Frankly, I didn't like AYW for a variety of reasons, but the deus ex machina that was Riley Finn, all American god of normalcy, clean thoughts, and brushing your teeth after every meal was, at least in my mind, doing what he always did through most of it, but the part that seemed tacked on to me was the bit about Spike being the Doctor because it wasn't necessary and frankly didn't make any sense.
Riley was right that Buffy didn't love him; she did, however, love what he represented, which was a normal life. Aside from his commando job, and that was at least something that could be found in the real world, this was a farm boy who wanted to get married, have kids, and own a golden retriever. Riley was an attempt to run the heck away from what she was by pretending she could be wife, mommmy, and co-golden retriever owner and be something other than a Slayer. Unfortunately, Riley had as much trouble with her being the Slayer as she did, and the idea that he wasn't stronger than her and that she didn't collapse in front of him emotionally during her mother's illness sent him running to vampire bite-addicts (her natural enemies) so he could feel needed... by strengthening what she was fighting. His departure was under a cloud of bad feeling on both their parts, Buffy because Captain America was the equivalent of a heroin addict and blaming his addiction on her (not only magic is crack!), and Riley issuing an ultimatum to her because he wanted her to let him in and not just pretend to be Mrs. Farmer's Wife but actually be it. The only mistake there was Buffy running after the helicopter. Buffy says "bye bye" to a normal life, and while she knows she'll always be more than just a Slayer, she also knows she can't escape the weirdness and responsiblity that is her life.
Then, he comes back, much, much happier without her. He married the equivalent of a female version of himself: all-American, home-spun, and a cardboard representation of a perfect person. And Buffy falls in love all over again, not with Riley, but with the normalcy he represents. Her life sucks worse than it ever did before since she's lost her mom, is a single parent, is distanced from all her friends, has lost her mentor because he thinks she's too dependent on him, is unable to go to college, is in debt up to her eyeballs, and is working fast food as a livelihood; all this while she's still the Slayer and would actually still be dead (and happy) if she weren't.
Riley isn't really a character to me: he's an allegorical symbol of a perfect life, and when Buffy's own life goes belly up and he returns somehow having reached whole new levels of perfection, it makes her feel even crappier. The thing is, if the writers felt the need to throw Riley back into the mix to remind Buffy of how bad things have gotten, that should have been enough impetus to get her to wake and realize stuff wasn't working in her own life without throwing in the bizarrely concocted thing about Spike being the Doctor, which frankly never made sense to me except as another desperate attempt by the writers to make the audience decide Spike was unredeemable vampire garbage (yeesh, long sentence). Riley's so dang perfect, Buffy decides she wants to be perfect too, and the easiest thing to erase on the list of bad stuff in her life that makes her cringe is #2327: Sleeping with Spike. She crosses that one off her list and is left with the other gazillion things in her life that suck beyond the telling, doing what she does throughout the season and pretending that what's actually wrong with her life is an external thing when it's actually her own overwhelmed apathy and depression over a variety of issues she needs to face that's sinking her.
::looks up at what was meant to be a 2 or 3 sentence answer::
Uh, so that's why Riley bothers me in that episode.
no subject
Frankly, I didn't like AYW for a variety of reasons, but the deus ex machina that was Riley Finn, all American god of normalcy, clean thoughts, and brushing your teeth after every meal was, at least in my mind, doing what he always did through most of it, but the part that seemed tacked on to me was the bit about Spike being the Doctor because it wasn't necessary and frankly didn't make any sense.
Riley was right that Buffy didn't love him; she did, however, love what he represented, which was a normal life. Aside from his commando job, and that was at least something that could be found in the real world, this was a farm boy who wanted to get married, have kids, and own a golden retriever. Riley was an attempt to run the heck away from what she was by pretending she could be wife, mommmy, and co-golden retriever owner and be something other than a Slayer. Unfortunately, Riley had as much trouble with her being the Slayer as she did, and the idea that he wasn't stronger than her and that she didn't collapse in front of him emotionally during her mother's illness sent him running to vampire bite-addicts (her natural enemies) so he could feel needed... by strengthening what she was fighting. His departure was under a cloud of bad feeling on both their parts, Buffy because Captain America was the equivalent of a heroin addict and blaming his addiction on her (not only magic is crack!), and Riley issuing an ultimatum to her because he wanted her to let him in and not just pretend to be Mrs. Farmer's Wife but actually be it. The only mistake there was Buffy running after the helicopter. Buffy says "bye bye" to a normal life, and while she knows she'll always be more than just a Slayer, she also knows she can't escape the weirdness and responsiblity that is her life.
Then, he comes back, much, much happier without her. He married the equivalent of a female version of himself: all-American, home-spun, and a cardboard representation of a perfect person. And Buffy falls in love all over again, not with Riley, but with the normalcy he represents. Her life sucks worse than it ever did before since she's lost her mom, is a single parent, is distanced from all her friends, has lost her mentor because he thinks she's too dependent on him, is unable to go to college, is in debt up to her eyeballs, and is working fast food as a livelihood; all this while she's still the Slayer and would actually still be dead (and happy) if she weren't.
Riley isn't really a character to me: he's an allegorical symbol of a perfect life, and when Buffy's own life goes belly up and he returns somehow having reached whole new levels of perfection, it makes her feel even crappier. The thing is, if the writers felt the need to throw Riley back into the mix to remind Buffy of how bad things have gotten, that should have been enough impetus to get her to wake and realize stuff wasn't working in her own life without throwing in the bizarrely concocted thing about Spike being the Doctor, which frankly never made sense to me except as another desperate attempt by the writers to make the audience decide Spike was unredeemable vampire garbage (yeesh, long sentence). Riley's so dang perfect, Buffy decides she wants to be perfect too, and the easiest thing to erase on the list of bad stuff in her life that makes her cringe is #2327: Sleeping with Spike. She crosses that one off her list and is left with the other gazillion things in her life that suck beyond the telling, doing what she does throughout the season and pretending that what's actually wrong with her life is an external thing when it's actually her own overwhelmed apathy and depression over a variety of issues she needs to face that's sinking her.
::looks up at what was meant to be a 2 or 3 sentence answer::
Uh, so that's why Riley bothers me in that episode.