Um, sorry, kinda
Noel, I was one of the many who encouraged you to watch _Angel_ together with _Buffy_, and I was honestly mostly thinking of "Five By Five." It's my favorite episode of any ME show ("Sanctuary is pretty damn good too), and I wanted you to see that brilliant last shot with "Who Are You?" fresh in your…

As the above proves, neither did I.

- The original plan was for Spike to join the team as sort of the "Cordelia" of the group, so there'd be someone to mock the main characters when they took themselves too seriously. This is generally acknowledged (well, by Marsters, anyway) as a failed experiment, since it became clear that Spike as a character would…

Too many line breaks…
All work and no trivia makes AOQ a dull commenter:
- A lot of people weren't sure what to think of Tara. (Notice that despite Tara seeming all shy and submissive, Willow's the one who's gradually being seduced.) Especially after the sabotaged spell. A few of the more outlandish theories…

Don't know if you came up with it on your own…
… but the show will definitely play up the idea of Riley as a monstrous creation of Walsh, like Adam.

I CAN'T STOP SPOILING _ANGEL_

Oh, forgot to mention
The late Andy Hallett, who would go on to _Angel_ fame, can be briefly seen (sans demon make up) in the classroom scene during "Hush."

SAME OLD SPOILERS/DIFFERENT MEANING SINCE YOU'VE BEEN GONE

I SAID "oh dear!"
S4 can get pretty anthology-ish, huh? The whole first half of the season doesn't have a major arc or villain dominating things. That's why you hear such mixed things about what emerges as the S4 arc, but usually tempered by comments that the complainers still enjoyed watching week to week.

Oh, more worthless trivia: according to Doug Petrie's writer's commentary, it was a fairly late idea in the game to bring Parker back for the sole purpose of having Riley kick his ass. Just a little bit to shed some light on Riley's thinking, and specifically designed in the hopes of making the audience like him more.

TW4S - Oddly, I'm not an old timer. I talked with a lot of them, when I was the newbie watching the DVDs.

Speaking as a fairly subdued "hater," my main problem with Riley is that I simply don't find him interesting in the slightest. I can't hate him with a passion since that would require that it be possible to have any kind of emotional reaction to the character.

Although logically I'm aware that there's good stuff in "The Initiative…"
… emotionally, I kinda hate it. Mostly because of a few problems I have with the episode's biggest jokes. But being the complainer at someone else's party is no fun, so we'll leave it at that.

Dennis deserved more attention in general. (I didn't include it as a trivia point because it's almost too mundane to mention, but what the hell… originally the character was named something else, but when they decided to change his name, Espenson pushed hard for "Dennis" specifically so they could use the "Phantom…

People get way too worked up about order, as based on that link. During this and next season, they originally aired back to back every week, and that obviously worked just fine for people. Even when they seem to be a little out of sync, the discerning viewer will not give a shit.

You know…
Sometimes the perils of long term plans and hasty re-writes can make things exciting. I argue that these six episodes did more with the character of Oz than the twenty-two episodes of S3 did. And "Wild At Heart," a favorite of mine, draws strength and, uh, devastating-ness from how suddenly it develops and…

These are the greatest years of your life
You're right on both counts. It's true that the university setting allows for some identity searching that rings true, and it's true that the series does not fully take advantage of it. The beginning of S4 is interesting to me in that it's BTVS at its most relaxed, in some…

Noxon has apparently said that "Living Conditions" was an example of her intentionally working outside of her comfort zone; she almost never writes pure comedy. Notice she still managed to work in someone getting tied up…

Hipster: Any chance you're thinking of "I Robot… You Jane" ["there's a demon in the Internet!]? In order to show that the monster is screwing with all things computer-y, Buffy's record is shown twice with two different incorrect birth dates. She's also incorrectly listed as a senior.

CONTINUING SPOILERS