Four seasons down, three left to go with my newest favorite show. The second half of Buffy’s fourth season continued down the same road as the first part of the year, with some downright ridiculous plot points alongside a handful of really amazing episodes. Allow me to elaborate.

Episodes like “A New Man,” “Superstar,” and “Where the Wild Things Are” all have premises that are pretty out there. There’s another haunted house, except this time it’s possessed by sexually repressed teens? Come on. Even still, I have to admit that even though these stories are pretty outlandish, they’re still always entertaining. The way they inserted Jonathan into the credits of “Superstar” was a nice touch to the episode, and it added to the surreality of this minor and meek character instantly becoming the coolest man alive. And seeing Giles as a demon couldn’t help but make me laugh.

The developments with The Initiative and the reveal that Professor Walsh had sinister motives weren’t all that surprising, because if Hollywood has taught us anything, it’s that when the government is interested in studying something dangerous, it’s really because they also want to turn it into a weapon. The introduction of Adam was pretty cool, and his brute strength coupled with his smarts made him a really formidable foe for Buffy. Their final battle with Buffy was pretty cool, even though the show jumped on the Matrix popularity train by doing some hokey bullet-time effects. Though to be fair, Keanu never turned bullets into doves. Unfortunately, Adam felt pretty under used during the latter half of the season, as there was a lot of other stuff going on at the same time while he was on the lam.

Like, for example, Faith coming out of her coma and making all kinds of mischief. The Scoobies’ reaction to her - pure fear - felt authentic, especially considering the rage she harbored against Buffy and her friends. The way she called out Buffy for moving on so quickly after Angel was a nice touch, and you just knew she was going to make a move on Riley. I was not expecting Faith to ever come around after her actions last season, but spending some time in Buffy’s body made her actually understand some things about right and wrong, even though she mocked those ideals at the beginning.

The return of Oz also made for some poignant moments. Oz was Willow’s first love, but the romantic tension between her and Tara was coming to a head at the same time, and of course the fact that Oz transforms into a werewolf when he’s upset made for one complicated love triangle. Willow’s discovery of her sexuality was handled tastefully, though I don’t understand why the WB refused to show any girl-on-girl kissing. Was Alyson Hannigan shy about it? Sarah Michelle could have showed her what she picked up on the set of Cruel Intentions, after all. Either way, the fact that Willow was afraid to talk to her friends about what she was going through was just another example of how the circle of friends had grown apart this year.

That theme was played up in “The Yoko Factor,” with Spike playing on the gang’s insecurities about each other to get in good with Adam. Which was good for ole Spike, since he also wasn’t given much to do for most of the year. I like having him around and all, but since he became an official cast member, it seemed like the writers have been struggling to figure out what to do with him. He was leaning towards helping out the gang when he discovered the only violence he could inflict was on demons, but then out of the blue he decided that he hated the Slayer and company again, before jumping back on the Buffy bandwagon at the tail end of the fight at The Initiative. It feels to me like he should either be an ally or a nemesis, but not keep going back and forth.

Now on to the season finale, “Restless.” If I had to sum up my reaction to this episode in three letters, they would definitely be WTF. I get that when the Scoobies invoked the power of Slayers past, they upset the First Slayer, who is now seeking revenge on them, but there’s clearly a lot more going on in this episode. I’ve been told that it’s chock full of foreshadowing, but I have no idea of what. I can venture a guess that the First Slayer will continue to stalk the group, and part of me wonders if she’ll succeed in killing someone. The secret that Willow doesn’t want people to find out could be that she’s gay, but everyone she cares about already knows, so I’m not sure about that. There was a lot of desert imagery, maybe the group will be deserted in some way? Buffy referred to Xander as her big brother, and that made me think of Buffy and Faith talking about a little sister in one of Faith’s coma dreams earlier this season. Does it turn out that everyone is all related? (I still have no idea about what the Little Miss Muffet thing was from the Season Three finale, by the way - did I miss something?) Anya mentioned that she’s thinking of getting back into vengeance - might she go back to her demonic ways? Will Joyce move into a wall and try to seduce Xander? And will the guy with the cheese be the main villain in Season Six? I don’t know, but after watching this episode it occurred to me that I might have to re-watch this whole series at some point down the road to fully appreciate all of the show’s glimpses into it’s own future.

Overall, I enjoyed this season when it was delivering it’s real knockout episodes, but on the whole it felt slightly weaker than last season. I think that’s largely due to the fact that all of the stuff with Angel and Faith made for some great dramatic moments, and the Riley and Initiative arcs just didn’t pack the same punch. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still hooked on Buffy and I am happy with the fact that I think this season has delivered some of the funniest lines of the show’s run so far. Sophomore year, here I come…