Selfless wasn’t bad, and many people liked Him (never saw it). The ep where Willow comes back wasn’t sucky either.
Course, this was all pre-potentials. 
You know, now that I think about it, it really peeves me that WB announced Masters would join the cast of “Angel” before this last episode aired. It really took away from what should have been a really poignant moment: Spike sacrificing himself. Damn it, we didn’t even get to grieve over his death because we knew he’d be back.
Jeers to WB for ruining it.
I’m actually thinking of starting a thread about Season 7 and where it went off the rails (I think it was with “Potential”). There was so much promise being set up early on this season that just didn’t pan out. We’ll probably never really know why.
I agree totally and the problem i think is that at the beginning of the season it seemed as if the show was setting up essentially a season long finale,great up and an amazing villain.
The FE was great,and i expected some big plot twists,perhaps even a retroactive revelation of plotting from the beginning.
But that was when they seemed to think it would be the last season ,then midway through the season they seemed to think there might be an 8th season so they stopped and dragged their feet,then when they realized there would be no next season or spin-off they tried to cram everything in the last few episodes.
Thats why this season started so great then went off the rails.
RE: The First not being dead - I’m really not getting why this is a problem for some people. The First is evil, and so therefore obviously there is no way to destroy it. I would have been majorly annoyed if they did. All that has happened now is that its plan has been wrecked, and there’s no longer a gap in the slayer line for it to play around with (well, either that, or there’s a major, major one). For more on the subject see Angel, “Reprise”
I wasn’t too impressed with this final season, although the first episode when Willow comes back was great (don’t know the name of it, but she can’t see Buffy, etc, and there’s a skin eating monster in it). I though the finale was ok, but way too short.
I came to the boards because I had heard that Spike was joining Angel, but then he’s all dead now. So I guess they’re bringing him back to life for the next season of Angel. Something that’s been done way too much in Whedon’s shows.
Either way, boo hoo, Buffy’s done. Although she obviously wasn’t around much, I think I’ll miss Faith, the vixen, even more. A Faith show wouldn’t be bad…
Speaking of, anyone have thoughts on what other spinoff they might come up with?
A few points:
- Did we really see Spike die? - okay, amulet, fire, dis-incorporation and a complete town falling in on him seem to lead to death, granted, but did we see a dead body, or at least the pile of dust? All I am saying is that because we cut away during the big collapse, I can imagine a loophole that could be exploited somehow to get him onto Angel. I am not saying it would be satisfying - his death as a champion works better if he doesn’t come back, but there you have it.
- The practical challenge of TV is near-term excitement and long-term continuity - What Whedon, et al, had done so well for so long is maintain a balance between the two - keep throwing twists at us to keep us engaged, while having Buffy-logic-credible explanations that kept the continuity. And did so with characters we cared about. I agree with some posts that there were a number of things done poorly, but it gave us more of the characters we loved stayed true to what it was trying to be.
I’ll miss the show.
WordMan: I saw him turn to dust and… crumble might be the word. That’s good enough for me.
Review of the final episode on MSNBC
does a nice job of summing up the inconsistencies, the good points, and what fundamentally worked about the ep.
I really enjoyed it. You guys already hit most of my likes and dislikes. A couple of likes not mentioned yet:
Buffy:“What are you, 12?”
I also liked the Faith/Wood bit:
Faith)unbuckling - be still my heart - and other parts of my anatomy):“That’s it, we’re doing it again right here.”
Wood:“Surprise!”
I think what I may have liked best about it was that it DIDN’T try to wrap up every story line. And they had Buffy stay silent at the end, when asked, “What comes next.” By doing so, the avoided the sins of many finale eps. Instead, what we basically got was a bang-up standard Buffy ep.
Cheers!
I enjoyed the seasaon finale and in retrospect, even the whole final season.
I am still bitter about the tripe they peddled as the final season of the X-Files. Man oh man, compared to that, Buffy S7 was beyond a masterpiece. Sad to see it and the weekly threads go.
I’m still a little confused. Can someone explain “From beneath you it devours” to me?
why didn;t willow just make everybody invincible, or just kill all the vampires with her seemingly limitless power? making all the potentials into card-carrying slayers was weak and not particularly inventive.
all of the humans should have died, at least. prolly buffy, too. i mean, what does joss have to lose? gellar wants as far away from buffy as possible, so why keep her character around? oooooh, kill anya… she’s been pretty much expendable for most of her time on the series, anyway. and spike is dead, but we all know he’ll be back. i hate when a series finale takes the easy way out. go out wiht a bang, something that grabs the viewer.
kennedy really should have died. i’m as big a male pig as anyone, and (in theory) love hollywood lesbianism, but kennedy and willow nearly make me vomit. sure, they’re both hot, but it’s just so contrived. tara wasn’t as attractive as kennedy, but i though her and willow’s relationship was sweet, and real. they never gave me the creeps like kennedy and willow. kennedy was an insult to the show, to willow’s chracter, to the viewers, and probable to lesbians as well.
i did like the little exchange between xander, willow, buffy and giles, though. it was like a time warp back to when buffy was good. seemed like they tried to jam what we were missing for a number of seasons into a couple seconds, but it was appreciated. probably the most memorable part of the finale, for me.
Since someone mentioned the x-files, wanted to say my witty x-files comment garnered a big laugh in my household when Caleb started oozing black oil from his eyes.
Ooh. Has anyone mentioned, “He had to split?”
How deliciously campy.
Thanks for the explanation and link, bouv!
And I kinda liked the teleplay that Spectrum described, even if it’s only fanfic.
-
Wow. Picking on a guy because he forgot to include a silent “h”?!? Hardly seems worth the effort.
-
This was not even hinted at in the episode. Not only that, but this “prophecy” has never been talked about in Buffy, so I think it’s really stretching it to talk as if it’s relevant.
ALSO…someone else mentioned that Angel should be miff’d at W&H for giving him a “suicide bracelet”. There was opportunity for Spike to get out in time. Buffy tried to get him to leave, but Spike wanted to “see how it ends”. So if Angel had the necklace, he wouldn’t have necessarily died…
Yeah, willing suspension of disbelief can cover up a lot, but I think that acknowledging some of this episode’s weaknesses is kinda necessary.
To me, it was good but it wasn’t great, and I think the majority of Season 7 is to blame. If it had been a stronger season, the last episode would have been better–it would have had less to tie up, and wouldn’t have been so rushed. I really wished they could have given it two hours. Dawson’s got two hours, for Pete’s sake. I’m sure Tyra Banks and her top models of America or whatever could have been shifted to another night.
I really felt as if Anya was going to die, but saving Andrew’s life? Come on. And how come the Uruk-Hai (Turok-Han–whatever) are so easy to kill all of a sudden? Meh. And the WB does suck for sharing the new casting information early; I didn’t take Spike’s death seriously at all.
Something that really got me emotionally was seeing Sunnydale just implode (which I took as the “from beneath you, it devours line”). It’s so sad–all the memories and places from the past 7 seasons are gone just like that. The enormity of that didn’t hit me until after I watched it last night.
So, pretty good episode, but crappy season.
RE-
the Qs about Anya’s death- Andrew may have seen what happened or just figured out she died when she dropped out of sight & didn’t show up again- whatever, he did what he thought was right, made up a story about her heroism as a tribute to her & consolation to Xander. Yeah, part of me would like to have seen her die gloriously, but realistically, some people were going to fall without a epic last stand- and Anya was the one.
Xander’s reaction to Anya’s death- X & A’s relationship has achieved closure. All of them had to some degree resigned themselves to their own & each other’s deaths before the fight. I’m sorry for Andrew having to face survival.
“she won’t choose you”- Buffy tried to remove Dawn from the fight; she did not choose Dawn as a co-warrior. Thus, Dawn had her coolest moments of this past season. “Dumbass”, indeed.
There wasn’t anything I’d really have done differently- I just would have done more. I predicted to a friend that all the SITs would be activated- I have no problem with how it was done tho the idea of killing & reviving each one would have been majorly cool. Btw, it was NOWHERE stated that Willow was more powerful that all the wizards, witches, magicians, etc ever combined, just that she was more powerful than the original Watchers Council who made the rules/cast the spells. Why couldn’t it be done before? No one ever dared to try.
The global activation of Slayers was wondrously underplayed- If I had scripted it, I’d have messed it up by showing all these girls do mighty things. The look on Softball Girl’s face was priceless. Also, the Girl who grabbed her assailant’s hand. (Btw, the assailant- a monster, a mugger, a rapist… or an abusive boyfriend or father?
Whatever- that was Hella-cool.)
Willow’s “That was nifty!” I LOVE WILLOW!!! Btw, White Guardian Willow was overdone, but did tell us in a way “What will become of Willow?”
I liked the Faith-Wood stuff. She ACTUALLY CARES FOR SOMEONE!!! And he psyched her several times & got away with it!
Yeah- it COULD have been better, but it was much more satisfying than these finales- MASH, SEINFELD and most of all XENA.
As someone said before, UPN sucks for not giving the show a proper sendoff. Actually, apart from the face shot of the ME guy at the end, there was absolutely nothing to distinguish this episode from any other. Perhaps I wanted too much, but I would have liked to see a more interesting “previously” at the beginning, something like what they did before the season 6 finale which flashed crucial scenes from every episode that season. (I apologize if that’s totally incoherent, but I think you all know what I mean.) I wanted to see important bits from the entire series as this episode’s “previously,” just to tie things up a little neater.
This goes more to continuity between AtS and Buffy, but I did not at all understand Angel’s apparent desire to rekindle things with Buffy. I realize for those who don’t watch Angel it’s not as big a deal, but I felt it was a lame decision to abandon basically the entire season of Angel in which he’s in love with Cordelia to enable a greater emotional connection between Buffy and Spike. Although I really loved the picture of Angel on the punching bag, so perhaps it wasn’t all that bad.
I was pleasantly surprised with Faith and Wood. I thought their interaction in the basement was cute. I liked that Wood was able to get to the root of her sexual (and, by proxy, social) insecurities and call her on it in an amusing and playful way. They could kick some serious ass together, in another dimension.
I liked the series finale quite a bit, but it really needed to be a two hour show to help wrap up all the loose ends.
It was nice to see Real Xander and Real Giles again, if only for an hour. It was nice that they didn’t string the stupid Buffy/Spike/Angel thing along and disposed of it quickly. Normally they would run this into the ground. I liked the game plan (umm activated them all first though).
BTW: The “Uber-witch” wasn’t enough, you also needed Barbie’s Dream Decapitator to actually activate all the slayer potentials (the little cutaway scenes were lame though). The interaction with Spuffy in the end was nice, as was finally giving a purpose to Spike’s ensoulment. The destruction of SunnyDale. Buffy’s smile at the end.
Annoying: Willow-Kennedy. Ugh. Anya’s throw away death. Amazing E-Z heal Buffy, now she’s dying, now she’s not. Same thing with Wood. The Uber-Vamps got nerfed but good. Spike’s sacrifice cheaped by the cross-over being revealed (but if it was a factor in the renewal, I can live with it).
Overall 8/10. Goodbye Buffy. I wish you had ended with the Gift before they ruined you, but I will miss you none the less.