Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Buffy Rewatch Week 52: THE END

7.22 Chosen

Follow along in Bite Me!

And if you’re watching Angel, this week’s episode is the season 4 finale, “Home.” Follow along in Once Bitten.




And with the Sunnydale sign finally giving up and falling over for the last time, and Buffy smiling the most sincere, genuine, and relieved smile she’s ever given… our romps with the Scoobies come to an end. (Well, in live-action form, anyway.)

Now, I’m going to be up front about something in this episode, and I know a LOT of people will disagree with me. But I really hate the cookie dough speech. As I said in Bite Me!, it came off like Joss trying too hard to be cute. “See, I’m cookie dough…” Ugh. Even the memory of it irks me. And I hear Buffy fans quote that all the time, or even just roll with the metaphor. “Well, maybe you’re not done baking yet!” I can live with it, though, because there’s just too much else to love about this episode.

The ongoing friction between Angel and Spike is one of the key ones. From Angel calling Spike “Captain Peroxide” to Spike punching a bag that has a caricature of Angel drawn on it, the little bitchy asides from these two about the other are always hilarious. (In the commentary, Joss admits that he drew the picture of Angel and that a crew member saw it and said, “Why does he hate Butthead?” HAHA!!)

I also love the D&D game, and the idea that in the face of impending doom where these people are going to stride into the fight of their lives, they’re still not above role-playing games where you just pretend to stride into the fight of your life. In fact, if you think about it, they probably welcome RPGs because it’s nice to imagine that the apocalypse is just fantasy. But for them, it’s not. (Note that Andrew is wearing Buffy’s red riding hood outfit from “Fear Itself.”)

I love the roundtable scene in the school where the gang all talks about what they’ll do after they avert the Apocalypse. Giles’s comment, “The earth is definitely doomed” is a continuation of his “The earth is doomed” comment that he made way back in the second part of the show’s pilot. Joss wanted this season to go back to the beginning, and so much in this episode does.

Of course, there are the things in there I didn't like the first time, and no matter how much I can explain them in my head or try to reason with the plot, my heart still doesn't like it. Like Anya's death. I know it's meant to be shocking and we see what happens in the heat of battle -- sometimes there is no time for mourning, and people just die. But I think it's Xander's flip response, and the fact he's joking about the Sunnydale mall afterwards, that has always bothered me. Yes, this is Xander covering up, and we can assume he'll go off and mourn somewhere else, but if this weren't the final episode, we would have watched him crumple and then sit in a basement with a bottle of something strong, thinking of everything he might have done to change things. He wouldn't have been joking about Toys R Us.

And to put you in the context of May 20, 2003, the date of the actual finale, the WB did the really cruel and dumbass thing of issuing a press release about one week before the finale, announcing that a certain star of Buffy was going to be joining the cast of Angel in its fifth season. Joss Whedon was immediately on the warpath, but he waited until after the finale to announce how angry and upset he was that they couldn't have waited one week, because by knowing this character was coming back, it rendered his death in this finale almost meaningless. I had a finale party that night, and the room was filled with fans, and it was interesting to look around the room at the end of the episode and see the faces. To a person, those who had read the press release were dry-eyed and thought the episode was okay. Those who knew nothing about the press release were bawling and declaring it one of the best endings of all time. Stupid WB.

And so, I write the next part as if I didn't know what was happening next, because within the context of Joss's arc, Angel notwithstanding, it was beautifully done.

“Chosen” isn’t my favourite Buffy episode, and doesn’t come close to being my favourite television series finale, but I like it a lot. It’s epic, and brings so many stories full circle:
• Willow began by dabbling in magicks and soon became a powerful witch, but when she let the magicks take her over she was no longer a help to her friends she was a serious danger, and now she lives with a constant terror that she will be the one who will doom all of them.
• Buffy has resisted being the Chosen One from the beginning of the series, seeing her mantle as a curse rather than as a gift. She’s died, she’s been brought back, she’s faced things no one has had to face, and no matter how many times she saves the world, she’s not thanked by anyone, and is just expected to do it again and again. It’s the most thankless of thankless tasks, and it keeps getting bigger. She runs on no sleep, and when she does sleep her rest is filled with nightmares. She’s unable to have a relationship with a “normal” guy, but the undead guys are both dangerous and fill her with guilt and remorse that she’s in bed with the dark side. She is the first Slayer to be completely surrounded by friends, yet she’s always alone. Way back in “Prophecy Girl” she discovered that her destiny was to die, and that death would simply signal the next girl to step up in her place.
• Spike came on the scene as the Big Bad in S2, the stronger of the Sid & Nancy co-dependent vampires, but soon was usurped in power by Drusilla when we realized he was almost powerless around her. He had a soft spot from the get-go, and was unlike the other vampires. Angel was cursed with a soul – Spike never seemed to have lost his. He was turned by Drusilla, and remained true and loyal to her always. And when she finally walked out on him after 120 years of dating, he realized he was in love with Buffy, something that filled him with more self-loathing than Buffy’s feelings for Spike did her. When he gave in to those feelings, he realized he might be dead, but perhaps this undead existence holds more in it for him if he stops pretending to be the Big Bad and actually embraces the softer side within him. But Buffy refused to let the relationship continue, and he was lost. Ultimately, we saw that Buffy means more to him than anyone ever has, and when it comes down to the final, total end of the world, he will still fight by her side.

With these three key stories as the ones most in need of resolution, “Chosen” weaves them all together into one beautiful ending: Willow finds a greater power within herself that can perform powerful magicks for good, and in doing so she empowers women around the world to no longer be Potentials, but Actuals. Slayers everywhere are born, and at the moment where Willow no longer lives in fear of her power and stops being a wallflower and becomes the goddess, Buffy is no longer alone. And moments later, Spike proves himself to be the worthiest of friends when he channels the sunlight through his amulet and immolates himself in the process. With Buffy holding his hand and saying she loves him, he looks at her and says, “No you don’t, but thanks for saying so.” She smiles a smile of agreement and leaves. And yet, in that moment I really do believe she loves him. Maybe not in a lusty, throwdown, passionate kind of way, but a much deeper, richer, appreciative way.

So I see all of these stories coming to a wonderful close. Now, there’s been a lot of criticism of the idea that all of the Slayers would be empowered. For one, Buffy and all Slayers before her were logged by the Watcher’s Council, and the moment they were imbued with the power they had Watchers standing by to tell them exactly how to use it. They had their calling explained to them, and rather than live with the confusion of “what the hell is happening to me,” or worse, the danger of seriously hurting someone with this new power (what’s to stop a girl from accidentally killing a bully at school, or a younger sibling?) they had someone there to guide them through it and train them. These girls will no longer have training available to them. So in many ways, the idea of all girls being empowered is more attractive than the actual execution of it.

And so that’s what I’ve always gone with: the idea. I love the idea that Buffy was a show that was about women being empowered. At the time, it was a strange thing to see this young girl with powers on television. Women (well, most women, not Xena…) were damsels in distress, supposed to be saved by male superheroes. Even female superheroes (including Xena) could be one-upped by men who had to save them. But not Buffy. She was more powerful than anyone or anything. She could always rise to the top. It wasn’t always pretty, and she had a lot of Dark Knight–type issues to deal with, but she did what she had to do. And since Buffy I’ve noticed how much stronger and more powerful women seem to be in popular culture. Not just superhero strong, but mentally, emotionally, strong.

We see a montage of women becoming strong, but imagine that in a broader sense, of the television landscape changing as Buffy’s voiceover happens.

“From now on, every girl in the world who might be a Slayer…”

Kate Austen strides into the woods and refuses to listen to Jack telling her to stay behind. She lets the men chase after her (Jack = Angel; Sawyer = Spike) and she won’t choose one, but keeps her options open. In the end, she doesn’t allow her life to be controlled by the men, but makes her own decision.

“…will be a Slayer.”

Tami Taylor on Friday Night Lights is a strong, independently minded woman who fiercely loves her husband and family and will do anything she can to maintain order within her household and throughout her friends, but even her husband can find himself on the wrong side of Tami if he pushes too hard.

“Every girl who could have the power…”

Skyler on Breaking Bad

“…will have the power...”

Gemma on Sons of Anarchy (no really, do NOT mess with her)…

“…can stand up…”

Zoe on Firefly

“…will stand up…”

Margaret on Boardwalk Empire

“Slayers…”

Laura Roslin on Battlestar Galactica

“…every one of us…”

Donna on Doctor Who

“Make your choice…”

Kima on The Wire

“Are you ready to be strong?”

Yes. Women have always been ready to be strong, and the television landscape was utterly changed because of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Sure, if you think about it too hard you’ll realize the dangers of activating a bunch of unwitting women, but the idea that Joss was trying to get across – that women everywhere are powerful and strong and capable and they just need to be given the opportunities to show these things – was far more important.

Buffy changed television. It changed lives, regardless of how corny that sounds. It changed my life, and because of Buffy I have become a discerning viewer of television. It’s made me demand far more of the storytelling that TV shows offer. It’s made me love television. Believe it or not, before Buffy I really didn’t watch much television. (No, really, it’s true.) I watched Xena and The Simpsons and King of the Hill and reruns of Roseanne and that’s about it. Going through university, my main distraction was movies. I watched half a dozen films a week, and I wasn’t in the film studies program. And then Buffy came along and showed me what television was truly capable of. And since then I’ve seen so many shows that are vastly superior to anything in the movie theatres, shows that have stretched my imagination, introduced me to new ideas, and have given me characters that I’ve completely fallen in love with.

I spent six years writing about Lost, and through my blog and books probably published over a million words on the subject. And yet despite my deep love for that show, Buffy will always be #1 in my heart.

And now, because of this Rewatch, I hope I’ve demonstrated to the newcomers exactly why that is. Thank you to everyone who has watched and commented along the way, and who have contributed to make this Rewatch what it is.

I have so many thank-yous to give out, and many of those will happen tomorrow when I roll out a lot of final words from many of our longstanding contributors and even a few new ones. I can’t thank the following people enough:

Cynthea Masson
Tanya Cochran
Rhonda Wilcox
Lorna Jowett
Steve Halfyard
Michael Holland
Alyson Buckman
Matthew Pateman
Elizabeth Rambo
David Kociemba
Ensley F. Guffey
Dale Koontz-Guffey
Kristen Romanelli
Evan Munday
Cynthia Burkhead
Stacey Abbott
Jennifer K. Stuller
Chris Lockett
Nikki Fuller
David Lavery
Graham F. Scott
Stacey May Fowles
Bryan Curry
Robert Thompson
Tony Burgess
Suzie Gardner
Ian Klein
Becca Wilcott
Crissy Calhoun
Jen Knoch
Rob Wiersema

Thank you for giving us your time, for showing us Buffy the Vampire Slayer in a new and exciting ways, making the Rewatch valuable not just for the new viewers, but for those of us who have watched it again and again. I’ve written two books on the subject, and I learned so many things from those of you who contributed.

Thank you to everyone who tuned in week after week, who contributed their own comments and who made all of us know we were doing this for a reason, who gave positive feedback to the guest hosts and who stuck with us all the way through, offering your insight and allowing US to see the show with your eyes.

It really seems like it was just a couple of weeks ago that I called the first person on my contributor list and said, “What do you think of this idea?” I figured I ran a Lost Rewatch in 2009 and it was a lot of work, but if I had a bunch of other people running this with me, it would be a breeze. I was wrong. In the Lost Rewatch, I only wrote a paragraph or so per episode, but I not only had three episodes per post to comment on, I wanted to offer something different than my guests. So this Rewatch turned out to be a big undertaking, and I’m REALLY looking forward to getting several hours of my weeks back (wow, think of all the new shows I’ll watch!) and yet I can’t help but think, “Hm, what rewatch could I take on next?”

The thing is, if I do another one, it’ll probably be alone. And it’s not because I didn’t enjoy doing it this way – like Buffy, I knew I really couldn’t do this alone, and instead called upon all the other tough Slayage kids I knew who stepped up and helped me. But it’s because I don’t think there’s another show on television, now or before, that has this kind of scholarship backing it up, that has an academic conference devoted to it with so many people who come back again and again. I LOVE going to Slayage (it’s in Vancouver in 2012 and I hope to see some of you first-timers there!) so I can talk about my favourite show with so many brilliant people. I’ve met some people who have become very close friends, and I’m so thrilled to have been asked to come to it back in 2008.

As I’ll mention again tomorrow (watch for my Buffy Book Club video!) there’s an award given out at Slayage called the Mr. Pointy, given to the best book and the best article in the Whedonverse. I am THRILLED to have had on this Rewatch so many people who not only qualify, but who have been nominated and have won. And many of them will be nominated again. I’m so blessed to have had so many of these fine academics join me.

But I’m also thrilled to have had so many non-academic writers join me on this, with both novellists and companion guide writers like myself, and bloggers and journalists, coming on here to talk about the show with as much insight as those who give university lectures.

I had several reasons for doing this Rewatch:
1) I wanted to rewatch Buffy myself
2) I wanted to introduce Buffy to all of you who have watched Lost along with me and who have heard me going on and on about the superiority of Joss Whedon
3) I wanted to show my pop culture savvy readers that pop culture academia is neither dry nor stuffy, and is in fact exciting and fun to read
4) I wanted to show that bloggers and non-academic writers could go toe to toe with the academics, and together we could form a large conversation from many walks of life, various voices, different points of view and differing opinions

It took a show like Buffy to make those last two things happen. Buffy ended in 2003 and the discussion now is as dynamic as it ever was; more so, in fact. I hope the Great Buffy Rewatch of 2011 contributed to that discussion and brought it back to life, and introduced it in just the right way to so many of you new viewers. Thank you to whoever it was early on who suggested we offer a spoiler forum away from the new viewers; it was an inspired suggestion, and one that has kept people from finding out things that are going to happen, while still allowing us seasoned viewers to discuss those upcoming episodes in light of what we were watching.

Thank you to all of you. This has been an extraordinary task and I owe all of that to the guest contributors and to everyone out there reading along with all of us. Please do check out the books written by the contributors (again, watch my video tomorrow for some recommendations!) and keep talking about Buffy. Just think: maybe YOU can introduce someone to this fabulous show.

So, Buffy… what are we gonna do now?

53 comments:

Cynthea said...

Thanks again, Nikki! And you're right, I think Buffy is the only show with such an array of scholarship to accompany it--with Angel a close second. As I expressed in my commentary last week, the Rewatch found its strength in the collective.

Bye everyone! Enjoy "Chosen!"

The Question Mark said...

*APPLAUSE APPLAUSE APPLAUSE*

What a fun series! Joss Whedon has never let me down before, and this was no exception. I'm so glad to have finally experienced "Buffy" in its entirety.

Thanks very much Nikki, for putting this rewatch on for us! Thanks to the dozens of contributors who wrote all of those fantastic entires! And thanks to the other Nik @ Niters who were here chatting along the entire time!

I've enjoyed the show immensely, and I'm looking forward to spending the next month and a half finishing "Angel". One day, when I have enough cash, I'll definitely check out the comics as well. :)

R.I.P. Anya...you were my demon crush till the end.

The Question Mark said...

Oh, and quick funny story/question: on Christmas I was at my cousin's palce, and a TV movie waas playing on Showcase in the background. I have no iodea what it was, but it was a Christmas flick and Fred "Amy Acker" Burkle was the star. Did anybody see it?

Colleen/redeem147 said...

My thanks to Nikki (of course) and all her contributors. I'm going to miss this. But I am going to do the Angel season 5 rewatch (even though I didn't rewatch the other episodes) and I will have things to say.

As to this episode.

Apparently Caleb has been infected by the black oil. The First is an alien! This explains why the Bounty Hunter keeps showing up! (Okay, when does the X-Files rewatch start?)

The scythe should be bloodier. "He had to split." That's almost as bad as cookie dough.

Interesting that David, Sarah and Nathan are now all on crime related shows. Or is that all there is with dramas? Crime and doctors.

Cookie Dough Buffy's the same age I was when I got married. Maybe my oven was on a higher temperature so I baked quicker?

I still say that Angel is OOC for the events on his series, even more so than last episode.

Can I get a teeshirt with that drawing of Angel? Oh, Teefury...

Look - It's Ringer. Siobhan is the First! That explains it all!

When Spike said he was drowning in footwear, some thought it meant he would Shan Shoe. Or it could be a reference to getting his sole.

One thing I love about the finale - with all the action and with so many threads to tie up, there are so many personal, intimate moments.

Buffy and Spike. Fade to black. I know what THAT means!

The potentials just have to drip some blood from their hands to open the seal. Was poor Jonathan filled with water?

I get the metaphor, but Buffy tells the girls to make their choice - right before taking it away. I do like Nikki's examples of strong women on TV since Buffy empowered them. I wonder if Sally Rogers from Dick Van Dyke was a Slayer (she was a personal hero of mine.)

Cassie prophesied that Buffy would tell him, and he didn't believe her. No one believed Cassandra's prophecies.

Were did the ocean go?

The week before the finale aired, I was at a convention where someone (obviously spoiled) asked James what it was like to die twice. So even though I knew he was going to Angel, that spoiled me for the death scene. I cried anyway.

In the words of the little green guy on the Just For Laughs Festival show - "Mommy! It's over" :*(

Unknown said...

Nikki, thanks again for all of the hard work all freakin' year with the GBR. This was an amazing project, and one I am just incredibly proud and honored to have been a part of!

(And yeah, the cookie dough speech is pretty damn lame, still: "Bunnies. Floppy, hoppy bunnies!" Priceless.)

TomWill said...

Thanks for all the work that went into this - from your most loyal lurker.

Lisa(until further notice) said...

I too give my thanks and appreciation. I remember that it was on January 4th of this year that you, Nikki, posted the first 3 episodes of the Great Buffy Rewarch. I remember, because it was my 19th wedding anniversary. This January 4th finds me married 20 years. My husband is still on his Rewarch, and my son is done with his first watch and is now beginning season 4 of Angel. What a long, strange trip it's been.

I look forward to having a forum for the remainder of Angel.

Lisa(until further notice) said...

Rewatch, not that autocorrected version. What In the heck is a Rewarch? Blam, that one's for you.

Page48 said...

Nikki, I'm glad you singled out Xander's reaction to Anya's death. The first time I watched that, I couldn't believe it (and, BTW, Bozo, she's not your girl, remember???) Mind you, the others were just as nonchalant about leaving a few dead slayers (and Spike) on the battlefield.

Robin: "Did we make it?"
Faith: "We made it" (check that Faith, some of you made it)

Faith called Buffy "Buffy" instead of her usual "B"

Buffy's last word: "Spike"

Andrew has a great finale.

Spike has a great finale ("oh, bollocks").

Slayers are going to spoil Little League for the rest of us.

As series-enders go, I thought "Chosen" was very good (although, in a perfect world, Kennedy and her pierced tongue could have died a horrible death)

They don't call it the Great Buffy Rewatch for nothing. Thanks to Nikki for such a mammoth undertaking, and to all guest contributors for their insight, and, also to all those who shared their enthusiasm in the form of comments week in and week out for 52 freaking weeks.

The Scoobies aged 7 years to our 1. It's like we control time or something.

Marebabe said...

Dear Nikki and Everyone (but mostly Nikki!), thank you for a most entertaining and enlightening year-long journey. I now know what all the fuss has been about. You have shared freely of your time and your smarts, and we are all richer for it. Thanks, thanks!

Right now, I know of at least two video presentations that will be part of tomorrow’s festivities, and I can’t stand it! I still have no speakers on my computer at work. Maybe if I ask real nice, someone will let me borrow their computer long enough to see the videos when they’re first posted. Otherwise, I’ll have to wait until I’m home in the evening to savor the audio goodness. If you’re wondering why I’m taking a long time to post comments tomorrow, that’ll be why.

I got a big stack of new DVDs for Christmas, and I’m happy to report that I have now seen “Bram Stoker’s Dracula”, “Interview With the Vampire”, and “Sliding Doors” (which was mentioned several times back in the days of the LOST rewatch.) Life has a way of course-correcting, indeed! I loved all three movies, and I mention it because it’s just ANOTHER way in which my life has been enriched through my association with this wonderful group. You all ROCK!

And have a Happy New Year! :)

Colleen/redeem147 said...

I'll be late commenting too. Tomorrow's the only day I'm working this week and it's very unlikely I'll be able to look at the blog.

Witness Aria said...

Thanks for all your hard work, Nikki. It's been a great Buffyear.

Anonymous said...

*sniff!* I got a little teary-eyed reading the last of the Buffy rewatch posts! Thank you Nikki (and all) for putting this on. It was so wonderful to read along and see the new viewers' reactions to the best show ever. And for the record, I will never NOT be emotionally gutted by the twin deaths of Anya and Spike, my two favorite characters, full of snark right to the end.

Christina B said...

I was so lucky the first time I watched Buffy to NOT be spoiled with the knowledge that Spike would be moving onto Angel!
So, to me, he died his true death, and I was devastated.

Before I say goodbye to the rewatch (*sniffle*), I'll probably be the only one who comments on Angel, 'Home'.

You all said to stick with it, and I did.
I can't say season 4 was worth the pain I went through...but the finale was BRILLIANT.
I loved pretty much every second of it.
So...thanks for that. :)

I'll be here for the rest of the Angel rewatch. I'm really looking forward to season 5.

Now...I'm not going to say a long, sobbed-filled goodbye here.
I'll save that for tomorrow. ;)

Here, I'll just say...Thank you.
Thank you to the contributors--It's not often that this high school drop out gets to debate and banter and actually be HEARD by academics like yourselves.
Thank you for accepting me into your world...at least for a little while. ;)

To my fellow followers--You make my heart smile. It's been such a pleasure getting to know each and everyone of you.
Again, my final goodbye to you will come tomorrow. ;)

And to dear Nikki--What can I say that I haven't already said?
Nothing.
So I'll leave it at that. ;)
I love you to death, my dear.
And I promise to be around here, contributing and commenting for a long, long time.

As I leave this comment, Welcome to the Hellmouth is on my TV.
Yes, I'm apparently going back to the beginning once again.
I guess I'm not ready to let go just yet. ;)

Annie said...

Nikki, this has been such a fantastic experience. Thank you SO much for all the hard work you've put into it.

I haven't commented all that frequently, but I've read every post and all the comments. This was my first time through both Buffy and Angel, and it has been wonderful. I'm so glad to have been introduced to those shows and to have a great place online to discuss them along the way!

I had mixed feelings about the Buffy finale, for the most part I really enjoyed it. But, I do have to say I was a bit crushed by Anya's death. She had really grown on me as a character and I was very disappointed that the survivors didn't really mourn her or Spike. As you said Nikki, I'm sure they would in the future, but... still.

Missy said...

Way back in S5 a Knight of Byzantium said "One Soldier In A Vast Army" and it's true of my place in the BtVS World.

The Series finale always boils down to

Spike Dying(For Buffy,God I LOVE that man)

Anya Dying(For the sake of the good fight,STILL BITTER.I don't care if it was Emma request or not it was stupid)

Buffy's Speech(The AWESOME one about choosing to be a slayer,I adore the montage)

And for some reason Robin's Surprise always makes me smile(I don't care for Robin..I've always enjoyed his dead mother more)

If I remember correctly I found out about Spike's resurrection about a week befor AtS S5 started sooo I bawled when 'Chosen' aired.

Dave said...

I love Chosen, my thoughts of the latter half of the seventh series are here.

The rewatch has been a really interesting read.

Dave
Dave Wrote This

lorogomo said...

thank you!

Quarks said...

So there we have it, the ‘Buffy’ finale. And what a fantastic finale it is. Although I personally think the ‘Lost’ and ‘Angel’ finales are slightly better, this is still an incredible end to the TV series. Whenever I’m not watching this episode I always have a few complaints to make about it, but when I am watching it they always go out of my head and I just really enjoy the episode. However, as I am not watching ‘Chosen’ at this precise moment, I will start with a couple of criticisms before I move on to the things I love.

As I am watching the Region 2 DVDs of ‘Buffy’, I see the ‘Previously on Buffy…’ before every episode and I was slightly disappointed to see that it was just a normal one for this episode, unlike the awesome one we had before ‘The Gift’.

My biggest complaint about the ‘Buffy’ finale is that I would have liked to see more of the Scoobies. The scenes we do get between them are fantastic, but as they are the characters who have been in the show the longest, particularly Willow, Xander and Giles, I think they deserved slightly more screen time. For example, at the end of last season the world was saved by Willow and Xander’s friendship, but they don’t have a single conversation between just the two of them in this episode. Instead, Willow’s big emotional conversation was with Kennedy, who we have only known for about half a season.

Also, understandably, there was a lot of time allocated to Buffy and Angel vs. Buffy and Spike. Although romance has been a big theme of the series, I always consider a more important theme in the series to be friendship and family, so personally I would have preferred less time on Buffy’s romantic relationships and more time on her friendships with the Scooby Gang: perhaps more scenes dealing with her sending Dawn away, or repairing her relationship with Giles, or assuring Willow that she could do the spell. While watching ‘End of Days’ last week I did realise that some of the types of scenes I would have liked in the finale were in that episode, so perhaps it would have been better if some of the scenes were switched around.

In terms of Anya’s death, I can never decide whether I think it was a good scene or not. It is incredibly sudden and blunt, the first time I watched I had to rewind the DVD to see if what I thought happened had actually happened, but perhaps that was the most appropriate way for Anya to go. She isn’t really the kind of character who you can imagine having a long emotional death scene. On the other hand, over the last four seasons we have really got to know and like Anya, and see how important she is to Xander and the others, so having her dispatched so quickly doesn’t really give us a chance to mourn her. Perhaps it would have been more heart-breaking if the First appeared to Xander in Anya’s form after she died, to taunt him, or perhaps if Xander and Anya had been fighting together so they could share her last scene.

My final complaint is more something which I don’t quite understand. How did Buffy get up after suffering that mortal wound? And why is it never mentioned again in the rest of the episode?

Quarks said...

Aside from those few complaints, I thought this was a fantastic finale. I know some people think ‘The Gift’ would have been a better finale but, even if I ignore the fact I would hate to lose Season 6 and 7, I would disagree. I think ‘The Gift’ is a better episode, even a better season finale, but I think ‘Chosen’ is better as a series finale. It has all the things which I think a finale should have: references to earlier seasons and episodes (especially the first episode), character deaths, emotion, and a final scene which fits with the ideas of the series.

I love the plot of activating all the Potential Slayers around the world, it’s a great idea and one I never would have guessed. It also, to some extent, justifies why they have been making Buffy feel alone all season, so that they can end on the message that she is now no longer alone as there are hundreds of girls like her.

Although, as I said earlier, I would have liked less screen time allocated to the scenes between Buffy and Angel and Buffy and Spike there were moments in those scenes which were hilarious. I love the way Angel acted when he found out Spike had a soul, and Spike having a badly drawn picture of Angel on his punching bag.

The ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ scene is one of the funniest and one of my favourite scenes in the series.

I also love the discussion Buffy, Willow, Xander and Giles have about what they are going to do tomorrow. I would have loved more scenes like this in the finale, with the original Scooby Gang.

I’m glad that Willow finally got something important to do in this season. She has been afraid to do any kind of magic since the Season 6 finale, so it was great that she finally found the strength in herself to access the power without going evil. Although I do wish it was somebody other than Kennedy who reassured her, and perhaps that it had started to happen slightly earlier on in the season.

The final scene of the episodes, and of the TV series, is great. Buffy doesn’t say anything and just smiles, while all her friends discuss what to do next. It has a message of hope and empowerment, and Dawn has the closing line of “What are gonna do now?”, while I can’t help thinking of “Where Do We Go from Here?” from “Once More, with Feeling”.

And that’s it. The end of ‘Buffy’ (on TV at any rate, I encourage any ‘Buffy’ fan to read the comics) and the end of the ‘Great Buffy Rewatch’ (for ‘Buffy’ at least). The finale is fantastic, and rounds of the entire phenomenal series fantastically. But I couldn’t let ‘Buffy’ go without saying a big goodbye, so I apologise in advance for the size of my following comment(s).

Quarks said...

Because it’s the last week of the ‘Buffy’ rewatch, and because it’s Christmas and I have a bit of free time on my hands (which I know is slightly oxymoronic), and because I wasn’t around for the first half of the rewatch, I’ve that decided that as well as my comment on ‘Chosen’ I’m also going to reflect on ‘Buffy’ as a whole.

I started watching ‘Buffy’ around June this year, when the rewatch was already well underway. When the rewatch was started in January I considered seeing what ‘Buffy’ was like, but I regrettably talked myself out of it. At a time where anything in the vampire ‘genre’ is instantly considered as being ‘like ‘Twilight’’ (which I have no interest in) I felt that watching ‘Buffy’ would not be good for my reputation. It took me five or six months to realise that I didn’t have a particularly ‘cool’ reputation anyway, so I took the plunge.

I can’t say I immediately fell in love with it. I enjoyed the first season though I didn’t really find it anything special, but I remembered Nikki saying on the blog to keep with it until ‘Surprise’ and ‘Innocence’, so I did. Then I considered it a fantastic show, but it wasn’t until ‘Passion’ that I realised just how phenomenal it is and it became one of my favourite shows on TV.

There are so many things which I love about ‘Buffy’. One of the things which makes it so great is the humour. I’m a big believer that any sci-fi/fantasy show should include elements of humour, because you’re dealing with stuff which is so crazy, and ‘Buffy’ succeeds in that incredibly well. But when I started watching ‘Buffy’ I wasn’t just looking for a funny show without much emotional depth, I’ve got ‘Eureka’ and ‘Warehouse 13’ for that (or at least I did, I defy anyone to say ‘Warehouse 13’ doesn’t have emotional depth after the Season 3 finale), I was looking for a show that really made me feel, like ‘Lost’ did. And I certainly got that, perhaps even more so.

But I think the key thing about ‘Buffy’ which I love is that characters. I intend to talk more about individual characters later, but here I just want to say how fantastic all (well, almost all) the characters are in this show. Like in ‘Lost’ I really get emotionally invested in these characters’ lives and I care about what happens to them. And I think the characters should always be the most important aspect of any show, and that is certainly achieved in ‘Buffy’. And it helps that the acting on the show is second to none.

Over the weeks in the rewatch various people (including me) have said Season X is their favourite and that they don’t like Season Y, etc. As this is the last week, I thought I’d put the 7 seasons in order from my favourite to my least favourite:

Season 5

I have always considered Season 5 to be my favourite season ‘on paper’, and as I think about it is probably my favourite season ‘in practice’ as well. By ‘on paper’ I mean that, more than any other season, it contains my favourite characters and my favourite relationships on the show. It’s before Giles has left, after Anya, Spike, Dawn and Tara have been introduced, and while Willow and Tara and Xander and Anya are together. But also it’s a season which I really enjoy watching. The first half is a touch slow, but it more than makes up for it in the second half. It contains a great Big Bad and a fantastic plotline. It also contains, in my opinion, the best episode (‘The Body’) and the best season finale (‘The Gift’).

Season 3

While nowhere near as emotionally draining as Season 5 or some of the seasons after it in this list, Season 3 is certainly one of the seasons I most enjoy watching. Again, at the beginning of the season it is a bit slow, but even quicker than Season 5 it picks up and carries on being fantastic through to the finale. It contains some fantastic episodes, and the Mayor is probably my favourite Big Bad in the show. I also like the Faith plotline, but it’s not quite good enough to knock Season 5 off the top spot.

Quarks said...

Season 6

This has to be the most heart-breaking season in the whole of ‘Buffy’, which is both good and bad. On the good side, heartbreak is always done fantastically well on this show, and as I said earlier I wanted a show that really made me feel, which this season certainly does. The bad side is that there is so much heartbreak that it does arguably get a bit depressing at points. Although Willow’s magick ‘addiction’ isn’t done fantastically well, the general plot is fairly good and builds to an incredible finale. Also, the season does contain some of my favourite episodes.

Season 2

I’m sure many people will consider this to be much too far down on my list; the main reason why it is is because there are a lot of episodes (particularly) in the early part of this season which are too stand-alone and nothing special. Of course, the reason why it isn’t lower is because the episodes which aren’t like that are insanely good. This is the season which really shows how good ‘Buffy’ could be. It was also incredibly heart-breaking, although because for whatever reason I don’t care about Buffy or Angel quite as much as I do about some of the others I didn’t find it quite as heart-breaking as Season 6.

Season 7

I have complained quite a lot about Season 7 over the last few weeks of the rewatch. I think the plot is too drawn out and the show loses some of its humour and emotion to make way for a more serious plotline. Also I think that several of the characters are acting out of character this season. Those are the reasons why it is so far down the list; there are several reasons why it is not at the bottom. The episodes at either end of the season are really good, and some of my favourites in the series. There are also some gems in the middle. Furthermore, there are a couple of characters who I like more in this season than ever before. I just wish the structure of the season was more like previous seasons.

Season 4

The biggest problem about Season 4 is that everything is in a state of entropy. The characters have all finished high school but have not yet found their way in life. All their relationships are changing, including with each other, and tensions are forming within the group. As I mentioned in my comment on ‘Chosen’ one of my favourite aspects of the show is the friendship between the main 4, so I am not a big fan of seasons when that relationship is falling apart. There are some fantastic stand-alone episodes here, and some great characters (and Riley) return or are introduced, but it’s not enough to save the season, especially when the main plot isn’t anything special either.

Season 1

The main reason why Season 1 is at the bottom of this list is because I don’t really care about it. I may complain about Season 7 or Season 4, but at least they are causing some kind of reaction. There aren’t really any stand-out phenomenal episodes, and although getting to know our beloved characters is nice, I find it hard to feel passionate about this season when I know how great it will be later.

For the next part of my comment I was planning on listing my top ten favourite episodes of ‘Buffy’, but that fell apart when I tried to pick only ten. And then again when I tried to order them. So instead, I’ve just picked out my favourite episodes of ‘Buffy’ to talk briefly about, with the only order being chronological. Also, I’ve only included one (well technically two) finales, because I judged them in comparison to the other finales, so I didn’t end up with a list consisting solely of them.

Quarks said...

Passion

As I mentioned earlier, ‘Passion’ was the episode which really made me sit up and take notice of ‘Buffy’. Before this I considered it a really good show, but here it became one of my favourite shows of all time. I personally like voiceovers (that was one of the good things about ‘Heroes’) so I could tell from the start that this was going to be a great episode. I still think Angelus was probably the most evil of all the Big Bads, and his campaign of terror against Buffy here was incredible to watch. After 6 seasons (and 19 dead main characters) of ‘Lost’ I was kind of used to characters on TV shows having short life spans, but Jenny’s death was done fantastically well. The death scene itself was good, but the scene of Giles finding the body stands out as an example of just how powerful this show can be.

Lovers Walk

Also known as the episode which I don’t know if it should contain an apostrophe. I’m still undecided as to whether I prefer early or late Spike, but he is definitely the reason why I love this episode. I laugh every time he tells the tale of Dru and the Chaos Demon, both to Willow and Joyce. And his ‘love’s bitch’ speech to Buffy and Angel remains one of my Spike highlights of the series. It may not be his most emotionally deep appearance, like Season 3 in general, but it’s a great episode to watch.

Doppelgangland

As I loved ‘Lovers Walk’ for Spike, I love ‘Doppelgangland’ for Willow. Alyson Hannigan is probably the best actress in the show, and she definitely shows it here. This episode has a plethora of fantastic lines, and having Vamp Willow being as she is is genius. When Willow and Vamp Willow pretend to be each other it is comedy gold, and this is the Willow which I start to miss in the later seasons. Plus, Anya’s back and it becomes clearer that she wasn’t just a one-episode character. Like ‘Lovers Walk’ it is more comedy that emotion, but it proves that ‘Buffy’ can do both equally well.

Hush

‘Hush’ is probably one of the best known episodes of ‘Buffy’ and rightly so. One of the many fantastic things about ‘Buffy’ is the dialogue, but here it becomes clear that the show is so much more than that. The way the characters (and actors/actresses) portray their emotions and opinions using just their body language is great and in many cases hilarious. The projector scene remains one of my favourite scenes in ‘Buffy’, and this episode also marks the introduction of one of our favourite witches, who is also great in this episode. The Gentlemen are some of the scariest ‘Buffy’ villains and, although I think there are some episodes slightly more deserving, this episode was definitely worthy of its Emmy nomination.

Who Are You?

I’m generally not a fan of body swap plots, like memory loss they are overdone in TV. But like the latter, ‘Buffy’ manages to do it very successfully. I wasn’t the biggest Faith fan in Season 3, but I do like her here (although she’s evil) and in the scene where she is punching Buffy in her body we really get some great character development for the character. We also get Willow and Tara’s circle spell which is a great scene, and it demonstrates just how well Willow and Tara’s relationship was done (especially compared to Willow and Kennedy in ‘Touched’).

Restless

This is the one episode of ‘Buffy’ which I find it really hard to just sit back and enjoy as it is making me constantly think about what each dream shows about each character’s psyche, and rightly so. I love it when TV shows make me think, and it is fantastic how we are able to get such an insight into the thoughts, opinions, worries etc of the 4 main characters. It’s especially rewarding to watch it after seeing the rest of the season and being able to see both the hints in the dreams for what’s to come and the characters’ fears which do or do not come true.

Quarks said...

The Body

Rightly so, this episode is a staple of any list of the top ten ‘Buffy’ episodes and I would argue is probably the best episode of the show. This was an episode I had heard about before, and I was stupid enough to think that it probably couldn’t be as good as all the hype. I was undeniably wrong. Every second of this episode is incredibly powerful, and the lack of music only serves to make it more so. It’s such an honest episode about grief and how people deal with it. It also contains, in my opinion, the best scene of the series: Anya’s speech. If ‘Lovers Walk’ and ‘Doppelgangland’ show that this show can do comedy, this episode shows just how well it can also do emotion.

The Gift

Other than ‘Restless’, which is quite an anomalous season finale, ‘The Gift’ is the only season finale I have included on this list and in my opinion is the best. All the characters play their parts. There is the perfect combination of humour, emotion and plot. The acting is superb. And the final scene is one of the most emotional scenes in the whole of ‘Buffy’, even for somebody who generally cares more for the other characters than Buffy herself. An incredible end to an incredible season.

Once More, with Feeling

You would think after ‘The Body’ I would have learnt my lesson: never doubt ‘Buffy’. Like ‘The Body’ I had heard about this episode before. Like ‘The Body’ I didn’t think it could be as good as the hype. And like ‘The Body’ it was even better. What is great about this episode is that it is not just a stand-alone funny episode with great songs. It does actually serve to further the plot, and the character development. The songs are all fantastic, my personal favourite being ‘Standing’ which Giles sings. It is certainly worthy of all the hype surrounding it.

Tabula Rasa

As I mentioned for ‘Who Are You?’ I generally hate memory loss plots as they are done by almost every show on TV. However, as usual, ‘Buffy’ is different and I really enjoy this episode. Perhaps it is because they all lose their memory at once, but the memory loss didn’t bother me here. The characters are hilarious while they have the memory loss, particularly Anya, and it is interesting to see certain elements of their characters shine through. But what makes this episode really great is that the humour is bookended by some serious emotion, and the final scene set to “Goodbye to you” is one of my favourite scenes in the series.

Help

This episode isn’t a common episode in ‘Top Ten’ lists, but is one of my favourites. This is one of the last episodes in the series in which we get some real Scoobiage, with the gang working together to try and save Cassie. It has the right combination of humour and emotion, and Cassie is a really likeable character. There’s also the fantastic scene of Willow visiting Tara’s grave, and I think that what happens at the end of this episode resounds through the rest of the season in the way the characters act.

Conversations with Dead People

People always cite ‘Hush’, ‘The Body’ and ‘Once More, with Feeling’ as the most original episodes of ‘Buffy’, and rightly so, but I feel that ‘Conversations with Dead People’ is deserving of being in this list as well. During this episode, none of the main characters communicate with each other, and the entire action takes place in five segments. It allows the show to showcase the best of ‘Buffy’: the humour, the emotion, the dialogue, the acting etc. and all the segments end with a fantastic shock. This is definitely one of the best episodes in ‘Buffy’.

It took me a long time to narrow it down to just these episodes, and here are some ‘honourable mentions’ which I almost included:
All the finales
Nightmares
Surprise/Innocence
I Only Have Eyes for You
Enemies
The Prom
Pangs
New Moon Rising
Blood Ties
Tough Love
Dead Things
Older and Far Away
Selfless
Potential
Storyteller
Dirty Girls

Quarks said...

To finish off my comment on ‘Buffy’ as a whole, I wanted to talk a little about the main characters (I’ve missed out Angel and Cordy as they are better talked about in relation to ‘Angel’ and Riley because, well, he’s Riley):

Buffy

Despite being the main character (or perhaps because), Buffy isn’t a character who I care about as deeply as some of the others. That’s not to say I don’t care about her, the scene at the end of ‘The Gift’ gets me every time, but I just don’t feel for her like I do for some of the other characters. I do, however, admire Buffy a lot, especially in the early seasons. She accepts her destiny (most of the time) as someone who had to protect the world from evil, but she doesn’t let that stop her from trying to live a normal life. She has good friends, she goes to school, she cares about her family, and she refuses to become the archetypal Slayer. One of the problems I have with her in the later seasons is that she turns her back on that and acts as though she has always been alone.

Willow

Willow is the character who I instantly fell in love with as soon as I started watching the show, as she is probably the character I most identify with, and she has remained my favourite all the way through. She is the character who has probably grown the most throughout the series, going from being shy and slightly geeky to much more confident and comfortable with who she is. I wouldn’t say that it has all been positive growth, which is clear from the events of Season 6, but she has always had a good heart. Her relationship with Tara is one of the most beautiful on TV, and although after Tara’s death she is never quite the same, she will probably always be my most loved character on the show.

Xander

While my opinion of Buffy has in many ways gone down as the series has progressed, my opinion of Xander has taken the opposite path. In the early seasons I found Xander incredibly annoying. He was constantly berating Buffy and the others for any mistakes they made, and yet always making more himself. Even when he had a girlfriend he was still crushing on Buffy and complaining about her boyfriends. Sure he had moments of greatness, but he was always the most immature of the gang. Fortunately, as he matured over the seasons he became a great character. I always cite ‘The Replacement’ as the moment when Xander changed for me, as he went from being a ‘loser’ to somebody who realised that he did have all these good qualities, and he became an adult. From that moment on he went from being an annoying guy with some moments of greatness to a great guy with some moments of annoyingness who was able to save the world.

Giles

Although he is considered one of the main 4 characters in the show, Giles has always been the character who spends the most time out of the limelight. He’s the Watcher, the teacher, who becomes like a parent to Buffy and all the Scoobies, but who doesn’t get as much focus as they do because he is the father who has to guide them through life. And we love him for it. We find out that he has a somewhat dark past (it’s ‘Buffy’, who doesn’t?) but that never changes our opinion of him. Giles has always been one of my favourite characters on the show and, although like Buffy he becomes a bit too serious in Season 7, his relationship with Buffy and the other Scoobies is one of my favourite relationships on the show.

Quarks said...

Dawn

I know that many people don’t like Dawn, but as the series progresses she becomes one of my favourite characters on the show. Like Buffy, Dawn has been through a lot in her lifetime, but while this causes Buffy to pull away from the people she cares about, it causes Dawn to cling on tighter. At times it feels annoying (but understandable) but it shows just how much she feels that the Scoobies are her family, even if most of their memories in relation to her are false. Dawn is one of the few characters who I like most in Season 7, where we see that she is a quite intelligent young woman and she becomes a full member of the Scoobies, and we can see most clearly in ‘Potential’ just how much she has grown from the girl who screamed “get out, get out, GET OUT!”

Anya

(In Anya’s case this is more of an obituary *sob*). Anya is probably the most hilarious character in the Buffyverse, and she is one of my favourites. However, although it plays a part, her humour is not the only reason why I like her so much. Her growth is much more subtle than Spike, Willow or the others, but she definitely develops throughout the series. She falls in love with Xander and becomes friends with the Scoobies, and that allows her to truly appreciate what being a human is all about. She may seem like she doesn’t care about anything except money (and sex), but in episodes like ‘The Body’, ‘Hell’s Bells’ and ‘Selfless’ we can see that her feelings go much deeper than they appear. RIP Anya.

Spike

As I said earlier, in relation to Spike I am constantly undecided as to whether I prefer him pre- or post-chip/Buffy. I certainly found him funnier in the earlier seasons and much ‘cooler’ in a way, like I found Angelus. But in the later seasons I feel for him much more, although like with Buffy I don’t feel for him to the same extent I do for the others. He is the character with the most obvious character development, and perhaps the most obvious motives for it, but it is still very interesting to watch how he grows through the seasons.

Oz/Tara

I’ve put these two both together because neither are really ‘big’ enough for one each, but I did want to say something briefly about them both, and both characters are really centred around Willow. I love both these characters; I prefer Willow’s relationship with Tara than with Oz, but if Willow wasn’t in the show I would probably prefer Oz on his own to Tara on her own. Oz is an awesome character, with some amazing lines, and even though he generally doesn’t show his emotions much it just makes it more significant when he does. Tara is a character who is almost as adorable as Willow, and Willow really brings out the best in her. Tara goes from being an incredibly shy girl who thought she was a demon to a strong woman with lots of friends, and her death has to be the most devastating in the whole series.

I apologise for going on quite a lot here: I just couldn’t bear to let ‘Buffy’ go without really saying goodbye to it (not that I won’t end up watching many of these episodes over again). I’ll be back next week for ‘Angel’ Season 5, and I love ‘Angel’ and this season, but it’s not quite the same as ‘Buffy’. Still, we have the comics and I am trying to keep up-to-date with Season 9, so ‘Buffy’ isn’t over by a long shot, even if the rewatch is.

Thank you Nikki for introducing me to this amazing show.

Eric Fingerman said...

Thank you Nikki for having this Buffy rewatch. I remember soon after Lost ended, I was looking for a show to take my mind off of my sadness that Lost was over. I started watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer because I had remembered you mentioning the show in your blog and I thought I would give it a shot. I couldn't get through the first season so I gave it up.

Then I heard you were doing this rewatch and I tried again and you told me that if I could just get through the first season and half of the second season, then I would see how great this show is. You were so right!!

I am so glad I listened to you and I had this rewatch blog to read along with. Now Buffy is one of my favorite shows of all time. The writing and deeply drawn characters is one of the best things about this show.

Thank you so much for doing this rewatch and for getting me to appreciate this amazing show.

p.s. Nikki, I would love to know what is your favorite series finale? Mine is Lost but then again Lost is my favorite show of all time. Breaking Bad is my favorite show that is currently on. Is your favorite series finale Lost's as well?

Suzanne said...

Nikki, I can’t thank you enough for developing, hosting, and writing your insightful reviews for this rewatch. I also thank you for your wonderful books. Having Bite Me as my episode guide as I rewatched each of these episodes over the last year was a joy. I will cherish that book as well as your Lost books for a long time to come. You have also inspired me to check out some of the very interesting books you introduced to us with your guest writers each week. What a phenomenal group of people you have assembled here! This rewatch was really special, and I am so grateful to have been a part of it.

I also loved your analysis of the Chosen, Nikki. I, too, can see some of the practical flaws in the ending, but I love the idea of it more than I can say. I find the theme of female strength to be incredibly important in this show, especially considering that time it first aired and how she was a breakthrough character (as you point out so beautifully in your “montage”). Having been a young girl who didn’t feel the power that Buffy and Willow (eventually) get to feel on this show until much later in my life, I imagine that seeing this show could be life-changing for a young girl and may have been at the time it aired.

I certainly agree with you, Nikki, that this show changed the landscape of television. Could we have a female Starbuck (Battle Star Galactica) without Buffy? As you point out, we certainly couldn’t have had Kate or even Sun without Buffy. And, Veronica Mars is a direct descendent of Buffy for sure.

Suzanne said...

Here are some final thoughts on Chosen: I cried this time around when Anna died. It surprised me with how quickly it came (and went) the first time around, so I didn’t cry then. On rewatch, I really grew to adore her character, so the tears flowed. (I still have a bit of resentment towards Anna for the “your just lucky” speech to Buffy, but I can let it go and attribute it to her upset over the way Buffy was ready to kill her). Andrew’s bravery really got to me this time, too, and I was so glad that he made it to the end and became a real Scooby! If only Jonathon could have done so.

As for Spike’s death, I will always regret knowing that he would be on Angel when watching this both the first time and all the times after. I can’t even imagine how I would have felt if I hadn’t known that and if I thought he had really died. Spike is my absolute favorite character, so his death would have “slayed” me.

I wish they could have produced a two-hour final like Lost did. I think that some of the scenes were more rushed than they would have been if it had been longer and that might be why some people feel that the Scoobies didn't get enough time to say their "goodbyes." A longer finale would have helped. I like Chosen as well as the Lost finale, but I think it would have really been as strong as Lost's was if it had been as long. I am glad this was the series final rather than "The Gift," though. First of all, I am so glad to have had two more seasons of Buffy after The Gift. Secondly, I like that Buffy gets to end on a positive note with her smile and the sense that she finally figured out the right thing for her to do (her way rather than the way others wanted to force her into) instead of ending with her having to die to save the world.

Suzanne said...

@Quarks, thanks for your long comments this week. I, too, don’t want this rewatch to end and feel like today is a day to honor it. Your long comments really did that for me, and I enjoyed reading every last word you wrote!

I find it interesting that you, like many people whose comments I have read over the years, don’t like Buffy as well as many of the other characters. I can see how that could be, but I have to say I adore Buffy. She is a complex woman, which is so rare on television. She can be funny, adorable, sexy, dismissive, depressed, ecstatic, grumpy, witty, smart, intuitive, childish, mature, cunning, clever, or even mean. How many female characters in television or film have as many facets as Buffy? I really can’t think of many if any.

Sarah Michelle Gellar is phenomenal in this role, too, something I never would have imagined as someone who held disdain for her popularity at the time the show actually aired. At that time, I was against the show because of its name and the bad reputation of the movie (foolish) and only saw SMG as a teen idol who couldn’t possibly be a good actress. Boy, was I wrong! She is amazing (not so much in Ringer, by the way, but I think it is the bad material she gets). Of course, I love the others, too, Spike, Xander, Willow, Giles, Anya, Oz, Cordelia, Tara, Andrew, Jonathon, Angel, Drucilla, Wesley, The Mayor, Faith, Glory, Clem, and even Dawn and Riley at times (and the list could go on and on), but Buffy is my gal!

Efthymia said...

I'm incredibly sad the Great Buffy Rewatch is over...
As I've often claimed ever since LOST ended, what I miss most about it is the community the fans created and that I was proud to be a part of (even if I was mostly a silent one). And it didn't take long for the Great Nikki Stafford to create another community for another beloved show of mine, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which in a way was more important than the LOST one, because I had many people in my life who watched LOST and I could obsess over and overanalyze it with them, but I was all alone in my BtVS obsession...
And it was a community just as amazing, where people could learn and discover and peacefully disagree and try to understand different perspectives (and drool over cast memebers) without ever being judged.
And now it's over :(

I knew when I first watched BtVS (about 3 years before this Great Rewatch) that it was an important show, but I discovered just how important progressively, as my interested peaked and I started looking up every possible information around it and its key figures. To see many people whose books I had read or intended to buy not only contribute but often actually COMMUNICATE with us simple viewers (me simple viewer, at least) meant considerable geeking out for my part! So, thank you all for that. And yes, Nikki, you are one of these people.

I'll miss everything about this!

Efthymia said...

On to the episode.

Likes:
-The cookie-dough speech. I didn't expect it being disliked by people; I can't really see why yet (maybe I need to re-read those comments more carefully). I personally really like it because I think it's great that Buffy realises that there's nothing wrong with her and that she's simply too young/immature (choose your word of preference) to settle down with anyone. Very often in films and TV we are bombarded with teenagers declaring undying love and having found the One (Buffy was often like that with Angel in the early seasons), which feels silly and unrealistic (yeah, I know, this is absurd coming from a person who loves reading/watching things full of magical and supernatural elements, but whatever).
-"This isn't about wishes; this is about choices." Yee-hee! One more for Team Free Will!
-That it all ends in the High-school, where it all began.

Complaints:
-Anthony Stewart Head should have been in the opening credits for the final epsiode.
-Anya gone, Spike gone, one of the only two Potentials I liked (Amanda) gone... Why, Joss Whedon, why?

Dusk said...

Of course, the first real snow storm of the year comes and knocks out my Internet on Finale night.

First, mega-thank you to Nikki and all other contributors and commenter's for making it so much fun.

I liked the empowerment message, and Buffy's last facial expression.

The circle shot and White Willow.

Buffy rising up again.

Even though Faith/Robin creeps me out, I like his "surprise"

Andrew's battle stance when he's first attacked=Me.

I like most of the soundtrack.

Even Angel struggles with the cookie dough, I think that was nod to people who would hate it.

I'll post a separate comment on Anya's death, but if you look at Xander's face in the final shot, you can see he's miserable.

I do like the finale, but I've had a lot of time to think about it's flaws, so sorry if my negatives look longer.

Dislikes:
I know you can't logically defeat "Evil" as Angel has discovered, but the First just getting "scrunched" isn't very satisfying. It's one of my issues with it as the Big Bad.

Also, the mental torment scenes aren't as effective as the Smoke Monster's and I think the writers knew they need a tangible villain so they added in Caleb. When you can't get most of your past actors, haunting scenes aren't as effective.

Stupid press release about Spike, I also knew he'd live on when I first watched, but his send-off here looked really epic, it would have been great if nobody knew.

The battle scenes rely too much on music to hold your attention, their is no satisfaction in seeing the Ubervamps fall because they all look the same and were lead to believe there was no limit to them, we actually have no idea how the good guys are really progressing, plus the question of how to take down the First hangs over it all. At least in Showtime their was just one specific baddie.

Tiny mount of sympathy for Amanda, but other then that we aren't really tied to most of the good guys at risk either.

Downfall of DVDs, the epic moments music constantly played in the Menu screens so it's nothing special to hear it.

It also irritates me to no end that Willow & Kennedy get to be the only "happy" couple at the end.

Dusk said...

Yes, I agree with Anya's death being quick but what also bugs me is I feel it was done also because their was no other viable option for a death. And having everyone survive would have been too perfect.

Joss said he couldn't bring himself to kill any of the Core Four. In case anyone doesn't know, Xander was going to die in Dirty Girls and be the First from then on, but they changed it to just an eye after they decided they couldn't handle such a major death properly this late in the show.

Killing Andrew would have been too predictable.

Robin & the Potentials are too new for us to really feel sad if they died.

Late in the season their was rumours of a Faith/Spike spin-off floating around I believe, so it was unlikely she would die. And killing Faith would kind of put a wrinkle in the empowerment message, and would ruin the "Principal Survives" bit.

And despite the fan dislike, Dawn is Buffy's purest love, last major family member, and to every single one of the Scoobies, she's been there since the beginning as well. I doubt Buffy would have smiled at the end just finding out Dawn died.

That just left Anya.

Also, I feel Xander should have been paired with Anya, and then we would have at least seen a bigger reaction, maybe, a last second goodbye if the death wound was different.

And why does Andrew be the one to tell him? If anyone it should have been Giles. He opened a business with Anya, views Willow and Buffy like daughters, has been their from the start like Xander. I don't think he sees Xander as a son, but does care about him, and would have been a better person to deliver the news.

One last point on this (yes this is my sore point of the finale): The battle pairs in the school make no sense. Andrew should have been with Wood. Robin has fought vamps and demons alone most of his life probably protecting cowering people a number of times too, which is basically how he'd be fighting with Andrew.

Giles would of course make protecting Dawn a priority, Dawn would obviously trust him, and that would leave Xander and Anya how know enough about each other to fight effectively.

Quarks said...

@Dusk: I read somewhere (I think it was on the Buffy Wiki) that the original plan was for Xander to die in 'Chosen' in a similar way to how Anya does, with Dawn playing the role of Andrew. But Emma Caulfield didn't want to be tied to anything 'Buffy' in the future, so they decided to kill her off instead.

Dusk said...

Really? How would any of them be tied to Buffy anymore? They should know by the time of filming the final episode this was it. Sure, theirs still Angel, but they can't force actors to appear over there.

Quarks said...

@Dusk: I don't know for certain. Perhaps this was decided before it was known this was the final season, or that there wouldn't be some kind of film like with 'Firefly' and 'Serenity'. Or perhaps it was just that, on the off chance there would be a new season or something similar, Nicholas Brendon would be more willing to return than Emma Caulfield. Or perhaps the Wiki is just wrong.

Here's what the Buffy Wiki says: "Xander was originally supposed to be the character that died in Chosen. He was suppose to die saving Dawn. Since Emma Caulfield didn't want to be tied to doing any future Buffy projects the script was changed so that Anya would die. The script is the same except the parts at the end written for Anya and Xander were switched as well as the parts for Andrew and Dawn."

http://buffy.wikia.com/wiki/Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer

Dusk said...

Hm. Wikipedia's "Dirty Girls" page says:
"Also in the commentary, it is revealed that one possible outcome in this episode would have been the death of Xander (at Caleb's hands) only to return as a voice for the First."

The Buffy Wiki is okay, but I go there sometimes and it's not always, prompt.

Suzanne said...

@Dusk, I found a lot of your points intriguing in terms of who should have been paired with whom in the final battle. I agree that it seems to be a bit of a waste to pair two strong fighters, Giles and Robin together. However, I seem to remember there being some justification in terms of the most likely path the Ubervamps would be likely to pick. I, too, would have loved to have seen a final scene with Xander and Anya, making their pairing in the end desirable. However, I see a lot of good reason for pairing her with Andrew given some of their scenes during the final arc.

Remember the way that Anya played bad cop to Xander's good cop when they first caught Andrew, and she scared the living daylights out of him. As time progressed during the season, though, we continually saw those two paired together and gradually Anya softened towards him a bit. Their last scene before the end in the hospital where they end up wheelchair fighting is incredibly touching. I believe they bonded in that scene, more than Anya had with any other character besides Xander.

Since it seems to make sense to me for Xander to be paired with Dawn since Buffy had already said that she trusts Xander more than anyone (or something to that effect) and since she doesn't trust Giles as much anymore (remember he was willing to sacrifice Dawn in Season 5 and was more than ready to sacrifice Spike in this season), I can see her putting Dawn in Xander's care. I also think that Xander and Dawn have a special bond.

As much as I hated to see Anya die, I think it made the most sense to have it be her since she really showed how much she had matured by choosing to stay and this allowed her to have redemption for all of her past evil by dying a hero, much in the same way that Spike is redeemed in his ending. Those two characters and Willow needed redemption and all three got it through their ending actions.

Dusk said...

@Suzanne True, Andrew and Anya have built a bond, but Idoubt it's as stong as the years with the others, opening a shop with Giles, bringing back Buffy, being the only one who could see Willow after she went Dark.

Also, another logic hole, why didn't they just do Dawn's ceiling trick all along the school?

And Buffy herself recently said to Giles she would now have given up Dawn. (Doesn't hold true to me, plus she tried to keep her out of danger) Also Buffy trusted Robin enough to join in, and I suspect sees his point againist Spike deep down. Also Robin too has a unique bond with Buffy, however small.

Blam said...


I'm still not all the way through the comments, but I don't want to wait any longer before I join in the conversation. Angel first, this time, since its episode of this Rewatch week aired (and took place) before Buffy's. Hmm... What do I quote from here?

Angel 4.22 "Home"

I think of this season finale as kind-of in the "Restless" vein — it's a coda to the big storyline that just concluded, informed by the aftermath but also a thing unto itself. Here, though, the status quo of the group is less reinforced than redefined, although we do follow each member on his/her own journey until everyone converges. Plus, y'know, it's not a weird collective dream.

Lilah: "It's okay, lover; I never felt a thing."
Wesley: "I'm sure that's true."

Gunn: "You wanna give us your evil law firm? We ain't lawyers."
Fred: "Or evil. Currently."

Angel: "She was eating people."
Lilah: "They knew what they were gettin' into."
Lorne: "Her stomach?!?"

Fred: "We ended a nefarious global-domination scheme, not world peace. Right?"

Lilah: "Watch the head... Comes off kinda easy..."

How radical this episode was, and how awesome most of the next season!

Blam said...


Buffy 7.22 "Chosen"

Buffy: "He had to split."

Way funnier than that line (which is really more tacky but fun Arnold Schwarzenneger dialogue than Buffy dialogue) is Buffy cracking herself up over saying it.

My Top Ten Rejected Lines for Buffy and/or Angel in That Scene:
10. "Scythe happens!"
9. "I have half a mind to... oh, wait, that's Caleb."
8. "Now that we've eliminated the middleman by, y'know, eliminating his middle..."
7. "That's a nasty way to go no matter how you slice it."
6. "I'd hate to have to make that spare."
5. "Hey, Caleb: Pick a side!"
4. "Did somebody yell 'cut'?"
3. "Bless me, Father, for I have twinned."
2. "Ah, nuts!"
And the Number One Rejected Line for Buffy and/or Angel in That Scene...
1. "Okay, 'First Evil'... The ball's in your court."

...

Sorry...

Angel: "Y'know, I started it. The whole having a soul? Before it was... all the cool new thing..."

Giles: "Caleb?"
Buffy: "I cut him in half."
Willow: "All right!"
Anya: "He had it coming."
Xander: "Hey! Party in my eye socket and everyone's invited! {pause} Sometimes I shouldn't say words."

Willow: "This goes beyond anything I've ever done. It's a total loss of control — and not in a nice, wholesome 'my girlfriend has a pierced tongue' kinda way."

Giles: "Could it possibly get uglier? I used to be a highly respected Watcher and now I'm a wounded dwarf with the mystical strength of a doily."

My favorite moment in the montage is always that little girl at bat in the softball game.

And my favorite moment in the whole episode is always...

Willow: (giggling) "That was nifty."

I hear Sunnydale is gorges this time of year. Or at least one big one... And now all the newbies who thought maybe we were being a little unfair when talking about how Sunnydale's geography kept changing get the full scope of what we meant. The waterfront is where now?

The little Mutant Enemy guy looked at me!

Joss Whedon (commentary): "Writing a second final episode of Buffy was, I'll say, much harder than writing the first."

I'm sure that that's true... and it's even harder to watch it.

How great is it for the first-timers that you can now go back to check out commentaries and featurettes, by the way?

VW: throban — 1. An interdiction against tossing things. 2. Josh Groban's nickname in the Hollywood Pick-Up Basketball League.

Blam said...


I don't consider myself a 'shipper (and I absolutely refuse to use the mashed-up name of either camp). But.... I will say that I'm among those who roots for Buffy & Angel when they're together and Buffy & Spike when they are.

To me it pretty much breaks down like this: Even though I don't feel the Buffy/Angel soulmateyness most of the time the way I feel the Buffy/Spike passion, I've traditionally bought into the notion that Buffy and Angel are meant to be together because that's what we're told — not from the Powers That Be in-story, but from those who crafted the mythology early on; you couldn't want Buffy to be with Angel, with their creepy 250-year age difference and everything he did as Angelus, if the writers didn't push the fated, tragic, star-crossed aspect of their relationship. Spike is at once more mature and more adolescent than Angel — has in fact a lot of the broody, mopey, wounded-puppy qualities he laughs at in Angel — and that struggle to escape his arrested development matches up with Buffy strangely well.

Angel is a champion partly because he was cursed with his soul and thus in a nearly unique position to use his powers for good, partly because does make that choice (with some outside prompting at various points in his ensouled life) instead of just wallow. Yet there's something extremely compelling about Spike actually choosing to endure terrible trials to regain his soul for Buffy's sake and persevere through an excruciating aftermath he didn't expect — not to have her love him, necessarily, just to be a man on whom she could depend. "I Will Remember You" on Angel is perhaps when the Buffy/Angel romance seems the most believable, and course it not only ends up being nothing more than another burden Angel must bear but it doesn't even happen on Buffy. The Buffy/Spike pairing, in contrast to the constant wild Buffy/Angel sex in that episode and also the constant wild Buffy/Spike sex in Buffy Season Six, is made most believable and rootable-for through the sweet shelter-from-the-storm cuddling towards the end of Season 7 and the dialogue in "Chosen".

VW: fjweed — Seaweed that grows near fjords.

Blam said...


Nikki: I really hate the cookie dough speech.

I know what you mean about it coming off as being a little too precious. Frankly, I remembered the scene being better. It does get an amusing callback next season in Angel during a scene that I otherwise loathe, although that loathing is ameliorated somewhat by a reference to the scene early in the Season Eight comics. [No spoilers!]

Nikki: Spike punching a bag that has a caricature of Angel drawn on it

That's one of my favorite bits, made even better by Joss's remarks in the commentary.

Nikki: Spike proves himself to be the worthiest of friends when he channels the sunlight through his amulet and emolliates himself in the process.

Proof that editors are human too... You conflated "immolate" (sets on fire) with "emollient" (soothing or softening the skin — !!!).

The Question Mark: R.I.P. Anya...you were my demon crush till the end.

Ha! I have a friend who feels the same way. The shot of Anya's bobbing torso in the opening credits pretty much puts him through puberty again every time. One of the great things about Buffy is not just its display of female empowerment but female variety — and, indeed, even variety in female empowerment, be it mystical, physical, intellectual, book-smart, street-smart, you name it. We had skinny women, buxom women, indeed a voluptuous woman apparently taken to task on the Internet for basically being the size and shape of many normal, healthy women. I'm more of a Fred or Willow guy myself, but I can certainly see the appeal of Tara, Anya, and of course Buffy; heck, I've admired Giles' suave sexiness since his days on the Taster's Choice commercials (Nescafé for those abroad).

Colleen: [W]hen does the X-Files rewatch start?

That would be so much fun, especially with this crowd, but I really need a year off.

Colleen: Interesting that David, Sarah and Nathan are now all on crime related shows. Or is that all there is with dramas? Crime and doctors.

Or both (Body of Proof)... I stopped watching Ringer a few episodes in, but David and Nathan both have solid shows of which their respective charisma is a big part of what keeps me tuning in. While I'm certainly not against a good crime procedural, I suspect that my viewing list of dramas is weighted towards so-called "genre" shows in part because they either approach the crime procedural from a more outré perspective (Fringe, Supernatural) or superimpose an eerie milieu — just to keep with the highfalutin Français — on domestic soap opera (The Walking Dead, The Vampire Diaries). And characterization within the mythology is as crucial as the mythology itself, as is inventive storytelling (all of the above, plus The Good Wife, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Game of Thrones, even the alternating infectious and insanely eye-rolling Glee). I'm also watching what for me is a record number of half-hour comedies in my adult life. So when I say I need a year off from rewatches, finishing off Angel aside, part of the reason why is that I'm behind on almost all of that. 8^)

VW: predly — Deadly in a predatory kind of way. "I think that dude over there is a vampire. I'm getting a predly vibe off him."

Blam said...


Colleen: Siobhan is the First! That explains it all!

Aaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!

Colleen: When Spike said he was drowning in footwear, some thought it meant he would Shan Shoe. Or it could be a reference to getting his sole.

Or it could mean that he's a heel — a Spiked heel, at that. Or maybe he likes to use tongue. Or he's fond of peach cobbler. Or he wants to vacation in Piedmont.

Colleen: I get the metaphor, but Buffy tells the girls to make their choice - right before taking it away.

Well, I suppose that moving from a dictatorship to majority rules is progress — a majority of those present, anyway, who granted weren't exactly elected to represent the girls all over the world who have no clue of what happening, so it ain't exactly a representative democracy yet.

Did you take the choice to mean "Who's in favor of activating every potential Slayer?" or "We are doing this. Who's gonna stay and fight?"?

Colleen: No one believed Cassandra's prophecies.

Uh... Hence the name. 8^)

Lisa(UFN): What In the heck is a Rewarch? Blam, that one's for you.

Ha! Thanks, Lisa... I think that a Rewarch is just a Rewatch in the parts of the US where folks pronounce it that way. I've heard people talk who'd do the warsh while warching the Rewarch in Warshington. [PS: Not to rush you, but we've been on further notice for, I think, years now.]

Page48: check that Faith, some of you made it

I think that Robin meant "we" in sense of "the human race" — or "we" meaning the group of them and thus the wider world at large surviving — and second of all I think that Faith making it qualifies in her mind as everyone important having made it.

Quarks: As I am watching the Region 2 DVDs of ‘Buffy’, I see the ‘Previously on Buffy…’ before every episode and I was slightly disappointed to see that it was just a normal one for this episode, unlike the awesome one we had before ‘The Gift’.

Ditto about the disappointment on that count... I subscribed to Hulu Plus a month ago (since Netflix bifurcated and I chose only the DVD program) to catch up on some recent TV and as a fringe benefit get to see the "previously on" spots for this season of Buffy. For some reason I remembered the one for the finale being more comprehensive. Luckily I was made aware that the final disc in the Season 7 DVD set for Region 1 has the series-to-date "previously on" montage for Episode 5.22 "The Gift" as a hidden "Easter egg" — you click to the left of the Featurettes menu, where a Buffy-logo B shows up, then click that — and watched it as an apéritif to all the other DVD post-finale extras.

Quarks: I think ‘The Gift’ is a better episode, even a better season finale, but I think ‘Chosen’ is better as a series finale. It has all the things which I think a finale should have: references to earlier seasons and episodes (especially the first episode), character deaths, emotion, and a final scene which fits with the ideas of the series.

Agreed. On the "better episode" score, by the way, Joss Whedon in a DVD featurette counts "The Gift" but not "Chosen" among his 10 favorite episodes. I suppose it's not a spoiler to reveal them; still, instead of repeating them here I'll link to the list elsewhere for those not watching on DVD.

VW: esseuh — Jacob and the Man in Black's momma vainly trying to finally give the son who stabbed her a name with her dying breath.

Marebabe said...

Hey, Blam, wonderful as always. I loved every bit, but I’ll just single out two of my particular faves. Your Letterman-style Top Ten Rejected Lines (complete with a drum roll in my head), and “Sunnydale is gorges.”

It’s funny, if this group ever does a rewatch of X-Files, I’ll be a total n00b on that, too!

Suzanne said...

Blam, as always I really enjoyed your comments and your listing of some great quotations from the episodes. Have fun while taking some time off from rewatches to watch some of the great shows you mentioned in your post, but I sure hope to see you and the others that have been here all year again someday on another rewatch. I am up for either Firefly or X-Files.

Lastly, I really liked your analysis of the Buffy/Angel and Buffy/Spike dynamic. I agree -- I tend to like her with either one depending on the circumstances. The show does seem to push Buffy/Angel, though, especially on Buffy. For some reason, I didn't feel that as much on Angel, especially at the beginning of Season 4 Angel when he was searching for Cordy. That always disappointed me a bit while watching Angel given how they handled Buffy/Angel so well early on in the "I Will Remember You" episode.

Blam said...


Quarks: Alyson Hannigan is probably the best actress in the show ... When Willow and Vamp Willow pretend to be each other it is comedy gold, and this is the Willow which I start to miss in the later seasons.

I'm with you on all points there.

Quarks: What is great about ["OMWF"] is that it is not just a stand-alone funny episode with great songs. It does actually serve to further the plot, and the character development.

I've said this before, I think maybe in talking about "Superstar", but Buffy did a stellar and surprising job of having even (sometimes especially) its most creative episodes include significant developments of plot and character — "Hush" to an extent, certainly "OMWF", "Superstar", "The Wish", and of course "The Body".

VW: fiersh — Drunk Christian Siriano's catchphrase.

Blam said...


Dusk — I appreciate your rundown of who "couldn't" die and why, as well as your arguments for pairings at the climactic battle in "Chosen" that made more sense.

At the time the finale was approaching I recall hearing about the possible Faith spinoff and was actually hoping that it was a red herring covering up the fact that she'd bite it in the finale. The more I think about it, the more I really wouldn't have minded Giles having a heroic and essential death in "Chosen" because, comics aside, the series really was over; it would've been acceptable to me in a way that losing Willow, Xander, or Dawn wouldn't have — it would've been sad, yes, but it would've been a measure of closure that served as another signal of Buffy's maturation. Joss has said that it wasn't just not wanting to kill off his babies but wanting to have a victory at the end that kept him from killing off the Core Four Plus One More (I've always loved the idea of Dawn being in the proposed set-during-earlier-seasons animated series) and I think that he's right. Although having Xander sacrifice himself at the very end like he was willing to do without anybody even knowing in "The Zeppo" would have felt satisfying, to the viewers and probably even Xander himself, being even more tragic after his speech to Dawn in "Potential".

VW: bintify — Talk about women like Spike does.

Blam said...


Dusk: How would any of them be tied to Buffy anymore? They should know by the time of filming the final episode this was it. Sure, theirs still Angel, but they can't force actors to appear over there.

In the run-up to the Buffy finale, during, and after, especially when Angel ended, I recall reading a lot of talk about possible TV movies — most likely for satellite characters like Spike or Faith, each time including updates on some of the rest of the cast. Of course the contract negotiations would begin anew, as the finales were the finales, but there was definitely a hope if not a belief on the part of certain people who were not Sarah Michelle Gellar that there would be more of these actors as these characters.

Suzanne: I sure hope to see you and the others that have been here all year again someday on another rewatch.

I'm planning to do Firefly this coming year, probably not 'til the summer, along with Serenity (the spinoff movie, which I've never seen), partly to psyche me up for watching all of Dollhouse. I had terribly mixed reactions to the first season of Dollhouse, which I kept falling behind on and had to convince myself to catch up with, then I only got a couple of episodes into the second season before falling behind and calling it quits.

2012 is something of a Year of Joss Whedon Resurgence, with both The Avengers and his low-budget, surreptitiously filmed Much Ado about Nothing hitting theaters in 2012, as well as the belated release of the Whedon-produced Cabin in the Woods, so it seems only fitting to continue with a revisitation of his oeuvre to date. I also haven't heard the musical commentary to Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog yet, despite the DVD burning a hole on my shelves since my last birthday, so that'll be a treat.

As far as the next rewatch here, while of course it's up to Nikki I'd look forward to either The X-Files or Alias — the former because it's so good (until it isn't so much) and I haven't seen it since it went off the air, despite being very into it at the time, and the latter because it would give us a chance to bump sales of Nikki's episode guides a little bit and I happen to know that she somehow hasn't seen the much-maligned last season (even though it has Amy Acker and, by the way, I liked what it did except for a couple of mythology points at the end).

But as I said I'm not going to commit to an organized Rewatch of anything until I'm caught up on my current TV and I'm more comfortable with how some personal projects are going.

I'll conclude for now with my own stab at ranking the seasons of Buffy, although the middle few in the list are pretty tightly bunched together:

3 5 2 6 7 1 4

If that turns out to be anyone phone number, I apologize in advance.

VW: thessoph — A wise person from Northeastern Greece.

Chrisrmt said...

Hello GBR/W peeps! I have been a non-commenting follower of the re/watch throughout the year - as a first-time viewer of Buffy and Angel. I just want to express my appreciation and thanks to Nikki, the contributers and the weekly commenters for sharing your enthusiasm, insights, and observations. You have all enhanced my experience of these wonderful series.

A friend of mine who is currently in the midst of a Buffy re-watch shared a fun fact with me yesterday which I had to share with you all: "in Buffy Season 4, Episode 4 the Frat House shown at about 8mins into the episode I think is the same house from American Horror Story...exterior looks like it to me anyways...". I've checked it out and compared, and it does indeed appear to be the same house!

Witness Aria said...

For anyone still checking the comments...
This is a funny fan video of Buffy and Angel outtakes that doesn't go past Angel S4, so it's perfect for where we are now. I felt the need to revisit it and thought I should share.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDJkxYUnQd8

EvaHart said...

Beautiful recap, and a fantastic end to the rewatch. I many not have commented much but I have loved watching the show for the first time and reading the recaps and insightful comments. I think I can safely say that Buffy has been edded to my list of most favourite Tv shows ever!

Thank you Nikki!
EHart