Synopsis: The Complete Fourth Season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer 6 Disc Set. 

Now for the Zone's Eye View:

By Scott Maravilla

Season four was the last truly great season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Having defeated the Master, Spike and Drusilla and thwarted the Mayor's Ascension, Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) faces her toughest foe yet, Freshman year at University of California at Sunnydale. Buffy has all of the troubles associated with starting college, feeling out of place, adjusting to the difficult work load, a crazy roommate and a group of vampires preying upon the students. Willow (Alysson Hannigan) takes to college life like a fish to water. She joins a Wicca club and begins to hone her magic skills. A bad break up with boyfriend Oz (Seth Green who left to pursue a film career) leads her to true lesbian love with fellow Wiccan Tara (Amber Benson). After a bad turn with fellow student Parker, Buffy strikes up a relationship with graduate student Riley Finn (Marc Blucas) who later turns out to be a commando for a super secret government organization called The Initiative.

In a great sub plot to season four, Xander's and Gile's lives are strongly contrasted to those of the new college enrollees. Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) is unemployed as both a Watcher and a school librarian thanks to the plot to burn down Sunnydale High in order to kill the demon version of Mayor Wilkins and whittles away the days at his apartment and singing in a local coffee house. After a road trip across America the previous summer, Xander (Nicholas Brendan) is jobless and his parents have moved him into their basement and charge him rent. A budding romance with ex-demon Anya (Emma Caulfield) begins early in the season, and her antics provide a great deal of comic relief. Anya's social skills are retarded by her centuries as a vengeance demon a lot like lawyer. 

Spike returns to Sunnydale, again (he made an appearance in a season three episode mourning the loss of Drusilla who dumped him after he couldn't best the Slayer), in search of a mystical amulet that will allow him to walk in the day and make him impervious to wooden stakes. He shacks up with Harmony, one of Cordelia's old popular girl cronies. The real twist on Spike is that is captured by the Big Bad The Initiative as Hostile 17, and has a chip implanted in his brain so that he can no longer harm humans. Still able to kick demon's asses, he ends up helping Buffy a lot. At one point, he becomes Xander's roommate in the drunken Harris family's basement.

The Big Bad for the season is The Initiative a secret United States Government organization led by Buffy's Intro Psych Professor Maggie Walsh. The outward aim is to capture and study demons in our dimension, but in reality she is creating a super demon from parts of the captured species to create the perfect soldier, Adam. Buffy herself is seduced into their ranks becoming a soldier for The Initiative. But it's not clear on which side of the fight between good and evil they're really on. And when Buffy becomes a threat to their operations, they will go to great lengths to secure the survival of their operations.

Season four on its face looked like a risky prospect for the show. Angel (David Boreanaz) left the series, except for the requisite cross over episodes in order to get his own show going, at the conclusion of season three, and Cordy (Charisma Carpenter) ends up moving to L.A. to join him. The loss of two key characters could have greatly weakened the end product. Instead, the changes were evolutionary and, as the season progressed, necessary. Spike takes over as an anti-hero vampire accomplice for Buffy, Riley Finns becomes her new romantic interest, and Anya provides much of the comic relief ground that Cordelia used to cover. At the end of season three, Angel needed to leave Buffy. Their romance could not proceed because if it were to do so Angel would again lose his soul and become Angelus. Not to mention, one being a vampire and the other a Slayer, how would they raise the children?

The only weakness in season four is the choice of Riley Finn for Buffy's new love interest. The character is just so white bread. He lacks the mystery and charisma of Angel and Spike. Riley's best episodes with the series occur at the conclusion of four with an interesting twist, and at the beginning of season five. Otherwise, he seems out of place with the Scoobies in contrast to other newcomers to the group Oz and Tara were.

All 22 episodes are available in this 6 disc box set. The Season Four DVD Collection is impressively stocked full of extras including an overview of season four, interviews and commentary for select episodes. The sound and picture quality are also excellent. If you've enjoyed seasons one through three then just keep going because you won't be disappointed. A 9.

The Season Four Episodes Are:

1. The Freshman
2. Living Conditions
3. The Harsh Light of Day
4. Fear Itself
5. Beer Bad
6. Wild At Heart
7. The Initiative
8. Pangs
9. Something Blue
10. Hush
11. Doomed
12. A New Man
13. The I in Team
14. Goodbye Iowa
15. This Year's Girl
16. Who Are You?
17. Superstar
18. Where the Wild Things Are
19. New Moon Rising
20. The Yoko Factor
21. Primeval
22. Restless