Thoughts on Season 4

[LadyLavinia]

I hated how faith was IMO what broke Buffy & Riley. Ever since he slept with her, it was never the same between them

Let me get this straight. You're trying to blame the breakup of Buffy and Riley, solely on Faith? Are you serious?

 

[likefireworks]

Season 4 was my least favorite season for a long time, because I hated Adam/The Initiative/Riley.. but I can't call it a least favorite anymore. It has a lot that I love and like about it - I love Something Blue, Hush, and This Year's Girl/Who Are You. I really like a lot of the other episodes too. I love the reintroduction of Spike and the twists in how his character fits in. I love that they're out of high school - I like the new setting and also the production, which changed after season 3.

 

[Hale Caesar]

During my first watch season 4 was my least favorite season. The overall theme is not as strong as other seasons and I didn't like "Hush" the first time around, it was a little bland to me (OMWF I loved). My favorite part was when Oz left the show, well actually I was sad because Oz is one of my favorite characters

I plan to do my first re-watch soon, so maybe my opinion will change

 

[Taake]

I hated how faith was IMO what broke Buffy & Riley. Ever since he slept with her, it was never the same between them :-(

RIP Briley.

To me the Faith having sex with Riley (in Buff's bod) was like a drop in the ocean to what became their troubles laser on and was in fact not even a problem or topic of interest anymore by the time they broke up.

Though initially wounded I give Buffy more credit as a rational being than to continue to blame Riley for that mistake. After all Faith was wearing her body! I mean... c'mon. How was he supposed to see through that? It was obviously not without some effort but I do think she got over that.

I would even go so far as to say that that little episode had little to nothing to do with the Buffy-Riley break-up. They had moved so far and beyond that by that point.

 

[likefireworks]

I would even go so far as to say that that little episode had little to nothing to do with the Buffy-Riley break-up. They had moved so far and beyond that by that point.

If anything, I might say that the Faith incident was a symptom of what was wrong with Buffy & Riley's relationship... not a cause. Riley wasn't close enough to Buffy, didn't know her well enough to know that it was Faith not Buffy "driving". Buffy and Riley's relationship was always quite superficial.

 

[Icarium]

If anything, I might say that the Faith incident was a symptom of what was wrong with Buffy & Riley's relationship... not a cause. Riley wasn't close enough to Buffy, didn't know her well enough to know that it was Faith not Buffy "driving". Buffy and Riley's relationship was always quite superficial.

I really don't see how Riley not jumping to this very implausible conclusion makes his relationship with Buffy superficial. The only one who suspected anything of the possession variety was Tara. Does that mean Joyce and the Scoobies' relationship with Buffy is just as superficial as Riley? When Angel lost his soul and made his extremely cruel speech to Buffy ("You were a real pro", etc), Buffy didn't immediately jump to the conclusion that he had lost his soul. Does that make Buffy/Angel superficial? How about The Scoobies not recognizing the Buffybot which was many times more obvious than Faith-as-Buffy?

If anything, Buffy was channelling the anger caused by Faith towards Riley in a rather unfair way. He was a victim in the situation too.