As You Were (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Plot

Buffy and Riley chase a Suvolte demon through Sunnydale streets, but it gets away. They follow it to a dam in Riley's car. Riley's wife, Sam, shows up and jumps into the fight. Buffy is stunned to learn Riley is married.

He fills her in on his life after leaving. Buffy kills the demon by snapping its neck, which surprises Sam and Riley because they wanted to capture it alive. Back at the house, Sam says the Suvolte demon came to the Hellmouth to lay a nest of babies. A demonic dealer called "The Doctor" is supposedly holding the eggs for a payment.

Buffy asks Spike about "The Doctor," but he doesn't know. After Buffy and Spike have sex, Riley walks in and accuses Spike of being The Doctor. Riley finds the Suvolte eggs on the floor of Spike's crypt. Spike says he's keeping them for a friend.

When the eggs hatch, Buffy destroys them with Riley's grenades. Buffy tells Riley she's involved with Spike and that she hates her life. She says sorry for hiding her feelings before he left, and he forgives her. The next day, Buffy goes to Spike's crypt and breaks up with him. She says she can't love him and can't keep using him to escape her problems because it's destroying her.

Critical reaction

According to one review, the episode is both highly entertaining and surprisingly emotional, with Riley serving as a reminder of what Buffy lacks and as a force for change. Another critic felt it successfully achieved its emotional goals, especially praising Riley’s speech about Buffy’s greatness. A different review gave it a score of 73 out of 100, calling the premise of Riley and Sam’s married military life “unbelievably hokey and silly,” but ultimately concluding that despite a few irritating missteps, the episode manages to become worthwhile through its character-altering moments. This same review and another source both view the episode as a turning point for Buffy, noting that while the season’s plots have struggled, the character work still shines.