It’s not late.
Now that we’ve covered that, let’s discuss, shall we? See, as a result of this being not late I have finished Buffy the Vampire Slayer – with only a little procrastination as I reached the end of this wonderful masterpiece. So, we have much to discuss.
Let’s start simply, though, because there’s a little something BtVS is so far missing on this Blog…
SPOILERS
(obviously)
An Introduction
It’s been a minute since I did one of these, hasn’t it? Let’s see if we get this.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is an American Supernatural Drama television series. The show was created by Joss Whedon, who wrote and directed a multitude of episodes on the show, most of the most significant ones included. The concept was based off of the 19992 film, which Whedon also wrote. The show ran for seven seasons, for a total of 145 episodes, with the pilot premiering on March 10, 1997 on The WB. BtVS was picked up on UPN for it’s final two seasons, where it concluded on March 20, 2003.
Over the course of it’s run Joss Whedon and Marti Noxon served as showrunners, as well as executive producers alongside David Greenwalt, David Fury, Fran Rubel Kuzui. and Kaz Kuzui. Produced by Mutant Enemy Productions, Kuzui Enterprises, 20th Century Fox and Sandollar Television, which Dolly Parton co-owned, her part in producing BtVS only revealed in recent years.
Original airings often reached four to six million viewers, which while not large by high standards or even today’s standard, were significant enough for The WB at the time, and while being ignored by Emmy heights during airing time it was nominated for and received many other awards, including a Golden Globe nomination for Sarah Michelle Gellar, and winning the Television Critics Association Heritage Award in 2003. The series has since received critical and popular acclaim, and very few people disagree on the fact that it is sort of a masterpiece. It’s success led to a range of external products, including novels, comics and videogames. As well as spawning the spin-off series Angel, which ran for 5 seasons from 1999-2004. The entire collection of such being referred to as the “Buffyverse”. Most of which information on can be found on Fandom Wiki.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer starred Sarah Michelle Gellar as the titular Buffy Summers, alongside Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenburg, Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase, Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris and Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles, at conception. Over the course of it’s seven seasons those who would join the main cast include, David Boreanaz, Seth Green, James Marsters, Marc Blucas, Emma Caulfield, Michelle Tachtenburg, Amber Benson. Also of notable reoccurring is Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers
Very recently it has been rumoured/announced that Sarah Michelle Gellar has been in discussions for the last three years in regards to a possible Buffy reboot/revival. She is rumoured to be returning to the role, though not in a lead character capacity. Nora and Lilly Zuckerman are part of the talks, and Chloe Zhao is said to be directing.
We shall all hesitantly cross our fingers. Hopeful and yet scared.
In brief:
BtVS follows the titular Buffy Summers, a teenager who also happens to be the slayer. We follow her as she navigates life, romance and High School while saving the world and slaying vampires. She is joined by a small group of friends and Watcher Giles, all known as The Scoobies.
Okay, you can find out more about BtVS on IMDb. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel are currently available to stream on Disney+ in the UK.
Let’s get into this now, shall we?
The End
Let’s go from what’s freshest in my tired brain and therefore work backwards in the series.
So, I finished it. Ending with Episode 722: “Chosen”, which is really quite the title, isn’t it?
The titles of individual episodes of Buffy are regularly very well chosen, and you can often find meanings upon meanings in them. “Chosen”, I’m sure has multiple meanings I have not quite figured out in my exhausted brain, with many a-things in the episode it could probably point to. For now, though, I will say it feels like simply punctuation on the whole show. It’s simple. One word. One obvious application. Buffy was chosen. Here she is. Here’s the end.
It’s the last line of a poem, or the title of that poem. It’s the last word in the last chapter of a novel. Punctuating the entire experience for you. Chosen. Nothing more, nothing else. It’s the last chapter of Seven Years of storytelling.
This is the end of this series, but it’s not the end of the characters. Buffy’s dialogue about cookie dough tells us that. She’s not done baking. She knows it. This is the end of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it’s not the end of Buffy Summers. Two seasons ago it may have been the end of Buffy, but right now Buffy’s got lot’s of living to do… and now she’s not the one and only chosen. It’s always good to break tradition, she’s been doing that since the pilot.
Also, there is Angel Season 5, which I haven’t watched; and the comics, which are considered a canonical continuation of the series (at the moment). I don’t know what Angel mentions about Buffy, as a character, or any of the others for that matter, I know from general existence that they mention her. What they say exactly? No idea. So, I’m gonna assume she went on to live. Life opened up to her in ways it had not before (and also still, ya know, slaying).
I do like this finale. The whole coming together fight sequence gives me goosebumps, cheerful tears. The scenes between the Scoobies beforehand? Callbacks! An Angel cameo! Slayer’s no longer being one against the fight of evil. So many good pieces. Spuffy just lying together. The tearful Spuffy goodbye (which I have thoughts on that we’ll get to). It’s a good finale.
Finale’s are hard, and while I am not always a fan of “Everything has changed, we’ll see you never.” I don’t hate this one. Perhaps partially because I know they didn’t just leave these characters there and did a whole shit more elsewhere. Do I like what they did? That’s a different conversation, but the point is it exists. This end, though, for what it is. Feels hopeful. The world is different. There are slayers plural, and that’s not just two! – one of which exists out of sheer miracles – they are hundreds now, one can only assume, the previously murdered not withstanding. It is a hopeful future, for we hope Buffy will… live. Ya know, early Season 7 type live, but with help, the kind of live we saw of the joyous early seasons Buffy, the kind of live Season 4 gave us frequently. We hope they will all live… the dead not withstanding.
Hey, they stopped another apocalypse, and we are almost certain there will be more, and they will stop them, but it’s not just her now. Her isolation has been so prevalent, Faith and Buffy had a whole conversation about it. Now, there’s more, and that within itself is hopeful.
It’s hope. I like it because it’s hope. The episode is very well done. The last plan going in to that last confrontation makes sense with perhaps only one grand assumption, I kind of love it, because I love those whole ‘coming together’ type things. I love Episode 322: “Graduation Day: Part 2” for similar reasons. This is just grander.
Okay, opinions given, great finale, let’s generalise now.
The Pieces of the End
Final Seasons are hard. So much of writing a TV Series, actually, is hard. From Pilot, to Season Openers, to Season Finale’s, to Final Seasons to Series Finale’s. Doing these things satisfyingly and effectively is hard. At a certain point there’s a certain element of expectation and to fall short of that is possible, if not easier.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer delivered five really good seasons of TV, Season 6 is a bit divisive, but as far as I’m concerned it’s just as brilliant as all the others, so that makes it six seasons of really good TV. The expectations building each season, and often being met. Every episode having an element to love, if not the whole episode, even then there are some really solid seasons that barely have a bad episode. You watch Season 1, and jump the hurdles, but Season 1 is still a good season of TV.
Buffy, is a masterclass. I don’t think anyone’s really arguing this. It’s brilliant.
So, Season 7 should be a really good season of TV… and it is. I’m not disputing this, Season 7 is a really good season of TV. It’s even a really good final season. But, and stay with me on this, it is not a really good season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
I say ‘Final Seasons are hard’ because if you were to grade Season 7 of Buffy against other final seasons, it’s easily getting top marks. It probably lands into my Top 10, alongside Season 7 of Agents of SHIELD, Season 12 of Bones and Season 6 of Once Upon A Time – you cannot fight me on this, Season 7 doesn’t exist. It is a brilliant final season.
It has all the pieces that make up a final season. In my opinion, a final season should feel nostalgic, hopeful and conclusive. I think, we should get a sense for what their future could or will be, a sense of what every day will be. We should feel reflective of what they’ve endured. We should feel this story ends here. Season 7 does all of these things. It has all of these pieces that should make a good final season.
They take us back to High School. Check box one. Done. Just like that. Nostalgia. We, of course, revisit concepts and themes. There’s a reoccurrence or mention of events. There’s even reference made to Willow’s crush on Xander. The season feels nostalgic.
And I think a final season should because it helps the audience say goodbye. The thing is, a final season, at the core of it, is a really long goodbye letter, and when you’re saying goodbye ‘forever’ you want to remember what you had. So… reflect. Look back, embrace the past, joke about it, bring it up again, show us they remember like we do. It doesn’t even have to be good reflection, it can be the bad kind! The Scoobies fight about Angel again! Buffy brings up the events of Episode 222: “Becoming: Part 2”, and we know then, that five seasons later, that is still something that haunts her. Also note Willow’s denial (though ignored) of Xander’s lie that has literally not been addressed.
With this, the season should also balance the future. The early part of Season 7 essentially gives us a glimpse of what life could be like for the Scoobies moving forward. It’s not entirely the whole story, one suspects… but, ya know, everyone’s mostly got their shit together, and stuff is looking up. Of course, the nature of a Buffy season is that we’re going to come to some apocalyptic scenario and the future gets bleaker and bleaker as we near the end of the season but that is not the point. Largely because at the end of it, the future opens up, success attained. The thing is this is a far different future to anything Season 7 could have ever predicted to show us. Ya know what, though, I am nevertheless hopeful at the end of the day, so I will accept it… and I at least got a glimpse of all of them doing adult things, with adult lives, and here’s the kicker, happily, before you darkened their lighting with potential slayers and doomsayers. So, I’m satisfied.
Then the season – or most importantly the finale, but the season – is conclusive. The end of the single slayer line is one conclusion, but it’s the end of Sunnydale, the end of this chapter of their lives. Development achieved we are all in a good place – and yes, still baking, but in a good place – these character’s feel done.
Of course, I still want more. No doubt about it, can never have enough… and hey, maybe there’s something coming. Keep our fingers crossed.
This is a really good final season, and I would expect nothing less from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
However, as a season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I do believe 2, 3 & 5 beat it out. Also, 6, but that’s just because as a personal bias I quite like that one. Season 4’s really good too. So is 1… all of them, I see… but Season 1 has more hurdles than Season 7.
Do you get my point?
Their best work is in the middle ground, and while they definitely end on a high note, all expectations met, it’s not their strongest season.
I do, however, believe this to be true of quite a lot of series. Final seasons are hard.
The Complicating Feelings for a Vampire
I have so far written a nearly ten minute post just in regards to Season 7, and it would be great to just leave this here, but quickly, let’s talk Spuffy, because we have been making allusions to them and yet avoiding them for the last few posts.
I am sure I will talk about Spuffy (Spike & Buffy) again in the future, and quite possibly repeat myself when I do, but let’s give an overview, some thoughts and opinions real quick.
One. Baseline. Starting at the top. Spuffy? Not healthy. I think we can all accept that, Spike’s forthcoming soul not withstanding. Spike’s feelings are either all lust or ‘blood’ as he often says, and when Buffy does engage with him it is not because she’s feeling good about herself, or him, or even life.
Nothing, I think, captures their relationship in Season 6 better than the first time they kiss – which is not techinally the first time they kiss, but the first time they kiss kiss… does that make sense? – In Episode 607: “Once More, With Feeling” the episode ends with the pair locking lips having sung “This isn’t real, but I just want to feel.” “You can make me feel” to then be outplayed by the rest of the gang singing “Where do we go from here?”
Such a brilliantly constructed episode, but that’s not my point here. The point is “This isn’t real but I just want to feel.”
Yeah… Buffy feels like shit and Spike’s convenient. That’s pretty much like half of their vibe in Season 6. She later says she’s using him (she is) and ends it (yay, for her). Her ending it with Spike is a sign towards her recovery, a reclamation – shown by her wearing of pastels – towards a Buffy we know and love. Her recovery, as it is, will not really come to a conclusion till the finale (Episode 622: “Grave”), when Buffy comes to some semi-earned realisations, but she’s on her way there. Done with hating herself, done with feeling disgusted, she’s moving forward. This is all good for Buffy.
Then there’s Spike. Who is… well, Spike. Who responds in Spike ways… and oh, no, we’re at Episode 619: “Seeing Red”. I don’t want to get into the details. Trigger warning, nevertheless.
That scene, which any fan knows to which we refer, has a multitude of issues, it’s length being one of them. The fact it serves Spike more than Buffy yet another. Other factors being plenty more. I very nearly forgot this scene was in the episode as I was watching it until it started and everything went quiet. The point is, that at the end of it, Spike decides he doesn’t want to be that kind of man, and goes to get a soul.
Let’s back track a bit, though, shall we? Because there’s a scene. The final scene of an episode over a season ago from this point. So plain, so quiet, so calm. There’s Season 5. Episode 507: “Fool for Love”. It’s a turning point. First, he showed up to kill her. Didn’t (couldn’t). Then, he sits besides her. She doesn’t move away. He tries his best to comfort her, and she accepts it. It’s quiet. Almost pleasant.
This is the point of Spuffy. Their egregious sexcapades aside, and “Seeing Red” a black dot on the whole thing. There’s everything before first. He had her back. She trusted him – about as far as she could stake him, but she trusted him – stuff got bad with Glory and she called him. When the darkness consumes her in Season 6, she can be alone with him. He always showed up. Those are the moments that make them.
But they’re not healthy.
In theory, they had good foundations, the problem is when they finally do come together it is entirely the wrong time. To be fair, any time Spike doesn’t have a soul is entirely the wrong time, but that aside Buffy was in no place for it.
See, because unhealthy is an understatement, a more accurate description would be mutually abusive. She’s using him, and he well… he’s Spike. She hits him a lot, and he has a hard time with the word no. No, really, and I am so certain the fact any of those scenes have ever been deemed okay is because she’s Buffy. She’s stronger than him. If she really wanted him to stop, she could stop him. That doesn’t make them okay. Still, abusive. Not healthy, it’s not really a relationship either, and it’s a little gross (or a lot gross depending on your perspective).
And the thing is… good foundations. He protected Dawn in Season 5, she went to him when she needed help. She trusted him with her mom and sister. He didn’t want to see her get hurt. He promised to protect Dawn! She trusted him to protect Dawn! He’s the first person she tells about where she’s been, and he shows up to her darkness. Good Foundations.
Of course, “Whisper in a dead man’s ear, doesn’t make it real” – oh.
Yeah, if you ever want a deeper insight into how everyone’s feeling, make them sing it. “Once More, With Feeling” really just clocks all of them.
Anyways. Two. A soul. This changes things.
Soul’s are complicated. In BtVS especially. The application of them literally differs from vampire to vampire, the in universe meaning and use is subjective to each character, and I have heard a couple different theories and explanations of them.
For one. Angel and Angelus, two very different people. Spike and Souled-Spike, not so much.
I think, one of the best theories I’ve seen, is that a soul simply gives them access to empathy, with that remorse, regret, etc. Having that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll utilise that, but you have access to it… which is why, humans can do bad things.
So, following the events of “Seeing Red”, Spike is inspired to go get a soul. Now, the dialogue around what he’s doing is very vague for obvious reasons and it genuinely sounds like he intends to kill Buffy. He doesn’t, I suppose, and is returned his soul.
After which, he goes mad, gets manipulated by The First, and well that’s complicated.
The thing is, Buffy’s capacity for empathy has always been pretty large, so when she meets a deranged Spike and his soul… well… she feels for him. But then she always did, at least towards the end. She admitted as such, in that scene we don’t talk about. The thing is that scene we don’t talk about is important here because this time around I couldn’t get over it.
I think over the last 5 minutes of your life I have covered pretty well that despite their unhealthy nature, I find something to like in Spuffy. Even if it’s just the stuff that came before. So, just get a sense of how strange it was this time around when I’m watching this Spuffy stuff play out in Season 7 and I just keep thinking “Okay, but Seeing Red.”
This thought lingered, and then I pinned it as they’ve just not done enough. For Spike I get it, that happened, he hated it, he went and got a soul, now he’s full of plenty of regret, his minds gone a bit of a wandering but here he is all maturing and developing and having human emotions and morality. But for Buffy? She barely had time to process, Xander’s the first one to call it what it is, and even then… even when Dawn finds out – after Buffy was still willing to leave her with him by the way! – they just sort of… move on. When we come to Season 7, Buffy’s a little jumpy around him, understandably so, who wouldn’t be? But she still invites him into her house, asks Xander to house him. Feels for him (as she admits). Pulls him out of that basement, and at some point, we suppose, she just decides to move on. She’s just over it. No real reason given, she’s just over it.
And I just think… Did they go too far? (yes) Have they done enough to mend that bridge?
No. That bridge is broken. That bridge should be far more broken than you clearly seem to think it is. This does nothing for Buffy. She’s jumpy, then she’s over it and we move on. The show kind of just decides, like the fandom does, to not talk about it. When you compare the fact that Spike fought for his soul, while Angel was cursed, you don’t bring up the reason why Spike went and got one.
Three. The penultimate episodes. The end of the Season. There’s a moment. As discussed I hadn’t quite re-boarded the Spuffy train. I do like them, they had some good moments, but all underpinned by this feeling of it not quite being enough. Then you get Episode 720: “Touched”. I was convinced again.
Firstly, quick detour back to Season 7, let’s just establish the fact that the Scoobies kicking Buffy out in Episode 719: “Empty Places” annoys the shit out of me. It’s dumb. No one behaves like themselves, and I’m convinced no one says anything they actually mean. I have many thoughts on it I may put in a separate post later on because this one is already quite long.
Spike shows back up, tells the Scoobies shit they already knew and then punches Faith in the face, which lets be honest, Faith earned. Not here, just in general. Maybe it’s because I haven’t watched Angel yet, but Faith never really grows on me and I don’t understand why we’re forced to care about her.
Then he… sniffs out Buffy? I think. Buffy’s right, that is creepy. He finds her… hiding, I guess, and he doesn’t give up on her. I’m not really sure why Buffy did give up, she’s got more determination than I do, but I suppose when everyone turns on you what’s the point? Hiding away she is… and it’s what Spike says that matters.
First of all, peak Spuffy scene. They bicker, they comfort each other, they bond over violence (Spike’s aforementioned punching of Faith), and then they end the scene just… cuddling.
This scene brought them back to me. It was good now. You got it now. We weren’t talking about Spike’s violence, or murders, or why no one can understand why she cares for him, or what happened, or the opposite of ignoring what happened. We were here near the end of the Season, peak Spuffy, and they were just… honest and close.
“You listen to me. I’ve been alive a bit longer than you, and dead a lot longer than that. I’ve seen things you couldn’t imagine, and done things I’d prefer you didn’t. Don’t exactly have a reputation for being a thinker. I follow my blood, which doesn’t exactly rush in the direction of my brain. I’ve made a lot of mistakes. A lot of wrong bloody calls. A hundred plus years, and there’s only one thing I’ve ever been sure of: you… Here, look at me. I’m not asking you for anything. When I say “I love you,” it’s not because I want you, or because I can’t have you. It has nothing to do with me. I love what you are. What you do, how you try. I’ve seen your kindness and your strength. I’ve seen the best and the worst of you. And I understand, with perfect clarity, exactly what you are. You’re a hell of a woman. You’re the one, Buffy.”
Spike – Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Episode 720: “Touched”
She might not want to be the one, but we “all have our crosses to bear”. He gets her, and it’s that line “When I say I love you, it’s not because I want you.” It’s all changed. That’s different to whatever unhealthy sexcapades we saw a season ago. The healthiest love you can have is being willing to let them go, and they’re both there, they’ve both exhibited that now (or in some ways will very soon). He goes to leave, she asks him to stay, and they just hold each other. That, dear reader, is the most intimate they have been in all seven seasons. The fact she asks him to stay, for the second time this season at the least, is a sign of her developed feelings. She wants Spike around now, just around, and that means so much compared to where they were before. Suppose there’s something to that now. He’s willing to let her go, now, she’s willing to let him stay.
And it’s juxtaposed with the rest getting literally intimate to further punctuate the moment. For Buffy and Spike this is their intimacy. This means more than anything they’d done before. Spike says it was one of the best nights of his life, and Buffy was there with him. This is it for them. She loves him, he loves her.
I was in love again. I loved them completely. This is the moment. This is the scene. Everything rectified, the patch had been filled. This was enough. He saw everything now, she trusted him – and we sort of knew this, she had said it – it’s this act of intimacy that pulls it all together.
Over the next few episodes, they just hold each other again. Then, in the finale, she enters into his basement, we somewhat dramatically cut away, and the next day is The Moment. Fight time, and you get their goodbye. You get him saving the world, you get her saying ‘I love you’. It’s something, isn’t it?
I think, they love each other. I really do. Their hands are literally on fire, and neither of them care, they’re just looking at each other. Of course, when she says ‘I love you’ he says “No, you don’t. But thanks for saying it.”
There’s many meanings you could interpret, really. Supposedly Whedon told them to play it like they mean it. They love each other.
Buffy’s ‘I love you’ is more than just a culmination of the feelings, and carings, and holding him in her heart we’ve had across the season. It’s a moment of clarity, she’s implied this is where she was getting to lately, and nothing inspires clarity like the end. It’s also understanding. I like to think of it as a slight response to Spike’s dialogue to her two episodes ago. It’s the most concise way she can say she feels all the same, she understands him too. Ya know? That’s my take anyways.
His response I don’t have as many thoughts on. It obviously works as a callback to all the times she said that to him, and maybe he means it disingenuously in this half joke ‘I get it’ sort of way. I don’t think Spike genuinely doesn’t think Buffy loves him. If there’s any moment to doubt this is not it. It’s possible he means it in a ‘you’ll be okay’ way. ‘You love me now, but you’ll survive without me’, Spike has no reason to believe he’ll ultimately be fine here. He is dying. Suppose it’s possible he thinks she doesn’t love him the way he loves her, but even if that’s what he thinks I don’t think thats true. I think her ‘I love you’ is incredibly genuine. I don’t know.
Point is, I ended the season once more loving them. There is still “Seeing Red”, and I don’t think either of the characters truly do enough to move past it this season, but the series does. At some point it decides it’s done talking about it and sort of moves forward like it never happened. Not necessarily the way to go, but it is the way they went. Fortunately, these last few episodes do just enough to dissuade any lingering hesitations in the Spuffy ship. They say and do the right things that show us just how deep those feelings go, just how much they care about each other. That connection feels real, genuine and intense. On top of that, it finally feels like it’s coming from a good place, for both of them.
When you say you love Spuffy you feel you have to preface with anything, something, because they’re not known for being the staple of healthy and stable but when they end like this, how can you not love them?
To Conclude
So, wow. That was a lot, right?
It’s been three weeks. I finished three seasons. There was stuff to say. So much stuff to say. And we’ve not even covered any of Season 5.
They’ll come up again. Half of that Spuffy shit I can guarantee I will repeat.
So, anyways, apologies. I’ll see you for something this weekend I hope. I do have plans with my partner but hopefully I’ll get something in there. Aim for romance, because it is the time. Thank you for reading this long exploration if you did. I adore Buffy, it’s masterful. It will be revisited. Thank you so so much for reading.
I’ll see you in the next!
In the meantime feel free to leave a comment or send me a DM on socials.
You can follow me on Instagram at: @thebomff or on Threads at: @thebomff
On to the next!
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the images, narratives or characters present or referenced in this post. All rights belong to WB, Mutant Enemy Productions, 20th Century Fox and all other relevant parties