THE GIFT; triumph and tragedy

[Saturn 5]

THE GIFT
The Good;
The final battle especially the bait and switch with the Buffybot and the Dawn/Buffy scene at the end. Also like the way Buffy casually announces to the gang she killed a vampire and they treat it like no big deal. Love the Scooby strategising session and Anya's gameshow hostess introduction of the troll hammer. Best ever Minion toadying 'Oh groovetastic one' and 'Oh sweaty naughty feelings causing one'.
The Bad;
Doesn't anyone notice Glory's tower? Since when was Olaf a troll 'god'? Some of the minion makeup doesn't look so good, one rather looks like Michael Myers from the Halloween series. WHY NO COMMENTARY? Especially as this could have been the last ever Buffy ep.
Best line;
Minion 1; This shall be our day of Glory!
Minion 2; Nicely put!
Minion 1; Well it just cried out to me! (takes crossbow bolt in the chest) Ugh!
Women good/men bad;
The guy she saves (who resembles Jonathon a lot) says she's "Just a girl". Yeah pal and the ocean is 'Just water'.
Jeez!;
How heartrending is it when Dawn folds her clothes up before she is to be sacrificed, like Joyce taught her? Just as Buffy wishes that Joyce was still there. Doc cuts Dawn.
Kinky dinky;
Xander and Anya have a world in peril quickie. Then he proposes. Anya and Xander call each other pervert.
Captain Subtext;
Tara's back, hooray! "I got so lost". So you can restore Glory's brainsucking. She also tells Giles 'You're a killer' before he kills Ben. Dawn asks Ben to turn into Glory as she prefers her, Glory refers to Buffy as sweetcheeks. Xander observes 'Smart chicks are so hot'. "You couldn't have figured that out in 10th grade?" asks Willow ruefully (another mark in the bi column). Xander however doubts that Willow thinks of Buffy like that but what does he know, he never noticed Tara and Willow and Spike did. Buffy once again hints that the connection between her and Dawn is deeper than just sisters, she describes it as physical and says that she is closer to Dawn than anyone (as the final scene with the Summers' blood will prove). Spike quotes Henry V, William the Bloody sensitive poet still in there somewhere.
Guantanamo Bay;
Giles kills Ben/Glory. The right thing to do but still ruthless as hell. Would Xander have done it if Giles hadn't? It's him who comes up with the idea in the first place. Giles proposes killing Dawn. Too much to ask of Buffy but there are millions of Dawns all over the world, sacrifice one to save them all? Buffy tells Giles that if Dawn dies the council can get someone else (Faith?). But could she ever walk away from all those other Dawns?
Scoobies to the ER;
All pretty banged up, I heard a rumour that season 6 would see Anya in a wheelchair but it never happened.
Missing scenes;
Apocalypses; 6 oh yeah, here's where Angel gets his dragon
Wheldon Cliches (with kind permission from Boo)

Scoobies in bondage: Dawn for the third time
Buffy: 8
Giles: 4
Cordy: 5
Will: 3
Jenny: 1
Angel: 4
Oz: 1
Faith: 3
Joyce: 1
Wes: 1
Xander; 1
Dawn; 3

Scoobies knocked out:
Buffy: 16
Giles: 10
Cordy: 6
Xander: 8
Will: 5
Jenny: 2
Angel: 6
Oz: 3
Faith: 1
Joyce: 3
Wes: 1
Anya;1
Kills: Buffy kills one more vamp, I thought it might be her 100th for the 100th ep but just short. Does she kill Doc? He can survive being stabbed so could he survive the fall? Giles kills Ben/Glory and at least one minion as does Spike.
Buffy: 96 vamps, 32 demons, 6 monsters, 3 humans, 1 werewolf, 1 spirit warrior & a robot
Giles: 5 vamps, 2 demon, 1 human, 1 god.
Cordy: 3 vamps, ½ a demon
Will: 6 vamps
Angel: 3 vamps, 1 demon, 1 human
Oz: 3 vamps, 1 zombie
Faith: 16 vamps, 5 demons, 3 humans
Xander: 5 vamps, 2 zombies, ½ a demon, ½ a demon
Anya: 1 vamp and ½ a demon
Riley; 18 vamps + 7 demons
Spike; 2 vamps and 2 demon

Scoobies go evil:
Giles: 1
Cordy: 1
Will: 2
Jenny: 1
Angel: 1
Oz: 1
Joyce: 1
Xander: 3

Alternate scoobies:
Buffy: 6
Giles: 3
Cordy: 1
Will: 2
Jenny: 2
Angel: 3
Oz: 2
Joyce: 2
Xander: 3

Recurring characters killed: 10
Jesse, Flutie, Jenny, Kendra, Larry, Snyder, Professor Walsh, Forrest, McNamara, Joyce

Sunnydale deaths;
89;

Total number of scoobies: 7
Giles, Xander, Willow, Buffy, Anya, Tara, Spike

Xander demon magnet: 5(6?)
Preying Mantis Lady, Inca Mummy Girl, Drusilla, VampWillow, Anya (arguably Buffy & Faith with their demon essences?), Dracula?

Scoobies shot:
Giles: 2
Angel: 3
Oz: 4
Riley; 1

Notches on Scooby bedpost:
Giles: 2; Joyce & Olivia, possibly Jenny and 3xDraccy babes?
Cordy: 1?
Buffy: 3 confirmed; Angel, Parker,Riley, 1 possible, Dracula(?)
Angel: 1;Buffy
Joyce: 1;Giles, 2 possible, Ted and Dracula(?)
Oz: 3; Groupie, Willow & Verucca
Faith:2 ;Xander, Riley
Xander: 2; Faith, Anya
Willow: 2;Oz and Tara
Riley; 3; Buffy, Sandy and unnamed vampwhore
Questions and observations;
Lovely recap of past 100 eps, especially nice to have Cordy and Angel. The vamp in the alley goes 'Oh god'? I know it's weird but I always rather liked Glory's minions. Very clever that when we see the Buffybot it's wearing the clothes we've last seen Buffy in. SMG puts on her white jumper which later turns up in 'The Grudge'. The creatures from the transformed city hall rather resemble the bugs from Aliens especially the Alien Hybrid from Alien 4 which Joss wrote.
So what happens to the people Glory brainsucked? We know that there is a link between Glory and them, when Glory dies do they return to normal? (I remember reading one very inventive fic where Faith had been brainsucked by Glory and in the follow-up story DarkWillow cures her by brainsucking Warren before she kills him and giving Faith his mental energy. But you figure if Faith can recover from her coma Slayer healing would easily take care of it?). Spike says blood is life which is what possessed Xander says in Buffy vs Dracula.
Please note all Dawn-haters, Dawn was quite willing to commit suicide to save the world. And if Buffy's blood hadn't worked she'd have followed her off the tower, Faith would be the Slayer and the Summers girls would all be together in heaven.
A lot of people wanted Buffy to end at this point but I don't, I don't want Buffy to die young like all the other Slayers, I want her to live a long and happy life and I don't want poor Dawn to lose the mother and sister she loves within 6 weeks of each other. But still, stonking ep, if it had ended like this it would have been ok with me.
Marks out of 10; 10/10 for the girl who saved the world a lot (and still does)

[Randi Giles]

The first episode I ever saw. The first episode I cried watching. I loved this episode from the recap sequence to Buffy's sacrifice, which was a beautiful scene by the way. So let's gets started on the bad. The one thing noticed about Glory's tower is that it was raggedy, but surprisingly stood up well considering it was built by crazy people. I don't remember Olaf being a troll god either. And I cannot believe there is no commentary for this episode. As far as what happen to the people Glory brain sucked I would assume they wonder off probably back to where they belong. I remember always seeing a couple people in the background looking dazed and confused somewhat when the scoobies sees Buffy's body. I don't know. And what people wanted Buffy to die at that point shame, shame. I also have to mention when Willow brought Tara back awesome. Buffy and Spike one on one was sweet. It was funny though when she pushed Doc off to the side as if he was nothing. Glory thinking Buffy was a robot all this time was not so bright and Buffy dying was oh so sad. 10/10

[Saturn 5]

A lot of people think that Buffy's last 2 seasons weren't that great and that it would have been better to end it here, personally I disagree, I'm glad to give Buffy a happy ending in Chosen

[gumgnome]

I think that the show would have felt in some ways like a tighter narrative if it had ended here - S5 does feel like the real climax that the show has been crescendo-ing to at this point. The overall plots for S6 + S7 don't feel as cleverly thought out and some loose ends do start to become visible. However, S6 + 7 were still very good and some of the individual episodes are truly spectacular. Which Buffy fans can put hand on heart and proclaim that they'd rather have a world without "Once More With Feeling", "Normal Again" and "Conversations With Dead People"!