Restless

"Restless" is the season finale of the fourth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and is the seventy-eighth episode altogether. It was written and directed by Joss Whedon. It originally broadcast on May 23, 2000.

"Restless" is characterized by bizarre dream settings which illustrate the four main characters' overall themes as well as providing extensive hints about future developments. It follows the Scooby Gang's victory over the villain Adam by magically joining in "Primeval", which has summoned the essence of the First Slayer (who is not happy about how Buffy is handling the job).

Synopsis
Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Giles meet at Buffy's to relax with videos. 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 experiences a vivid dream.

Willow's dream


Willow's dream begins with her painting a Sapphic love poem in Greek on Tara's back. She also feels a lot of anxiety about her identity and a secret she has, which seems to be a combination of her identity as witch and as Tara's lover. 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, and Buffy insists that Willow is wearing a costume. She pulls them off and ends up wearing the same nerdy clothes she wore as a high school sophomore (see "Welcome to the Hellmouth" and "The Harvest"). 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 bathroom, 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 re-enactment 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 at a fairground in a family-type situation with his girlfriend Olivia, who is pregnant and pushing a baby stroller, and Buffy acting as if she were a young child. Buffy throws a ball, "staking" a vampire figure in a carnival game and is rewarded with cotton candy. As Giles comments that she will get it all over her face, Buffy turns and her face is now covered in mud. 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 (with a bloody chest wound) 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 realize his pursuer is the First Slayer, just in time for her to scalp him.

Buffy's dream


Buffy is awakened by Anya in Buffy &amp; Willow's dorm room, only to switch to her own room at home where she talks to Tara. In the UC Sunnydale hallway, 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. 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 speaks through Tara. 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.

One very distinctive character in "Restless" is the Cheese Man, who appears in all four dreams offering slices of cheese together with cryptic statements ("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. In his appearance in Buffy's dream, the Cheese Man doesn't speak, showing up briefly to wave cheese slices after the First Slayer says "We are alone." This is an obvious reference to the nursery rhyme "The Farmer in the Dell," which contains the line "The cheese stands alone." The Cheese Man appears again briefly in the season seven episode "Storyteller".

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
 * Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

Guest Starring

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

Co Starring

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

Writing

 * "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.


 * Willow's dream is mostly about her growth from a geek to an independent woman and her fear for becoming a geek again. But it can also be a foreshadowing to her abuse of magic:
 * Buffy: "Your costume is perfect. Nobody's gonna know the truth. You know, about you."
 * This is true, that Willow keeps the secret, that she's abusing magic, from her friends until it's almost to late.


 * Xander's dream is fairly straightforward as it is about his fear of becoming like his parents and never getting away from his old life:
 * Anya: "Xander! You have to come with us now! Everybody's waiting for you!"
 * This is both about Xander's fear of being left behind and also a hint of his wedding, at which time he disappears. There are a lot of hints that he is going to abandon Anya at the altar:
 * Anya: "I've been thinking about getting back into vengeance."
 * Anya will become a vengeance demon again after the canceled wedding but won't be one for very long - less than a year.


 * Giles's dream is about his role as father figure to Buffy and his desire to leave the Scooby Gang to have a life on his own:
 * Olivia: "Does she always want to train this badly?"
 * Buffy's desire to train will pull Giles away from a life on his own:
 * Giles: "Now look into the light."
 * This foreshadows Buffy's death, where she will go 'into the light', and Giles will go home to England.


 * Buffy's dream is mostly about her confusion about what it means to be a Slayer. But there will be hints of Buffy's death:
 * Tara: "Oh, that clock's completely wrong."
 * In Graduation Day, Part Two Faith said: "Little Miss Muffet counting down from 7-3-0" which is what the clock shows here in Restless. From Graduation Day there were to be 730 days until Buffy's death. When Tara says "the clock's completely wrong", it's because there are less than 730 days, but it can also be taken to mean that her death will not be her final rest.
 * Tara: "You think you know. What's to come, what you are... You haven't even begun."

Production

 * This is the only episode in Season Four to start without a cold opening, instead beginning at the opening credits.


 * This episode marks the final appearance on the show of Oz, Principal Snyder, and Olivia -- and the first appearance of the First Slayer.


 * Some of the bizarre transitions in location, where characters suddenly step from one familiar setting to another, reflect the actual layout of the Buffy studio lot, where the Magic Box, The Bronze, UC Sunnydale lecture hall, Sunnydale High School hallways and other locations are all housed in a large converted warehouse.


 * Angel (David Boreanaz) and Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) were supposed to appear, but were written out when scheduling conflicted with Angel. Initially, Angel was written as the dream guide for the gang (a role which was eventually given to Tara) and Cordelia was one of the students insulting Willow in the classroom.

Deleted Scenes

 * A line of Buffy's was cut:
 * Buffy: "I think they might be in trouble-danger."

Other

 * This is not the first time Armin Shimerman has done 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".

Quotes
Cheese Man - "I wear the cheese. It does not wear me."

Giles - "All right everyone, pay attention! In just a few moments, that curtain is going to open on our very first production. Now everyone that Willow's ever met is out in that audience, including all of us. That means we have to be perfect. Stay in character, remember your lines and energy, energy, energy especially in the musical numbers! Acting is not about behavior, it's about hiding. The audience wants to find you, strip you naked and eat you alive, so hide. [Harmony bites at his neck] Stop that. Now, costumes, sets, the things that you, uh, you know... you hold them, you touch them, use them uh..." Harmony - "Props?" Giles - "No." Riley - "Props?" Giles - "Yes! It's all about subterfuge. [Harmony continues attempting to bite him] That's very annoying. Now, go on out there, lie like dogs and have a wonderful time. If we can stay in focus, keep our heads, and if Willow can stop stepping on everyone's cues, I know this will be the best production of 'Death of a Salesman' we've ever done. [Harmony continues attempting to bite him] Stop it. Good luck everyone! Break a leg!"

Riley - "I've come lookin' for a man. A sales man."

Buffy - "But what else could I expect from a bunch of low-rent, no account hoodlums like you? Hoodlums yes! I mean you and your friends, your whole sex. Throw 'em in the sea for all I care! Throw 'em in and wait for the bubbles. Men with your groping and spitting, all groin, no brain, three billion of you passing around the same worn-out urge. Men! With your...sales."

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

Buffy - "Who were you?" Adam - "Before Adam? Not a man among us can remember."

Buffy - "Willow, your costume is perfect. No One will know the truth about you."

Xander - "Sometimes I think about two women doin' a spell... and then I do a spell by myself."

Anya - "Quiet! You'll miss the humorous conclusion."

Giles - "A Watcher scoffs at gravity!"

Spike - "I've hired myself out as an attraction." Giles - "Sideshow freak?" Spike - "Well, at least it's showbiz."

Buffy - "I walk. I talk. I shop. I sneeze. I'm gonna be a fireman when the floods roll back. There's trees in the desert since you moved out, and I don't sleep on a bed of bones."

Riley - "We're drawing up a plan for world domination. The key element? Coffeemakers that think."

Tara - "You think you know what's to come, what you are. You haven't even begun."

Continuity

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


 * In Buffy's dream, Tara says to her, "You think you know what's to come, what you are. You haven't even begun." Dracula will later repeat this almost exactly ("Buffy vs. Dracula"): "You think you know who you are, what's to come. You haven't even begun."


 * In Buffy's dream when staring at the bed, she mentions how she and Faith had just made the bed, a reference to "This Year's Girl".


 * Also in Buffy's dream, Buffy mentions how late it is, after looking at the clock in the room (which says 7:30), to which Tara replies "oh, that clock's completely wrong." This is a foreshadowing of her death at the end of Season 5, and a reminder of Buffy's dream in the season 3 finale, in which Faith says "...counting down from 7-3-0" (it was approximately 730 days later that Buffy died). Tara saying that the clock is wrong means that she no longer has 730 days.


 * The suit Spike is wearing in Xander's dream is worn by him again in "Tabula Rasa". Giles remarks during the dream that "Spike is like a son to him" - in "Tabula Rasa", Spike and Giles assume they are father and son. This part of the dream also makes reference to a shark on land, which foreshadows the loan shark demon from "Tabula Rasa."


 * The Scooby Gang's dreams are shown in the same order that they took part in the spell in "Primeval". Each is killed by the First Slayer in a manner reflecting their contribution to the spell (Willow - spirit, Xander - heart, Giles - mind, Buffy - hand/strength).


 * In Buffy's dream, Riley says, "Okay Killer, if that's how you want it." He then walks away, foreshadowing his departure towards the middle of next season.


 * Dream Riley's use of the term Killer as a nickname for Buffy hearkens back to Bad Girls, in which Buffy tells Faith that "Being a Slayer is not the same as being a killer." This motif was used again in This Year's Girl when Faith in Buffy's body says "I am not a killer!!! I am the slayer!" Though the words technically mean the same thing, the show is placing a distinction in their context, with Killer referring to murder and Slayer referring to a justified act, in this case Buffy's role as a warrior against the forces of evil. It's use here reflects Riley's role in the Initiative, a group that exists outside the realm of the supernatural yet interfers in that world. Episodes such as New Moon Rising established Riley's black-and-white views toward destroying demons, for which he was admonished by Buffy, who tells him not all demons are evil. By using the term Killer instead of Slayer here, dream Riley reflects this inability to grasp the shades of gray of the demon world while subtly placing Buffy into it (she responds "we're not demons.") This dichotomy reflects Buffy's concerns that, despite his efforts to change, Riley remains an outsider to the world and destiny into which Buffy was born, and will never truly understand her, which we shall see eventually leads to the end of their relationship.


 * Willow taking a drama class was established in The Yoko Factor. Her stage fright was previously explored in the season one episodes The Puppet Show and Nightmares. The staging of the play here also echoes elements from the talent show in The Puppet Show, most notably Giles as the director giving a speech to rally the performers.

Music

 * Anthony Stewart Head and Four Star Mary - "The Exposition Song"
 * Christophe Beck - Suite from "Restless": Willow's Nightmare / First Rage / Chain of Ancients
 * Christophe Beck - "A Really Big Sandbox"
 * Christophe Beck - "Spaghetti"
 * Christophe Beck - "Body Paint"
 * Christophe Beck - "Xander's Nightmare"