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7.22 Chosen

Faith: "It looks like the Hellmouth is officially closed for business."
Giles: "There's another one in Cleveland."

Joss Whedon achieved the impossible; he gave us a huge, climactic, surprising, and ultimately satisfying end to Sunnydale and the series, while still leaving the door open for the characters and the Buffyverse to live on. I loved it, from the Buffy/Angel maturity discussion and cookie dough analogy at the beginning, to the Sunnydale sign falling into the pit at the end. I just wish they'd done more of this earlier in the season.

Spike completed his journey toward redemption, saved the world, and quite literally went out in a blaze of glory. If we hadn't already heard that James Marsters is moving to "Angel," I'd still be in shock. But it was a mystical death, and hey, they keep coming back from those mystical deaths, don't they?

I was dry-eyed until Buffy, Giles, Willow, and Xander were standing together for the last time in the high school. The Scoobies were finally back together again, I got chills down my spine, and the tears started coming. The tears kept flowing pretty much until Spike's sacrifice at the end. I also got chills when the Slayers acquired their power.

Last year, Dark Willow; this year, White Willow. There was something delightfully feminist -- okay, nifty -- about this one powerful woman undoing what the Shadow Men did to the Slayer line. Kennedy was also cool, being there for Willow, ready to keep her from her "dark roots," and now they're a very powerful couple. "You are a goddess." "And you're a Slayer."

The RPG the night before The End was delightful, with Amanda, Xander, Andrew as the Dungeon-master in that Little Red Riding Hood from "Fear, Itself", and Giles about as far from his original persona as he could get ("I used to be a highly respected watcher, and now I'm a wounded dwarf with the mystical strength of a doily.") And Anya snoring.

Anya had been talking about death constantly; did she know deep down that she was going to die? At least Anya and Andrew were fun together, and there was one last reference to bunnies. If I have a complaint about this episode, it was that Anya's death lacked oomph. She should have died gloriously in Xander's arms, with one final, hilarious bon mot, like Barrymore -- "Dying is easy. Comedy is hard." Xander didn't seem all that broken up, either. He and Buffy were all about the mall banter at the end, and they had both just lost their demon lovers. But Xander did his usual superlative job of quipping in the face of certain doom: "If you have to go to the bathroom, it's to your left. If you don't have to go to the bathroom, picture what you've got to face. Better to go now." I thought this was wonderful; no one ever mentions heroes having to use the bathroom before an Apocalypse.

Dawn didn't do too badly with the sunlight trap and all. Although I still think Xander should have bound and gagged her and put her in the trunk of the car.

Faith and Robin had a few nice moments, with defensive, isolationist slayer crap, and Robin telling Faith she was inadequate in bed. I also liked Robin's "surprise" at the end. But if I have a second complaint, it's that I thought Faith being the "real" Slayer would be a key plot point in the final battle -- but instead, almost all of Faith's best moments were on "Angel" this year.

Speaking of Angel, I absolutely loved the Buffy/Angel scene at the beginning. It was perfect closure. Of course, Angel was going to smell Spike on Buffy, just as Spike smelled Angel on Buffy ("you have Angel breath"); I loved Angel "going all Dawson" on her, bitching about how "everyone's got a soul now" and "I'm getting the brushoff for Captain Peroxide." At one point, Buffy said, "You know, one of these days I'm going to put the two of you in a room and let you wrestle it out... there could be oil of some kind involved." Loved her face as she said that. After all, who among us *hasn't* pictured Angel and Spike stripped to the waist, oiled down, and wrestling?

It was way past time for Buffy to grow the hell up. The cookie analogy was apt along with being a very cute double entendre: "... and maybe one day I turn around and realize I'm ready. I'm cookies. And then, you know, if I want someone to eat... or enjoy warm, delicious, cookie me, then that's fine. That'll be then. When I'm done." Bravo, Buffy.

Joss did a similarly wonderful job with Buffy and Spike. I knew Spike wouldn't turn evil or fall for the First again, and he didn't; he made a punching bag with Angel's face on it, instead. Spike doesn't have Angel's talent for portraiture, though; Angel looked like Beavis and/or Butthead.

But Buffy finally gave Spike everything he needed. She called him a champion by giving him the amulet, instead of Angel. We didn't see kisses, but there were flaming hands; she touched his face, they slept in each other's arms, and she fulfilled Cassie's prophecy and told him at the end that she loved him, even though he said he didn't believe her. She did it because she knew he and his Elizabeth Taylor accessory were toast, but it was still a wonderful thing for Buffy to do, and I'm glad she did it.

Joss chose to let us interpret what happened between Buffy and Spike in the basement, probably so that the Buffy/Angel shippers and the tiny, manic minority that hates Spike can choose to believe that Spike saved the world but didn't screw Buffy. Well, I choose to interpret those final scenes in the basement as indicating that Buffy and Spike had a whole lot of sex, and did a lot of things together that he can't spell.

Did Spike fulfill the Shanshu prophecy? He is indeed a vampire with a soul who saved the world from the apocalypse. Does that mean Spike will get the "reward" and turn up on "Angel" this fall as a human being? Or will he return in some other mystical way? Doesn't matter. I'm good, whatever it is. I can't wait to see Angel and Spike together again. Let's get out the oil.

So where do we go from here?

We started in the high school, and ended there. The troops were actually led into the school by the principal. The survivors escaped in a school bus, as Spike knocked down the Sunnydale sign for the third time. There is a certain dramatic irony that's attached to all this. A synchronicity that borders on predestination, one might say.

Buffy has been told constantly that the Slayer must fight alone; how ironic and fun that it turns out the answer was *not* to be alone. The First (or The Taunter, I like that) may still exist, but Buffy gave up her uniqueness, and won the day. The First even gave Buffy the idea. Not too smart for a superior evil being, huh?

The music during the final battle was gorgeous. There was a major red herring when Buffy was stabbed; I'm sure many thought she would die for the third time. And we had a wounded Buffy passing the scythe to Faith; that was a scene they had to do. Joss destroyed Sunnydale, and changed the boundaries of the Slayer myth. Instead of just saving the world this time, the Scoobies changed the world. As Giles said, "I think it's bloody brilliant."

What will the Scoobies do now? Find the new Slayers and help them before they accidentally kill their friends? Start a much larger Watcher's Council? Buffy is free; she gets to keep her power, but she can go to college, travel, make a life for herself. And in a few years, when she's "done" and someone is ready to eat her, she can go find someone else. Because I think by that time, both Angel and Spike in his new incarnation, whatever it is, will have moved on.

Bits and pieces, for the final time:

-- How appropriate that Buffy got Caleb where he lived. Too bad we didn't get to see him in two separate parts. They must have blown the effects budget on the Hellmouth.

-- When Spike woke, he said, "I'm drowning in footwear... weird dream." Was this an obvious pun, sole, souled? A reference to "Welcome to the Hellmouth," where Cordelia talks about heaven being in L.A., that close to that many shoes? Or maybe it's part of the annoying mall joke, when Buffy was talking about her wicked shoe craving?

-- Why do people always have to cut the palms of their hands? Doesn't that make gripping a scythe a little harder? Couldn't they cut something less important, like almost anything else?

-- There were many references throughout to past episodes. Along with the ones already mentioned, we had Cleveland ("The Wish"); mini-golf (The Mayor and Faith), Giles saying, "The earth is definitely doomed," which was very close to what he said in "The Harvest." And there was staking out three places in the high school, even.

-- Did we ever find out why Buffy wasn't going to choose Dawn? Was it the whole leaving town thing? Like I said, bound, gagged, in the trunk, too late now.

-- I'm sorry we lost Amanda. I liked her. Especially in the last few episodes.

-- The final "grr argh" included a bit of animation. There haven't been many unusual "grr argh"s... "Becoming 2," "Graduation Day 2," "Once More With Feeling..." It's pathetic that I know this, isn't it?

Quotes:

Angel: "It's very powerful and probably very dangerous. It has a purifying power, cleansing power... possibly scrubbing bubbles."

Angel: "You know, I started it. The whole having a soul. Before it was all the cool new thing."
Buffy: "Oh, my god, are you twelve?"
Angel: "I'm getting the brush-off for Captain Peroxide. It doesn't necessarily bring out the champion in me."
Buffy: "You're not getting the brush-off. Are you just going to come here and go all Dawson on me every time I have a boyfriend?"

Buffy: "And then, you know, if I want someone to eat m... or enjoy warm, delicious cookie me, then that's fine. That'll be then. When I'm done."
Angel: "Any thoughts on who might enjoy... do I have to go with the cookie analogy?"

Willow: "Did you find out anything about the scythe?"
Buffy: "It slices, dices and makes julienne preacher."

Spike: "So. Where's tall, dark and forehead?"

Buffy: "You know, one of these days I'm just going to put you two in a room and let you wrastle it out."
Spike: "No problem at this end."
Buffy: "There could be oil of some kind involved."

Willow: "This goes beyond anything I've ever done. It's a total loss of control and not in a nice, wholesome, my girlfriend has a pierced tongue kind of way."

Anya: "Come on. Let's go assemble the cannon fodder."
Xander: "That's not what we're calling them, sweetie."
Anya: "Not to their faces. What am I, insensitive?"

Xander: "Smack down on Red Riding Hood. This could get ugly."
Giles: "Could it possibly get uglier? I used to be a highly respected Watcher. Now I'm a wounded dwarf with the mystical strength of a doily."

Xander: "If you have to go to the bathroom, it's to your left. If you don't have to go to the bathroom, picture what you're about to face. Better to go now."

Spike: I'm getting zero juice here. And I look like Elizabeth Taylor."

Buffy: "I'm not worried."
Rona: "Really? 'Cause I'm flashing back to Xander's whole bathroom speech."

Spike: "I can feel it, Buffy."
Buffy: "What?"
Spike: "My soul. It's really there. It kind of stings."

Dawn: "We destroyed the mall? I fought on the wrong side."

Part of me can't grasp that this is actually my last Buffy review, after writing them for so many years. I'm so glad that the finale was worthy of the series.

Four out of four stakes,

Billie





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