“Chosen,” by Joss Whedon
Kissing! As an appetizer for the very last televised episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer we jump right in with a taste of BuffAngel. It’s all nostalgia, you know, a bone thrown to those who long for the good old days when Buffy’s biggest problems centered around whether getting sweaty and intimate with her certain special someone would make that person evil, and/or ruin her birthday.
In time, she comes up for air—he doesn’t breathe, remember—and thinks to ask why he’s come back to Sunnydale. But before they can properly discuss the First and what it’s been up to lately, we find out that Caleb’s not as dead as previously supposed.
Back from the dead Nathan Fillion hits a lot harder than not quite killed Nathan. In the end, though, this doesn’t save him. Buffy splits him up the middle, just as he’s giving her a hard time about not having testicles. Maybe if he’d expended more effort on fighting attentively and less on freely sharing his woman-hating opinions, he’d have lasted longer.
Then again, maybe not.
Angel picks himself up, eyes the Caleb pieces, and hands Buffy a file full of hopefully-useful documents on the First. Then he forks over an amulet. It’s for someone ensouled and stronger than a human. He’s thinking that means he should wear it, and he declares his intention to fight by her side.
Buffy vetoes this. Angel needs to go back to L.A. and work up a second battlefront, in case Team Slay gets annihilated. She fails to add what I’m thinking, which is “You’ve taken up way too much time in this episode as it is, buster.”
Angel counters with: “Is this because of Spike?”
Oh, William, you’re the fella on everyone’s mind.
Angel is briefly miffed to hear that Spike is in the Soul Club now. His adolescent pouting is enough to raise a chuckle. Buffy finally tells him that while she’s not exactly dating Spike, he is in her heart.
With that established, they get into romantic big picture stuff, peering at the topic of Buffy’s future, the one she’ll have if she manages to not die in the next forty minutes. She talks about being cookie dough. She’s feeling like a work in progress, in other words, but hopes a day will come when she’s… well, fully baked. This time the humor is genuinely humorous. Angel concedes that she may yet be doughy, hands over the amulet and gets himself gone.
Heading home, Buffy finds a furious Dawn upstairs. Dawn’s reason for being mad, you may recall, is that big Sis tried to get her far far away from the big battle. Is this the point where spectral Joyce’s prediction, “Buffy won’t choose you,” pays off? Not really. If anything, Dawn and Xander are the ones whose survival Buffy tried to ensure. It’s a small prophetic loose end, but I would argue this string remains untied.
Unless, that is, they tackle it in the comics?
Downstairs, Spike is cranky too, and taking out his feels on punching bag. He and Buffy snark at each other about Angel. Then he demands custody of the amulet. You have to admire Spike a little for having eavesdropped on that conversation to the bitter end, rather than doing the usual TV character thing, which is to get half of the info before flouncing off to form erroneous conclusions and broadcast them far and wide.
Buffy tells him the amulet is meant for a champion. Before Spike can fully deflate, or even investigate ego-battering ideas like “Oh, you’re right, I do suck,” she hands it over. It’s a nice, backhanded way of paying him a great compliment.
She asks if she can spend the night in the basement again. After a quick pretense at having pride and saying no, he relents.
A thing I appreciate about all that time spent on BuffAngel earlier in the episode is that it makes me see the fun in the Spuffy dynamic.
Night comes. Buffy heads out to take in the night air on the back porch. Somehow, she always looks like she’s thinking about Joyce when she does this. Firstie pops up, wearing a Caleb suit. Because, you know, he’s dead now. It’s looking forward to using its army to overrun the earth. It says too much, though, when it recites the “In each generation…” page of the Slayer handbook.
Buffy heads downstairs, looking thoughtful. Spike awakens from a weird dream, and she tells him she’s realized something: they’re going to win.
Hurrah! Victory is nigh! We never really doubted, did we? Joss Whedon may occasionally slaughter your favorite characters, but he isn’t going to let a primal evil overrun the Buffyverse, is he?
To celebrate her epiphany, Buffy puts on a really strange-looking church lady blouse. She doesn’t call the whole gang together right away, instead gathering the main Scoobies, including Faith. She has a plan, she says—what do they think of it?
She has learned something, in other words, from her recent attempt to spring the “let’s go back to the vineyard and die some more, yayyy!” scheme on everyone at once. And some of that learning includes consultation with the senior members of the group.
What is the plan? We don’t know yet, but Faith calls it radical. Faith says this! Giles contributes “bloody brilliant.” Willow, though, is freaking out. She’s the key to the whole thing and she’s not sure she’s stable enough. Buffy doesn’t tell her this is a job for a champion, but she nevertheless hands her the Scythe. The unspoken message, again, is “Buck up, honey—I believe in you.”
Now that the major players are agreed on a course of action, the Slayettes get clued in. Buffy makes final last rousing speech to her Potential troops, plus Robin, plus Andrew. “This is about choices,” she says. She tells them she’s planning to go into the Hellmouth tomorrow. She gives them a chance to make a decision.
We still don’t learn what it is. Though one can assume that option B is “Run screaming.”
Next thing we know, Faith and Robin are blocking off exits within the high school so the ubervamps will be driven upward during the coming fight, rather than into the sewers. (Which are presumably empty, since all of Sunnydale’s city employees have fled. Let the Turok-Han run into the sewers, I say!) Robin expresses doubts about the still-mysterious plan, and somehow this topic drifts over to a discussion of his recent sexual encounter with Faith. She gives him a facile excuse for having blown him off. He replies with a devastating argument. Basically, he tells her that she’s cookie dough… and he’s nummier cookie dough. That Robin. He’s one articulate guy.
The deal they make is that if they survive, he gets a chance to surprise her.
Willow and Kennedy are, meanwhile, talking about how maybe Kennedy is gonna have to prepare herself to kill Willow if she goes to the bad place. Kennedy is wearing suspenders that look like shoulder holsters. It’s very Lara Croft. I cannot help but like her more. Such is the power of fashion. Her argument to Willow boils down to “I insist it’ll be okay.” Since Willow can’t opt out of the whole scheme, she accepts this small comfort, frail though it may be.
It’s their last night on the Hellmouth. Downstairs, in the dining room, Giles, Xander, Amanda and Andrew are playing RPGs. Giles is a wounded dwarf with the mystical strength of a doily, and all because he can’t sleep. I wish Giles had gotten some of Angel’s screen time, earlier in the episode. Anya can sleep, and she is adorable. Xander gazes on her fondly.
Buffy eventually goes downstairs to Spike again, and we don’t see what happens next. In a way it doesn’t matter, because what Spike really wants is Buffy, present and with him and giving a crap. And that he’s got: she’s definitely there. They’ve come a long way.
Next morning, the gang moves into the high school and begins to deploy. Assistant Team Captain Faith and the Slayettes head downstairs. Kennedy and Willow prepare for witchery in Robin’s office. The non-super characters—Xander, Dawn, Giles, Robin, Anya, and Andrew—are on clean-up duty. Why? Because the vampires aren’t being diverted into the sewers, as they ought.
Dawn refuses to let Buffy say anything that might be goodbye. The sisters are clearly scared for each other, and simultaneously proud.
Then Buffy turns to Willow, Xander and Giles. The core four, together at what might be the end, catch a quick minute of banter about what they’re going to do tomorrow. Buffy suggests shopping. They’re back in the high school and yet again facing death. So, for just a second, they play at being their season one selves.
It’s cheery. You can see that Buffy really does believe things will go well.
Giles moves off, playing the grumpy adult and muttering about how the world is doomed. As for the other three, they don’t need to say anything more. They head for their respective stations with just a few quick hand-clasps. It strikes me that this scene offers a sort of counterpoint to one in the filmed version of the Return of the King, when all those battle-hardened hobbitses are at the bar, conspicuously not talking.
It’s rather amazing how powerful not talking can be.
Everyone’s in position. Buffy heads downstairs, where she slices open her hand with Andrew’s favorite Mexican steak knife, and duly bleeds on the seal of Danzalthar. Knock, knock, evil! Faith goes second, and the Potentials follow suit. Me, I’d cut something I wasn’t planning to use to hold a weapon.
The seal opens, leaving a staircase heading downward.
Spike complains that his sparkly amulet isn’t so much as tingling. “I’m not worried,” Buffy says.
Faith adds: what if Willow’s spell doesn’t work?
Nope, not worried.
They peer over the lip of a cliff at a whole lot of CGI noseless supervamps.
Okay, maybe a little worried.
In Robin’s office, Willow begins the spell, and as it’s taking hold we get a flashback to the the second half of Buffy’s rousing speech to the Potentials. It’s about how the proto-Watchers were the ones who set up the Slayer rules, all those centuries ago, and it’s most especially about the rule insisting there only be one Chosen One at a time.
I find myself moved to tears every time I see this. As Willow remakes the universe and all the Potentials become Slayers… as Buffy takes her power and offers it to anyone who can handle it, I choke up.
Vi is pretty happy about it too. “These guys are dust,” she says.
And then a huge battle breaks out.
Kennedy, who is the only Slayer not down in the Hellmouth’s coatroom, gets to see Willow trip out, complete with white hair and a halo of white, non-evil Slay light. We had Dark Willow, and now we get Light Willow. It’s a pleasing bit of symmetry.
“You are a goddess,” Kennedy says.
“You’re a Slayer,” Willow agrees and sends her off to take the Scythe to the fight.
There is so much to just plain love about the mayhem that follows. It’s a beautifully directed fight. A few Turok-Han do, inevitably, get past the line of Slayers and into the high school. Andrew helps Anya buck up against her terror by telling her to think of bunnies. She fights well, at least until the Bringers turn up.
I was so sad that Anya died! Maybe she hadn’t paid off her karmic vengeance debt yet. Maybe there wasn’t anywhere else she and Xander could go with their relationship. But, dammit, I loved her every quirk and overly honest utterance.
And, speaking of redemption, Spike’s amulet finally gets its tingle on, just as Buffy gets stabbed.
She falls, still holding the scythe. Then she passes Faith their shiny red torch, whole-heartedly giving her what belongs to them both, and tells her: “Hold the line.”
Elsewhere, Robin gets wounded. Amanda dies. The First comes and gloats over what it imagines are Buffy’s last moments. But apparently the First knows more about theoretical evil than its applications, because it’s really not so good at recognizing mortal wounds. Buffy drags herself to her feet, Rona tosses the Scythe back to her, and the girls kick some serious noseless vampire ass. Soon the Slayers’ mystic weapon is getting flung from young woman to young woman in a major way, further underling that whole let’s share our power and be the better for it concept.
The problem is they’re outnumbered. But that ends when Spike and the amulet start incinerating all comers.
Wrapping up seven years of BtVS in a single episode must have been a massive challenge, and Joss Whedon’s script hits the right emotional notes. It is easy to nitpick over some of the details, and the sparkly amulet of Spike incineration is perhaps the most vulnerable point for this kind of attention. The Hellmouth collapse is a necessary element of the story. For one thing, it ups the ante on the kids having blown up the school in S3. In practical terms, the Turok-Han army numbers in the thousands, so a large-scale cataclysm has to take place to prevent the Slayers from being overwhelmed.
Finally and most importantly, closing the Hellmouth is crucial if Buffy is going to finally spread her wings and leave Sunnydale.
Spike’s sacrifice, too, makes emotional sense. Like Anya, he has a long murderous past behind him, and a real willingness to offset the wrongs of decades gone by.
The element that’s shaky is the amulet itself. It comes onto the scene so late in the game, and so soon after the game-changing Slayer Scythe, that it can’t help but feel like the contrivance it is.
Contrivance or not, it’s setting off tremors in the Hellmouth, and the Slayers retreat.
Spike tells Buffy he can feel his soul itching as the girls bomb through the high school, grabbing up the wounded and loading a school bus. Xander fails to find Anya’s body as they retreat. We get one last look at her. Bye, Anya!
Downstairs, we get a last goodbye. Buffy tells Spike he doesn’t have to stay in the crater. He tells her to go; he wants to see how it all ends. “School is out for bloody summer.”
She takes his hand, which catches on fire, and tells him she loves him.
You all know what he says.
Finally she concedes to the obvious—there’s no reason for her to die too—leaving him there and running like stink.
The school is toast. Again! Faith manages to catch the bus. Buffy isn’t quite behind her, but she does manage to make it out to the roof even as Spike burns down into flame and ash and a new unlife on Angel.
From there, it’s a chase scene. Dawn peers out the back window of the bus, watching, waiting and hoping. She is the one who sees Buffy fleeing across the tops of the rooftops, with the scythe, as the bus speeds out of town.
Boom! She jumps down to the bus roof. Aaaaand… they make it! The city collapses beneath them, creating a big hole with the Welcome To Sunnydale sign at its edge.
“What did this?” Giles asks, referring to the huge crater his fabulously cool apartment and favorite open mic night used to inhabit.
“Spike,” Buffy answers. So there, Giles, he was useful after all! Instead of being snarky in her moment of triumph, she hugs Dawn.
Xander finds out from Andrew that Anya died saving him, and Robin fakes out Faith by pretending to die. Surprise, Faith!
Then they just revel in the victory and the unexpected question: what are we gonna do now? And Buffy, at long last, looks happy.
Next: I’ll be back in a couple weeks, with a wrap-up post.
A.M. Dellamonica has a book’s worth of fiction up here on Tor.com! Her most recent apparance is in “The Ugly Woman of Castello di Putti,” the second of a series of stories called The Gales. Both this story and its predecessor, “Among the Silvering Herd,” are prequels to her upcoming Tor novel, Child of a Hidden Sea.
If sailing ships, pirates, magic and international intrigue aren’t your thing, though, her ‘baby werewolf has two mommies’ story, “The Cage,” made the Locus Recommended Reading List for 2010. Or check out her sexy novelette, “Wild Things,” a tie-in to the world of her award winning novel Indigo Springs and its sequel, Blue Magic.
Well I kinda expected their next move to be –
“Well we’ve got a few dozen people in our group and nowhere to stay, does anyone have any friends who own a big empty hotel we could crash in?”
– but aparrently not…
“Buffy finds a furious Dawn upstairs.”
Nitpick: at the front door.
“Is this the point where spectral Joyce’s prediction, “Buffy won’t choose you,” pays off? Not really. If anything, Dawn and Xander are the ones whose survival Buffy tried to ensure. It’s a small prophetic loose end, but I would argue this string remains untied.”
Joss said that the decision to send Dawn away was the fulfillment of the prophecy. Buffy didn’t chose her for the final battle, but Dawn exercised her own choice.
@1, That’s my head canon.
Also the spectral Joyce thing never comes to fruition, because it was always nothing but a trick to drive a wedge between the sisters. Dawn represents Buffy’s humanity, if The First could have honestly seperated the Slayer from her humanity, Buffy’d pretty much be playing for Team First by that time.
Well, it was a pretty good ending to a great show I had loved. I enjoyed Season 6 and 7 so it was all good for me.
Sophist,
Buffy’s choice to send Dawn away does fulfill the prophecy on paper, I suppose, but it feels incomplete to me.
I thought the end bit was Andrew lying to Xander about Anya saving him, because she was just kind of fighting, and that lie was supposed to be something of a capstone to his whole lying to protect himself all the time thing. This time, he was lying for somebody else’s benefit, in actually a surprisingly conscientious way. Whereas previously he had ALWAYS cast himself as the hero of his fantasies, now he baldly exposes himself as being weaker and more useless than he actually was, all for the benefit of somebody else’s memory.
Not that Andrew is redeemed, or that the lie isn’t still kind of ethically ambiguous, but it’s something he wouldn’t have done before.
Alyx – first, thank you for your time doing this. I’ve been following since After Life or Flooded, even though I don’t comment much. I just wish I knew about this since the beginning.
Episode Nitpick: It’s a plotting issue, which in terms of priorty fall well below character development and theme, but, can anyone explain why they opened the seal before implementing Willow’s spell? They exposed themselves needlessly, unless I missed something (very possible).
DougL @@.-@
I have a theory that involves the relative dislike of s6 & s7. May I ask, when did you first start watching BtVS? When it aired originally, or later?
And thanks everyone for your input each week.
To draw the First’s attention, so they wouldn’t notice the spell being cast.
“Buffy’s choice to send Dawn away does fulfill the prophecy on paper, I suppose, but it feels incomplete to me.”
Yeah, I agree that the execution was weak.
“I thought the end bit was Andrew lying to Xander about Anya saving him, because she was just kind of fighting, and that lie was supposed to be something of a capstone to his whole lying to protect himself all the time thing. This time, he was lying for somebody else’s benefit, in actually a surprisingly conscientious way. Whereas previously he had ALWAYS cast himself as the hero of his fantasies, now he baldly exposes himself as being weaker and more useless than he actually was, all for the benefit of somebody else’s memory.”
That’s how I saw it too. Joss: “Andrew learning that the thing that he’s sort of reviled for, making up stories, becomes the thing that he helps Xander with, becomes the thing that he actually is good at, giving her the epic death that she didn’t actually get to have.”
“To draw the First’s attention, so they wouldn’t notice the spell being cast.”
Agreed, and I’d add that thematically, it was important for the Potentials to choose to enter the fight before the empowerment spell, just as Buffy was willing to sacrifice herself in Prophecy Girl.
I still wonder what things would have been like if Buffy could have carried on for more seasons. But as a story this was a good place to end (with Buffy free of the burden of being the only one).
I’m really, really not happy Anya didn’t make it, though. I keep thinking they decided “someone had to die since if everybody made it there’s no sacrifice. Anya is expendable, let’s kill her”.
I find myself sad again every time I realise there is no more… (comics just aren’t the same, even if you actually *liked* what happens in them).
Just caught Sarah Michelle Gellar (or should I say Prinze?) in an episode of Crazy Ones, not quite the kind of show I enjoy watching but it was so nice to see her on TV again (I… kinda couldn’t get into Ringer). Hrm, I don’t watch How I Met Your Mother either … maybe Buffy has conditioned me into not liking TV that’s “happy”?
@11, Her chosen professional name is still Sarah Michelle Gellar, without her husband’s surname.
It was a terrific ending, with the exception of that pathetically awful cookie dough business.
Buffy just standing there without the world on her shoulders, happy. For the very first time.
Love, C.
How long after Buffy, Spike and the rest close the Hellmouth does the final episode of Angel take place?
If what happens in that episode, then what are Buffy etc. doing after that? Because the evil dimensions are let loose through what used to be the City of Angels, and so I don’t believe that what matters is what the stupid comix tells us matters is whether or not Buffy’s having an abortion.
Perfect timing. I’ll be thinking about this a little bit tonight as I watch Alyson Hannigan perform in the “How I Met Your Mother” finale. In an interview earlier this week, she described “Buffy” as “the show that changed my life.”
#14: “Angel” runs one season after “Buffy.” That’s when Buffy ships back the amulet. It’s also when they encounter a Slayer who is, unfortunately, quite unwell, and a well-organized company of Slayers who don’t trust the Angel gang, apparently per Buffy’s orders. The final season that’s set mostly at Wolfram and Hart is the aftereffect plot. It’s not half as nasty as what happens to L.A. in the comic, though.
Sihaya@15
It isn’t actually specified who ships the amulet back to Angel at W&H. Probably NOT Buffy, however. My suspicion is that it’s part of Eve and Lindsey’s plot.
(Note that what happens in the Angel comic isn’t actually visible to the rest of the world. Basically W&H traps the whole of Angel’s L.A. in a pocket dimension “between moments”. As far as the rest of the world can see, nothing unusual has happened.)
Alyx, I too am glad we’ve had this time together. It’s been, as JM might say, “a wild ride.”
Last week, I mentioned that the Bangel kissage put me in mind of Dru/Angelus. It also puts me in mind of I Will Remember You (AtS). There too, Buffy went right up and starting macking on Angel, without giving Riley a second thought. Angel
retconnedrewound the day, but she couldn’t know he’d do that.It bothered me, too, that Angel is clearly taking Buffy for granted here. Fortunately, she sets him straight. He’s certainly being petty and childish enough.
Funny, tho’, when she told Spike it hurt seeing him with that other girl in Hell’s Bells, he appologizes, gathers up said girl, and they leave. In that moment, nominally evil, soulless Spike has more consideration for Buffy’s feelings than she has for his here, even after everything they’ve been thru. Sigh.
@7. I dunno what this does for your theory, but I’d like to add my 2 cents. I started watching BtVS from the beginning, and I don’t especially care for s6 & 7 (except for Spike’s evolution).
@13. I’m not a big fan of the cookie dough speech either. I can see why a young person might think that way, if said young person …
a) hadn’t already died and been resurrected (done/starting over) or
b) didn’t know Spike. Spike’s been (un)dead for over a century, and he’s not done. In fact, his evolution continues thru AtS s5 and into the comix.
Interestingly, just as we’re winding things up here, the 1st issue of s10 is available. I didn’t actually hate it, kinda liked it even, but I still want to shake Buffy ’til her eyes roll right out of her d*mn fool head! Spike’s taken a huge step back, so now she’s trying to convince herself that it’s better they’re just Slaying buddies (right?). Nevermind the reasons why their relationship was so dysfunctional, or that those reasons no longer apply. Have not, in fact, applied for some time. Gah!
Also, too, in Triangle, Buffy spoke of Xanya having a “miraculous love.”
I dunno what she thinks she’s got with Spike…but I can’t think of anything more miraculous. Theirs is, in fact, what’s known as a sacred marriage, symbolized by the flame that burns, but does not consume (thanks, Mr. Google!)
A sacred marriage has implications on the individual level: Nietszche called it amor fati (“the love of your fate”), and it’s the philosophers’ gate thru which the One passes to become the many. It’s also a symbol of the psyche’s instinctive drive to individuation.
OTOH, it’s about bringing two halves together. It’s the union of the God and Goddess, the comprehensive union of two opposites. With Spuffy, you have a fair number of opposites from which to choose.
Maybe I’m being too literal, but it’s the union of God and Goddess that sticks with me. Buffy: the bright, masculine, positive sun and Spike: the dark, feminine, negative moon (yin-yang).
@14. Buffy didn’t end up having that abortion, turns out she wasn’t even pregnant (think Buffybot 2.0). It could get interesting, tho’, if they’re going where I hope they’re going.
@15. I’m disappointed we haven’t spent any more time with poor Dana in the comix.
As if I hadn’t gone on enuf already… Spike’s sacrifice recalls his s2 “I wanna save the world.” Also, in Intevention, when told that she has a gift, Buffy asks if it’s a gift she’s giving, or one she’s getting. She ends up giving this gift to Dawn in The Gift. Here, she receives the same gift from Spike.
“It also puts me in mind of I Will Remember You (AtS). There too, Buffy went right up and starting macking on Angel, without giving Riley a second thought.”
I’m not a particular fan of IWRY, but Buffy wasn’t dating Riley at that point in time.
The amulet actually has a very logical and thought out purpose that only makes sense if you were watching Angel too.
At the end of Angel Season 4 things happen, during said things he is given the amulet by what is effectively his sworn mortal enemy, a major Demon that has their own plans for world dominaton. Plans that don’t involve a different major evil running amok and trashing the landscape.
Further, what happens to Spike coincides with Angel thinkng he should wear the amulet. If he had worn it then he would have been trapped and more suseptible to what was going on in Angel Season 4.
Ok, no offense, but you and Suzanne need to coordinate better…or worse…or I just need to only read one article a day.
I just read a heart-wrenching recap from The Dark Tower and now Anya’s dying and Spike’s a champion and I just need a moment, ok?
I’ve got something in my eye.
Just read about the breaking of one ka-tet, another almost does here, but I suppose the Scooby-tet held true. The core did, anyway, since Spike and Faithie and Anya were, I dunno, support elements? Add-ons? Which sounds like I’m dismissing them, which I’m not (Andrew is, however, dismissed, his redemption felt too forced, flip-flopped alignments too fast for me to accept as true, talk to me again after he’s been a watcher for a decade or so and maybe I’ll have changed my mind). I was afraid Buffy wasn’t going to make it, either, and yes, Light Willow was awesome. Also, as I’ve blathered on about time and time again, I love watching redemption and Spike, well…yup, there’s that something in my eye again.
I’m of the opinion that Angel was given the amulet for the sole(heh) purpose of taking him out of play.
The amulet was dug up by Lindsey and sent back. But, if Angel had done what he intended, wear it himself, I don’t know if Lindsey would have dug it up, it’s because of Eve he knows Spike is in there instead.
And if Lindsey had dug it up, with his grudge against Angel, he’d have kept him trapped. And without Angel as the head of W&H, Lindsey’s got no cause to begin his campaign against them. Trapping Angel in the amulet does a lot of good things for the Senior Partners, because he’d have been taken out of play. At this point all the members of Angel Investigations are signed on to permanent contracts with W&H what do they need Angel for? He’s a complication, and they may have viewed Spike as a more corruptable target(this is an incorrect assumption, IMO, but I can see how an outsider would believe it).
As someone who’s barely a year older than Buffy when the show ended, the cookie dough speech really resonated with me. I’d had my relationship with my partner fall apart around me, along with several other life complications, and the idea that I would grow into a person who’d have a different life was something I desperately needed to hear. It resonated so much, that much baking later, I reconciled with my estranged partner, and we’ve been back together for 10 years now.
First things first: phenomenal write-up of the episode, Alyx. This may be one of your best – it fully brought back to me the emotional experience of watching the last episode of this show.
Second – it’s wonderful to hear that you’ll be doing a wrap-up post. Can’t wait to hear your thoughts on the journey these characters went through in its totality over the seven seasons.
Now, on to the episode itself.
To echo a thought that I’m pretty sure has been expressed elsewhere a whole bunch of times, “Chosen” taken on its own is good but not great. It’s definitely not up to the scratch of “The Gift”, or “Becoming” or “Graduation Day” for that matter. But taking it as the last episode of the series enhances its power (heh heh) immeasurably.
There’s a ton of great action and effective moments to enjoy, but for me it’s always going to boil down to the two in particular. Buffy finding a way to give her powers to every other potential Slayer in the world is such a magnificently satisfying piece of pay-off to so many things – the presence of Other Slayers in the story; the growth of Willow’s magical power; all the focus that’s been given to what it means to be a Slayer – that it never fails to bowl me over emotionally. Great too, to see that just as Buffy has re-learned in time how to sell her friends on her crazy scheme to Save the World, she’s also learned how to give a speech that feels genuinely powerful and moving. Sure, it’s not exactly “We shall fight them on the beaches…”, but it feels like it’s flowing from the heart of the character, and that’s all I need.
Somehow though, the moment of her final farewell to Spike is more significant to me. The fact that thousands of girls around the world have just been made into superheroes is great, but can only really be appreciated as an abstract part of the story – we don’t know those girls, after all.
On the other hand, after spending 144 episodes worth of time with her, we have gotten to know Buffy Summers very well indeed. For all that this show is replete with amazing, well-written characters (some of whom were not well treated by the final season – but that’s a complaint for another day), the story of the heroine herself always had a particularly arresting quality for me. A large part of that was the poignancy of watching her, season-by-season, develop into such a genuinely heroic (there’s really no better word to sum it up) individual, while increasingly buckling under the emotional strain it placed on her. The moment when she holds Spike’s hand (nice callback to “Once More With Feeling”, what with “touching the fire” and all) is such a glorious moment of release that it literally takes her breath away, and big kudos to SMG for capturing the moment so well.
A final word is owed to the effectiveness of the closing shot, which I’ll leave to someone a tad more eloquent than I to put into words:
Also, I’m going to throw in with Aeryl (@22 – that is lovely to hear) and say that I really like the Cookie Dough speech.
It’s a child-like analogy, to be sure – but somehow that feels appropriate to the moment. I see it basically as an admission on Buffy’s part – even after all she’s done to become the Slayer, when it comes to her romantic life she still has some growing up to do.
@19. Huh! Looks like I misremembered. There’s irony for you. Buffy and Riley don’t officially get together until Doomed. Looks like I was conflating that crossover with another one later in the season. Still, I remember thinking at the time that, even as they were setting her up to be with Riley, she’d clearly rather be with Angel. The girl needs some monster in her man ‘cuz there’s some monster in the girl. Makes perfect sesne to me.
Speaking of, at least Spike got to hear her say those three little words, even if it did seem too little, too late. Riley never did, the poor bastard.
@24. Agreed that Buffy has some growing up to do, but you’re never really “done.” Especially in the Jossverse. Angel has some serious growing up to do too, IMO.
Conversely, Spike has already come-of-age by going on his soul quest (the Quest, according to Joseph Campbell – who knew a little something about it – is basically a coming-of-age tale). That makes Spike the most mature of the three! The mind…she reels.
There is one thing…Spike actually did get a cookie at the end of Something Blue. So there’s that.
As they’re going to carry on the Angel & Faith book for another “season” I’m assuming that if anyone gets Cookie-Buffy, it won’t be Angel. Good thing too. That arrogant SOB has f*cked up her life enough already.
I gotta agree with Alyx. I coulda done with less Angel just fine in this ep. However, it coulda been worse. IIRC, Joss said something about having Angel tell Buffy about Conner, but he ultimately decided against it. A good call, I think.
This really isn’t the time for them to have that convo, especially since part of the reason Angel left her in the first place is ‘cuz he couldn’t give her babies. I stand by my earlier assertion that if Buffy wanted babies with sparkling blue (or blue/green) eyes, curly hair and razor-sharp cheekbones, Spike would move Heaven and Earth to make that happen for her. After all, she didn’t foresee the soul, either.
Thanks for all the hard work on this re-watch Alyx are we gonna do a re-watch of Angel now? It always drove me crazy that Anya died at the end in the last episode of the series. I think they did it for the shock value because someone always dies in the end. I’d I’ve picked Andrew but only because I don’t like him. Other than Anya the finally did it’s job and hit almost all the right emotional spots. No more Hellmouth and Buffy is no longer the only Chosen One. Bye Sunnydale!
Anya’s death works for me, on several levels. It’s fitting that she dies in the same battle as Spike, with whom she has been thematically paralleled so many times, and it’s a neat little fulfillment of D’Hoffryn’s promise to her.
@25. Dianthus –
I draw a distinction between the fact that Buffy has fulfilled her Hero’s Journey on a metaphorical level, and the room she still has to grow on a personal level. The former is actually the key to the latter, in my view – the fact that she’s put so much of herself into growing as the Slayer has made her wise beyond her years in some ways, but a little unbalanced in others.
As far as her long-term romantic future goes, I would actually be most happy if Buffy ended up with neither Angel nor Spike. That was another thing I liked about that conversation – as much as Buffy made it clear that she was committed in the moment to one, but still left the door open a crack for the other, the strongest hint she was dropping was the in the long run, neither of them is going to be quite right for her.
In other words, this basically gets it spot on:
http://foreveryoungadult.com/2013/01/15/a-highly-scientific-analysis-of-angel-vs.-riley-vs.-spike/
First, Alyx, thank you so much for taking us rewatchers on this magnificent ride. And thanks everybody contributing in the discussion. Even after having watched the series a couple of times, I still got a few insights I hadn’t thought of. Wonderful :)
Alyx:
I find myself moved to tears every time I see this. As Willow remakes
the universe and all the Potentials become Slayers… as Buffy takes her power and offers it to anyone who can handle it, I choke up.
Same here. To me, the little girl standing at bat and suddenly showing confidence always stands out there. Probably because I played baseball for 15 years, and have learned that being confident and relaxed about being able to hit what’s pitched at you is essential, when at bat. It’s a good chosen metaphore too: when you’re at bat, you need to perform for the team.
BTW, that idea was awesome. ‘So, First, you decided to use a loophole to stop playing by the rules? I/We can do that too.’ I like this, because generally the ‘good guys’ in tv/movies feel compelled to play within the set rules.
Special moments:
Of course, the moment where Buffy, Giles, Xander and Willow get their final moment together. That is the moment where we as viewers get a second to think about what has happened to them in the last 7 seasons along with them. At the end they are still a team.
In the final scene, the ‘Welcome to Sunnydale’ post falling into the crater. That was very fitting, in an end scene.
Light Willow. And Light Spike.
Funny moments:
The D&D session. With Andrew being dressed up for it of course. And Anya sleeping like an innocent baby.
And especially, Spike having put a drawn Angel face on the boxing bag. :D That makes me laugh everytime I watch this episode.
On a Scooby note, would anybody have liked to see the First say
“… and I would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn’t been for you meddling kids!” ? ;)
In an end note, for me this is where Buffy ends. I love comics (was a huge Marvel fan in my youth), but I know those will never get me the moments of smiling/grinning whenever I hear a funny witty dialogue from one of our Scoobies.
Looking forward to your wrap up, Alyx!
I don’t think Buffy “ends up” with either Spike or Angel either. While the show has stipulated(through a still corrupted Spike, keep in mind) that she needs some monster in her man, I don’t agree.
I think it’s more to do with youth’s passion that draws her to the danger inherent in monsters, and that as she matures, her desire for darkness and danger will lessen.
The only chance I really see for Buffy and Spike long term, is if he does Shanshu.
As much as we all like to hate on Riley (and yeah, he was boring and turned into a jerkass), I think that it is worth remembering that he was the only one of Buffy’s serious romantic partners who was able to give her something close to a healthy, satisfying relationship that didn’t negatively impact the other important relationships in her life – something that cannot be said for either Angel or Spike.
As far as wanting some “monster in her man” goes, I think that was mostly tied to the nature of the Slayer power still being a mystery to her, and the uncertainty she felt about how to deal with it. Having well and truly mastered her own destiny – in the sense of literally re-writing it – I think that her priorities would shift accordingly.
On the whole I loved the relationship Buffy and Spike developed over the last seasons of the show, with all its twists and turns, but never for a second thought that a serious long-term future for them might be in the cards. They were perfectly suited to what they each needed in the moment, and that was enough.
I for one never hated Riley. :)
I for one think Angel had to be there at the final finale, and am very glad that he was — and I’m in general not much of an Angel fan. However, some of the most moving episodes were moving because Angel shows up at the right moments, particularly at the prom, and in the cemetery after Joyce’s funeral.
The greatest strength Buffy always had was her friends and making friends. That Angel, when not Angelus, was always on the side of Buffy, there to help her when it was possible, matters all the way through the series.
It’s a surprising sort of trajectory though. Angel there for her in the dark of death, which is what we always think of Spike as being. It’s that cemetery scene that is perhaps still the most moving for me. — And, then it’s Spike who brings the light of final triumph. But it took them all to make the final triumph.
I guess I’ll forgive the preposterous cookie dough speech. But as was mentioned previously, it was an sort of gibbering from a woman who has seen and experienced as much as Buffy has by that point. Really? Just seeing Angel can turn her back into a callow high school girl? I don’t buy it.
Love, C.
There’s a lot I like in this finale. As usual the two character scenes were excellent. Writing and direction in the final talk between the core four was rock solid. Xander and Dawn displaying good tactics in their cutaway during the final fight. Angel showing up just long enough to be in the promos, but not long enough to take over the episode. Spike being important enough to please to his fans, but also not taking over the episode. Ending a series about a young woman coming of age with her single, but not lonely.
The plot contrivances of the axe and amulet were pretty weak. So were the ubervamps that could suddenly be taken down by Andrew and Anya. But looking at the ends of the other season long plots weak spots like that were something of a tradition. (Xander knowing where Angel unlives, magic sword, new age paper weight, Voltron spell, mystic portal that can’t tell the difference between sisters, buried Satanic temple, etc.)
Still the spell bothers me on every rewatch. “Get It Done” established the imagery of creating a Slayer as violation. Buffy makes her speech here about choice, but other than the young women in Sunnydale no one is given even an implied choice. The demonic essence is thrust into them for good or ill without consent or understanding. It’s the same lack of permission that Buffy and every other Slayer back to Prime experienced. I can see how Joss might have missed the final cut of “Get It Done,” he was a busy guy that year and might have gotten so caught up in his idea for the ending that he missed the baggage from the earlier episode. Although I will say he handled the music and editing for the scene so well that the issue generally only occurs to people I’ve talked to on rewatching, not the first time through.
Overall this was a solid ending with just enough lost to keep things from looking like an easy win and one troubling part. Compared to a lot of series enders that’s very good.
The ease with which the entire group (empowered or no) could suddenly fight the ubervamps bothered me a little on first watch too, but then I remembered that the first one that got out earlier in the season had to drink blood in order to gather its strength. These ones haven’t yet been able to feed, so it makes sense that they’re weaker.
As for the consent issue, I think one of the takeaways from earlier in the season was that was that the demonic essence is already inside all those young women. Willow’s spell is just letting them use the powers that go with it. And they won’t be forced into the Savior of the World lifestyle that previous Slayers were required to shoulder. They all (including Buffy) get to choose what they do with their gift.
@32. Zorra –
I completely buy it. Buffy and Angel have always had the power to make each other revert to adolescence. They even lampshade it, more than a few times.
Also, there’s this:
@33&34, We are also given every possible visual cue to denote the difference between the rituals in Get It Done and Chosen, the dark cave and shadowy essence vs the bright light and large cavern, that the catalyst came not from the Watchers but from the Guardians, that the First Slayer was alone, and Buffy, Faith, and the Potentials are not. They all walk, they talk, they shop.
And there is the double meaning which every Buffy episode title has, which is not just that these women were Chosen to be Slayers, by having the Potential, but also that they are those that made a choice.
Yes, it has unforseen consequences. But choices always do.
@35. Alex C — But those are the writers’ words. They don’t sound like Buffy to me. Writers can be tone deaf to character development even when they are the ones who developed the characters’ development. And this speech strikes me harder as being that each time I heard it until I now fast forward through it. Cannot stand it.
Love, c.