Welcome to Rewatching Buffy, the part of the blog where I rewatch Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Each Tuesday evening, you’re invited to join me as I attempt to rediscover what made me love this show 21 years ago.

The Gift

• Can you believe we’ve watched 100 episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer together?
• Okay, maybe it’s more been me watching and you reading these bullet points.
• Maybe you skip these posts because Buffy the Vampire Slayer never interested you.
• I guess that’s okay. Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion.
• Even if it’s wrong.
• Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Everything.
• Because you mark 100 episodes with flashes of 100 episodes.
• Some dumb kid runs through Sunnydale’s dark alleys.
• Of course he’s being chased by a vampire.
• Luckily, this dark alley is behind the Magic Box and Buffy comes outside to check out the ruckus.
• She easily turns the vampire to dust and sends the kid home.
• Buffy heads back inside to rehash last week’s end of the episode exposition.
• Giles explains that the ritual involving the Key requires Dawn’s blood to be spilled which will cause the walls between dimensions to break down.
• Blood flows, the gates will open. The gates will only close when the blood ceases to flow.
• When Dawn is dead.
• For Buffy, the equation is simple. Stop Glory before the ritual can begin.
• Giles loses his patience because Buffy doesn’t want to hear that, if the ritual starts, Dawn will have to die to restore reality.
• But Giles understands that, for the greater good, Dawn would have to die.
• Buffy takes a stand. If the walls between realities begin to break down, and the world ends, the last thing Dawn will see is Buffy protecting her.
• Ideas for stopping Glory before the ritual: kill Ben (if he resurfaces this close to the ritual), keep Glory on the ropes (just long enough to miss the one time she can actually complete the ritual), fight her with Olaf’s troll hammer, somehow use the Dagon sphere against her.
• Ben is at the surface, but Dawn demands that Glory return. At least she’s up front about being a monster.
• Giles and Buffy have a heart-to-heart in the training room. He makes it clear that he loves Dawn, but that he’s sworn to protect this sorry world.
• She tells him she’ll stop him if he tries to hurt Dawn. He knows and understands.
• Buffy confesses that she wishes her mom was there.
• She also tells Giles what the spirit guide told her about death being her gift.
• She still interprets that as meaning the Slayer is just a killer after all.
• Then Buffy says she’s tired of it all. And if Dawn dies, she quits.
• In the Magic Box basement, Xander and Anya look for the Dagon sphere and also come across the Buffybot.
• And Xander proposes.
• Anya’s response is to slap him. Good response.
• She thinks he’s proposing because he knows the world’s gonna end so he won’t have to go through with it.
• But he explains that he believes the world won’t end and that he knows he wants to spend the rest of his life with her.
• She says yes… but no… tells him to ask again when the world is safe.
• Buffy comes to Willow, telling her she’s one of the big guns. Her magic is the only thing that’s ever successfully hurt Glory before.
• Willow has been working on a spell that could reverse what Glory did to Tara, which could weaken Glory and buy them some time.
• Buffy takes Spike to the house to pick up more weapons. We’re reminded that Spike was disinvited a few weeks back.
• She invites him back in.
• Buffy makes sure Spike knows they’re not all gonna make it. She’s counting on Spike to protect Dawn.
• “Til the end of the world.”
• Glory’s minions tie Dawn up at the top of a poorly constructed tower. They let her know that Glory will join her soon.
• The gang lets Tara walk free and she leads them to Glory.
• Buffy warns them all: “The ritual starts, we all die.”
• Glory recognizes Tara right away and Willow is able to sneak up and transfer Tara’s sanity back to her.
• Glory is blown back by the spell and gets up complaining that she needs a brain to feed on.
• She sees Buffy and decides she could just take hers.
• Glory sends minions to guard Dawn because clearly something’s up.
• Buffy uses the Dagon sphere to slow Glory down. And they start to fight, with Buffy having the upper hand.
• Meanwhile, Spike takes down a scabby minion with a crossbow.
• Willow checks on Tara, who’s back to normal after the spell.
• After Glory destroyed the Dagon sphere, she’s feeling better. And then she punches Bufy’s head off.
• “Did anyone else know the Slayer was a robot?”
• Then the real Buffy arrives and knocks Glory across the room with the troll hammer.
• The fight picks up for real as they climb the tower, Buffy desperate to get to Dawn.
• The Slayer and the Beast fall off the tower, just in time for Xander to hit Glory with a wrecking ball.
• Buffy is then able to repeatedly hit her with the hammer.
• Giles notes that there are only a few minutes left to begin the ritual, and with Glory occupied with Buffy, they should be okay.
• But at the top of the tower, Dawn’s not alone.
• Remember how Joel Grey didn’t actually die from Xander’s sword to the chest last week? Yeah, he’s arrived to begin the ritual on Glory’s behalf.
• Willow and Tara magically clear a path through the minions giving Spike a chance to climb the tower.
• He gets up there to fight Joel. Joel’s a lot more spry than he appears.
• Joel throws Spike off the tower.
• Meanwhile, Buffy is beating the ever-loving crap out of Glory. Until she finally transforms into a beaten and bruised Ben.
• Ben swears that he’ll leave and take Glory with him.
• Buffy drops the hammer and takes off up the tower.
• Giles comes in to check on Ben. He knows that sooner or later, Glory will re-emerge and make Buffy pay for the mercy she showed Ben.
• Buffy’s a hero and, therefore, can’t kill someone she considers an innocent. Giles, however, has no qualms, suffocating Ben to death.
• Joel manages to start the ritual, making shallow cuts in various places on Dawn’s body.
• Joel turns around just as Buffy gets to the top of the tower. “This should be interesting…”
• But it’s not. Buffy just pushes him over the edge without missing a step.
• But it’s too late. Dawn’s blood begins to drip down, opening an enormous portal that shoots bolts of energy across Sunnydale, transforming much of the town as demon dimensions begin leaking into our reality.
• Anya pushes Xander aside as a wall collapses on top of her.
• Dawn apologizes to Buffy and moves to jump into the energy. She’s willing to sacrifice herself, but Buffy stops her.
• Oh, hey, a dragon!
• Dawn begs Buffy to let her go. It has to be the blood.
• Buffy works it all out in her head. She and Dawn share the same blood because the monks made her out of Buffy.
• “Death is your gift.”
• Buffy is the one to make the sacrifice.
• She tells Dawn something important, then takes a swan dive off the top of the tower.
• She passes through the swirling energy, effectively closing the portal, before landing, lifeless, on the ground.
• Buffy speaks in voice over as her friends gather around her broken body.
• Xander carries a wounded Anya. Tara comforts a weeping Willow (I really did not mean to do that, but I’m leaving it). Spike completely breaks down. Giles mourns his Slayer as a father would mourn a daughter.
• “Dawn, the hardest thing in this world is to live in it. Be brave. Live… for me.”
• We end with a shot of Buffy’s gravestone. “She saved the world. A lot.”
• Body Count: Vampires – 1; Scabby minions – 1; Human/Hell-gods – 1; Joel Greys – 1; Slayers – 1

Well, that brings us to the end of Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s run on the WB network. Season 6 saw a shift to UPN, where it remained until the series ended in Season 7. I’m sure you’re thinking, how could they have a Season 6 or 7? Buffy just died! Wait for it…