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amberfocusDay 06 Favorite Episode of Your Favorite TV Show
Well, since I don't have an actual favorite episode of my favorite TV show X-Files, I'll have to go with my favorite episode on my second favorite tv show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and hands down, that is The Gift, the finale of season five. It was orchestrated in such a way that it could have been the series finale and it would have been an excellent one if it hadn't been picked up by a different network.
This episode made me laugh and cry and be put on edge only to have that tension broken and then get put back on edge again over and over again. It started out simply enough with a perfectly normal vamp slaying only to segue into apocolypse planning. Anya and Xander shown brightly in a heartbreaking episode as the comic relief. From her cheerleading to try to find ideas for slaying the god Glorificus to their inappropriately timed sex in the basement where they find the Buffybot, to his sweet marriage proposal that she answered with a slap, to Anya taking down Glory's minions with a baseball bat and Xander using a wrecking ball to take her down and picking up a spare.
Then there was Willow's heartbreak over the loopy Tara whose mind had been devastated in an earlier episode and Willow's discovery of a way to take it back and weaken Glory at the same time. We also see the first really strong uses of Willow's power, a foreshadowing of things to come. The use of Tara to find Glory was sad but totally understandable at the same time and the fact that it worked and that Tara got her mind back and Willow got the love of her life back was wonderful.
Giles killing Ben. Wow. I'm still shocked that the show actually went there but of course Giles would do this in these circumstances. A man left with no other choice to save the world, but more importantly, no better way to protect his beloved Slayer and her little sister. I think he's the only one who could have.
Spike being let over the threshhold and back into Buffy's home again to collect the weapons that were needed for the battle. The friendship finally flowing between them as something real on both sides. And his speech:
"I know you never loved me. I know that I'm a monster but you treat me like a man." Whose heart didn't break a little bit seeing just how much he loved her in that moment? And the look of devastation on his face at the end when he saw Buffy's broken body tore my heart to shreds.
Dawn, for the first time in her life, being self-sacrificing and willing to end her own life in order to stop the hell dimension from opening.
Buffy. Oh, Buffy, as she put it all together there at the end. She'd been told way back at the end of season four that death was her gift and she had thought that meant simply being a slayer. But no. Death, sacrificing her life for Dawn there at the end to close the hell dimension and save her sister's life, that was her gift. The only gift she could give at that point, her death to save it all. And she did. The flash of love and understanding in her eyes as she accepted what she had to do and the sudden look of peace that all of it would finally be over, that she could rest at last that came over her face was astounding.
It was a beautiful ending, because it was all about love in the end. After all, "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."
Well, since I don't have an actual favorite episode of my favorite TV show X-Files, I'll have to go with my favorite episode on my second favorite tv show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and hands down, that is The Gift, the finale of season five. It was orchestrated in such a way that it could have been the series finale and it would have been an excellent one if it hadn't been picked up by a different network.
This episode made me laugh and cry and be put on edge only to have that tension broken and then get put back on edge again over and over again. It started out simply enough with a perfectly normal vamp slaying only to segue into apocolypse planning. Anya and Xander shown brightly in a heartbreaking episode as the comic relief. From her cheerleading to try to find ideas for slaying the god Glorificus to their inappropriately timed sex in the basement where they find the Buffybot, to his sweet marriage proposal that she answered with a slap, to Anya taking down Glory's minions with a baseball bat and Xander using a wrecking ball to take her down and picking up a spare.
Then there was Willow's heartbreak over the loopy Tara whose mind had been devastated in an earlier episode and Willow's discovery of a way to take it back and weaken Glory at the same time. We also see the first really strong uses of Willow's power, a foreshadowing of things to come. The use of Tara to find Glory was sad but totally understandable at the same time and the fact that it worked and that Tara got her mind back and Willow got the love of her life back was wonderful.
Giles killing Ben. Wow. I'm still shocked that the show actually went there but of course Giles would do this in these circumstances. A man left with no other choice to save the world, but more importantly, no better way to protect his beloved Slayer and her little sister. I think he's the only one who could have.
Spike being let over the threshhold and back into Buffy's home again to collect the weapons that were needed for the battle. The friendship finally flowing between them as something real on both sides. And his speech:
"I know you never loved me. I know that I'm a monster but you treat me like a man." Whose heart didn't break a little bit seeing just how much he loved her in that moment? And the look of devastation on his face at the end when he saw Buffy's broken body tore my heart to shreds.
Dawn, for the first time in her life, being self-sacrificing and willing to end her own life in order to stop the hell dimension from opening.
Buffy. Oh, Buffy, as she put it all together there at the end. She'd been told way back at the end of season four that death was her gift and she had thought that meant simply being a slayer. But no. Death, sacrificing her life for Dawn there at the end to close the hell dimension and save her sister's life, that was her gift. The only gift she could give at that point, her death to save it all. And she did. The flash of love and understanding in her eyes as she accepted what she had to do and the sudden look of peace that all of it would finally be over, that she could rest at last that came over her face was astounding.
It was a beautiful ending, because it was all about love in the end. After all, "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."
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Date: 2010-06-06 12:25 pm (UTC)Long story short, excellent choice m'dear
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Date: 2010-06-06 01:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-06 02:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-06 03:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-07 03:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-08 06:27 pm (UTC)ETA for a few things:
Giles killing Ben didn't really surprise me. I kind of had a feeling from the moment of the inital conversation about killing Ben to kill Glory came up that this was probably going to be what Giles would have to do. Especially since Joss had already established that Giles was indeed capable of being tremendously ruthlessness in order to protect those he cared about. Despite the lack of surprise, that moment does still get to me.
I can barely watch the proposal scene knowing how badly Joss pulled the rug out from under all Xander/Anya shippers a year later.
Spike's speech is probably when I made room in my heart for shipping Spike/Buffy(well until the end of S6, but that's a whole 'nother rant for another time and a big roll of newspaper to hit Joss with). That scene was just so well done without seeming out of character for a still somewhat soulless Spike (can a vampire develop a soul? S5 made me wonder).
Again this episode and it's ending always hits my emotional buttons and still ranks as one of my favorite finalie episodes..