4/22: Restless

[William the Bloody]

Written by Joss Whedon
Directed by Joss Whedon
Air date: 5/23/00

After battling Adam, an exhausted Buffy, Willow, Xander and Giles all experience dreams in which they encounter a strange, savage woman - and the Cheese Man.

[Spaced Out Looney]

For your reading pleasure:

*Compilation of Restless Reviews

[Lola m]

Sound the trumpets! Pop the champagne corks!
Fire off the fireworks!!
Welcome to the tenth and final week of the 2006
Sizzlin’ Episode Festival!!

Here’s the place to discuss the number one most requested Buffy episode, Restless!





It's so bright. And there's something out there.

Your costume is perfect. Nobody's gonna know the truth. You know, about you.

It's all about subterfuge.

Everyone's starting to wonder about you. The real you.

Why are you still in costume? Willow, everybody already knows. Take it off.





Joyce: Anyway, they all left a while ago.
Xander: Oh, I should probably go catch up.

That's not the way out.

I got other stuff goin' on. You gotta have something. . . . I'm going places.

People can't do anything they want. Society has rules, and borders, and an end zone.

What are you, ashamed of us? . . . . The line ends here with us, and you're not gonna change that. You haven't got the heart.





You have to stop thinking. Let it wash over you.

This is my business. Blood of the lamb and all that.

The spell we cast with Buffy . . .
Must have released Some primal evil . . .

I know who you are. . . . You never had a Watcher.





You think you know ... what's to come ... what you are. You haven't even begun.

Oh, sweetie, no, I'm fine here. Don't worry about me.

Buffy: World domination? Is, is that a good?
Riley: Baby, we're the government. It's what we do.

I live in the action of death, the blood cry, the penetrating wound. I am destruction. Absolute ... alone. . . . . The Slayer does not walk in this world.

It's over. We don't do this any more. You're not the source of me.







Oh, and let’s not forget . . .



Cheese!!!!!

Read Spring’s most excellent analysis of Restless here.
And read or leave comments about her analysis here.

Want to brush up on the ep, but don’t have time to watch? Go read up on it at the Buffyverse Dialogue Database.
Restless

Don't forget to check out Liz's compilation of Restless reviews above!

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[Lola m]

Some of my favorite bits from the different analysis of Restless that Liz collected. (And I’ve only gotten through part of the list so far! Man, reading about this ep is fascinating and addictive!)

From Spring’s “These Dreams” (quite appropriately, they are Spike-y bits):

Again, Xander’s dreams reveal him as quite perceptive underneath it all. Even if his consciousness would never allow for the possibility, the observant Xander has, at some level, been the first to see a connection between Spike and Buffy (SPIKE: “I got the stuff.” XANDER, to Buffy: “No one can protect you from . . . some stuff.”). He even seems to be conceding, to SPIKE, the spot he once coveted by Buffy’s side (“I was into that, for awhile”).

And

Spike is wearing the suit he will wear in Season 6’s Tabula Rasa. He swings, like a carefree child, on a swing set with the fatherly Giles. There they are: Two Englishmen, like mad dogs, out in the midday sun.

Plus – the funny and clever bits about the Cheeseman, who does “in his very meaninglessness, have meaning”.

Shadowkat importantly points us back to re-look at The Yoko Factor and its connection to this ep. I also particularly liked the essay on Buffy’s dream – it has some very interesting things to say about Buffy’s rejection of herself or aspects of herself, her journey, etc.

The Scoopme analysis by Jen Sonstein has some interesting “aha” click moments by applying traditional dream analysis – particularly the symbols. Did Joss and the writers use these deliberately? This analysis is also interesting because it was written right as the episode aired; it’s an analysis of the moment, without the hindsight from later seasons or episodes.

Billie Doux gives us both initial reaction (full of “I can’t decide if I love this ep or hate it” floundering) and later, near-the-end-of-season-7 later, analysis (full of much more love, appreciation and partial insight into the First Evil story arc – though her main concept did not come true, I still think there are some intriguing guesses and thoughts made here). Reading both of these really brought home to me just how much stuff, how many layers there are to Restless. And, therefore, how completely Joss really captured dreams – their idea and feeling and importance. Plus, I like that she points out how much of what Joss was doing in Restless was likely just stream of consciousness – with we viewers applying meaning to it after the fact. Which also, to me, highlights just how well they replicated the experience of dreaming.

The Sunnydale Slayers link has a lot going for it. First, Mary Beth provides a very full synopsis - lots of notes on costume and reactions that are missing from many recaps. Although I would disagree with her interpretation of some reactions. For example, I think the crowd’s reaction to Anya’s joke by the end is intended to be genuinely appreciative. Her review appears to also have been written at time of airing, and is one that really rings true with me. Some speculation, yes, but not tons. Instead, there is much much insight into the emotional state of each of the characters. And finally, there are some very interesting comments / collected posts at the end of this.

The “things that make you go duh” review is funny! And I love that Palefella jumps right to a “cheeseman stands for nothing” position. Or, in other words:

The cheese-man, then, is a literal figure and his appearance in the dreams is a prophesy. Yes, season five will see a balding, mad, purveyor of dairy products who will stalk the Scooby Gang.”

BuffyGuide, as usual, does a nice job with summary, references, quotes, etc. The one thing that struck me particulary this time in reading it was this bit:

In her dream, Buffy says that she and Faith just made the bed. This is actually a reference to Faith's dream in "This Year's Girl," in which the two made the bed with crisp white sheets.

Did I not notice before that the dream of making the bed was Faith’s, making this another example of slayer’s sharing dream images? Or did I notice this before and simply forgot? Either way – interesting!

Michael Hickerson points out some similarities to “When She Was Bad” that I hadn’t thought of before and says some truthful things about the Emmys and taking creative chances.

Woo, boy! I’ll have to come back here later and comment on more of these . . .

Thanks so much for the links, Liz!

[SpringSummers]

Great ep, Lolafalola.

You quoted my Spikey comments, and one thing I think is interesting, Spike-wise, is how "Spikeless" Buffy's dream is, despite the fact that it is all about Buffy's coming-of-age, letting go of Riley, going "into the woods," and movement toward accepting (confronting, coming to love) her Slayerness, her darkside, as part of herself, harnessing it, etc . . . which is what her upcoming hook-up with Spike is all about.

But I think the Buffy dream is perfect as is. It didn't need heavy-handed, specific foreshadowing about how, exactly, she was going to find out "who she is," "what's to come," etc. And there is subtle reference to Spike's upcoming role in the fact that Buffy seems to be dreaming herself, in part, back in high school, with shades of the day she got into full Slayer-mode and let herself love it - the day she first fought Spike in the high school hallway. Joyce talks to her through that hole in the wall, a picture almost exactly like Joyce talking to her through a hole in the door in SchoolHard, and Joyce even mentions having made lemonade.

I liked all the dreams. And the Cheeseman! There is meaningless to him, but . . . we just come off a Season where we learn "Buffy likes cheese," and Riley tries to win her over with cheese . . . I dunno. I honestly don't think it is possible for Joss's brain to produce something like that without it having a million-and-on connections back to the story - whether he means it to, or not.

The hardest part of analyzing it for my series of analyses was just knowing when to stop. I think there was a great deal of thought given to every word and every image.

I think I was most . . . taken, I guess the word is, by Giles' dream, but then, it was a very grown-up dream, and I was a grown up when I was watching this ep. It's a dream of someone who considers himself a responsible adult, but has his doubts and longings . . . and there's singing, and Spike is just priceless in that dream.

[leftylady]

Ah, the Cheese Man. But is he really meaningless? I always think of the Farmer in the Dell: "The cheese stands alone." A constant theme in "Buffy" is that she is the One, the one that ultimately bears the burden countered by the need for her friends and family to be effective. To share the burden or power as it may be. This Cheese Man metaphor coming right after Primeval where the joining spell with the Scubies and the First Slayer is interesting. He keeps popping up in Buffy's dream. A reminder that the temptation of "standing alone" will always confront her?