Spoiler Slayer

I've decided, that next season I'm going to discontinue doing Reviews or Thoughts about the episodes. For one, as I've stated before, I really hate being negative. I think part of the reason why I'm doing all five episodes as a whole, rather than singly, is that I just don't have the heart or desire to go through each episode nitpicking, kudoing, etc. I really like the show, I really like the storyline and acting (even with the flaws), and I personally think that this just comes off as grousing. No matter what, I'm still a fan of the series, the writers, the actors, and the concepts. Overall, I think about half of the scenes in the last five episodes were outstanding. However, most of those dealt with the characters rather than the actual advancement of the storyline. Which is why most of my Pro's dealt with the characters themselves. More often than not, it's the second-half of the episode that kills it for me. 'Dirty Girls' had a great beginning, but things went downhill one they reached the vineyard. 'Touched' was really good, until all the sex got thrown into the mix. 'End of Days' was great until we got to the Old Woman in The Crypt. Most of my Con's have to deal with the story itself, and how in terms of plot and continuity, it just didn't gel very well in the end.

I've also gotten a few e-mails about not listing Xander, Giles, Anya or Andrew amongst the Pro's. While Xander is listed here as a Con, it has nothing to do with his character itself, but how he was used. Giles, Anya and Andrew also fall into this category. While Andrew and Anya continued to be well-used as comedy relief, it was not a huge chain in how they had been used in the past. Pretty much they fall in between the Pros and the Cons. Nothing to really write home about, but nothing that I really disliked either. And yes, as a huge Anya fan I was crushed by her death. But I seem to recall that in an interview somewhere, Emma once said that if she ever did die, she wanted it to be really shocking. Which is was, plus she got to kick a little Ubie butt in the meantime as well.

Without any further ado, here are the things in the final five episodes that just didn't make any sense.

Faith: Underutilized, there is really no indication why it was even necessary for her to travel to Sunnydale. You have probably one of the most interesting characters in the show next to Buffy and she spends most of the time either cooling her heels or comatose. Knowing that at the time the story was in the process of being written, it was likely that she might participate in a spin-off, then it explains why she went to Sunnydale. However, that doesn't address that after some really good scenes in her first few episodes, by the finale she wasn't much more than an afterthought. Which is sad because every scene where she had some one on one with another character (Buffy, Spike, Wood, The First) was definitely a highlight.

Caleb: Another character that I really expected a bit more from. Yes, he was evil, but a weak evil at best. I'm not speaking in terms of physical strength, as he was obviously more than a match for Buffy. But in terms of being a threat, he pretty much adopted a 'Wait for her to come to me' attitude, which was boring. But seeing that he's a disciple of 'The First', it's pretty much par for the course. All he seemed to do was spout scripture, beat up on Buffy, and eventually met the mean end of a scythe.

Caleb also opened up an entirely new can of worms. If 'The First' had such a powerful tool in the first place, why waste him on blowing up Watchers and killing Potentials. Instead of mucking around trying to raise Ubervamps, or getting Andrew and Jonathan to go to Sunnydale to do his dirty work, why didn't 'The First' just have Caleb do the job in the first place? Obviously, it must have been a late plot development that the writer's cooked up as the season wore on. Rather than adding a new character, it would have been more interesting to have made 'The First' corporeal.

The First: Speaking of the 'Big Bad', I'm still entirely unclear as to what the real plan was. You'll note that this is a common thread through the Con's. Nothing it did made sense. It failed to act when it should have, it didn't utilize the tools (Bringers, UberVamps, Caleb) it had properly, and I'm not even entirely sure how Buffy defeated it. Am I the only one who thinks that it would have been more interesting this season if 'The First' had somehow resurrected some of the 'Big Bads' from the past. Compared next to The Master, Angelus, The Mayor, Glory, and even Dark Willow, the First is the weakest 'Bad' of them all. Okay, so maybe it was a bit more intimidating than Adam, but not as scary as Doctor Walsh.

The Hellmouth: So here's my question. If there were hundreds and hundreds of UberVamps in the Hellmouth, why did they only pop out singly before this? This could have been an 'End of Story' with 'Bring On The Night'. Secondly, it seems that much nastier things have come out of the Hellmouth in the past. Wasn't it supposed to tear open the gates between our world and the other dimensions? Not just show us a large-scale strip-mining operation of UberVamps, Inc.

Slayer Lineage And History: This has been the most teased and most ignored storyline of the series. Finally, it looked as if we would get some real information on the Slayer lineage this season. Yet by the time the final scene aired, there were still more questions than answers. Why did Buffy's resurrection cause 'The First' to act? I'm still not clear on that. I'm also not sure why all of the sudden everyone on the show is convinced that the line goes through Buffy. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but she died before and no slayer was called. Nothing at all was done to address why the line had switched back from Faith to Buffy. In addition, with the number of Potentials out there, it seems like the First's plans were weak at best. Obviously even with an Army of Bringers and Caleb, they could barely make a dent in the Potential Slayer population. So what was the entire point of killing the SIT's and destroying the Watchers Council, I just don't see that there is one.

The Scythe: Which by the way would more appropriately be identified as a Voulge. I prefer to call it a Deus Ex Tacky-na. It's too convenient, hardly any explanation is given to the essence of the Slayer that is part of it, and just doesn't fit with storyline. It's almost as if Joss wanted to throw something interesting into the mix to connect 'Fray' and 'BTVS'. Even the explanation behind it's creation doesn't fit with the canon. The Scythe was used to kill the last pure demon left on earth. However, as the mythos goes, the last demon to leave this reality created vampires and the Slayer wasn't created until after that. So why the sudden change? It just doesn't fit the mythos, it doesn't explain anything, and nothing about it makes sense.

Forgotten Promises: Okay, we might have gotten the 'One day, she'll tell you', but we certainly didn't get the 'She won't choose you, Dawn'. So was it Joyce or was it 'The First', and if it was 'The First', then why were we led to believe that Dawn still believed it was Joyce. Also ignored was Willow's comments about 'Everything Being Connected' and the really weak and never really explained 'From Beneath You It Devours'. I also could have used a few more cameos from The Master, Adam, and Glory. Also not entirely clear about how this entire plan of 'The First' was about power.

Xander: Was there any point in maiming him? In hindsight it seems like a cheap stunt. It didn't add anything to his character or the story. Of course, seeing his limited usefulness in the final few episodes, it's probably best that they did choose this path. Otherwise he would have gotten even less screen time. But I have never been a fan of using cheap theatrics without any good explanation. That's all this seems to have been.

Well, I think that's enough said about the final five episodes. I could on, but there's really no point. While I enjoyed the final run of the series, it really didn't live up to my expectations. In the end, even the finale seemed a bit weak. As I said before, it was certainly no 'Becoming' or 'The Gift'. Next up, I'm going to take a look at the season as a whole and how it ranks amongst the other six. Despite it's flaws, I hope my overall opinion will do it justice.