Restless

"Restless" is the 22nd and last episode of season 4 of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, characterized by bizarre dream settings which illustrate the four main characters' overall themes as well as providing extensive hints about future developments.

Summary
"Restless" follows the Scooby Gang's victory over the villain Adam by magically joining. The joining has summoned the essence of the first Slayer, and she is not happy about how Buffy is handling the job.

Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Giles meet at Buffy's to relax with videos, one of them Apocalypse Now. They fall asleep before they even get through the FBI warning and are confronted by the first Slayer in their dreams. Each of the four Scoobies experience vivid dreams.

Willow's dream
Willow's dream begins with her painting a Sapphic love poem in Greek on Tara's back; she is then faced with the opening performance of Death of a Salesman, featuring Riley as the cowboy, as part of a drama class she signed up for. Willow realizes with increasing uneasiness that she knows neither her lines nor her role. Buffy then takes Willow to stand in front of a classroom in the same nerdy clothes she wore as a high school sophomore. Xander mocks her as she nervously begins her book review. Willow has the life sucked out of her by the First Slayer in front of the class.

Xander's dream
Xander wakes on Buffy's couch to find a bizarrely altered version of Apocalypse Now playing on the television. After excusing himself to use the restroom, he finds himself the object of an attempted seduction by Joyce. He then meets Buffy, Giles, and Spike in a playground where Giles tells him that Spike is being trained as a Watcher, switches to an ice-cream truck with Anya where Willow and Tara (wearing cheesy make-up suitable to porn-film "lesbians") make a pass at him in the back. Xander comes across Giles, who starts revealing the reason for the dream, but then starts speaking French. A reenactment of the Apocalypse Now scene with Walter Kurtz turned into a discussion between Xander and Principal Snyder follows. Finally, Xander has his heart torn out by the first Slayer in the guise of his father.

Giles' dream
Giles starts out in a family scene with Buffy and his girlfriend Olivia at a fairground. Quicker than the others to understand that something is wrong, he confronts Spike, who is posing for a photo-shoot in his crypt. In The Bronze, he meets Anya failing as a stand-up comedian and Xander and Willow, who warn him of their attacker. He breaks out into song, giving suggestions on how to deal with what hunts them, but when the sound system breaks down, he crawls backstage. He begins to realise his pursuer is the First Slayer, just in time for her to scalp him.

Buffy's dream
Buffy is woken by Anya in Buffy & Willow's dorm room, only to switch to her own room at home where she talks to Tara. At the old school, Buffy talks to her mother who lives in the walls, then meets Riley at the Initiative. He has been promoted to Surgeon General and is drawing up plans with the human Adam for world domination through coffee makers that think. The three of them are interrupted by a demon attack, and Riley and Adam leave to create a pillow fort for protection. When Buffy finds her weapons bag, the only thing in it is mud, which she smears on her face. Transported to the desert, she finally confronts The First Slayer, who uses Tara's voice. The First Slayer tells Buffy that she cannot have friends and must work alone, which Buffy rejects. The Slayers fight in the desert and then in Buffy's living room next to her dying friends until Buffy realizes that she can stop the fight mentally. The First Slayer vanishes and everybody wakes up when Buffy starts talking about hair care.

Special characters and interactions
During the dream phases, the characters are able to communicate with each other to some extent and warn each other. Tara, usually in the background of the group's activities, here acts as sort of a guide in each dream. "I was borrowed," she tells Buffy. When Xander's dream includes potentially-erotic action (dream-Joyce, then dream-Willow and Tara, making passes at him), the characters' mouths don't move to match the dialogue.

However, the most distinctive and probably nonsensical character of "Restless" is the Cheese Man, appearing in all the dreams and offering slices of cheese together with cryptic advice ("I wear the cheese; the cheese does not wear me") to the dreamers and then disappearing. Whedon states in the episode commentary that since almost everything else in the episode has some sort of symbolic significance, he wanted to add an element that was completely meaningless and nonsensical. The Cheese Man appears again briefly in the season seven episode "Storyteller".

Writing and acting
"Restless" is one of the most layered episodes of the whole series, with a wealth of self-references, quotes of things past and hints of future occurrences, as well as literary allusions. While this amount of self-referential content is exactly what has led to it becoming a favorite among Buffy fans, it also makes "Restless" hard to understand or appreciate for viewers who are not familiar with the characters' themes and the show's nature.

Compared with the other two dreams, Xander's seems somewhat long and Giles's somewhat short. Giles, however, is quick to understand what the group is facing and has to be dispatched quickly: We cannot be sure that his claim "I can defeat you with my intellect" is not in fact true, but he is 'killed' before he has a chance to try. In comparison, Xander's has more hang-ups to deal with relating to his life and family and has little direct interaction with the First Slayer.

Armin Shimerman again does an impersonation of Marlon Brando (as Colonel Kurtz); he had previously imitated Brando as Don Vito Corleone in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "The Nagus".

Prophecies & Forshadowing
In Xander's dream, Giles and Spike are swinging and Giles says that Spike is like a son to him. In Tabula Rasa, after losing their memories, Giles and Spike believe they are father and son. Spike is also wearing the suit in the dream sequence that he is wearing in Tabula Rasa, owned by "Randy".

In Buffy's dream, Tara says to Buffy "be back before dawn," an obvious reference to Dawn Summers, who appears in season 5.

Starring

 * Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers
 * Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris
 * Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg
 * Marc Blucas as Riley Finn
 * James Marsters as Spike
 * and Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

Guest Starring

 * Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers
 * Amber Benson as Tara
 * Mercedes McNab as Harmony Kendall
 * David Wells as The Cheese Man
 * Michael Harney as Xander's Dad
 * George Hertzberg as Adam
 * Emma Caulfield as Anya
 * Seth Green as Oz
 * and Armin Shimerman as Principal Snyder

Co-Starring

 * Sharon Ferguson as Primitive
 * Phina Oruche as Olivia
 * Rob Boltin as Soldier

Recurring Characters
Oz (last appearance), Principal Snyder (last appearance), Tara, Harmony, Adam, Olivia (last appearance), Primitive (first appearance)

Quotes
Giles' speech to the cast just before curtain in Willow's dream: "All right everyone, pay attention. In just a few moments that curtain is going to open on our very first prodcution, and everyone that Willow's ever met is out in that audience, including all of us. That means we have to be perfect. Now stay in character, remember your lines, and energy energy energy especially in the musical numbers. Actually its not about behavior, its about hiding. The audiene wants to find you, strip you naked, and eat you alive, so hide. (to Harmony, who's trying to bite him) Stop that. Now costumes, sets, the thngs that you, umm, you know, you umm, you hold them, you touch them, use them, (Harmony: "Props?") No! (Riley: "Props?) Yes. Its all about subderfuge, (to Harmony) That's very annoying. Now, go out there, lie like dogs, and have a wonderful time. If we can stay in focus, keep our heads, and if Willow can stop steping on everyones cues, I know this will be the best production of Death of a Salesman we've ever done, (to Harmony) Stop it. Good luck everyone. Break a leg!"

"I'm lookin' for a man. A sales man." -- Riley, dressed as a cowboy and saying lines that are definitely not from Death of a Salesman.

"You filthy men and your...your...sales." -- Buffy. See above.

"It's a shame that I never got to tell you how happy I am that you were eaten by a giant snake." -- Xander, to Principal Snyder in his dream

Buffy, to the man who made up Adam's human body parts: "Who were you?" Adam: "Before Adam? Not a man among us can remember."