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Buffy the Vampire Slayer: End of Days

Willow: "So it's true. Scythe matters."

I should probably feel all outraged and pissed off about that last minute liplock with Angel, but I don't. I always suspected that Buffy would break Spike's heart in the end. But how could she give him hope like that? Actually hint that they would make a try at a relationship when it was all over, and then throw herself at Angel just because she once loved him passionately and he showed up in the nick of time and saved her life? Is this a confusing love triangle, or what?

The exploding and wounded Potentials took a back seat, and there was a lot of enjoyable main cast interaction: Willow and Giles researching the weapon in an upstairs bedroom, Buffy and Xander discussing one-eyed cows in the kitchen, Anya and Andrew doing wheelchair wheelies in the deserted hospital, Buffy and Faith discussing their fate as "hot chicks with superpowers," and Buffy and Spike almost talking about their feelings. Close again, but no cigar.

I was gratified that Buffy quite appropriately sent Xander and Dawn to safety, although Dawn completely screwed that up with her strangely convenient taser. Xander should have bound and gagged her and stuffed her in the trunk; chloroform is too good for her. Is Dawn possessed, or is she just the biggest pain in the ass that ever existed? Maybe Dawn was thinking that if she was out of Sunnydale, Buffy wouldn't get the chance to *not* choose her, maybe? Xander was upset that he wouldn't be there at the end, except now he probably will.

Like Baghdad, Sunnydale is at the mercy of looters. I thought Anya and Andrew were going to die in the hospital, since they were conspicuously away from the group and it's what always happens in horror movies. Plus Andrew thinks he'll die. Anya thinks the SITs will die. Actually, everyone talked about dying in this episode. Not coincidentally, the M plus glottal stop slash Excalibur scythe is a symbol of death. How about that.

Willow is afraid to use the big magic ("I can hardly do a locator spell without getting dark roots"), but I think she's gonna have to.

Buffy and Faith finally buried the hatchet, or the scythe. Faith has matured tremendously, realizing that being the leader, being Buffy, is terribly hard. And Buffy has stopped being hyper-defensive with Faith, just in time for the end of the series.

And then there was Buffy's long conversation with Spike, where she actually told him, "I'm tired of defensiveness and weird mixed signals. I have Faith for that." I loved Spike mentioning that he's done things with Buffy that he can't spell; the long Latin names for certain intimate acts come to mind. Will we ever find out what was in that note? Was it just, "Going to the vineyard, see you later"? And what about "Someday she'll tell you?" Are we going to have to wait until Gellar guest stars on Angel or will she tell him next week?

So these Guardians kept Excalibur secret from the Shadow Men, who became the Watchers, who watched the Slayers. Buffy must slay the last pure demon that walks the earth. Buffy can win, the end is near, yadda yadda yadda, but Caleb killed the Guardian before she could tell Buffy how.

I actually liked what Nathan Fillion did with Caleb this week. "So... you found it. Not impressed. Cause the question now, girly girl, is can you pry it from solid rock before I come over there... hmm. Darn." Interesting sexual undertones, with Caleb and the First merging that way. We found out more about the First's intentions: The First's ubervamp army emerges from the Hellmouth, The First's will shall rule the earth and It will become capable of possessing anybody, and Caleb becomes a god. So that's the plan, huh?

Buffy forgot her fighting strategy with Caleb, but she beat him anyway. Except that he has Dark Willow eyes now; she should have chopped him into bitty preacher pieces. I enjoyed Angel saying to Caleb, "You are so gonna lose," but why didn't Angel help her, anyway? For that matter, if Spike was there in the tomb, why didn't Spike help her? She still could have lost.

As The First appropriately observed at the end, "That bitch." The First is going to work on Spike again. Will It succeed? Will Spike turn evil? If he does, will I ever watch anything that Joss Whedon produces again?

Bits and pieces:

-- Kennedy, who hasn't been thrilling me lately, showed some serious courage attacking that ubervamp alone.

-- Amanda: "I still think we got punished" was as close as anyone got to apologizing to Buffy.

-- Talk about tying up loose plot strings. We finally found out what happened to Tara's kitten; Dawn told Xander, "I told you, I don't leave crossbows around all willy-nilly. Not since that time with Miss Kitty Fantastico." Man, no cat is safe in Sunnydale.

-- In the Luxor casino theme tomb, the stars of all three of Joss Whedon's shows did a scene together. No comment. I'm just saying.

Quotes:

Giles: "In addition to being ancient, it's clearly mystical."
Buffy: "Yeah, I figured that one out when I King Arthured it out of the stone."

Andrew: "I liked the real bandages better. These bedsheets are awfully festive."
Anya: "Yeah, they're going to look like mortally wounded Easter baskets."

Buffy: "Of course I'm not putting you out to pasture. What does that even mean?"
Xander: "Well, you know, it's like when a cow gets old and loses an eye or its ability to be milked, the farmer takes it and puts it in a different pasture so it won't have to... fight with the priests."

Giles: "Willow, you could do it without endangering yourself."
Willow: "If I tried something big, I'd change and then it's all black hair and veins and lightning bolts. I can hardly do a locator spell without getting dark roots."

Faith: "There's only supposed to be one. Maybe that's why you and I can never get along. We're not supposed to exist together."
Buffy: "Also, you went evil and were killing people."
Faith: "Good point. Also a factor."
Buffy: "But you're right. I mean, I guess everyone's alone but being a Slayer?There's a burden we can't share."
Faith: "And no one else can feel it. Thank god we're hot chicks with superpowers."

Buffy: "I am tired of defensiveness and weird mixed signals. You know what? I have Faith for that."

Andrew: "Oh, this one has oxygen tanks."
Anya: "They'd only be useful if something big was attacking, and then we could shove one down their throat and blow 'em up like Roy Scheider did with that shark in Jaws."
Andrew: "You are the perfect woman."
Anya: "I've often thought so."

Guardian: "What's your name?"
Buffy: "Buffy."
Guardian: "No, really."

Next week ... The End. Who will die? Who will survive to guest star on Angel? Will the Hellmouth close? And even more importantly, will Buffy choose Angel or Spike?

Billie
---
Billie Doux reviewed all of Buffy and Angel, so she knows the plural of apocalypse.

6 comments:

  1. Angry at the fact that NO ONE apologised to Buffy for BULLYING her out of her own home.

    And ANGRY at Buffy for snogging Angel at the end. Don't get me wrong - I was all "Buffy&Angel 4EVA" once upon a time and even when she first started boinking Spike I was in denial saying that Angel is still the one and only for her.
    But recently I see that it is Spike that is right for Buffy. He is the one for her and I hate it that she can not admit that. They are PERFECT for each other.
    Damn you Buffy and damn you Angel.

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  2. Angel showing up at the end totally caught me off guard. I was really expecting Faith. And I think a Faith/Caleb/Buffy fight with the scythe changing hands repeatedly could have been fun.

    Speaking of which: did they really call it a scythe just so they could have that silly pun in the show? It's some kind of axe, definitely not a scythe. A scythe has a long curved blade that starts at the end of the handle and extends more or less perpendicular from it, not parallel to it. It didn't look remotely old, either.

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  3. The comment on Buffy's name references the comment in one of the first episodes where a student says, "and what kind of a name is Buffy?" Or something like that.

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  4. Aw screw you guys, we're hitting the finale, let Buffy have one nostalgic smooch with her first love before she gears up for the final battle. I don't think either of them harbor any delusions about getting back together. Anyway I honestly did not expect to see Angel pop up unexpectedly and was expecting him only in the finale, so this was a really nice surprise for me. The fact that it had to pan over to Spike and The First was hilarious though. FUCKING LEAVE POOR SPIKE ALONE

    "Is this a confusing love triangle, or what?"
    It's really not, though. Bangel has long since remained in the rearview mirror. It really had nothing to do with making a statement against Spike at all.

    >>"I was gratified that Buffy quite appropriately sent Xander and Dawn to safety"
    Well, I wasn't, and I cheered Dawn on when she tasered him. Dawn should NOT have been forced away into safety. But then I also didn't approve of **Harry Potter spoilers** Ginny being forced to spectate while the rest of her family fought at Hogwarts, although even she wasn't physically restrained.

    >>"-- In the Luxor casino theme tomb, the stars of all three of Joss Whedon's shows did a scene together."
    That is really cool, didn't notice.

    >>"[...]but why didn't Angel help her, anyway?"
    Huh? But he did mean to didn't he? But she stopped him and wanted to finish it herself? Or I'm not understanding what you're referring to. As for Spike I dunno lol.

    >>"-- Amanda: "I still think we got punished" was as close as anyone got to apologizing to Buffy."
    Yeah, why don't you saying something too Rona? BITCH

    I really like the episode title, it's really evocative to me. The episode itself was only OK. None of the conversations you mentioned really did anything for me for some reason, and the earlier Spike thing with the 'shirty' business was just awkward to me. But I guess all the important things have already been said to each other. And ditto to everything @magritte said, the idea of Faith and Buffy tag-teaming/clotheslining the good preacher passing back and forth the """""scythe"""""" would've been so cool, kind of a waste. Everyone just keeps being split up... bleh

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  5. I was actually really surprised (and angry and confused) about the kiss with Angel. I agree that there's no delusion about them getting back together. On the other hand, if she has the big feelings for Spike, it seems like something she wouldn't do. Is she going to break Spike's heart at the end? What a waste of the characters, of the relationship! At this point, is the focus more on shocking the audience, on tormenting the viewer, than on the logical development of the characters and the story?

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  6. For having so recently rejected Buffy, the slayeretts sure seemed relieved to be rescued by her. And impressed. And quick to throw Faith under the bus. Kudos to Buffy for taking the high road and not rubbing it in.

    Yeah, no one apologizes, but they’re all glad to see her; and Willow & Giles positively suck up in their eagerness to help decipher the scythe. Xander is all back to wanting to die by Buffy’s side. Whiplash again. Maybe Dawn understands now why Buffy “wouldn’t choose her.” Except I think that whole deal was just a lie from the First to divide and conquer.

    Spike is glad to see Buffy, too. Seems like he’s had time to plan his response to their night together. Love how he checked out the proximity of sleeping potentials and kept his voice low when broaching the subject. “I can see how a girl would ditch a guy for one of these.” His quickness to assure her she was forgiven makes me wonder if the note she left him asked him to forgive her for leaving him.

    He may, to avoid rejection, have been hedging his bets, (not with kittens) but Buffy, amazingly, decided to show her cards. To her, the night was much more than cold comfort from the cellar dweller. It was the reason for her strength and why she’d won the scythe. I love how her insults have changed. From, “You’re a thing. An evil, disgusting thing,” to “You’re a dope and a bonehead, and you’re shirty.” Lol.

    Spike’s response was beautiful. And Buffy was indeed there with him. Whatever it meant. But for now they’d go be heroes and Spike would be there to have her back.

    Andrew & Anya were fun getting real, then having wheel chair wars, and Dawn got her way about staying. I don’t blame her.

    Buffy’s meeting with the guardian wasn’t all that enlightening, thanks to Caleb, but the scythe did make an impression.

    Spike was there at the vineyard to have her back, but he wasn’t alone. Angel beat him to the punch quite literally. Not sure when Spike arrived, but he was there for the kisses, the lowdown on the pendant and the First’s astute taunt, “That bitch.”

    Sigh. Whiplash. Poor Spike.

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