"" 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.
"Restless" follows the
Scooby Gang's victory over the villain
Adam by magically joining in "
Primeval ". Like many other episodes in the series, its starting point is the unintended side effects of magic: 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.
The episode begins with 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 in "
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.
In the longest dream, 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's . 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.
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.
In the final dream sequence, 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.
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 & 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 ".
"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.
- The Cheese Man re-appears in a dream sequence in season 7, episode 16 " Storyteller ". He can also be seen in the 'Previously On..' sequence of the season 5 finale "The Gift", where almost all previous episodes flash by.
- The war film the Scooby Gang is watching at the beginning of Xander's dream is not actually '' Apocalypse Now ''. According to the commentary on the DVD, this is because in dreams, one's subconscious cannot always correctly translate media. The same premise is used earlier with "Death of a Salesman".
- A translation of the dubbed French heard in Xander's dream can be found here .
- The episode marks the final appearances of Seth Green and Armin Shimerman on the series.
- Spike, Anya, Tara and Oz do not appear in any of the scenes set outside the dreams.
- When Tara speaks to Buffy in her bedroom during her dream, she says "be back before Dawn", a reference to Buffy's sister who is due to arrive at the start of season 5. (This is the second reference made about her in the season, the first was in the episode " This Year's Girl ")
- 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.
- Unlike most episodes, "Restless" has no Teaser .
- 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 - strength).
- Tara's words to Buffy in her dream "You think you know, what's to come, what you are? You haven't even begun" are echoed by Dracula in the first episode of season 5, " Buffy Vs. Dracula ."
- The line "they wouldn't leave me. They're my very good friends" doesn't resemble Buffy's regular speech patterns. However, the Buffybot would later be seen to talk like this.
- In Xander's dream, two people tell him to join them without moving their lips; Joyce and Tara. Both later die.
"Restless" continues the main themes each of the characters face during the whole series: Willow's deep-seated social anxiety and her growing relationship with Tara, and her struggle to leave her nerd mindset behind as well as its effect on her relationship(s); Xander's conflict with his immaturity, dysfunctional family and fear of being left behind in life by his friends; Giles's fatherly relationship with Buffy and current lack of direction in life; and Buffy's continued struggle with the loneliness of the Slayer.
This episode is unusual in that it represents the only 'after-season-finale' episode in the series. Seasons typically end with a final confrontation with the 'big bad' of that season; however, in this case that confrontation occurred in the previous episode. The demonic cyborg Adam was defeated via the application of a spell which combined Willow's, Xander's, and Giles' essence with Buffy's, making her far more powerful. In this spell, Willow is described as 'the spirit', Xander as 'the heart', and Giles as 'the mind.' The attack of the First Slayer upon the characters in Restless is represented as a reaction to a violation of the Slayer's essence by the augmentation spell. The attacks on each of the characters mirror the role they played in the augmentations spell: the first Slayer sucked Willow's spirit dry, cut out Xander's heart, and sliced open Giles' head.
This episode also leads directly into the season 5 plot arc through Buffy's dream sequence. Once again she stares at a bed in her house that she has made in previous dreams, often shared with Faith. This bed will become her sister Dawn's in season 5. Dream Tara also says, "You think you know what's to come, what you are... you haven't even begun." This line is repeated almost verbatim by Dracula at the beginning of season 5 and is a portent of things to come. Hints are given about each character's future, though in some cases they are not put into context until well into the next season. Tara takes the role of an oracle here, and through her words and other occasions make references to the future, namely:
- Tara telling Buffy to "Be back before dawn" (foreshadowing the appearance of Dawn ).
- On the clock in this episode the time is 7:30, where Faith in the last episode of season Three said "Little Ms. Muffet counting down from 7-3-0." and in " Real Me " (Season 5) a crazy man comes up to Dawn and says, "I know you. Curds and whey." The number 7-3-0 is significant as it foreshadows Buffy's death at the end of season 5. When first stated by Faith in the last episode of season 3, it refers to 730 days or 2 years, indicating that something significant will happen in the last episode of season 5. Tara says the clock is "completely wrong," foreshadowing that her death is much closer.
- Minor references in Xander's dream include Giles taking a fatherly relationship with Spike as he would again when they both lose their memories in " Tabula Rasa " and Anya's later desire to return to wreaking vengeance.
- In the Season Three Episode " Amends ", Oz asks Willow if she's "ever had that dream where you're in a play and it's the middle of the play and you really don't know your lines and you kinda don't know the plot?" This echoes the plot of Willow's dream.
Through these hints and the exploration of the gang's themes, the episode actually works more as an introduction to the forthcoming season than an actual fallout from what has developed throughout season 4 (that is, not taking in account the characters' evolutions) - the last words of the episode, a voice over from Tara, start Buffy on the next season's quest for her own identity, the quest that in the end will lead her to her (second) death. As such, the episode is a somewhat unusual choice for a season finale.
- Italian title: "Sonni Agitati" ("Unquiet
Slumbers")
- German title: "Jedem sein Albtraum" ("Everyone
His (Own) Nightmare")
- French title: "Cauchemar" ("Nightmare")
- Spanish title: "Sin Descanso" ("Restless")
- Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:
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- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/buffy/indetail/restless/index.shtml BBC
episode guide to "Restless"]
- [http://www.buffyguide.com/episodes/restless.shtml BuffyGuide.com
episode guide to "Restless"]
- [http://slayageonline.com/essays/slayage7/Wilcox.htm T. S. Eliot
Comes to Television: Buffy's "Restless"] article from Slayage
- [http://www.soulfulspike.com/spikecentricity/RestlessReview-1.htm
Soulful Spike Society analysis of ''Restless'']
