Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Every Event Teased In The Season 4 Finale – Screen Rant

Buffy the Vampire Slayer's season 4 finale, "Restless", left a lot of clues that teased major, upcoming events in Joss Whedon's hit series.

AlthoughBuffy the Vampire Slayer certainly provided ample foreshadowing throughout its seven season run, few episodes teased more of what was to come than season 4's finale, "Restless".

Joss Whedon's style has always been heavy on foreshadowing, andBuffyis a prime example of how he's managed to pull that off in surprising ways that are still dissected by fans almost twenty years after the series finale. While on the surface, "Restless" doesn't seem like it fits with the overall theme ofBuffy's season finales - the Big Bad has already been defeated - it holds a much larger significance, as it stays with the characters for numerous reasons through season 5 and beyond.

Related: What To Expect From The Buffy The Vampire Slayer Reboot

While some of the clues were more obvious and had a larger role to play in the integral events of season 5, which ultimately led to Buffy sacrificing her life to save the world, some were smaller clues that took longer to play out. The First Slayer visits Willow, Buffy, Giles, and Xander - everyone who performed the enjoining spell so she could defeat Adam - in dreams and violently attacks them; it is in these dreams that Whedon carefully places clues about the characters' futures.

Dawn was one of the most disliked characters inBuffy the Vampire Slayer history, though she had a huge role to play in Buffy's overall development. Even though she behaved very much like a traditional younger sister, she wasn't really a sister at all. There were several hints made regarding Dawn's appearance on the show in season 5, but the continued theme of a clock "counting down from 7-3-0" reappeared in Buffy's dream where she and Tara discussed how she should "be back before dawn". The clock read 7:30, and Tara says that it's "wrong"; this possibly means it's not meant to tell actual time at all, and rather serves as a warning of what's to come.

In Xander's dream, he witnesses a strange interaction between Spike and Giles, where Giles is pushing Spike on a swing set. Spike talks about how he's going to be a Watcher someday - which is incredibly strange, since he's a vampire - but even more curious is how Giles, who has previously been open about his less than warm feelings toward Spike as "like a son to me". During this exchange, Spike is wearing a tweed jacket; in season 6, episode 8, "Tabula Rasa", everyone loses their memories. Spike is wearing a tweed jacket that has the name "Randy" sewn into it, and because he and Giles are both British, they make the assumption that they are father and son.

In Willow's dream, a lot of the surrounding details involve Willow's concern that people will discover that she is not only a lesbian, but in a relationship with Tara. Even though much of it is focused on what people don't know about her, there is a line where Tara also tells Willow that she doesn't know everything about her. This foreshadows season 5, episode 6, "Family", where Tara's family show up and try to take her away from her friends. They claim that all Maclay women have a demonic side that reveals itself on a woman's 20th birthday. However, this is all an elaborate lie that her father has used to keep the women in the family in line and obedient for years; Tara's not a demon at all.

Related: Buffy The Vampire Slayer Theory: Dawn's Existence Killed Joyce

In Xander's dream, he has a conversation with his girlfriend, Anya, who mentions that she's considering getting back into the vengeance business. For a long while, Anya was a vengeance demon. While this doesn't happen until much later, in season 6, she eventually does embrace her status as a vengeance demon again after Xander leaves her at the altar on their wedding day. However, it's relatively short-lived, as Anya decides to come back to the Scooby Gang to help them in their final battle with the First Evil in season 7.

In Giles' dream, he spends time at a carnival where he sees Spike posing for photos; he has apparently become part of a vampire sideshow and is exploiting himself for the camera. Another curious addition is a sideshow vampire by the name of "Drac", which is an homage to Bram Stoker's infamous vampire, Dracula. Dracula actually comes into play in the season 5 premiere, "Buffy vs. Dracula", where the Slayer must face off with Count Dracula himself. During their time together, he repeats a similar line to Buffy that was part of her dream in "Restless" as well, which acts as another one of the many connections that appear in the season 4 finale ofBuffy the Vampire Slayer.

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Jack Wilhelmi is the horror features editor at Screen Rant, and has been with the site since 2019. He is a lifelong fan of the horror genre, and loves any excuse to discuss genre-related topics, since none of his friends dare challenge him in horror trivia. He has been published on the independent horror blog Morbidly Beautiful, and has covered major genre film festivals such as Cinepocalypse in Chicago. He has also served as a judge for the Ax Wound Film Festival.In his free time, he is a devoted dog dad to a high-spirited rescue pup named Peter Quill and enjoys volunteering with various animal rescue organizations. Jack likes to travel and explore dark tourism-related and other various haunted locations. He enjoys studying psychology, the paranormal, and will watch literally any schlocky B-movie on the planet for a laugh. Follow him on Twitter @JackMacabre or his dog on Instagram @quillthethrill.

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Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Every Event Teased In The Season 4 Finale - Screen Rant

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero