Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Primeval

"I think we've all sort of drifted apart this year, don't you?"

Now that was a satisfying season finale. Interestingly, it wasn't the last episode of the season, but let's gloss over that for now. This was the perfect conclusion to all the themes of the season and a suitably dramatic ending. It also bears a suspicious resemblance to Whedon's later superb The Cabin in the Woods, what with a secret installation being overrun by demons, but never mind. This is bloody good telly.

I'm glad that Riley hasn't betrayed Buffy of his free will, but because of his "behaviour modifier". Considerable more icky yet cool, though, are zombie Forrester and, especially, zombie Maggie Walsh. Zombie Forrester, in particular- zombified, but alive- is in a situation which is no doubt intended as a direct parallel to vampirism. Zombies, after all, are undead too, just physically stronger and rather less sexy. Adam's plan is pleasingly Bond villain, too: get demon and human to kill each other so he can use the parts left behind to raise an army of zombies like himself. Bwahaha!

It's good to see the four principle Scoobies quickly figure out that Spike has played them- Buffy, in particular, shows loads of cleverness- and then rather movingly start to work out their issues both literally (what a lovely conversation between Buffy and Willow..!) and metaphorically, what with that weird combination spell thingy which gives the combined entity really glowy eyes, and loads of really cool superpowers for some reason. The concluding fight with Adam is epic. You have to respect any scene that involves the ripping out of a still-beating uranium heart. You just don't see that sort of thing often enough. It's interesting, though, that the spell casts the four Scoobies as archetypes- Willow is the "spirit", Xander the "heart", Giles the "mind" and Buffy the "hand". Again, there are distinct similarities to The Cabin in the Woods…

All this- plus some amusing scenes of a hung-over Giles and a rather cute scene with Anya telling Xander, who's worried that he may indeed be a directionless loser, that she loves him- leads to a satisfying finale which leaves one wondering what the Hell is going to happen in the final episode of the Season. The final scene, with the Initiative being quietly un-happened by shadowy government figures, is delightfully zeitgeisty in an X-Files sort of way, too. What now?