Chosen (Joss Whedon)
“Chosen” is not the best season finale (seasons 2, 3 and 5 have better ones) but it is an adequate way to end the entire series. I have major issues with the empowerment spell and with the huge role that Spike plays in the conclusion and that taints it for me.
Joss Whedon has this to say about Buffy’s cookie dough speech: “She comes to this conclusion a little bit out of the blue, and that’s my fault, but we knew that emotionally, that’s where we wanted her to get.”
And this about the Scythe: “Some people have complained that the magic that this Scythe – originally from the Fray comic that I was writing at the same time – is a little too convenient. And my answer to those critics is, “Well, don’t tell everybody!” It is convenient, and that doesn’t really bother me, because ultimately, to me, the magic, the phlebotnum is always secondary to what needs to be said. And what needed to be said had to do with empowerment.”
And this about the Ubervamps: “Some people complained, again, that the vampires were too easy to kill. That they were supposed to be stronger than other vampires. And the fact of the matter is… it’s true. Like the convenience of the magic, it’s true. Because, again, I was more interested in showing the empowerment than I was in the continuity.”
These three quotes from Joss Whedon’s commentary to ‘Chosen” (transcript by stormwreath) make it clear that he doesn’t care if a story is a little strained if the story being told has heart. However, what happens if the heart is in the wrong place?
This is what he says about Anya: “That was because I needed a toll, I needed this battle really to feel like a battle – and I couldn’t kill any of my Core Four and still call it a happy ending. I couldn’t kill Dawn and still call it a happy ending either. So Anya got the nod. And to make it as unheroic as possible just felt very real and very creepy – and that shot was in fact her last shot.” (I like that Anya was steeled by the thought of bunnies but, otherwise, just another woman to add to the pile.)
And here’s what he says about Spike: “Another beautiful image. Our boy, going down for the last time. Even though everybody already knew he was going to be on Angel…”
Well, I didn’t! I thought he was bloody dead. And answer this question: who gets to die in a literal blaze of glory and whose body is left buried under Sunnydale? Many people die in Buffy and, in a series with a disproportionate amount of female characters (compared with any other TV series that is), many of them are women. What I resent is the number of women who die compared with the number of men who leave rather than get killed off. And this Spike thing is even more galling. He dies (completely incinerated) and yet there he is in bloody Angel. Joss is famous for his character deaths which are tremendously resonant and powerfully effective which some people justify by pointing out that death happens and is even more likely to be early and violent in the Buffyverse (this is undeniable) but when the deceased return from the dead then where is the power in that?
I have problems with the empowerment of thousands of young potentials; not with the ones that Buffy explicitly asks if they want to do this thing (“So here’s the part where you make a choice…”) but with the ones who have it thrust upon them. It is done without their consent. How is Buffy different from the Shadow Men who did the same to the first Slayer? When she met them in “Get It Done” she is miffed with what they did to the First Slayer “You violated that girl, made her kill for you because you’re weak, you’re pathetic, and you obviously have nothing to show me.”
A few other remarks:
If you are going to use lines like “he had to split”, it really helps when the character then laughs at its cheesiness.
Dawn kicking Buffy in the shin is acceptable violence.
Spike’s drawing of Angel on the punchbag is amusing.
I liked Robin and Faith together. Faith’s horror at, perhaps, not being that great at sex was most amusing (“Dude, I got mad skills.”). However, I don’t like Robin’s “death”. Back to Joss: “Dying – having a character die then suddenly bringing them back is something you can only earn after you’ve actually killed a couple of people. So this was a nice opportunity to say, “This isn’t over yet.” Have the call-back and – but I wouldn’t have been able to do it if I hadn’t legitimately offed a few beloved characters.” I really detest that fake-out storytelling: it feels like cheating to me and is also a tad repetitive since it had already been done to Cordelia and Kaylee.
Giles and the others playing Dungeons and Dragons was also amusing particularly since he summed up his S7 persona: “I used to be a highly respected watcher, and now I’m a wounded dwarf with the mystical strength of a doily.”
After reading Joss’s words, I should know better than to complain but Buffy’s plan could really have done with better timing like waiting for Willow’s spell to, um, work.
I love the lull before the final fight as other characters disappear to get on with their tasks leaving the original four in the high school corridor and a shot of Buffy on her own: Giles’s remark the “earth is definitely doomed” is a perfect reminder of “The Harvest”.
What happens to Kennedy? I’m pretty sure we never see her after the escape from the Hellmouth. It seems a bit odd not to have a proper shot of her on the bus.
The Welcome to Sunnydale sigh falling into the crater is an important touch.
Buffy’s last words are “I love you” and “Spike” which surely somebody has analysed the significance of.
In the final, final scene, I like that Buffy doesn’t say anything while everyone yammers but just smiles, sadly.
Personally, I found this episode tremendously unsatisfying as an episode, a season finale, a series finale, or by any other measure I could think of. For me, it failed on all fronts.
The “Spike’s death” fake-out had no resonance for me because by the time the episode aired, WB was already promoting Spike joining the cast of Angel. So it was just a summer death, and everyone who’d been paying attention to WB promos already knew it. In any case, the death lacked dramatic impact because it was so random: “Here, Spike, wear this amulet that might do something sometime and, oh, look, a completely unexpected deus ex machina that turns you into living sunlight at just the right moment to bail us out after my tactically idiotic plan very predictably fails, and then it inexplicably craters Sunnydale. Whaddaya know?” I had similar problems with the Slayer empowerment deus ex machina, and the Angel delivering a random magic device from another show (which itself was handed to him by Wolfram and Hart), and the Scythe just being dropped in their laps … I can’t even tell if Buffy won any kind of victory here, and if she did, she certainly didn’t earn it.
Your point about empowering all the Slayers in the world without so much as a “by your leave” was spot-on. Sure, Buffy said “here’s the part where you make a choice,” and those who weren’t there didn’t get to choose … but really, neither did those who WERE there. They could chose to join Operation Mass Suicide In The Hellmouth or get out of town, but getting Slayer-charged was an all-or-nothing deal. Dissenters couldn’t bow out from being turned into superpowered demon magnets.
Joss couldn’t have a happy ending while killing a major character. Anya’s death eliminated any chance of a “happy ending” for Anya fans. Plus, the way it was done was completely disrespectful to the characters and (IMO) the viewers — Anya got the crappiest death scene of any major Joss character, ever, and besides, it was a death that didn’t make sense. Why were Anya and Andrew even IN that fight? “Anya, we’re expecting some ubervamps to get through because we didn’t station anyone at the entrance to the Hellmouth. You and Andrew don’t know how to fight, so both of you just stand here with swords so they can kill you when we let them out.”
Plotting has never been Joss’s strong suit, but here his utter disregard for even basic story logic left me feeling empty, totally disappointed, glad that this series was finally over, and wishing it had ended a couple seasons earlier.
Darkpoole, I meant to respond to your comment before just to say it was awesome
Emma Caulfield requested to be killed off.
Buffy Season 8 addresses the issues arising from Buffy’s ‘empowerment spell’.
It is true she wanted to be killed off but here are the words of Emma herself when asked if she was “mad when her character was killed”:
I thought she’d get a little more love too.
It’s better than the rest of season 7, but it still has absolutely nothing on “The Gift” as a series finale.
I keep trying to write down my interpretation of the use of the word “choice” but it doesn’t seem to work as well as I’d like. I’ll have one last shot.
To me the choice isn’t about being super-powered or not, it’s about being in control of yourself. You potentials (and every other woman/girl?) no longer rely on anyone else to define your destiny – the choice is “be who you want when you want”. I know that doesn’t quite marry up with the montage during the empowerment but it makes more sense to me that way. I have problems a-plenty with the finish of S7 but I’m not so bothered by “the choice.”
I loved that the potentials got powered up, choice or no. They still have the choice of using that power or not. As someone who falls on the “nurture” side of the nature vs nurture, I think of the powering up as the nature and the choice to use it at the nurture.
It is addressed in Season 8 where we see rogue slayers as well as the slayers who fight the good fight with Buffy.
I still get verklempt just talking about the scene where the girls get powered up. I work on the issue of refugee and immigrant women’s rights and building on their inner strengths, so that scene of potentials tapping into their inner power really speaks to me.
Hi Red, that is exactly what my husband said – they now have the choice to use it. However, my problem is that I don’t see it as a choice because who wouldn’t use that sort of power?
I know that watching it makes my heart lift but at the same time it bothers me.
I’m all for tapping your inner power and I admire the work that you do.
Thanks, Hazel. I think that was building up for a while.
I think the choice is, as Andy said, being in control of yourself. The women all had the potential to be slayers, but hundreds of years ago a group of men decided to withhold that power from all but one woman at a time. And that one woman had to be the Slayer. More men – and sometimes women, I guess, since we did see female wathers – made sure that she used that power in a very specific way. And the events concerning Faith in season three suggest that they would use extreme measures against women who didn’t conform to their expectations of the Slayer.
So Buffy empowers all of the potentials, giving them back the power they were born with. Now they have the choice to do whatever they want with that power. They can become Slayers or they don’t have to. You ask who wouldn’t use that sort of power and maybe very few wouldn’t. But I must say that living a life constantly at battle with creatures who want to kill me doesn’t sound like a life I would particularly care for. I’d rather use my Slayer strength for opening tightly sealed jars or maybe building a house.
I think Whedon is trying to suggest that these women now have access to the power they were born with, and they may use that power however they choose, whether it’s slaying vampires, playing softball, or standing up for themselves.
Now having said all that, I really don’t like this episode as a series finale. Buffy had a half-assed plan and Spike had to save them all? BULL.SHIT.
The other night I watched Sayid, Jin, and Sun die on “Lost” and even though I never miss an eppie of “Lost”, I didn’t really have much of a reaction to 3 main characters meeting their maker within the space of 5 minutes. So how is it that a show as ridiculously unrealistic as BtVS so often finds a way to bring a tear to my eye?
I put off viewing Buffy’s series finale for a few days because series finales are a bitch. They’re like an execution, only instead of gassing a serial killer, it’s cherished TV buddies that get put down for all eternity. No more dusting vamps, or diving off of towers, no more resurrection spells or waiting for an invitation before crossing a threshold.
My journey with Buffy is over, but it was a sweet ride while it lasted. I have to say that I preferred S7 over S6, but I think S5 will remain my favourite because of the sheer awesomeness of “The Gift”.
I didn’t realize that The Trio were going to be such a presence in S7. I couldn’t stand them in S6, but I must say that I came to be a fan of Andrew in S7. The best thing that ever happened to him was being apprehended by Willow and brought to live in the Summers house. Andrew was essentially a good kid who got mixed up with the wrong crowd and he redeemed himself nicely as the series drew to a close. I also credit Andrew with the funniest moment of S7 (for me) when Anya was lecturing the Potential in the basement and yammering about having breakup sex with Xander. Andrew, taking useless notes and illustrating on the fly as Anya speaks, quickly scribbles ‘breakup sex’ on the drawing board beside her. The absurdity of that moment in front of the Potentials, and in the face of such imminent danger, had me laughing out loud. And, much to Andrew’s credit, he picked up a weapon and fought the evil uber vamps (without any benefit from Willow’s spell) in the final battle. I’m extremely grateful to the writers that they left Warren and Jonathan out of the last few episodes.
I wasn’t always a fan of Anya, and I didn’t care anything about her and Xander’s marriage plans, but I admired her a lot for sticking around to fight at the end. She died a horrible and lonely human death, but she took one for the team, and I hope they found time to remember her sacrifice before heading off to the mall. Odd that the one who seemed most moved by her death was Andrew. Xander kind of shrugged it off quickly and no one else even asked about her. Maybe she should have got out of town when she could if that’s all the thanks she got.
How did Giles end up losing his mojo? He used to be a role model and a mentor for the Scoobies, but somehow he lost his way. I think it goes back to “The Gift”, when he suggested killing Dawn. He was never the same after that and in S7 he was as much a hindrance to Buffy as a help. Plotting to kill Spike and being part of the mutiny that kicked Buffy out of her own house. C’mon, Giles, this is Buffy, the vampire slayer, YOUR slayer, and your getting in her way like this?
And, on the subject of killing Dawn, suddenly Buffy decides Dawn is expendable if it means saving the world???? There is no way in hell that Buffy would allow that to happen. Dawn, IMO, was ‘the gift’ from S5. Buffy would die again rather than see any harm come to Dawn.
I wasn’t a hater of The Potentials, but I have to say I didn’t like Kennedy zeroing in on Willow. Willow moved on from Tara way too soon for my liking. I wouldn’t have shed a tear had Kennedy succumbed to an Uber Vamp in the end.
Dawn and Spike. Whatever happened to those two? Ever since that motorbike ride at the beginning of S6, they barely exchanged 2 words for the remaining 2 seasons. I liked them together in S5. I thought Spike was at his most likable when he was given the responsibility of looking out for the Niblet. Gotta say I love that Andrew ‘dawned’ Dawn’s football helmet for his ride with Spike. Nice touch.
It wasn’t that long ago that Spike recounted for Buffy the story of how he killed the 2 slayers, and yet when Principal Wood tells Buffy that his slayer mom was killed by a vamp, it doesn’t occur to Buffy that he’s talking about Spike? I found that very strange.
What was this rubbish about Xander being ‘the seer’? The writers set it up with that ‘you’re extraordinary’ speech he gave to Dawnie and then Caleb mentioned it before poking out X’s eye. Xander was just a schmuck who meant well, he wasn’t any seer.
One of the Potentials must have been a hairdresser, because everyone’s hair changed from minute to minute. Spike was all slicked back one minute, and then all home-permed the next. Dawn’s hair is perfectly straight in the house and then she jumps in the car a minute later sporting the whole crimped look. Spike said “it’s always about the blood”, but I think it was always about the hair.
I’m glad I spent 144 episodes with Buffy. It’s sad to have to let go, but I still have one more season of “Angel” before I leave the Buffyverse once and for all. BtVS was a great series, full of ridiculous, impossible situations, but Whedon and company managed, at one time or another, to manipulate every kind of emotion out of me and that’s what I watch these shows for. I want to laugh and cry and everything in between and I certainly did that with Buffy and her friends. Well done to all concerned.
BTW, I watched the Paleyfest Buffy Reunion, and while the Q and A itself was kind of a snooze, I really appreciated the photos that came out that session simply because it brought together actors that played such an important role in the series and yet never met on screen. So we have pics of Cordelia with Dawn and Tara and I think that’s really pretty neat (or nifty as Willow might say). Not only that, but that event brought Cordy and Tara and Anya back to life, which also lent to the warm and fuzzy vibe. Pity that a few key players were not at that reunion.