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Episode 5.03: The Replacement | Episode 5.05: No Place Like Home
Characters:
| Buffy | Xander | Willow |
| Giles | Spike | Riley |
| Anya | Dawn | Tara |
Overall (7/10)
Buffy:
Buffy is on the ball in this episode. She's Slaying, she's studying, she's taking care of her mom, and she's saving Riley's life. All in a day's work.
This is part of Buffy's progress towards accepting more responsibility in her life. She's doing extra training as a Slayer, she's really on top of studying, as Willow notes. She's reaching the peak of her powers.
In this episode, though, two problems crop up simultaneously that she has to deal with. One, her mother's illness. And two, Riley's illness. She does as well as anyone can do. Once she's taken care of her mom, she drops everything to find and save Riley, giving him an impassioned speech to convince him to go through with the operation. Once she knows he's taken care of, she has to go back to her mother.
Unfortunately, Riley has a bit of a different perspective on this, which I'll explore in his section.
Xander:
Xander's already putting his carpentry skills to use at Giles' magic shop. On top of that, he also speaks up on Riley's behalf in a roundabout, vague sort of way that nobody quite "gets".
Willow:
The most significant part for Willow is actually her light spell in the old high school. Tara had taught her how to make tiny tinkerbell lights, but Willow tinkers with the spell, making it much grander. Already, she's amusing herself with playing around with magic, and she's shown herself to have quite a knack for it. This is fine now when we're talking about lights. Later, though, it'll cause some problems.
Giles is barely noticeable in this episode. He's still setting up the shop, and he's set up a training room for Buffy.
Spike's frustration reaches a breaking point in this episode.
Last season, Spike had to adapt to the chip in his head. He did so slowly, but eventually found a way to remain being evil. At this point in S5, we still get that from him. He's opportunistic, as always. He uses Harmony's perceived predicament to his advantage to try to kill Buffy. Then when Buffy, herself, comes along for help, he takes advantage of the information she gives him to try to get his chip out.
There's one constant in Spike's life: the Slayer. Buffy's become a fixation for him. He says at the end that she's stalking him, but it's more the other way around. He's the one who jumps into the fight at the beginning of the episode. Hell, he's the one who traveled back to Sunnydale at the beginning of S4. Ever since S2, he's found his way back to Buffy.
This is an obsession. And, thus far, it had been a hostile obsession. In this episode, though, Spike's dream makes it turn the corner from hostile to romantic. Instead of merely wanting to kill her, he's now lusting over Buffy. This will eventually develop into an actual love. For now, though, it's a twisted variation on his previous obsession.
And how foreshadow-y is that dream? A passionate encounter with Spike declaring that he loves Buffy while Buffy tells Spike that she wants him. Shades of S6, anybody?
To understand where Riley is in this episode, you have to consider his part in S4. When he met Buffy, he was already pumped full of the Initiative's drugs. The entire time she's been with him, he's never been "normal".
Now, though, he faces the prospect of becoming normal for the first time in front of her, and he's afraid.
As he's been with her, she's only gotten stronger. Notice all the training. In addition, he feels insecure considering her last boyfriend was a vampire. This isn't helped by the events of Buffy vs. Dracula. Riley feels that Buffy needs someone with super-strength, like her. More, he thinks she wants someone like that, and that if he becomes "normal", he won't be good enough.
He already feels he can barely keep up. At the beginning, Buffy is openly annoyed at his joining her with the Slaying. She's concerned for his well-being, but he sees it as a strike against him. That he's not "good enough" for her.
There's another aspect, though. In S4, Riley was betrayed by the Initiative and turned his back on them. This is a big deal to the guy who is big on tradition and following orders. Now, the only way to save himself is to put himself back in their hands. It's no wonder he's resistant to the idea. He'd walked away from them.
So Riley does have very understandable reasons for going off the deep end here. Unfortunately, he and Buffy are looking at things from a completely different viewpoint and they're not communicating as they should. Buffy does her best to convey how much he means to her in the caves, but Riley's past the point of listening.
Graham's words hit home for Riley: Riley has nothing else in his life except for Buffy. He's trying to make Buffy his mission, but, as we see in the beginning, Buffy prefers to do her job on her own.
The final scene between Buffy and Riley is very indicative of how their relationship is falling apart. Riley has just had the operation done and is now "normal" for the first time with Buffy. She reassures him that she's still "touchable". But then, she leaves him. From her point of view, this makes sense. She has to check on her mom. She's juggling responsibilities. Riley is fine. Move on to the next.
However, all Riley sees is the woman he loves walking away from him the moment he's back to normal.
And thus begins the Buffy/Riley break-up.
Like everybody else, Anya is helping open up shop, and she helped look for Riley. Outside of that, she has little to do.
We get yet another sign that there's more to Dawn than meets the eye. In the kitchen before she collapses, Joyce looks at Dawn and asks who she is. Obviously, Joyce's tumor affects her perception of the spell that sent Dawn there.
Tara gets a small role. She seems nervous about Willow's light spell. It seems that she has a less positive take on Willow's spell-tinkering.
Riley's close to death due to the drugs the Initiative pumped into him. It's messed up his system somehow. Spike takes the opportunity to kidnap the Initiative doctor and try to get his chip out. It doesn't work.
Now, whatever was wrong with Riley affected his adrenal system, speeding up his heartrate. Why was it necessary to see a neurologist?
Spike and Harmony, together again
We have the first overt signs of Joyce's illness. Additionally, we see Ben the Intern for the first time.
A solid episode that manages to propel the characters forward. It introduces Spike's romantic obsession with Buffy and heralds the ending of the Buffy/Riley relationship.
Special performance award goes to Mercedes McNab. Cause Harmony makes me giggle.
7 out of 10.
There are many good moments in this episode. The most significant one for the series in general, though, is Spike's dream. This starts the ball rolling on Spike's love affair with Buffy, which massively impacts the rest of the series.
Episode 5.03: The Replacement | Episode 5.05: No Place Like Home
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