I had a lot of issues with it myself. I could have done without the teaser and first half (although Buffy's comment about Spike and Angel wrestling with oil had me laughing so hard). The second half of the episode was better, though not without its flaws.
It felt to me like the episode basically boiled down to: "Okay, Caleb's dead, the season's got to end, let's go for a last-minute half-assed plan to go down to the Hellmouth and use the Scythe to make more Slayers. Oh, and Spike's gonna suddenly redeem himself in the space of five minutes since we haven't really bothered to explore what having his soul means to him." Would have been better if they had bothered to build up to this rather than suddenly throwing it out. I mean, the Scythe? Neat weapon, but it practically popped up out of nowhere. Convenient plot device? You betcha.
They really did drop the ball with handling the First this season. "The Taunter" - yeah, no kidding. The show hasn't been the same since season 3, and I'll miss it somewhat, but it was time to end the series.
Gotta admit, in some ways it was fun to watch Sunnydale become a big, smoking crater, though. :)
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branchandroot
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Date: 2003-05-21 04:12 pm (UTC)I had a lot of issues with it myself. I could have done without the teaser and first half (although Buffy's comment about Spike and Angel wrestling with oil had me laughing so hard). The second half of the episode was better, though not without its flaws.
It felt to me like the episode basically boiled down to: "Okay, Caleb's dead, the season's got to end, let's go for a last-minute half-assed plan to go down to the Hellmouth and use the Scythe to make more Slayers. Oh, and Spike's gonna suddenly redeem himself in the space of five minutes since we haven't really bothered to explore what having his soul means to him." Would have been better if they had bothered to build up to this rather than suddenly throwing it out. I mean, the Scythe? Neat weapon, but it practically popped up out of nowhere. Convenient plot device? You betcha.
They really did drop the ball with handling the First this season. "The Taunter" - yeah, no kidding. The show hasn't been the same since season 3, and I'll miss it somewhat, but it was time to end the series.
Gotta admit, in some ways it was fun to watch Sunnydale become a big, smoking crater, though. :)