Season 4, Episode 1

To begin with, the seasons of Buffy can be grouped together similar to how the Harry Potter books are. Seasons 1-3 go together where Buffy is in high school and dealing with all the usual high school drama. Season 4 stands on its own where it’s the big turning point for Buffy and the series. Then Season 5-7 go together because these are the seasons shit gets so real that you can never be prepared for it. A lot of people I know aren’t fans of Season 4 and its lack of cohesion is one of the reasons (the other we’ll get into later). But this season is really about our characters growing, learning who they are as individuals apart from their high school group dynamic. Where Season 3 was about growing up, Season 4 is about actual character development and growth. Every single one of our main characters will really begin discovering who they are as individuals this season and will be forever changed by the end, so hold on tight folks, we’re in for a ride.

 

 “The Freshman”

This episode starts with a completely different feel to it then all the past seasons. We are now out of our element and so is Buffy. No more Scooby meetings at the library. No more high school at all. Time to be thrown out into the world my little bird.

We do get a sense of familiarity with Buffy and Willow hanging out in the cemetery like old times. Yet hear they are discussing college courses instead of Xander as we used to hear from Willow every season. And I need to point out Willow’s hair gets shorter every season! Season 4 and 5 are my favorite hairstyles for her, just sayin’.

And I have a question for Sarah, the resident Willow expert, what is Willow’s major? She says she’s had it picked since like infancy, but I don’t remember them every mentioning what her major is.

While discussing important things like, "How do you get to be renowned? Do you have to be nowned first?" Buffy lets a vampire escape without her noticing.

Slaying Fail.

 We get our first look at our new school for the year, UC Sunnydale. What college campus is used for this and can we go there too?

Buffy runs into Willow where Willow tells Buffy how she wants to have sex with knowledge.

“But here, I mean, the energy, the collective intelligence -- it's like this force, this penetrating force, I can feel my mind just opening up, you know, letting the place just thrust into it and... spurt knowledge... into... that sentence ended up in a different place than it started out in.” (Sarah's favorite line!)

Buffy is feeling very overwhelmed with all of this college stuff, whereas Willow and Oz are thriving on it. We make it to the bookstore where we meet… RILEY!

Buffy introduces herself by dropping books on him. "This store discriminates against short people" That’s the story of my life. We’ll get more into Riley as his character develops but he also tends to be among people’s least favorite characters. My plan is to open the world’s eyes to the awesomeness of Season 4 and Riley Finn.

We meet Buffy’s new dorm mate. I’m 95% that if I had to share a room with this, I’d stab her within the first week.

Buffy goes to her first class that she is just attempting to audit and the teacher is a giant douche to her. This mean college professor gets portrayed a lot on screen, but I have never met one nor heard of anyone having a teacher like this. But we get to see how Buffy is feeling more and more isolated in this new world she’s been thrown into. She’s feeling like everything is too much to handle. I don’t know if it’s because I’m a Ravenclaw, but I thought college was easy.

We see Buffy meet another student, Eddie, that she can relate too. The “being lost trying to find your way around campus” is a great metaphor for Buffy being lost in life in general. Too bad her new friend gets captured and killed by the on-campus vampire group.

Dav the Vampire: Does this sweater make me look fat?

Sunday the Vampire: No the fact that you are fat makes you look fat; the sweater just makes you look purple.

Buffy begins to try to reconnect with the old things in her life, but has difficulty doing so. Giles has now taken up being a “man of leisure” aka “having a mid-life unemployed crisis”. Buffy interrupts Giles with a lady friend and can’t get over the fact that Giles does in fact have a penis and does also enjoy putting it inside of women.

Buffy: Is this a bad time?

Giles: No, it’s fine.

Buffy: Are you sure? I’m pretty sure it’s a bad time.

Giles: Really it’s ok. What do you need?

Buffy: I think this is a bad time. I also think you are naked under that robe.

Giles: Care to find out?

*Buffy exits*

The cold hard truth of semi-adult life comes crashing down on Buffy. Giles isn't her watcher so she needs to figure stuff out on her own now.

Attempting to find out why Eddie disappeared, Buffy runs into Sunday and her vampire gang. For the first time in awhile, Buffy gets her ass-kicked by a vampire and this one she isn’t even in love with.

Again we see Buffy trying to find some comfort in her old way of life by visiting home and the Bronze. But you can’t go back. Home is now a place where her room is filled with boxes and her mom is busy with her own life.

Side Note: The phone call that Buffy receives but no one talks on the other end is actually from Angel. Since Season 1 of Angel is running at the same time as Buffy Season 4, we’re going to mention anything from Angel that crosses over into Buffy because a lot of things go unexplained otherwise. I originally watched Buffy without ever seeing Angel and yeah, after watching Angel SO MUCH MORE MAKES SENSE. *cough*Faith*cough*

At the Bronze, Buffy realizes this place was only fun because of her high school friends that she went there with. And of course because she always seemed to run into Angel there. Wait… is that Angel? (Actually it IS David Boreanez at first). But no, just some dude that has too much hair gel. But hey look! It’s Xander!

To Buffy: "You look like you just got diagnosed with cancer of the puppy." (Fav Line)

 Xander isn’t having a great time post-high school either. He didn’t go the college-route so he has to find a job and pay rent to live in his basement. This season we are going to see a whole new Xander, the Xander that I actually know and love. His new role is “say the right thing to make people feel better” guy.

Xander: Buffy, I've been through some fairly dark times in my life. Faced some scary things, among them the kitchen of the fabulous "Ladies Night" club. Let me tell you something. When it's dark and I'm all alone, and I'm scared or freaking out or whatever, I always think, "What would Buffy do?" … You're my hero.

Then of course, he does the Xander-like thing and ruins the moment.

Xander: Okay, sometimes when it's dark and I'm alone I think, "What is Buffy wearing?"

Buffy and Xander go off to stake the vampire group that is making it look like college students are leaving school, when in fact they are just being turned or eaten and their stuff stolen. For some reason the vampires are living in a place that has a skylight (I’d really think skylights would be on the list of things vampires don’t want when looking for a place to live). Anyway, Buffy and Xander look in on them, Xander goes to get weapons, and Buffy decides to fall through the skylight.

I love this little side scene of Willow and Oz going to Buffy’s room where it looks like she ran away again. Willow is constantly blaming herself and feeling guilt over other people’s actions thinking it’s something she did or something she could have done to stop it. She thinks that Buffy ran because Willow was a bad friend, aww. L Xander drops by to explain in code that “Some friends of Buffy's played a funny joke, they took her stuff and now she wants us to help get it back from her friends
who sleep all day and have no tans.”

Buffy, having fallen into the vampire’s nest kicks their ass in the old Buffy style. This goes to show that after reconnecting with one of her friends, she finds the strength to fight whereas earlier in the show she was all alone. Just like how Harry Potter is lost without his friends. We’ll see this really continue throughout this season.

Her friends show up to help as Buffy finishes off the bitch that broke her umbrella. That part really upset me because that umbrella represents so much about how her high school friends appreciated what she did and by breaking it we see that everything is different in college now. Giles puts pants on and shows up just in time to be of no use, but the support is nice.

We close on some army dudes tazing and capturing a vampire. That’s weird. Maybe it’s just Xander and his friends playing dress-up.

-Kali!

Sarah's Notes

-“Yes first there’s the painful nowning process”

-To answer the question about Willow's major, I have no idea. I don't remember them mentioning anything but my best guess is she was trying to get a teaching degree. That seems to be the best fit for her if she would choose a major right from the start, however I feel like it would make more sense for her to go into school being confused on which major to pick because she wants every major.

Thank you Hyperbole and a Half for this picture that represents Willow perfectly

-“Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior” “You know I meant to and then I got really busy” I think this is hilarious because it is very accurate. At college, there are tons of people with many fliers of crap that you don't care about all the time.

-“I didn’t get jello shots” I love how hurt Willow sounds lol

- (to Riley) “I’m nice to meet” This is probably one of the worst responses you can give when someone says "nice to meet you," just putting that out there.

-I’m with Kali, I’ve never had a professor act as that guy did to Buffy. It’s kind of insane to do that the first day, everyone will freak out and drop your class before the drop period ends. And I find college to be just as easy but I'm a Ravenclaw as well so I guess we're not the best people to ask.

-Maggie Walsh really irks me, I would have hated having her as a psychology professor.

-(About the building she's looking for) “Which I know is on the earth planet”

-“I’m trying to cut way back” (on porn)

-“You made a friend? Good for you” “Thanks mom” This is made of so much win! Willow does get sort of mom-ish. She means well, but that comment was just really hilarious and I'm glad Buffy responded how she did.

-“No! Because you’re very, very old and it’s gross” I think it's awesome how Buffy can actually say this to Giles; they have such a cool relationship. And I felt the same way as her about how gross it is.

-This episode, with Buffy fighting Sunday, shows how much Buffy herself can affecting her own fighting. AT the time Sunday comes, she isn’t really that tough, Buffy’s just in a really bad place after seeing Eddie as a vampire and Giles not feel the need to help her anymore. I really feel like her feeling lost and alone and the fact that Sunday started off the fight with sarcasm making fun of her got her off to a bad start.

-“Yeah but I didn’t move anything” Joyce has such weird views on parenting. What book did she read that told her putting boxes into her daughters room two days after moving out was okay because you aren't moving any of her stuff?

-“Do we hug?” “I think we’re too manly” LOL