Buffy

[thebratqueen]

I liked it. On the whole I'd rank it up there with the ending for season 3 - not so much with the twists and shocks (Buffy sending Angel to hell being a tough act to top) but still exciting, interesting and captivating.

They did a great job on hiding the arrival of Giles. "Here's what happened this year" was a great way of hiding Giles in plain sight (as was having ASH do the VO for last week's "previously") and I was pleased to see that they were smart enough to keep his name out of the credits. Spoilerwhore me was watching with five unspoiled virgins and hoping against hope that the show didn't give the game away. I was not disappointed (and I kept a great poker face when Keren moaned "We need Giles!" during one of the early commercial breaks).

Although from an editorial standpoint, I couldn't help but smirk that the important events of the year were summed up with clips from a mere handful of episodes. Marti - take note. Herein lies the heart of why you're not a good storyteller. The Angel finale may have sucked hard but if they had done the "here's what happened this year" they would have needed to pull clips from almost every ep.

The directing on both eps was great. They were high-energy and all of the emotions rang true. Here's where I reverse myself and tell David Greenwalt to take note because the Buffy finale managed to do things that the Angel finale could not, even with some similar problems that I'll get to in a sec.

Loved the Slayer vs. Witch duel of catfighting, loved Willow and Giles having a wizard's duel. Beautiful stuff to watch and almost felt like a treat for us fans who've stuck through the long haul.

Some anvilicious lines ("Now Willow's a junkie") but hey - David Fury wrote one of the eps and he has to tell us what the Thing is. No big surprise that he got the ep of Buffy literally crawling out of a grave ;)

I think the thing I want to emphasize most is how true the emotions were. I rolled my eyes a little when reading the wildfeed and spoilers that said that at the end of the ep Buffy would finally get over the being on earth thing because they've done that before ("Gone" being one such example - also penned by David, if memory serves me right) but damn if SMG didn't sell me on the tears of joy. I also loved how AH played her breakdown in Xander's arms, and ASH when he cracked up at the recap of Buffy's life.

And here again I say to David Greenwalt take note - true emotions go far to make the scene. The finale scripts had some flaws (and repetative dialogue - if one more character said "I get that" I was going to take a hostage) but I believed in the characters so I cared. I did not believe any of the emotions of the final Cordelia scene which is why it crashed and burned a flaming death, much like Cordy's car will once time resumes.

Let me also say that as an Angel fan I loved watching Spike go through his trial. Of course this made me think of "The Trial" on Angel last year, and I loved the contrast of Angel doing his trial with that grim determination and I Must Suffer For The Happiness Of Others that he gives to every activity whether it be a life or death struggle or just ordering a pizza, while Spike went through his trial with determination, yes, but that wonderful Spike like quality of getting himself into situations that are just a little over his head.

I also liked how finally we were given an acknowledgement that they've been giving us doublespeak on the magic thing. I think they needed to make that clearer back in November but sadly I'll take what I can get. My expectations on this have been made pretty low, so it doesn't take much to satisfy me (which I mention to explain why I was fine with the late in the game magic explanation but not fine with the late in the game acknowledgement of Angel's perfect happiness clause). I think also I'm fine with it because Giles and Willow were the ones who finally defined it. It's not like Buffy or Xander were in tune with magic enough to know the differences. So while it's frustrating, it's at least in character that Buffy and Xander would not be able to explain it, whereas over on Angel that clause is fairly self-explanatory and should have been a part of the plots, esp if you're trying to convince me Cordy's got the hots for him.

Also loved how Xander saved the day in his own Xander way. It's about time he got a chance to be the hero.

My biggest nitpick is deus ex vengance demon. I was fine for the fact that Anya could teleport. I'm also fine for the fact that they're leaving her powers ambiguous to keep from painting themselves into a corner. However Anya was our Throw Me A Line contender of the week - somebody needed to explain to me why no one could make a wish to stop things.

I know - vengence demon. Well then Andrew. You think he wouldn't want some vengence against the witch coming after him? And don't forget Dawn - why couldn't Anya put in a call to Halfrek, the "justice demon" and let Dawn make a wish with her for justice for Willow and Tara? Likewise why wouldn't Willow make a wish to bring Tara back to life?

As fans of the show we know how powerful vengence demons are - they needed to explain why Anya was effectively neutered. As I say - throw me a line. "Anya, I wish - " "Sorry, Buffy, it doesn't work like that. Willow's tapping into something far greater than the wish. We're going to have to think of something else."

I think the deus ex vengence demon especially bugged me because they weren't even being consistant within the episode. Anya can teleport, except when she's being strangled? Huh?

My next nitpick is Giles's "death". There wasn't a clear enough indication of why his death was tied in with what Willow was doing. I know he said he could see what she saw, but that doesn't mean anything. I got the feeling he was dying because he got his ass kicked, not because she swiped his powers. Thus we have Throw Me A Line contender number 2. Something in the key of "She took my powers - as long as she has them... I'm done for." or something like that (and hopefully better written). The way it was acted and scripted made the whole thing sound final. They did not make it sound in any way like Giles had a second chance as long as Willow relented. That's bad writing, and it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth because that means they only wrote it that way to jerk the fans around into thinking he was actually going to die.

(BTW - try to imagine what it was like for me during the commercial break with 5 unspoiled people looking at me and wondering if they should ask me if Giles really dies. Suddenly I knew what Willow felt when they were all trapped in the house and everybody was telling her to use magic. I kept mum, though, and the unspoiled decided on their own to wait and see.)

Final, related, nitpick - the last scene of Buffy and Dawn walking happily past the trees. Um - wasn't their last news update the fact that Giles was dying? Wouldn't they want to haul ass to the Magic Box? Guys?

But don't get me wrong - I liked the ep. And again you've got to contrast it with Angel and see the key element: the emotions rang true. I bought in to Buffy's "rebirth" so much that it wasn't until I was on the train coming home that I went "Wait a minute - what about Giles?" The deus ex vengence demon was the only thing during the ep that bugged me. Otherwise, solid work.