Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 4)
The fourth season of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiered on October 5, 1999, on The WB and concluded its 22-episode season on May 23, 2000. It maintained its previous timeslot, airing Tuesdays at 8:00 pm ET. Beginning with this season, the character of Angel was given his own series, which aired on The WB following Buffy. Various Buffy characters made appearances in Angel, including Buffy herself; Cordelia Chase, formerly a regular in Buffy, and Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, who appeared in Buffy season three.
Plot
Season four sees Buffy and Willow enroll at UC Sunnydale while Xander joins the workforce. The vampire Spike, having been left by Drusilla, returns to Sunnydale and is abducted by The Initiative, a top-secret military installation based beneath the UC Sunnydale campus, led by Maggie Walsh. They implant a microchip in his head which prevents him from harming humans. He reluctantly helps the Scooby Gang throughout the season and eventually begins to fight on their side after learning that he can harm other demons. But Buffy and her friends don't trust him except Willow who opts to give him a chance to redeem himself, which they eventually do.Oz leaves town after realizing that he is too dangerous as a werewolf and after a horrific encounter with The Initiative. Willow falls in love with Tara Maclay, another witch. They begin a relationship.
Another focus of the season is Xander's relationship with a former vengeance demon named Anya Jenkins, who becomes infatuated with him due to him making her feel human and Xander returns these feelings as she makes him feel like a man. Anya tries to get Xander off her mind but their feelings are developed and they begin a relationship.
Buffy begins dating Riley Finn, a grad student who she later discovers is a member of The Initiative. He tries to get her recruited but she becomes an object of negative attention from Maggie Walsh. Walsh believes Buffy to be a bad influence to Riley, threatening his ties with The Initiative. After Buffy and Riley's first sexual encounter, Walsh tries to get Buffy killed, which causes Riley to cut ties with Walsh and The Initiative.
The Initiative's more sinister secret purpose is revealed when its composite demonic cyborg, Adam, kills Walsh, escapes and rampages through the town. After getting Spike to temporarily work for him, Adam plots to create others like him to overthrow humanity, though Adam sees Riley as a "brother".
Buffy and her allies unite to defeat Adam and destroy The Initiative. The demons and other supernatural creatures fight back against their former captors, while the Scoobies temporarily transfer all their skills into Buffy to fight the physically superior Adam. Magically enhanced, she kills Adam by ripping out his uranium core. Soon The Initiative is defeated and the Scoobies recover. The government recognizes that Maggie Walsh's plan is a failure, and orders her project to be terminated. The Scoobies later encounter the spirit of The First Slayer, who gives Buffy a cryptic message.
Cast and characters
Main cast
- Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers
- Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris
- Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg
- Seth Green as Daniel "Oz" Osbourne
- Marc Blucas as Riley Finn
- James Marsters as Spike
- Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles
Recurring cast
Guest cast
Crew
Series creator Joss Whedon served as executive producer and showrunner, and wrote and directed four episodes including the season premiere and finale. Marti Noxon was promoted to supervising producer and wrote or co-wrote five episodes. Jane Espenson was promoted to co-producer and wrote or co-wrote five episodes. David Fury, who as a freelancer had written or co-written three episodes in seasons 2 and 3, was hired as producer and wrote or co-wrote four episodes. Douglas Petrie was promoted to executive story editor and wrote three episodes. The only new addition was Tracey Forbes, who served as a staff writer and wrote three episodes.James A. Contner directed the highest number of episodes in the fourth season, directing six episodes. Joss Whedon and David Grossman each directed four.
Episodes
Crossovers with ''Angel''
Beginning with this season, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off Angel both aired on The WB Television Network. Both shows aired on Tuesdays, Buffy at 8:00 PM ET, and Angel at 9:00 PM ET. The fourth season of Buffy aired along with the first season of Angel. Both shows featured crossover episodes, in which characters of one series appeared in the other. Angel, Cordelia Chase and Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, who had been introduced in Buffy, became main characters in the spinoff series.The first crossover appeared in the premiere episodes, where Angel calls Buffy but doesn't say anything; on Buffy, she is seen answering the phone. After the events of "The Harsh Light of Day", Oz visits Los Angeles in the Angel episode "In the Dark" to give Angel the Gem of Amara, and Spike follows him.
In the Angel episode "Bachelor Party", Doyle has a vision of Buffy in danger. This causes Angel to secretly visit Sunnydale in the episode "Pangs", to protect her. After learning that he was in town, Buffy visits L.A. in the Angel episode "I Will Remember You" to express her displeasure in his not telling her that he was there.
Buffy season three recurring character Wesley Wyndam-Pryce makes his first appearance on Angel in "Parting Gifts" and would become a series regular in the next episode for the remainder of the series.
After the events of the two-part episode "This Year's Girl" and "Who Are You", Faith leaves Sunnydale and goes to L.A. in the Angel two-part episode "Five by Five" and "Sanctuary" and is hired by Wolfram & Hart to kill Angel. Buffy makes her second and final appearance on Angel in "Sanctuary".
Angel visits Sunnydale again in "The Yoko Factor" to apologize to Buffy after the way he treated her in "Sanctuary". Angel meets Buffy's new boyfriend, Riley Finn.
The vampire Darla, who was killed in Buffy episode "Angel", is resurrected by Wolfram & Hart in the Angel season one finale, "To Shanshu in L.A.", and subsequently becomes a recurring character there.
Reception
The fourth season averaged 5.1 million viewers.The season received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations, for Outstanding Hairstyling for a Series for "Beer Bad", Outstanding Cinematography for a Single Camera Series for "Hush", and Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for "Hush".
The season was nominated for two Television Critics Association Awards, for Outstanding Achievement in Drama and Program of the Year.
In particular, the episode "Hush" was highly praised when it aired. Robert Bianco from USA Today comments, "n a medium in which producers tend to grow bored with their own creations, either trashing them or taking them in increasingly bizarre directions, Whedon continues to find new ways to make his fabulously entertaining series richer and more compelling. With or without words, he's a TV treasure." Alan Sepinwall in The Star-Ledger calls it a "magnificently daring episode", explaining "hat makes it particularly brave is that, even when Buffy has been failing to click dramatically this year, the show has still been able to get by on the witty dialogue, which is all but absent after the first few scenes. Whedon finds ways to get around that, with several cast members—particularly Anthony Head as the scholarly Giles and Alyson Hannigan as nervous witch Willow—proving to be wonderfully expressive silent comedians." In the New York Daily News, David Bianculli states that the episode is "a true tour de force, and another inventive triumph for this vastly underrated series." Robert Hanks from The Independent in the UK writes that "Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in most weeks the funniest and cleverest programme on TV, reached new heights" with "Hush". Noel Murray in The A.V. Club calls it an "episode unlike any other, with a lusher score and some of the most genuinely disturbing imagery I’ve yet seen on Buffy." The episode was included among 13 of the scariest films or television shows by Salon.com, and justified by Stephanie Zacharek, who states it "scans just like one of those listless dreams in which you try to scream, and can't. Everybody's had 'em—and yet the way the eerie quiet of 'Hush' sucks you in, you feel as if the experience is privately, and unequivocally, your own." Following the series finale in 2003, "Hush" continued to receive praise. Lisa Rosen in the Los Angeles Times states that the episode is "one of TV's most terrifying hours". Smashing Magazine counted "Hush" as one of the top ten television episodes that inspire creativity. Keith McDuffee of TV Squad named it the best Buffy episode in the series, writing "f someone who had never seen Buffy asked me to show them just one episode of the show to get them hooked, this would be it". TV.com named it as the fourth most frightening episode in television history.
The Futon Critic named "Restless" the best episode of 2000.
Rotten Tomatoes gave season four a score of 67% with an average rating of 7 out of 10 based on 15 reviews. The site's critics consensus states, "Buffy enters its fourth season on shaky ground but finishes with a surprisingly satisfying season finale."