Spectrum, that wasn’t a teleplay. Somebody took the script after it broke (all over the Internet. Never saw a script travel that fast) and “revamped” it to suit their purposes than “rebroke” it. All it did was take the original, add a few lines, and subtract a few lines. It was never anything other than fanfic, unforuntately. “How do you know pepper?” You may ask. Well, I was there when the first spoilers from the script broke. What we saw on the screen appeared exactly as scripted.
Quite disappointed.
Mostly for the reasons Apos pointed out. It was too contrived, left too many loose ends. The first’s plan was to unleash a massive army of vampires? Which, btw, now seem suspiciously underpowered? Lame. And she was so promising early this season. Caleb too, and he turns out just to be a strong-armed goon. A bringer +, as it were. Double-lame.
Spike’s expiation was too pat.
The “girl-power” school of psuedo-feminism sticks in my craw, for reasons I don’t fully comprehend, and this episode had it in spades. Plus, now that there’s a true army of supergirls out there, who will stop them when they decide to pull a Faith instead of protecting mankind from the forces of darkness? One at a time does have its advantages. I also hate this season’s themes of “slayer as victim”. Yeah, it sucks to be chosen, that doesn’t mean that you should treat the forces that chose you like a rapist.
The character notes were all right, however, so they got that much done. I suppose that’s the most important part, so I can’t be too pissed.
Problem is, Angel of the Lord, that te First could have done ten times better if it had done NOTHING AT ALL until it was ready. Simply unleash an army of unbervamps on the world all of a sudden, and blow up the Council then. Buffy would be creamed. The potentials would be all over the world with nowhere to go and no experienced leader. Boom.
The FE was like the Riddler: it’s power was in goading its enemies to figure out how to defeat it.
DId anybody get a laugh out of the stairs that lead to the pits of hell. Can you just imagine the original Noodles crouching on the top stairs, waiting for the seal to open so it could make its grand entrance?
Ah, well… at least I had “the world is doomed” scene. For me, honestly, that made the whole episode worth it.
pepper, when that scene aired I mentioned to the person I was watching with, “So, the hellmouth has entrance stairs, how quaint.”
The more I think about it, the more unstatisfied I was with the finale. There really wasn’t any overall plan by the First, it just sort of happened randomly. One Uber-vamp is cool, thousands are just glorified Imperial Stormtroopers with bad teeth. Caleb became a non-entity, we now have dozens (?) of Slayers wandering the world, super teenagers with no idea of what they are and no one for them to fight. What happened to the First? Where was Angel setting up the second line of defense? Where did W&H get the amulet, and who created it? It seemed more important than the scythe, why wasn’t Caleb trying to find it?
Bleh. An unsatisfying ending to a great series.
Well, Joss is God.
He took the total chaotic mess that this season became, and wrapped it up in an enjoyable hour. Ignored the Watcher’s Watcher Council Of Old Gals Sitting Around In Tombs For Millennia, ignored most of the pointless dreck that came out of the past two years, and wrapped things up with wit, style, and a return of the characters we used to really care about. I don’t fault Joss if it didn’t make much sense; after the past couple of seasons, asking him to come along and make sense out of the series in an hour is kind of like asking me to explain the narrative context of Jackson Pollock’s paintings.
It was an excellent reminder of just how good this show used to be, and a good way to remember it. I loved seeing the characters alive again. Even the dead ones.
I’d like to give a major commendation to the network for treating the show the way it deserved; understanding it well enough to advertise it right, giving it free reign to become what it needed to be, and treating it with respect and even reverence when it had to leave. I’m speaking, of course of the WB. UPN can go rot in the swill it tries to pass off as entertainment.
I’m glad I watched all of it. I’m glad it’s over. And I’m glad this was the way it all ended.
Thanks for the threads, folks.
I enjoyed it very much, although it was, as has been said, too rushed.
Things handled well:
The Buffy/Spike/Angel triangle. I didn’t really want B/S to get together, but I wasn’t really backing the B/A counterpart. Joss concluded things brilliantly – I love that Buffy chose not to choose.
Buffy & Angel. He was around for exactly the right amount of time. I loved seeing him in Sunnydale again, but he didn’t need to be there for the end.
Buffy & Spike. Personally, I think Buffy was telling Spike she loves him because she does, kinda, but I think her answer to Angel (“He’s in my heart”) was more honest. But when Spike’s goin’ down to save 'em all, Buffy doesn’t equivocate. And Spike knows it, and appreciates it. I do love that vampire when he’s well written.
The characters. Honestly, it amazed me to realize how little the Scoobies had sounded like themselves in recent seasons. With Joss at the helm, they all snapped back into a focus that had been gradually going fuzzy for a year or so. Welcome back, Giles! Welcome back, Xander! Willow – good to see you! And Buffy!
I cried for Anya, and for the show being over – although the latter tears were mingled grief and relief, because it’s frickin’ time.
Oh, and pepper: An ocean of shoes, perhaps? O-shan of shoes? Angel’s gonna be peeved if Spike is the prophecied vampire. And Buffy persuaded him not to hold the amulet! Bring the pain!
Just not that good, I expected a whole lot more for a series finale. I don’t know whether ME or UPN made the decision to have only an hour finale, but shame on whoever made that choice. The whole thing felt incredibly rushed. The amulet was too deus ex machina. If a search for the amulet had been part of the season’s story arc, then I’d have less of a problem with it, but it’s introduced on another show, of all things, and not even with any real plot there. Lila gives it to Angel almost as an aside, he gives it to Buffy, she gives it to Spike, and he uses it to save the world. Too convenient. There were some other annoying things as well, like the good guys going into the Hellmouth and sticking their heads over the pit before Willow’s spell took effect. It made a nice commercial break cliff-hanger, but why wouldn’t they do the spell first, then go into the fight? The uber-vamps were ridiculously easy to kill, I think I saw Anya dust one by hitting it in the side with a sword, which shouldn’t even work on a normal vamp.
Extra curses at UPN for not even acknowledging the show’s end. I know they only had it for two years, but they valued it enough to acquire it, a little thank-you like WB did wouldn’t have killed them. Instead we got the closing credits squeezed to the side and run a light speed, while a promo for America’s Top Model took over the screen.
Even at its low points this series has always been one of my favorites. I wish it had gotten a better send off from its creators and network.
Ya know, when Buffy realized what she needed to do to beat TFE, I just KNEW that she’d figured out what I’d thought of a long time ago- since the death of the Slayer calls a new Slayer, and all the potentials had been gathered in one place, all they had to do was kill and resuscitate Faith, and then do the same to the next in line. THAT would have been a great “choice” for Buffy to present to the potentials- “You can have that power, right now- you’ve just got to DIE, first. Ready?”
But no… once again, SuperWillow to the rescue. And, dammit, why didn’t they cast that spell BEFORE going to the big fight? The spell she cast seemed to be from out of nowhere- how, exactly, did Buffy realize that Willow was stronger than any witch or sorceror in history, strong enough to basically rewrite the rules? sigh
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It’s Lilah.
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Spike’s actions and the necklace went with a prophecy that came at the end of Angel in season 1. To Shanshu In LA.
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Willing suspension of disbelief. Have you ever heard of it?
That would be true if Willow was undefeated. Earlier in the season, she wasn’t able to keep the über vampires at bay.
D’ya think that Kennedy and Buffy were trying to give Willow confidence so she’d try?
Geez.
I don’t normally post in the Buffy threads, as much as I love the show, but I have to say that I enjoyed this episode. Sure there were lots of loose ends and plenty of other stuff we could quibble about, but it left me wanting more, and it’s not often that you can say that about a show that’s ending. I cried when Anya was killed, and if Spike comes back human I’m really looking forward to the first encounter between him and Angel next year. Most of all, I’m glad that Buffy (maybe) finally gets to be normal.
Just one thing I’m wondering about though, how are the authorities going to explain Sunnydale suddenly being a giant crater? 
I almost wish that Andrew hadn’t seen what happened to Anya (actually, did he really? I never saw her save him) so that Xander just never knew what happened to her. Then again, he didn’t say much to her before seeing her for the last time anyway (which was likewise kinda odd). For someone who got a whole ep devoted to her character development, it sure was odd to have her killed so grusomely with no particular followup aside from the brief Xander scene.
This episode left me both impressed and pissed. Impressed, because of the the way Joss managed to rescue a great finale from the mess of this season: pissed because he didn’t do it sooner.
I knew it wouldn’t happen, but when Buffy told Angel she needed him to stay in LA as a second line of defence, I was almost hoping that Buffy and crew would all get killed, and the story line would be resolved next season on Angel, where the FG uses Wolfram and Heart to battle an apocalyptic army. Would have fit in well with all the Slayers being activated all at once.
So, Spike just destroyed an entire hell dimension, didn’t he? Impressive exit. Interested to see where the character goes from here, which is odd to say about someone you just saw disintegrated. As for Spike’s “time coming,” I think the point of that was that he was defused when Wood tried to kill him. His time never came because Buffy foiled the First’s plan.
I really hope they address the Slayer thing on Angel. Maybe bring back Justine. Would’ve been cool if they slipped her into the awakening Slayer montage. I think that worrying about some of them turning Dark Slayerish is a little silly, since the alternative to activating them all would be to let the First Evil destroy the Earth. Plus, if they had still failed, they left a significant back up force to help Angel’s second front. There are about three billion women in the world. If one in a million of them were potentials, that’s a couple thousand Slayers. I also wonder if it was retroactive: Kennedy was hinted to be too old to be chosen, but still became a Slayer. Wonder if there are a bunch of supergrannies out there?
I liked most of the stuff in this episode, but Willow’s Oh My Goddess line with the tighter and tighter close up on her face had me cringing in pain. Very, very lame.
Easy to kill Tura-khans: Ummm… Maybe the first one was the toughest one? Yeah, that makes sense, cause if only one can get out, that’d probably be the toughest one of them, so that’s why the first one was so tough but the other ones were relatively harmless. Sure, that’s the ticket. Okay, so it doesn’t make sense, but I’ll accept the incongruity for the sake of a kick ass fight sequence.
Lastly, Xander’s reaction to Anya’s death felt right to me. I don’t know why, but it didn’t bother me in the least. I think maybe all the non-superheros in the group were pretty much resigned to not surviving the battle, so at the end, it was mostly relief that so many of them got out alive.
Okay, so I got burned by a fan-wanked teleplay. The person I got it from usually doesn’t fall for such things, so I trusted its veracity. Alas, it was a better read than the real finale was a watch.
I would like to see the proliferation of Slayers dealt with on Angel. An episode where Giles and, maybe, Willow or Dawn swing by W&H to get Angel’s help. I knida picture the surviving Scoobs starting up a new Watcher’s council to help the new Slayers. They could seek Angel’s help in tracking some down, perhaps?
Meh.
Not really impressed. I even thought the Death of the Peroxided One could have been done better. All in all, it seemed like the last gasp of a dying show. I was really expecting a lot better.
I really, really didn’t like Angel’s “I had a soul before it was cool” speech a lot. I also was annoyed about his more than just hinting that he wants to get back together with Buffy. I mean, hey, he just gave his son up for adoption last week, his current girlfriend is in a coma somewhere after giving birth to the Antichrist, or whatever it was that Jasmine was (missed the second-to-final ep of AtS this season) and he’s being all quippy and hitting on his ex, and complaining about getting the brush-off for Captain Peroxide?
I think it was very, very cool that Buffy chose Spike as her champion. That was the best scene in the ep. I did like the “I should put you two in a room and let you rassle it out” line. Yeah, I’d like to see that, too. With the oil. Only I want to watch Spike and Wesley rassle in oil, 'cause David Boreanaz really doesn’t do anything for me.
I’m actually wondering just exactly Spike will come back as on “Angel” next season. I’ve read a summary of “To Shanshu in L.A.”, and from what I figured, the prophecy isn’t exactly clear that the Souled Vampire Who Saves The World becomes human- I got the impression that Angel and the FG just kind of assumes that’s what happens. If that is, in fact what happens, it will be cool watching Spike basically having to learn to be a human being all over again while Angel comes to terms with the fact that he didn’t get to become human. Of course, Spike could potentially come back as Something Completely Different. I personally can envision him becoming some sort of quasi-Higher Beingish sort of being who enters and leaves the room in a supernatural fashion that Angel finds very annoying.
I personally don’t care what Spike comes back as, just as long as the writers come up with lots and lots of excuses to have scenes in which James Marsters isn’t wearing a shirt. Or pants.
I used to hate Dawn. For me, she was as Connor was on Ats this season. Whiney annoying brat. In retrospect, I think Trachtenberg did as good a job as Kartheiser. Of course she was an annoying brat - they all are at 15. I was one too.
But Dawn has grown on me. She’s been less whiney this season, and while her knowing ancient Turkish spells is way too contrived, I’m sorry to see that the writers didn’t do anything with her character. The visit from Joyce went nowhere. The potential slayer thing went nowwhere, the key thing went nowhere.
I guess I finally fell in love with the character when she kicked Buffy’s leg. At that point a realized that the tension between the two sisters could have been made so much more interesting, than the way it was played out. And apart from the age gap and morality - I can’t help but thinking that Dawn and Xander should have been a couple. They had a weird chemestry, which wasn’t sexual of course, but still…
I really don’t know why this season was so bad, when it could have been so good. From what I understand, most of the actors that showed up to play TFE really liked being back. The Mayor, Dru, The Master. All of them very memorable characters and all having fun doing semi-cameos.
And with Ats being so good, it’s not like Mutant Enemy has lost it touch. And scheduling and promotion from UPN - that would really have anything to do with the storyline, would it?
And Joss being busy with the cartoon, Firefly, just becoming a dad - well Ats kept rolling, didn’t it? There were some clunkers too, but not to the extent that BtVS have had.
In retrospect, there were only four episodes that lived up to the standard I expect from the franchise: Lessons, Conversations with Dead People, Storyteller and Chosen.
Last summer, there was alot of speculetion about the franchise ending and SMG being fed up with it. There was some story where she said that it was taking its toll on her body, even with stunt doubles, and that she wanted to pursue a movie career. Gossip has made it clear that SMG has been quite a bitch and that she didn’t even show up for the wrap party after the final episode. Other rumours say that Seth Green didn’t want to be in the finale, because of SMG, but did indeed show up at said party.
I’ll never know. A lot of it is specualtion and rumours. But firmly in my mind, SMG made it clear last Summer, that this was it. Knowing beyond a doubt that the franchise was ending must have affected the writers.
SMG being a bitch - if it’s true - must surely have been part of the reason it sucked. This whole season had a feel to it, where the writers were trying to alienate the viewers from the character Buffy, and maybe - in the process - work its way into making someone else from the franchise a major character for a spin-off.
Why would they even consider making up a storyline that was interesting and good for an actor they disliked and a character that was going away?
SMG got paid quite well for her role. Not as much as the casts of Friends or Frasier, but still, $150.000 per episode is a neat $3.3 mill for a season. I get the feeling she was doing it for the money and not much else. Whereas the writers knew that she had put them out of their jobs. The people on Ats, OTOH, knew that if they made a stellar season, there was a chance of renewal, and were trying to save their jobs.
It’s only specualtion, but if someone is to blame for the decline in the show, I think it’s Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Yeah, Angel’s chipper mood was pretty odd. I wonder how he’ll feel knowing that W&H tried to get him killed by giving him the suicide amulet.
And did anyone else find it strange that the bus stopped to gaze back at Sunnydale and snark? I mean, there were people DYING on that schoolbus. Get to a hospital much?
And as further evidence to support my theory in the post just above Apos’, I forgot to include the best line from the whole episode:
“You know Buffy? Sweet girl. Not that bright”