rewatching "restless" to try and gain any understanding of it (buffy 4x22)
Added 2022-01-17 18:01:01 +0000 UTCHiya friends!! Since Season 5 is slightly delayed and I felt bad, I thought this could be an interesting way to make up for it. I was already planning on rewatching Restless because I knew I missed a lot, and I thought... Why not bring y'all along with me in my thought process? So welcome to Domi's brain... It's a nightmare.
In this episode I'm trying to work on amazing and definetly correct predictions about Season 5 and trying to interpret what these metaphors could mean, so have fun laughing! It is A LOT so please be warned I don't mean most of the things I'm saying, I'm really just spitballing predictions and (OVER)overanalyzing everything to try and get at least 1 thing right... We'll see!
Comments
I’m just gonna put this here because I know you’ve already seen and reacted to the episode that this piece of commentary could potentially spoil: I could talk about the episode ‘Restless’ forever really because that’s an episode that will never tire or get old for me. I’ll always find and pick up more from it each time I watch it. It’s absolutely my favourite episode. But I want to talk about something specific. That is Tara’s significance to Willow/Xander/Buffy and her use and representation in their individual dreams. For Willow: a guide for moving forward. For Xander: a sexual fantasy along with Willow. For Buffy: a means of identifying and communicating with the deepest parts of herself. Tara’s significance to Willow would obviously be the most overt as her girlfriend and her soulmate. For Willow, Tara represents a new way forward in life. There’s not really much to explain here as watching the show will reveal to you how significant she is. Tara’s significance to Xander is controversial and nauseating for the audience watching. He can only think of her in regards to her sexual relationship with Willow, making him address his own sexuality in how he perceives women loving women. There’s not much to think about. It doesn’t go any deeper than that. Tara’s significance to Buffy. Well, since ‘Restless’ is full of foreshadowing, it’s easy to see why she is represented as a communication conduit for Buffy in understanding the First Slayer. It parallels with ‘Who Are You’ where she was also the method of exposing the Buffy/Faith body swap. Effectively conveying Buffy’s subtextual relationship to the Dark Slayer too. But it’s more so than that. Tara becomes a confidant to Buffy when she has to address her emotions going through the most tumultuous, scariest and darkest times of her life. Tara’s significance to Buffy is by far the most interesting. And as such - so is her use in Buffy’s dream. It deserves endless discussions because it really isn’t spelled (ha) out for the audience like it is with her significance to Willow and Xander. But that’s another thing I love about the episode ‘Restless’. Tara’s use and representation in it. I have heard from some fans that the character really isn’t all that interesting away from her relationship with Willow. And as such gets neglected quite a lot. And while I do agree that she was abused and neglected... I don’t agree that she’s uninteresting as a stand-alone character. Tara has such a calming and comforting presence and that’s best depicted in the episode ‘The Body’ where she does act as a source of comfort to Willow, Buffy and Xander. This behaviour or quality about Tara is not uninteresting or boring… It’s underappreciated. What ‘Restless’ does is foreshadows the true nature of Tara Maclay. And all it really shows when people refer to her as boring or uninteresting is that they can’t appreciate her.
Girl4Music
2022-03-28 17:17:56 +0000 UTCAlso, and I know this is insider knowledge rather than show lore, the meaning of Spike 'renting himself out as an attraction' relates more to the popularity of the character. Originally Spike was just another bad guy to be eliminated but the character was so popular Joss Whedon was forced to bring him back again and again. I think this is Whedon venting his frustration, Spike keeps taking the spotlight by being cool but he doesn't quite fit the metaphor of the show. Ultimately I think Spike makes Buffy more interesting but he comes close to derailing things a lot...
George Baxter
2022-03-12 21:10:33 +0000 UTC
