The episode begins at the Bronze, where Xander is preparing to ask Buffy to go to the Spring Fling with him. Considering that he’s practicing on Willow, who is happily pretending that he’s asking her to the dance, things are not exactly going well. Nor are they going well for Buffy, who is busy patrolling. There are more vampires than ever, it seems.
As the teens go about their normal lives (so to speak), Giles is pouring over the Codex (which Angel provided to him last episode). He finds a passage that appears to reference the death of the Master…only to find that there is a terrible price to pay. As he contemplates the horror of his discovery, an earthquake begins to rumble in Sunnydale. At the Hellmouth, the Master is overjoyed. The final days have finally come!
The next morning, Buffy stops by to check in with Giles, and finds that the man has not slept at all. More than that, he’s distracted, and barely registers the fact that there is increased vampiric activity afoot. Following biology class, Xander signals Willow that he wants a moment alone with Buffy, and he asks her to the dance. Inevitably, she declines, and tries to let him down easy. But he knows that he’s simply lost the competition to Angel, and he’s more than a little bitter.
Back in the library, Jenny Calendar (from “I, Robot…You, Jane”) drops by. Her online associates have been sending her evidence of apocalyptic events on the rise, and she assumes that Giles knows something about it. Giles doesn’t know whether he can trust Jenny with the full story, but when she mentions that a monk has been E-mailing her about the Anointed One, Giles is alarmed. After all, the Anointed One is supposed to be dead (“Never Kill a Boy on the First Date”). Giles, nearly losing his temper, orders her to learn more. Jenny is displeased with his tone, but goes along with it anyway.
After telling Kevin, her latest conquest, to make sure to bring the sound system to the Bronze, Cordelia asks Willow if she could help set it up the next morning. Willow agrees, but when she sees Xander sulking alone in one of the classrooms, she drops everything to see what happened. Xander explains that he’s been rejected, and then asks Willow to go with him. Of course, Willow refuses, knowing that she’s just a stand-in for Buffy. Xander, now completely distressed, vows to stay home and listen to country music. (Apparently he likes to torture himself!)
Later that night, Buffy prepares herself for another fun night of Slayage in the girls’ locker room, only to have the faucet pour out blood instead of water. When she goes to the library to mention it to Giles, she notices Giles arguing with Angel over something in a book. Before she can alert them to her presence, Giles makes it clear that the Codex, which has never been wrong, says that the Slayer will face the Master and die.
Buffy’s reaction to the news, as one might imagine, is far from graceful. She alternates between sheer anger and delicate fear. She vows to quit, thinking that if she fails to face the Master she might live, even if it means letting the Master go free. Before Giles can think of anything more to say, Buffy runs away.
A little later, we see Willow in her room, trying to call Xander…who promptly takes the phone off the hook so he can sulk to Patsy Cline some more. Meanwhile, Buffy is looking through a photo album, obviously thinking of how her life is destined to end, when her mother walks in. Buffy spontaneously asks Joyce to go on a weekend trip out of town, but Joyce refuses. When she mentions that Buffy would also miss the dance, Buffy isn’t sure she should even go. But her mother has a surprise…a white dress for her to wear to the dance.
At the school the next day, Cordelia and Willow have come to check on the sound system equipment, which Kevin had never dropped off at the Bronze. When they get to the A/V room, they find Kevin and his friends slaughtered, their necks torn open by vampires. Buffy is trying on her dress when her mother tells her about the subsequent news report.
Buffy goes over to check on Willow. Willow is badly shaken, the reality of the situation having finally sunk in, now that familiar ground has been desecrated. In the end, Buffy can do little to console her friend, and she decides not to tell Willow about her own apparent fate.
As the Master sends the Anointed One out to retrieve Buffy, Jenny informs Giles that the monk sending out E-mails has disappeared, but he sent out one final message suggesting that the Anointed One is a child. Since the vampire Buffy killed wasn’t a child, Giles realizes that they must have been mistaken. More than that, Giles has decided to trump the prophecy by facing the Master himself. Unfortunately, Buffy overhears the conversation, and when Giles tries to stop Buffy from going, she knocks him senseless. Soon enough, Buffy runs into the Anointed One outside of the school, and he takes her to the Hellmouth.
Not long after, Xander and Willow arrive at the library, looking for Buffy, and they learn the truth. Xander is far from pleased, and decides to take action himself. He finds Angel’s apartment, and promptly demands that Angel take Xander to the fight. When Angel scoffs at the idea, Xander whips out a big ol’ cross and lays down the law…Xander is willing to die if it means saving Buffy’s life.
As Giles and the others try to figure out where the Hellmouth is supposed to open, Buffy finally arrives at the Master’s lair. She tries to use her crossbow to dispatch him quickly, but it doesn’t work. He easily hypnotizes her into submission. Above ground, the others believe that the Hellmouth will open in the Bronze, since that’s where the Harvest was to take place. But when Jenny and Willow run to her car, they find dozens of vampires converging on the school.
Having grabbed Buffy from behind, the Master calmly explains that the prophecy didn’t explain everything. Because Buffy came to slay him, she has become the victim he needs to set himself free of the Hellmouth. Sinking his teeth into her neck, he pulls enough blood from her to knock her unconscious, and then lets her go, reveling in his restored power. As he steps out of the Hellmouth, he releases Buffy’s limp body, and she falls face first into a puddle of murky water.
Buffy is dead.
Xander and Angel arrive just moments later, and Angel confirms that she’s not breathing. But Xander realizes that if she died from falling into the water, she still might be revived. He performs what I think is supposed to be CPR (it’s always so damned fake on TV!), as Jenny and Willow are saved by Cordelia, who just happened to be pulling up to the school at the right time.
Just as Xander is about to give up hope, Buffy awakens, choking out the water, totally shocked to see Xander was the one who saved her life. As vampires begin jumping on top of Cordy’s car, Willow tells her they need to get to the library. Cordy decides to get there the quick way, and slams through the front doors with her vehicle. As the women rush into the room, the vampires close behind, Giles helps them barricade the fiends outside, wondering why in the world they would be coming to the school.
At the Hellmouth, Buffy is amazed to find that she is stronger than ever, recovering quickly from her short time at death’s door. She leads Xander and Angel to the surface, and orders them to keep the vampires from getting to her as she runs to the roof to face the Master again.
The others seem to be doing a good job of keeping out the vampires, until a huge three-headed demon bursts out of the library floor. Giles belatedly realizes that the Hellmouth is located directly beneath the library. Up on the roof, the Master is shocked to find Buffy alive and well, but he still believes that he is destined to prevail. They battle on the roof next to the library’s skylight, as Giles and the others fight off the tentacles of the demon. As the Master seems to gain the upper hand, Buffy sees a piece of wooden debris jutting up from the library floor below the skylight, and tosses him through the glass onto it. Just that quickly, the Master is killed, the Hellmouth closes, and the vampires retreat into the night.
With the apocalypse now averted, the gang decides that it’s time to celebrate. Even Jenny, Cordelia, and Angel are along for the ride. None of them, though, seem to realize that Buffy is far from entirely whole after her experience…
Analysis
Thus ends the first season of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. Even though Joss Whedon and the writing staff at Mutant Enemy intended the first season to be self-contained, as evidenced by the resolution of most character conflicts by the end of the season and the death of the Master, there are obvious signs that this was mostly setting the stage. The conflict with the Master was relatively thin, with the exception of this episode in particular, and almost serves as little more than the impetus for the cast to come together for the real story that comes with the second season.
Unfortunately, for all that this finale feels like a jumping point, we’re told that the stakes are incredibly high. This is the main weakness of the first season, in fact. We are supposed to believe that this is the coming of the end of the world, the final days, and its marked by exactly one three-headed demon emerging in a school library. Granted, more might have followed, but far more happens prior to the opening of the Hellmouth than after the Master is freed.
However, if one takes the events in this episode as the beginning of the apocalypse, as the tolling of the bell for the beginning of the final battle between good and evil, then it just might fit the overall pattern of the series better. After all, nearly everything we see in the “Angel” series seems to say that the apocalypse has begun. So how meaningful is the prophecy in the Codex, if it didn’t quite live up to the billing? As the Master says, prophecies can be a funny thing. They generally lead to situations that fulfill the requirements. In this case, that’s certainly true.
It might have been interesting to have the overall prophecies on the Slayer play a larger role in the evolution of the series. That plot device has been used on “Angel” to amazing success, even to the point where fiddling with prophecy has been explored as well. Given that the first season lends so much foreboding to prophecy in its resolution, it is a shame that it was never explored in more detail.
Just as the Master plot arc comes to a resolution, we get to see a number of character relationships come to a momentary conclusion. Xander’s love for Buffy comes to its inevitable conclusion here, leading to a great confrontation between him and Angel. With the Xander/Buffy/Willow triangle now more or less done, the three of them are open to explore other options in the second season. This was a good way to allow the supporting cast to build on what had already been accomplished. Of course, now Cordelia, Jenny, and Angel are essentially a part of the gang, and that will have massive consequences in the second season and beyond.
There are some nice parallels here between the pilot episodes and the finale. As much as the core characters had come to a certain understanding after the Harvest, the messages are driven home now. Buffy cannot escape her destiny, no matter how much she may want to lead a normal life. Willow’s innocence, somehow maintained through the season, has come crashing down. Xander has taken on a larger role in the gang, rather than basically sticking around in the hopes of scoring with Buffy. And Giles has recognized that he may have to take a more active role.
The strong moments of this episode, such as Buffy’s gut-wrenching reaction to her fate and Xander’s confrontation with Angel, generally outweigh the weakness of the final act. Even though we see that Buffy may not have come through her trials completely intact, the overall consequences of the battle over the Hellmouth are too quickly resolved. The Master dies, the danger disappears, and that’s the end! It’s unusual for Mutant Enemy to resort to such a clean ending, but at the same time, there was likely little choice in the matter.
In the end, this episode is a vast improvement over the pilot episodes. There are still some awkward moments here and there, suggesting room for improvement, but the basics are covered and the potential has been clearly displayed. With the introduction now over, the series is ready to shine.
Memorable Quotes
MASTER: “Yes! Yes! Shake, Earth! This is a sign! We are in the final days! My time has come! Glory! Glory! (pause) What do you think? 5.1?”
BUFFY: “Giles, care? I’m putting my life on the line battling the undead. Look, I broke a nail, OK? I’m wearing a press-on! The least you could do is exhibit some casual interest. You could go ‘humh’!”
GILES: “Humh?”
WILLOW: “A thing? The thing! That I have! Which is…a thing that I have to go to…”
BUFFY: “What on Earth is her deal?”
XANDER: “Uh…she’s Willow.”
XANDER: “Well, Willow’s not looking to date you. Or if she is, she’s playing it pretty close to the chest.” (Oh, Xander, if you only knew…)
CORDY: “Willow! I really like your outfit!”
WILLOW: “No you don’t.”
CORDY: “No, I really don’t…but I need a favor!”
BUFFY: “So that’s it, huh? I remember the drill. One Slayer dies, the next one’s called. Wonder who she is. (pause) Will you train her? Or will they send someone else?”
GILES: “Buffy…I…”
BUFFY: “They say how he’s gonna kill me? Do you think it’ll hurt?”
(Right about at this point, you want to just reach out and hug her…)
XANDER: “How could you let her go?”
GILES: “As the soon-to-be-purple area of my jaw will attest, I did not let her go!”
BUFFY: “Y’know, you really ought to talk to your contractor. Looks like you got some water damage.”
MASTER: “Oh, good. The feeble banter portion of the fight. Why don’t we just cut to the-” (Catches crossbow bolt) “Nice shot.”
XANDER: “You were looking at my neck.”
ANGEL: “What?”
XANDER: “You were checking out my neck! I saw that!”
ANGEL: “No, I wasn’t!”
XANDER: “Juts keep your distance, pal.”
ANGEL: “I wasn’t looking at your neck!”
XANDER: “I told you to eat before we left…”
MASTER: “You’re dead!”
BUFFY: “I may be dead, but I’m still pretty. Which is more than I can say for you.”
MASTER: “You were destined to die! It was written!”
BUFFY: “What can I say? I flunked the written!”
MASTER: “Did you really think you could best me here, when you couldn’t below?”
BUFFY: “You have fruit punch mouth.”
MASTER: “What?”
BUFFY: “Oh, sorry…it’s just been a really weird day.”
XANDER: “Yeah! Buffy died and everything!”
WILLOW: “Wow! Harsh…”
Observations
- Wow! Willow looks the best she has all season in this episode. Apparently having Xander practice his moves on her does wonders…
- Love the slo-mo action shots in the teaser…especially that sexy, evil grin Buffy flashes her latest victim!
- Nice hair, Giles!
- Let’s see…gray low-cut top, short snakeskin skirt, leather boots…yum!
- I find the scene where Buffy reacts to her destiny to be one of the best written scenes of the first season. It’s just gut-wrenching…
- Nice contrast between the innocence of the cartoon with the bloody handprint!
- I don’t know why everyone thought that dress was so hot…it did nothing for me.
- I know Joss loves to twist expectation, but having the Anointed One do something so minimal, while surprising, was not a wise choice.
- I like how Buffy’s encounter with the Master matched, in some ways, her prophetic dream in “Nightmares”.
- That killing scene was also a good choice…short but full of impact!
- Interesting, in retrospect, to note how Xander has managed to bring back both Buffy and Willow from the brink, thus saving the world.
- You gotta love the bit where Cordy drives Willow and Jenny to the library…using the hallways!
- The worst part of the episode? That jarring insertion of the opening theme during the final act. It completely pulls the audience out of the scene, disrupting the tension.
- As much as I enjoyed the long dissolve of the Master, I thought the Hellmouth closed just a little too quickly.
Overall, this was a good resolution to the first season arc, which was ultimately the journey that brings the second season Scooby Gang together. While this finale was a vast improvement over the series opener, the conflict ended too neatly, and the suggestion of total doom didn’t quite gel. Still, a good effort for a series with little initial appeal and lots of potential.
I give it an 8/10
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