Forrest:
Forrest:
Debut -- The Initiative (Season 4)
Other 4th season appearances: Pangs, Hush, Doomed, The I in Team, Goodbye Iowa, This Year's Girl, Who Are You?, Where the Wild Things Are, New Moon Rising, Primeval
Death? -- The Yoko Factor (Season 4)
We first meet Forrest in the cafeteria-y thing on campus in The Initiative. Like all good college men, he seems to be there more for scoping than for gaining nutrition. Not a problem, I guess. Basically, he's sitting with Riley, trying to get some information about the "mattressable" chick Buffy he's just noticed. Sure, he sees Buffy dropping and breaking things, but he still says he'd want to get to know her. Nice guy, no?
Later, Forrest & Riley are playing frisbee or something and Riley tells Forrest that Buffy told off the Evil Bitch Monster of Death (Prof. Walsh). Must be quite a feat, as it gives Forrest cause to say, "You're lying!" Moments later, Forrest spots Parker Abrams (aka Boinker the Jerk) and asks him for the scoop on Buffy. The talk turns kinda ugly, so Riley hits Parker. Whoops, this is supposed to be about Forrest. Okay, well Forrest is basically the one who helps Riley come to realize that he likes Buffy. I realize that the antecedent is possibly not too clear in that sentence, but by "he" I mean Riley. Forrest is a pretty upbeat kinda guy. I dig his humor, the way he talks, and let's face it, he fills out a shirt nicely. (Hey, if the guys can talk about mattressing Buffy, I can remark on the shirt, k?)Oh, yeah, Forrest is part of the underground demon scourge operation known as the Initiative...he's commando, and apparently outranked by Riley.
In Pangs, Forrest doesn't have a huge role...we learn that he's going home for Thanksgiving, basically. He seems to be a decent friend to Riley, which means we'll get to hear good convos between the two of them, probably.
Hush is yet another hilarious Forrest outing. When Riley tells him that Buffy's special, Forrest says something like that fact didn't register the other 486 times he's told him that. Heh. He also gets points for using the phrase "Clark Kenting it by day" (may be a bit off, will fix later) in relation to the fact that they have to keep their cool military-type-demon-hunter identities a secret. When silence hits Sunnydale, Forrest and Riley get trapped in the elevator on their way to Initiative headquarters (underground facility). Here he pays homage to Wile E. Coyote when he holds up a sign that reads, "Come on, Come on!" while Riley tries to override the security features of the elevator. That's pretty much it for him this time out.Doomed brings Forrest as close to death as we've seen so far. We also find out a bit more about him. What do we learn? Well...he's a skeptic. No, not even a skeptic. He's Scully to Riley's Mulder; he doesn't believe the goop about Slayer fairy tales, etc. He's there to kill demons. Hey. Don't know what a demon is? According to Forrest, it's "an animal."
Forrest almost bites it when the DOTW (demon of the week, name forthcoming, hey, the show just ended, okay) gets aggressive on him. It gets him in a good nelson or (okay I don't know wrestling..) rather a good strangle mode. Things look grim, and hey, we all know that on this show, there is no such thing as life expectancy. So it's very well possible that Forrest could have bought it. But no, Riley does the saving thing. Cool. That's what friends are for, right?The rest of the Forrest action is par for the Initiative. He shows up, takes orders. That's about it this time out. And really..what more could you ask for?
The I in Team seems to be the episode where Forrest's opinion of Buffy kinda changes from "mattressable" to "insert nasty adjective here". Buffy's induction into the Initiative serves to change Forrest's relationship with Riley. Basically, Forrest is pissed that Buffy's going on manuevers with them, serving on Riley's team, and asking bunches of questions. He doesn't really appreciate the fact that she can kick his ass. I don't know if I'd appreciate that sort of thing myself, but hey...at least he was made a team leader, and at least he gets to vent to Graham. That's a plus in my book.
Not much else for Forrest in this ep. other than trying in vain to get a handle on Hostile 17 (aka Spike).
To be continued!
The ABCs of Sunnydale
