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Favourite Buffy Episodes – Doomed (S4, ep 11)

When people talk about the best episodes from Buffy’s fourth season, they’ll normally mention the award-winning silent episode Hush or the episode that messed with viewers’ heads, Restless. Doomed, like other episodes that don’t happen to be milestone episodes, will always live in the shadow of Hush, especially because it directly follows the groundbreaking episode. But over time, Doomed has gained a special place in my heart, and here’s why.

The episode is a direct continuation of Hush, as Buffy and Riley reveal their secrets to one another – Buffy is the slayer and Riley is a member of a secret military operation that specialises in demon capture and experimentation called the Initiative. Riley has never heard of the slayer, and it is later revealed that members of the Initiative who have heard of her think it’s a myth like the Easter bunny. Here the Initiative’s arrogance is marked by their dismissal of the possibility that the slayer is real and this will become more apparent throughout the season. Essentially the Initiative believe they are above the monsters, playing god, and this will eventually lead to their downfall. Riley and Buffy’s conversation is cut short by an earthquake, which can mean only one thing – the end of the world (‘Again?!’), and it’s going to happen in the ruins of Sunnydale High, just like before.

Naturally, there are elements of nostalgia in Doomed. The very idea that the gang might be going back to high school had me giddy when the episode first aired, and there is a strange dislocated sense of nostalgia when you see the ruins of the school, complete with mayor-snake skin from the season three finale. Also dealing with the theme of looking back on the past, Willow’s shifting place in the world as a bookish nerd is put in the foreground at the beginning of the episode. Whilst waiting for Buffy to arrive at a party, Willow runs into high school jock, Percy, and his bimbo. Willow had tutored Percy at school and the two had gotten along surprisingly well considering their divergent cliques. Apparently leopards never change their spots, though, as Percy calls Willow a nerd when he thinks she’s gone. This hits Willow hard and she doubts that she’ll ever break free of the high school stereotype, ever change her destiny (you can tell where the episode is going from here).

Throughout the episode, Spike and Xander continue to play the odd couple. Giles and Spike will always be my favourite odd couple pairing of the series, but these scenes with Xander, and later Willow, play an important part of Spike’s development. After Spike hilariously shrinks his clothes, he has to wear Xander’s and Xander tells him he’s a waste of space. Later on, Buffy asks why he’s even there, the answer to which is obviously because the character draws viewers. Up to the point in the episode where Spike discovers he can hit demons, he was largely pointless to the narrative, and yet he remained. Spike’s methods of manipulation of the Scooby gang are starting to take form in this episode, though (something that is very important for the episode The Yoko Factor). After being forced to accompany Willow and Xander, he points out that they too are useless when it comes to slaying. On top of that, he says that Willow is a failure because she couldn’t maintain her relationship with Oz, and Xander’s a failure because of his rather sad lifestyle. Here it’s visible that Spike might not be able to fight, but he can effectively use words as his weapons.

Being an old-fashioned, all-American optimist, Riley sees his and Buffy’s shared extra-curricular activities as a good thing. However, Buffy doesn’t want to be with him because he is clearly a bonehead. Not really. Buffy’s defensive attitude evidently comes from her past experiences; previous failures have led her to despair, she thinks she is destined to be in bad relationships. But Riley’s optimism as a contrast to Buffy’s ‘doom-and-gloom’ attitude brings a much needed ray of hope to the season, as so far we’ve only had merry delights such as the roommate from hell, Oz and Willow breaking up, and conflicts over the morality of Thanksgiving, to name a few. The fact that the two characters eventually sort through their problems leaves you with a nice warm feeling, even if Riley was never the most popular of Buffy’s boyfriends.

Contrasts between Buffy and Riley’s outlooks and lifestyles are further depicted through a cleverly intercut sequence where both the Scoobies and the Initiative prepare to hunt the apocalypse demon. The Scoobies look into the demon's motives, whereas the Initiative assume it is just out to kill people. The Scoobies use old books to figure out what it's doing and where it's going; the Initiative uses technology to track the demon’s pheromone signature. The Scooby gang and the Initiative are shown to have drastically differing methods of seeking the demon, and at this point, neither are suggested to be the “right” method – Riley does after all save Buffy using the grappling hook on his military utility belt. This temporary union of new and old will shift further in the season, when the Initiative and the Scoobies go head-to-head.

Doomed does of course contain the standard Whedonesque dialogue. A particularly amusing moment involves Buffy and Riley using ‘fry-cook’ as a euphemism for demon hunter or vampire slayer, referring to Riley as an ‘amateur fry-cook’. The episode also contains some rather effective foreshadowing in the Initiative vs. Scooby gang story. Spike actually gets to do something, and his cunning ways are re-revealed to us after being largely dormant during the season. The moment where he finds out he can hit demons is a victorious one (although keep an eye out for trouser-continuity in those scenes), and his closing motivational speech in front of a bewildered Xander and Willow makes the ending’s tone just right (‘Let’s annihilate them! For justice! And for the safety of puppies... and Christmas, right?’). Buffy’s warming up to the idea of a relationship with Riley suggests that her attitudes have changed – maybe she can defy destiny. Similarly, Willow might not be doomed to be a nerd all her life, perhaps Xander will eventually get out of his parents basement. Who knows, Spike could even end up saving the world. It is these hopeful uncertainties that make Doomed so good.

See Doomed on Syfy this Tuesday at 7pm.

Written by Miriam Kent

I grew up on Buffy, have a big love for comics, and am obsessed with cats. My favourite film is Evil Dead II. I have a love/hate relationship with Nicolas Cage movies and a soft spot for Harry Potter.