This Epic Buffy the Vampire Slayer Finale Was Foreshadowed Earlier Than Fans Realize
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is an iconic series from the nineties created by Joss Whedon. The show chronicles the journey of Buffy Summers – the sixteen-year-old vampire slayer – as she struggles to find a balance between fighting the forces of darkness and being a teenage girl. The cult classic ran for seven seasons, following Buffy and her friends from high school through college into adulthood.
In the explosive season three finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy and the rest of the graduating class fight an epic battle against the mayor of Sunnydale and his vampire army. Mayor Wilkins transforms into a giant snake demon, and the only way Buffy and the Scooby gang can defeat him is by blowing him – and the school – up. Fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer may not have realized that this epic finale was foreshadowed in the first episode, “Welcome to the Hellmouth.”
Buffy Arrives at Sunnydale After Being Expelled From Her Last School
In the first episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy Summers transferred to Sunnydale High after being kicked out of her last school. In the two-part premiere, “Welcome to the Hellmouth” and “The Harvest,” Buffy arrives right in time for The Harvest – a once-in-a-century opportunity for the master of the vampires to escape from the Hellmouth in which he is trapped. Buffy wants nothing to do with fighting demons and is looking for a fresh start in Sunnydale, but when one of her new friends gets kidnapped by vampires, she can no longer resist her calling as the vampire slayer.
In addition to trying to make friends and save the world, Buffy has to make a good impression at Sunnydale High. When Buffy meets with Principal Flutie on her first day, he looks at her school records and sees she burned down the gym at her former school. She tries to defend herself by saying that the building was full of vampires but quickly pivots – unable to tell him the truth – and she says there was asbestos in the gym. The scene shows how Buffy struggles to have a life outside of slaying, partly because she cannot tell the truth and comes off like a delinquent student.
Later, in a season two episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, titled “School Hard,” the new principal, Snyder has it out for Buffy. He assigns her and another troublesome student named Sheila to put together Parent-Teacher Night at Sunnydale. While setting up, Sheila asks Buffy if she really burned down a school building one time. Buffy answers, saying, “Well, not actually one time…” implying that she has destroyed more than one building. This exchange, couple with the reveal from the first episode that Buffy burned down the gym, foreshadows that burning down a building is a method she’s used multiple times to deal with an overwhelming force of vampires and demons – and that she’s likely to do it again if necessary.
In “Graduation Day,” Buffy Destroys Sunnydale High School
“Graduation Day” is the two-part finale of season three of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Mayor Wilkins is well on his way to becoming the nearly invincible Olvikan demon. To distract Buffy and the gang, Faith poisons Angel in the first half of the heart-pounding finale. In part two of “Graduation Day,” Buffy tries to capture faith to heal Angel. Mayor Wilkins consumes his demon spiders from the Gavrok Box in preparation for his ascension. The next stage of the final battle is the courtyard of the high school. During graduation, the mayor ascends, transforming into Olvikan – a 60-foot -tall snake.
Buffy and the Scooby Gang learned that the last time someone ascended into one of these demons, the only thing that could stop it was a devastating earthquake. To defeat Mayor Wilkins in his new snake-like form, Buffy lures him through the halls of Sunnydale High School and into the library. Once he is in position and Buffy is clear, Giles detonates a pile of explosives, blowing up the mayor and the high school. The explosive ending was an escalation of Buffy burning down a gym full of vampires, foreshadowed in the premiere of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
This monumental episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer left Sunnydale High School in ruins. The destruction of the school punctuates the end of Buffy’s high school era, leaving Sunnydale High behind as she’s growing up. The school appears again in the season four episode, “Doomed,” when a group of vampires are trying to open the Hellmouth underneath the library. Sunnydale High is still in ruins in season four, but it does get rebuilt in the later seasons when Dawn attends.
Parts 1 and 2 of “Graduation Day Aired Months Apart in the US
Part one of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer season three finale aired May 18, 1999 – just one month after the tragic school shooting at Columbine High School that shook the country. The airing of “Graduation Day, Part 2” was delayed due to Buffy blowing up the school in the second half of the episode. While the episode itself has nothing to do with school violence, broadcasters felt it was inappropriate to air the episode so close to the national tragedy at Columbine on April 20, 1999. In addition to the network postponing the release of the episode, it underwent some editing before it aired. They limited how much destruction of the school they kept in and cut on of Xander’s lines, “Guys, we blew up the school! It’s the best day ever!”
Twenty years later, Seth Green reflected on the fallout from the episode and the fact that the Columbine massacre was blamed on entertainment influencing violence in kids when he and Alyson Hannigan spoke with Yahoo Entertainment. He commented on the issue saying, “There’s a real mental health problem that kind of supersedes the influence of entertainment. And if w’re more attentive to talking to each other, versus trying to police music and video games, I think we’re in a better place. Let’s talk about the root of mental illness, or how to deal with kids who feel lonely or bullied. You know, no one is really talking about gun control.”
Another Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode was also postponed in light of the school shooting. In “Earshot,” Buffy gains the ability to listen to people’s thoughts and hears someone threatening to kill the students of Sunnydale High School. Buffy spends the episode trying to figure out who the potential killer is. She finds Jonathan with a rifle in the clock tower, believing him to be a school shooter until he tells her he wasn’t planning on killing anyone else; he’d been a victim of bullying and went there to take his own life. The culprit turns out to be a lunch lady planning on poisoning the food in the cafeteria. While the episode’s plot was controversial, Buffy the Vampire Slayer handled bullying thoughtfully.
In the series finale, the Town of Sunnydale is Destroyed
In the final season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the show takes the destructive cost of saving the world a step further, ending with the total collapse of the town. In “Chosen,” the finale of season seven, Buffy must defeat the First once and for all while battling an Uber-vamp army. To take them on, Willow casts a spell to activate the latent power within all the Potentials around the world, giving Buffy an army of slayers. Together, they fight an incredible battle that ends with Spike using an amulet to channel the power of sunlight and dust all the vampires, destroying the Hellmouth.
The emotionally charged series finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer closed the book on Sunnydale for good. Buffy and the Scooby gang were pushed further than ever before. Willow was tasked with performing the most powerful spell she ever attempted to activate the potential slayers and break the ancient tradition of only one slayer per generation. Buffy defeated the First Evil, a personification of evil itself. The First was initially introduced in season three when it appears to Angel in the form of Jenny Calendar as it tries to convince Angel to kill himself in the episode, “Amends.”
“Chosen” also saw the gang suffer heartbreaking losses, like Anya and Spike. Spike sacrificed himself to close the Hellmouth for good – taking the town with it – and died a her. Anya was brutally killed in the heat of battle. In an interview with TV Guide Online, Joss Whedon said he wanted a character to die in the middle of the battle, and he chose Anya because Emma Caulfied had indicated that she had no desire to reprise her role as Anya going forward.
Original article at CBR
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