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Here are 10 of the most memorable episodes of quirky, funny,
scary, well-written drama that's coming to an end after seven
seasons
Thu Mar 13 2003
By Bartley Kives
PUT a stake in it -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer is finished.
The final episode of the quirkiest show on television airs in May,
concluding seven seasons of a supernatural soap opera that allowed campy
horror, slapstick comedy, social satire and multi-textual writing to
co-exist in the same series.
Originally a mid-season replacement based on a failed Hollywood flick
of the same name, Buffy was one of TV's more unlikely success stories.
It was never much of a ratings winner, thanks to its home on low-rent
U.S. networks UPN and the WB.
But it attracted an intensely loyal and diverse cult following. Teenage
audiences were captivated by a show where the demons and horrors of
adolescence were real as well as figurative.
Adult fantasy fans found an otherworldly TV fix to fill the void left
by the demise of David Lynch's Twin Peaks. And a surprising assortment of academics and
intellectuals heaped praise upon the show and creator Joss Whedon, simply
because the supremely silly Buffy featured some of the most complex,
intricate and multi-layered writing on TV.
"The fascinating thing for me is it explores the connection between
metaphor and the literal and it works on both levels simultaneously," says
Debra Dudek, an assistant professor of English and Women's Studies at the
University of Winnipeg.
"The demons are an embodiment of (horrible) things that humans do. It's
like the boyfriend who turns evil when you wake up the next morning --
when Buffy and her boyfriend (Angel, the vampire with a soul) sleep
together, that actually happens."
On the surface, Buffy The Vampire Slayer looked like schlock.
The central premise (in every generation, a supernaturally strong
teenage girl is chosen to protect the world from evil) demanded more will
than usual to suspend disbelief.
The special effects were lifted from B-movies. The makeup bordered on
embarrassing.
Even the ensemble cast, led by an increasingly
skeletal Sarah Michelle Gellar in the title role, never quite got the hang
of interpreting the often brilliant material placed in their laps.
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But with the
possible exception of The West Wing and Law & Order, no other
non-animated TV show sported such crisp dialogue, packed with more
pop-culture references than a Simpsons marathon.
And no other show
interwove so many themes and layers of text -- or took as many chances
with conventional TV storytelling.
As of this week, there are six
more new episodes of Buffy's seventh and final season left to air (in
Winnipeg: A-Channel, Fridays at 7 p.m.; YTV, Saturdays at 11 p.m.). Reruns
of the first six seasons air every weekday (7 p.m. and 1 a.m. on Space).
But now that Gellar has blown the lid on the plans to end the show
this spring, it's time to look back at the series and choose the best
Buffy episodes ever.
In a fitting epitaph for a show about
immortal beings, Buffy The Vampire Slayer is destined to live forever in
syndication.
Here's the BTVS Top 10:
1. HUSH
Season four, Episode 10
Original airdate: Dec. 14, 1999
The premise:
Fairy-tale monsters called The Gentleman, who look like Edward Gorey
versions of country doctors, steal the power of speech from every living
and undead creature in Buffy's home of Sunnydale, Calif.
Acts of
brilliance: Most of this episode is shot without dialogue, forcing the
characters to interact by miming or drawing out their intentions. The
result is both the funniest and scariest episode in the entire series -- a
classic that deserves to be seen even by viewers who would never watch a
fantasy show.
2. ONCE MORE, WITH FEELING
Season six,
Episode seven
Original airdate: Nov. 6, 2001
The
premise: Every denizen of Sunnydale breaks out into Broadway-style
song-and-dance numbers, thanks to a demon who talks like a '50s hepcat.
Acts of brilliance: This musical episode forced all the actors
in Buffy's regular cast to sing in their own voices, with surprising
results that effectively achieved what Woody Allen failed to do with the
big-screen musical Everyone Says I Love You. Whedon, who had no musical
experience before this episode, composed all the songs himself -- and also
managed to advance the plot of Buffy's very dark sixth season.
3. BECOMING, PART TWO
Season two,
Episode 22.
Original airdate: May 19, 1998
The
premise: Buffy must try to kill her lover-turned-nemesis Angel, or
allow a demon to swallow the entire world into a hell dimension.
Acts of brilliance: Breaking a central tenet of conventional TV
writing, Whedon allows his hero to both save the day and suffer an
unimaginably horrible fate. At the time, the viewers never saw the climax
coming -- or the lack of resolution in the denouement.
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4. THE WISH
Season three, Episode nine
Original airdate: Dec. 8, 1998
The premise: A
demon-granted wish transports snobby Cordelia to a version of the world
where Buffy never came to Sunnydale and vampires run the town.
Acts
of brilliance: This parallel-universe episode allowed several members
of the cast, including witchy Willow and ordinary-guy Xander, to explore
alternate versions of their characters. It also sported a surprisingly
subversive subcurrent: Once in control of Sunnydale, the vampires turn to
"mass production" to bleed humans more effectively.
5. PASSION
Season two, Episode 17
Original airdate: Feb. 24, 1998
The premise:
Evil Angelus tortures Buffy by terrorizing the people closest to her.
Acts of brilliance: In the first truly powerful episode of the
series, Whedon narrates a story from the bad guy's point of view -- and
kills off a major character with almost unprecedented cruelty, both to
other characters and the audience.
6. THE BODY
Season five, Episode 16
Original airdate: Feb. 27, 2001
The premise: In
an episode almost devoid of supernatural content, Buffy comes home to
discover the dead body of her mother, felled by aneurysm.
Acts of
brilliance: Essentially, this is a four-act play, with no soundtrack
and almost unbelievable tension. Apparently working out his own childhood
experience, Whedon explored the traumatic experience of being left alone
with the body of a family member.
7. GRADUATION DAY, PART TWO
Season
three, Episode 22
Original airdate: June 13, 1999
The premise: Buffy must battle Season Three's chief villain,
the Mayor, as he attempts to "ascend" into a giant snake and consume the
school's graduating class.
Acts of brilliance: In an episode
whose original airing was delayed due to network concerns about
similarities to the Columbine High School massacre, Whedon fulfils every
student's sick fantasy by blowing up Sunnydale High.
8. DOPPLEGANGLAND
Season Three, Episode
16
Original airdate: Feb. 23, 1999
The premise:
Evil Willow, the vampire from the bizarro world of The Wish, visits
Sunnydale. Much comic mayhem ensues.
Acts of brilliance: Taking
cues from story-arc series like Twin Peaks and Babylon Five, Whedon lays
down hints in Season Three about events in Seasons Four and Six.
9. ANGEL
Season One, Episode Seven
Original airdate: April 14, 1997
The premise:
Buffy finds out who and what Angel really is.
Acts of
brilliance: OK, none of the episodes in Buffy's uneven first season
were great. But the first major story-arc instalment of the series
convinced viewers to look past the tentative acting and get a glimpse of
the series' grandiose design.
10. CHOSEN (Series finale)
Season seven,
Episode 22
Tentative airdate: May 20, 2003 (Satellite TV);
May 23 (A-Channel); May 24 (YTV)
The premise: At the end of a
five-episode story arc, Buffy and the rest of the gang finally confront
The First Evil, the source of everything bad in the world. Former
characters Faith and Angel also star.
Acts of brilliance: Who
knows? But the Buffy finale had better be stronger than the final episode
of X-Files or Seinfeld, especially if spinoff series Angel is not renewed
for a fifth season.
The word on the street is creator Whedon has another spinoff in the
works, possibly including Xander, re-souled vampire Spike, Buffy's little
sister Dawn and/or several of the potential slayers from Season Seven.
Apparently, Faith The Vampire Slayer is not in the cards,
since actress Eliza Dushku is slated to star in a new Fox series.
© 2003 Winnipeg Free Press.
All Rights Reserved.
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