“Mom… I’m a vampire slayer.”
That was…. intense. That Joss Whedon certainly knows how to emotionally torture us, but this finale is deeply satisfying in so many ways. There are so, so many beautiful little character moments- I love the fact that Willow revives from her coma when Xander tells her that he loves her, but her first word is “Oz”. There’s very little of Whedon’s trademark wit here. This is bleak, and beautiful.
As Buffy mentions to Snyder, the police (“In case you haven’t noticed, the police of Sunnydale are deeply stupid”, he says to her, pretty much revealing he knows more than he lets on) will eventually realise she isn’t the killer; in itself her arrest and fugitive status is just a temporary annoyance. But the consequences, as Snyder expels her (taking great pleasure in doing so and, interestingly, reporting to the mysterious Mayor) and she’s forced to, er, come out as a Slayer to Joyce, are devastating.
Joyce’s reaction is perfect, especially as this scene by its very nature had the potential to be deeply annoying. She’s realistically bewildered, and never loses the audience’s sympathies, but she’s forced to accept that her daughter is the Slayer as she turns a vampire to dust before her eyes. The heartbreak is leavened by the comedy of her awkward polite chit-chat with Spike (who reminds me here of Gary Oldman as Sid Vicious with Nancy Spungeon’s very respectable family in Sid and Nancy), but the conversation doesn’t go well. Joyce is quite right to demand an explanation, but her acceptance of the facts doesn’t translate into an acceptance that her daughter should be the Slayer. Buffy doesn’t eventually decide to leave Sunnydale because of her mother’s parting words (“You walk out if this house, don’t even think about coming back.”), but, horribly, Joyce is bound to think so. These are heart-rending scenes.
And then there’s Spike, who unexpectedly, but for perfectly logical reasons, teams up with Buffy against Angel. He’s still evil- he abandons Buffy to her fate as he leaves the climactic scene with the unconscious Drusilla- but he has his reasons, and they’re perfect. Back in his first appearance, we learned that he much preferred having fun to boring old rituals, and this is taken to its logical conclusion. He doesn’t want the word to end: it has “dog racing, Manchester United, and you’ve got people, billions of people walking around like Happy Meals with legs”. I should have known he’d support Man U. Typical bloody southerner.
There are other character moments- Giles resists torture bravely but is tricked, Willow does some powerful magic and speaks in tongues (watch this space)- but it’s all about Buffy, who has a horrible, horrible time. As she says outright to Whistler, this is no time for her usual wisecracks. Sarah Michelle Gellar puts in an extraordinary performance.
Whistler tells Buffy that she’s by herself, and that she has to be alone, which is a direct challenge to what has been the series’ central message- that Buffy’s friends and family make her stronger. But alone is how she ends up, forced to send Angel to Hell moments after his soul has returned and while he’s still confused, disoriented and innocent-seeming. The kiss seems to make it worse. The season ends with Buffy utterly alone, heartbroken and with no home, no school and an uncertain future.
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