I don't know if this is what WA is referring to but a nice meta/theory on this ep (not one that I necessarily agree with but it's an interesting read) is the following:
Captain Cardboard, or How I Learned To Stop Seething And Love "As You Were"
That pretty well covers a lot of my suspicions about "As You Were," but it leaves out a couple.
For one: How did Riley know the precise moment to break into Spike's crypt?
Answer: Go back to the time when Maggie Walsh was running the Initiative. There was one scene where she is watching Buffy and Riley in bed. Obviously, she has the boy's room bugged. If she has one location bugged, it only stands to reason that she would place cameras anywhere else that he was apt to be, places that would include wherever Buffy was: her home, the Magic Shop, and, of course, a certain crypt where lurked a vampire known to sell her information and even help her out on occasion. Riley knew about the hidden cameras (hopefully he didn't know about them while Maggie was spying on him. Otherwise, we've got ourselves one sick soldier boy here) and was watching Spike and Buffy from the moment that she got there until he made his dramatic entrance, armed with a very impressive but totally useful M-16 rifle, the rounds from which would do little more than irritate Spike, who presents no danger to anyone anyway. Chip, remember?
Second: Who was Sam REALLY? Her story was that she was a member of a mission team that Riley and his men rescued in South America, assumedly the Peace Corps group that the Army was originally going down to help. So, after being snatched from the jaws of demonic death, this cute little Peace Corps worker becomes, in barely a year and a half, not only a highly trained and motivated demon fighter, but she has attained a military rank at least equal to Riley's own (Buffy: You take orders from him? Sam: He wishes) In the first place, husband/wife teams would not be allowed in any sort of military action, and this was an ARMY unit, specified so when they recruited Riley to go with them. Secondly, since Sam could not have possibly attained Riley's rank and seniority in so short a time, she damn well WOULD have taken his orders, or face disciplinary action.
That leaves us with only one conclusion about Mrs Riley. Namely, that her entire story is a lie, and she is a far more experienced fighter than she is willing to reveal to Buffy and the Scoobies. Here's where the second rifleman on the grassy knoll comes into the equation.
At some point back when she was working with the Initiative, Buffy HAD to have given a blood sample at some point. The military thrives on sticking needles in its personnel, for any or no reason whatsoever. Since we know that Slayer blood is not normal blood (it heals vampires and is a great aphrodisiac, plus I am sure that it probably has more uses) we might assume that analysis of it might reveal some useful things that might be used by the military. Therefore: Sam or, Slayer Augmented Metabolism. The Initiative had been trying to build a super soldier with Adam, and there's no reason that the super soldier project would have been completely abandoned, once positive proof was found that a superhuman demon fighter did, in fact, exist.
The trip to Sunnydale wasn't ever about any Suvolte demon or its eggs, as much as it was a field test for the Army's latest and greatest super soldier: Sam.
Destroying whatever relationship that Buffy and Spike might have had was just icing on the cake for Riley. I have no doubt that he left Sunnydale certain that Buffy would be staking Spike almost immediately. Hense his anger and disappointment the next year to find out that, not only was "Assface" not dust in the wind, he was also still with Buffy, and she obviously cared even more for him at that point than he had the year before.
Oh, and those cameras that Maggie Walsh had set up all around Sunnydale? Warren accidentally discovered the radio frequencies of at least two: the one in Buffy's front yard, and the one in the Magic Box. (Bet you've been wondering how they managed to install those things, haven't you? Now you know. They didn't, the Army, whod keys to fit every lock in Sunnydale, did.
