Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete Seventh Season

From AwardAnnals

Reviews

Amazon.com

The seventh and final season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer begins with a mystery: someone is murdering teenage girls all over the world and something is trying hard to drive Spike mad. Buffy is considerably more cheerful in these episodes than we have seen her during the previous year as she trains Dawn and gets a job as student counselor at the newly rebuilt Sunnydale High. Willow is recovering from the magical addiction which almost led her to destroy the world, but all is not yet well with her, or with Anya, who has returned to being a Vengeance demon in “Same Time, Same Place” and “Selfless,” and both women are haunted by their decisions.

Haunting of a different kind comes in the excellent “Conversations with Dead People” (one of the show’s most terrifying episodes ever), in which a mysterious song is making Spike kill again in spite of his soul and his chip. Giles turns up in “Bring on the Night” and Buffy has to fight one of the deadliest vampires of her career in “Showtime”. In “Potential” Dawn faces a fundamental reassessment of her purpose in life.

Buffy was always a show about female empowerment, but it was also a show about how ordinary people can decide to make a difference alongside people who are special. And it was also a show about people making up for past errors and crimes. So, for example, we have the excellent episodes “Storyteller”, in which the former geek/supervillain Andrew sorts out his redemption while making a video diary about life with Buffy; and “Lies My Parents Told Me,” in which we find out why a particular folk song sends Spike crazy. Redemption abounds as Faith returns to Sunnydale and the friends she once betrayed, and Willow finds herself turning into the man she flayed. Above all, this was always Buffy’s show: Sarah Michelle Gellar does extraordinary work here both as Buffy and as her ultimate shadow, the First Evil, who takes her face to mock her. This is a fine ending to one of television’s most remarkable shows. —Roz Kaveney

Barnes and Noble

In a commentary recorded for this Season 7 set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, creator Joss Whedon says that he wanted to create a circular arc that took the show “back to the beginning.” It’s accomplished by having almost every episode reference something that has occurred in previous years, such as Buffy’s (Sarah Michelle Gellar) return to high school in the season opener, “Lessons.” As Willow (Alyson Hannigan) remains in England with Giles (Anthony Stewart Head), trying to recover from her evil magic rampage; Buffy goes to work as a guidance counselor at the newly reopened Sunnydale High School—complete with Hellmouth of course, located under new principal Robin Wood’s (D. B. Woodside) office. Spike (James Marsters), now possessed of a soul and the guilt-ridden conscience that goes with it, has been driven mad by the First Evil—one of the original demons to walk the Earth (see the Season 3 episode “Amends”). He has taken refuge in the school basement; but it’s actually in a church that Buffy finally learns Spike’s secret in “Beneath You”—an episode with a final scene that’s among the series’ best ever. Buffy’s struggle with the First dominates Season 7, such as in “Bring On the Night” when Giles returns with news that the First has been killing the young girls that will become Slayers, known as Potentials, and Buffy makes the decision to find the girls and train them for an inevitable battle. After being tormented by the First, Spike returns to killing in “Sleeper” and “Never Leave Me.” Knowing Buffy won’t do it, Giles tries to settle the Spike problem—with the help of Wood—in the excellent “Lies My Parents Told Me.” The rogue Slayer Faith (Eliza Dushku) returns in the pivotal episode “Dirty Girls,” which also features the introduction of Caleb (Nathan Fillion), the First’s powerful servant. Faith is to aid in the training of the Potentials, and she eventually becomes their leader after the group loses confidence in Buffy in “Empty Places.” The two-part series finale, “End of Days” and “Chosen,” features a guest appearance by Buffy’s first love, Angel (David Boreanaz); the spectacular destruction of the Hellmouth; and the death of two major characters. For fans it’s a harsh blow to see this amazing series come to a close, but to echo Spike in the final moments of the finale, we’re glad just “to see how it ends.” Christina Urban