Buffy The Vampire Slayer

6 years, over half a decade. Six years ago was the 10th of March 1997, and a new two hour pilot of a mid-season replacement show aired on The WB network. Here we are in 2003 and that very show that premiered 6 years ago is coming to an end.

Of course I’m talking about our favourite show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. A show that took the simple seeming premise of one girl in all the world born to fight the demons, vampires and forces of darkness and turned it into a hit show. I thought as a good tribute I’d go through some of my favourite scenes of the show’s hundred and twenty plus episodes to date. And what better place to start than at the beginning, with Welcome to the Hellmouth.

One of the best scenes in the first two eps (Welcome to the Hellmouth and The Harvest) in my opinion was the part in the library for the first time, when Buffy’s then new watcher Rupert Giles thumped a large volume down on the counter, and we notice the title ’VAMPYR’ written in gold leaf. Who can forget that scene. Another scene in that two hour pilot was in the fight scene near the end...

Buffy grabs a microphone stand and holds it like a javelin.

Luke: You forget, metal can’t hurt me.

Buffy: There’s something you forgot about, too. Sunrise!

She throws the stand at the window behind Luke. He ducks, and it breaks the window behind him. A bright light pours in through it. Buffy spies the stake she dropped on the stage and picks it up. Luke gets up and shields his face with his hands, expecting to be burned. He stops when he realizes it’s only a bright lamp. Buffy lunges at him from behind and jams the stake home.

Buffy: It’s in about nine hours, moron!

While the entire first season, all 12 episodes (counting the 2 hour pilot as two of them) was full with good and memorable episodes, the next scene that stands out for me was in I, Robot - You, Jane, when Buffy is fighting the robotic demon Moloch, Buffy leaps into a jumping side kick, making a dull thud when she connects with Moloch’s chest, but he only staggers a bit, and she just falls to the floor and utters a very memorable line "Ow... Guy’s made of metal!"

That episode also holds a good and memorable quote for someone like me who spends a lot of time on a computer the quote is from Giles, "Smell is the most powerful trigger to the memory there is. A certain flower or a, a whiff of smoke can bring up experiences... long forgotten. Books smell. Musty and, and, and, and rich. The knowledge gained from a computer, is, uh, it... it has no, no texture, no, no context. It’s, it’s there and then it’s gone. If it’s to last, then, then the getting of knowledge should be, uh, tangible, it should be, um... smelly."

And who could forget during the season final ’Prophecy Girl’ when The Master makes a grandiose sounding comments during the earthquake...

The Master stands with his arms stretched out above him.

Master: Yes! YES! Shake, Earth! This is a sign! We are in the final days! My time has come! Glory! GLORY!

A very hilarious scene. Another memorable scene is when The Master drained Buffy, of course we should have known that death wouldn’t stop Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Besides, Buffy herself told us why she didn’t stay dead, she flunked the written.

Then in the second season premiere ’When She Was Bad’ we found out that Buffy’s just like everyone else, and needs to let off steam from time to time, of course being a vampire slayer, her methods do vary from normal, in the words of Buffy’s loyal sidekick Xander "grind our enemies into talcum powder with a sledgehammer."

Another season two episode ’Halloween’ introduced us to a character that would reappear from time to time and cause a bit of havoc for Buffy and her pals, Ethan Rayne, first seen as the shopkeeper that sold Buffy a very nice 19th century type dress, which Buffy had hoped would impress her boyfriend the vampire Angel.

The first two part episode since the pilot, ’What’s My Line’ introduced us to Buffy’s ’replacement’ slayer, Kendra, who would later meet a sad end in the season final ’Becoming’ at the hands of one of the season’s villains, Drusilla. Who would also play a large-ish role in the next two part episode, ’Surprise’ and ’Innocence’ and episode that would also introduce us to Buffy’s worst opponent yet, Angelus, the evil alter ego of her lover Angel, who would taunt her for the remainder of the season, until Buffy sent him to hell in the third two parter for the season ’Becoming’.

Season 3 introduced us to one of the best villains I know of, Faith, the Vampire Slayer, Kendra’s replacement, who started out as a slayer with problems, of course seeing a big ass vamp kill your watcher would have that effect on someone, but then she staked the Deputy Mayor of Sunnydale, the start of her slide into evil, that would take a break in the season final two parter when Buffy would put her into a coma.

The big bad for season 3 however was not Faith, but in fact the Mayor of Sunnydale himself, Richard Wilkins the third, the Mayor had been preparing for over a hundred years for the day when he would ascend and become a fully fledged demon. And of course the mystical forces decided to time the Mayor’s ascension so it occurred right in the middle of the Sunnydale High graduation! Buffy succeeded in defeating the Mayor, who had become impervious to harm, but that was only up until he ascended, after that it was a simple matter for Buffy to blow up the school with the Mayor inside. As a small side note, season 3 saw the appearance of one of the fan favourites in the way of baddies, the vampire form of Willow.

Season 4 found Buffy in a whole different situation, off to college, living away from home, but still some things remained, Sunnydale was still the center of mystical energy, and vampires and demons were still drawn to the town. But beneath the campus of UC Sunnydale something not that good lurked, The Initiative, and their top secret weapon, Adam.

Season 4 would see the departure a regular character, Daniel ’Oz’ Osborne, Oz , a werewolf, and steady boyfriend of Buffy’s right hand gal Willow, left Sunnydale to seek a way to control the wolf in him. His departure left a void with Willow that was soon filled by another character, Tara, a fellow witch for Willow to perform spells with, but soon it became more, it became love.

Late in season 4 Faith made her reappearance, and body jumped with Buffy, then slept with Buffy’s steady boyfriend Riley Finn. With the help of Willow and Tara Buffy was able to swap back with Faith, who took off to LA, and the current home place of Angel, Buffy’s ex.

Buffy came to a showdown with Adam at the end of the season, discovering that the only way to defeat him was to combine the energies of Giles, Xander and Willow in with Buffy, and calling upon the power of the slayer. As one can imagine the source of that power wasn’t happy about that, so stalked them in their dreams.

Season 5 saw Buffy’s creator Joss Whedon take a step that a lot of fans weren’t sure about, he introduced us to Dawn Summers, Buffy’s kid sister, who’s been there since the beginning. Only problem with that? She hadn’t, for Dawn was in fact a mystical key that was sent to Buffy for protection. From what? Glorificus, a hell god, yup, an honest to gosh god.

Season 5 would also see the departure of another character, Joyce Summers, Buffy’s mom. Amazingly enough, amongst all the demonic and mystical things that happen in Sunnydale it was an ordinary brain tumour that claimed her. Buffy somehow managed to muddle on, supporting Dawn and preparing to fight a god.

The fight was one of the best ones I’d seen on Buffy up till that point, Glory’s aim was to open a portal to her dimension, using Dawn to do it, funnily enough the portal did indeed open, however Glory could not take advantage of this fact thanks to Buffy, who beat her into submission, and Giles, who finished the job so Glory could never return and cause harm to Buffy or any of the gang again. However there was only one way to close the portal, for someone to sacrifice themselves and leap into the portal. To save her sister the agony of doing it, Buffy leapt... to her death.

Of course as with the first time Buffy died, death didn’t stop her for long. Willow, Xander, Tara and Xander’s girlfriend ex-demon Anya brought her back, harnessing great magickal powers to do so. And this would mark the first sign of the season’s big bad. One of the gang’s own, Willow.

It would take most of the season for her to become the big bad, and it would take the death of Tara to trigger her transformation into Black Magick Willow. Tara was shot by one of the minor villains, or the big villain depending on who you ask, Warren Meers, the ’head’ of The Trio (or The Tolkra), which included long-time Buffy Character Jonathan Levenson.

Black Magick Willow was out to destroy the world to end everyone’s pain and suffering. According to Giles slayer strength couldn’t stop her. The one member of the group that supposedly had no superpowers turned out to have more powerful power of all, love. Xander managed to talk Willow down, and in turn saved the world.

Then we open on the current, and now we know, the final ever season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This season sees the gang back at Sunnydale High, newly rebuilt I might add. Buffy has a job as a councillor at the school, now attended by Dawn and built by Xander’s construction crew. Willow had spent time in England under the watchful eye of a coven of witches who taught her to control her powers.

This season however the big bad is larger than any before, The First Evil, older than time and non-corporeal, it is most definitely a fitting villain for the very last season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Now avid fans will notice I’ve left out one small thing from this tribute, Buffy’s ’sex-toy’ from season 6, Spike, the vampire, who after an incident which I will not go into, set off on a journey half way round the world to Africa, where after undergoing trials he earned his soul back, "A bit worse for lack of use" but still he got the thing that should have made him acceptable to Buffy, as yet, we don’t truly know if it worked.

Now we must wait and see what Joss does for the final ever episode of Buffy, but one thing’s for sure, it’ll be a doozy. And what the future holds for the Buffyverse? Joss only knows. Many fans, myself included, firmly believe that Joss will bring us another spin-off to stand alongside Angel’s own series, ’Angel.’