I think she was in love with the idea of Riley, but not really him. She always seemed to keep him at arm's length and not really let him in emotionally.

She liked his relative normalcy. She also liked that he knew that she was The Slayer, and that he could hold his own in a fight.

and they totally should have kept Sunday. They sometimes waste villains, like Mr. Trick. I think that they should have let him skip town, to return another day. They still could have had the Faith/Mayor storyline if he had left town.

Having both ferrets sick at once is just uncalled for. Especially when one of them is the most beautiful. I'm sorry, Victor.

I'm sorry to hear about the ferrets, victor.

sumi and Vortex have summed up my position on Buffy and Riley. She wanted to love him, and may have convinced herself she did, but we omniscient viewers know better.

Tending to agree with much of the "did Buffy love Riley" ideas, but I think she also felt the need for A Boyfriend, and Riley loved her.

When she decided not to call Ben, it was like a light bulb went off in her head that it was ok to be unattached. Which suggests to me that she'd been in the mode of "gotta have someone" up until then.

Riley's shining moment was his resigned, "but she doesn't love me."

He should have really just left then, or he and Buffy should have had a slow, painless sizzle. The melodrama only weakened the real pain there. Understatement was called for.

I agree. I felt like Riley (as a character) got trashed. Now that's a weird thing for me to say, because I enjoyed his slide to the pathetic corner of the dark side. I did not enjoy his whinging, though. And I felt badly that he left the way he left. I think that's one of the non-Buffy reasons I liked As You Were. Riley's last note was less sour.

Riley's last note was less sour.

Yeah,that wasn't the best of episodes, but that at least made me happy. Plus, I kind of like the nick and Nora Fury, secret agent stuff. because I am a geek.

I liked it too. I figured we were seeing everything through a miserable!Buffy lens, so it didn't bother me that Samantha seemed so perfect.

Riley's shining moment was his resigned, "but she doesn't love me."

such a great moment. your heart stopped. he should have just fucking sacked up and left. But nooooo, he had to go get munched on by a vampire. Passive aggressive much?

I'll just sit here and nod.