With 'The Yoko Factor', 'Season 4' of 'Buffy'
limps into its two-part finale.
And no, I don’t really consider 'Restless' the season finale.
More of a comic book annual
...but we’ll get into that.
'The Yoko Factor' and 'Primeval' manifest all of 'Season 4’'s strengths and weaknesses,
respectively.
If we were to cluster 'Season 4’'s successes and failures they break neatly between
the Gang and the Initiative.
'Yoko Factor' deals with one
and 'Primeval' deals with another.
Both are hilarious and when the gang is together everything feels like it’s clicking.
When we’re dealing with the Initiative it can feel a bit perfunctory at times.
It was a challenging season to make and
it has been a challenging one to talk to about.
Let’s bring it to a close.
The episode opens on a character we’ve met once and one we’ve never met before
discussing the fallout from Riley’s mutiny.
This plot-necessary meeting is the result of the arc having been derailed
though, we’ll get into that.
“Quite frankly, I don’t think he was ever the soldier that you all hoped he was."
"Boy thinks too much.”
Here we bring out the thematic sledgehammer.
Confusingly the General calls Buffy "just a girl".
Which...
...makes no sense.
Buffy beat up Riley’s team.
She was at the briefing for a mission.
It was suggested the ENTIRE Initiative knew who she was.
Adam and Spike are figuring out their plan of attack on the Slayer.
Spike points out that the Slayer’s power lies in her friends.
“Take them away from her.”
"Now, there's a plan."
Post-'Sanctuary' Buffy returns from L.A. looking regretful.
Xander brings Riley a spare pair of hammer pants
and an overshare about Buffy’s personal life.
"One moment’s happiness."
"And that sets him off."
"And you know what makes Angel happiest?"
"I’ll give you a hint."
"It’s not crème brûlée."
"Sex"
[scoffs]
"...with Buffy."
"She..."
"...kind of left that part out, huh?"
Xander makes a show here of not realizing Riley didn’t know about the sex.
But first of all, there is a moment when it’s clear Riley doesn’t have the whole story.
“What do you mean?”
"You know, it's his trigger."
And Xander barrels on ahead.
Second problem is Buffy hasn’t given Riley any cause to not trust her.
I mean...the bosses at his job
created an evil monster
while drugging him
that killed his metaphor mommy
and he continued to work for them for seven more episodes. *six
On the other hand, a once in a lifetime girl that has given him no real reason not to trust her
goes and visits an ex to warn them about crazy ragin' Slayer on the loose?
Oh NOW he has trust issues.
At Casa De Giles, we get what after
'Where the Wild Things Are'
might seem like gratuitous, super, sexy, smouldery Giles singing
-were it not for the chosen song.
'Free Bird'...
[If I leave, here tomorrow]
[Would you still remember me]
[Well, I must be travelling on, oh]
[There's too many places I've got to see]
[And if I stay here with you girl]
[Things just couldn't be the same]
[Cause I'm as free as a bird now]
[gasp]
Spike interrupts.
Offers up Adam info
and manipulates Giles’ insecurity that has been building up all season.
Giles drinks.
Tara and Willow went in on a mutual pet together,
Miss Kitty Fantastico.
"You have a catnip problem.”
Huh.
Hammer Riley stops by Buffy’s.
He’s patched into the Initiative’s frequency so they can’t track him.
Which made me wonder why Walsh and Company never bothered to bug Buffy’s dorm,
given the threat that she represented.
Spike’s attempt to 'Yoko' Xander consists of him sharing gossip that Xander might’ve been
...joining the military?
Xander bites immediately.
This bit doesn’t REALLY work for me.
I get it.
Spike’s "be all you can be" bit plays on the idea
that Xander hasn’t figured out who wants to be, sure.
But Xander buys that Willow and Buffy were gossiping about him joining the military and laughing at him
IN FRONT of Spike?
Let alone that, of all the Scoobies who would probably not believe a single thing
that falls of Spike’s stupid sexy mouth I kinda feel like it would’ve been Xander.
Minor point.
Moving on.
“Don’t shoot.”
Says Forrest while pointing a space laser at her.
Forrest and Buffy argue over which one of them Riley is best with
[FORREST SUBTEXT BUGLE]
before Adam steps in and kills him.
Spike brings gibberish disks to Willow ...and a drunk Giles
and continues to twist the knife.
"You’re not exactly the Whiz these days either."
"I-I just need...some time."
"No, I just heard you weren't..."
"Your mates said you weren’t playing with computers so much."
"Into the new thing.”
This is a direct distillation of the "Magic vs. Technology", "Feminine vs. Masculine" idea
that they’ve been building all season.
Riley hears of a hostile tearing up a squad and goes to help.
And that’s when he stumbles on…
“Angel.”
Silly though the two of them are being
...I.....love this scene.
The hyper-masculine boyfriend-off is dumb and silly
and I think the scene is embraced as such.
Much of it is even shot from penis angle.
Low looking up.
Wood fights an epic battle against watery milk
and the two of them end up at Buffy’s front door.
The fun, boyfriend's behaving like idiots stuff though definitely throws off the tone
you'd think should be there now,
since Forrest is dead.
I'd ACTUALLY forgotten that had happened until this cut-in reminds us.
Be honest.
You forgot about it for a second too, right?
Buffy and Angel apologize to each other.
No, I don’t think it fixes 'Sanctuary' but it needed to happen.
Buffy and Riley have a bit of a complicated scene with a couple points I want to hit on.
First of all, there is the unspoken notion that sometimes jealousy just happens,
even in a healthy relationship.
"Sometimes things just happen between exes."
And the other is Riley’s inability to take responsibility for his own feelings and behave like an adult.
As in…
"Have I ever given you any reason to feel that you can’t trust me?"
"No."
"Then why with the crazy?"
"Because I’m so in love with you I can’t think straight."
"THESE ARE LIES!"
This is stupid nonsense.
The correct answer was:
You’re right.
I’m being an ass.
I’m sorry, woman of my dreams.
I will do better in the future.
Riley’s answer, was romantic code for
I can’t be held responsible for my actions because you’re so amazing.
So it’s on you.
I hate it.
I HATE it so much.
And, worse, the music endorses how romantic his comment is supposed to be.
There are two telling details in the scene though.
Only one of the two men ask about Buffy’s injury.
And Riley says he loves her
...and Buffy does not say it back.
Oh and by the way Forrest is dead.
Sooooo?
Tacos?
The powder keg that Spike spent the episode lighting explodes.
Riley shows up in Adam’s den.
And the first of the two-parter is in the books.
As ever, it’s difficult to say TOO much about a plotty two-parter before the second episode
so there will be more in the next.
I really like 'The Yoko Factor' though
as it's mostly Scooby-centric
and cleverly ties together a number of threads by way of
a manipulative Spike.
Until this episode, I never really realized how he had been so fabulously setup to play the role
of Adam’s Wormtongue throughout the season.
The behavior modification chip was a form of operant conditioning,
Walsh’s specialty.
Lo and behold Spike came to understand the destruction he could sow
using just manipulation in 'Doom(ed)':
“BUFFY fights the forces of evil."
"YOU'RE her groupies.”
Repeatedly, the gang makes the mistake of believing
that since he can’t kill anymore he is no longer dangerous.
“Can’t any one of your damned little Scooby Club at least TRY to remember that I HATE you all!?!"
"Just because I can't do the damage myself doesn't stop me from aiming a loose cannon your way."
The Initiative may have 'Clockwork Orange'’d him, but throughout the writers have been telling us
that a leash doesn’t change a person’s essential nature.
The only thing that can do that is the person themselve(s).
And the gang drifting apart a bit has been a common theme in the season.
Xander’s fear of being useless to the group has been explicit since 'The Zeppo'.
Early on in 'Fear, Itself', that manifested as literal invisibility.
And Spike spent plenty of time in the Xand-man’s basement to gain first hand knowledge of how he was feeling.
The scene still feels a little awkward to me
as the jump to Willow and Buffy were talking about Xander joining the military was a bit of a stretch.
I get that it might’ve been a reference to 'Halloween' but I think there was a cleaner way of writing it
as most of Spike’s other manipulations are grounded and straightforward.
In 'The Harsh Light of Day', Buffy’s fear of love leading to inevitable loss and isolation
(which began through her experiences with Angel)
was exacerbated by her experience with Parker.
And who was front and center to prod her fresh wound?
“So, you let Parker take a poke, eh?”
And in 'Fear, Itself', Buffy finds herself alone and isolated with nothing but the monsters.
“They all ran away from you."
"They always will."
Open your heart to someone and…”
*smirk*
In 'Pangs', the Scoobies house was similarly divided against itself.
And in 'A New Man', Giles' feelings of lack of purpose
which had been played for a few mid-life crisis laughs
manifested as him ACTUALLY being a monster outside of the group
...with a little help from Ethan Rayne, of course.
Spike had a front row seat for that one
before using his knowledge on Giles here.
The show’s association of magic and technology with feminine and masculine
worked as a way of foreshadowing Willow’s insecurity with her burgeoning sexuality.
In 'Fear, Itself' neither Buffy nor Oz have a lot of faith in Willow’s magical abilities
which manifests for her as a spell that spins out of control.
Later in the series, magic became the metaphor for actual intimacy between Tara and Willow.
Here, Spike suggests that her relationship with Tara is the reason for her having grown away from tech
(metaphorically, the masculine)
and why the gang has less faith in her.
As I mentioned in 'The I in Team', *Goodbye Iowa
Spike is a manipulator, not a truth teller.
He is certainly perceptive but the words that come out of his mouth cater to his own ends,
always.
And not necessarily the truth.
But BOY is he fun to watch.
And that’s all the good stuff going on in this one.
The unambiguous (and unfun) mirror to it all is the Initiative.
“The family is tearing apart.”
But I think the season has been saying that the Initiative is a family in an arbitrary sense.
Identity and association not born out of love from within
but imposed upon its members by society from the outside.
Colonel Von Not Walsh refers to the soldiers as "boys":
“These are exceptional boys.”
“Boy thinks too much.”
"A demonstration, right?"
"Be a good boy."
The theme here is that free thought is a necessity of adulthood
and institutionalized identity robs us of that.
In that shot from 'The I in Team' which I love, with Buffy in a sea of Mao-Suits
she is the only one who again and again raises her hand and questions Walsh’s conclusions.
As I said at the beginning, it’s a solid episode as it’s mostly focused on
characters we already love and care about.
Watching Spike do his thing is a lot of fun.
The episode is absolutely hilarious.
Drunk Giles is a joy.
"T-Tara's your GIRLFRIEND?!?"
"Bloody hell."
And I enjoy a lot of the structure to this one.
Season 4 has struggled mightily with its arc.
Much of it due to cast departures
but there have been some other underlying problems
which I’ll get into in the next episode.
But the one thing the season has never lacked for,
and 'The Yoko Factor' has loads of it,
...is charm.