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. Because of these dream sequences and the use of red curtains therein this episodes has been compared and referred to as the "Twin Peaks" episode.^[1]

Plot synopsis

Summary

"Restless" follows the Scooby Gang's victory over the villain Adam by magically joining in "Primeval". 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.

Tara Maclay

Willow's dream

The episode begins with Willow painting Sappho's love poem, Hymn to Aphrodite, in Greek onto 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. Oz and Tara flirt with each other while watching Willow do her book report. Willow has the life sucked out of her by the First Slayer in front of the class.

Xander's dream

In the longest 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 skimpy clothing and cheesy make-up suited 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 Colonel 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 swings a watch in front of Buffy, sitting on a chair in Giles' apartment, which is bare of everything, except the chair and a bed upstairs. She laughs, and Giles' dream cuts to 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 realize his pursuer is the First Slayer, just in time for her to scalp him.

Buffy's dream

In the final dream sequence, 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 for her 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", "The cheese will not protect you") 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

"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".

Acting

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

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

Co-starring

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

Production details

Music

• Anthony Stewart Head and Four Star Mary - "Giles' Epiphany"
• 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"

Translations

• Italian title: "Sonni Agitati" ("Unquiet Slumbers")
• German title: "Jedem sein Albtraum" ("Everyone His (Own) Nightmare")
• French title: "Cauchemar" ("Nightmare")
• Spanish title: "Sin Descanso" ("Restless")
• Japanese title: "静まることなく・・・" ("Shizumaru Koto Naku..." - "Without Being Quiet...")

Quotes and trivia

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (September 2007)

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Buffy the Vampire Slayer#Restless

• Willow painting Greek on Tara's back is an allusion to the 1996 Peter Greenaway film The Pillow Book starring Ewan McGregor and Vivian Wu.[1]

• The Cheese Man can 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 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.

• 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"

• 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.

• 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.

• 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).

Continuity

Arc significance

• This is the first time we see "The First Slayer" who will appear or be referenced again in future episodes.

• In Buffy's dream, Tara says "be back before Dawn" foreshadowing the appearance of Buffy's younger sister in the next episode.

• Final appearances of Oz, Principal Snyder, and Olivia.

• 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 poem by Sappho that Willow is painting on Tara's back begins "On the throne of many hues, Immortal Aphrodite", and has a relevant verse:

"For if she flees, soon she'll pursue,
she doesn't accept gifts, but she'll give,
if not now loving, soon she'll love
even against her will."

This foreshadows Willow's future use of the Tabula Rasa spell in "Tabula Rasa" (6.8), and "All the Way" (6.6).

External links

• "Restless" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Restless" at TV.com
• BBC episode guide to "Restless"
• BuffyGuide.com episode guide to "Restless"
• T. S. Eliot Comes to Television: Buffy's "Restless" article from Slayage
• BBC episode guide to "Restless" (Trivia section)

Reviews

• Soulful Spike Society analysis of Restless

References