Buffy - S4E17

Superstar
First Aired: Tuesday April 4, 2000

Buffy, Willow, Xander and Anya are out hunting vampires and kill one of a pair. They track the other to a nest and decide to call in the big guns and visit... Jonathan.

The episode begins innocently enough with Buffy fighting a contingent of vampires with the other Scoobies. When she stumbles upon a nest of them, they all decide they need better help. They end up going to Jonathan, of all people. He has apparently done something to have the entire world enraptured with him (including the altering of the Buffy main credits). Jonathan helps Buffy and the others in killing the vampires. The next day, he confers with Buffy about her and Riley's stinted relationship. During this time, a woman named Karen asks Jonathan to autograph his book for her. Jonathan is then shown helping the Initiative devise a strategy to bring down Adam. Jonathan shows that him Walsh's blue prints, Adam is fueled by an internal power source. He postulates that destroying this source will destroy Adam. After this briefing, Jonathan talks to Riley about he has to show Buffy how he really feels. Elsewhere, the admirer Karen is shown watching Jonathan's mansion and being attacked a strange, gangely demon. She shows up at the Bronze where Jonathan is performing jazz for the crowd, which include Buffy and the Scoobies. She describes the creature to Buffy and Jonathan, in particular a mark on it. Jonathan tells Buffy it is nothing to worry about, but the demon later attacks Tara. Buffy begins to think there is a connection between the demon and Jonathan. When she tells the group this, Jonathan shows up and gives a possible reason why this may look like something. Buffy goads Jonathan into hunting the demon with her while the others try to find out about the symbol. Shortly, they find out the true meaning of the symbol and how Jonathan had done a spell to make everyone think he is cool. Jonathan and Buffy face off against the demon, with Jonathan ultimately making the killing blow. In the end, the gang remembers some of the lingering memories, but they are beginning to fade. Jonathan tells Buffy why he did it and how, but also mentions that the advice he had given was still true. Buffy and Riley end up reconciling.

I think this was one really fun filler episode, almost as good as the third season alternate reality where Buffy never went to Sunnydale. There is one interesting fact that still makes this a connecting episode, though, and that is revelation of Adam's power source. I also liked how Adam wasn't affected by the workings of Jonathan's spell, since he is "aware, totally". I like the Jonathan character and always felt that his addition to the group would have been cool, but that never happened.

Score: 8.3 / 10