My fave S7 ep so far is “Beneath You”. The title alone says a lot- the double meaning “from beneath you, it devours”, as well as the reference back to “Fool for Love” (which is near the top of my S5 favorites list), when both Cecily and Buffy give Spike the back of the hand treatment, finishing by telling him “You’re beneath me”. It starts off dark, gradually lightens up (high point of the episode is The Glance), then turns dark again, and finishes with the most emotionally wrenching five minutes I have ever seen on TV.
Episodes I’ve never seen and hope FX sees fit to rerun on a night I don’t have Middle Eastern dance class-
“Earshot”- “Superstar” (not one of my favorites) has some plot holes that would probably be filled in if I saw this one.
“Life Serial”
“Tabula Rasa”
“Smashed”- the first time Spike and Buffy, um, well, you know, and I missed it.
“As You Were”- the Return of Riley Finn. Who sucked as a character, and sucked even more after he left, because, as boring as he was, he broke Buffy’s heart, and I didn’t want to see that happen, even though by the time I saw it, I knew he was clearing the way for potential Spuffyness.
BTW, those of you who have seen “Into the Woods” a coupla times, is it my imagination, or when Riley was standing on the helipad, did it seem like he was very pointedly not watching to see if Buffy would come after him? I think he’d pretty well made up his mind that he was going to dump Buffy, and he wasn’t going to let the fact that she was coming after him change his mind.
Well permit me to echo your echo. I was actually going to post this earlier, but I had HRI (Hamster Related Issues). I have been re-evaluating Season 4 ever since seeing the train wreck that was Season 6, and the more I think about it, the better Season 4 looks.
I agree that the season’s uber-storyline was a tale of unfulfilled potential…it could have been a lot better, but they muffed it. However, I have actually come to the conclusion that that season had more good, just-plain-fun-to-watch standalone eps than any of the others. I liked The Freshman, The Harsh Light of Day, and Fear Itself, from the early part of the season. Pangs and Something Blue were both very good, and Hush was of course a classic. Then there were the two Faith episodes, and then Superstar, which was an absolute hoot. Primeval was awesome, with Mega-Buffy and her spooky reverb voice. Ditto Restless, probably the most analyzed single episode in the show’s history. Plus, hey, Willow and Tara in the back of the ice cream van. Can’t go wrong with that ;).
Plus, that season also had Anya become a recurring character, they did some great stuff with Spike (not from his perspective, of course…), and had Willow begin to explore her sapphic side with Tara, which led to the aformentioned ice cream van, and balanced the intense angst of her breakup with Oz.
Oh yeah, one more thing. I my be the only Buffy fan on earth to feel this way, but I do not hate Riley. He wasn’t my favorite character on the show, but I liked him, and did not like the way they wrote him off the show on season 5.