaned out and a departing note on her bed, just like in Eddie's room, and the signal is clear: the big bad vamp, Sunday, and her gang intend to kill Buffy. Buff gets a pep talk from Xander, who's been "on the road" for the summer, and they go to kill the vamps together, but when Xander goes to get weapons, Buffy falls through the skylight at the vamps' lair and has to fight them all on her own and injured. She kicks their asses and things seem to be okay on campus again, but somewhere off in the night, a vampire is ambushed by a group of military-lookin' dudes.
Read the 11th Hour review of this episode!
And the moral is: Don't expect too much from season premiere episodes.

"Living Conditions"
Summary: Buffy finds out that the whole dorm thing isn't as good as it's cracked up to be: her roommate Kathy is inhumanly annoying, and Buffy quickly becomes convinced that Kathy is actually very, very evil. Willow's having her own problems, too, as her roommate seems to do nothing but host really loud parties in their room, but she's afraid that Buffy's cracking up. Buffy has dreams of some sort of demon sucking out her soul while she sleeps, and starts behaving erratically as she tries to prove to her friends that Kathy's evil. Eventually Kathy is revealed to be a demon who's run away from her home in another dimension. To keep her people from finding her, she needs a soul, so she decided to steal Buffy's. Kathy's demon father shows up and drags her back to her own dimension, leaving Buffy with an opening for a roomie, which Willow gladly takes.
And the moral is: If somebody tells you their roommate is evil, they're probably telling the truth. The whole demon thing doesn't usually come up, though.

Gee, Spike again. What a strange coincidence.

"The Harsh Light Of Day"
Summary: After a Dingoes gig at the Bronze, Willow runs into Harmony, one of Cordelia's old high school crowd who hasn't been seen around town lately. They make pleasant chit-chat, until Harmony -- who seems to have been afflicted with fangs and a sun allergy -- tries to bite Willow. She's driven off by Oz, but threatens that her boyfriend will make them all pay. And her boyfriend, it turns out, is Spike; he's back in town and leading a vampire digging crew under the streets of Sunnydale, searching for the legendary Gem of Amara, which makes vampires impervious to sunlight, stakes, and all other methods of murder. Meanwhile, Anya arrives back in town, complaining that she wasn't able to get Xander off her mind after she left town and demanding that they have sex so she can forget about him. Buffy's trying to move on and get over Angel with her new beau, Parker, and she decides in this episode to have sex with him, only to find that he's just a dirtbag who takes advantage of all the freshman girls. Spike gets his hands on the Gem and ditches Harmony, going out into the daylight to fight Buffy, but he loses and she steals the ring, forcing him to flee from the sun. Wanting the ring to be in a safe place and in good hands, Buffy sends it along with Oz (who has a Dingoes gig in Los Angeles) to be delivered to Angel. (This is the first of the Buffy/Angel crossover episodes, continuing the Gem of Amara storyline in the Angel episode "In the Dark".)
Read the 11th Hour review of this episode!
And the moral is: Don't get cocky. Somebody will kick your ass just to keep your ego in check.

"Fear, Itself"
Summary: It's Halloween again, and Buffy decides to go with Willow, Oz and Xander to a frat house party. Unfortunately the frat boys made a small error in their eerie holiday preparations, drawing a magical symbol on the floor and accidentally activating it. Meanwhile, the gang prepares for Halloween by carving pumpkins and donning their costumes -- Buffy dresses as Little Red Riding Hood, Willow's Joan of Arc, Xander in a tux playing James Bond, and Oz wears a nametag that says "Hi, my name is GOD." When the party-goers arrive, they're trapped inside the house, and when Anya (dressed up as a fearsome Halloween bunny) arrives to join the party, she finds that the door is gone and she can't get in. She goes to Giles -- who's dressed up in a poncho and sombrero and handing out Halloween candy at his apartment -- for help saving Xander. Xander's afraid his friends never listen to him, and he becomes invisible and inaudible to them, like a ghost; Oz begins to change into a werewolf and hides out in the bathroom, trying to will the change away; Willow's guiding spell goes awry; and Buffy's afraid of her friends abandoning her, so they seem to do just that. Giles and Anya arrive, and though they're lacking in door, Giles makes an entryway with a chainsaw. Everyone ends up in the attic room where the mystical symbol has been painted on the floor, and the culprit soon manifests: he's a tiny little fear demon, and Buffy takes care of that problem by stepping on him.
And the moral is: The only thing we have to fear is fear itself, even if fear itself is really tiny.

Buffy learns the truth about beer: that even Slayers get hangovers.

"Beer Bad"
Summary: Buffy's down on the Parker situation, fantasizing that he'll realize his mistake, apologize and ask her out again. Xander, meanwhile, has gotten a job as a bartender, using a very fake ID, but he doesn't seem too concerned about having to actually mix drinks. After talking to Riley about Parker and realizing that she's been behaving foolishly, Buffy accepts an invitation from four frat boys to join them for a beer. She does, and gets incredibly sloshed. Willow, meanwhile, is dismayed to see Oz's fascination with Veruca, the lead singer of a band called "Shy", and talks to Buffy about Veruca's skankiness the next morning. But Buffy's not really interested; she's hung over and spends the rest of the day acting very, very strangely. That night she drinks with the frat boys again, while a disapproving Xander looks on. Willow and Oz are feeling the strain in their relationship, and apparently so is Parker; he tries to pull the sensitive-guy act on Willow and get her into the sack, but she's no idiot and gives him the what-for. Xander sends Buffy home and tries to close up the bar, but he's suddenly attacked by the frat boys, who've turned into primitive ape-men, and he has to scare them off with his lighter. The bar's owner reveals that he used magic on the high-end beer that those guys always drink, wanting to knock them down a peg or two. The cave-guys and cave-Buffy run amok around town until the guys accidentally start a fire, which causes even a primitive Buffy to go all Slayer and rescue Willow and Parker, who were trapped inside and unconscious. After everyone's safe, Parker comes to and Buffy's daydreams come true as he apologizes for what he did to her, and cave-Buffy does the only logical thing: she hits him on the head with a big stick.
Read the 11th Hour review of this episode!
And the moral is: The episode's title really sums this one up.

Bad puppy. No biscuit.

"Wild At Heart"
Summary: Buffy patrols Sunnydale and is disappointed by the lack of evil to fight, but Spike's lurking in the shadows, promising trouble... until he's zapped and dragged away by the group of military commandos that's been skulking around town. Meanwhile, it's a full moon night and Oz has locked himself up for the night, but in wolf form he escapes, running wild through town, and happens upon another werewolf -- a female. In the morning he wakes in the woods next to Veruca, who is clearly not a fan of his caging habits. As if Willow and Oz didn't already have tension over Veruca, it only continues to grow. Willow tries to seduce Oz, but he turns her away; worried, she visits Xander, who advises that she and Oz talk things out. Buffy's experiencing some academic success and Professor Walsh is actually taking a shine to her, but Slayer work comes up again when Walsh relates seeing two large wild dogs on campus, and Buffy's on the case, trying to find the second werewolf. Oz tries to convince Veruca to cage herself so that she won't kill anyone during the full moon -- and so that Buffy won't hunt her down -- but she won't do it unless she's caged with him. They lock themselves in, and when Willow arrives the next morning, she finds them lying together, naked. She and Oz have it out, and she runs off, distraught and distracted. Buffy enlists Oz and his wolf-y nose in helping her track Veruca, but they realize that she's throwing them off while she goes after Willow. Willow, meanwhile, is in the chemistry lab cooking up a curse to place on Oz and Veruca, but she can't go through with it. Werewolf Veruca enters and tries to kill Willow, but she's attacked by werewolf Oz, who's just arrived on the scene; he kills Veruca and then goes after Willow, but he's subdued by Buffy before he can hurt Willow. The next morning, Oz decides that he can't just cage the wolf and hope for the best anymore, and he decides to leave town until he can figure things out, leaving a shattered Willow behind.
Read the 11th Hour review of this episode!
And the moral is: Don't eat people. They're really fatty anyway and not at all good for you.

Spike tries to bite Willow, and ends up complimenting her fuzzy pink sweater instead.

"The Initiative"
Summary: Spike wakes up in an electrified holding cell deep inside the Initiative complex, and he's sure that it's all Buffy's fault that he's stuck there. Meanwhile, Giles and Xander are down because there's nothing for them to do, and Willow's incredibly depressed about Oz leaving, so Buffy decides to take her to a party at Lowell House, the dorm where Riley and his friends live. Spike's getting information on his imprisonment from the vamp in the next cage when a blood packet drops from the ceiling; he's hungry and nearly drinks it, but the other vampire warns that the blood is drugged. Once he drinks the blood and is unconscious, he'll be taken away for experimentation. Giles and Xander prepare to go on patrol in Buffy's place while she's at the party, and Riley and crew are talking about Buffy again. When they hear Parker's lewd opinion of her, Riley punches him out, and realizes that he likes Buffy, and not in a friend way. Spike pretends to have drunk the blood and passed out, but when some scientist types come to take him away, he waits until he's outside the cell and then beats them up. He escapes, going after Buffy because he thinks she's responsible, but finds only Willow in the dorm room. When he tries to bite her, he discovers that he can't; the Initiative did something to him that prevents him from hurting people. Riley's revealed as one of the commandos, along with his friends and his boss, Professor Walsh, who sends them to retrieve Spike; they bust into the dorm but Spike escapes. They nearly take Willow, thinking she's "contaminated", but Buffy shows up and puts the smack down. Due to all the smoke in the hallway (from an exploded fire extinguisher), Buffy and Riley don't know that they're fighting each other, and the Initiative guys finally retreat, empty-handed.
Read the 11th Hour review of this episode!
And the moral is: Never drink tainted blood. Besides the whole drug thing, it just tastes bad.

"Pangs"
Summary: Buffy's determined to have the perfect Thanksgiving dinner with her friends, but things just never go the way she wants them to. Xander has a new job as a construction worker, but his first job -- helping with the ground-breaking on a new building at the college campus -- lands him in deep trouble, as he falls into the buried remains of the old Sunnydale Mission, unwittingly releasing a pissed-off Native American spirit. Angel arrives in town (after Doyle had a vision in the previous week's Angel episode, "Bachelor Party") to protect Buffy, but he doesn't let her know he's there, preferring instead to lurk in the shadows and keep an eye on her. Spike's finding it hard to have an un-life without eating, and he's starving without being able to bite people. In desperation, he goes to Giles' place and begs for help. The Scoobies aren't too sympathetic, but when he offers information about the commandos who captured him, they reluctantly invite him in... and tie him to a chair while Buffy prepares dinner. Xander, meanwhile, seems to have been infected with a number of nasty diseases (including syphilis) from his fall into the Mission, and the angry Native spirit, Hus, has stolen a number of weapons from the museum. He raises a small raiding party of his fellow angry Native spirits, and they go after the strongest fighter (who they see as the local authority figure), wanting revenge to the wrongs that were done to their people. Buffy and friends fight off the ghostly invaders, despite moral qualms about whether the spirits' anger is justified, and they settle down to a nice Thanksgiving dinner. Buffy would have never known that Angel was ever in town and helping, except that Xander lets it slip during dinner. (This is the first part of another crossover; Buffy goes to Los Angeles to confront Angel in the Angel episode immediately following "Pangs", "I Will Remember You".)
Read the 11th Hour review of this episode!
And the moral is: Don't slaughter native peoples. They'll just come back to haunt your ass later.

Thanks to Willow's spell in "Something Blue", Spike doesn't really want to bite Buffy anymore. Well, unless she asks him to...

"Something Blue"
Summary: Still smarting over Oz and hoping to get him back, Willow casts a spell that, if properly executed, should make her will be done. She doesn't think that it's worked, but it actually is, unbeknownst to Willow, and she inadvertently blinds Giles, makes all the demons in town come after Xander, and makes Buffy and Spike fall in love and plan to get married. Buffy goes to the magic store to get ingredients to cure Giles' blindness, but she runs into Riley on the way back and reveals that she's getting married to an older man. A much, much older man. The Scoobies figure out what's happening and try to find Willow to have her reverse the spell, but she's gone, taken to the demon dimension by D'Hoffryn, Anya's former demon boss. D'Hoffryn offers to make Willow into a powerful demon, because she seems to have a talent for wreaking havoc, but she declines the offer and goes back to help her friends, who are stuck in a crypt and under siege by the demons who've been chasing Xander. She reverses her spell while Buffy and Spike are mid-smooch, and everything goes back to normal again, including the mutual loathing between Spike and Buffy. But things have already been mucked up, and Buffy has to tell Riley that she was only joking about the married thing.
Read the 11th Hour review of this episode!
And the moral is: Again, don't play with the magic. How many times do the kids today have to be told before they get it? Mojo is not a toy!

"Hush"
Summary: Buffy has a strange and foreboding Slayer-dream about a group of new nasties in town, called "The Gentlemen". She tells Giles about her dream, and Giles asks Spike -- who seems to have become his houseguest -- about the Gentlemen, but Spike doesn't know anything about them. Xander and Anya are having relationship problems, which only get worse when Giles foists Spike off on Xander for the weekend. Willow joins a Wicca group on campus, but they turn out to not be into actual magic, and Buffy wishes that she could just come out and tell Riley that she's the Slayer. When everyone wakes up in the morning, they discover that they've all lost the ability to speak: the Gentlemen stole their voices in the night. While Buffy and friends are working on figuring the problem out, so are Walsh and the rest of the Initiative, but the Gentlemen are out and about at night, and they steal hearts from victims who are unable to scream. Giles finds the Gentlemen in a book of fairy tales and fills in the rest of the gang using a presentation of hand-drawn transparencies, revealing that only the sound of a real human voice can kill the Gentlemen. Tara, the quiet girl from Willow's Wicca group, seeks Willow out but ends up being pursued and nearly caught by the Gentlemen. Together, Willow and Tara work some major mojo to keep the Gentlemen locked out. Buffy goes on patrol while across town Riley does the same, and they both end up in the clock tower, fighting the Gentlemen's capering straight-jacketed henchmen. Their secrets are out. Riley smashes the box holding everyone's voices, and Buffy screams, which causes the Gentlemen's heads to explode. Buffy and Riley have a lot of talking to do, but though their voices are back, neither can seem to think of anything to say.
Read the 11th Hour review of this episode!
And the moral is: Do not listen to any nursery rhyme written by Joss Whedon. You'll probably be scarred for life and have amazing technicolor nightmares.

< Previous Page | Next Page >