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We all know "Restless" is an episode chock-full of references, psychology, foreshadowing, and cheese. We also know it's been analyzed to death. Well, guess what--it's my turn.
I'm gonna try to go with the references that haven't been overdone...just random things that my mind picked up on while I was watching. Some make sense, and some don't (might I add that the majority of this list came about semi-late at night when I was highly stressed and over-tired.) But it's just my random thoughts--
Okay, people, let's take it from the top.
Willow
Tara is talking about how Miss Kitty hasn't let Willow and Tara know her name. However, in season five, the gang will worry over a lack of name: Glory's.
GILES: Yes, well, um, in any event, uh, since you're all here, Tara and I could use your help researching Buffy's mysterious woman.
XANDER: Oh yeah, this has been fruitful. Trying to look up something you ... never saw and don't know the name of.
WILLOW: I never worry here. I'm safe here.
Tara is killed in the safety of Willow's bedroom.
WILLOW, looking out the window: There's something out there.
Along the same vein as the previous observation, the shot that kills Tara comes through the window.
TARA: You don't know everything about me.
Tara is, as the evidence seems to say, a demon of some sort. We don't find out until "Family" (episode 5.06) that she isn't really a demon, but has been brought up to believe she is one.
HARMONY, to Willow: I love you!
Reminiscent of the yearbook-signing scene in "Graduation Day, Part One" (episode 3.22).
TARA: Things aren't going well...you don't understand, do you?
In season six, Willow doesn't realize how much her magic use harms everyone she loves, including Tara.
Xander
XANDER: Well, thanks for making me have to pee.
BUFFY: Need any help with that?
Xander feels like he is looked-down on by the gang, seen as the inferior one. He feels stupid and useless in comparison to the other Scoobies, even though he knows this isn't true; the gang wouldn't be the same without him. He just has to believe this.
BUFFY refers to XANDER as "big brother".
Duh. Buffy and Xander have a complicated relationship, but when it all boils down, it's a sisterly/brotherly relationship. Xander is jealous of Buffy (her skill and the way she is looked up to) and Buffy actually looks up to Xander. Not because of any great acheivements he's accomlished, but simply because he's her "big brother".
ANYA: I
think this is going to be a very big year for vengeance.
When Glory mind-sucks Tara, Willow seeks vengeance and goes after Glory, with near-fatal results.
XANDER: People can't do anything
they want. Society has rules, and borders, and an end zone.
A similar conversation occurs when Anya slaughters the fraternity house in "Selfless" (episode 7.05):
BUFFY: And Anya did! She chose to become a demon. Twice.
Giles
XANDER: You have no idea what she's going through.
BUFFY: I don't care what she's going through!
XANDER: No, of course not. You think we haven't seen all this before? The part where you just cut us all out. Just step away from everything human and act like you're the law. If you knew what I felt -
BUFFY: I killed Angel! Do you even remember that? I would have given up everything I had to be with - I loved him more than I will ever love anything in this life. And I put a sword through his heart because I had to.
WILLOW: And that all worked out okay.
BUFFY: Do you remember cheering me on? Both of you. Do you remember giving me Willow's message: "Kick his ass"?
WILLOW: I never said that -
XANDER: This is different -
BUFFY: It is always different! It's always complicated. And at some point, someone has to draw the line, and that is always going to be me. You get down on me for cutting myself off, but in the end the slayer is always cut off. There's no mystical guidebook. No all-knowing council. Human rules don't apply. There's only me. I am the law.
XANDER: There has to be another way.
BUFFY: Then please find it.
BUFFY laughs while GILES tries to train her.
Giles feels that Buffy is outgrowing his help and that his duties as a Watcher are no longer as needed. This will prompt him to almost leave in season five ("Buffy Vs. Dracula", episode 5.01) and to leave Buffy and the gang "for real" in season six ("Tabula Rasa", episode 6.08).
GILES: This is my business--blood of the lamb and all that.
Substitute "the Key" or "Dawn" for "the lamb". Enough said.
Also, Giles has killed innocents--members of the cult in his Ripper days--and will kill Ben in "The Gift" (episode 5.22). He will also feel repsonsible for Buffy's death ("The Gift", episode 5.22), but he will remark in episode 6.01, "Bargaining, Part One":
GILES: I just can't help but wonder if ... she would have been better off without me. Buffy.
BUFFYBOT: I don't think that's true. You were very helpful to her.
GILES: Right. Yes, I was a perfect Watcher. I did what any good Watcher would do. Got my Slayer killed in the line of duty.
BUFFYBOT: Oh, that wasn't your fault.
GILES: Of course not. That's how all Slayer/Watcher relationships end, isn't it?
GILES: I don't have any treats...
Refers back to the scene in "Bad Girls" (episode 3.14) when Buffy tells Wesley: "Whenever Giles sends me on a mission, he always says 'please'.
And afterwards I get a cookie."
WILLOW: Rupert.
The only other time Willow calls Giles "Rupert" is when she is evil ("Villains", "Two to Go", "Grave", episodes 6.20, 6.21, 6.22), and throughout this scene, she seems to be on bad terms with him.
Buffy
ANYA: Buffy! Wake up! Buffy you have to wake up right away! ... Please wake wake up. Oh please.
In season six, Anya provides the first "wake-up calls" to Buffy that Willow is abusing magic:
BUFFY: We suck.
XANDER: We need new brains. What's up with Willow?
BUFFY: Out with Amy, I guess.
ANYA: Great, someone to do more magic with.
BUFFY: But at least she's not all cooped up and crying. That's forward momentum. Now, I know that I don't ... know everything that happened with her and Tara, but it-
XANDER: Tara thinks Willow is doing too much magic. And she's not the only one.
BUFFY: I know. But I-I think she'll be fine. You know, it's, it's Willow. She of the level head.
ANYA: Well, those are the ones you have to watch out for the most. Responsible types.
BUFFY: Right, she might go crazy and start alphabetizing everything.
ANYA: I'm serious. Responsible people are ... always so concerned with ... being good all the time, that when they finally get a taste of being bad ... they can't get enough. It's like all kablooey.
BUFFY: That's not true.
ANYA: Okay, not kablooey, more like bam.
XANDER: It's human nature, Buff. Will's getting a taste of something powerful, way bigger than her.
ANYA: Yeah, she was getting out of control with it before Tara left, and now that she's gone...
XANDER: It's gotta be seductive.
Also, in Buffy's dream, Anya wants Buffy to wake up and protect her from the Primitive. In season seven, Buffy will ask Anya, "Aside from getting rescued, what is it that you do?" ("Get it Done" - episode 7.15)
TARA: You lost them.
BUFFY: No, I think they need me to find them.
Buffy's superiority complex shines through ("You really do think you're better than we are." -Anya, "Empty Places", episode 7.19), along with her sense of responsibilty, and her faith that her friends will not abandon her, which they ultimately do in the end of season seven ("Empty Places", "Touched", "End of Days", episodes 7.19, 7.20, 7.21).
BUFFY: We're not demons.
ADAM: Is that a fact?
Buffy finds in season seven that her powers actually come from a demonic source. ("Get It Done", episode 7.15). The interesting thing is how Buffy says, "We're not demons," not "I'm not a demon." Is she referring to herself and the Slayer line, or herself and Adam?
BUFFY: (whispering) Wait! I have weapons! (She opens her bag and finds only mud)
Buffy finds herself feeling helpless (whispering) about certain things in her life, such as her inabilty to save Dawn in "The Gift" (episode 5.22) using weapons. Also, her helplessness against other things will be pointed out in season seven's "Bring on the Night" (episode 7.10) by Joyce/The First:
JOYCE: Are you worried about the sun going down? Because there's some things you can't control. The sun always goes down, the sun always comes up.
Side note: Buffy's weapons bag will resurface in season seven's episode "Get It Done" (episode 7.15), when Robin Wood will give it to her, along with the shadow-things inside.
RILEY: Hey there, killer.
Buffy constantly stuggles with the line between being a Slayer and being a killer. Episodes where she experiences this struggle include "Buffy vs. Dracula" (episode 5.01):
DRACULA: Why else would I come here? For the sun? I came to meet the
renowned ... killer.
BUFFY: Yeah, I prefer the term slayer. You know, killer just sounds so...
"Dead Things" (episode 6.13):
DRACULA: Naked?
BUFFY: She's dead.
"Villains" (episode 6.20):
SPIKE: It was an accident.
BUFFY: I killed her.
BUFFY: Being a Slayer doesn't give me a license to kill. Warren's human.
and many other episodes.
More to come!