Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Recap/S4/E19 New Moon Rising

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Oz returns, completely in control of his werewolf nature and ready to get back together with Willow. Adam approaches Spike with an interesting proposition.

Riley: Buffy, if I leave now I can't ever come back. (Buffy gives him a "Well, duh?" look) I just wanted to hear that out loud.

  • Colonel Badass: Colonel McNamara
  • Coming Out Story: Although there's a Fantastic Aesop twist in that many of the standard plot points are applied to Oz (as a werewolf) rather than Willow (as a "coming out" lesbian).
  • Chekhov's Gunman: One of the hairy hell-hound-like demons that appear during this episode will show up again in "Primeval".
  • Double Aesop: Buffy doesn't understand Riley's alarm at the idea of Willow dating someone who turns into a monster at the full moon. Then she gets thrown by the idea of Willow dating another girl.

Buffy: You realized that Willow was in a... less than conventional relationship, and it gave you momentary wiggins... it happens.

  • Dramatic Stutter: Tara does this a lot as she faces the prospect of losing her girlfriend. It becomes a problem when Riley darts Oz and Tara can't coherently explain who he is before they drag him away.
  • Dressing as the Enemy: Buffy gets back into her white lab coat and Spike dresses up like "an evil olive" (army greens).
  • Enemy Mine

Adam: Come. You're going to help me with my problem.
Spike: Why?
Adam: Because I am going to help you with yours.

Buffy: Stay back or I'll do a William Burroughs on your leader here! (everyone looks blank)

Xander: You'll...bore him to death with free prose?

McNamara: You're a dead man.
Riley: No sir, I'm an anarchist.

  • Layman's Terms / Rule of Three: Willow translating Scooby Speak for Tara. When Buffy says her "kill-count is way down", that means that there's less bad-guy activity. When that happens, it means something extra evil is brewing. And when Riley says the Initiative has demons coming out of their ears, that's a metaphor.

Tara: I got that, thanks.
Willow: I'm overhelping, aren't I?

Tara: No, I-I understand. You have to be with the person you l-love.
Willow: (smiles) I am.

Spike: So you help me and you get this chip out of my head?
Adam: Scout's honor.
Spike: You were a boy scout?
Adam: Parts of me.

Riley: How'd you get in?
Buffy: Talk later. Stealthy escape now.

Buffy: Well, there you go, I mean, you know, you have to - you have to follow your heart, Will. And that's what's important, Will.
Willow: Why do you keep saying my name like that?
Buffy: (with false cheer) Like what, Will?
Willow: Are you freaked?

I feel like some part of me will always be waiting for you. Like if I'm old and blue-haired, and I turn the corner in Istanbul and there you are, I won't be surprised. Because... you're with me, you know?

  • Strapped to An Operating Table: Oz being experimented on by the Initiative scientists.
  • Shangri La: Oz learned to control his wolf side in Tibet.
  • Super Senses: Oz still has his wolf nose, mistaking Tara for Willow when she walks up behind him because she has Willow's scent on her.
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The Scoobies are referred to as "anarchists" and "a band of freaks" by McNamara.
  • Walking the Earth: Oz seeking his inner cool.
  • We Need a Distraction: Buffy drops a stake when walking past a guard, then knees him when he bends down to pick it up for her.
  • Your Door Was Open: Played straight when Spike enters Giles' house, and subverted when he pretends the door to the Initiative base is unlocked (actually Adam has opened it electronically).

For a nasty town like Sunnydale, nobody seems to mind their locks.

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