That was always one of my main problems with the season 4 central arc (sorry to butt in!) It made Riley the emotional focus so, while I can enjoy season 4 for one-off episodes and a happier Buffy, I couldn't really connect with the big arc episodes making the emotional focus Riley clutching on to Buffy's scarf and finding out what he had believed about Prof.Walsh was a lie, or rebelling against the government and declaring himself an anarchist. It was Buffy's story that I cared about, and she wasn't particularly emotionally gutted by Adam or the Initiative the way that she had been in previous seasons by the Master, Angelus,and Faith, so there wasn't all that much heart there for me to care about