First of all the largest of thank-yous to the people who got me through the season. Ace, Eloquent Pelican, Les, Jason. Y'all rule. Special thanks to Sars, Wing Chun, and to all of the regulars on the boards as well. Without you guys, there would be no MBTV.
"Previously on Buffy," begins Giles's voice and then we flash to the very first episode of the show. I get ready to snicker derisively because Ace and I constantly mock how long the previouslys are, to the point that we are convinced not only that they will one day contain the conception of Joss, but of the entire universe as well. But then they begin showing clips from almost every episode, faster and faster and faster. Look at all the people I used to care about! Remember when the show had tertiary characters that were both interesting and important to the plot? If I were at my house with my Tivo, I would slo-mo through all of them to see if I can pick out the individual episodes, but I'm temporarily visiting The Luddites' Museum Of Consumer Electronics, a.k.a. my mom's place. This month's special exhibit is the first VCR ever made. Seriously. In place of a brand name, there are the letters VCR, and if you turn it over, the serial number reads . It's in stylish brushed aluminum and was bought by my parents in the beginning of Reagan's first term. Remote control? Not happening. It only records channels two through thirteen. Remember when the entire world of television was the range of channels two through thirteen? And that was if you had cable. If I get hungry and/or wish to work out later, I'll go into the kitchen exhibit and nuke some popcorn. The microwave has a hand-crank.
So. The previouslys segue into a first-victim POV of someone running down the alley. We turn the corner and see a kid in a striped shirt run into a dead end. He turns to face the mouth of the corridor with real apprehension. A vamp walks slowly onto the scene and starts talking about how the kid's blood is probably "pumping" and "hot." "Don't hurt me," pleads the kid, his voice breaking and face slick with sweat. At that moment, a door onto the alleyway opens and Buffy pops her head out. The vamp turns and growls while the kid shouts at Buffy to call the police. She ignores both of them and breezily asks if they were having a fight, and then PSAs that "fighting's not cool." The vamp invites Buffy to stay as an appetizer. She tries to warn him off, asking if he's heard of the Slayer. Instead, he rushes her. She quickly dispatches him, to the amazement of blue-striped-shirt boy. Buffy tells the kid to go home, and then he queries tremulously, "How'd you do that?" Buffy, already walking back to Der Zauber Kasten, doesn't even turn to reply, "It's what I do." "You're ju… You're just a girl," he stutters. Buffy looks longingly off in the distance and in a melancholy tone replies, "That's what I keep saying."
Credits. Woweewowow! The first two minutes of this episode were better than the entire season, and perfectly encapsulate what sort of vibe I've been missing since the Hellmouth High days.
Buffy walks back inside Der Zauber Kasten to find the gang sitting around pondering the Dawn situation. Buffy wants to know if there's anything new, and Giles snips that there isn't anything she would "want to hear." Buffy asks him to explain it again, and then curtly orders him to do so when he resists. So we go through it again. For the third episode. In a row. "The blood flows, the gates will open. The gates will close when it flows no more," finishes Giles ominously. We interrupt this very important exposition bulletin for Tara to shriek that she has places to be. As do I. So let's get on with it. Xander wants to know why the ritual deals with blood, and Spike explains that it's "always got to be blood." Oh. Well, good thing the monks were so freakin' obliging and made Dawn into a bleedable object. Buffy listens to all of this in stony silence, then decrees that all they need to do is stop the ritual before it starts. "Yes, but Buffy…" continues Giles, but she cuts him off with an "I don't want to hear it" and turns away. "I understand that," Giles remarks dryly. "No you DON'T!" She wheels towards him and shouts that they aren't talking about this. Giles stands and just screams at Buffy that "yes we bloody well are!" Buffy's eyes go wide but she doesn't give, instead goading him to "tell [her] to kill [her] sister." Giles softly tells her that Dawn isn't really Buffy's sister, and I think that truly is the wrong tactic. It doesn't really matter to Buffy if Dawn was born into her family or if the monks ordered her out of the Sears & Roebuck catalog -- at this point in time, she's certainly Buffy's sister. Buffy tries to explain that Dawn is "more" than her sister, that she's in fact Buffy because the monks made her out of Buffy. Whoa there. Nice to see that, despite everything she's been through, Buffy is still able to make sure that everything is all about her. Buffy breaks down a little, and Willow reassures Buffy that they'll solve this riddle. Giles, leaning on the table, has the hard task of trying to make Buffy understand that once the portal is opened, every creature in every dimension will be having a very bad day, and therefore, if that happens, Dawn has to die. Buffy, refusing to listen to reason, says, "Then the last thing she'll see is me protecting her. I'm sorry," she shakes her head, "I love you all but I'm sorry."
Anya brightly tries to jump-start something productive and asks for suggestions on defeating a Hell God. Willow comes up with the grand solution that they only need to slow Glory down, since the ritual seems to be of the one-time-only, blue-light-special variety. Anya encourages everyone to think outside the box, and Giles snips at her, asking if she has any ideas. She shoots right back with "the Dagon Sphere," which has been hanging out in the basement all this time. On the phone, Ace and I did a list of the top ten places that the Dagon Sphere has been hiding all season. The only one I can remember is "in the middle of the word 'dragon,'" so you can see why I'm not going to strain myself coming up with the rest of them. Apparently, we were wrong. Anya then goes over to the shelf behind the counter and presents "Olaf the troll god's enchanted hammer. You want to fight a god, use the weapon of the god." Okay! Back the truck up! Troll god? Wasn't Olaf Anya's two-timing ex-boyfriend from her human days whom she then cursed into being a troll? Troll god, my ass! Way to over-romanticize your past boyfriends. And besides. How much could that hammer possibly hurt Glory? Even Xander managed three direct hits from the thing and suffered no ill effects. "Smart chicks are so hot," drools Xander. Willow glances over and slyly comments, "You couldn't have figured that out in the tenth grade?" Aw. And to answer Willow's question: No. It is statistically impossible for a guy to have figured that out in the tenth grade. In fact, Xander is still ahead of the learning curve.
Ben, wearing that awful robe, comes in to find Dawn sitting and trying real hard to blend into the wall. He holds a dress out to her and tells her that she has to put it on. She sulks that she might not like the color, and Ben has the gall to say, "I wish there was another way." Dawn snarks back with, "And I wish you'd fall on your head and drown in your own barf so I guess we're both disappointed." Heh. Dawn tells Ben to let Glory come out and play, because she can't stand the sight of him. He tries to talk her out of it, but she starts screaming, "Glory! Glory! Glory!" until finally he morphs into Glory and starts prattling on, blaming Ben's human influence for her incompetence as a villain. Dawn doesn't like the sound of that and suggests that it's really because Glory can't handle the Slayer. Glory takes umbrage and decides to hit Dawn where she lives, turning the tables on her by suggesting that Buffy is either not going to come for her at all or, if she does, that it's going to be sacrifice her. Glory shoves Dawn away, and she lands face-first on a grate. "Buffy," she whispers.
Back at Der Zauber Kasten, Buffy is in the back room, beating the crap out of a punching bag. Giles walks in and warns her not to strain herself. He tries to facilitate a little therapy session and explains that he's "sworn to protect this sorry world, and sometimes that means saying and doing what other people can't." Buffy warns him that to get to Dawn, he'll have to go through her, but softens as they take a seat on the couch. They reminisce about their apocalyptic salad days. Buffy muses that she's always come out ahead. She recalls how she killed Angel even though she "loved him so much." ["Sniff." -- Ace] She was able to do it because she knew what was right. She goes on to tell Giles that she doesn't have that anymore, and how much she misses her mommy. SMG does a really good job of selling this speech. Buffy presses her lips together, bites back some tears, and gets up. She tells Giles about how the spirit guide told her that death was Buffy's gift, and that means that she really is just a killing machine. Giles disagrees, but she says it doesn't matter because "if Dawn dies. I'm done with it. I'm quitting."
Back at the wacky factory, Dawn is wearing her dress for the ceremony, and she folds her clothes neatly and puts them on the chair, arranging her shoes under it. Oh man. That really got to me. Glory sits writing…something. What? What the hell would she have to write about? "Dear Mom and Dad. Camp Sunnydale has been real fun. In arts and crafts I got to stick my hands in people's heads and suck their brains out. I kan run reel fast. I beat all of the other hell gods in the Key race. You have to slaughter a whole bunch of knights and make it back home all without letting go of the Key or spilling any of her pure green energy. Tonight we are going to sing songs, toast marshmallows, and open a portal to all the other dimensions. If it's okay with you I'm going to bring my friend Ben home with me. I promised to make him immortal. Love, Glory." A minion approaches to whisper in her ear that it's time for the ritual. She gets up and claps excitedly, saying that it's "almost stab time" Two of the minions grab Dawn to take her upstairs, and she screams. A lot. Real loud.
Der Zauber Kasten. Giles opens the door to the basement and calls down to ask Xander and Anya if they've had any luck find the Dagon Sphere. Downstairs, they struggle to quickly get dressed again and then get down to the serious business of looking. Xander asks Anya if she's calmer now, and she says that she isn't, and I really don't want to write about them talking about having sex. Xander pulls a tarp off of something and jumps back in surprise when the Buffybot is revealed. Blah blah blah we all know where this is going. Anya finds a bunny rabbit and freaks, saying that it's a sign that the world is going to end. Xander tries to comfort her. She explains that she usually takes off for these sorts of things, but now she can't, because she loves Xander too much. "I honestly don't think I could be more nervous," she finishes. "Care to wager on that?" asks Xander, holding up a little black velvet box. And -- excuse me? Did I fall and hit my head, only to wake up on the set of Boy Meets World? I. Cannot. Handle. Xander and Anya getting hitched. It is impossible express how much this idea sucks. It sucks more than a cokehead on a Friday-night bender the weekend of both family and high-school reunions. It sucks more than the amount of suckage needed to suck a cannonball through one of those teeny red coffee-stirrer straws. If you put a thousand industrial-strength Hoovers with X-tra dirt-busting sucking capacity in a room with a thousand monkeys (because there's gotta be monkeys!) for a thousand years, there would still not be more sucking than the inherent suck contained in the idea of Xander and Anya tying the knot. First of all, teen marriages in general are just a bad idea, and then with Anya it's the Buffyverse equivalent of marrying your mildly retarded first cousin. And can someone please explain why Xander took the time during the impending apocalypse to go out and buy a ring? I could go on here, but I'd have to build an extra storage shed to house the terabytes of hard-drive space necessary for me to detail all my objections to this incipient and insipid plot line, so instead let us never speak of it again.
Back in Der Zauber Kasten, Buffy and Willow are still discussing the comparatively sane prospect of letting every creature in every dimension experience indescribable torment in order to extend Dawn's life by a measly few minutes, instead of the crazy and far more disturbing prospect of impending Xander and Anya nuptials. Buffy asks Willow what she's come up with. Willow says she has some "notions. Theories. Wild speculation," and reminds us that she's not good under pressure. Buffy calmly tells Willow how much she needs Willow, as she's the "big gun." Willow doesn't like the sound of that, preferring to be a "cudgel" or maybe a "sharp stick" Willow tells Buffy of the spell she's been working, a spell to restore Tara's brain, and how that might weaken Glory. Unfortunately my humor handicap prevents me from making the obvious joke. Giles, who is in the corner conferring with Xander and Anya, calls Buffy over. Willow promises to work on the spell some more, but goes to give Tara a kind word, reassuring her that "it won't be long." Smack! "Bitch!" spits Tara. "I'm supposed to work on the factors!" Tara's look softens, and Willow stoically tries not to cry.
Over by the tacky beaded curtain in the shop, Buffy tells Xander and Anya that something or other they've mentioned "could be pivotal." The stop is the Summers home, for weapons. Xander asks for something "in a broadsword," and Spike warns him not to swing it anywhere near him, referring to Xander as a "glorified bricklayer." Xander retorts that he's "also a swell bowler." "The gods themselves do tremble," snorts Spike. Heh. Buffy tells Spike to cram it and to come with her.
Buffy enters her home, telling Spike where to find the weapons chest and starts upstairs. "Uh, Buffy," begins Spike, and points to the doorframe. She looks at him blankly, which he takes as evidence that she doesn't want him inside. He gamely asks her to hand the goods over the threshold, but she stops him with a simple invitation. He savors the moment before stepping slowly inside. ["Awwwww." --Ace] "Presto. No barrier." I have to say, James Marsters is an incredible actor. In those three seconds, he made me forgive all of the Spike-related dribble I have to read on the boards every single day. Spike gathers himself and goes to fetch the trunk. Buffy tells Spike that the evening is not going to end without casualties. "I always knew I'd go down fighting," says Spike. Buffy extracts a promise from him to keep Dawn safe, then tells him that she'll be just a moment. When she's halfway up the stairs, Spike stops her with, "I know you'll never love me." She turns. "I know that I'm a monster. But you treat me like a man. And that's…" That's a case of saying more than necessary. We got it the first time.
Up on top of The Minaret Of Malevolence, sad music plays as two minions tie Dawn's arms to posts. We see a shot of her bare toes, hanging over the edge of a hole in the metal deck. Oh, right. Like Glory and her love for accessories wouldn't have picked out just the perfect pair of slippers for a ritual bloodletting. A long shot confuses me, because it looks like Dawn could slip the ropes off the top of the post and escape, but upon rewinding it does appear that the ropes are secured to the posts through some sort of metal loop. Why do I care? I have to worry about Anya becoming Bride of Xander season. At this point I'm firmly on Glory's side. The camera pulls back to show Dawn in her Renaissance Faire dress, hair fluttering in the wind.
Der Zauber Kasten. Tara stares at a display cabinet as Buffy and Spike return from her house. Spike throws down his bag of weapons, and Giles confirms that the gang is on schedule. Buffy nods to Willow, who approaches Tara and sadly says, "Tara, baby, is there somewhere you should be?" Tara crazies something in a surprisingly deep voice and then starts to leave the shop. On her way out, she delivers a little message to Giles: "You're a killer! This is all set down." Buffy instructs Willow to follow Tara, but not too closely, and says the rest of them will be along shortly. She then reminds the gang, "The ritual starts -- we all die. And I'll kill anyone who comes near Dawn." Attitude much, Buffy? These people are risking their lives to help save your sister, and they've heard your "don't hurt Dawn" speech already. She stomps off, and Spike mutters, "Well, not exactly the St. Crispin's Day speech, was it?" Giles: "We few, we happy few." Spike: "We band of buggered." They hoist their weapons and head out.
Fiddling with her bandage, Tara makes her way through the Sunnydale streets with Willow behind her. Oh! I'm happy to see Willow (or someone) put shoes on Tara. Since she's still in her pajamas, I was worried about her wandering the streets barefoot. Wouldn't be good to pick up a case of lock-jaw to accompany the craziness, you know. My Uncle Bunky almost died of lock-jaw. It's pretty unpleasant. The rest of the gang follows behind Willow. Tara rounds a corner, stares up into the sky, and then continues on. Willow, Spike, Anya, Giles, Xander, and Buffy stop to catch their first glimpse of Glory's High Dive To Hell. Bet they're all thinking, "Aw shit, we didn't need Tara to find that." Because, huge tower looming over downtown Sunnydale? I'm thinking they might have spotted it sooner or later. Giles speculates that the portal will open mid-air, necessitating the construction of The Devil's Derrick. Off-screen, Buffy says, "Will, you're up." Will opines as to how she could use some courage, and Spike offers his flask. Hee! Naw, she wants the "real kind," so Spike shrugs and puts it away. Long shot of The Barbican Of Badness, and then we see the base, with Glory's human crazies going about construction. Isn't it done yet? Remind me never to work for a hell god -- I hate putting in overtime. Tara trundles in and grabs a brick, but then Glory's behind her, demanding to know what she's doing there. "She's with me," menaces Willow, and quickly grabs both Glory and Tara by their heads. Blue electricity crackles over all three women as Willow's fingers sink deep into Glory's skull. Some screaming, and then a huge force blows all three of them to different sides of the set. Two minions hover over Glory as she tries to figure out what Willow just did to her. Turns out Willow stole back Tara's brain and left Glory feeling a little peckish. "Take [my brain], oh groovetastic one," grovels one of the minions amusingly, but Glory can't make a meal off minion-brain. She rubs her head distractedly and rants, "Need a brain!" Oh, that's wide open. That's a huge, wide-open space just begging for a joke. So wide open that I'll be sporting and just move on. "Suppose I could always use yours," observes Glory, and we see Buffy has arrived. "Okay then," challenges the Slayer, "Come and get it."
Back from commercials, we see the same tableau. Glory still seems to be suffering from Willow's attack, so Buffy sasses her some. Glory sends her minions to guard Dawn, trying to stutter out that Buffy is attempting a diversionary tactic. The minions scurry off and round up the human crazies to guard the base of The Pillar Of Purgatory. Buffy mocks Glory's weakened state and then suggests, "It might be this!" as she hefts the Dagon Sphere. She quickly tosses it to Glory, who catches it. She seems to feel some pain, but then crushes the sphere into dust. Buffy doesn't give her time to recover, though, and the fight is on. Kicking, punching, we all know the drill. As the minions make bad puns on the stairs of The Pylon Of Perdition ("day of glory"), Spike, Anya, and Giles enter the fray.
High up on The Minaret Of Misdeed, Dawn hears faint sounds from the fight below. Buffy and Glory fight, and they seem pretty evenly matched. Willow regains consciousness nearby and stumbles to Tara's side. The blonde witch slowly comes to and, recognizing her lover, whimpers, "I got so lost." Aw, her voice breaks so endearingly there. Willow is ecstatic; she hugs Tara and covers her face in kisses, promising, "I will always find you." Very sweet, touching moment that brings tears to my eyes, and only ruined just the littlest bit by the heavy-handed score. The witchlets hug. Back in the ring with Buffy and Glory, Glory professes to be "feeling a little better." She says she's bored and then knocks Buffy's block off. Literally, right off. Hee! She's been fighting the Buffybot. I knew we'd see her in action again. Glory is shocked, and then cracks me up by exclaiming, "The Slayer's a robot! Did everybody else know the Slayer was a robot?" Single best line delivery Clare Kramer managed all season. As Glory chuckles, we see that the real Buffy has walked up behind her. She then decks Glory with the troll hammer, which sends Glory flying across into some chain-link fencing. Oh, right. The hammer that didn't kill Xander or even break his spine when he was hit with it two or three times in "Triangle" now has the power to send a god flying? Not buying it, but moving on. "You're not the brightest god in the heavens, are you?" snarls Buffy. Above her, Dawn has realized her sister has arrived, and screams her name. Buffy stares up at The Tower Of Torment, realizing where Dawn is. She runs to the stairs and, fighting off minions, begins the long climb. Glory follows and catches the Slayer partway up. They fight. What else, really? I personally think it was bad strategy for Buffy to ascend the tower; she should have worked on keeping Glory from even getting near the stairs. Slayer and hell god fight on one of the landings, swinging about on chains and attempting to beat each other to the top. Girls, that doesn't look too safe! Get down from there this instant! Hey, looks like they heard me, because Buffy teeters over the edge and, as she falls, manages to drag Glory down with her. They hit the cement and lie stunned. In other news, Spike is fighting two or three minions nearby. Buffy struggles to her feet and pushes Glory away from her. From the way Glory ends up standing very still as she delivers a sassy line in front of a blank wall, I get the feeling something is about to happen to her. Oops, I was right -- a wrecking ball smashes through the wall, and again Glory is sent flying. We see that Xander is manning the wrecking-ball machine. "And the glorified bricklayer picks up a spare," he nerds. Go fight beside your girlfriend, Mr. Safe-In-Large-Machinery. Buffy grabs the troll hammer and runs. Spike, Anya, and Giles are hiding behind a metal something, having been driven off by the minions and crazies. In a nice effect, Spike pokes his head up, and then he and Anya get beaned with the same thrown brick. Hee. Giles says, "If Buffy can keep Glory down long enough, it doesn't matter. There's only a few minutes left to start the ritual."
Buffy does seem to be keeping Glory contained, and is in fact now beating the stuffing out of her with the troll hammer. But don't get too excited, because things aren't looking too good up with Dawn. She gasps as she realizes that Doc is standing quietly in front of her. No indication of how he got up the tower; Doc has changed his ratty bathrobe for a classic black suit. Dawn begs him to help her, and Doc approaches her. Seems Glory's running late, and "if her Splendidness can't be here in time to bleed you..." He trails off. Dawn's face falls as she realizes that Doc is not on her side. "Hey kid, wanna see a trick?" he winks and brandishes a large shiny knife. Insert Sideshow Bob shudder.
Xander joins Anya, Spike, and Giles, and they fill him in on the action so far. "We haven't got up to Dawn, but then neither has anyone else," concludes Giles. However, Spike has been employing his supersonic vampire hearing, or eyesight, or something and tells them someone is up top with Dawn. Xander suggests charging the stairs, but Anya says they already tried that. Suddenly, Spike hears Willow's voice speaking to him. She sounds strange, like she's speaking underwater, and for a second I thought she had used magic to communicate through this metal thing near Spike's head that looks like a speaker. Then I figured that, duh, she's speaking to him telepathically. Because Willow does that all the time -- chatting telepathically with her friends. Oh, wait, she totally doesn't. I'm starting to wonder what powers she won't have by the start of season. Rotate the Earth backwards and reverse time? No problem. Fly us all through space to visit the moons of Pluto? Shouldn't take more than a sec! And so on. Willow tells Spike to get up The Tower Of Terror to Dawn; when he protests, the other Scoobies are under the impression he's talking to himself. "Go!" instructs Willow. Spike leaps up and runs for the stairs. Tara and Willow clasp hands and use witchy power to throw all the minions and crazies out of his way.
Up top, Doc is checking his pocket watch. Dawn shouts, and Doc turns to see Spike behind him. "This won't take long," threatens Spike; Doc replies, "No, I don't imagine it will." He then moves incredibly quickly and stabs Spike in the back. Down below, Buffy is still whapping Glory with the troll hammer. Glory is bloodied and seems exhausted. She whines that Buffy can't understand her pain. At the tower's top, Spike is still standing, and he tells Doc he won't let him near Dawn. Doc doesn't seem much concerned by this, but does take the time to inquire why Spike is protecting an innocent, since he has no soul. "I made a promise to a lady," admits Spike. A "lady"? Doc is tired of chatting and uses his zappy tongue to feint at Spike; he then manages to wrestle the vampire to the edge of the deck. Dawn looks on, horrified, as Doc tosses Spike off the tower. Dawn shrieks, "No!" and Spike hits the ground. He grimaces in pain, so I guess he, like Glory and Buffy earlier, managed to survive the fall. Glory kneels before Buffy, begging her to stop. "You're a god. Make it stop," sneers Buffy, and then slams the troll hammer repeatedly into some part of Glory's anatomy off-screen. For some reason, Ben suddenly appears in Glory's place. His face bloodied like Glory's, he apologizes to Buffy. Buffy tells him to tell Glory that it's over, that Glory (and Ben) need to go far, far away and never bother her again. Ben agrees to do as she says. Buffy drops the troll hammer and races off. "I guess we're stuck with each other, huh, baby?" laughs Ben to Glory, and then coughs up some blood or lung chunks. He gulps in pain. Suddenly Giles is there, kneeling over Ben. He tells Ben that Buffy couldn't kill him because she's a hero. "She's not like us," he continues quietly. "Us?" queries Ben, but Giles slaps his hand over Ben's mouth and clamps off his nose. Giles watches Ben until he stops breathing. Wow. Giles is my new favorite character. He rid me of the pain that is Glory and Ben. All hail Giles.
Up top, Dawn is shrieking in pain as Doc makes a series of shallow cuts on her torso. Blood dribbles onto Dawn's feet. Suddenly, Buffy is there; Doc turns towards her and says, "This should be interesting," but Buffy doesn't even pause in her walk towards Dawn and just shoves him off the tower with a casual push. Dawn sobs, and her blood drips off the edge of the deck as Buffy unties her. Where her blood falls mid-air, a pulsating ball of energy zaps, and a hole begins to open. Buffy helps Dawn towards the stairs, but the girls pause as they realize that the portal has begun to open. Energy zaps a huge chasm in the main street of Sunnydale. Another bolt hits a large building, which morphs eerily into a hellish Giger-esque structure, from which screaming Alien-esque monsters appear. Kinda derivative, but full-on creepy. Almost as creepy as the Gentlemen. More bolts zap from the portal, and everyone at the bottom of the tower cowers in fear. Anya shoves Xander away, and she takes the fall of bricks she saved him from square on the head. She lies amid the rubble. Dawn apologies to Buffy and then tries to throw herself into the portal, but Buffy stops her and demands to know what she's doing. Uh duh, Buffy. Dawn insists that she must stop the ritual by leaping into the portal, but Buffy won't hear of it. Above their heads, a huge dragon appears and flaps off towards Sunnydale. "Buffy, you have to let me go," sobs Dawn. She insists that her blood must stop flowing, but Buffy just stares at her in anguish. "It has to have the blood," reminds Dawn, in case Buffy didn't hear her the first eighty-seven times. Buffy has a series of memory flashes: Spike talking about blood earlier in the episode, the girls doing some blood bonding in "Blood Ties," Buffy herself insisting the monks made Dawn out of her, First Slayer Guide telling her (say it with me), "Death is your gift." Buffy turns towards the portal, and the girls stare as the sun begins to rise.
Buffy almost smiles and then turns to Dawn, who wears a look of horrified realization. Dawn shakes her head, but Buffy insists she must go. She grabs Dawn's shoulders and begins to tell her something. We can't hear, however, and the camera pulls away from them. Dawn sobs. Buffy strokes her sister's face, looking serene, kisses her, and then turns. She runs, and then swan-dives off the end of the deck into the portal. Buffy writhes in pain as the zappy portal electricity courses around her body. We then get a voice-over of her final message: "Dawn, listen to me. Listen. I love you. I will always love you. This is the work that I have to do." Buffy seems to lose consciousness, and then the portal condenses and slams shut. The sun rises. Down below, really terrible sad music plays as the Scoobies gather. Willow and Tara stumble forward, hugging each other; Giles walks beside them, and in the background, Xander carries Anya. Buffy VO continues, "Tell Giles, tell Giles I figured it out and I'm okay." We see that the Scoobies are converging near Buffy's corpse, artfully laid out and not bloody on a pile of rubble. What's that they say? Live fast, die young, and leave a pretty corpse? Must have been Buffy's motto. Oh yeah. I’m cool. Nothing wrong here. It’s only allergy season. Just like every February and May in the Buffyverse. In the corner of the screen, Spike walks forward, encounters the sunlight, and cowers down, shielding his head like a vampire in a classic monster movie. "Give my love to my friends," continues Buffy, as we see Willow sobbing, and Tara hugging her in anguish. "You have to take care of them now. You have to take care of each other." Dawn comes down the stairs in the background. Giles looks on, seemingly in shock. Xander looks blank, and Anya, who appears to have survived, lays her head on his shoulder. "You have to be strong." Spike breaks down into huge sobs and covers his face in pain. ["Sniff. Snerf. Waaaaaaaah!" -- Ace] "Dawn, the hardest thing in this world is to live in it. Be brave. Live. For me." Dawn holds her side and stares at her sister's corpse. Fade out on that scene and onto a grave under a willow tree. We move in close and see that the headstone reads, "Buffy Anne Summers, 1981-2001. Beloved sister. Devoted friend. She saved the world. A lot."
What a cliffhanger! I mean, whaddya think Dawn wanted with those earrings?