Episode Discussion: Restless

[SpikedBuffy]

Per Lyri's request... we will definitely take a week to discuss the always silly episode Restless

Discussion start date: July 15, 2006
Discussion end date: July 22, 2006

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This is such a crazy episode! So much going on.

Talk about the things you liked/didn't like...the ideas and such that were carried out throughout the remaining seasons.

I love Anya's jokes at the Bronze. And Giles' song. It's great.

[Spirit_Of_Fred]

no one's posting!!!!!!:jawdrop::aah: what's the deal????? this discussion's been up here for three days!!!! ok, let me say some things that you guys either already know or dont care about in attempts to strike up a conversation! who knows? maybe i'll even be back to say more when i think of more to say.

ok lets see. well to start with, i love this episode! its very creative and unique and not something you usually see outside of buffy! i liked all of the metaphors and hidden messages, but of course i had to watch the commentary because i was too slow to understand half of these messages (but i still got half! :D). i liked that the cheese man had no message. i liked getting to hear ASH sing, and it was cool how it was the stuff he'd be saying normally at a scoobie meeting or something, but he sung it like it wasnt. i liked getting to see people again, like oz and snyder, cause i love seeing characters return after they leave. um, i liked how in xander's dream, he ended up in the basement no matter where he went. there was a lot of humor, which i liked. i liked how all the camera angles etc. made it seem dreamlike. i'll finish by saying, joss is a complete genius!!! *godlike music plays in the background*.

now, let's get talkin'!!!!!!:woot:

[SpikedBuffy]

Thank you SOF! I was wondering what had happened.

Another thing I like about this episode is the Cheese Man. He serves no purpose, but is dang funny!

[Lyri]

i like this Ep. it's one of my faves of the entire show. i don't have this season on DVD, so i can't watch the extras, but in the third watcher's guide, they have the script, and they go through every little detail, and i have to say, like SOF, i got half of the hidden messages! it was only the really obscure ones i missed, and i'll post some of them.
ok, i'll start with Willow's dream and go from there!

i like how Willow's dream focuses on her 'secret' i think everyone thought that her secret was going to be her sexuality, how afraid she was of revealing it to the world. but at the end of her dream, in the classroom, Buffy rips off her 'costume' and reveals the exact out fit Willow was wearing the first day she met Buffy, and we can see that Willow's fear has nothing to do with the fact that she's now gay, but she's scared that she hasn't change from that geeky little high-school girl she used to be. her 'secret' could also be a hint at S6, and Willow desent into dark magick. she kept that a secret from her friends until she was too far gone to pull herself back. also, did anyone think that Buffy's 'death to all men' speech during the play was almost exactly the same as Caleb's mind set, only the opposite? (he was hates women, she was bashing on the men)

Xander's dream, i think, is pretty straight forward. he scared of getting stuck in the basement, and of turning into his parents. Buffy refers to Xander as he 'big brother' and we learn just how much their relationship has changed in four years. he's gone from wanting to date Buffy, to wanting to look out for her, protect her, and do anything he can for her. but in S7, Buffy thinks she doesn't need a big brother herself anymore, and decides it's Dawn who needs Xander more than she does, and kind of appoints Xander as Dawn's big brother when she tells him to take Dawn away and out of the fight at the very end of the season. and a little side note, did anyone catch the refernce to the 'loan shark' of S6?
Xander: Gotta have something. Gotta be always moing forward.
Buffy: Like a shark.
Xander: A shark with feet. And much less...fins.
Spike: AND on land.
i just thought that was funny!

Giles' dream is the least clear for me. he jumps back and forth from wanting to be there for Buffy, to wanting to have his own life again, with his 'gig' at the Bronze. and maybe that's the point? maybe, at that time, he was trying to decide between staying with Buffy and the others and moving back to England. in 'Buffy vs. Dracula' he's decided he is going to move back to England, and maybe that's what his dream helped him to figure out (of course, he doesn't actually go, but he still makes the choice) i think Gile' singing the conversation, using the song to explain what's going on, is a reference to 'OMWF' when everyone sings anything. and it's Giles' dream that points out that it's the spirit of a Slayer that's doing all of this when he says 'You never had a Watcher' right before she scalps him.

Buffy's dream seems to be the less confusing of everyones...or at least, she seems less confused than everyone. she's able to work through every weird aspect of her dream and find a way to have a logical conversation with the thing that's causing all of the problems to begin with. i liked how the referenced the dream sequence in 'This Year's Girl' when Buffy and Faith made the bed together. and there's another subtle reference to Dawn, when Tara asks who they were making the bed for, but Buffy doesn't answer, becasue she doesn't exactly know yet. and when she looks at the clock, reading 7:30, buffy's mentions that it's late. Tara says the clocks completly wrong, and it is. in 'Gradutaion Day' it was 730 days until Buffy's death 'The Gift' but now, a year later, the time is wrong. and i loved that Tara was the first one to mention Dawn by name (Be back before dawn) instead of one of the main cast people. Riley calls Buffy 'killer' and Dracula will do the same thing. When Buffy says she's not a demon, is she referecning S6 when she thinks she came back wrong? and at the very end of her dream, Buffy does exactly what's she's done since she first became a Slayer...follows her own rules. she tells the first Slayer that she's 'waking up now' when it isn't exactly her dream, the primitive in sort of inducing the dreams on the others, and gets enraged when Buffy decides she's not gonna play anymore.

as you can see, i've really thought about this episode, and i love every single aspect of it. including the cheese man, who i think is hilarious! and i loved it when he shows up in Andrew/Jonathan's dream over a year later!

[Spirit_Of_Fred]

i like how Willow's dream focuses on her 'secret' i think everyone thought that her secret was going to be her sexuality

i never thought that, but i could tell that's what everyone was "supposed" to think. and technically, she was already out at that point, so that being her secret wouldnt quite make sense.

Buffy rips off her 'costume' and reveals the exact out fit Willow was wearing the first day she met Buffy

i didnt even know that until i watched the commentary, cause i saw this before i saw the first episode, but i still agree it was cool.

did anyone catch the refernce to the 'loan shark' of S6?
Xander: Gotta have something. Gotta be always moing forward.
Buffy: Like a shark.
Xander: A shark with feet. And much less...fins.
Spike: AND on land.
i just thought that was funny!

i think Gile' singing the conversation, using the song to explain what's going on, is a reference to 'OMWF' when everyone sings anything.

When Buffy says she's not a demon, is she referecning S6 when she thinks she came back wrong?

did joss really know all this stuff so early on that he forshadowed it?? whoa! even the loan shark, which is a year or so from then, plus not a big deal of a demon? i guess the omwf thing makes sense since joss wanted it so long. but the buffy thing seems like more of an irony to me. like, she says she's not a demon, and then years later, she thinks she is. sort of the backwards of what you said, lyri.

Giles' dream is the least clear for me. he jumps back and forth from wanting to be there for Buffy, to wanting to have his own life again, with his 'gig' at the Bronze. and maybe that's the point?

yup, i think that was it. he cares about buffy and wants to look out for her, but he's going through his whole 'mid-life crisis' thing and so he wants to go out in the world and explore other things he could do. thats why it is easier for him to stay in sunnydale when he has the magic box. he has a job to occupy himself and get him money, and he can be there for buffy. when buffy dies, he has less reason to stay and leaves, cause the magic shop was partly just something to do while he was helping buffy that kept him from lying around all day. he comes back to sunnydale when she's resurrected, but then he leaves again when he feels he's standing in buffy's way, because if him being with buffy is not helping her, and he is back for no other reason, then he might as well leave. okay, im rambling now, but my point was that giles is unsure which part of him he should follow. he wants to do both and is just trying to figure it all out, which is the point of the dream. when he sings, it is a combination of both those things he wants. the song's topic is about warning buffy about the demon and defeating it and whatnot, but singing this in song expresses the side of him that, as you put it, just wants to have his own life again.

and i loved that Tara was the first one to mention Dawn by name (Be back before dawn) instead of one of the main cast people.

i liked that too. i even have a banner with that line and scene.

and i loved it when he shows up in Andrew/Jonathan's dream over a year later!

i didnt even notice that. where was that?

[Lyri]

i didnt even notice that. where was that?

it's in one of the dreams they share when they're in Mexico, when The First starts playing with Andrew's head. i can't remember the exact episode, but i know it's in S7. i don't know why i said 'just over a year later' when it's closer to three years! lol