Restless (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

"Restless" is the 22nd episode and season finale of season four of the supernatural drama television series ''
Buffy the Vampire Slayer ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' is an American supernatural fiction, supernatural drama television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon. It is based on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film), 1992 film of the same name, also written by W ...
'' (1997–2003), and the 78th episode of the series overall. The episode was written and directed by the show's creator
Joss Whedon Joseph Hill Whedon (; born June 23, 1964) is an American filmmaker, composer, and comic book writer. He is the founder of Mutant Enemy Productions, co-founder of Bellwether Pictures, and is best known as the creator of several television series: ...
and originally aired on
The WB The WB Television Network (for Warner Bros., or the "Frog Network", for its former mascot, Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network launched on broadcast television on January 11, 1995, as a joint venture between the Warner Bros. ...
in the United States on May 23, 2000. The premise of ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' is that an adolescent girl,
Buffy Summers Buffy Anne Summers is the title character of the '' Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' franchise. She first appeared in the 1992 film '' Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' before going on to appear in The WB/UPN 1997–2003 television series and subsequent 1998 ...
, is chosen by mystical forces and given superhuman powers to kill vampires, demons, and other evil creatures in the fictional town of
Sunnydale Sunnydale is the fictional setting for the U.S. television drama ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1997–2003). Series creator Joss Whedon conceived the town as a representation of a generic California city, as well as a narrative parody of the all ...
. She is supported by a close circle of family and friends, nicknamed the Scooby Gang. "Restless" centers on the
dream A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around 5 to 20 minutes, althou ...
s of the four main characters after enduring an exhausting fight in the previous episode. The dreams are used to comment on the characters—their fears, their past and their possible future. Consistent with each dream is the presence of the First Slayer who hunts and kills them one by one until, in the final sequence, she is confronted and disempowered by Buffy. The episode serves as a coda to the fourth season instead of a
climax Climax may refer to: Language arts * Climax (narrative), the point of highest tension in a narrative work * Climax (rhetoric), a figure of speech that lists items in order of importance Biology * Climax community, a biological community th ...
, as Whedon wanted to achieve something different for a season finale. Whedon experimented with several filming techniques to make the episode as dreamlike as possible. The episode also foreshadows upcoming events, most notably the first appearance of Buffy's sister
Dawn Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's horizo ...
. ''Buffy'' scholar Nikki Stafford calls the
surrealistic Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...
episode "unprecedented in television", saying it is "so jam-packed with information that we'll probably be seeing allusions to it for the rest of the series", and referring to it as a "mysterious lead-in to the emotionally turbulent season five". "Restless" received high praise from critics upon airing, particularly for its character development, visual direction, and wit. It is frequently noted as one of the best episodes of the series.


Background

In the series,
Buffy Summers Buffy Anne Summers is the title character of the '' Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' franchise. She first appeared in the 1992 film '' Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' before going on to appear in The WB/UPN 1997–2003 television series and subsequent 1998 ...
is a teenager who, at the age of fifteen, was chosen by mystical forces to be the latest ''Slayer'', a girl endowed with superhuman powers to fight and defeat
vampires A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mischief or deaths ...
,
demon A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology, and folklore; as well as in media such as comics, video games, movies, ani ...
s, and other evil forces. After moving with her mother, Joyce ( Kristine Sutherland), to the fictional town of
Sunnydale Sunnydale is the fictional setting for the U.S. television drama ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1997–2003). Series creator Joss Whedon conceived the town as a representation of a generic California city, as well as a narrative parody of the all ...
, she befriends
Willow Rosenberg Willow Rosenberg is a fictional character created for the fantasy television series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1997–2003). She was developed by Joss Whedon and portrayed throughout the TV series by Alyson Hannigan. Willow plays an integral ...
(
Alyson Hannigan Alyson Lee Hannigan (born March 24, 1974) is an American actress. After starting her career at age four with appearances in commercials, she moved to Hollywood at age 11 and soon got an agent. Hannigan began her film career with supporting r ...
) and
Xander Harris Alexander Lavelle Harris is a fictional character created for the action-horror/fantasy television series '' Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1997–2003). He was developed by Joss Whedon and portrayed throughout the television series by Nicholas Bre ...
(
Nicholas Brendon Nicholas Brendon Schultz (born April 12, 1971), known professionally as Nicholas Brendon, is an American actor and writer. He is best known for playing Xander Harris in the television series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1997–2003) and Kevin L ...
), who join her in the struggle against evil. They are guided by Buffy's " Watcher",
Rupert Giles Rupert Giles is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer''. The character is portrayed by Anthony Stewart Head. He serves as Buffy Summers' mentor and surrogate father figure. The characte ...
( Anthony Stewart Head), who is well-versed in demonology and is responsible for Buffy's training as a Slayer. The group collectively refer to themselves as the Scooby Gang. During season two, Willow begins to experiment with magic, eventually becoming a formidable witch. Each season of ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (often simplified as ''Buffy'') presents an overall story arc which episodes tie into, as well as a specific manifestation of evil known as the
Big Bad Big Bad (abbreviated to BB or BBEG for ''big bad evil guy'') is a term to describe a major recurring adversary, usually the chief villain or antagonist in a particular broadcast season, originally used by the ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' televi ...
. As noted by ''Buffy'' scholar Roz Kaveney, episodes in the fourth season address authority, order, and the estrangement from the self and others as Buffy and her friends take on new roles after high school. An ongoing theme in the series is Buffy's complex relationship to her destiny as the current Slayer and how she uniquely expresses this role, and this plot element is further explored in season four in general, and in the episode "Restless" in particular. Season four begins with Buffy and Willow starting college, attending U.C. Sunnydale, while Xander works at a series of odd jobs and begins dating
Anya Jenkins Anyanka Christina Emmanuella "Anya" Jenkins (born as Aud) is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer''. She also appears in the comic book series based on the television show. Portrayed by ...
(
Emma Caulfield Emma Caulfield Ford (born April 8, 1973) is an American actress. She is best known for her starring role as former demon Anya Jenkins on the supernatural drama television series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1998–2003), which earned her a no ...
), who lived for 1,100 years as a vengeance demon before losing her powers and getting stuck in the body of a teenager. In the fourth season, Willow becomes romantically involved with fellow-student
Tara Maclay Tara Maclay is a fictional character created for the action-horror/fantasy television series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1997–2003). She was developed by Joss Whedon and portrayed by Amber Benson. Tara is a shy young woman with magical talents ...
(
Amber Benson Amber Nicole Benson (born January 8, 1977) is an American actress, singer, writer, director, and producer. She is best known for her role as Tara Maclay on the TV series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1999–2002), and has also directed, produced ...
), an experienced witch. The Big Bad in season four is the result of the work of a covert military force called "The Initiative" who are capturing and performing experiments on vampires and demons in Sunnydale. Buffy and her friends discover that chief amongst these experiments is the creation of a human-cyber-demonoid hybrid known as
Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...
( George Hertzberg), whose programming has gone terribly wrong, leading him to wreak havoc on the town. Buffy's challenge is to find a way to disempower him, something she and the Scoobies achieve in the penultimate episode of season four, "
Primeval Primeval may refer to: * Primeval forest, an area of forest that has attained great age * Primeval number, a positive integer satisfying certain conditions * Primeval history, name given by biblical scholars to the first eleven chapters of the Bo ...
". In order to do this, the four magically join their essences together to create a single "super Slayer"; while the others perform a ritual, Buffy confronts and defeats Adam while mystically empowered with Giles' mind, Xander's heart, and Willow's spirit aiding her. The ritual employs four tarot-like cards: ''Manus'' (meaning hands or strength) represents Buffy, ''Sophus'' (meaning teacher or wise) represents Giles, ''Animus'' (meaning courage, or heart) represents Xander, and ''Spiritus'' (meaning spirit and magical power) represents Willow. These symbols will become relevant to the central motif in each of the episode's four dream sequences.


Plot

Following their victory over Adam; Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Giles meet at Buffy's to relax with movies, including ''
Apocalypse Now ''Apocalypse Now'' is a 1979 American epic war film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The screenplay, co-written by Coppola, John Milius and Michael Herr, is loosely based on the 1899 novella ''Heart of Darkness'' by Joseph Conr ...
''. They quickly fall asleep and are each confronted by
the First Slayer A Slayer, in the television series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' and ''Angel'' (both created by Joss Whedon), is a young woman bestowed with mystical powers that originate from the essence of a pure-demon, which gives her superhuman senses, stren ...
in their dreams. Willow's dream opens with Willow painting
Sappho Sappho (; el, Σαπφώ ''Sapphō'' ; Aeolic Greek ''Psápphō''; c. 630 – c. 570 BC) was an Archaic Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her Greek lyric, lyric poetry, written to be sung while ...
's love poem, Hymn to Aphrodite, in Greek onto Tara's back. She then finds herself on the Sunnydale High school stage, about to perform in a radically changed ''
Death of a Salesman ''Death of a Salesman'' is a 1949 stage play written by American playwright Arthur Miller. The play premiered on Broadway in February 1949, running for 742 performances. It is a two-act tragedy set in late 1940s Brooklyn told through a montag ...
'', with Riley playing a cowboy, Buffy as a
flapper Flappers were a subculture of young Western women in the 1920s who wore short skirts (knee height was considered short during that period), bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptab ...
and Harmony (a popular girl in high school who snubbed Willow, and who became a vampire at the end of Season 3) goofily trying to bite Giles' neck. 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 "Welcome to the Hellmouth" is the series premiere of the American supernatural drama television series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer''. It originally aired on The WB on March 10, 1997 in a two-hour premiere along with the following episode, " The H ...
" and " The Harvest" at the beginning of the series. Xander mocks her as she nervously begins to read her book report. Oz and Tara—Willow's ex-boyfriend and current girlfriend—flirt with each other while watching Willow recite. Suddenly, Willow is attacked and has the life sucked out of her by the First Slayer. Xander's dream begins when he wakes on Buffy's couch. After excusing himself to use the restroom, he finds himself the object of an attempted seduction by Joyce. In the restroom, he starts to unzip, then realizes that the bathroom is attached to a large white room with many men in white coats ready to observe and take notes on his performance. He then meets Buffy, Giles, and
Spike Spike, spikes, or spiking may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Books * ''The Spike'' (novel), a novel by Arnaud de Borchgrave * ''The Spike'' (book), a nonfiction book by Damien Broderick * ''The Spike'', a starship in Peter F. Hamilto ...
in a playground; Spike – unaffected by daylight – tells him that Giles is going to teach him to be a Watcher, as Buffy plays in a sandbox. Xander then finds himself in an ice cream truck with Anya; Willow and Tara (wearing skimpy clothing and garish make-up) are in the back, and they invite him to join them. He tries to do so, only to end up in the basement where his parents allow him to live. He goes to the university and comes across Giles, who starts revealing the reason for the dream, but who suddenly switches to speaking in French. Xander next finds himself in a reenactment of the ''Apocalypse Now'' scene between a captive Captain Benjamin Willard and Colonel Walter Kurtz, with
Principal Snyder Principal R. Snyder is a fictional character in the television series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'', played by Armin Shimerman. Shimerman originally auditioned for the role of Principal Flutie, but lost that role to Ken Lerner.Sprinder, Matt & St ...
as Kurtz. Throughout the sequence Xander finds himself in his basement again and again, chased by an unseen pursuer, who is revealed as the First Slayer when she tears his heart out. Giles' dream begins with Giles swinging a watch in front of Buffy. They are in Giles' apartment, which has been stripped of furniture but for a chair and a bed. She laughs, and Giles' dream cuts to a family scene with Buffy and his girlfriend
Olivia Olivia may refer to: People * Olivia (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Olivia (singer) (Olivia Longott, born 1981), American singer * Olívia (basketball) (Carlos Henrique Rodrigues do Nascimento, born 19 ...
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 comic Stand-up comedy is a comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up. Stand-up comedy consists of one-liners, stories, ...
, and Willow and Xander (with a bloody chest wound), who warn him of their attacker. He breaks into song, giving suggestions on how to deal with what hunts them, but when the sound system breaks down, he crawls backstage to trace a wiring fault. He begins to realize his pursuer is the First Slayer, just as she scalps him. In the final dream sequence, Buffy is woken by Anya in her dorm room. She then finds herself in her room at home, where Tara speaks cryptically about the future. At the university, 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 Adam (now in ordinary human form) for world domination. The three of them are interrupted by a demon attack, and Riley and Adam start to make a pillow fort. When Buffy finds her weapons bag, the only thing in it is mud, which she smears on her face. She is then transported to the desert and finally confronts the pre-verbal First Slayer; Tara is present to speak for her. 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 by simply ignoring the First Slayer. She refuses to fight and walks away from the First Slayer; the First Slayer vanishes, and everybody wakes up. After they wake up, the four of them then discuss the significance of having tapped into the power of the First Slayer, and Buffy privately recalls Tara's words from her dream as she looks into her bedroom.


Production and writing

Previous seasons of ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' had ended with an action episode which tied up all the threads of the season's main plot line, but series creator
Joss Whedon Joseph Hill Whedon (; born June 23, 1964) is an American filmmaker, composer, and comic book writer. He is the founder of Mutant Enemy Productions, co-founder of Bellwether Pictures, and is best known as the creator of several television series: ...
wanted to end season four differently. The penultimate episode, "
Primeval Primeval may refer to: * Primeval forest, an area of forest that has attained great age * Primeval number, a positive integer satisfying certain conditions * Primeval history, name given by biblical scholars to the first eleven chapters of the Bo ...
", had concluded the Initiative storyline, but Whedon felt the season's overall story arc had not been as cohesive as it could have been, and therefore chose to create an episode to act as a "grace note" to the season, an episode which would comment on each of the four main characters and what they had just been through. While talking about the writing of the episode, Whedon said it had been like writing poetry, a process he found "liberating and strange". Like the earlier "
Hush Hush may refer to: Film and television * ''Hush'' (1921 film), starring Clara Kimball Young * ''Hush'' (1998 film), starring Gwyneth Paltrow * ''Hush!'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film directed by Ryosuke Hashiguchi * ''Hush'' (2005 film), starring ...
" — an episode with almost no dialogue — he viewed the episode as an exercise in form and writing, and what it means to write. The episode has no real structure, which was a departure for Whedon, as everything he had written before was constructed before even starting the script. Yet despite its fragmented style, the episode unfolds coherently in four discrete acts, each act comprising one character's dream.


Filming techniques

Whedon used a variety of
cinematographic Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens to foc ...
techniques to achieve the dreamlike quality of "Restless". He used
tracking shot A tracking shot is any shot where the camera follows backward, forward or moves alongside the subject being recorded. In cinematography, the term refers to a shot in which the camera is mounted on a camera dolly that is then placed on rails – ...
s with a
Steadicam Steadicam is a brand of camera stabilizer mounts for Movie camera, motion picture cameras invented by Garrett Brown and introduced in 1975 by Cinema Products Corporation. It was designed to isolate the camera from the camera operator's movement ...
to follow the characters from place to place, creating a flow in the way of real dreams, where there are no logical connections between places and things. In Giles' dream, he walks from a carnival grounds into Spike's crypt, then through a corridor and straight into The Bronze, three locations not related to one another. Whedon was able to do this by simply having actor Anthony Stewart Head walk through the sets as they were built; this effortlessly created a sense of dreamlike dislocation. Another example of this occurs when, in Xander's dream, he walks from the front of the moving ice cream van towards the back, crawls up and over some boxes, through a window, and drops into his basement. In the theater scene during Willow's dream, a
Frazier lens The Frazier lens is a special camera lens designed by Australian photographer Jim Frazier (inventor), Jim Frazier. The Frazier lens provides an appearance of a massive depth of field, allowing the foreground and background of an image to be in ...
was used to provide a large
depth of field The depth of field (DOF) is the distance between the nearest and the furthest objects that are in acceptably sharp focus in an image captured with a camera. Factors affecting depth of field For cameras that can only focus on one object dist ...
, allowing both the foreground and background to be in focus at the same time, while in Xander's dream, as he moves from room to room in Buffy's house to the university dorm rooms, Whedon used a 17 mm lens to give a sense of motion as the camera passes by walls. Whedon also used unusual framing for shots, often leaving much of the frame empty, with a character being placed near the bottom or off to the side. The scenes in Spike's crypt, part of Giles' dream, were shot in
black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...
to emphasize that Spike is seen as "an old 30s movie villain". The outdoor scene in which Xander sees Buffy in the sandbox was intentionally overexposed, intensifying the foreground and blowing out the background, making the sky look white; flash frames were also used in the shot of Buffy in the desert. Whedon allowed some shots to last far longer than is common in a television episode; this cinematic technique allowed the images to take on meaning. Highly stylized lighting is used throughout Xander's dream. In the university hallway the scene is lit with green and orange
gels A gel is a semi-solid that can have properties ranging from soft and weak to hard and tough. Gels are defined as a substantially dilute cross-linked system, which exhibits no flow when in the steady-state, although the liquid phase may still dif ...
, while the almost shot-for-shot re-creation of the ''Apocalypse Now'' section is lit with carefully controlled spotlights which allow the background to fall out to black. Whedon cites ''
The Limey ''The Limey'' is a 1999 American crime film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Lem Dobbs. The film features Terence Stamp, Lesley Ann Warren, Luis Guzmán, Barry Newman, Nicky Katt, and Peter Fonda. The plot concerns an English career ...
'' as an inspiration for the unnaturally colored university sequence, and had the scene from ''Apocalypse Now'' playing on tape during filming to ensure as close a match as possible for that sequence. When Xander is driving the ice cream truck with Anya, the backgrounds outside the car intentionally look fake, to give a sense of stillness where there should be motion. Whedon originally wanted to use rear-screen projection for the driving scene, but had to utilize
greenscreen Chroma key compositing, or chroma keying, is a visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two images or video streams together based on colour hues ( chroma range). The technique has been used in many fields to r ...
instead, as rear-screen projection would be difficult to set up on their stages. Some special effects shots came about by accident; in his commentary Whedon explains that when Buffy smeared the mud all over her face, it looked as though she was giving herself a facial. He therefore dissolved the shot into a
negative image In photography, a negative is an Photograph, image, usually on a strip or sheet of transparent plastic film, in which the lightest areas of the photographed subject appear darkest and the darkest areas appear lightest. This reversed order occur ...
, creating intense colors that made the shot more interesting. Dynamic editing contributed to the
surrealistic Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...
nature of the episode. Abrupt cuts from close-up to extreme wide angles and sudden shifts from normal speed to super slow-motion are used in Buffy's dream: several sequences become slow-motion partway through them, then revert to normal speed as they continue. Xander's dream features mismatches between sound and image: characters are sometimes shown not speaking even as their voices are heard. Additionally, silence is used frequently, to both reflect the characters' disorientation and to unsettle the audience. Whedon cited films by
Steven Soderbergh Steven Andrew Soderbergh (; born January 14, 1963) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer and editor. A pioneer of modern independent cinema, Soderbergh is an acclaimed and prolific filmmaker. Soderbergh's direc ...
as his main inspirations for the odd editing, especially ''The Limey'' and '' The Underneath''. He also listed
Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
' version of ''
The Trial ''The Trial'' (german: Der Process, link=no, previously , and ) is a novel written by Franz Kafka in 1914 and 1915 and published posthumously on 26 April 1925. One of his best known works, it tells the story of Josef K., a man arrested and pr ...
'' and
Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...
's ''
Eyes Wide Shut ''Eyes Wide Shut'' is a 1999 erotic mystery psychological drama film directed, produced, and co-written by Stanley Kubrick. It is based on the 1926 novella '' Traumnovelle'' (''Dream Story'') by Arthur Schnitzler, transferring the story's sett ...
'' as inspirations for many of his shooting and editing decisions.


Cast

Besides the main cast, the episode features several appearances by returning and currently recurring characters, mostly within the dream sequences. *
Seth Green Seth Benjamin Green ( ''né'' Gesshel-Green; born February 8, 1974) is an American actor, producer, and writer. Green's film debut came with a role in the comedy-drama film ''The Hotel New Hampshire'' (1984), and he went on to have supporting ...
, who left the series earlier in the season, makes a brief appearance as Oz in Willow's dream. *
Armin Shimerman Armin Shimerman (born November 5, 1949) is an American actor and author. Early life Shimerman was born into a Jewish family in Lakewood Township, New Jersey, Lakewood, New Jersey, on November 5, 1949, the son of accountant Susan and house painte ...
, whose character
Principal Snyder Principal R. Snyder is a fictional character in the television series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'', played by Armin Shimerman. Shimerman originally auditioned for the role of Principal Flutie, but lost that role to Ken Lerner.Sprinder, Matt & St ...
was killed off in the season three finale, appears as Kurtz in the ''Apocalypse Now'' scene. *
Amber Benson Amber Nicole Benson (born January 8, 1977) is an American actress, singer, writer, director, and producer. She is best known for her role as Tara Maclay on the TV series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1999–2002), and has also directed, produced ...
appears as Tara in the dream sequences, as both Willow's girlfriend and a spirit guide to Buffy. Whedon commented on her appearances in Buffy's dream: "The idea that Tara would be her spirit guide made sense because she didn't have that particular relationship with Tara, and Tara has a kind of good Wiccan mystical energy." * George Hertzberg appears as
Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...
, although in human form rather than in the demon/cyborg makeup he had appeared in throughout the season. *
Mercedes McNab Mercedes Alicia McNab (born March 14, 1980) is a Canadian former actress. She is known for her role as Harmony Kendall on ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1997–2001) and its spinoff ''Angel'' (2001–2004). She additionally is known for her role a ...
appears as
Harmony Kendall Harmony Kendall is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' and its spin-off ''Angel''. The character is portrayed by Mercedes McNab. Originally cast as a minor character, McNab's credited ...
is present during Willow's dream as both an ordinary classmate and an inept vampire. *
Phina Oruche Phina Oruche (born 31 August 1969) is a Nigerian British actress, radio presenter and former model best known for her performances as Liberty Baker in ITV's ''Footballers' Wives'', for which she won a Screen Nations Award for Favourite TV Star ...
appears as
Olivia Olivia may refer to: People * Olivia (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Olivia (singer) (Olivia Longott, born 1981), American singer * Olívia (basketball) (Carlos Henrique Rodrigues do Nascimento, born 19 ...
in Giles's dream heavily pregnant and pushing a baby stroller. * Kristine Sutherland appears as
Joyce Summers Joyce Summers is a fictional character in the action-horror television series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1997–2003). Played by Kristine Sutherland, Joyce is the mother of the main character, Buffy Summers, and appears in 58 of the 144 episod ...
, Buffy's mother. Whedon enjoyed that she got "to play just completely sexy n Xander's dream because when you play the mom on a show you're sort of relegated to momhood, so it was nice to see that side of her." It was during the filming of this episode that
Michelle Trachtenberg Michelle Trachtenberg (; born October 11, 1985) is an American actress and model. Trachtenberg began her career at age three, appearing in a number of commercials, films, and television series as a child. Her starring role on the Nickelodeon tel ...
, who would go on to play Buffy's sister
Dawn Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's horizo ...
in season five, first visited the set.
Sarah Michelle Gellar Sarah Michelle Prinze ( ; born April 14, 1977) is an American actress. After being spotted at the age of four in New York City, she made her screen acting debut in the television film ''An Invasion of Privacy'' (1983). A leading role on the te ...
had worked with her previously and suggested to
Joss Whedon Joseph Hill Whedon (; born June 23, 1964) is an American filmmaker, composer, and comic book writer. He is the founder of Mutant Enemy Productions, co-founder of Bellwether Pictures, and is best known as the creator of several television series: ...
that she read for the part of Dawn.


Music

In Giles' dream, actor Anthony Stewart Head sings "The Exposition Song"; this was the third time he sang during the season. The song was written by Joss Whedon, arranged by composer
Christophe Beck Jean-Christophe Beck (born November 30, 1972) is a Canadian television and film score composer and conductor. He is a brother of pianist Chilly Gonzales. He is best known for his collaborations with Disney and its subsidiaries, which include comp ...
, and performed by
Four Star Mary Four Star Mary is an alternative rock group formed in California in 1997. The band named themselves after the ''Four Star vs. Mary'' legal case, in which Mary attempted to sue US oil company ExxonMobil. Appearance in ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer' ...
. Beck appears in the scene playing the piano, while members of Four Star Mary play the other instruments. From seasons two to four of the series, Four Star Mary were the real band behind character Oz's fictional band, Dingoes Ate My Baby.


Analysis

Each dream acts as a character study, exploring the fears and future of the dreamer. Willow, Xander, and Giles are stalked by a shadowy figure, then killed within their dreams. The way in which each is killed is directly related to the role they had assumed when melding with Buffy in the previous episode—that role is indicated by the Tarot-like card used to symbolize the character's essence. Willow's card had been ''Spiritus'', representing her magical powers; she is killed by having her spirit sucked out of her. Xander's card had been ''Animus'', representing his heart; he is killed by having his heart ripped out. Giles had been represented by the card ''Sophus'', a symbol of his intellect and role as teacher; he is killed by being scalped. Buffy's card, ''Manus'', was representative of her physical strength. In her dream the stalker is revealed as the primitive first slayer, who confronts her aggressively. The two fight, but the First Slayer is defeated when Buffy realizes a key difference between them: the First Slayer was alone and isolated, while Buffy is unique among Slayers in that she has friends and a life beyond slaying, factors which make her the greatest Slayer ever. In Willow's dream she has an intimate conversation with her girlfriend Tara while painting a Sapphic love poem on her bare back. She talks about her unwillingness to leave Tara’s dorm room, a place of comfort and security, but finds herself at college anyway. She struggles to find her place in a bizarre school theater production, apparently ''Death of a Salesman'', while her friends and classmates are fully costumed, prepared, and ready to go on stage. Her confusion represents her lack of self-confidence, her fear that she still does not fit in or have a place in the world, unlike those around her, who are notably less intelligent but instinctively understand the strange idiosyncratic rules. She wears ordinary clothes, but the others repeatedly comment on the excellence of her "costume", a reference to her fear that her friends do not see what she has grown into, but rather what she was when younger: nerdy and awkward. This fear is confirmed when Buffy strips off her shirt and jeans, revealing the same unfashionable turtleneck and corduroy jumper she wore in episode one of the series, four years earlier, before her demon-fighting experiences and study of magic increased her confidence and competence. Willow stands anxiously at the front of the class, trying to read a paper, while her classmates express their boredom with listening to her and Oz whispers into Tara's ear, until she is attacked by the First Slayer and her breath is sucked out of her body. Whedon stated that the maze of red curtains on the stage in Willow's dream are not a direct homage to ''
Twin Peaks ''Twin Peaks'' is an American Mystery fiction, mystery serial drama television series created by Mark Frost and David Lynch. It premiered on American Broadcasting Company, ABC on April 8, 1990, and originally ran for two seasons until its cance ...
'', as some have posited, but rather represent the safety and comfort of being with Tara, and are a sexual metaphor as well. The main theme of Xander's dream is his sense of failure and of being left behind as his friends move ahead in life. His fear that he is stuck is reiterated throughout his dream by his inability to escape his basement bedroom in his parents' home. No matter where his dream takes him, he ends up back in the basement. He also struggles to understand and feel comfortable with his sexuality, heavily idealising and sexualising Joyce, Willow and Tara and seeing Anya, his girlfriend, as distant and impenetrable and Buffy, who he still has a lingering crush on, as a little girl playing in a sandpit who calls him her ‘big brother’. As the only one of the Scoobies not in college, he feels anxiety about his ability to understand and keep up with ideas and conversations, a fear which is realized when he goes to the university, a place he already feels excluded from, and finds that he cannot understand what people say to him. Aware that he is being chased and is in danger, he asks Giles what is happening but cannot understand his answer, nor what Anya says to him, as they are both inexplicably speaking French. He exclaims, "I don't understand!" During his dream both Buffy and Willow tell him, "I'm way ahead of you," and Giles tells him "the others have gone on ahead," underscoring his fear that this is really the case. His dream ends with a culmination to his encounters with various male authority figures throughout - his father storms into the basement and displays all of the traits Xander hates about himself, transforming into the First Slayer and ripping his heart out, metaphorically turning Xander into his dad and removing his compassion. Giles' dream presents a choice: either to remain a father figure and Watcher to Buffy, or to begin his own life, represented by the presence of his girlfriend Olivia, who pushes an empty baby stroller. During this part of his dream, Buffy is dressed as a child, with pigtails, and is unable to throw a ball straight without his help and instruction, an indication of his fear that she will be unable to do her job without his guidance. Later, Olivia is seen weeping, while the baby stroller has been overturned and abandoned, signifying elements of his unfulfilled life, such as marriage and children. Later, in The Bronze, he is explaining the reason they are all being stalked and attacked, performing his job as Watcher, but his singing this information represents his unfulfilled longing to be a musician, something he's been exploring privately throughout the season. The major theme of Buffy's dream is her fear of the personal cost of her life as a Slayer, the isolation and loneliness she is forced to endure. This theme of aloneness is reiterated by several shots in which she is alone in the frame, most notably the wide shot of her in the vast and empty desert. Another source of anxiety is her relationship with her current boyfriend, Riley, whom she finds plotting world domination with Adam in his original, human, form. She fears what Riley could turn into as a result of his alliance with the military. She also fears the destabilizing effect of this alliance on their relationship, and the destabilizing effect of this relationship on her life as the slayer. She is shown putting mud on her face, mimicking the mud mask of the primal, First Slayer. By the end of her encounter in the desert with the First Slayer, Buffy realizes that she does not have to be entirely alone, that it is her closeness to friends and family that makes her a great Slayer, and once she experiences this revelation, the efforts of the First Slayer to continue to engage her in battle become fruitless and increasingly comical. The dream finally ends in a mundane way, as Buffy refuses to accept a tragic climax and instead insists on normality in her life. All of the many elements in the dream sequences have meaning, with the exception of the Cheese Man. Whedon explains: "...the Cheese Man—meaningless. Why? Because I needed something in the show that was meaningless, because there is always something in the dream that doesn't make any sense at all. In this case it was the Cheese Man. He confounds everybody because of that, and people ascribe him meaning. This to me means that we're being successful, because this means they're not worried about everything else, which means they sort of did understand most other things."


Foreshadowing

Buffy's dream includes several references to past and future episodes. In a dream sequence in the season three finale,
Faith Faith, derived from Latin ''fides'' and Old French ''feid'', is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or In the context of religion, one can define faith as "belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion". Religious people often ...
says "Little Miss Muffet counting down from 7-3-0"; foreshadowing Dawn's arrival two years later in season five. This number appears (as 7:30) on a clock in Buffy's dream in "Restless". Buffy says, "It's so late." Tara replies, "Oh... that clock's completely wrong." A year has now passed, making the previous number of days to her arrival incorrect. When Buffy leaves the room, Tara tells her, "Be back before
Dawn Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's horizo ...
." The character Dawn appears in the
next episode ''Next Episode'' (french: Prochain épisode) is the debut novel by French Canadian author Hubert Aquin, published in 1965. Plot summary The narrator, like Aquin himself, turns his adventures into a spy thriller to while away the time he is for ...
. Tara's words to Buffy, "You think you know what's to come, what you are. You haven't even begun." are repeated by Dracula to Buffy in the following episode ("Buffy vs. Dracula"). In Xander's dream, Giles and Spike swing together on a swing set, with Spike wearing a
tweed Tweed is a rough, woollen fabric, of a soft, open, flexible texture, resembling cheviot or homespun, but more closely woven. It is usually woven with a plain weave, twill or herringbone structure. Colour effects in the yarn may be obtained ...
jacket. Giles comments, "Spike's like a son to me." In "
Tabula Rasa ''Tabula rasa'' (; "blank slate") is the theory that individuals are born without built-in mental content, and therefore all knowledge comes from experience or perception. Epistemological proponents of ''tabula rasa'' disagree with the doctri ...
" (season six), when the characters lose their memories, Spike wears the same tweed jacket and believes Giles is his father.


Reception

The episode received critical praise and is often included on lists of the best episodes of ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer''. In ''
Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'' list of the 25 best Whedonverse episodes—including episodes from ''Buffy'', as well as ''
Angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...
'', ''
Firefly The Lampyridae are a family of elateroid beetles with more than 2,000 described species, many of which are light-emitting. They are soft-bodied beetles commonly called fireflies, lightning bugs, or glowworms for their conspicuous production ...
'' and ''
Dollhouse A dollhouse or doll's house is a toy home made in miniature. Since the early 20th century dollhouses have primarily been the domain of children, but their collection and crafting is also a hobby for many adults. English-speakers in North America ...
''—"Restless" placed at #20, where they called it "Visually lush and trippy," and said, "...it reestablished that this genre show was really and truly a deeply affecting character drama with a delightfully bent sense of humor." At
Syfy Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. Lau ...
.co.uk, the episode was listed as the seventh best episode in their list of the top 10 ''Buffy'' episodes, saying "This surreal episode marks the show's turning point, as it moved from a very well-executed urban fantasy drama series to something more creative, more thoughtful, and more surprising than pretty much anything else on television." In
The Futon Critic ''The Futon Critic'' is a website that provides articles and information regarding prime time programming on broadcast and cable networks in the United States. The site publishes reviews of prime time programming and interviews of people in the ...
's list of the 20 best episodes of 2000, the episode was placed at #1, with the author calling it an even more daring episode than "
Hush Hush may refer to: Film and television * ''Hush'' (1921 film), starring Clara Kimball Young * ''Hush'' (1998 film), starring Gwyneth Paltrow * ''Hush!'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film directed by Ryosuke Hashiguchi * ''Hush'' (2005 film), starring ...
", another acclaimed episode from the fourth season. At Slayage.com, the Online Journal of ''Buffy'' Studies, author Daniel Erenberg placed the episode as the second best of the series; stating that the episode "lends itself to infinite interpretations. No one watches it the same way. That's the mark of a true masterpiece." When Noel Murray of ''
The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'' reviewed "Restless" in 2009, after beginning his first look at the series in 2008, he praised
Joss Whedon Joseph Hill Whedon (; born June 23, 1964) is an American filmmaker, composer, and comic book writer. He is the founder of Mutant Enemy Productions, co-founder of Bellwether Pictures, and is best known as the creator of several television series: ...
's ability to represent what dreams are actually like. ''The A.V. Club'' also included "Restless" as an "essential episode" of the series in their list of the best TV series of the 2000s, in which ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' placed at #25. "Restless" was listed at #10 in ''The A.V. Club''s list of "21 TV episodes that do dream sequences right", commenting, "This device allows for a lot of surreal images and moments of weird comedy" and that "there are also some striking, unsettling touches that have the indefinable power and strangeness of a real dream." The episode was listed as #1 in
Daily Kos Daily Kos ( ) is a group blog and internet forum focused on the U.S. Democratic Party and liberal American politics. The site includes glossaries and other content. It is sometimes considered an example of "netroots" activism. Daily Kos was f ...
' list of the top 10 episodes of the series, and the episode was listed as the second best episode featuring dream sequences by ''
USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...
''. In series creator Joss Whedon's own list of his favorite episodes, he includes "Restless", saying "Most people sort of shake their heads at it. It was different, but not pointless." In 2001, the episode received two nominations for the Hollywood Makeup Artist and Hair Stylist Guild Awards, for Best Contemporary Makeup in a Series and Best Contemporary Hair Styling in a Series. In its original broadcast on May 23, 2000, on The WB, the episode received 4.5 million viewers according to
Nielsen ratings Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...
.


References


External links

*
"Restless"
at BuffyGuide.com {{Buffy episodes 2000 American television episodes Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 4) episodes Television episodes about nightmares Television episodes written by Joss Whedon Television episodes directed by Joss Whedon tr:Restless