#cheese guy

something struck me last night during my season 4 rewatch. in the episode "the initiative", riley offers buffy some cheese after hearing from willow that she likes it. i propose that somehow throughout their interactions she never stops associating riley with cheese. in her dream state, his stand-in can insist that he wears the cheese, it does not wear him - which is sort of representative of riley knowing that he's kinda cheesy but owning it instead of letting that personality archetype define him. there's also cheese guy's insistence that the cheese will not protect buffy...which can be read one way as the camp nature of the show fading a bit as buffy gets older and has to contend with more problems without the benefit of her wit as a shield...but could also be real foreshadowing for how riley really can't protect her from any real threat as he comes off the initiative drugs and also as he can't protect her from the broken heart that he inflicts upon her.