[spoiler]Yeah, how’d those Uruk-Hais or whatever become so easy to kill all of a sudden? A seasoned slayer gets her ass kicked like 3 times by one, then human are slicing them up easily with swords.
I was sorry to see Anya die. Did we ever find the source of the bunny phobia?
Didn’t expect Spike to buy it. I never heard of this ‘Shan-shuad’ thing, but I wonder if the whole “Spike is going to be on Angel” thing was a deliberate lie to make the ending more unexpected?[/spoiler]
I guess it depends on what you wanted from the ep, Amp. I wanted Spike to hear someone tell him that they love him. I wanted Spike to have a good, meaningful, glorious death (if they were going to kill him anyway). I wanted to like Giles again. I wanted to love Anya and have her story end. I wanted to love Willow again. I wanted Xander to make me laugh again. I wanted to see Dawn act like a grown-up. I wanted to like Angel, just for once. Just so I can point at a time and say “Look, I didn’t hate him in this episode!”
These were lofty goals, and I didn’t expect to get any of them. But for me, it fit all my criteria, and so I loved it.
sniff
Have no idea what Trogdor The Burninator reference means.
I loved that Angel came and helped out last week, but he didn’t stick around. They left it open whether they ever had a future. In a TV Guide interview, Boreanaz says that he sees nothing beyond Buffy and Angel; that they were meant for each other. Interesting, esp since Cordy is out of the picture next year.
Buffy finally says she loves Spike and he doesn’t believe her. I felt sorry for the peroxide one. Unrequited love sucks in a major way. Was glad he finally became a champion.
The “every girl can be empowered” speech was a bit heavy handed for Whedon. What happened to subtlety?
I wish they would have made the finale a 2 hour episode so they could have done a better job of wrapping things up. The series moved soooo slowly all these weeks and suddenly it goes into hyperspeed.
I’m sitting here, melancholy. I’m glad it’s over because this season was very tedious. But it’s the end of a great series. 
[spoiler]I thought the direct parallel between the scene just prior to the big battle and the end of “Welcome to the hellmouth” was beautiful.
SMG’s acting during the cookie-dough analogy was probably some of her best all season. The look on her face just as she was saying “eat… uhhhhh… enjoy…” was very nicely done. Most emotion she’s shown in a while.
A bit disappointed in the very-brief appearance of Angel- would have liked to have seen him actually interact with Spike, especially if Spike will be joining the MoG. Would also have liked to have seen what was in the folder that accompanied the amulet.
Could’ve done without Killow. Ugh.
Will probably have more to say later. For now:
“That was nifty.” Tee hee!![/spoiler]
::GASP:: I forgot to put my post in spoiler boxes. Ohhhh noooo. I hope I don’t ruin anything for anyone. Sorry!
I predicted the ending weeks ago. Having them evacuate the town was a big hint. Also predicted that Buffy would no longer be the ONLY slayer so she could be released from her duties to ride off into the sunset. Which is almost literally what she did.
PunditLisa
I disagree. I think Spike absolutely believes her, but I thikn she planned on burning with him (she clasped his hand instead of running after Faith) and he was having none of that, so he did what he could to say “It’s too late now, go a way.” So he said he didn’t believe her. And I think she got it too.
I thought, emtionally, this ep finally hit some good points (though Willow Kennedy still irritates me highly). I very much worked to just go with the flow and not think about things, and I really enjoyed it. Of course, it really should have been a two-hour ep, but that wasn’t in the cards. So what they wanted to do was very rushed, and they still should have done so much more.
On a plot level, though, this thing stunk
This ep clinched the utter failure of the arc plot of this season.
What was the First’s big plan? It was: nothing at all. It’s “it’ll come time for Spike” stuff? Nothing. Weakness in the Slayer line? No hint of anything there. Why did the FE it try to fool Dawn if that was the FE, and why did Mrs. Summers say that if it was her? What the hell was going on there?
As for the ep itself:
Buffy almost died trying to destroy one Turok-Han, and now even Giles, Xander, and Dawn were merily going hand to hand (though those might have been Bringers, I couldn’t tell) with them, and surviving? No.
Spike simply obliterated the Hellmouth? I understand that they didn’t know what the amulet would do, but given that if it had done it’s mojo regardless then it would have been just as good, the whole effort on the part of everyone seems in retrospect to have been for naught.
Buffy gets stabbed… and then this is forgotten about as a plot point on screen? I know she has fast healing powers and all, but all the other times Buffy’s been wounded that badly it’s been a major major deal. Here she shrugs it off after a minute or so, and it’s never mentioned again.
So: ugh
In Lessons, the FE was happy that everything had been going according to plan, everyone was right where it wanted them? Uh, why? And what was it waiting for anyway? It had an army of bringers who could have opened the unguarded seal anytime they felt like it. There was some discussion of it getting ready… but we never saw anything regarding that, no sense of urgency of what “getting ready” involved. Caleb was just a powerful lackey with no purpose other than to fight.
The FE’s entire ultimate master plan was HULK SMASH!!! And it didn’t even seem all that urgent to put that plan into action!
One Buffy related, but now non-Buffy question:
Did W&H know what the amulet was going to do? They obviously had nothing against toasting the FE, but were they hoping that it would be Angel that got shafted, thus leaving them with only the rest of the FG to worry about? (not that we really know if they ARE trying to manipulate the FG)
And on a last, character note
I agree that Anya should have gotten more of a goodbye than thirty seconds of Andrew. That was goofy.
The gang did seem too lighthearted at the end. But I think the problem was not that they were lighthearted, but that they didn’t convey an element of being lighthearted in response to grief. I can totally buy snarky quips in the face of an incredible dose of both tragedy and victory at once. But where was the underlying sadness?
I liked the tone of the very, very end though.
Damn channel 9 didn’t even let them run full credits however. Just HAD to get to “boobie/vagina/catfight contest #9” as soon as possible. Wankers.
Loved it. LOVED it. Here I am, 36 years old and I’m sobbing like a 9-year-old girl who just lost her favorite doll.
I’d also read the script, but damn, the episode was just way cooler!
[spoiler] My stream-of-conscious impressions:
I loved the scene with the original gang: Willow, Buffy, Giles, and Xander. Brought a tear to my eye (the first of many). I loved it when Buffy gave Spike the amulet with a look in her eye of “you are my champion”–and I’m not a Spuffy shipper at all.
Anya dead! AAAAAAAaaaaaargh! (more sobbing) She was my favorite!
Yes, I was a bit irritated that everyone was so chipper at the end after losing friends. Then I realized that they were probably in that “the danger is over” giddy state: just realizing that they’d survived and the world was safe. I know I’m a giggling fool after an adrenaline rush wears off.
The only thing that bothered me (and it’s minor) is that there are so darn many slayers now! I could live with maybe 20 or so–but Willow’s comment “slayers all over the world are awakening” made it sound like there were thousands. It would really suck to be a non slayer after all these “hot chicks with superpowers” come into the world. [/spoiler]
Finale Score: 9/10
I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one who cried during the finale.
Crap - I can’t seem to STOP crying!
Apparently, poking out one of your eyes works pretty well.
Ok, could somebody explain Trogdor the Burninator to me, please?
I liked the ep. Wish it had been 2 hours.
[spoiler] Okay, is it just me or did anyone else miss how or if The First died? I mean, yeah, it’s army was wiped out-but that doesn’t mean it can’t start again.
On the whole I suppose I liked the episode. It had a cheesy feel to it in some parts and I felt that Anya’s death was just…I don’t know…I suppose a little pointless.
One thing that I absolutely HAD to mention: I was laughing like the village idiot when I saw the little ‘angel’ picture Spike had put on the punching bag. 
[/spoiler]
Meatros
The picture was totally unscripted, so I wasn’t expecting it. When I watched on Monday morning I had a major hangover (from the Wildfeed Drinking FUn) and I couldn’t stop laughing. “hahaha OW hahahahah OWWWW hahahahahahah OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW”.
Um, well, it didn’t really work for me. It felt very much thrown together at the last minute, unable to close a bunch of threads.
Anya’s death was pointless, and Xander didn’t really express any emotion over it. She was basically the only death, although Spike’s glorious sacrifice counts as partial credit, since we know he’ll be back in some form next year. I hated the spell to elevate all SIT’s to full blooded slayers. It hinges on Willow being more powerful than all the other witches and wizards in history, and frankly that’s just lousy writing. And the voice-over speech was way too heavy handed. And Kennedy didn’t die.
So, that’s the bad, on to the good. I was waiting for a reference to bunnies, and I got a fine one. Spike feeling his soul was perfectly done. Liked the whole cookie metaphor and the fact that Angel was used sparingly. They ending the Spike/Buffy thing just right. Buffy doesn’t love Spike, as her talk with Angel showed, but the growth of Spike was that it didn’t matter any more, he believed in himself. That was good.
I was disappointed, but I guess I wasn’t expecting too much. They didn’t kill of Buffy or remove her powers, they came up with a different solution to the problem of how to make Vuffy more normal.
I loved it. I laughed, I cried. I’m going to watch it again.
As to crying…
[spoiler]This is only the second time I’ve cried during a Buffy episode…or during any TV show, for a matter of fact. Both times were because of Anya. I cried when I heard her speech in “The Body,” and I cried when she died. It’s funny; I never thought that I liked Anya that much, but there’s something about her that elicits sympathy…except, apparently, from Xander.
Dangit; I liked Xander, I really did. I was even starting to like him more this season, after being thwarted by the whole leaving-at-the-altar-thing. But now…okay I was crying over Anya’s death; you’d think that he’d at least show some emotion, what with having loved her and loving her and all.
Other than that, the episode wasn’t nearly as bad as I had feared. Like some other people here, I didn’t like the whole Kennedy/Willow thing–they have about zero chemistry. That being said, the whole goddess/slayer exchange worked for me. Go figure.
I think that maybe The First’s plan hinged upon preventing this from happening. Before launching its final assault, it wanted to make sure the Slayer was alone. It would, of course, have to build up its forces, alienate the Slayer from her friends and family, and ensure that the potentials were killed–not because it didn’t want another one to be called, but rather to make sure that, should it fail and the Slayer and her friends find a way to call them all like they did in this episode, there wouldn’t be all that many new Slayers; few enough so that each one would still feel alone. It was only by banding together that Buffy & Co. were able to defeat The First, and this theme of teamwork/friends/family has been present throughout the entire series. So I think it works.
The Spike thing was simply another attempt to keep the Slayer isolated. Turn him evil, and she loses an ally. Force her to kill him or convince him to commit suicide, she loses an ally. Keep doubts in everyone’s mind–perhaps through cryptic comments like, “Spike’s time will come,”–and perhaps one of the others will kill him, ostenably to protect her, thus causing her to both lose an ally and mistrust her friends (like Giles). This, of course, is simply my interpretation.[/spoiler]
When Andrew et all were playing Dungeons and Dragons, he mentioend that they were fighting Trogdor the Burninator. Trogdor is a character briefly touched upon at the site www.homestarrunner.com, in the Strong Bad email section. He was a dragon Strong Bad drew, and then the dragon skyrocketed in popularity. The email thing is [url=“http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail58.html”]here.[\url]
I liked the episode, though it didn’t really address any of the lingering plot threads. I did get ticked, though, when i got home and read an early draft teleplay of the episode, which did address all the above-mentioned problems:
[spoiler]
“Buffy won’t choose you.” In the teleplay draft I have, Dawn learns about the need for a Champion, and also about another fact cut from the show, and wants to be the Champion. Buffy won’t let her be it, won’t let Dawn sacrifice herself.
“The problem is the Slayer.” Well, that’s because there’s confusion in the Slayer line. When Buffy died in “The Gift,” the line didn’t progress because it’s been broken. Not by her first death/not-death experience, but because when she died and was resurrected the second time, part of her lived on in Dawn. The Monks who created Dawn, in effect, created a loophole in the Slayer line that Buffy’s second resurrection tore wide open. The line has become so confused that even if Buffy and Faith died, there would be no new Slayer, until Dawn died. That was the First’s opening, apparently. That’s also why Dawn, who has Slayer potential, wasn’t located in “Potential.” She’s already sort of a Slayer, mystically speaking. Or something. It’s a bit confusing, but satisfying, in the teleplay. WHen Willow did her majic, Dawn got fired-up along with the rest of the Potentials.
“All dressed up in big sister’s clothes.” Remember this line from Season 3? Spike says it to Dawn during the big melee after Willow’s spell makes Dawn a Slayer. Very cool.
“Spike’s time will come.” In the teleplay, when Spike has the amulet, the First appears to him, calls him “MY champion,” and sings his “trigger” song. This was what the First had planned for Buffy. But Spike replies “sorry, don’t like that song anymore,” and knocks the First on its now-corporeal ass.
In the teleplay, the First appears not only as Caleb and Buffy, but also as Glory, the Master, Angel, Kendra, Spike and Joyce, and in the end become corporeal. It wounds Buffy, not an uber-vamp.
All in all, the teleplay was better than the episode. It had everything in the episode in it, plus the above. Dammit, they cut the wrong stuff. No need for the Faith/Wood or Willow/Kennedy crap. Surely they could have pared that down, or removed it entirely, to make room for this loose-end wrapping up. Not like anyone gave a damn about either of those “couples.”
Who knows, maybe they filmed this stuff, but cut for running time problems. Maybe put it back in the DVD? Probably too much to hope for.
Also, in the teleplay, Xander, not Anya, died. So did Andrew. I like the episode better in that regard.[/spoiler]
Alas, Buffy was a great show. Best on TV in Seasons 1 to 3, before Spike, great in Seasons 4 and 5, and a bit less-stellar in Seasons 6 and 7, in part because of the crappy way UPN scheduled the show and in part because of the darker thematic material. I’ll miss it.
Let’s try that again.