Buffy the Vampire Slayer S07 Wrap-Up Post

Lorraine: I hardly know how to fit this all in my brain. We did it. We finished. Seven seasons of Buffy.

Everything I say here is probably coated with a thick layer of nostalgia. It’s insta-nostalgia. I’ve had some very, very trying times with this project, and with Buffy, the series itself. However, I cannot deny that this show is good, or rather, that it ultimately created characters that I love. Characters I care about so much, that sometimes, watching what the writers put them through wasn’t easy.

Enter season 7. We were breathing it in like fresh air in the beginning, celebrating it’s marked lack of being season 6. There were some lovely moments throughout the season, and episodes that will probably go down in my top ranks. In all, though, I’ll parrot what commenter Clement said: there aren’t as many high highs and low lows. For that reason, it will be hard to rank. This is probably a season that is better ranked in moments than in episodes.

Season 7 had all the makings of a fantastic season and fell pretty short of that mark. The Potentials were such an exciting concept, but an ill-developed one. The Potentials themselves were one dimensional for the most part. I want to say that they weren’t given enough time to be much more, but as it is, they already stole precious time from Willow, Xander and Giles, who took a sad back seat in this season. Our last season.

The First was another excellent concept. It had the perfect makings for the Big Bad in the last season, but it ended up feeling like a neutered threat because of pacing problems and an overextended story. The threat was built fairly quickly and then quieted in an effort to either extend the story, or to truly set all the balls into motion. It was a disservice to the story and to the great! big! apocalypse! we’re told was coming over and over again.

In the end, this show went out with a season I’ll rank solidly in the middle. It was a mostly graceful bow out and in case you are wondering, in the end, no, it still wasn’t season 6.

Rankings:

1. Storyteller – Meta, expert mix of drama and comedy, lovely character progression– this is what Snark Lady favorites are made of.
2. Selfless – When it was silly, it was delightfully so. When it was moving, it was deeply so. It was full of call backs and even had a song. It was thoughtful and I felt for every single character.
3. Chosen – Plot was problematic but there were so many feels to be felt at the very end.
4. Potential – I have a soft spot for Dawn. There were some plot holes, but the moment between Xander and Dawn was worth it.
5. Conversations With Dead People – Not perfect, but it’s an episode that sticks with you, and seemed to set our season in motion.
6. Same Time, Same Place – Alyson Hannigan just gets me every time, and this top-level-creepy monster was a good way to have her deal with some issues she left behind in Sunnydale.
7. End of Days – Perhaps the only time I’ve ever straight CHEERED for Angel, plus so many nice moments of fan service.
8. Help – More of a standalone episode, but one I enjoyed a lot, especially for it’s great, “you can’t always win, but you try,” message.
9. Lessons – A solid season opener that gave us gems like the new Sunnydale High School and the villain montage thing at the end.
10. Bring on the Night – SPEECH! The speech!
11. Showtime – The first half of the episode dragged on, but Buffy laying down some lessons on the Potentials was nice.
12. Get it Done – Even though I’m not at all a fan of the Slayer origin story, this episode was so important to the series as a whole, I have to give it points for that. It had my attention the entire time.
13. Dirty Girls – The episode was mostly an introduction to Caleb and reintroduction to Faith, but I like Faith, so it was entertaining in parts.
14. Beneath You – I couldn’t rate this higher even if the last scene was nicely acted and pretty. The rest of the episode was empty.
15. Him – Funny stand alone with not a lot against it, but nothing amazing going for it.
16. Sleeper – The ending lines of, “I have to get close to Spike,” were so artless, that’s mostly what sticks out in my head.
17. Touched – Slow episode that felt out of place in what was supposed to be the steady build up to the end.
18. First Date – Xander’s subplot was awful, as were the Chao-Ahn jokes, but Principal Wood was entertaining, plus flash cards.
19. Never Leave Me – Spike’s self-loathing portion of his arc or journey or whatever were not enjoyable to watch. His goading Buffy into his murder was insufferable.
20. The Killer in Me – I don’t even hate this episode, but Kennedy was not enjoyable and the sloppy bits of the plot weighed this down to the bottom.
21. Empty Places – It was weird. Even though we can sit here and explain away certain character’s actions or motivations, it felt like a stretch while watching. We saw the writer’s machinations a tad too much.
22. Lies My Parents Told Me – I was so frustrated by this episode just because of the story. The story it told was not one I liked and it made me feel icky about characters I love for no good reason. Nope.

 

Sweeney: It’s so weird that this is over. It’s surreal, really.

The final stretch was tough, partially because I don’t love the last two seasons even though I still do love this show. It was frustrating, of course, to have people get up in arms because we don’t like what they love about this show. People got mad at us for getting mad, got mad at us for making light of it, got mad at us for just not talking about it. There were some people who, it seems, would only be satisfied by us not having our opinion. The only satisfactory thing would have been to say that we love the part they love. That was tough to deal with. Those reactions weighed heavily on the watching experience. We spent more time talking to you guys about this show then we did actually watching it, so these conversations, for better or worse, are now irrevocably part of my relationship to the show. The bad stuff just has a way of nagging at us more the good and some of that is our own fault for not choosing to ignore it sooner.

In spite of all that Debbie Downer business, I do still love this show. That hasn’t changed. (You know, because the reason someone else watches doesn’t have to be the reason I watch. Go figure.) I adore seasons 2, 3, and 5. I’m SO EXCITED to talk to you guys about series rankings later this week. That’s going to be a blast.

This season, too, had it’s high points. It had some fantastic conceptual things going for it and started out so strong. It just fell short. It struggled enough that it doesn’t come close to my love of those other three seasons, but, you know, it’s not season 6, so there’s that. I’m torn a little on how I feel about the existence of the S6 & S7. I’m not a big fan of the final season and I think that The Gift was a beautiful end, but I also love that Buffy gets to live as a normal person. Heaps of story-violating contrivance got her there, but I’m OK with it, in the end.

Here, now, is how the season stacked up for me:

1. Potential – Dawn feels. I love her so very much. That speech of Xander’s? It took me a while to readjust to obnoxious Xander in re-watch when I was carrying the memory of his beautiful little speech to Dawn.
2. Selfless – ANYA! A character who is often badly used but who, when put to use in something insightful and poignant like this becomes incredible.
3. Storyteller – Apparently what I think S7 did best was show us that overlooked characters had more to them.
4. Chosen – I’m a sucker for the girl power montage and all the endless feels.
5. Lessons – Lots of sister stuff that I loved here. The return of Sunnydale HS and all of that glorious set-up that had me so excited for this season.
6. Conversations With Dead People – Good concept, well executed. Not favorite status, but a solid episode.
7. Bring On The Night – Good creepy stuff with The First, but THAT SPEECH. Just THINKING about Buffy promising that hell’s going to choke on her gets me
8. End of Days – Feels. Lots of good feels in the march to the end.
9. Help – The season was still doing well here.
10. Same Time, Same Place – Neat magical device. They did weird things with Willow this season, but I enjoyed this.
11. Dirty Girls – Bonus points for Faith.
12. Showtime – There were some fun character moments in this one. Anya/Giles, Dawn/Andrew. Scooby mindmeld.
13. Get It Done – I hated Buffy’s rant, and am not fully sold on that origin story, but I dug the way all of that was filmed and edited together.
14. Beneath You – I don’t really know what to say about this one. I don’t have strong feelings about it either way. I loved Dawn’s little moment.
15. Sleeper – I hate this episode slightly less in retrospect. I dislike what followed RE: Spike, but this wasn’t so bad.
16. Him – I loved a lot of the funny, campy pieces. (The bazooka was great.) As a whole, though? It skeeved me out too much. I wanted to rank this episode lower, actually, but there were a lot of episodes I disliked this season and the funny stuff buoyed it up here.
17. First Dates – Stupid.
18. Never Leave Me – I adored Anya and Xander interrogating Andrew, but all the Spuffy stuff did a great job of keeping me firmly in the NOPE! camp even on ensouled Spike.
19. The Killer In Me – I can’t remember much of anything redeeming about this episode.
20. Touched – Remember when the writers joked about how Spike struggles with the word no? LOL! -_-
21. Empty Places – I hate everything about the Isolate Buffy plot.
22. Lies My Parents Told Me – In addition to hating how Spike’s childhood trauma was privileged over Wood’s I mega hated just about every decision made by a major character in this episode, from Spike and Buffy refusing to see that the active trigger was a problem to Giles going behind Buffy’s back.

 

Kirsti: WE DID THE THING OMFG!!!!!!!!! Remember when Lor and I started this project and were all “We’re totally going to recap three episodes per post, because otherwise this will take 5eva”? Hello, 5eva. Nice to see you. This project has – as you’ve probably worked out – dramatically changed my relationship with this show. Characters that I used to despise I now love, and characters that I used to love I now despise. Episodes that I used to love now make me want to stab myself in the eye (and y’all know how I feel about eyeballs) while episodes that I used to declare boring and skip over have become fascinating.

In short, I’m indescribably thrilled to be done with this project but I still love the show a lot. Or at least I will after a good long break… Anyway, let’s rank season 7!

1. Storyteller – I adore this episode. It’s totally meta and filled with hilarious lines, but it also gives so much depth to Andrew’s character. Perfection.
2. Chosen – The series finale isn’t an episode that makes my Top Ten overall, but it’s definitely Top Twenty. While I could happily have done without the Buffy/Spike interactions and all the jealous vampire crap, it was still a fabulous ending to the series.
3. Potential – I have an irrational soft spot for this episode. Sure, a lot of it is completely ridiculous. But I LOVE how Dawn’s willing to just hand the reins over to Amanda the second she realises that she’s not the special one. And Xander’s speech at the end gives me hayfever for days.
4. Selfless – WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, BACKSTORY!!!! Sure, it wasn’t a perfect episode. But it was still amazing. And Emma Caulfield hit it for six. (That’s “knocked it out of the park” to you, America)
5. Conversations with Dead People – A Whedon hat trick combined with the first proper appearance of the Big Bad. Isolating everyone into their own storylines worked better than I would have expected.
6. End of Days – Fabulous scenes between Anya and Andrew, a bonding session between Buffy and Faith, one hell of an awesome weapon, and a truly fabulous piece of crossover magic at the end. YES PLEASE.
7. Lessons – A wonderful return to form after the slow, painful slog that was season 6. Everything was light and bright, Principal Wood turned up, we were back at Sunnydale High, and Spike had Justin Timberlake Hair. LOLOLOLOLOL.
8. Help – Another great high school-centric episode. Cassie and her resignation to her fate was a great counterpoint to Buffy, who’s always fighting everything life throws at her.
9. Same Time, Same Place – One that I hated prior to this project, and one that I – despite the creepy skin-eating parts – came to appreciate in a whole new light. Alyson Hannigan was brilliant.
10. Dirty Girls – I know, I know. I ranked an episode with eyeball trauma in the top ten. Whaaaaaaaaaat?!?!?! But this is really the beginning of the end of the series. This is where things start to move forward. And, more importantly, this is where Faith turns up.
11. Get It Done – Slayer origin story? YES PLEASE. Although quite why it was left until episode 137 of a 144 episode series is beyond me.
12. Showtime – Buffy gave some excellent speeches, but this also dragged on more than I would have liked. The “here endeth the lesson” throwback was a nice touch.
13. Bring on the Night – Eh. Not terrible, but also not great. Interesting to note how the ubervamps went from “Buffy can barely even injure one” to “WHEEEEEEE, THIS IS EASY!!!!!” by the finale.
14. Empty Places – Out of character behaviour from pretty much everyone AND Clem leaves town. Excuse me while I NOPE.
15. From Beneath You – Let’s be honest: a dog gets eaten. I was never going to love this episode. Add in having no fucks to give about the big reveal at the end, and it’s firmly in the bottom half of the list.
16. Touched – The whole episode seemed to be all about referencing the title in a “LOOK HOW CLEVER WE ARE!!! LOOK! LOOOOOOOOOOOK!!!!!!” way. Ugh.
17. Sleeper – Blurgh. It was clearly trying to give me feels. It did not succeed.
18. Never Leave Me – Seriously, WHY WOULD YOU BRING HIM IN THE HOUSE?! It makes literally no sense.
19. Lies My Parents Told Me – I used to love this episode because SPIKE! + BACKSTORY! This time around? I hated it because so much of it just DIDN’T. MAKE. SENSE. Plus, it made me hate Buffy.
20. First Date – Sloppy from start to finish. I, much like Giles, was all “THE WORLD IS ENDING, WHY ARE YOU ON DATES?!”.
21. Him – This was meant to be all light and funny, but it just ended up being kind of gross. That said, the bazooka scene was kind of great.
22. The Killer In Me – Ugh. Ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh. Just awful from start to finish. And only part of that was because of Warren (the rest was Kennedy).