Graduation Day, Part 2

Previouslys. I can't believe anyone reading this wouldn't know what happened in the first part, but if you don't, Ace has a tasty recap just for you. And I also don't believe that anyone reading this doesn't know that the original U.S. airing of this episode was delayed for several weeks because of the Columbine shootings. I never understood that. "Earshot," I can understand. This? Not so much.

Opening shot: Faith's bloody knife. Boy, that knife has gotten a lot of screen time, hasn't it? I wouldn't be surprised if it had a short movie career after this, followed by the inevitable slide into drugs and prostitution. Sorry, I've been watching too much Behind The Music lately. It's probably just part of a Ginsu set now. ["Or appearing on Rogue-Slayer Weapons Roadshow. -- Sars] The camera pans up to show Buffy, obviously in pain and still shocked from having just "killed" Faith. After casting a look around, she disappears down a ladder on the side of the building. The Mayor steps into the picture and surveys the scene, also in shock. A henchvamp informs him that the place is deserted. The Mayor starts babbling, trying to convince himself that Faith is okay. He tells the henchvamp to find them, and to "put everyone on it." The henchvamp tries to demur, but the Mayor whirls and screams, "Find them!" Uh, I'd obey the psycho-crazed-with-grief-soon-to-be-demon if I were you, dude. He leaves, and the Mayor nervously resumes his babble-fest: "Faith's a good girl. She'll be all right." Yeah, but only after you're a pile of rotting meat in a bombed-out school. It's cool to see him panicked and broken-recordy, though. Credits.

Deep Blue Sea. Did anyone see that? Like, in the entire world?

Library. Xander brings Giles coffee, but wonders why Giles isn't drinking tea. Giles: "Tea is soothing. I wish to be tense." I'll let that pass without any sort of sexual comment. Unless Sars wants to say something. ["Where would I even start?" -- Sars] Xander: "Okay, but you're destroying a perfectly good cultural stereotype here." Well, at least you're keeping up the "dumb American teenage boy" stereotype, Xander. They attempt to research details about the demon that the Mayor's going to become. Cordy busts in and demands an explanation. Xander asks what for, and she responds, "Wesley." Xander makes me take back almost every mean thing I've ever said about him when he responds, "Inbreeding?" Cordy explains that she talked to Wes, and he was so upset he could hardly speak. So what was the problem, exactly? She goes on that he's leaving the country. Still not getting it. I would have chipped in for his plane ticket. Hell, I still would. Actually, now that I live in England, I take that back. Make it a plane ticket to the Aleutian Islands, though, and I'm totally in. Giles scores points with me as well (not that he needs them) as he snarks, "Should I assay remorse?" He's chastened, however, when Cordy earnestly, even touchingly, asks him simply to tell her what's going on. He explains that Buffy quit the Council, and no longer needs a Watcher. Cordy: "Well, does he have to leave the country? I mean, you got fired and you still hang around like a big loser. Why can't he?" You'll be getting a firsthand answer to that question on a little show called Angel, dear. Xander snarks that they're trying to stop a massacre, and that maybe she should pitch in. She agrees, but complains that it's a classic Buffy maneuver, as "she's always thinking of herself."

The Ironic Segue Fairy cuts to a sweaty, shirtless Angel. Willow wipes his forehead. It's a sweet gesture, and given the size of the forehead in question, above and beyond the call of duty. Angel opens his eyes, and asks if she's been watching over him. She nods, and he takes her hand and kisses it. Willow looks weirded out. He deliriously makes some comments that reveal that he thinks he's talking to Buffy. Willow disabuses him of that notion, and his eyes seem to focus, although it's not easy to tell, as he's wearing his trademark deer-in-the-headlights look. Willow tells him that Buffy will be back soon, and he loses consciousness again. Willow then joins Oz in the other room. She says that Angel thought she was Buffy. Oz: "You too, huh?" Ha! I would have loved to see that, if only for the look on Oz's face. And Seth Green fails to completely conceal the fact that he found that line hilarious, making me laugh even harder. They express their hope that Buffy will be there soon. Willow says she feels guilty, because while the world's falling apart around them, "in some ways, this is the best night of my life." You mean in the way that you got to sleep with Oz? I'm right there with you, sister. Oz smiles and agrees, and they kiss. Buffy enters, and they pull apart. Willow says that she just checked on Angel, but Buffy looks nine kinds of grim. They ask her about Faith, but Buffy just wants to know how Angel is. Oz says he's in and out. "I think the pain isless, now." Buffy dismisses them. Willow tells her they'll try to find another cure. Aw. Although I'm surprised it didn't occur to them what she's about to do.

Buffy wakes Angel up, and he seems slightly more lucid. He says he didn't want to die before seeing her. Aw. She forces him to sit up, and says he's going to live. She tells him to drink, and removes her jacket. "Drink me." David Boreanaz does a good job of looking horrified through the haze, and refuses. She tells him the blood of a Slayer is the only cure. He mentions Faith, and it's nice to know Buffy wasn't the only one willing to kill her. She tells him that's no longer an option. He says she'll die, but she speculates that if he doesn't drink all her blood, she won't. That's something I don't get on this show -- it seems like we've seen many people die from just a little sip. I know Buffy's a Slayer, but I still thought I'd mention it, given how much blood she loses. Reaching a standstill in the argument, Buffy resorts to her fists. After the third punch, Angel vamps out. Buffy steels herself, and pulls down a sleeve of her tank top. He bites her. There's a lot of thrusting going on, but I really don't want to get into the whole sex/violence/death thing, especially after Spike and Buffy in Season Six. Y'all are smart -- talk about it on the boards. Buffy's blood trickles down her shoulder. She and Angel fall to the floor. Angel's making sounds of extreme pleasure, and doesn't look like he's about to stop any time soon. Sigh. Buffy violently kicks her leg out, breaking a table. She seems to lose consciousness, although her eyes are still open. Angel finally pulls out (sorry, I couldn't resist) and morphs back to his human visage. His wound looks much better. He calls Buffy's name, but her eyes are now closed, and she doesn't react.

Hospital. Angel runs in, carrying Buffy in his arms, and asks for help. He carries her to a gurney and tells a nurse that Buffy needs a transfusion. A doctor actually asks him pertinent questions, which has to be a one-time-only special for this show. Angel tells him something bit her. Something wearing all black, with copious amounts of hair gel. In his concern, Angel rips the door handle out of the door, prompting the doctor to ask yet another pertinent question, namely whether they're on drugs. The doctor says Angel has to be straight with him, which sends me into a fit of giggles. Upon hearing that Buffy is clean, the doctor dismisses Angel, who asks for a phone. The doctor directs him to a pay phone, and Angel uses it.

A long camera pan, reminiscent of the first scene, takes us into a room where Faith is lying unconscious. Another doctor explains Faith's condition to the Mayor. He says that the physical damage is reparable, but that the head trauma is too severe for them to do anything. The Mayor looks off to the side, almost catatonic from grief. We get a good look at Faith, and she looks absolutely awful, although her hair is way neater than I would expect. The doctor gives her "almost no chance" of ever regaining consciousness. The camera moves in for a close-up of Faith, and the Mayor's hand reaches in to stroke her hair. He desolately tells her, "It's your day." His face hardens, however, when he hears a nurse telling the doctor that they have another young girl with severe blood loss. He looks around as jangly music plays, and walks into Buffy's room. The camera focuses on her, and his hand reaches in to suffocate her. The nurse enters, unsuccessfully tries to stop him, and calls for security. What the hell happened to this hospital between this episode and "Villains"? People seem so competent here in this episode. Buffy's head thrashes around until Angel pulls him off, telling him not to do that. The Mayor snarls, "I will. I'll do that and worse. Murderous little fiend! Did you see what she did to my Faith?" Angel says he's not too upset about that. The Mayor: "Well, I'd get set for some weeping if I were you. I'd get set for a world of pain. Misery loves company, young man, and I'm looking to share that with you and your whore!" I was waiting for the Mayor to lose it all season, and wow, was it worth it. My blood's chilled even as I write this. Since insulting Buffy's virtue is obviously worse than trying to suffocate her, Angel now sends the Mayor flying across the room. The Mayor chuckles, and I'm even more creeped out by his ability to shift back to jolly in no time flat. He sunnily makes a few threats, and saunters out. Security never did show up, now that I think about it, so maybe this place was never that great.

Later, Angel waits in the hallway. Giles, Willow, Oz, and Xander burst in, asking how Buffy is. Angel guiltily tells them that she's fine. Oz suspiciously notes that Angel seems better too. They ask about Faith, and Angel fills them in on that front. He explains that Buffy "cured" him, and Giles quickly adds it up. Willow dumbly asks if Buffy will be a vampire, but Angel says she didn't feed off him. Aargh! First off, wouldn't Buffy also have had to, you know, die? She fed off Dracula and didn't become a vamp, as far as we know. And secondly, they break that rule in this very episode, as I'll mention later. Grr. As Ace said in her recap of the first part of this episode, we recappers have to be made of stern stuff. Although at least I never had to recap Dawson's Creek, right, Sars? ["Seriously. When the show isn't any good in the first place, failures of canonical continuity seem even more distracting." -- Sars] Anyway. Xander, predictably, is the first to judge: "Well, it's just good to know that when the chips are down and things look grim you'll feed off the girl who loves you to save your own ass." Angel looks like Xander just read his thoughts word for word. Giles neutrally tells Angel to go, that they'll watch Buffy. Angel doesn't want to, but Giles says the sun will be up soon. So? They're inside. These days it seems like Angel can go for a daytime stroll on the beach as long as he brings a black umbrella. Anyway, he leaves. Xander: "Gosh, I'm really gonna miss him when he leaves town." To paraphrase Smithers on The Simpsons, I'm sure the feeling is more than mutual.

Buffy walks around Faith's apartment. There are boxes everywhere, and it's daytime. Smells like a dream sequence. A cat jumps into the picture, and Buffy asks who's going to look after him. Faith's voice cuts in that "it's a she, and aren't these things supposed to take care of themselves?" She walks into the picture, and she and Buffy have a cryptic conversation. Rather than dissect every word, I'll simply transcribe it and try to make some sense of it after:

Buffy: A higher power guiding us?
Faith: I'm pretty sure that's not what I meant.
Buffy: There's something I'm supposed to be doing.
Faith: Oh, yeah. Miles to go. Little Miss Muffet counting down from seven-three-oh.
Buffy: Great. Riddles.
Faith: Sorry. It's my head. A lot of new stuff. [An image of Faith lying in the hospital bed flashes where the cat is, then flashes back. Faith looks out the window.] They're never gonna fix this, are they?
Buffy: What about you?
Faith: Scar tissue. It fades. It all fades. [Buffy looks at her own open palm. The bloody knife appears on top of it, then disappears.] You wanna know the deal? Human weakness. It never goes away. Even his.
Buffy, smiling: Is this your mind or mine?
Faith, laughing: Beats me. Gettin' towards that time.
Buffy: How are you gonna fit all this stuff?
Faith: Not gonna. It's yours.
Buffy: I can't use all of this.
Faith: Just take what you need. You ready?

She reaches out and touches Buffy, then disappears. Buffy wakes up. She thinks a bit about what happened, and rises. She walks into Faith's room, and kisses her forehead. Irony chuckles at the fact that right before their climactic fight, Faith told Buffy to "give [her] a kiss." Irony's an asshole. Dramatic, ominous music kicks up. Now dressed, Buffy walks out and greets the Scoobs. They ask her how she is. She tells them to get Angel and the others, because she's ready. For what? "War." What is it good for? Sorry.

Okay, back to the dream. I think it's pretty well accepted that it was actually some sort of psychic link between the Slayers. Also relatively easy to believe: Whatever was good in Faith gave Buffy the clue to defeat the Mayor. But what else happened over that airwave? Were they actually in Faith's mind, as represented by the apartment? What exactly did Faith "give" Buffy, represented by the boxes and the touch at the end? Was it part of herself, and if so, which part? Did any of this have anything to do with Dawn? Could "seven-three-oh" be the number of days until Buffy dies in "The Gift"? Did the "miles to go" line from "The Prom" show that the "new stuff" Faith referred to was Buffy's thoughts in her mind? Is it possible that there was no link, and the whole thing took place in Buffy's mind? Was Joss just smoking massive quantities of pot when he wrote this scene? (I've actually done some research and I know Joss & Co.'s party line on this scene, but because they do so much retconning, I think it's worthwhile to analyze it regardless.) Since he's dissected way weirder dreams than this in his recaps of Six Feet Under, I'm going to ask Aaron for some help.

Couch Baron: Hey, dude. I was wondering if you could help me with this dream sequence.
Aaron: Sure. The bus represents destiny.
Couch Baron: No, I'm talking about the dream sequence on Buffy.
Aaron: Baldness represents death.
Couch Baron: Uh, you haven't spent the entire summer watching the second season of Six Feet Under in an endless feedback loop, have you?
Aaron: You're either in the game, or you're out of it.
Couch Baron: Oh, man. Can I have a hit off that bong?
Aaron: Touch it and I'll shave your head and put you on the bus.

Well, that was an interesting "convorsation." Alan Ball pushed the poor guy over the edge. I hope he gets it together in time for the Sopranos season premiere. But luckily, I know someone else who's shown proficiency in dissecting dreams in her recaps. Sars, want to step up? ["It's said that everyone in your dreams is actually you, and in light of the dialogue between Faith and Buffy throughout the third season about how Faith is the embodiment of a certain darkness in Buffy herself, I think that's what the viewer is meant to take from it. It's clear also that Faith's baggage is just that, and that Buffy's going to have to 'carry' it now, because trying to kill Faith is verywell, Faith, and all that that implies. It's also said that, in dreams, apartments signal you to avoid rivals, and that where windows symbolize opportunity, a broken window symbolizes an opportunity lost. So, there's all that stuff. But it's also possible that, much like in 'Restless' and in real dreams, we've got a number of red herrings here that don't mean much of anything." -- Sars]

Anyway, the endless possibilities and the seeming reconciliation between the Slayers make this one of my favorite scenes ever.

Roswell, this fall. Not anymore, bitches!

School courtyard, set up for graduation. Snyder nervously surveys the scene as high-pitched, creepy music plays. They put this little snippet of music on the DVD main menu, and it was a damn good choice.

Cut to the library. Buffy has just explained her plan, and wants to know if she's crazy. Willow: "Crazy is such a strong word." Giles: "Let's not rule it out, though." Heh. Cordy, who's really been hitting the self-tanning bottle, says that a crazier plan isn't possible. Oz: "We attack the Mayor with hummus." Cordy: "I stand corrected." She redeems herself by pointing out that, as crazy as it may be, it's pretty much the only plan, and besides, it belongs to Buffy, who's "Little Miss Likes-To-Fight." Buffy says she'll need all of them, but that Xander is the key figure. Oh, so that's why the plan couldn't be any crazier. He's predictably pleased, and asks what's involved. Buffy asks him if he remembers his military training. He asks if that's important to the plot of this particular episode. When she says yes, he says he does in fact remember it. Giles says that the plan is dependent on Buffy being able to control the Mayor, but Buffy says that Faith told her to play on his "human weakness." Willow: "Was that before or after you put her in a coma?" Buffy: "After." Willow: "Oh." Heh. They speculate on what the weakness might be. Angel points out that the Mayor doesn't like germs. Cordy thinks they've got it. "We'll get a container of Ebola virus, and, and uh, or, it doesn't even have to be real, we can just get a box that says 'Ebola' on it, and, um, chase him." Ha! She looks so pleased with herself -- she even gave a little snap at the end. And I would point out how last millennium Ebola virus jokes are, but the fact is that if you take the time actually to picture the scene she's describing, it's impossible not to giggle. More banter ensues until Angel comes up with the money answer, remembering how crazed the Mayor was about Faith. Buffy says she can use that as Wesley enters, saying that they don't have much time. He gets the expected frosty reception. Buffy: "If I need someone to scream like a woman, I'll give you a call." I start to wonder if that might be too harsh to say even to Wesley, but the fact that I laughed for two full minutes first sort of answers that question. Wesley says he just wants to help. Cordy asks the room if that isn't classy, and Buffy concedes that it's a start. She begins, "This is how it's --"

Buffy orders a pullback. The remainder of the Mayor's vamps try to retreat, but they run into Angel, Wesley, and a posse of students, including Percy. I assume the rest of them were students with the greatest physical prowess and fighting ability. Anyway, who cares? At least I got to see Percy again. Mrow. Wesley runs into the fray, and gets clocked to the ground. Did I think that would happen? Yes. Was I disappointed that it did? Hell no. Wesley getting hit is comedy gold. Larry's flamethrower jams (oh, the irony) and he gets swiped to the ground by the Mayor's tail, apparently killing him, although I'm still not completely convinced of that. Snyder yells at the Demon Mayor that the scene isn't orderly. Snyder gets eaten. Boy, principals on the WB haven't done so hot, have they? Aside from this show, just look at the Principal Formerly Known As Smooth on Smallville. Buffy again shouts at the students to fall back. I'm kind of surprised she had to ask them twice, but then again, they're teenagers. Xander calls for hand-to-hand combat. Angel's stunt double is kicking ass. To be fair, I like the fact that David Boreanaz clearly has had some martial-arts training. A henchvamp yells to his group to get the kids, but he gets more than he bargained for when they come storming down the stairs, holding stakes and baseball bats. A vamp grabs Harmony and bites her. This is what I was talking about before; there's no way, in that frenzy, that the vamp took the time to sire her. And I don't even want to hear any fanwanks on the subject. Sorry. Cordy, with a tight little maneuver, stakes a vampire. Good for her. Wesley, lying on the ground, ponces that he needs help. Well, duh.

The Demon Mayor is obligingly hanging out away from the fray. That bugs me -- he told us that he had to eat a lot of people to sustain the change, and he's only had a few at the most. I realize they took a lot of the violence out of this scene after Columbine, but shouldn't they have deleted that line too, then? Anyway. Buffy gets his attention, and holds up Faith's knife. She taunts him that it slid into Faith "like she was butter." Mmm, butter. And mmm, Faith. Buffy dares the Demon Mayor to get the knife back from her, and runs. He pursues her. She runs into the school, and he busts in after her. She runs into the library and through the stacks before crashing through a window. The Demon Mayor's head reaches the library, and notices tons of explosives lying inside. In an electronic version of Harry Groener's voice, the Demon Mayor exclaims, "Well, gosh!" Don't try to tell me that he shouldn't have been able to speak in his demon form, because I don't care. That was hilarious. Giles, whom Buffy has joined outside, detonates the explosives, and the school blows up. Everyone stops fighting and watches in awe. Jonathan hugs Cordy tight. Buffy looks immensely relieved.