And so we come to Buffy's final season on The WB network. To some fans of the show, this was the last season worth watching. Personally, while I thought that this season was definitely one of the best (3, 5, and 2 are so hard to rank), the final two seasons are great as well. This year featured the most powerful Big Bad to date, a Goddess from a Hell Dimension, as well as the introduction of someone that threw the fan community for a loop: Dawn Summers, Buffy's sister.
Unfortunately, since I didn't start watching the show until after the final episode aired, I had been told the story behind Dawn in advance (the person responsible for getting me into Buffy gave away nearly every major plot twist in the show). The season premiere did not have Michelle Trachtenberg in the opening credits, and her very first appearance at the end of the episode threw viewers for a loop. Whedon intended for the audience to be confused by her appearance; throughout the episode (not to mention the series), Buffy has always been an only child. So who is this girl that everyone refers to as if she'd been around since the pilot episode?
Well, like the guy who got me to like Buffy, I'm going to delve into Dawn's origins. However, you have a choice to read this; if you have not yet seen the show, I don't know what you're waiting for. Go and see it, and then catch up with these posts, since the Whedon series is meant as a kind of fond reminiscence.
Anyway, Dawn and Glory, this season's Big Bad, are tied together. Glory (short for Glorificus) is a banished Hell Goddess; after she started becoming more powerful than her fellow ruling deities, they banished her to our realm, due to fears of a takeover. They forced her into the body of a newborn child, believing that her essence would be suppressed by their magic. However, as the years went by, Glory continued to gain strength, and was able exert her true form, which allowed her to have all of her godly powers (including invulnerability and strength beyond even that of Adam). However, our reality has a detrimental effect on her; she cannot maintain her sanity, and must "suck" the sanity out of innocent people to withhold her own. Her mission is to make it home, but she needs a "key" to open the portal back to her own dimension.
Glory also represents an extravagant lifestyle. She lives in a beautiful penthouse, and to the unknowing observer, comes off as a spoiled princess. She sends her minions out to buy/steal her dresses, shoes, and people to harvest sanity from.
Whatever Glory wants, Glory gets. The idea behind this is that she is a goddess with worshippers; they do what she tells them because they see her as divinity. I think that many of the spoiled people that are currently the subject of our tabloid news get what they want because the people giving it to them elevate them above normal people due to their wealth and looks (though the person that most likely comes to mind when we talk about this is kind of strange-looking in my opinion).So what does Dawn have to do with this? As it turns out, Dawn is the key that Glory needs to go home. Before Dawn was a corporeal girl, she was a well of energy that could tear down the gateways between dimensions. The Key was the charge of a group of monks who transformed her into Dawn and put her under the protection of the Slayer when Glory got too close to finding their order. The monks created memories not only for Dawn, but also created an alternate timeline in the minds of Buffy and everyone she knew that incorporated Dawn into their lives. Whedon gave Buffy a sister this year so that she could have a relationship with someone who wasn't a boyfriend. With Dawn, Buffy had her share of arguments and fights, but at the same time, they loved each other the way sisters do, which allowed Dawn a safe haven, since Buffy would do everything she could to protect her.
Speaking of boyfriends, things continue to go downhill with Buffy on that front. Her relationship with Riley is quickly degenerating, and she actually needs Xander to point it out (I will come back to Xander later; his life begins to change dramatically this year). Since Riley is no longer with the Initiative, he is now a normal human. Without the drugs that made him a superstrong demon hunter, Buffy begins to subconsciously view him as boring and someone she needs to protect. Before he leaves about halfway through the season, he began going to see vampires and allowed himself to get bitten in order to feel something.
In other words, Riley went emo. Spike, meanwhile, moves into a new character territory, when a sex dream about Buffy makes him realize that he is beginning to fall in love with her. Spike has always been a bit off as a vampire; he is one of the few vampires we've seen to feel genuine affection (Angelus never truly loved Darla, nor did she love him, and as Angel, he did love, but he had a soul). The presence of the behavior chip in his brain has forced him to fight alongside his former nemesis throughout Seasons 4 and 5, and he likely gained a certain respect for the Slayer. Eventually, in his own twisted way, he came to love her. This development obviously freaks out Buffy and her friends, but every now and then, they do tend to ask him along on fights.Spike begins to become as important a character as Angel this year, which is evident through the use of flashbacks detailing his past. Suddenly, the name "William the Bloody" takes on a new meaning, and we learn the origin of his leather duster. Drusilla also makes her first appearance on Buffy since Season 2, and while Drusilla is always a treat to watch, especially with Spike, her parallel storyline on Angel was much more incredible. However, in Sunnydale, we see how committed Spike is to his love for Buffy when is willing to kill Dru to prove his love.
Xander, meanwhile, begins to turn his life around this season. After finally holding down a steady job in construction, Xander learned a lesson this year about confidence. When a demon's spell misfired and hit Xander instead of Buffy, two sides of his personality were manifested into two bodies. One was cool and confident, a side rarely seen but always appreciated, while the other was the goofy but self-deprecating Xander that can sometimes be an annoyance to his friends. The success of the confident Xander showed him that he needs to stop looking down on himself and trusting his abilities. By the end of the season, he has moved into his own (really nice) apartment, is moving up in the construction world, and even proposes to Anya.
As I alluded to earlier, Xander was the only person besides Riley who saw the implosion of the relationship coming, and this is evidence of his own "superpower". By this point in the series, nearly every major character has or has used some kind of special ability. Buffy is the Slayer, Willow and Tara are extremely powerful witches, Angel and Spike are vampires, Riley had drug-induced strength, and Anya was a demon at one point. But Xander is, and always will be, "only human". And this is exactly what makes him special. The spotlight is never on him, so he can stand back and observe what is going on with his friends. Though he may not figure it out for another season or two, his observations will be able to help his friends through tough times, and at one point, will even save the world from destruction...
One complaint sometimes made about the fourth season is that there was no "central location" for the action to occur. Giles' house served as the de facto meeting place, but for some reason,
people never really accepted it as such. This year, Giles and Anya go into business together when they buy The Magic Box, a local magic shop that has gone through numerous owners over the course of the show's run (not because business is bad, but because there is a high mortality rate). Like the library in the first three seasons, the Magic Box serves as Slayer Headquarters for the next two years.A brief note: in addition to Dawn, a character named Warren is introduced this year. He appeared in two episodes, and was shown to be a mechanical genius. However, he lacked common decency. Although he didn't really seem evil or important, all that will change next year...
The season ends with the 100th episode, and is one of the most loved episode of the show. Titled "The Gift", which is a reference to a cryptic line from an earlier episode (which introduced the hilarious Buffybot), it deals with how deep Buffy's love can be, and how far she will go to protect her loved ones and the world. It ends in a way that would most likely make for a series finale. This would be the last episode to air on The WB, and I'm fairly certain that the show's fate was up in the air. If this had been the end, "The Gift" would have made a satisfying ending. But Joss Whedon had at least two more grand stories to tell, and lobbied to get the show picked up on another network. Fortunately, UPN took the show for the upcoming season. Now, viewers had to spend a few months wondering, how would Buffy come back if Buffy was dead?!
Up next: The nature of good in Los Angeles...
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