Buffy: The Gift (5.22)

When we're young, every decision is made pretty easy because you're not the boss of things. As much as we try and project growth and confidence, you're still a kid, and things like housing and food and clothes are treated as pretty inconsequential, because your parents will somehow take care of all of that. Your main priorities are high school politics, friendship, dating, trying to fit in. I bring all of this up as season five has been one long journey into adulthood for Buffy Summers. In September, she suddenly became the older sister who has to be responsible for Dawn. This was exaggerated when Joyce fell sick, and Buffy had to fill in the blanks that Joyce could no longer provide for. Then, out of nowhere, Joyce died. Buffy is suddenly thrust into the mother role, where she not only has to take care of Dawn but also take care of the house and the finances, all the traditionally adult roles that she had understandably never prepared for.

All of this comes to a head in The Gift, and it's most evident in the scene between Buffy and Giles, in which she explains that things used to be simpler. In season two, Buffy killed her lover to save the world, as she knew it was the right thing to do. Flash forward three years and suddenly everything feels different. She's related to the person directly involved in this latest apocalypse, she feels it is her sisterly duty to protect Dawn and raise her, her opponent is the toughest she has ever fought, and everyone she loves seems to go away. It's a turning point for Buffy, and it makes her ultimate sacrifice even more affecting.

In the end, it's Buffy becoming entirely selfless that protects those around her. She gives up everything to save her sister and her friends and the rest of the world. This whole year has been a series of challenges for her, where the line between 'slayer' and 'ordinary woman' has been cleverly explored. Like always, it is the fact that she's a young woman with feelings that saves the day, the thought of her sister's demise spurring her on to sacrifice her own life to stop the universes from bleeding into one another. Without those ties, she would have likely given into her fear and broke down.

The Gift is a major turnaround for the season, after what felt like a run of mediocre episodes. It's beautifully scripted, with half the episode dedicated to conversations between the Scoobies as they prepare for battle, and the other half showcasing the big final battle itself. The conversations are where the juice is. There's the brief discussion where they try to justify bending the rules, Xander describing Ben as an innocent person but not 'Dawn innocent'; Willow finding the confidence to tap into her powers in the largest way yet; Xander reaching total adulthood and proposing to Anya; the tension with Spike being put aside for the sake of saving the day. Later we see Giles forever protecting his slayer, denying her the traumatic responsibility of killing Ben and doing the deed himself. He knows that it would only bring her down in the long run. Joss Whedon knows these characters so well, filling this script with so many on-point bits of dialogue and wonderful interaction.

The fight sequences are also impressive. The tower is an interesting battleground, and the use of the wrecking ball, the Buffybot, and the troll hammer only accentuate Glory's strength and what the Scoobies need to defeat her.

But, at the end of everything, it's that final couple of minutes which prove the most brutal and heartwarming. Buffy's monologue, the gravestone, the final realization of what the first slayer was actually talking about. But it's Spike crying in devastation that always gets me. It's such a painful moment of abject grief.

The Gift is a gorgeous finale for what I feel was a confused and sometimes frustrating season. There were so many great arcs this year, but they were weighed down by too much plot staggering, underuse of wonderful characters, and stories that weren't played as well as they could have been. But you need to respect the concepts that Joss was looking to explore this year, and no matter how awkwardly some of them were told in the middle of the season, The Gift is a perfect resolution to those ideas. A+

Credits
Guest stars Clare Kramer (Glory); Charlie Weber (Ben); Amber Benson (Tara Maclay); Joel Grey (Doc)
Writer Joss Whedon Director Joss Whedon