Part Two of the season finale jumps back in after the commercial break. Of course, I'm a few minutes behind now because I keep rewinding Giles's entrance at the end of "Two To Go". All hail TiVo!

So Buffy and Anya wake up again and look up in disbelief to see Giles standing in the doorway, looking every bit the heroic badass. He's even got a fancy new trenchcoat that's absolutely... I'm babbling. Willow dabs at her bloody nose, snarking about "Daddy" being home, and gee, she must be in trouble, and Giles tells her "You have no idea." He says some more about how she has to stop what she's doing, but I didn't so much catch it the first time around because the sound of his voice when he says this is just... well, it makes me insanely glad that my husband is still in the other room. Not that my torrid love affair with Giles is a big secret in our household - hubby's dating both Cordelia and Anya, plus one of the sisters on Charmed. It's all good. Now what was I saying? Oh, right - big drama! Ahem.

So Willow sasses him a minute, but he just folds his hands in front of him (And may I say he looks increcdible? Yes. Yes, I may.). He speaks calmly, telling her to stop. She moves to get up, but he just says "Stay down" and waves his hand, and she crumbles to the floor. I have palpitations. Then the phone rings again. I pause TiVo, ready to reach through the phone and strangle whoever is calling in the middle of this, but it's hubby's work again. Big emergency, he needs to go in; I leave TiVo paused so I can watch whatever comes next without all the hubbub of him getting ready to go in the background. So we're finally ready to watch this now? Good. I pick up the remote, and the phone rings yet again! Who the hell is it now?! Hey, it's my buddy, silver! Well, that's okay, then. We're both pretty much "Oh my god Giles!!" "Did you see the-" "I know! What about the-" "I know!!" She so enables my Giles addiction. And she totally knows my giddy glee here is tempered by my overwhelming terror that they brought him back just to kill him horribly. But her commercial break's over, gotta go, chat later, bye!

Anya is baffled by how Giles did that (the knocking Willow down thing, I know I babbled again for a minute there), but Willow can sense that it's borrowed power. He tries to talk to her, but she's still chock full of not caring what anybody has to say. Buffy tells Willow to listen to Giles, that she doesn't want to fight Willow any more (well, I wouldn't either if I'd been repeatedly slammed upside a display case). But Willow agrees; she doesn't want to fight Buffy any more either. She wants to fight Giles. Oh, my.

As she gets up, he tries to put her down again, but she waves it off. She reminds him of their fight months earlier about her abuse of magick and tells him pretty much that he ain't seen nothing yet. She starts to glow, her eyes roll over to full black, and she begins an incantation. Fortunately for Giles, his spell only needs one word, so while she's still whipping out her "Corsheth, take her!" he's already flung his hand out and encircled her in a glowing green innertube. It tightens around her, and she really really doesn't like it. She begins to protest, but he flicks his wrist, and she's silenced. Her head falls back as she's lifted off the floor, imprisoned in the innertube which starts humming and turns a soft blue. Buffy creeps closer and asks him what he did. Well, obviously he's cooked her some waffles, Buffy. It's a binding spell, you dip! He starts to explain its effects, then he looks over at Buffy and notices "You've cut your hair."

This puddle over here on the floor? That's me. His voice is so full of emotion when he says this. Buffy finally throws her arms around him, grateful beyond words to have him there. He folds her in his arms, and it's the most tender moment I've seen since... well, since the last time Giles came back. Anya, meanwhile, is slowly inching towards them. She obviously doesn't want to interrupt this moment, but she just can't help herself. She meekly points out that she's coloured her hair again, and Giles reaches out to fold her into his embrace as well. But there's still big danger and drama afoot. Giles reluctantly pulls himself away from them to go to Willow. He tells her he's very sorry about what happened to Tara, and Willow manages to speak, threatening that the glowing innertube won't hold her forever.

But Giles apparently thinks it'll hold her long enough for him and Buffy to talk. They adjourn to the training room where he tells her he came as soon as he heard. She wonders if the Council told him, but the Council's pretty much useless as far as he's concerned. No, he was contacted by a powerful coven in Devon, who sensed the emergence of a seriously dangerous force in Sunnydale, powered by rage and grief. I flashback to Kendra saying that her Watcher told her that "a very dark power is about to rise in Sunnydale" and take a second to miss her. And Tara. And Joyce. And get insanely fearful all over again that Giles is about to be killed.

Giles desperately hoped it wasn't Willow they were talking about, but when a Seer in the coven told him about Tara's death, he had to assume the worst. He tells Buffy that the coven imbued him with their powers and teleported him to Sunnydale to stop Willow. Then Giles asks Buffy what on earth's been going on since he left. Buffy doesn't even know where to start, so she plows right through the list. Willow's obviously been on a serious magick bender, and Buffy didn't even realise what was happening before Willow was ass-deep into it. Xander left Anya at the altar, Anya got her powers back (that one sure gets Giles' attention), Dawn's a total klepto, Buffy's been flipping burgers in a greasy pit, and she's been sleeping with Spike. Buffy looks like she's bracing herself for his wrath and disapproval, but when the camera cuts back to Giles, he does the one thing I would never have imagined. He busts. Out. Laughing. Buffy looks utterly miffed that he's not taking her misery more seriously, and he tries to apologize, but he's physically unable to stop laughing his fool head off. Finally, Buffy breaks down and joins the contagious laughter at how ludicrously horrible it all is. I haven't seen her smile like this since she heard Harmony had minions, and I haven't seen Giles laugh so hard since... ever. It's such a great moment, which means, naturally, that it's about to hit the fan.

Anya is in the front of the shop picking up assorted debris when Willow calls out to her telepathically, trying to get Anya to free her. Anya says that mental control stuff doesn't work on vengeance demons, but Willow tells her these are not the droids she's looking for, and Anya pipes down.

In the back, the laughing jag continues unabated. Buffy tells him about her recent 'visit' to the insane asylum, and they finally get all the giggles out. Then Giles asks Buffy if she can forgive him for leaving. He says he never should have abandoned her, but she says he was right to go. I beg to differ in about eighteen different languages, but I think I understand his decision, and so does Buffy.

Then she starts to talk about how long it's taken her to feel like living again. <sarcasm> Which is such a drastic change from how she's always going on about how long it's taking her to feel like living again. </sarcasm> She wonders to Giles why she was brought back. Buffy, that one's easy. You were brought back because your friends missed you. They did a spell, and... Buffy's trying to make this a Big Question. Like why Angel was brought back from hell or something. Apples and oranges, but it's Buffy's show, so she gets to talk here, not me. Giles suggests that she was brought back because she has a Calling (see above re: sad friends), but Buffy insists she'd completed the work she'd been Called to do. She saved the world, she died, somebody else's turn, right?

Buffy goes on to say that someone would have taken her place, but unless I haven't been paying attention - and I have - that doesn't make a lick of sense. She died, and Kendra was Called. Kendra died; enter Faith. The line goes through Faith now. If Buffy's death activated another Slayer, it would be like being the mother of your great-granddaughter. Not that I'm an expert on the logistics of mystical Callings, but Joss Whedon has clearly stated that's how the line works. Unless he's changed his mind or something, but even if he has, it's been a year now since Buffy died, and there's been no word of a new Slayer. And while I'm ranting, is Faith still supposed to be sitting in jail in L.A.? Angel sure as hell hasn't been to visit her lately. And if the Council is so befuddlingly inept as to have two Slayers around and be working with neither, then what on earth do they do with their time these days?! Good lord, I'm not even a quarter of the way through this episode. Time to plunge and move on.

Buffy stops pondering the mystical ramifications of reanimation to ask what's going to happen to Willow. Giles says the coven is working on a way to extract her powers without killing her, but the look on his face doesn't inspire confidence. After all, he says, even if she survives the extraction, now that she's murdered a human being, she'll probably never be the same again.

Willow's really not worried about that. Buffy and Giles turn to see Anya dead or unconscious in the doorway. Hard to tell which. Willow drops her, and she falls. Buffy tries to charge Willow and gets slammed into the brick wall for her efforts. Giles tries to bind Willow again, but she's onto him this time. She waves the spell away and does one of her own. With a word, the throwing knives spring from their place on the wall. Giles summons the practice dummy to take the brunt of their impact. Then he shouts his own spell and sends Willow crashing through the brick wall. Ouch!

Meanwhile Xander, Dawn, Jonathan, and Andrew (aka "the other one") are still hoofing it. Dawn wants to know where they're going, but Xander doesn't know. Which he beats himself up for because he's usually so good at running away. I'd beat myself up too if I had the hair he's got going in this scene, but that's beside the point. Dawn says they should go back to help, that Spike would go back to help, and Xander snaps "Sure, if he wasn't too busy trying to rape your sister." Dawn can't believe he said that, she doesn't believe it's true, but Xander just can not be bothered with her Spike-worship.

And speaking of Spike, he's just taken a couple demon heads and seems to be doing pretty well in his trials thing. Except for the being all beat to hell part, but he's determined to get his reward and give the Slayer what's coming to her. Then the next trials begins. Bugs. Huge bugs. Which are pretty ick, but I'm not seeing how that's going to bother a vampire much - until one crawls right up his nose and starts crawling around in his head, eesh! Spike howls in agony, and we return to the Magic Box.

Which is looking seriously thrashed. Exposed wires are sparking, beams are falling out of the ceiling, and things are starting to catch on fire. Willow slowly steps into the picture, her face bleeding, and challenges Giles, who has clearly been through the ringer too since we were here last. He's beginning to weaken now, but Willow is strong as ever. He tells her he can still hurt her if he has to. Willow, though, says nothing can hurt her now and waves away her injuries. Nothing matters. Not even, according to Giles, the people who love her. Willow doesn't argue. She sends another volley of lightning at him, and Buffy comes out from her cabinet or wherever she was hiding in the back room just in time to push him out of the way.

Willow is getting sick of Buffy's habitual 'saving people' routine and decides to use it to her advantage. She grabs a ball of fire that's sitting on the floor - no really, there's a ball of fire just conveniently sitting right there, waiting to be picked up - and informs Buffy that she can kill the guys from anywhere with her magickal nerd-seeking missile. And it won't just kill Jonathan and Andrew; it'll literally bury anybody near them when it hits - namely Xander and Dawn - unless Buffy can reach them in time. She sends it through the roof with a lame homage to "The Wizard of Oz" but cracks me up with a giddy "See what I did there?" Apparently her desire to kill the boys herself has taken a back seat to getting Buffy out of the way so she can concentrate on killing Giles without the Slayer interfering. Buffy exchanges a pained look with Giles; she doesn't want to leave him bruised and bleeding on the floor. But they both know she has to get to the others. He tells her to go, and my stomach settles somewhere around my ankles.

Moments later, Willow is pacing back and forth in the now-dark shop, telling Giles what a hypocrite he is for showing up with his borrowed magick to tell her she shouldn't be using magick. She tells him it's not like he's in any position to tell her anything at all, and the camera shows us Giles stuck to the ceiling. Then with a flick of her finger, he plummets to the floor. He tries to speak, but she slams him back onto the ceiling. She's ranting that the real reason he left town was because he was jealous of her abilities, and he belches a wave of green power at her. She staggers back, and he crashes back to the floor. Willow is dismayed at his rudeness. I can't believe this, Giles is being beaten to death, and I'm laughing. Not for long, though. Struggling to his knees, he tries to tell her she can't keep this up much longer, and I jam my fist into my mouth again because that's the last thing he needs to be pointing out to her! Especially after what she did to Rack the last time she needed a pick-me-up. Sure enough, she's instantly beside him. She grabs him by the hair and plants her hand on his chest. Lightning sparks between them as she sucks him dry. Then he crumbles to the floor. And I'm pretty sure that sound I just heard was me screaming.

Willow staggers back to slump against the counter. She's tripping big-time, about to overdose on so much powerful magick, and she loves it. It's nothing like she's ever felt, more power than anyone's ever known, and she's connected to everything and everyone. She can also feel everyone's emotions, and suddenly she's not enjoying the trip anymore. It's just too much pain for her to bear. Giles struggles to tell her it doesn't have to be that way, that she can change it, and she settles on a decidedly drastic course of action. There's just too much suffering and pain in the world, so she's going to make it all stop. She levitates and swirls away in her private hurricane, leaving Giles behind.

In the cemetery, Xander and the others are trying to break into a crypt to hide in. Andrew again says he thinks it's a stupid plan, and Xander has had just about enough of Andrew's ungrateful bitching. Dawn's looking up, though, and interrupts to ask Xander what something is. Why, that's a ball of flaming death, and it's headed straight for you. Buffy is still running behind it, and she screams for everyone to get down. She tackles Jonathan and Andrew, and the flaming projectile hits the ground right in front of Xander and Dawn, tearing a gaping hole in the earth. Personally, I'd have protected my sister and friend instead of the criminals who got this whole mess started, but I'm not the Slayer. Xander bashes his head on a tombstone and is knocked out cold. Dawn is too close to the hole and falls in. Buffy leans over the side of the hole and falls in too. Then the nerds' swords come tumbling down, nearly impaling Buffy. Actually, one does that, and she rolls out of the way. Then the other one falls in for no other apparent reason than it wants to stick with its buddy.

Back topside, Andrew and Jonathan look around. The girls are deep in a hole, and Xander is out cold. So Jonathan decides that the "hoof it to Mexico" plan is starting to look a lot better, and they take off running. Man, that's kinda disappointing. I expected better from Jonathan. But when people start hurling flaming comets at you, I can understand the urge to be elsewhere.

Back at the Magic Box, Anya is still alive after all. She stumbles out of the back room and sees the havoc that got wreaked while she was out. Then she sees Giles. He's still in a heap on the floor, and he's not moving. She goes to him, calling his name, and his eyes snap open. I scream again. In a good way this time. But I take it back when I see the look on his face. Anya says she's so sorry Willow manipulated her, and he tells her he can see. Which confuses her for a moment because he usually can do that already. Because of the magick she took from him, he tells Anya, he can see what Willow's doing, what she's planning to do. And he's horrified. Anya tells him he needs to rest, but he gently assures her it won't help. He's dying.

His physical injuries aren't what are killing him, though. Instead, it's the way Willow ripped the magick out of him. I think. It's actually a little fuzzy to me, but I'm not even remotely concerned with the why. I just know that he's connected to her by the magick, and I'm terrified and heartbroken. He says that the magick could have meant they had a chance, but it didn't work. He tells Anya that Willow's going to end it. Anya looks confused and says "End what?" All together now: "The world." Giles goes still, and the camera pans to a shot of the sun rising. Just like they did right before Buffy died.

Buffy is trying to climb up the roots sticking out of the dirt to get out of the hole in the ground. She falls hard onto a coffin and seems to get an idea. She starts trying to pry the other coffins out of the dirt, hoping maybe to stack them high enough to get out. Dawn thinks maybe they can somehow get to one of the underground tunnels Spike uses and get to his crypt, but Buffy snaps that that's the last place they need to be. To which Dawn replies "Oh, but it was good enough to take me there after what he did to you?" Damn good question that Buffy doesn't have any answer to. Dawn demands to know why Buffy didn't tell her he attacked her, but she says Dawn didn't need to know. Dawn and I think that's bull. Buffy says she was trying to protect her, but Dawn insists that Buffy can't protect her from everything.

Then Xander calls out to them from above. He tells the girls that Jonathan and Andrew must have skedaddled while he was unconscious, and Buffy tells him to go get some rope or something they can use to climb out. Then suddenly, Anya appears to fill them in on Willow's grand "destroy the world" plan. Apparently she's headed to a satanic temple on King Man's Bluff. Buffy points out that there's not a temple there, and we see Willow at said bluff, raising a steeple out of the ground. There's a wicked-looking statue of a Medusa chick strapped to it like a mermaid on a ship and the obligatory pentacle where the cross would be on a Christian church. At least it's upside-down. Whatever.

Anya explains that the temple was swallowed in an earthquake, but Willow has unearthed it to put it to its originally intended use. Namely, she's going to drain the earth's life energy away and funnel it through Medusa chick's statue, which will burn the world to a cinder. Which makes a little sense only after I run it through my head several times but not before. Anyway, Buffy decides this is something she'd do well to put a stop to, but Giles said she can't. Nothing mystical or supernatural is going to be able to stop her. That's all Anya knows, though, because Giles was getting a little unclear at that point. Buffy asks what's wrong with Giles, but Anya only says that she should get back to him. That he's alone. Buffy asks again, and Anya admits that she doesn't think Giles has a lot of time left. She shimmers back to him, and Buffy yells for Xander to hurry up with the rope.

Willow is about to begin the ritual genocide when she 'hears' Buffy tell Dawn she's not going to let Willow do this. Willow pauses and calls to Buffy, telling her she can't do a thing to stop this but that Buffy should still go out fighting anyway. Then some things start to burst out of the wall in front of Buffy. They're, um, dirt monsters. With roots for claws, I think. Time for commercial.

The dirt monsters attack. Buffy dispatches a couple, but every time she destroys one, another bursts out of the wall. There are too many for her to fight. So she turns and asks if Dawn will help. Yes! There's a cheesey "passing the sword" moment, but I don't care because I'm so ecstatic that Dawn's finally going to be allowed to get her fight on! Buffy picks up the other sword (ah, I knew it jumped in after its buddy for a reason!), and the fight begins again.

The camera cuts to Willow beginning her supplication to MedusaChick, but I'm all "Noo! I wanted to see Dawn fight!" But I guess the whole "climactic struggle for the fate of the world" stuff is important too. Fair enough. Lightning begins to spark around Willow, and MedusaChick glows brightly. Then green balls of light start to shoot through Willow and into the statue. The earth begins to rumble all over town.

Anya looks down at Giles, who isn't moving. She tells him he can't die because she has things to tell him, and for a second I think she's about to say she loves him. Cliché, I know, but this episode is full of those. With more to come later. But Anya sweetly thanks Giles for coming to help, although she admits it might have been better if he hadn't shown up and given Willow enough power to destroy the world.

Willow's earth-scorching is progressing nicely. I'm not sure exactly what the effects are showing me, but they look pretty damn cool. The green balls of light keep flowing into the statue, and the ground is starting to char. Then suddenly, Xander steps out of the statue. How, I have no idea. But when he breaks through, the scorching light dissapates, which is a clearly good thing. Willow tells him to get out of the way, and when he doesn't move, she sends a spark to knock him to the ground. She blinks at that, like she didn't enjoy hurting him, and back in the Magic Box, Giles opens his eyes. "There," he tells Anya. "It's not over."

Over in the dirt-monster pit, Dawn is doing a pretty good job of holding her own until MudMan #2 knocks the sword out of her hand. Buffy tells her to hang on, but Dawn's got it covered. She does a cool duck-and-roll sommersault to grab the sword herself, stabs the guy in the gut, then slices his head off. Sweet! A little much, but I don't really care. Go, Dawn! The monsters keep coming, of course, and the sisters stand back to back, ready to fight together.

Back at Mount Crumpet, Willow has resumed her spell, but when Xander gets up and stands in her way, it dissipates again. She tells him he can't stop this, which I'm not entirely convinced of since it seems to stop every time he stands in the way, but he doesn't argue. He just tells her that if the world is about to end, he wants to be with his best friend. Willow rolls her eyes at his appeal to her sense of friendship, but Xander isn't swayed. He says he knows she's about to do something horribly evil and stupid, but he still loves her because she's Willow. And her face faults a little bit at this. He starts to step towards her, reminding her of just how long they've been friends, and insists that if she's going to destroy the world, she needs to start with him. And even if she does, he says, it won't change the fact that he loves her.

Willow tells him to shut up, rakes her nails through the air, and Xander's face starts to bleed. But he tells her again that he still loves her. Furious, she slashes at the air, cutting him across the chest. And this time, a tear starts to roll down her face. Xander stands, refusing to back down. He tells her again that he loves her. She yells for him to shut up, sending a bolt of purple lightning at him. It knocks him back, but it doesn't have the power it did a while before, actually starting to sputter and spark around her hand. He gets up again, and this time her blast doesn't even stagger him. She tries again, but she can't summon the power. She pounds his chest with her fists, begging him to stop, but he wraps his arms around her. Finally, for the first time since Tara died, she lets herself cry. She falls to the ground, Xander still holding her, and he tells her once more that he loves her. As she cries in his arms, the black drains from her hair, and the veins fade from her face.

Over in the Pit o' Sisterly Bonding, the dirt-monsters vanish before the scene turns to the Magic Box. Anya sits on the floor, her head in her hands, and I feel a sick chill sweep through my gut. Then suddenly, Giles sits up, and you're damn right I screamed again. Anya throws her arms around Giles, so happy that he's alive. He winces, and she pulls away, asking why he isn't dead - or the whole world, for that matter. He tells her the threat is gone, that Willow's been stopped. Which explains the world still being there, but I don't get why Giles didn't die just because Willow stopped... you know what? I'm shutting up. He's alive.

He tells Anya that Willow isn't dead either, that the magick she took from him did what he'd hoped. Ah, so that's why he reminded her she needed to recharge. Smart guy. As he explains, Willow's magick was all about anger and power, as opposed to the truer magick that the coven imbued him with. So when she absorbed it, it tapped into her humanity and allowed her to feel again, which meant that Xander was able to stop her. Anya looks pretty shocked and fairly pleased to hear that Xander was the one who saved the world.

Underground, Buffy starts to cry. Dawn thinks she's disappointed the world was't destroyed, but it's tears of relief. Then it sinks in what Dawn just said. Buffy hugs her sister, understanding how horrible it's been for both of them this past year. She promises things are going to be different; they'll be okay now. Buffy goes on to say some inspirational things to Dawn that don't move me anywhere nearly as much as they're intended to, but the jist is that Buffy is finally going to wake the hell up and live again. Hallelujah!

And then the obligatory musical montage sets in. Buffy and Dawn claw their way out of the "grave" together, Anya helps Giles away from the wreckage of the shop, and on the hilltop, Willow weeps in Xander's arms. Oh, and Jonathan and Andrew are sitting as far away as they possibly can from the leering truckdriver who's giving them a lift. I just wish I weren't so tired of the 'dramatic montage' scenes from this season because the words are actually from a prayer I used to hear in church almost every week when I was little. Used here, they're haunting and appropriate and beautiful, especially the lines that read "For it is in giving that we receive, and it is in pardoning that we are pardoned. And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life." Oh, speaking of which...

Spike lies on the floor of the cave, beaten and bruised but victorious. The demon says he has endured the required trials, and Spike gets up, ready to receive what he came for. To be made what he was so that Buffy can get what she deserves. "Very well," the demon says. "We will return your soul." He puts a hand on Spike's chest, which glows brightly, and light burns behind Spike's eyelids as he screams in pain.

Next season should be interesting.

Thoughts

Wow, for a season finale I didn't enjoy that much the first time through, I sure did a lot of excited screaming. Why? Because Giles came back, and he's alive. Everything else is gravy. Maybe not the biggest thing that happened tonight, but a girl's got her priorities. He was strong, and he was beautiful, and he helped save the day, and he wasn't brought back just to die. Honestly, that was a humongous fear of mine - that they would bring him back just to give him a "high note" to go out on. I mean, the mojo... wow. "I'd like to test that theory." Shee-yeah! I knew there'd be a reckoning between him and Willow about the magick after she so blithely threatened him earlier this year, and I was horribly afraid. I know it's entirely unprecedented for them to bring someone back and let them be happy and stuff for a minute and then kill them... got my sarcasm on there. Not gonna get bitter now, though. Giles came back, and he's alive. And he smiled! And laughed! More than he has in the entire series to date put together! Don't know if he's going to stay - after all, Tony's got that miniseries in England to film at some point, not to mention a family he loves and misses - but all I wanted from this finale was to get through it without Giles dying. So I'm happy. And like I said, everything else is gravy.

And about that gravy - it sure was talky, wasn't it? At least for the first half (Two To Go). Willow and Buffy postured and threatened. Lots of walking around, looking for people, running away, swapping spells, talking about how bad everything was, talking some more, followed by some searching and running. Then there was the second part, Grave. I know I'm a bit biased here, but it was like the minutes Giles got back, it felt like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" again. Since he left, there was this gaping hole in the show, right through the first part of the finale, but then Giles walked in. I don't get exactly how all the mystical whoosits worked out in the end, and there was a lot of cliché and heavy-handed, neon anvils, but there was so much else to enjoy for a change that that stuff didn't bother me. Well, except that the whole "oops, she's gonna destroy the world" jazz seemed really tacked on at the end. Oh, and the dirt monsters. Those were just dumb.

But there was a lot of coolness too! Giles, naturally, but Anya really impressed me as well. She wasn't helping here because she was with Xander this time, and she wasn't just fighting to protect her own butt. She was helping because it was the right thing to do. And her scenes with Giles were just beautiful. For the last couple of seasons, I've noticed that as much as she teases him, she's often taken her cues about how to act from Giles, and their interaction here was great.

And then there was Dawn. Her rampant Spike-worship needed to be taken down a notch or seven, but I was so proud to see her grow up a bit. And she finally got to do something besides cower during the fight! You just knew those two swords in the dirt were going to be important. Actually, I wondered for a second if they were somehow the next thing Spike was supposed to fight, but I suppose it's easy to mistake one dank pit for another.

Then there was Xander. He was so full of ineffective self-loathing throughout most of the finale that it was easy to guess he'd wind up with something important to do - but he didn't just help, he saved the whole world! Defeating her with the power of love was yet another massive cliché, but I don't care. It was played beautifully, and it was wonderful to see those two friends remember how much they mean to each other. If the price of this gang finally coming back together is a little bit of cliché, then so be it.

I've missed the Scooby Gang for so very long. They've all been there, officially, but they've been phoning it in for years. Not the actors, they've done some really great work. I mean the characters. And that anvil at the end, the one where Buffy crawled out of another grave? Cliché? Also fine with me. I'm more than happy to forgive all the stilted dialogue and uninspired dirt monsters running rampant through this finale if it means the gang is finally going to come back together again. Especially if they can manage to stop wallowing in abject misery for a change.

Can I just give a huge thank you to Mutant Enemy for making a distinction between Willow's murderous vengeance and the magick wielded by Giles, Tara, and the coven in England? It still doesn't gloss over the whole maligning and misrepresenting Wicca they've done for years, but it was a distinction that needed to be made. All year, Willow's magick has come from anger and grief. Actually, two and a half years ago, I said Willow's misuse of magick was going to take her somewhere terrible. Always invoking "the dark ones" and stuff, with no concept of consequences or self-restraint. For years now, she's been lashing out at the world, running from herself, trying to destroy who she used to be. But I miss the Willow she used to be. Giles told her years ago that if she invoked magick strong enough to restore Angel's soul, she might be opening a door she wouldn't be able to close, and he was right. I'm just giddy with relief that he didn't have to die for her to finally learn that lesson.

And speaking of restoring souls, how about that ending, huh? Spike was so full of fury and rage that it seemed pretty clear he was out get chipless again, but all he actually said was that he wanted to be the way he used to be, that Buffy was going to get what she deserved. Hey, maybe CaveGuy got the request wrong - boy, wouldn't that suck? After all, Spike was a tad vague when you look at what he said. He may have assumed what he wanted was pretty obvious. I mean, he certainly didn't seem like somebody out to better himself, ranting and raving about "the bitch" the way he was. Of course, I wouldn't put it past him to go get his soul back just to spite her and see if he can kill her anyway. Sheesh, there's so many ways this could go.

Depending on what happens, my inner Buffy/Spike 'shipper just might wake up again. Still, it'll be pretty hard to get past the attempted rape, no matter how much he tries to make it up to her and prove he's a different man. Part of me hopes he redeems himself. After all, as much as I believed he had truly fallen in love with Buffy in Season 5, and despite his determination to protect Dawn over the summer, I couldn't completely buy into the idea that he was a changed man until we saw what he'd do without the chip in his head. And honestly, when he thought it was gone this season, he didn't exactly do the right thing. Still, he has a chance to redeem himself now, and I can't help but root for him. Then again, part of me hopes that they don't allow attempted rape to be forgiven. But if Spike with a soul is still to be damned for attacking Buffy, then Buffy needs to rethink how easily she seemed to be able to forgive Angel for snapping Jenny's neck.

Regardless of what this ends up meaning for him and Buffy, that's not even remotely what I'm most excited about. I can't wait to see what he's going to be like in the fall. Will he be like William again? Surely, there will be elements of him there, but Angel isn't exactly Liam anymore. Will he make a real go at redemption? Will he try to prove he can still be evil with a soul? Will he be tortured by his past deeds? And what will he do about it? I don't even know what road I'm hoping for him to take. I just know that it looks like Spike's finally coming down off the furious puppy fence, and that's got me doing cartwheels. Not this second, of course, because I'm typing. But I promise, later on, gymnastic fun.

So nutshell, the two-part finale definitely had its share of problems. Plodding action sequences, wooden dialogue, random apocalyptic threats coming out of left field... But Giles came back, the gang is starting to heal, Buffy woke up from her year-long fog, Dawn finally got to grow up a little, and Spike's going to come back with a very new attitude. I think I'm looking forward to next season.

Quirks

Aside from the stuff I mentioned during the recap, I only found one real flaw: Anya says the temple was buried in the big earthquake of '32. But if it's the same "big earthquake" that got The Master stuck in the Hellmouth, it didn't happen until '37. And I feel so very sad that I didn't even have to look that up ;)

Body Count

A whole mess of dirt monsters - dispatched by Buffy and Dawn
Two horned demons (or one with two heads ;p) - decapitated by Spike during his trials

Wow, is that it? Not very many for a season finale. Not that I'm complaining, though... because Giles isn't on the list!

Haiku

Spike passed his trials
Ever heard this phrase before?
"Vampire with a soul"

Tortured with self-doubt
Wanted to be with his friend
Zeppo saved the world

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