The I in Team

The I in Team
Written by David Fury
Directed by

Original Airdate: February 8, 2000

Plot: Riley takes Buffy into the Initiative where she begins to learn a bit more about the groups plans. Meanwhile, Riley and Buffy take their relationship to the next level...

Review

Warning: There may not be an I in team, but there is one in SPOILERS! And SPOILERS are just what's ahead for the latest episode of Buffy, "The I in Team."

In short: Lot of potential, most of it lived up to.

After a slow opening to season four, with a slow (at times molasses like) build-up to just what the Initiative was, who was behind it, what it might up to and the slow simmer that the whole Buffy/Riley thing took (this is the guy who took at least four episode to talk to her, much less realize he might be attracted to her!), it seems as if the powers that be have kicked the plotline into overdrive. In the past three episodes since Buffy and Riley discovered each other's secret identities (which begs the question does anyone in Sunnydale NOT know that Buffy is the slayer?!?), Buffy has been taken under Walsh's wing, entered the Initiative, fallen from grace and subsequently made a new enemy. Also, we've learned that the Initiative is not all it seems and has a secret project called 314 and that 314 is something called Adam who is apparently from all appearances a demon-human hybrid (can we say X-Files anyone?!?).

Also, in the course of those three episodes, we've had Riley and Buffy move from being a couple in the early stages of working out a relationship to one that is together 24-7, alienating the friends and sleeping together.

So, Joss and company have kicked the arc into high gear.

But my question after watching "The I in Team" is this--why so much so quickly? After the interesting build-up over the first half of the year, it feels like the production team is scrambling to get certain details out into the open so that they can set up the final run of episodes. And, in a way, that's really cheating the characters out of any good potential for interesting growth and development on the show.

Namely because with the plot points brought up in the last three shows have had some great opportunities to get to know a bit more about these characters. For one, I feel a bit robbed of any reaction by Giles to Buffy's joining the Initiative. Surely Giles couldn't have been overly thrilled by this, if he had known. Or if he had known, why do we not see Buffy reporting back to him on the status of what the Initiative actually is like. In "A New Man" we saw his displeasure at Buffy's keeping information from him--about both Riley and Professor Walsh. Hopefully in the next few weeks we'll have a scene with Giles and Buffy discussing the ramifications of giving away so much information to the Initiative about her secret identity as the Slayer.

One way that it might begin to make a bit of sense is to show the Initiative as a bit of a cult or hard-core religious group. I've seen it many times on college campuses where relatively naive freshmen, who are away from home and the influence of their family for the first time, get talked into joining such groups because the group appears to fill some gap in his or her life. Perhaps Buffy feels a bit out of the loop, having quit the council and not following their orders and that's why she joined the Initiative--for the structure . If this is true, I can buy it for a bit...but I also point out that Buffy has the Scooby gang.

Again, I can only hope that Joss and company will address this as the show goes along.

Other things that I think have happened too fast is the whole Buffy/Riley relationship. Sorry, but for someone who wanted to take things slow a few weeks back, Buffy seems to have jumped in full steam. I remember the days when the whole relationship with Angel took a bit of time to develop. And it was nice getting to watch it go through the development stages. (I remember the whole statement about coffee being more than just a drink by Willow) Here with Riley, it's gone from a slowly developing thing (remember even back in early December he was questioning whether or not he should talk to her and ask her out) to let's race through it.

I understand that Faith said last year that slaying makes a person a bit more in the mood. However, we've seen Buffy be in control of the emotion a bit more until now. It's hard to believe she'd just give into with Riley.

Indeed, it seemed like a lot of the events of the Riley/Buffy plotline last night were set into place just to advance the plotline. And that really is a shame.

Because there was so much more potential to be mined from it.

Indeed, to see Walsh slowly turn against Buffy would have been far more interesting. To see her more slowly realize that Buffy had more sway with Riley than she did would have been a nice move. To slowly find out just how much of a bitca Walsh is would have been a bit better done over time. We already had hints, yes, but if only the crew had kept those hints coming and then pulled the blanket off our eyes, that would have worked extremely well.

As it is, it didn't.

I will admit there were some fun scenes with Buffy in the Initiative.

The sequence where she asked all the questions during the lecture was nicely done. It also pointed out a stark contrast between the type of demon fighers that the Initiative has produced and the one that Giles has produced. Buffy is far more self-reliant that any of the members of the Initiative ever will be. And because of that, she may be better qualified to take out a demon. Also, her look at what motivates the demon was nicely done. After all, the best way to find the enemy is to get inside his or her head and try and guess the next move. Buffy is far more intuitive (a contrast we've seen before with Kendra) and it shows, especially in the opening scene with Buffy taking out the members of the Initiative who were tracking her in 28 seconds.

It makes you wonder if the group isn't studying Buffy for the battles to come.

If so, that might provide some interest as this plotline progresses.

As for the rest of the episode, I found there were rays of hope in it.

I found the awkwardness of Willow's reactions to Tara and her dismay at Buffy being drawn into the Initiative too quickly to be nicely done. Again, Allyson Hannigan is just bringing depths to Willow this year, even when she has a minimal amount of screen time.

Also, I have to admit I liked the whole "Let's teach Anya to play poker" plotline. She worked there, especially her comment about the three Ks and the spanking Xander thing. Those worked. Also, her fear of the Initiative because she's an ex-demon was nicely done. (Makes you wonder if she still has some contacts in the demon world who are telling her just who bad this group is.)

What I didn't like was that at times she was very one dimensional, yet again. Once Xander brought up that he was working to buy her things, she descended to the level of a one-dimensional and shallow character, only brought in to raise the joke quotient. And with Anya, there is so much more that can be done with the character. She's an ex-demon for heaven's sake. Surely there's more that can be done than to make her Xander's air-headed girlfriend. She and Xander worked well together and still do on occasion. But not when they make her out as a ditz.

Anyway, I guess you could say there's a whole lot of this episode that bugged me. But, it looks like it's setting up some events for the final run of episodes. I am afraid I can't judge it too harshly at this point, namely because I'm going to take the wait and see attitude on it. Joss has done it before and I have faith he can do it again....

Well, that about wraps it for now, except for a few small points...

--Poor Buffy. She never gets any happiness after sleeping with a guy. Angel, well we know what happened there; Parker, he dumped her; and now Riley, who after sleeping with him, his boss tried to have her killed. Yeah, that's not going to drive a bit of wedge between them....

--Back to Riley. I get the feeling that Walsh gave him a bit more leeway than the rest of the group might get. Now that Walsh has been killed, will he be cut off from the group? Also, you've got to wonder if he's going to start to question things a bit more. We saw a bit of that last night. I wonder if he might not eventually be Buffy's "in" to Room 314.

--Giles and Spike. Oh, they were so good in "A New Man" and they were just so wasted here. I liked the idea of asking Spike why he'd choose to stay in Sunnydale with the threats to his life. But it was brought up but never really addressed. I can only hope future episodes will continue to see this issue addressed.

--Willow and Tara. Just what went on in that room all night? Also, Willow's keeping information from Buffy about Tara is interesting. I guess we'll have to see how this develops (though if you read the posting board, you probably already know...;-)

Well, that's about it for now. Overall, there was a lot that happened in "The I in Team." I'm just not sure all of it was good....

My rating: 5.5 (out of 10.0)

Next up: Walsh is dead and Adam is on the loose....