Season 3, Episode 22
Written by Joss Whedon
Directed by Joss Whedon
Original Airdate: 25 May 1999
“Hey! You remember this? I took it from Faith. Stuck it in her gut. Just slid in her like she was butter. You want to get it back from me… Dick?”
Buffy
REGULAR CAST
- Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers
- Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris
- Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg
- Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase
- David Boreanaz as Angel
- Seth Green as Daniel “Oz” Osbourne
- Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles
GUEST CAST
- Harry Groener as Mayor Richard Wilkins III
- Alexis Denisof as Wesley Wyndam-Pryce
- Danny Strong as Jonathan Levinson
- Larry Bagby III as Larry Blaisdell
- Mercedes McNab as Harmony Kendall
- Ethan Erickson as Percy West
- Eliza Dushku as Faith Lehane
- Armin Shimerman as Principal R. Snyder
CO-STARRING
- Paulo Andres as Dr. Powell
- Susan Chuang as Nurse
- Tom Bellin as Dr. Gold
- Samuel Bliss Cooper as Vampire Lackey
SYNOPSIS
After stabbing Faith, Buffy stands there stunned for a few minutes, the knife still in her hands. She drops it and escapes from the rooftop just before Mayor Wilkins enters Faith’s office with a group of vampires. They survey the room, but find no Faith. Mayor Wilkins is seriously devastated by the thought of loosing Faith and orders the vampires to find her. At the library that night, Xander and Giles are looking for information on the demon Olvikan. Cordelia comes in, demanding to know why Wesley is returning to England. After Giles explains, Cordelia sits down and helps them save the world.
At the mansion, Angel’s slowly slipping away as Willow’s watching over him. Delirious, he mistakes her for Buffy and tells her how much he needs her. When Willow makes the correction, he falls asleep again until Buffy returns. Willow and Oz talk, then kiss, while waiting for Buffy. When she does finally return, she asks them to leave so she can be alone with him. Buffy goes to Angel and explains that she can cure him: all he has to do is drink her blood. Weakly, he refuses and tries to get away from her.
Buffy demands that he do it so that he will live. She won’t let him die. He suggests Faith, but she informs him that she’s killed Faith, so her blood is the only way. She hits him three times before the demon comes forth and she forces him to drink. He drinks slowly, and deeply, and knocks them both to the ground. Buffy’s unable to make a sound, and finally as she goes unconscious from loosing too much blood, Angel pulls away.
Angel takes Buffy to the hospital where they take care of her. Angel just explains that something bit her and that they have to help her. He quickly calls Giles and everyone to come to the hospital. In another room, a doctor talks to Mayor Wilkins as they stand around Faith in a hospital bed. The doctor explains the trauma to her head and the massive blood loss is just too much, and there’s very little chance she’ll ever regain consciousness.
Mayor Wilkins overhears a nurse talk about another girl, and quickly walks over to Buffy, covering her mouth and nose with his hand. Buffy struggles weakly, but when a nurse can’t get him off, Angel shows up and tears him away. The two argue, Mayor Wilkins insults Buffy and Angel knocks him across the room. He finally leaves with a message not to miss the second act of the show. Giles and the gang show up at the hospital and Angel explains that Faith is in a coma, and that Buffy cured him when he drank her blood. Angel leaves because the sun will be up soon and the rest go to check on Buffy.
In a dream, Buffy goes to Faith’s apartment where Faith is packing up her stuff. Faith explains that human weakness never fades, not even the Mayor’s. Faith tells Buffy that it’s time to go and then Buffy wakes up in the hospital bed. She gets up, walks over to Faith and kisses her forehead. Then dressed, Buffy walks out to the waiting room, telling her friends to get everyone ready. Ready for war.
At school, Snyder prepares for the ceremony in an eerily quiet school yard. Buffy explains her “crazy” plan to her friends. She explains that she needs everyone’s help, especially Xander since he remembers his military training. Cordelia suggests a very crazy idea of chasing Mayor Wilkins with Ebola virus because of his fear of germs. They find out that his weakness is Faith and Buffy says she can work with that.
Wesley shows up, offering to help in any way he can. Buffy lays out her plan, while Mayor Wilkins explains to his group of vampires his plan. He tells them that when the eclipse takes place, he wants the vampires to come out and keep the people from running. Mayor Wilkins tells them it’s very important that he feed within the first few minutes to sustain the change. Buffy assigns Angel and Xander to work together and they start out by bickering. Their plan involves creating a volcano substitute – a bomb. Giles is assigned to detonate it. Everyone goes out and brings people in to help which includes Harmony and Percy. While putting away books, Cordelia and Wesley kiss twice and find that they truly aren’t meant for each other.
Larry and Jonathan unload Oz’s van of supplies, then leave Willow and Oz in there alone. With some time until graduation, Willow and Oz decide to take advantage of that time and the fact that they may die later that day. In the library, Angel asks Buffy how she’s doing and then suddenly tells her that he won’t say goodbye. It’s too painful to have to face her and he’s decided to just leave when it’s all over.
At graduation, Willow and Oz show up late. Mayor Wilkins starts his speech, but doesn’t have the time to finish it as the transformation starts before he expected. After an eclipse, he turns into a 60-foot snake demon. The parents scatter, and the students gather together in one large group. At Buffy’s call, everyone rips off their robes, revealing weapons and crosses. Some students step forward with fire launchers and burn the demon. Xander commands a wave of crossbows to be launched. All the students have banded together and they’re fighting for the survival of their town.
The vampires attack from behind and then several students pick up crossbows with flaming bolts and fire at the vampires. Angel heads off another team and they fight off the vampires as well. Snyder tries telling the snake-demon off, but instead gets eaten. Buffy orders everyone back to attack the vampires and they launch into a battle. While fighting, Cordelia kills a vampire, but other students like Larry and Harmony get killed. Buffy taunts the snake and has him chase her through the school. She goes through the library, and jumps out the window. Just as she reaches a safe distance, and Mayor Wilkins is stuck saying, “Well gosh,” Giles detonates the bomb.
Wesley is taken away in an ambulance. Xander tells Buffy considering all they went through, they didn’t loose too much. Giles congratulates Buffy on a job well done and even presents her with her diploma which he saved from the rubble. After he leaves, Buffy sees Angel at a distance. The two stand there, near tears, just looking at each other, until Angel turns and walks away. Buffy meets up with her friends and they briefly reflect before walking home.
They survived high school.
TRIVIA
This was Charisma Carpenter’s final episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer as Cordelia Chase. She went to Angel and never returned to Sunnydale.
David Boreanaz quietly left Buffy for his own show Angel, which aired in the autumn of 1999. His show had only just got the green light when this episode was filmed. He returned to Sunnydale a few times, in the episodes Pangs, The Yoko Factor, Forever, End of Days and Chosen.
The Mutant enemy monster is sporting a graduation cap at the end of this episode.
This episode was delayed by the network because of the recent attacks at Columbine High School. It was felt that the events of the episode may upset some viewers so close to the tragedy. The episode Earshot was also delayed for this reason though for a much longer period of time.
According to Marti Noxon’s DVD commentary for Earshot, the explosion scene was filmed at 5am in Torrence, California (where the show had been filmed for outdoor scenes the past three seasons). The sound and vibrations from the exploding set woke up many residents and set off car alarms, causing locals to ban any future Buffy filming in Torrence. Producer Gareth Davies said in an interview with the BBC, “Unfortunately, when we warned the residents of Torrance we were going to blow it up, we neglected to say when, and when it went up at five a.m. in the morning … Torrance is still upset with us actually, we’re back there next Friday and I’ve already heard of one phone call from some irate lady saying ‘You should be punished for what you did three years ago.’”
CONTINUITY
Larry Blaisdell and Principal Snyder are killed by Mayor Wilkins in this episode. Harmony is bitten by a vampire. She returns in The Harsh Light of Day as a vampire.
After battling Mayor Wilkins, Wesley headed off to become a rogue demon hunter which led him to L.A. There he met Angel and Cordelia and joined their private investigation work in Parting Gifts.
Cordelia stakes her first vampire in this episode. It won’t be her last.
In The Harvest, Willow mentions that the school is really strict about blowing things up. They blow it all up in this episode.
The scar that Buffy gets from Angel’s biting of her (which the First predicted in Amends) is noticed by Parker in The Harsh Light of Day and by Dracula (who adds his own) in Buffy vs. Dracula.
Buffy returns the kiss on Faiths forehead that Faith gave her in Choices.
Faith lays the groundwork for the infamous 7-3-0 mystery in this episode, as well as referencing Dawn. She mentions Little Miss Muffet, which is said in reference to Dawn in Real Me, while 7-3-0 means 730 days, which from this point means The Gift, the episode in which Buffy dies.
The Mayor’s snake-like appearance is mentioned several times in the series, by Xander (Primeval), Harmony (The Harsh Light of Day), Buffy (Shadow) and Amy (Smashed).
The destroyed Sunnydale High will be seen again in Doomed, and also again in This Year’s Girl, The Yoko Factor and Out of My Mind.
GOOFS
When Angel first gets out of bed, the tattoo which is usually on his back can’t be seen.
When Angel uses the phone, you can see the reflection of his fingers and his shirt in the chrome plating of the phone.
As Angel pulls Mayor Wilkins off Buffy, you can briefly see his reflection in the glass of the room’s door.
At the end, when the gang is discussing the battle, there is a couple walking down the pavement, away from the group. The camera does a few close-ups and when it cuts back to the far-away shot, the couple is still walking close to the group.
As Angel carries Buffy through the hospital, we can see that Sarah Michelle Gellar is hanging on to his neck before realising she’s supposed to be unconscious and lets go.
The graduating kids’ parents didn’t exactly get a good view of the ceremony. Their seats were behind the stand where their children were sitting!
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