review: Let us all praise Spike, savior of season four.

January 11, 2000

Series Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Episode The Initiative

Airing Date 1999-11-16

Sci-fi Bits The Initiative is revealed.

Juicy Bits Backstreet Riley pines for Buffy.

Featuring Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg James Marsters as Spike Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

Let's make one thing clear before I even start digging into this week's episode: I'm just not grooving on the Initiative storyline. Could it be because Backstreet Riley is turning out to be duller than a post? He opens his mouth, I roll my eyes back into my head and pass out. It's that simple. But then, I feel bad 'cause it's his big episode. I should make up a little song in his honor, shouldn't I? Sorry, kiddies -- all I can come up with is a half-hearted "Backstreet's back, alright!" Content yourself with that, and flip to TRL if you want the real goods.

Anyway, this week: Willow mopes because Oz is gone. Backstreet Riley wants to ask Buffy out. Parker Catelano makes some clever, wit-packed comparison between freshman girls and toilet seats. Oh, ha ha, ho ho, you're killin' me Parker! Go on -- get up onstage at the Laff Factory and show 'em what you're made of! Giles and Xander celebrate their uselessness by drinking Kool-Aid. And...oh, yes, Spike's back.

As for ongoing plotlines, here's what you need to know about The Initiative: apparently, Backstreet Riley's frat house has a secret turbolift pilfered from the old TNG set that leads to a giant facility where captured vamps are held prisoner. Riley is one of the special agents in charge of catching the vamps, and he reports directly to the evil professor whose class appears to be the only one Buffy is currently enrolled in. Blah blah blah, they capture Spike, he thinks they're somehow affiliated with the Slayer, blah blah, he escapes, goes after Buffy, blah. Of course, Buffy isn't home when he stops by, so he ends up trying to kill Mopey Willow. Only he can't. Want to know why? Backstreet and his Backstreet Buddies have implanted a device in his brain that won't allow him to hurt anyone. Uh oh, do I smell "unlikely alliance" coming up here? Yes, I think so.

Anyway, it's worth pointing out right about now that this is a really bad season for love interests. Oz gets it on with Fiona Crapple, Spike hooks up with that loser Harmony, and now Buffy's going for the stiff that is Backstreet? Come on, people. Show me you all have better taste than this, or I'm changing the channel.

My love is all I have to give.

Ironically, the best scene this week comes from the most unlikely of pairings -- Willow and Spike. He can't kill her (because of that implant thing), and suddenly feels impotent. Willow wonders if it has something to do with her. "Nah, I'd bite you in a heartbeat!" says sweet Spike. Awww! Honestly, Spike has more charisma in his little finger than Backstreet and Parker combined and quadrupled. And this scene is way more entertaining in five minutes than all of that Initiative stuff, and because of it, the entire episode gets an extra star.

Yes, friends...more and more I think that it is Spike who will keep me hooked this season, if only for the moments in which I am allowed to indulge in my own fantasies. For example, this week, there's that scene of him, all by his lonesome, looking up names in the school computer to try and track down the Buffster. Finally, he zeroes in on her name: "Hello, gorgeous." Suddenly, all else disappears and I pretend he's talking to me. Well, helloooooooo! Peaches.

--Sarah Kuhn counts down the groovy jams with TRL every night.

Past Buffy Reviews

Season 4

Wild at Heart
Beer Bad
Fear, Itself
The Harsh Light of Day
Living Conditions
The Freshman

Season 3

Graduation Day, Part II
Graduation Day, Part I
The Prom
Choices
Earshot
Enemies
Doppelgangland
Consequences
Bad Girls
The Zeppo
Helpless
Gingerbread
Lovers Walks
Revelations
Faith, Hope and Trick
Anne

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