BtVS essay: The Overanalysis of "Restless"

[scwlc_fic]

Title: The Over-Analysis of “Restless”
Disclaimer: I don’t think I can even really claim the interpretation.
Rating: Uh... It’s a descriptive/analytic essay (with no real point either) G?
Summary: Read the title.
Feedback: Please! I wanna know what people think of my insanity. Write to scwlc@yahoo.ca. Now on to the (dare I call it that?) essay.
Note: To all those who have noted to themselves that it was not Angel but Faith in that bed, you're right, I was wrong, I've reposted to correct the error. Thanks for all the feedback everyone!

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Overall there are several layers to the overall meaning of the episode. The First Slayer is trying to cripple the members of the Slayerettes who participated in the mind-melding spell done to defeat Adam. She is doing this by having them face some of their most powerful fears. She is also trying to get Buffy to admit that as the slayer she is alone and has to be so to be a real slayer.

The interesting thing about the fears the others face, is that they are all about identity. It makes sense, in one way that the First Slayer is trying to explain to them that they are not the slayer, Buffy is. Because of this the others should not be there. Before I get into the central analysis, I must state that until what I call the rebuttals section, my interpretations are the ones the First Slayer is attempting to foist on the Scooby gang. These dreams, as the endeavours of the First to kill and refocus the gang are supposed to give these messages of uselessness and despair to the dreamer. I have therefore interpreted them in that way.

There is one more thing I would like to say about interpretations. I wrote this essay based on a complete lack of knowledge about S5. There are not, and never will be any references to S5 because I started writing this at the end of S4. I realise Joss was placing hidden spoilers about Dawn, ("Be back before dawn," "making up the bed for little sis,"), as well as Riley leaving, ("If that's the way you want it, you're on your own.") and Buffy dying in "The Gift". It is my personal choice not to include them, and although I do appreciate the feedback one gets tired of the refrain that Joss already explained this, that or the other thing.

This is my interpretation as of two weeks after I saw "Restless". I just haven't organized everything until now.

Willow

In the first scene of Willow’s dream, she and Tara have a conversation about how their pet kitten ought to have chosen a name by now. Willow says that “She will, she’s not all grown yet.” The whole discussion winds up focussing on how “They will find out . . . about you.”

The conversation is a metaphor about how Willow is hiding some truth about herself from other people. Miss Kitty, the pet kitten, is used to represent Willow. Tara’s worry about how they should have been told her name by now, is the First Slayer saying that Willow should have told people who she truly is by now. The issue of names has to do with the belief of many magic workers that if you know a person’s true name then you know who they are. Willow, in saying that Miss Kitty isn’t all grown yet, is saying that she doesn’t have to let people know who she is, because she hasn’t finished developing her personality.

When Tara tells Willow that she’s going to have to tell the others eventually, Willow says that she can’t because she all this homework to do. Willow is talking about the personality she holds as a member of the slayer’s inner circle of friends. The homework is her actions as a member of the Slayerettes When she says she doesn’t want to leave, it means she doesn’t want to leave the inner circle. She’s safe from being discovered to be a geek there.

On another note, Joss may have wanted to have Tara double as the First Slayer in Willow’s dream as well as Buffy’s. In this case that adds the whole spin of Willow trying to “write out” a slayer using the first as a template. Willow is writing on “The Slayer” in general, and Tara’s comment about how Willow knows her name takes on the extra meaning that Willow doesn’t understand what being the Slayer is all about.

The next scene is brief and is merely a reiteration that Willow is bad at pretending to be a cool Slayerette. Scene three, the play, represents the persona’s people put on for the sake of society, survival, etc. Everyone there is all dressed up for the play while Willow is dressed in her regular clothes. Buffy tells Willow that her costume is great and that no one will know the truth about her. Willow is confused by this causing Buffy to lament that Willow is already in character, and she should have thought of that. Buffy as the flashy “Chicago” cast member, Riley’s costume as “Cowboy Guy,” Harmony’s milkmaid outfit, and Giles as the director are there as metaphors for the social personae of the people playing them. Buffy has always played herself as the sophisticated valley girl to the uninformed observer, Riley is the big ox from Iowa, Harmony has always pretended to be innocent and sweet and even when she was human she was a bitch, and Giles does have a position of authority.

Willow tries to figure out how they can already be putting on a play on the first day of class, while everyone around her rapidly shuffles about understanding what’s going on and where they fit in. Riley repeating over and over that he’s “Cowboy Guy” and Willow should have gotten there sooner to get a better role, while Harmony states that Willow had better not step on her cues only goes to reiterate that Willow does not understand anything about the big game of real life and that she is mistaking her role as a Slayerette for her true personality. Indeed, she is, as Harmony puts it, steeping on everyone’s cues.

There is a gathering in the wings and Giles starts doing a backstage pep talk with his little troupe. There is, again mention of Willow stepping on everyone’s cues, and also, the comment that “Acting is not about behaving, it's about hiding. The audience wants to find you, strip you naked, and eat you alive, so hide.” These acting metaphors are all about the masks people wear to avoid being eaten alive by society, or in Willow’s case, demons. Willow’s mask is considered inappropriate by the First Slayer.

Willow, in her confusion wanders through the wings, and runs into Tara. Willow runs on about the play, and drama class until Tara, witnessing Willow’s confusion tells her that she (Willow) doesn’t understand yet. Tara disappears when Willow turn around, and then Willow is chased by what we later find out is the First Slayer. At this point Willow seems to realise that she is dreaming, but does not understand what the message of the dream is.

She’s rescued by Buffy, who demands to know why Willow is still in costume. When Willow is confused, Buffy rips off Willows clothes revealing the geek from first season BtVS. After a failed attempt to read a book report, Willow is attacked and has the breath (spirit) sucked out of her by the creature that followed her, while everyone looks on in bored amusement.

The last scene is the most blunt of the scenes depicting Willow as a geek in wicca’s clothing. Buffy, after she rips off Willow’s “costume”, says “Much better,” followed by Harmony asking “Is everyone quite clear on this now?”. The Play is long over and Willow should get back to being herself.

Xander

As we enter Xander’s dream, he asks “What’s wrong with Willow?” the response he receives is “Big faker,” tying in with Willow’s dream. There is a discussion of “Apocalypse Now”, during which Xander states, somewhat desperately, that “It gets better, I remember it gets better.” Giles then says in tones of sudden enlightenment that “Oh! I get it, it’s all about the journey isn’t it?”. Thus the message that Xander is going nowhere in life is first stated. Xander, in saying that he remembers “it” getting better is saying that life is supposed to get better. As he heads up the stairs to go to the bathroom, Buffy mockingly asks him whether he needs help with it, to which he responds, “Got a system.” This is , I think, the First Slayer’s way of asking if he needs help to get by in life. She’s mocking his lack of progress.

In scene two, he has a conversation with Buffy’s mother. It smacks of an Oedipus complex, (yes I would put it past Joss) as they discuss how everyone has gone ahead and that Xander should catch up. When Buffy’s mother says that she’s heard people say they can catch up before, it also carries the meaning that she’s stuck behind like Xander. She invites him to join her, and Xander says he needs to go to the bathroom first. She says “Don’t get lost.” The majority of the scene is, again, based around the not being able to catch up with the others, but there is the first dip into the family issue that arises later (aka Xander’s Oedipus complex over Buffy’s mother).

In the bathroom, Xander finds himself scrutinised by the Initiative, and decides to use another bathroom. This is merely a comment on how he feels like everyone is waiting for him to to something. The First Slayer intimates that Xander is a bug under a microscope. After some wandering Xander finds himself in his basement. The door at the top of the stairs rattles and Xander says “That’s not the way out.” The way out of his life in the basement is not to fight through the demons waiting at the top of the stairs.

He leaves the basement and finds his way to a park, where Giles and Spike are on the swings, and Buffy is playing in the sandbox. Giles comments on how Spike is like a son to him, and Buffy calls him “big brother”. Not in the 1984 sense, mind, but in the family sense. Getting back to Buffy in a moment, I shall discuss the G-man. Xander responds to Giles’ comment that Spike is like a son to him by saying that he was into that for a while, but he’s got other stuff going on. Followed by a shot of Xander being the ice cream truck guy. This has the first meaning that Xander was into having Giles be his father figure at one point, his father was a jerk after all. Now he has other things to do. Then there is the side issue that while Xander has stuff going on, it’s loser in a van selling ice cream stuff.

Xander then talks to Buffy who had asked him when he first arrived if he was sure it was them he was looking for. Was he looking for this “Slayer’s Bunch”, or a family. Xander asks Buffy if she’s sure she should be playing in such a big sandbox. The sandbox then turns into a desert behind Buffy, but when the shot moves back again, it’s just a sandbox. The message being sent to Xander is that while Buffy’s life is a really big and scary desert to Xander, to Buffy it’s just a sandbox. She’s the Slayer, he’s not, and he should get out now.

Buffy also has the easily interpreted comment that “I’m way ahead of you big brother.” Xander is puzzled by this comment, and yet it makes sense. When Buffy arrived in Sunnydale she was alone, and didn’t have anyone to show her the ropes in school, or to defend her from the non supernatural stuff. Xander became her “White Knight,” see “Killed by Death”. Xander was an older brother type of person for her. She’s moved on though, and he is still just the Xand-man of four years ago.

At the ice cream truck, Xander talks to Anya who asks him if he knows where he’s going. Then she mentions that she thinks she’s going to get into vengeance again. As Xander exclaims that society has rules, (and an endzone, mixing football with metaphorical dreams, bad combo) there’s giggling in the back and Xander turns around to reprimand Tara and Willow. They apologize, saying he’s just so interesting. Xander says he’s going places and then the girls kiss as Xander stares. Then they ask whether he wants to join them.

Now, the question about where he’s going is obvious. The part where he’s interrupted by Willow and Tara in the middle of his rant is about how while he’s following his rules, boundaries, and endzones, other people are breaking taboos (Well, I suppose two lesbians making out in the back of an ice cream truck is sort of a taboo) and going places while he’s just sort of cruising to nowhere. Anya tells him it’s okay, she’s learned how to steer by gesturing emphatically, I suspect yet another comment on fruitless gestures at life, she’s learned from Xander how to make meaningless movements instead of actually steering. He can go join Willow and Tara.

So, off he goes, and winds up back in the basement. This is to emphasise that while Xander can struggle all he wants, he will never learn how to navigate his life, and he’ll always wind up back in the basement. The door rattles again, and Xander says “That’s not the way out.” again. This begins to suggest that maybe there is no way out. Something chases Xander to and through the halls of Sunnydale U. It chases him to Giles, who expresses surprise that Xander isn’t with the others. Again with the leaving behind of Xander. Giles says something in French, which has some meaning to the effect that Xander’s friends are all ‘there’. There was some other stuff I didn’t catch. The translated bit I’ve got indicates the being left behind theme again, and the untranslatable French is to show Xander that even when he gets explicit instructions on how to go places they might as well be Greek (or French as the case may be).

Anya shows up and says that Xander needs to come with her, Giles says that he told Xander that, and they, and several students drag Xander to some potted plants and turn him upside down. His life is beyond his control.

He finds himself in a bizarro world “Apocalypse Now”. Snyder shows up and bluntly tells Xander he’s useless on the First Slayer’s behalf. I don’t think translation is needed there. The question is asked about where Xander is from, to which he replies “Well the basement mostly.” “Were you born there?” “Possibly”. To misquote from I don’t know what, “From the basement he shall rise, and to the basement he shall return.” Xander won’t escape the basement.

He winds up running, chased by the creature that chased Willow, past the Scooby gang, who ignore him (he’s useless), and winds up back in the basement. He says the basement line again, then his father bursts in. His father rants at him in what sounds like the daily ration of parental abuse, finishing by saying that Xander hasn’t the heart, his role in the spell done in the previous episode. His father plunges his hand into Xander’s chest, then changes into the creature. The message? You’re just like your family, and you’ll never leave the basement, no matter how much you try. Xander has no special skills, abilities, gifts, or anything to separate him from the trash that comprises his family.

Giles

Giles’ dream begins with him apparently trying to hypnotise Buffy. Buffy mocks him, and he responds by telling her it’s always been done like this. Finally she breaks out laughing. This is the introduction of the Giles theme of guilt. Giles is to feel guilt over having hypnotised Buffy into being something other than the Slayer. The basic notion here is that Giles tried to mould a slayer to his liking and she mocked his methods, and went on to be a great slayer.

Next, Giles, Olivia, and Buffy are walking through an amusement park and Buffy is bouncing around dressed like a little child, while Giles and Olivia move along more sedately, like parents who refuse to be dragged along by a precocious youngster. Olivia is pushing an empty baby carriage. I will from now on use pram because it’s shorter than baby carriage. This contains a simple meaning. Giles has tried to make Buffy into his offspring, because he’s never really had any of his own. This message is emphasized by the empty pram pushed by the current Giles love interest.

When they arrive at a ‘game’ which consists of Buffy throwing balls at a pretend vampire, Giles is somewhat mean and when he corrects Buffy’s technique. Buffy hits the vampire the second time around, and whirls about expecting approval. Giles tells her he doesn’t have any treats, and Buffy pouts. Olivia says he doesn’t need to be so harsh, and Buffy gets some cotton candy. This is also about the Watchers’ tendency, as the First sees it, to treat slaying as some sort of carnival game, not a grim hunt.

Then the telling part of the scene occurs. Giles says “Now you’re going to get that all over your face,” Buffy turns around with a mud mask on her face, the colours turn to a photo negative, and Giles says “I know you.” Giles has taken the joy out of slaying for Buffy. He was useful at first when it came to technique but he’s tried to turn her into something other than the Slayer. He’s disapproving because at any moment she might turn into an uncontrolled real slayer.

The mud mask moment has a dual meaning. The obvious one is that Giles knows on some level that the First Slayer is in his dreams. The second one is that he knows Buffy is the Slayer. When Giles says “Now you’re going to get that all over your face, it translates to mean “Don’t enjoy being the Slayer, you’re supposed to be my serious little puppet daughter.” The First Slayer sees Giles’ actions as an attempt to turn Buffy into a surrogate daughter with some superpowers. Moreover, his work is taking away the savage core of what Buffy is. She’s not a person, child, or tool, she is *The Slayer*.

The moment is interrupted by Spike gesturing and telling Giles to hurry up or he’ll miss everything. When Giles gets inside, he sees Olivia weeping over the overturned pram, and Spike is being photographed by a large crowd who are ooh-ing and aah-ing with each new pose. Giles demands that people not hurry him, and Spike says that he’s hired himself out as an attraction. When Giles responds “Sideshow freak?” Spike replies that at least it’s showbiz. While Olivia is weeping over the fact that Giles will never have a family, (or something to that effect) The conversation with Spike is the part that holds interest.

Giles’ mocking comment is a comment on Spike’s place in the supernatural community. He’s now a sideshow freak, a vampire who can’t kill humans. Spike’s response cuts just as deeply, “At least it’s showbiz”. At least he’s part of that community in a way Giles can never be. When Giles expresses confusion about what he’s supposed to be doing, Spike mocks him by asking why he hasn’t figured it out yet with his “enormous squishy frontal lobes”. When Giles says that he still thinks Buffy should have killed Spike, Spike promptly strikes a “Jesus on the crucifix” pose. These comments, keeping in mind that they are, in fact, a conversation with the First Slayer, are directed to her, and when Giles says “I still think Buffy should have killed you,” he means the First Slayer. Because the dream is about Giles’ guilt over trying to kill, change, mold, or otherwise alter the Slayer from her essence.

Giles moves onward to The Bronze. When he arrives there he starts by apologising and learns that Xander and Willow are at “Death’s door.” It’s demanded that he must have an explanation. Then he starts to sing, and makes a big production out of telling the two on the couch what to look for. Suddenly, his microphone fails, and Giles starts to crawl following the wire. This is mainly about how Giles makes a show of telling people what’s going on and where to research. Possibly even a complaint about Giles telling Willow and Xander something that they already knew. The biggest message is, however, that things are going on all around him and he’s not needed, called upon, and is the last to know because he no longer has all the answers. Maybe he never did.

As Giles crawls through the darkened backstage area, he fumbles after the mike wire, and comes to a big pile of wire. Buried in the middle is the watch he was hypnotising Buffy with at the beginning of the dream. Giles realises who is chasing him, but the thing that followed and ‘killed’ Xander and Willow just slices his head open. As Giles “dies” he says “And I can defeat you ...with my intellect. I ...can cripple you with my thoughts. Of course, you underestimate me. You couldn't know. You never had a Watcher.”

Ultimately, what the First Slayer is saying is that all of Giles’ intellectual pursuits and efforts are like crawling around in the dark. That the need for all that crawling stems from the “hypnosis” Giles used on Buffy. There’s of course a double meaning at the end, when Giles is talking about how the First Slayer underestimates him. The first is that, well, the First Slayer underestimates the watcher. The second, is that the First Slayer, unlike Buffy, never had a watcher, so she wasn’t crippled the way Buffy was. In the end, Giles is just a regular guy who’s trying to manipulate the slayer to his own ends, who cripples the slayer with his presence.

Buffy

We open the dream with Buffy asleep in her dorm room bed. Anya is in Willow’s bed and is pleading with Buffy to wake up. Anya seems terrified. As Buffy refuses she rolls over, looks up, and sees a creature chained up and hanging over her bed. In short, people plead with Buffy to wake up and defend them from evil. Buffy is ignoring the responsibilities hanging over her head.

The next scene, with it’s vast vast numbers of interpretations, begins as Buffy sits up in bed, startled. It’s the bed from all those dreams with Faith. Then Buffy comments that she just made that bed with Faith, and Tara asks “For who?” Which leads to the question of whether you’ve ever heard the adage, “You’ve made your bed, now you have to lie in it.” Buffy made her choice to BE the Slayer, now she must abide by it. Tara’s question is did she make that bed for herself or Faith? Also one must remember that Tara was borrowed to represent the First Slayer and the essence of slayerness. This adds the extra issue of whether Buffy made the bed for her, or her slayer self.

Buffy starts to look around and asks whether her friends are there. Tara responds by telling Buffy that she’s lost them. Buffy then says that she thinks they need her to find them. The message is simply that Buffy’s friends can’t go where Buffy goes, or perhaps that Buffy has become careless with them. Either way the message is that she doesn’t really need them. Buffy’s reply is that they need her.

Buffy looks at a clock reading 7:30 am, and mentions how late it is. Tara tells her that the clock is all wrong and hands Buffy a tarot card reading Manus. The card that was used to represent Buffy in the spell done to defeat Adam. This is an introduction to the notion of Buffy being separate from the rest of the human race. Buffy shouldn’t be judging her time by the clock on the dresser because it’s all wrong for her. She should be running her life according to her place as the slayer. Buffy responds to this by saying she’ll never need those. Tara looks at her and essentially says that Buffy thinks she knows what’s going on but that she doesn’t really. Buffy just frowns and repeats that she needs to find her friends.

The scene between Tara, or the First Slayer, and Buffy is particularly fascinating because it is essentially stating the view Buffy takes of her role as the Slayer, and compares it to the view the First Slayer has of her calling. For Buffy, her role is that of protector and helper. She is inextricably bound to the normal human world because her place is to preserve it while the First sees the role as one of attack rather than defence. To her, the Slayer is a destroyer of demons, not a defender of humanity.

The scene shifts to Buffy walking down a hallway in school. She pulls over a passerby to ask where her friends are. When he doesn’t know she lets him go and says plaintively that “They wouldn’t just disappear.” The First Slayer is again hinting at something through this moment. She is suggesting Buffy is reaching out to the wrong people, ie/ humanity. Buffy continues a little down the hall to see a hole in the wall, and finds her mother there. The whole of the next exchange is based around the notion that Joyce is deliberately living in ignorance. It reaches a point where Joyce suggests that Buffy could break her mother out, but she is abandoned as Buffy spots Xander climbing some stairs and dashes off to catch up.

Naturally this is a combination of mockery from the First and Buffy’s guilty conscience about never actually taking the time to get her mother out of her self-imposed ignorance. It is also about how the people around Buffy can never understand Buffy’s world from the limited confines of their own, and more importantly, she hasn’t the time to deal with their ignorance.

Buffy arrives in a room that looks like a part of the Initiative with Riley and some guy sitting at a glass table. Buffy asks him when he got back, and Riley tells her that the debriefing went really well. He tells her that he is now part of a plan to gain world domination, “The key element? Coffeemakers that think.” Buffy questions the wisdom of this, and then Riley responds falling into a melodramatic pose saying, “Baby we’re the government. It’s what we do.” This is a clear point about the arrogance of human government and how they deal with things beyond their comprehension.

The other guy then speaks up, saying that Buffy is uncomfortable with certain concepts. With the attention drawn to him he says that “Aggression is a natural human tendency. Though you [Buffy] and me [Adam] come by it another way.” It is at this point the viewer recognizes the man’s voice as the human/demon cyborg. As he says this, the creature we have seen in previous shots briefly shadows Buffy. Buffy says that neither of them is a demon, a statement which Adam seems to doubt. This is a fascinating moment as the First Slayer speaks using Adam as a medium through which to give Buffy the message that she is not human, and does not belong with them. By comparing the Slayer both to demons and to the hybridisation that comprised Adam, the First makes very clear the point that Buffy is not a creature of nature, but of the supernatural.

The creature behind her vanishes and Riley says that she should leave because they have “A lot of filing, giving things names.” to do. Buffy asks Adam what his name was before. He responds saying that no one can remember. Another blow to humanity and the Initiative types. They consider filing and giving things names to be really important, and that the only reason the men are memorable is because of Adam. No one can even remember his name.

At this point the lights vanish, replaced by emergency lighting, and sirens start sounding and a voice says “The demons have escaped. Please run for your lives.” Riley and Adam get up indicating they’re going to build a pillow fort to hide behind while the demons attack. Buffy whispers that she has weapons, but no one stops to listen to her. This being yet another insult to the Initiative types with the statement that regular humans are to the Slayer what a pillow fort is to a real set of weapons, but that they also can’t understand her.

When she kneels down to get her weapons, she finds her bag is full of mud. She moves her hands through it briefly, then covers her face in it. The scene, as with Giles, turns to a photo negative. Then Buffy looks up, the colours return to normal, and Riley cruelly says, “Thought you were looking for your friends. Okay, killer...if that's the way you want it. I guess you're on your own.” He then walks off.

This is extremely interesting because of how very neatly this underlies the point the First is making over the dichotomy between the natural and the supernatural worlds. The First is speaking through Riley telling Buffy that she can’t go both ways. Either she is looking for her friends, a normal life, and a picket fence, or she’s the Slayer. If she’s going to react as the slayer, represented by the mud mask, she can’t be one of the pillow fort people. Riley calls her killer because that is what the Slayer is. A killer of demons. If she wants it that way she is alone.

The blue emergency lighting returns to normal as Buffy stands up and walks off. As the camera view follows her feet, the floor turns to sand, scrub and bushes appear, and we find ourselves looking at the desert seen by both Xander and Willow. Buffy says she’s never going to find her friends there. Tara then appears telling her that she didn’t come there for her friends. This is another repetition that Buffy as the Slayer is a solitary creature unconnected with the rest of humanity.

A conversation between Buffy and the First follows spoken through Tara who says that someone must speak for the First while Buffy insists that the First speak for herself. Buffy demands why she is being followed and where her friends are, and the first refuses to answer her questions, instead speaking through Tara to tell Buffy what the essence of the Slayer is, “I have no speech. No name. I live in the action of death, the blood cry, the penetrating wound. I am destruction. Absolute ... alone.” Buffy responds that she is not alone, and goes on to strike back at the First verbally, saying, “I talk. I shop, I sneeze. I'm gonna be a fireman when the floods roll back. There's trees in the desert since you moved out. And I don't sleep on a bed of bones.” She demands the return of her friends which prompts a fight between the first and current slayers.

This artistically excellent scene is very much to the point, as Buffy and the First simply tell each other what they each believe. The First is a proponent of the solitary huntress way of being, and is a savage uncivilised creature, but is also much more in tune with her predatory side than the modern and civilised Buffy. The fight that breaks out between them is almost a representation of the ongoing struggle Buffy has between herself as Buffy summers, and herself as the Slayer.

Buffy tries to get the First to stop fighting her, saying that they don’t fight for dominance like that anymore. It doesn’t work and they go rolling down a dune. As they continue to struggle, we hear Buffy command “Enough!”. She seems to have woken up when the First grabs her and stabs her repeatedly with a stake. Buffy then gets snarky, and in the middle of her rant about hairstyles, wakes up.

Buffy’s attempts to rationalise with the First are, of course, futile because the warring is all the First knows. Diplomacy, having been invented long after her death is such a foreign concept that any attempt to do so is useless. Buffy demanding the end to the fighting is representative of her taking mastery over her unruly savage half. The bit of the dream that occurs in Buffy’s living room is her reiteration that she is in control of herself and being the Slayer is secondary to being Buffy Summers.

This is contradicted at the very end of the episode as Buffy passes by her bedroom door and hears Tara’s voice telling her again that, “You think you know... what's to come ... what you are. You haven't even begun.” Casting doubt on Buffy’s belief that the First is “not the source of me.”

Tara, The Cheese Guy, and other avatars

Obviously, most of the characters in these dreams are used by the First Slayer as means of communication between her and the dreamers. There are certain representations that are more plainly speaking directly from and for the First. Tara acts as the voice of the First for both Willow and Buffy, Giles receives his messages from Spike, and Xander is given his judgment through Snyder and a man we assume to be his father.

Each of these ‘appearances’ of the First is chosen to more perfectly emphasise the point the First is making about the dreamers. Tara is chosen to speak for the First in Willow’s case because Willow’s dream is all about what others think of her. Tara, being Willow’s girlfriend, carries the most weight with Willow when it comes to what people think of her. This only emphasises the point that Willow is hiding from people, because what one is willing to tell a friend and what one is willing to tell a lover differ significantly.

Obviously the First uses other people, most notably Buffy, to tell Willow she is lying to herself and others. Buffy is another excellent choice because she is Willow’s best friend and privy to more than most people about Willow. However, in terms of the most definitive voice speaking for the First, Tara is the clearest representation.

In Xander’s dream he is told that he is useless, not going anywhere, and that he can never escape because he is a useless layabout like the rest of his family. These messages are delivered by the two figures most able to make these judgments, his father, using the notion of ‘it takes one to know one’, and Principal Snyder, who is a, relatively speaking, unbiased observer. Because of their positions as both insider and outsider, these opinions mean more to Xander as beliefs about his self and his future.

Anya and Joyce are also used as secondary representatives. Joyce, as another person who has been left behind as well as being ‘useless’ when it comes to the supernaturally related issues, is another who knows better than anyone else about Xander as the team third wheel. Anya is Xander’s girlfriend and, like Tara, is privy to the sides of Xander’s personality which are usually not seen by others.

For Giles, Spike is the perfect vessel because of the situation which developed over the course of the fourth season. As the rest of the Slayerettes began to gain in confidence, knowledge, and skill, there was less need for Giles as the constant research maven, and instructor. It was particularly galling, no doubt, that Buffy was relying on Spike more, and Giles less. Spike also provides a sharp contrast between himself and Giles in they are both British, but Spike is young, (sort of) strong, exciting, and all the things which Giles is not.

Finally, as was brought up in a previous section. Spike is truly a part of the supernatural world. He is a vampire. An impotent one, but a vampire nonetheless. The nature of the First Slayer’s complaint against Giles, as told through Spike, is that he is a wholly human creature who presumes to understand what a slayer is. Her belief is that he has no concept of the essence of a slayer, and is therefore no more than an impediment to Buffy’s development. Spike, as a member of the community of those who hunt humans, and are in turn hunted by the Slayer has a better understanding of what Buffy’s essence is comprised of.

In the dreams of these three Buffy is also used as a manifestation of the First, as she is a slayer and uses the same forces that were used by the First when she was alive. Partially she shows how the Slayer can see through the pathetic pretenders Buffy’s friends are, and also to show the ways in which Willow, Xander and Giles are not able to exist in the same world as she does.

This comes through more strongly in Xander and Giles’ dreams than in Willow’s, where the bonds Giles and Xander have with Buffy make her the perfect choice to speak to their insecurities. Xander has always looked at Buffy in a romantic way, even now that he has Anya, he still sees Buffy in much the same way he saw her that first day of school. Giles has always seen Buffy as his charge, an almost-daughter, a student, and a fellow warrior. The First Slayer takes these views and both slams the romantic and loving assumptions of the two, and reminds them that Buffy cannot truly be those things to them. She is first and foremost the Slayer.

Tara’s role as speaker for the First is reprised in Buffy’s dream. Obviously Buffy cannot be used by the First as this is Buffy’s dream, but Tara, as an outsider who is intimately connected to the world of the supernatural, is the perfect person to use as the mouthpiece of the First Slayer. She is neutral, but even at this time before Buffy truly knows Tara at all well, the innate wisdom Tara seems to carry with her is evident. The First can speak through the witch without the fear of Buffy’s knowledge of her interfering with the message, and the kindness Tara exudes from her pores only gives the viewer the feeling that her message can be trusted.

Riley and Adam, the other central manifestations of the dream, provide Buffy with that push of the normal human people who understand that Buffy has no place among them, and the connection that she has the creatures she hunts. Adam, as a combination of the demons, humans and cold unfeeling technology, has a unique perspective of the line Buffy tries to tread from day to day. Riley is a human who understands that the slayer cannot be understood by puny human minds such as his own.

Buffy’s mother is a small secondary manifestation to remind Buffy that although she may have originated in the limited world that her mother represents, she exists in a much larger area. This is simply a focussed statement of how those closest to the slayer still cannot follow where she leads.

The ‘Cheese Guy’ appears in all four dreams as a bizarre metaphorical summary of the message of the dream. The cheese represents the supernatural world as it relates to Buffy and the dreamer. Willow’s quote “I’ve made a little space for the cheese slices,” has to do with how she’s created a section of her life that has to do with magic. She isn’t a true witch, and she certainly isn’t a slayer. She’s simply doing her time as a Slayerette as some sort of sick hobby.

Xander receives the statement that “These . . . will not protect you.” This does not relate to protecting him from being killed by monsters, it has to do with protection from becoming like the family he was born into as opposed to the supernatural family he is now a part of. Only, he’s the only one of his ‘family’ who has no connection to the important stuff in life, ie\ the supernatural. This association with the supernatural world is not enough to separate him from the world of his genetic family.

Giles receives the statement that “I wear the cheese. It does not wear me.” He is being told that he wears his supernatural essence. He is not supernatural, he is a human with some knowledge and some friends of the paranormal world, his tweed guy personality is him, not merely a persona he puts on for the ignorant masses.

The reason the Cheese Guy just waves the slices at Buffy and says nothing, is because he is telling her that she is (hem hem) the cheese. Her essence is nonhuman and paranormal. She has no separation from the world of the supernatural as Giles Xander and Willow do.

Finally the last manifestation is the almost corporeal form the First Slayer takes. The animal we see following Xander and Willow, the savage who attacks Giles and Buffy, and the silhouette seen in scene after scene. She stands behind Buffy as Adam speaks with her representing the animals forces lurking behind the valley girl face Buffy shows the world. The Slayer lurks in every corner behind Buffy, and she stalks the others through the dreams. She is the something out there that so terrifies the others.

Mud masks and other weirdness

There are several recurring symbols and actions in the course of the episode, and each one holds a particular message for the dreamer. The first of these is the desert. This isn’t precisely a single object, or rather, it is a really big object. The desert appears in Willow, Xander, and Buffy’s dreams. This is used as a symbol of the world the Slayer does walk in (”The Slayer does not walk in this world,” The First Slayer, through Tara). While both Willow and Xander react with fear and do not enter the desert, Buffy’s world shifts on its own from the regular human one to that of a slayer.

The desert first appears in Willow’s dream as she speaks with Tara about Miss Kitty choosing her name. As she discusses this, and through it her reasons for being uncertain about her own identity, (see above section on Willow’s dream for details) she moves over to the window of the room and opens the curtain to reveal a desert. We see what we later discover is the First Slayer moving about, but at the time she is merely an indistinct shape behind the brush. This is our first glimpse of the world of the First. When Willow says, “It’s so bright. And there’s something out there,” she shrinks away from the sun streaming through the window. Tara, on the other hand, simply sits in the sun and looks at Willow. This may not seem like much, but Tara, as a direct manifestation of the First, being completely comfortable in the light, while Willow can’t look into it shows an essential difference between the two.

In Xander’s dream, it is seen as he speaks with Buffy. She is playing in a sandbox, while Giles and Spike are on the swings. Xander makes the comment that “It’s a pretty big sandbox,” and the camera cuts to a view of Buffy sitting in the desert saying, “I’m okay. It’s not coming for me yet.” This is much more telling than the first scene with this symbol. In this, while Xander is hesitant about the desert, Buffy is completely comfortable. The slayer can play in her sandbox, but to everyone else, it’s a scary desert.

Finally, it shows up in Buffy’s dream as the backdrop to her meeting with the First. It appears just following her confrontation with Riley and Adam. The camera shifts to follow Buffy’s feet, and the floor is gradually covered with sand, and then small shrubs begin to appear. The shot then cuts to a more general shot to follow Buffy as she walks in the desert. When she comments that she’ll never find her friends here, and then Tara replies that that is why Buffy came, it is a tacit admission that the desert i the realm of the slayer where no one else can follow. It is also the pointed remark that Buffy came there because she is the Slayer, and not one of those normal human types like Willow, Xander or Giles.

The question of why a desert as opposed to a graveyard or some other place, is that the First Slayer was one of the first humans ever to walk the earth. The terrain she would be familiar with is the area and time she lived. At the time and place when she had appeared, the environment would have been a desert, or at least very dry plains. By bringing Buffy to that environment she is trying to reconnect the current slayer to her roots.

Xander and Willow react with fear to the desert because they aren’t meant to be there. This plane of existence and understanding is one inhabited solely by slayers. The message given by the First through the other symbols and metaphors is to indicate how little the two belong in Buffy’s world. So, Xander who has always tried to protect Buffy from the world she is a part of, is told that while Buffy is safe in that desert, he is not. Willow, on the other hand, is trying to become a part of this unusual existence but gazes out on the desert commenting on how “It’s so bright.” When confronted by the reality she wants to be a part of, she cannot even see that world properly.

Another recurring symbol is the unmade/made up bed. This is not a symbol that appears during the course of the episode very much. Where it has occurred is during the course of the series. This particular metaphor is first seen in “Graduation 2”. Buffy and Faith are making up a bed as Faith tells Buffy what the Mayor’s weakness is. It appears again during “This Year’s Girl” seemingly as a warning that Faith is coming out of her coma. The basic image in the first two times is of the two girls making a bed together. The third time, in “Restless”, Buffy comments on how she and Faith had just finished making the bed.

This symbol has a couple of levels and, as I mentioned before, may very well relate to the old saying “You made your bed, now you have to lie in it.” That particular meaning, that they have made their choices and now have to live with them is shown by the progression of the dreams. In the first, they are close and working together. In the second, Buffy has stabbed Faith and is still holding the knife. In the third appearance of this motif Buffy is alone, and looking at the work she and Faith had done together that has been wrecked. This series of dreams culminating in the segment in “Restless” show this progression of choices and their consequences.

Another layer has to do with what could be termed the “sisterhood of slayers.” There is a common bond between all slayers, and the action of making a bed has a certain amount of familial connotation. It is the sort of thing, stereotypically, sisters might do together. This suggestion of sisterly activity deliberately offsets the anger and dislike between the two, while demonstrating the similarities between their relationship and that of siblings. Those similarities appear in the jealousy each girl felt for the other, as well as the connection as the only people who could understand the burden and gift of being a slayer.

The sisterhood aspect relates to the First Slayer because she is the eldest of this collection of girls. She holds the place of the firstborn and her feelings on the matter do, in some ways, hold a resemblance to that of an older sister. She feels a combination of resentment at the treatment the later slayers received in having watchers, but there is a certain smugness at her independence from these parental figures.

The bed is trying to evoke that connection between all slayers and to give Buffy the sensation of connection with her roots, as it were. The rumpled bed is also an attempt to bring out another layer to the dream. In each of the dreams in which the bed is a factor something is occurring on or with the furniture that prevents the bed from being made. In the first, there is a cat which keeps morphing into Faith and back again, in the second Faith bleeds on the bed, and in the third the bed is completely unmade.

(As a separate note for anyone rereading the essay, I made a mistake before in relation to what the cat changed into, misremembering it as being Angel. The fact that the cat is changing into Faith instead of Angel makes for a different interpretation of that particular dream which is really unrelated to my "Restless" analysis, but here's my side note. With Faith there, the question asked about "who's going to take care of him," changes from who's going to take care of Angel, to who's going to take care of Faith. The two have such different needs that the spin of Faith needing family and friends as opposed to Angel needing someone to take care of him when he leaves for LA puts a completely different tone to the dream. And that's all I'm saying about that here.)

The message in these is that while Buffy and Faith have been trying to determine the exact nature of a slayer their efforts have constantly failed. The failure is represented by the imperfectly made bed. When Buffy comments that she and Faith had just finished making the bed she’s suggesting that they had settled the matter of what constitutes a slayer. The First asks who they made it for, implying that they were not making the bed for a slayer but for someone or something else.

Another symbol of importance is the mud mask. It appears in both Buffy and Giles’ dreams. The first time we see it is in Giles’ dream as he is chastising Buffy about her ball throwing technique at the fair. Right after Buffy is given the cotton candy as a reward for a good throw Giles says that she’s going to get it all over her face. When the camera cuts back to her she’s wearing the mud mask.

In Buffy’s dream she puts it on when the demons escape their cells in the Initiative-like space while Riley and Adam have run off to build a blanket fort. When the two men do this, Buffy whispers that she has weapons and reaches into a bag which has appeared at her feet. Instead of weapons there is mud, and Buffy, after a brief pause, smears it all over her face.

In both of these instances the mask represents the primal force of the slayer coming to the surface. Giles’ remark that “I know you,” is, in part, reference to the primal force of the First Slayer whom he is recognising has taken Buffy’s form in his dream. In Buffy’s case she is putting on her ‘game face’. She must shift from being Buffy Summers to being the Slayer. In both of these cases the point being made is that Buffy is this primal force at her core, not a human.

The last issue to be raised in this section is one that may have been confusing to some people. It has to do with actions rather than symbols. The First Slayer attacked each of the dreamers in a different way, but there was one part of each attack that was not so much consistent as predictable. The First Slayer tries to kill Willow by sucking her breath, Xander by ripping out his heart, Giles by cutting open his head and taking out his brain, and Buffy by good old fashioned violence. These may seem to be rather disparate ways to kill a person, but they all refer back to the adjoining spell of “Primeval”. Willow was ‘Spiritus’, the spirit, Xander was ‘Animus’ the heart, Giles, ‘Sophus’, or spirit, and Buffy was ‘Manus’, the hand.

Working backwards (yes there is a reason), the hand has been represented in many mythologies as the physical, meaning the part of a person that does things. Buffy, as the person who was going to be attacking Adam was to be the hand. She was going to be doing the things to defeat him. More than that, however, the Slayer is a manifestation of the essence of this physical action. When the First Slayer hands Buffy the card she is not only telling Buffy about her place, it is a comment on the lack of purity to Buffy’s purpose. The Slayer is a creature of physical violence and such should not be using these other qualities.

Giles was ‘Sophus’, in fact, has always been that to the group. He is the person with all of the knowledge and mental acuity in the group. That was the main reason he was given the position of mind in the merge. His position dictated the methods the First Slayer used to kill him, as well as all those taunts from Spike about the Watcher’s “...enormous, squishy, frontal lobes.” His brain is ripped out because that is his strength. Even as the First Slayer is cutting up his head Giles is still thinking that he can use his intellect to defeat her.

Now we reach Xander. ‘Animus’, or the heart. Something of a nothing role one might consider. It could even be questioned why they even need this extra part when they have spirit, other than that four is one of the big magic numbers. But then again, so is three. The reason is that heart and spirit are two very different things here. Spirit does not represent emotions as the heart does but the supernatural essence of a person. Xander has taken to role of emotion. He has always been the blindly feeling member of the group. He has always been virtually unshakeable in his opinions once they are set, and this emotional attachment has given him an honesty about his feelings that is not as often seen in the others. Emotions are the most honest of these elements, and Xander's feeling have always been transparent. More, we have seen from Buffy how important emotions are. This leads the First to rip out the part of the body most associated with emotion, Xander’s heart.

Finally, Willow. She is the representative of supernatural power. Forces ungoverned by the mind, emotions, or the physical world. Willow was chosen, naturally enough, because she is a witch. Her stock in trade is these forces. The reason I have saved her for last is to answer a question that has no doubt been posed by some. Why does the First Slayer suck away Willow’s breath? The answer has something of a history to it. The first level is that there is no really common body part associated with the spirit or soul that one can chop off. There is, however, a very common use of breath as a metaphor for the spirit. Why? That dates back to the etymological history of the word spirit, which evolved from the original Latin meaning of spiritus, which is breath or breathing. Which is why the Latin root of respiration is ‘spir’.

The Rebuttals

So far this has covered the individual dreams, the characters in those dreams, and some of the recurring motifs and themes. I have not given the other side of the issue. That is, in what ways the First Slayer was right or wrong.

Willow is told by the First that she is not, and never will be anything more than the mousy little computer geek she was when Buffy came to Sunnydale. That all of her attempts to become a witch, a ‘cool’ person, or even just someone else are in vain because she cannot escape her past. In some ways, the First is right. Willow will never get away from her history. She was the computer geek through most of high school, and that early lack of confidence and experience will always haunt her. On the other hand, Willow is not the same girl she was in grade ten who fell for a demon over the internet because she was so naive and starved for affection. Those early experiences made her stronger. She is now a very powerful wicca, and she is part of this world Buffy lives in. However, those same memories run the risk of having her try so hard to be the opposite of her old self that she winds up needing to wear a mask all her life.

The message to Xander is that he will never escape his dismal life in Sunnydale. More, that he will never be more than his redneck family. Again, those experiences as the clearly abused son of a bunch of white trash will affect him his whole life, but he has escaped being like them through his association with Buffy. Like Willow, he has avoided mundanity through association with Buffy. The First Slayer is wrong about him. The friendship she so condemns did get him out of the basement. His connection to Buffy is not one of entering her world, his connection grounds her to that of everyone else, and that is something she needs.

Giles is a slightly more complicated issue than the first two. He has spent his whole life studying and trying to be a part of this paranormal world Buffy inhabits. His mind has been trained and organised specifically for this work. Unfortunately, the First Slayer is right about Giles in one important respect. He is not, and can never be, a part of the supernatural world. He will always be on the outside looking in at the people and things he studies and loves. Giles is an outsider to both the human world and the supernatural. What she is wrong about is that he is invaluable because of this, not despite it.

Finally, Buffy’s rebuttals. What makes Buffy so different from the others is that she has her own responses to the First Slayer. Of course, it is to be noted the she is the only one the First addresses personally, rather than through someone. True ‘Someone has to speak for her,” but she is speaking to Buffy rather than through metaphor and partially controlled dreams.

When they do speak with each other The First tells Buffy that the Slayer walks alone. Buffy’s response is simple, “I am not alone.” When she is told that “The Slayer does not walk in this world,” her dream eloquence is quite poetic.

“I walk. I talk. I shop, I sneeze. I'm gonna be a fireman when the floods roll back. There's trees in the desert since you moved out. And I don't sleep on a bed of bones.” The First Slayer has been basing her warnings and criticism on a world that has long since disappeared. Buffy can no longer walk alone. There are things that The First does not comprehend because her world and Buffy’s are so separated. When Buffy demands the return of her friends, the First Slayer tries one last ditch attempt to talk Buffy into being a merciless killer. When Buffy rebuffs her she does the only other thing she knows how. She attacks Buffy. Again Buffy informs the First Slayer of the changes over the millennia since the advent of humanity, “It’s over. We don’t do this anymore.” Buffy is ignored and they go rolling down the hill behind them. It isn’t until we hear Buffy shout “Enough!” that the nightmare is over.

We see Buffy sitting up as though waking from her sleep, when she is attacked by the First Slayer a final time. Buffy lies there for a moment staring in disbelief at the other girl who is insisting on stabbing her, and asks if the other slayer is quite finished and then tells her that “I'm going to ignore you, and you're going to go away.” She then informs the other that the First is not the source of her. After some snarky comments about hair, they all wake up for real.

It is this last scene that makes Buffy’s rebuttal lacklustre. Buffy is both eloquent and understanding until the final part. With that sinking into the familiarity of her role as a valley girl, Buffy does more than turn the tables on the First Slayer, she denies her calling as the slayer. It is one thing that Buffy doesn’t understand, and that is that she is a hunter. She can’t separate herself from “... the whole ... primal power thing.”

So, the First Slayer gets the last word at the end of the episode when Buffy pauses, looking into her bedroom, where the same bed she’s dreamt making up with Faith, and we hear the First Slayer speaking through Tara saying, “You think you know ... what's to come ... what you are. You haven't even begun.”

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