h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

*sniff*

This journal entry will contain spoilers for the final episode (and, indeed, the final season) of Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

So stop reading if you haven't seen it.







You too, Sean...















Well, it's over. And now that I've stopped blubbing, I have to say I can't imagine a better ending for such a great series. I was doubtful that they could reach a satisfactory conclusion in a single episode, but I guess I should have had more faith in Joss Whedon.

I think the thing I like most about Buffy in general is the way he sets up 'obvious' situations, then resolves them in completely unexpected ways. Case in point: The end of the previous episode, with Spike jealously watching Buffy with Angel. You immediately assume that he'll somehow betray everyone in the final episode, but Whedon completely surprises you by having Spike and Buffy *actually talk about it* and resolve their feelings (to some extent anyway).

I liked Caleb's 'Dead Villain not really dead' schtick, cheesy though it was. He didn't really get a good enough end last week, so they made sure this week.

But the true genius behind this episode was the central plot device. Empowering all potential slayers, wherever they were, not only gives a good way of wrapping up the 'First' plotline (and, naturally, some top-notch vampire slaying) but also beautifully restates the core premise of the whole show. A perfect move for the last episode - the vignettes of the slayers around the world discovering their power I thought was wonderful, but I guess I'm an old softie.

Spike and Anya's sacrifice was sad, although I suspect we've not seen the last of Spike - after all, mystical death, vampire with soul, saving the world, he's prime material for being reborn by the Powers that Be.

I was a little dubious about the necklace from Angel - without the context that (I hope) we'll get from Angel's show it smacked a little of Deus Ex Machina - but that's a minor quibble.

It's always sad when TV shows come to an end, especially ones that have been as consistently good as Buffy, but at least we got a finale that is a suitable conclusion to such a great show.

After all, I still remember Blake's Seven...

"I still remember Blake's Seven" - but is that with fondness or embarrassment!

When more of my "group" lived closer together, we used to do things like having a weekend devoted to the entire Blake's 7 series (episodes back to back with only occasional breaks to get more munchies etc). Th Buffy thing will probably happen once someone has collected all the DVDs.

The Blake's Seven reference was more about the way it ended than any quality judgement.

And there are some things I remember with fondness *and* embarrassment - Space 1999 for example.

Hmm, I thought Space 1999 was fairly excruciatingly embarrassing even at the time. The bad science, the implausible leaders and even more implausible romances pretty much scuppered that one for me. A couple of the cast members were much better in Mission Impossible.

Blake's 7 had a great ending that fitted the bleak nature of the show. Without that last ep, I doubt it would be so fondly remembered.

The final Buffy ep *was* great- I particulary liked Joss taking the time to have the original 'Scooby gang' together in the school corridor before the battle began- it was a nice touch to bring the series full circle.

I like Giles comment about there being another Hellmouth- it was in perfect keeping with his character, it was amusing, and it was a nice way of saying the work's not done yet.

Well we knew there was another Hellmouth in Cleveland, because that's where the alternate universe Buffy was in 'The Wish'.

I also liked Giles' "The Earth is *definitely* doomed" line - which echoed right back to the first episode.

Yes, we knew it was there, but it was good to mention it at the end like that- rather than the veiwers being left to remember it for ourselves, we're being explicitly reminded.

That whole little scene between the four of them reminded me of season one type exchanges in the library, or walking arund teh school grounds.

F103733?thread=285818

long posts about the final episode there.

spook

I thought it was excellent

I shall say no more, as I can't currently bring my thoughts into any great coherence - the room is swaying.

It might be easier just to list the bad Buffy episodes.

...

Yes, thought so, much easier (room swaying or not).

That just about sums it up, yes

Good point there, SEF. The only one I got *slight;y* sulky about was the 'Buffy Christmas' one with Buffy and Angel in the snow. For a show that always surprises, that one seemes a bit predictable.

But then, who'd've thunk it'd be such an important episode in relation the what it introduced for this series.

Having slowly realised that Angel's been the more consistently groundbreaking show for the last few years, it's really been neck and neck with Buffy and Angel this year. For once, I didn't feel Angel was depthcharged just to big up the final Buffy episodes, but that was because (I feel) Buffy didn't need the leg up this year.

As Jim said at the top of this - perfect ending, emotional, with closure, but with room for a possible future.

I've had a bit of a problem with watching them out of synchronisation and order. I didn't originally have Sky1 so there was just BBC2 and a period when they were on Channel 4 or 5 (I forget which now) but Buffy and Angel got out of phase. When the Sky feed was randomly enabled I could see where other people were in the episodes but then I was back filling in the missing bits from the other channels.

Ulp!! Watching the two series out of order can really mess things up!

I watched a few episodes when it first came over here, but it didn't really grab me. Then about four years ago my housemates decided to get the box sets and we all sat around and watched from series one, episode one, right through to the end of series four. We finished just in time for the first episode of series five (eep!) and from then I've been hooked. But it's really been helpful always watching Buffy and Angel in tandem - some episodes just wouldn't have made sense otherwise.

I just hope now that the production company only has one show to focus on again that we get twice the quality. Yay!

Most of this season they've been one or two eps out of sinc on Sky, which is *really* confusing when they're shown one after the other...

there's only been one point when they've been out of sinc, and that's with Willow getting a call after she was in LA in Angel. the only reason it was actually out of sinc was because sky showed the first ep of buffy season 1 week before first ep of Angel and second ep of buffy, strangely. i remember seaso 4 of buffy and 1 of angel when they had everything perfect, and the series were really well intermingled.

spook

It's not just that - the schedules in the US included several breaks for both seasons at apparently random points, then Buffy kind of stopped to wait for Angel to catch up... it was very strange for those of us following it via downloads.

Other way round, surely? Buffy had loads of breaks this year, whereas, from January Angel was broadcast in big chunks, finishing two weeks earlier than Buffy.

Angel was supposed to finish two weeks earlier than Buffy... the last episode of Angel finishes with Angel heading off to Sunnydale (and that was a nice red herring wasn't it!) the US people got it right in the end, but they took a roundabout route to get there. Which was odd, considering they were on different networks!

Whereas we've got Angel finishing *after* Buffy.