Overall Rating: 7.5
For a season finale featuring an apocalypse, Buffy dying, Xander getting heart-heartrendingly rejected, the reappearance of Jenny Calendar, and some truly iconic imagery and cinematography that will come to represent the general attitude of this series, "Prophecy Girl" is a major misfire. It was still a good show, but there are some serious problems with it.
Plot Synopsis:
Xander and Willow await Buffy at the Bronze and Xander rehearses his plans to ask Buffy to the Spring Fling. Buffy is a no-show because, as we find out shortly thereafter, she is busy patrolling as the vampires are arriving in Sunnydale in droves. She kills three in one night and returns to school to proudly report her accomplishment and warn Giles that trouble seems to be afoot. He is lost in his own world, however; seriously distracted by his own discovery regarding the coming doom.
At first, Buffy passes it off as Giles being an oddball and goes on with her day. She and Xander talk outside after her biology exam - Xander "pops the question" and Buffy, uninterested in such romantic pursuits with Xander, is forced to turn him down. He doesn't take it very well and he and his broken heart disappear into the crowd, leaving Buffy obviously disturbed. Willow finds Xander later and asks how the date request had gone. Xander, in desperatio, asks Willow to the dance and she too turns him down - it would be too painful for her to go with him just to be his shoulder to cry on when she has been lusting after him for years. Xander retreats to his home to listen to country music (the music of pain...LOL).
Signs and portents of a coming apocalyptic battle are everywhere. Even Ms. Calendar has noticed a string of strange events, including an earthquake in Sunnydale, a baby born with its eyes facing inward, a cat giving birth to snakes, that sort of thing. She goes to Giles in search of information and Giles is reluctant to trust her with his dire predictions. He sends her on an errand to track down information on the whereabouts of "The Anointed One" - who, as we all know, is not the vampire Buffy killed a few episodes back, but a young boy. Buffy sees one of her own portents - a faucet in the girl's locker room starts pouring blood instead of water. She goes to report the event to Giles and walks in on him talking to Angel about her impending death. Needless to say, she is terrified and lashes out at Giles and Angel, saying that she will quit before she faces the Master and dies at 16 years old. She goes home assuring everyone that she will have nothing to do with the Master. There, her mother is waiting for her with a surprise. She's purchased a beautiful spring dress for Buffy to wear to the dance and they talk about how Joyce met Buffy's Dad. Buffy wistfully imagines what it would be like to have your whole life in front of you and not have everything dictated by prophecy and destiny.
Meanwhile, Willow, in a rare bid to help Cordelia (whodathunkit!), goes with her to rouse the AV geeks to help set up the equipment for the dance. There, they discover all of Willow's friends murdered inside - in fact the scene is so gruesome that Willow later describes it to Buffy as looking like the evil ones had made her world their own and had fun doing it. A traumatized Willow turns to Xander for support, and Buffy, seeing this as evidence that she has no choice, goes to Giles and tells him she intends to face the Master. When he tries to go in her place, she knocks him out cold with one punch and follows the Anointed One to her own doom. The Master is able to work a hypnotic bit of mojo on humans and pulls her in for a fatal bite. Before he kills her, he tells her that she is the key to his escape.
Once free, the Master rises to the surface and his army of vampires, who have been flocking to him in droves (hence the increased vampire traffic) converge on the school where Giles is waiting. Xander, who has dragged Angel along by force, tracks Buffy to the Master's pit and they find her apparently dead. Xander, thinking quickly, realizes that Buffy may simply have drowned and that she might still survive with a bit of CPR. When she comes to, she claims to feel different (and stronger). She rushes to the school to stop the coming apocalypse and kill the Master. Meanwhile, Willow had been sent by Giles to the Bronze to warn the locals there that the hellmouth was about to open on them and that vampires would be swarming the dance. Unfortunately, the hellmouth is NOT at the Bronze but under the Library at school. Willow doesn't get far before running into hundreds of hungry vamps (and Cordelia, who thankfully has a car). They speed to the school and join the fight as Buffy takes on the Master on the roof above. Now she is immune to his funky mind powers and battles him to a physical draw. Finally, she gets the upper hand and flips him through the glass roof above the hellmouth, impaling him on a broken piece of wood and killing him. His minions from inside the hellmouth retreat, and the gateway closes. They have staved off the end of the world for the first time (of several). With the fate of the world no longer in the balance, Buffy and the scoobies head to the dance to party.
Writing: 8.5
Every teen feels like the "date gone wrong" or the wrong guy asking them out or the dance without an invite is the end of the world. Literally. The writers did a fantastic job drawing the parallel between the end-of-the-world drama Buffy faces (where her life may actually be forfeit) and the usual teen drama which just feels like life or death stuff in Buffy's scene with Joyce. In general, I think the episode is very well crafted minus some problematic deus ex machina (like, for example, why the Master didn't drain Buffy's blood entirely - choosing only to take a sip and then chuck her into a pool of water or why her death would magically make her physically stronger). The real problems with this episode are in the production values. I don't generally prefer to focus on this when it comes to TV, but there were some truly intrusive and illusion-busting moments within the musical score (why is the Master always played so maudlin and over the top, for example, with big dramatic (and really cheesy sounding) horn and drum intrusions?), and the camera work was borderline ridiculous during Buffy's death sequence. I don't see what it adds to the show to get to uber-uber-UUUUBBER close up of Buffy's left nostril and front teeth while the Master is giving her the bad news. Thankfully, Joss and company backed way off on the cheese factor in later seasons, but this finale was just BRUTAL when it comes to over the top direction and production.
Acting: 6.0
There were some genuinely good moments...especially Buffy's interaction with Xander (I heart Nicholas Brendan!) and Xander and Willow. I fear that Sarah Michelle Gellar saw the high impact nature of the script and reached too far in some of her more dramatic scenes. And, perhaps it was the goofy camera work or perhaps it was Gellar's performance, but in her death scene, I was not drawn in by her expression of fear. It just looked...awkward and silly. I hate to say it...but when we needed a strong showing from Buffy the most, she was way...way off her game. I still hate Mark Metcalf's portrayal of the Master and that hasn't changed here. I also found myself deeply unimpressed with Andrew Ferchland (The Anointed One) once again. I do very much enjoy Kristine Sutherland (Joyce) and Robia LaMorte (Ms. Calendar) every time they appear, however.
Message: 8.0
I covered above that I enjoyed the opportunity to explore Buffy's unfortunate place in the world and the simple pleasures she is denied that we all take for granted. One of the great things about classic superhero genre stuff was that the heroes we used to worship as kids weren't just flashing great powers and enjoying the ride - they have often-crushing responsibilities and their gifts were frequently more of a curse than a blessing. It is a very Christian message that liberal Hollywood still cannot wash away from the American psychology. With great power comes great responsibility and we must all do everything we are capable of doing to fight evil, no matter how large or small a role we might play. If, for example, Xander's loyalty and love for Buffy hadn'ty driven him to take on the seemingly impossible task of facing the Master, no one would have been there to breathe life back into Buffy. Buffy, understandably, attempts to throw off the burden of being the slayer when her life is in immediate danger, but when faced with the very real consequences of turning away from evil in the eyes of her tortured friend, Buffy knows what she must do. No matter how much Joss protests the "sky bully" (his words, not mine), he's still following a basically Judeo-Christian script without even realizing it! It gets even weirder when Buffy dies for real in the 5th season and is pulled out of HEAVEN somehow by Willow (if you're an atheist, Joss...why is there a heaven?)...but we'll save that chuckle for a later post. :)
Highlights:
XANDER: It's pretty obvious how I feel about you - I mean, you know how much you mean to me. And we're close friends. I think it's time to take things to the next step. I guess what I'm asking is...would you...date me? (beat) Oh that's great...date me! How lame am I?! It's lame, right?
WILLOW: (poor Willow wants to date Xander. :( ) Huh? Oh...no...I mean yes...date me...that's pretty bad.
XANDER: See what I should do is start out by talking about the dance. Buffy, you know the spring fling isn't just any dance. It's a time for people to...choose a mate. And then we can catalog them, and study their mating rituals. And tag them for future research! Just...shoot me!! (LOL! I feel your pain, Xander...believe me)
MASTER: Yes! YEESSS!!! Shakers!! This is a sign! We are in the final days! Glory! GLOOORYY!!! (deadpan) What do you think? 5.1? (LOL...the melodrama is quite off-putting, but that was a humorous side moment)
BUFFY: Fine...that's OK. I can't put it off any longer. I have to meet my terrible fate.
GILES: What??
BUFFY: Biology. (LOL)
XANDER: Oh god...here goes...look Buffy...I want you to go to the dance with me...you an me...on a date.
BUFFY: I don't know what to say.
XANDER: Well you're not laughing, so that's a good start. (beat)
BUFFY: Xander, you're one of my best friends!
XANDER: Look, I know we're good friends. We've spent a lot of time together, fought some evil blood sucking fiends, and it's all been great. But I want more. I want to dance with you.
BUFFY: I don't want to spoil the friendship we have...
XANDER: I don't want to spoil it either...but that's not the point, is it. Either you feel a thing, or you don't.
BUFFY: I don't. I'm sorry, Xander...I just...don't think of you that way.
XANDER: (sounding close to tears) Try...I can wait.
BUFFY: Xander...
XANDER: No, I know...just forget it. I'm not the guy. I guess a guy's gotta be undead to make time with you.
BUFFY: That was really harsh...
XANDER: I'm sorry...I just...don't handle rejection well. (faking a pained smile) Funny, huh...given all the practice I've gotten at it. (ouch...just ouch)
BUFFY: Xander, I'm sorry...
XANDER: You know what...let's just not. (*sniffle sniffle* My poor Xander!!)
WILLOW: Hey...how'd it go?
XANDER: On a scale from 1 to 10...it SUCKED. (LOL)
(and later)
XANDER: That's OK...I don't want to go...I'm just gonna go home...lie down...and listen to country music. The music of pain. (LOL)
BUFFY: Were you even going to tell me?
GILES: I was hoping I wouldn't have to...that there would be some way around it.
BUFFY: Here's a way around it...I quit.
ANGEL: Buffy, it's not that simple.
BUFFY: I'm making it that simple! I quit. I'm fired. You can find someone else to stop the Master from taking over!
GILES: Buffy, I wish there were another way, but the signs are all very clear.
BUFFY: Signs? (hurling books as she rants) READ ME THE SIGNS! TELL ME MY FORTUNE!! YOU'RE SO USEFUL there with all your BOOKS! You're a lot of help!
GILES: No, I don't suppose I have been. (yikes)
JOYCE: My senior year of high school, I didn't have a date to the prom either. What did I do? I got dressed up and I went anyway.
BUFFY: Was it awful?
JOYCE: It was awful. For about an hour.
BUFFY: Then what happened?
JOYCE: I met your father.
BUFFY: He didn't have a date either?
JOYCE: He did. And that is a very funny story that you will not get to hear. (LOL) The point is...that was a beautiful night.
BUFFY: You had your whole lives in front of you.
JOYCE: Yes, we did.
BUFFY: Must be nice...(poor Buffy)
XANDER: I'm sorry, what?? How could you just let her go?
GILES: As the soon the be purple area of my jaw will attest, I did not just let her go! (LOL)
No matter how much Joss protests the "sky bully" (his words, not mine), he's still following a basically Judeo-Christian script without even realizing it!
ReplyDeleteThat's a pretty common phenomenon. Look at B5. :)
Indeed. Most, if not all, of our beloved sci fi and fantasy TV series have been strongly rooted in classic American ideals. I consider that their greatest strength, not an anchor dragging back progress as some might.
ReplyDeleteI've recently been realizing that what makes me love a series is not just huge stakes and sweeping, imaginative stories...Battlestar Galactica had that in spades, and was brilliantly produced, well written, etc...but I still find myself greatly unmotivated to go back to it and start the review process, because, to be frank, I think it's lacking in core values. No...it's not the big stakes...it's the reaction of the characters to those big stakes...it's seeing people thrust into seemingly impossible situations and doing the RIGHT thing because they hold to principles that matter enough and because they love their fellow men enough to make great sacrifices for the greater good.
Stories with large stakes are a fertile ground (especially in sci fi) to test the imagination with new and interesting backdrops while celebrating the spark of grace in humanity...the good in this world that's worth fighting for. If you do the first and fail at the second, it's hollow to me.