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Season 7, Episode 22
Written by Joss Whedon
Directed by Joss Whedon
Original Airdate: 20 May 2003
Buffy: "I love you."
Spike: "No you don't. But thanks for saying it."
REGULAR CAST
SPECIAL GUEST STARS
GUEST STARRING
CO-STARRING
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Felicia Day as
Vi
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Mary Wilcher as
Shannon
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Demetra Raven
as
Girl At Bat
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Katie Gray
as
Indian Girl
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Lisa Anne Cabasa
as
Injured Girl
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Ally Matsumura
as
Japanese Girl
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Kelli Wheeler
as
School Girl
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Jenna Edwards
as
Girl in Trailer
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Julia Ling
as
Potential With Power #2
SYNOPSIS
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A bloody Caleb rises and Buffy finally kills him
with the scythe by slicing him in two from the crotch up. Angel gives
Buffy an amulet intended to be worn by someone ensouled, yet more than
human. He tells her he will fight alongside her, but she turns him down,
asking him to instead organize a second front in case she loses to The
First. They discuss Spike, his soul, and Buffy's feelings for him. When
Angel asks about the future, Buffy explains that she still needs to grow
up. As he walks into the shadows, echoing his very first appearance,
Buffy tells him there might be a future for them, but it will be a long
time coming, if ever. He walks off after saying "I'm not getting any
older".
Back at the house, Dawn angrily kicks Buffy's leg for having Xander try
to take her away from Sunnydale in the previous episode. Spike is in the
basement, working out his anger on a punching bag with a crude drawing
of Angel's face on it. He asks for the amulet, whose exchange he had
witnessed from the shadows, and she explains that it is very powerful
and meant only for a champion. She then hands it to him. Buffy tells
Spike coyly that Faith still sleeps in her bedroom and she has nowhere
to sleep. Spike says he doesn't want Buffy downstairs with him, because
he still has his pride. When Buffy starts to walk upstairs, he says he
doesn't have any pride at all when it comes to her and he says she can
stay.
Late at night, as Buffy and Spike are sleeping in each other's arms, the
First appears to taunt Buffy in the form of Caleb. His words give Buffy
a plan; when Spike wakes up, Buffy tells him that she now knows that
they will win.
The next morning, Buffy unveils her plan to the potentials off-camera.
Afterwards, Willow expresses to Kennedy her concerns about using magic
again. She says this is the most powerful magic she will have attempted
and asks Kennedy to kill her if it turns bad. Faith and Principal Wood
also have a discussion while preparing the school for the battle. Wood
demonstrates that he understands her defensiveness over getting
emotionally involved with men and asks her to give him a chance after
the battle.
The next morning, everyone arrives at Sunnydale High in a yellow school
bus. The Potentials head to the seal in the basement while Kennedy helps
Willow set up her spell in Principal Wood's office. After trying to give
a farewell speech, Andrew is dragged off by Anya. Dawn leaves to set up
her post with Xander, determined to see her sister again. Principal Wood
leaves to wait at his post for Giles. The core four share a moment
before each one peels off, leaving Buffy walking alone to the seal. The
Potentials, Faith and Spike are waiting, and the potentials/slayers cut
their hands to open the seal with their blood. They climb down the hole
in the ground and come face to face with the army of Turok-Han. The
Ubervampires spot Buffy, Faith and the Potentials, and attack. "Come on,
Will," Buffy pleads.
Willow sits in Principal Woods' office, the scythe before her. While
chanting a spell, she places her hands upon the scythe, and both she and
the scythe light up in an ethereal glow. A flashback to Buffy's final
speech to the Potentials reveals that Willow is channelling the essence
of the scythe in order to activate Potentials all over the world.
Defying the tradition of only one slayer per generation, Willow's spell
will raise an army strong enough to do battle with The First. As Willow
performs the actual magic, Kennedy tells Willow that she is a goddess.
"And you're a Slayer," Willow replies. Kennedy takes the scythe to
Buffy, who is deep in the fight with Faith and Spike against the army of
the Turok-Han, numbering in the thousands.
As she pauses to give orders, Buffy is stabbed through her abdomen from
behind by one of the Turok-Han and falls to the ground. She passes the
scythe to Faith and asks her to hold the line. As she lies on the
ground, she sees several Slayers fall, including Amanda. In the halls of
the school, a few Turok-Han make it to the surface and attack the group
guarding the entrances. A small group of Bringers also appear and
attack. During the battle, Anya is bisected by a Bringer. Andrew fights
until he is overwhelmed. Principal Wood is brutally stabbed by a Bringer
who is then killed by Giles. Xander and Dawn take on some Turok-Han who
are disintegrated by sunlight when Dawn throws open a skylight window,
but more follow. In the Hellmouth, the First then appears to Buffy as a
mortally wounded Buffy herself, saying "What more do you want?".
Ordering The First to "get out of my face!" Buffy arises with renewed
determination and knocks several Turok-Han off the ledge. Other Slayers
are reinvigorated as well. Just then, Spike's amulet consumes him in
blue light and blasts a hole upward into the sky. The sunlight is
channelled through the amulet and in powerful rays that begin dusting
the Ubervampires. The ground begins to shake and rocks tumble. The few
surviving Slayers start to flee. Buffy tells Spike to do so as well, but
he insists on finishing it. They share a quiet moment as the world
crumbles around them. With tears in her eyes, Buffy tells Spike she
loves him, to which he replies, "No you don't. But thanks for saying
it." He orders her to leave as he has to stay and finish the job. Buffy
leaves and Spike disintegrates as the Hellmouth collapses.
On the way out of the school, the Slayers find Andrew crouched in a
corner. Xander yells for Anya, whose dead and mangled body lies nearby.
Dawn pulls him out. Faith is the last onto the bus and it pulls away,
with Dawn looking through back for Buffy. Buffy, in the meantime, has
climbed to the roof of the school and is running along rooftops trying
to outrun the enlarging crater. She leaps onto the top of the bus.
Watching as the bus speeds off out of town, the entire town collapses
into itself.
The ground stops shaking. Everyone gets off the bus. Xander asks Andrew
about Anya's death. He comforts Xander by telling him that Anya died
saving him. Faith looks after a wounded Principal Wood. While Kennedy,
Vi and a few others tend to the wounded newly made Slayers, everyone
joins Buffy as they look at the large crater which was once Sunnydale.
Giles asks how this could've happened, since everyone either died or is
alive and with them. With sad eyes, Buffy answers with one word:
"Spike". A silence follows, as everyone remembers their fight. Giles
mentions that they should go to Cleveland as there's another Hellmouth
there and lots more work to do. An exhausted Faith responds, "Can I push
him in?". Then, Dawn asks, "What are we going to do now?" Buffy slowly
begins to smile as she contemplates the future.
TRIVIA
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In the original script the conversation
between Buffy and Angel was supposed to be longer, with Angel revealing
to Buffy that he loved Cordelia and also that he had a son. This was
amended as it confused the storylines between the two shows.
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James Marsters returned as Spike in
Angel's fifth season premiere
Conviction, proving that you're never truly dead in Joss Whedon's
world.
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Charisma Carpenter and Amber Benson are
the only cast members who were once regulars to not come back and make a
guest appearance after they left the show. It was rumoured that they'd
return for the finale however.
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Anya is killed in this episode. She is
killed by a Bringer. Her final lines are some of her best. She says to
Andrew, "I thought you'd be scared and I'd be sarcastic about it". We
then see her thinking about bunnies and summoning up enough anger to
face the oncoming battle. Her death is witnessed only by Andrew who
tells Xander that she was amazing. Emma Caulfield said at the beginning
of the season that she wanted to leave the show, but didn't want Anya to
have to die. She changed her mind when it was announced that the series
was ending and Anya's death was so Emma would never be on Angel
or any other spin-off shows. It also becomes a poignant opposite to
Spike's heroic death: Anya's death was quick and brutal. Emma commented
on the death: "I don't think I'd change the way Anya died. It was so
harsh and out of the blue. When I read it, 'What?' it just seemed like
there was no build-up, you didn't see it coming; I liked that. And I
liked that she died doing good, she kind of really had come into her
own, which I think made it more sad. I knew I was going to die but I
didn't know it was going to be like that."
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Sarah Michelle Gellar spoke some time ago
about her own personal feelings about Buffy's relationships with Angel
and Spike: "There's a part of me that will always believe that Angel is
Buffy's true love. That there will be a piece of her heart that will
always be with him for the rest of her life. It doesn't mean that's the
person that she's meant to be with eternally. The thing about Buffy and
Spike is they understand each other on a level that nobody else
understands her. They've both lived a hundred lives and I think there's
a connection there that we will see evolve over the next couple of years
where she realizes that he really is someone that she can trust, someone
that's a companion to her and someone that really understands her unlike
anybody else."
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Robin Wood is the only one of the shows
Sunnydale High principals to survive. Principal Flutie was eaten by
possessed students and Snyder was killed by Mayor Wilkins. Robin Wood
and Rona are the only two African-American characters on this show not
to die or disappear.
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The Mutant Enemy monster turns to the
audience at the end of the episode.
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Sarah Michelle Gellar told Entertainment
Weekly in 2003 that she knew of Joss's grand plan for the show: "Joss
has had certain episodes planned from the get-go. I knew Dawn was coming
two years in advance...Willow was always supposed to go bad. Willow was
supposed to go bad a year before she did, but Joss loved Tara and
Willow, so that story line was pushed a year... I honestly believe his
original intentions was to put Buffy and Xander together. I really do
believe that."
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There are a few alternative 'scripts on
the internet for this episode. There are many differences, including:
Xander dying to save Dawn, Anya living to see the end. Dawn is also
discovered to be the third Slayer, and there are many extra guest stars
including Kendra.
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Joss drew the cartoon of Angel that
appeared on Spike's punch bag.
CROSSOVER
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Angel delivers an amulet to Buffy in this episode
before he leaves town. The amulet that Spike uses was given to Angel by
Lilah at Wolfram and Hart in Angel's
Home. It's revealed in Angel's
Soul Purpose that the amulet was sent by Lindsey McDonald, but it's
hinted that the amulet was for Angel to use.
CONTINUITY
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Caleb the Preacher is finally defeated by
Buffy. He fell at her hands at the end of last week's episode, but rose
again. She literally splits him in half with the axe. If you notice, his
death suggests the sign of the cross: Buffy slashes him both vertically
and horizontally.
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The 'Welcome to Sunnydale' sign is
knocked over for the third and final time. All three times have been the
responsibility of Spike in this episode and previously in
School Hard and
Lover's Walk.
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"The Earth is definitely doomed," is a
reference to The Harvest, where
Giles said almost the exact same thing.
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Giles mentions that there is another
Hellmouth under Cleveland, before he realises he's spoiling the moment.
This is a reference to The Wish
where, in a parallel universe, Buffy lives in Cleveland. In that
episode, Giles speaks to Buffy's then Watcher saying, "I realise that
there's a great deal of demonic activity in Cleveland." In
Empty Places, Clem suggests to Buffy
that she should move somewhere safe - like Cleveland.
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This episode finally reveals why the
First tormented Angel in Amends, and
also why it went specifically after Spike: because one of the two (both
vampires with a soul) were destined to wear the amulet that was going to
destroy the First's army.
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Sunnydale is destroyed when it falls into
the Hellmouth. We've seen most of the residents fleeing the town in
previous episodes, so this means there weren't as many deaths as there
could have been. The destruction of Sunnydale was apparently originally
supposed to be used in the season five finale
The Gift.
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Anya's death was predicted by D'Hoffryn
in Selfless.
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Andrew is briefly seen wearing Buffy's
Red Riding Hood outfit from Fear, Itself.
GOOFS
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Angel says the First tried to make him
kill himself but it actually tried to make Angel kill Buffy and Angel
decided to kill himself to stop this happening.
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The Ubervampires seem really easy to
kill, all of a sudden. The Scoobies seem to have no problem killing
them.
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When they walk into the school Spike
walks in with only his leather jacket for cover. Considering it's
daytime, you'd think there'd be dust.
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Buffy seems to heal quickly, enough to
jump from building to bus. Maybe she's just really determined?
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When Buffy escapes from the building, she
holds the axe by the top. In the next shot, she's holding it in the
middle.
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Why do Buffy and the potentials go into
the Hellmouth before Willow performs her spell?
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When Sunnydale disappears into the
crater, we cannot see the sea. Sunnydale has been shown to be on the
coast in past episodes.
Lessons |
Beneath You |
Same Time, Same Place |
Help |
Selfless
Him |
Conversations With Dead People |
Sleeper |
Never Leave Me |
Bring on the Night |
Showtime
Potential |
The Killer in Me |
First Date |
Get It Done |
Storyteller |
Lies My Parents Told Me
Dirty Girls |
Empty Places |
Touched |
End of Days |
Chosen
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