Buffy The Vampire Slayer - S06x22|♡Uncut Reaction &Review♡

It's just cinematography, he wanted his soul back. It's just meant to be unrealistically ambiguous so people didn't guess the surprise, it's a tv show at the end of the day.

willow got connected to everyone through Gile's magic, and felt the painful emotions of all the people. Kinda like Cordelia in the last episode of Season 1 Angel. So willow thought to destroy the planet to stop everyones suffering.

the video being up top kind of hard to watch.

The fourth time Xander saves the world!

After stealing Giles' magic Willow felt people's emotions over the world including their pain. And in her own pain over Tara she believed that the only way to get rid of the pain people felt was to end their lives. At least that's the way I always saw it.

Two reasons Spike intentionally went there for his soul. Reason #1: Spike has already shown he can fight Buffy with the chip. So removing it becomes redundant. Reason #2: If he knew of a magical way to get rid of the chip he would've went through these trials back in season 4.

I know everyone who loved Spike and shipped him with Buffy wanted him to get a soul anyways .. but I think whether or not he seeked that soul really matters big deal I love Angel.. but I can't stand him talking about his heroic self sometimes because I don't like the concept of double personality (Stefan/Ripper  or Angel/Angelus) It feels like a cheap way for the writers to give the characters a dark past and skip the redemption arch.. and just have everything be easily not their fault and is their evil self's fault So If Spike seeked that soul, that would make him the exception here ... Soulless Spike faught and went through trials to be the man Buffy deserves is WAAAAY higher on my scale and way better then him being cursed or tricked into having a soul that he never wanted. Specially if his real intentions were to get revenge on Buffy or become more evil than he was So you see, this is why Spike is my fav character and actually fav vampire

This finale makes me emotional, but I've always maintained that I think Xander should have died instead of Tara. I know people like to argue that nothing but Tara's death would have driven Willow to this point, but I don't think that's true. We could have started with a very similar situation. Warren shoots at Buffy, and one of his stray shots goes up through the window and hits Tara. Only, it's Xander who is hit instead of Buffy (maybe because Warren is a bad shot, maybe because Xander managed to react just fast enough to get in front of Buffy). And up in the house, instead of Tara being dead, she's badly injured, and Willow immediately teleports her to the hospital. Not realizing that by doing so, she is leaving Xander bleeding out in the back yard. Buffy calls an ambulance, they get him to the hospital, but it's too late for him. Tara is unconscious but stable, and it's only now that Willow runs into Buffy, and learns what has happened. Devastated, filled with fury and guilt, Willow does much of what she does in these past episodes, and tries to track down Warren for revenge. We can get a lot of the same character interactions, except there will be an even more complicated edge to it. We could see Buffy really struggling to stick to her convictions in the wake of losing Xander. We could see Anya struggling to understand what she feels, after thinking she wanted vengeance on Xander herself. Dawn would likely take very similar actions as she does here, initially wanting to help Willow and then realizing that Willow is going too far. And Tara of course. Tara would try to reach out to Willow, get her to stop. And it would probably seem the most effective at first. Except we have already seen Willow rationalize doing something that would upset Tara under the basis of it being 'all for the best' or the like. Tara could make a great impassioned speech, almost reach Willow. Willow could smile, approach Tara gently, maybe even kiss her on the head, or hold her face in her hands. "You don't understand now, but someday you will. When I've made this world safer for you, you'll understand." And then she used magic to maybe put Tara to sleep, or else put her somewhere 'safe' that she can stay until Willow comes for her again. But most of all, this would allow Buffy (or even Buffy and Dawn) to be the one to convince Willow to live again. I like Xander's speech in this episode, it makes me emotional. But it's always left Buffy's arc wanting. I like the symmetry of her climbing out of her own grave again, but I never really felt *why* her feelings had changed. If she were there before Willow, facing the end of the world, having been to Heaven and struggled all this time with the idea of being alive...for her to convince Willow that life must go on, that they have to keep being a part of this world....it would have worked perfectly with the arc she's had all season. The Spike stuff just straight up doesn't work for me. I don't think it's written in a way that really conveys the proper ambiguity. The fact that the actor didn't even know what was actually happening doesn't help either: he could have played it in a very subtle way that was rewarding on rewatch. As is, every time I'm back watching his trials I'm just rolling my eyes at all of his dialogue.

This is exactly the distraction I needed from some real life epic fuckery in my world. It was so great to see you enjoying the finale after most of season 6 and especially 6x19. This was a freaking amazing end to the season. So many moments I loved but my number one would have to be, of course, Xander breaking through to Willow. Right after that though was the surprise with Spike. When I first saw this episode I was convinced that Spike thought he was getting his chip out/nullified, and him getting his soul back was not what he was expecting. Oh, how I laughed and laughed. I'll not spoil whether I was right or not. o.O

I was waiting for the soul reveal freak out lmao I was not disappointed.

The song playing at the end is called Prayer of St. Francis by Sarah MacLachlan. She also had another song in the show which played at the end of the Season 2 finale (Full of Grace)

Oh, and this was the first finale not to have been written and directed by Joss, as he was shooting the Firefly pilot. David 'Mustard Guy' Fury wrote it and James A. Contner directed it.

Buffy finales do not disappoint and this one is no exception. I love the fact that it was Xander, with the help of Giles's magical doping of Willow, that saves the day. And I agree with you that didnt necessarily think he would stop Willow but thinking that the world was about to end he would want to spend it with his best friend. Kudos to Alyson and Nicholas for acting their hearts out in that scene, as it was freezing cold that day and very windy which wasnt great as Alyson had her black contacts in for the most part. Ive read a lot of articles over the years since originally watching this show abd one of the factoids that really intrigued me about this finale is that is was envisioned, Dark Willow et al, before they shot the season 5 finale. The whole arc of Willow's misuse of magic was skillfully orchestrated throughout the season until it culminated when Warren killed Tara andw without her death who knows how the season would have ended. Would Buffy's death have been enough to turn Willow dark? Unlikely. So as much as it pains me, because I adore Willow and Tara's love for one another (I dont ship much at all, FitzSimmons from AoS and David & Maddy from Moonlighting are the exceptions along with Tillow), but the only catalyst that would have driven the story arc in the way the writers wanted was her death. It is hard to imagine today that this show came out before social media and the studio was getting hate mail via fax (for those of us old enough to remember this stone age machine) and so I truly believe that the writers did not know the full affect of killing Tara. Sorry for my rambling thoughts.

I like that there are quite a few callbacks to prior seasons but in subtle ways. The finale takes place on Kingman's Bluff, the same cliff Angel tried to kill himself at during Amends. I could be wrong, but I think "the big earthquake of 32" is supposed to be "the big earthquake of 37" that trapped the Master (counterpoint: it is California). Finally, both this and Becoming Part 2, the season finales of the second and penultimate seasons, both end with a montage to Sarah MacLachlan.

I think it's important to look at Spike's motivation, in order to understand his intent. A key thing to keep in mind here, and it's kind of key theme through this last run of episodes and even the season is, guilt. Who feels it and why. Buffy feels guilty for not feeling happy about being back, for not feeling grateful or even just like herself; and that makes her want to feel anything - she even sings it in OMwF, "this isn't real, but I just want to feel." But then she feels guilty about sleeping with Spike and lying to her friends. Her guilt feeds her depression, which feeds her guilt. Xander feels guilty about not being ready to marry Anya, even though he loves her and wants to be with her; there are insecurities that make the ultimate conclusion of that relationship straight forward to him. Tara feels guilt for enabling Willow. Jonathan ultimately feels guilt for enabling Warren and letting all of that go as far as it did. Dawn even eventually feels guilty about her stealing. So who doesn't feel guilty? Warren doesn't feel guilty about anything he does, ever. Even confronted by Willow, powerless and in grave danger, he mocks Willow and tries to belittle her. He shows no guilt over killing Katrina, let alone accidentally killing Tara. Everything he does, he does because he thinks he's entitled to do it, just because he can. Willow's long arc is her diminish sense of guilt over the entire series, if she even really feels it. She's more embarrassed how wrong things went in Something Blue, but apart from that, she, like Warren, sees nothing wrong with anything she decides to do. If she can do it, she's entitled to do it. And she's self-assured that anything she tries will invariably work. She doesn't consider the ethical implications of raising the dead, whether with Joyce or Buffy, only whether it will work being a determining factor. She has no qualms about zapping the people The Bronze to another dimension to look for Dawn. No guilt about wiping Tara's mind, or doing it again when she finds out, doubling down on it by trying to wipe Buffy's too; only to accidentally wipe all of them; and she still doesn't feel guilty enough to stop doing magic after that, until Dawn gets hurt. Even after that, Willow's unwillingness to face her guilt is a core part of her rampage. Guilt is natural part of dealing with grief; she feels like she should have been able to protect Tara or at least save her; and if they weren't together, she wouldn't have been shot. It's an oversimplification, but it's a natural thought process; one which Willow would rather ignore all together and lash out at anyone else than face her own emotions, which she eventually does with Xander at the end. This brings us to Spike. As a vampire, Spike is incapable of feeling guilt without a soul. That's well established between both series and demonstrated during season 2 and 3 of Angel just with Darla, let alone Angel's entire character arc. The Chip does play it's role, it restrains Spike's normal behavior, which gives way to Spike's feelings for Buffy. But without a soul, Spike is operating on the pleasure/pain principal; what makes me happy, what makes me sad? What gives me pleasure, what makes feel pain? Buffy's death spurred the latter part of the equation; the object of his fixation was taken away from him, so he feels bad. He can also be cognizant that he might have done things differently, producing a happier result, but without the capacity for guilt, he can't reconcile his feelings about his loss of Buffy and his inability to prevent it; so he ends up in a feedback loop, reliving the moment every night, picturing him saving Buffy; while protecting Dawn whether she needs it or not. He gaslights Buffy all season, plays on her insecurities over being back, saying she came back wrong; isolating her from her friends. He feels no guilt about that. And why would he, when it gets him what he want? Then he loses Buffy, again after a fashion - pain versus pleasure. Buffy ending things with him takes away his pleasure and he wants it back, by any means necessary. Without guilt, the realization of what almost happened is a contradiction. He hurt Buffy in a way he didn't want to hurt Buffy, which hurts him, but he still doesn't blame himself; there's still no guilt. What does he say when he gets back to his crypt? "Why DIDN'T I do it?" He then immediately pivots to the whole thing Buffy's fault for changing him, and faulting the chip to making it possible for Buffy to change him. This brings us to the cave, where, yes, there's a lot of circular talk that in hindsight has a double meaning. Spike blames the chip, but not for what he wants fixed, but rather why everything has changed. But it's not why he's there; and that's clear, because the chip is no longer any consequence when it comes to him hurting Buffy. No, when he leaves Sunnydale, he's determined to prove something to Buffy; to prove her wrong - to prove, from his perspective, that he's already exact the man he claims to be, soul or no soul; and getting his back won't matter.

Given Joss' views on theology, it is kind of interesting that the ultimate resolution of the season is a carpenter saving the world with the power of love...

I cried with you during the episode! Ahh such an amazing finale, I love your reactions. And Spike's quest was always to get his soul :) "Moderator: "At the end of the finale, I thought Spike wanted to get the chip out, not get his soul back?" Joss Whedon: "Noooo.... but you were meant to think that. I personally devised something called a plot twist."...."Spike's quest was, and ALWAYS WAS, to get his soul restored for Buffy, despite any misleading leaks we may have put out that you fell for." - David Fury

lol about Spike. The demon said you demand restoration, when they talked about giving Angel his soul back in older seasons when miss calendar translated the spell they called the spell restoration as well, so to me, that tells me Spike knew exactly what he was asking for.

Hurrah!!! So glad you didn't wait to finish lol! A few things: 1) You are absolutely right that Faith has already been called, I dunno why Buffy assumes there would be another right after her (its been a whole season obviously no one else showed up, and Faith is still kicking in jail). 2) It's hard to pick up on, but when Willow took Giles magic she not only felt his emotions but the emotions of EVERYONE on Earth and was overwhelmed by the pain. She believed it was in a weird way the right thing to do to end the world at that point, rather than just kill Jonathan and Andrew. 3) Spike intended to get his soul the whole time. Notice the demon says "restoration." Often talking about Angel, they'd say things like "restore his soul" or whatever, or a restoration spell. You're right that he could have killed Buffy even with the chip, so if his goal was to kill her he could do that any day. I always admired Spike because unlike Angel, he earned his soul rather than was cursed with it. Spike is such an interesting vampire, because he has so much humanity in him even without a soul. Ty for posting so many episodes in such a short time!!!! Glad you liked S6!

Yep, spike defintely was going for his soul. It was just really nice writing where we all expect and think it is the chip but the twist is that he wanted his soul back after the whole scene in the bathroom with buffy. He was disgusted with himself as well. He wants to give Buffy what she deserves.. Someone who can really love her.

Oh, and, no, it wasn't that Willow could feel Giles's emotions when she took his powers, and then she couldn't handle it. When she took his powers, she ended up flooded with everyone's emotions. Everyone in the whole world. Everyone's pain. It was too much. She said, "I can feel... everyone... Emotions. It's too much. I have to stop this. Oh, you poor bastards. Your suffering has to end..."

I could hardly wait for your reaction to that ending scene, and it was as perfect as I'd hoped. Apparently, Giles's giggle-fest happened because ASH got the giggles for real. He couldn't stop laughing, and the interplay between him and SMG was so great that they left it in. In universe, it works perfectly because things went to shit and got so crazy that the tension had to be released. At least that's how I read it.

Yay! You've survived Season Six! 😁 When Willow takes Giles's magic, it's so pure and powerful that it connects her to the emotions of everybody in the world - and in particular their suffering. That's why she jumps to the idea of ending the world, because she wants to end everyone's suffering. I can't blame you for questioning the twist with Spike because it's not the most elegant misdirect in the world. "So Buffy can get what she deserves" works okay, but he says other stuff earlier on that doesn't really jive with him getting his soul back. I'm sure he says something about Buffy "getting what's coming to her" as well as the stuff about the chip. Which is strange, because I don't think it would have been that hard to make his dialogue work for both scenarios without tipping off the audience.

This was amazing. I really love the last 15min of this finale. Regarding Spike, there's definitely some misleading of the audience going on. They never mention a soul, and Spike brings up the chip on three occasions. Whether Spike was tricked, or the audience was, you'll have to find you :) However, the demon says: > You crawl in here and demand restoration? The spell Willow did to restore Angels soul in S2E22 was called "The ritual of restoration". Maybe I'm reading into things, but I feel that choice of words was intentional. ps, I hope you got some sleep eventually :)

SoFie, I could be wrong but I look at Willow’s statements of feeling everyone’s pain as similar to when Cordy had her mind opened to all the pain and suffering of the world in Angel season one. So with that overwhelming her plus still hurting from Tara, she went full big bad. Hence why the only thing that could stop her was love…to pierce the darkness that consumed her.

"No one would have taken her place." Ah, but at no point, certainly up to this point in the series, has it ever been said or even suggested that a Slayer only gets one replacement. It's logical fallacy that a large segment of the fandom has inexplicably latched onto and decided is unequivocal fact, when it's not supported by the series. We have Buffy making statements like in this episode to the contrary. Even the Mayor says in "Enemies," that he didn't want Buffy killed right away, because he didn't want another Slayer called too soon. People like to respond to with, "well, they don't necessarily know for sure. They could be wrong." And I say, maybe, but the writers do know what's correct or not; and guess who made the character say these things? Buffy is an active Slayer. She has all of the Slayer powers, undiminished since her so-called "death" in season 1. Part of that power set is calling another Slayer upon her death. Buffy was a Slayer when she died for real in season 5. There's no reason she would be unable to activate another Slayer at that time. It doesn't matter whether we ever see this hypothetical third Slayer. Absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence; especially when the rules and mechanics of a narrative are clearly established and not contradicted. We know how he human body works. We don't need to see Buffy use the bathroom to know that she probably has at some point in the last 6 seasons.

Every single time I watch this, the Xander/Willow scene makes me cry. And I adore that big "WAIT, WHAT?" moment at the end where we realize Spike has just had his soul restored.

There actually was a proposed Ripper series. It was going to be a BBC series; and there was quite a lot of buzz online and from Joss and ASH around the start of season 6 of Buffy. There was a lot of implication, at least read into by me and I'm sure others, that they were going to pivot Giles' departure from the main series and parlay that into the spin-off pretty soon after. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, it never materialized. I think it took the sting out of his absence, to some degree, but 20-some years later, a lot of us are still sort of patiently waiting.... 😒

And here we go! 😃

😍💞❤️‍🔥❤️‍🩹

Clicking as fast as I can 🥳