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||> Summary
So, after Buffy puts Big Bad Preacher in his place, she engages in the big smoochies with Angel. Angry at being cut short by the return of Caleb, she makes him split, literally. Angel wakes up from being knocked out and perhaps pissed at the lack of... uh... action, he requests to stay in Sunnydale. Buffy nixes it, saying that he needs to be the next line of defense. However, Angel sniffs out another reason: Spike. Buffy tells Angel it's not Spike as he has a pre-adolescent freak out. But since she's not done baking her cookies, it's not time for her and Spike or Angel.
Spike also sniffs her out, but this time in a less literal sense. He confronts her about the kissing and she gives him the amulet that Angel was delivering and then tries to get him to be roomie-roomie with her. At first he resists, but it was really just a big fake-out. So they sleep, except Buffy gets insomnia and goes to talk to the First and finds out the ultimate victory: After there are more evil denizens than good, the First will be corporeal.
But Buffy gets a plan, and tells everyone but the audience, so all we see are inspirational speeches and people solving their loose ends. Finally, everyone enters the Hellmouth and the games begin. We cut back and see Buffy's master plan: to make all the potentials in the world real Slayers. Cut to present and everything comes to a head, with everyone fighting: the Slayers, the sidekicks and Willow all white and glowy-goddessey. However, people start to lose and die, Anya, Amanda and even Buffy gets a "mortal wound" until she is taunted by the First, who gives her the strength to fight back. Finally, Spike's jewelry kicks in and he becomes like the sun, killing the rest of the uber-vamps and saving the day. Everyone runs out into a school bus, which just escapes as the town becomes a crater. Buffy just looks on and smiles.
||> Review (Dedicated to Kelly!)
For the last several months, I have been procrastinating on a review. (Ok, that's not entirely true, a London pickpocket stole my first review, but that's a long story.) But how can you put a phenomenal end to a phenomenal story through the review process? You can't, really and that's the problem. Yes, there were episodes that were better. There were episodes that were worse. And like many episodes before, I felt myself crying my eyes out in a public place while my "friends" derided my obsession.
However, through the heartache and the constant question of what to do with my life now that Buffy is over, here is my review:
The thing I liked best was naturally the ending. I liked that Buffy and Willow finally went to the source of Slayer power and completely changed it by giving women all over the world the chance to fight back. I liked that at the moment that Willow was the most worried she would succumb to the darkness of evil she became a vessel for ultimate goodness. And I liked the little baseball girl.
I was a little disconcerted about Spike's sacrifice not the least because I know he'll be back. But since he sort of saved the world, I'll cut him a break. I wasn't completely enamored of his last conversation with Buffy, since it didn't seem sweet or cool. I liked them cuddling on the bed much more.
The rest of the episode up until then, funny and cool though it was, seemed sort of filler to me. Even the cute "cookies and Dawson-Angel" scene was great filler. But since it was all so good, I forgive it. The ending had much more meat (and I'm normally a vegetarian!) and it was savory! Leave it to Joss to completely destroy the world he had so painstakenly created and built up for seven years!
And so as I come to grips with the end of part of my life, as on the television, Buffy can begin hers.
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