7.22 - Chosen -

That's all, folks.

***

I've got to be really careful here that I don't let the thoughts that I have for the season seven: looking back post blend in with this one. Where to start?

Well, Joss Whedon did it. He succeeded.

I have to admit. I've moaned and I've complained. I've said the show was miserable. And it truly was. I whined that Joss was absent and that his presence was gone, that he'd left the show in less capable hands and that I felt like he'd checked out. And while I still stand beside that theory, what he did here completely brought me back to every reason I loved the show. He guided his ship home, out to sea, and into eternity. In nerd terms, he took one of the best shows in television and sailed it to the Grey Havens.

What he managed to do was this: take characters that I haven't truly cared about for a year, some more, take a dangling plot that felt like it was going nowhere, take potential slayers that I couldn't care less about, and make me love it all.

It's the gift he has.

It's his dialog. It's his way with the camera. It's his uncanny ability to know when to cut in a scene, and how long to hold a shot before you cut.

What happened in this episode is almost too intense to talk about, but I gotta try.

Angel gives Buffy an amulet to be worn by someone with a soul but more than human. Spike. Buffy and Angel have a talk about their future. Buffy says she's like cookie dough. She's not done baking, she's not a fully formed cookie yet. She wants to keep living her life. But she tells Angel that sometimes she does think about the future. It gives us hope at home that one day they may be able to be together. And I hope that one day Joss makes that happen. I need it to happen, really.

Our Scooby gang hatch a plan that uses each one of them with their abilities. Willow is to take the scythe and use it's slayer gifted powers to transfer that power into every potential slayer in the world. It sounds so ridiculous on paper, and I remembered it from 5 years ago when it aired. I'd grown cynical about it. Too much female empowerment, Joss. it's just cartoony now, Joss. But when I see it again, I can't deny the impact, the power that I felt from it. His mission statement for Buffy was always that it was a feminist show, that it showed the power within women. Well, he's taken that concept to an extreme degree, but I can't fault him for it. It moved me.

There's a fantastic scene that takes our gang to the high school where they each split into groups to go to their tasks. For a few moments, there's our original gang: Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles. Standing in the school hallway, just looking at each other. It's a call back to the beginning of the show itself, our original cast, back where they started, full circle. Giles even says a line that mirrors one from the end of "The Harvest:" "The earth is definitely doomed." It almost made me cry.

So Buffy leads her potentials into the fight, and there are thousands of them. Spike is there, wearing his amulet, and Willow's spell takes effect. As she does it, she turns into a goddess, full of white energy. All over the world, girls are given the power of the slayer.

Back under the school, the fight rages on, and there are some casualties on both sides. In the high school, Anya is killed and almost cut in half. Robin Wood is seriously injured. And below, Spike realizes that the amulet is giving him the power to destroy them all. He radiates sunlight, destroying all the vamps. And as he does, it all begins to crumble around them. Buffy tells him to come on, but he tells her he has to stay, to see it to the end. She tells him that she loves him, and he replies "no you don't...but thanks for saying it anyways." Then she leaves, and he says "I want to see how it ends." Then, as the sunlight radiates out of him, he ignites and turns to dust.

Above ground, all of Sunnydale is collapsing into the pit that has been created. The gang board a school bus and ride it out of town until the are outside the damage radius. When they stop, all of Sunnydale is gone.

Then we are faced with the losses. It hits home. Xander asks about Anya, and finds out she died defending Andrew.

As the gang stands at the edge of the drop off, they stare into what was their homes for years. Buffy looks concerned. Willow asks "What do you think we should do, Buffy?"

Dawn agrees, and says "yeah, Buffy, what are we gonna do?"

Buffy looks into the distance, thinking about the future, thinking about the fact that she is no longer the only slayer, and then, slowly, she smiles.

The screen goes to black, but this time, there is not Joss Whedon's name. Not immediately. It's just black. And then the music stirs it's final note, and his name fades in.

At this point, I am unashamed to say, I cried like a baby. Not teared up. Not sniffed. I was shaking with sobs. I felt like my friends had just died. No more Buffy. No more Sarah Michelle Gellar. No more Xander. No more Dawn. No more Anya. It's literally over. There is no more.

The tremendous sense of loss, coupled with the fact that the characters I loved now had their whole lives ahead of them, free lives to do with as they wished, was just too much to process.

And in that moment, it didn't matter to me that season 6 and season 7 were rocky, and that there were lots of episodes that left me feeling bored or betrayed. All that mattered was that at that moment, I appreciated them all. Cinderella sang a song called "Don't Know What You Got Till It's Gone" and it's true. In that moment, I just wanted them back. I've said that I wished the show had ended after season 5, and part of me still does, but then I wouldn't have gotten to spend 2 more years worth of shows with characters that I loved. If it could go forever, I would let it. It's so hard to say goodbye to something that you love so much.

But it's not over. I can always go back and relive the journey of Buffy and her friends. They aren't mere characters. They may die on screen, they may die in the pages of comics, but to me, they are real.

These characters will never die.


Rating: 11/10