Final episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

It is hard to communicate, to those who haven't watched it religiously, how deeply good a show Buffy the Vampire Slayer is. Or, (she types quaveringly) how good it was. It ends, this Tuesday night (10.30pm, Channel 7) and I have never been more devastated by a series finishing. (Warning, vague spoilers ahead.)

When Buffy started seven years ago, it was plump with cheerleader valley-girl jokiness. In recent years it has become deadly serious. I loved it both ways but agree it was beginning to feel tired. The final episode, 'Chosen', was written and directed by the show's creator, Joss Whedon and there were moments when the tension between the edgy humour and the show's serious side, jarred. And, because Buffy had already saved the world, a lot, it was hard for the final season to build up tension around yet another apocalypse. Even the impressive hellmouth scenes have been pipped at the post by Lord of the Rings. This means it wasn't a stand out episode like some have been over the years: 'Becoming 1 & 2', 'Superstar', 'Hush', 'The Body' and 'Once More with Feeling'. But it was an end worthy of one of the best series on television.

I watched it with a group of girlfriends. That wasn't deliberate, it is just no blokes wanted to come. But by the end of the night we were glad -because we were upset and we didn't want to be teased and because the final episode was a girl thing. The First (this season's evil) said at the end of the first episode this season: 'it's all about power'. This week Buffy says, sometime after she gets her revenge on Caleb, the preacher who murders women and calls them 'bitch': 'This is all about Choices.'

So, finally, it was not about whether Buffy will get together with Angel or Spike. Even though there was the excitement last week of her getting it on with both of them, in the very same episode, and the irrefutable fact of the chemistry between Gellar (Buffy) and Boreanaz (Angel). But who says a girl can't love two men at once? Or four: our favourite man, Xander, and our second favourite man, Giles, are loyal and witty until the end, (as is that comic highlight, Andrew).

What it all comes down to is Girl Power. In the case of Willow this means trusting herself. For Buffy it means the power to be strong but to allow others to be so as well. Anja's power is to allow herself the vulnerability of being human. It was enough to have us all cheering and crying as evil is fought, shopping malls and high schools destroyed and favourite characters slaughtered.

Into every generation a slayer is born. Buffy the Vampire Slayer gave me faith in the power of television to be challenging, complex, high and pop, philosophical, relevant, funny, enchanting, believably unbelievable, theological, and really really silly: all at the very same time. Now Buffy has gone let's hope a new show, one with as much power, rises from Sunnydale's ashes.

Posted by Sophie at 01:53 PM