Season Two Finale(s)

Like last year, for the month of October, I’ve opted to shift some key elements of this blog. I’ll be paying homage to my favorite television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer by dedicating each post to reflections on specific episodes of the show. Moreover, to cram in more BtVS ramblings, I’m foregoing my typical every-other-week posting schedule in favor of posting every weekend.

If you’re a fan of the show, I hope you’ll enjoy these looks back, and if you’re not, maybe I’ll incentivize you to give it a shot. If you find yourself someplace in between—e.g., you’re currently watching the show, please note that these posts will include spoilers about the episode(s) they discuss.

And, if you’re just not interested in Buffy, apologies, but this just isn’t your month. I will be back for a more typical blog post around Halloween, and resume the routine going into November.

I’m going to kick off this Buffy month with a look at the two-part season two finale, ”Becoming” parts one and two.

The first season of BtVS simultaneously feels quite different from the rest of the series, and lays a template for what the show becomes. On the not-so-positive side, it’s the season with the clunkiest special effects, the least consistent acting, and the most acceptance of clichés like Cordelia starting out the generic mean girl, or The Master feeding fervently into old arch-villain tropes. On the other hand, it also establishes most of the core cast, and lays the foundation of this being a show that works on season-long narrative arcs, and that will pay off with a meaningful conclusion in its final episodes.

The start of season two threatens to undo that last part, with the threat of The Master being brought back (un-)life. The scheme fails however, and by the time we’re three episodes deep into the season, the Anointed One is gone, too, thus eliminating the last of the season one regime and establishing that this story will continue moving forward with new villains looming.

Season two is still a little rough around the edges when it comes to production and deciding how much Buffy will be a show for teens or a show that just happens to be about teens at that stage. I’d suggest that a lot of the more melodramatic moments of this season come down to the show working out those pieces. But while most of the show’s characters still have another year of high school to come, “Becoming” feels like a graduation on multiple levels.

In what would arguably become an over-used device--particularly on spin-off series Angel--“Becoming” includes a deluge of flashbacks, bringing us back to how Angel became the vampire he is at this point. I’d argue it works here to lend the show a greater immensity of scope, and make it pack all the more punch when Buffy ultimately has to send the guy to hell.

On the point of graduation, this is Buffy having to make her first genuinely hard choice. Sure, defeating the Master in season one was challenging, but there were no mixed emotions from Buffy nor the audience about the fact that he had to go. But here she is a year later, sacrificing her lover to save the world, and foreshadowing elements like her conflicted feud with fellow slayer Faith in season three, being pressed to choose between her sister and the world in season five, and Willow turning out to be the “big bad” of season six. We also see Joyce commence the much fuller realization of her character, not oblivious, but rather quite suddenly aware of her daughter’s battles against undead forces. We see Spike tease that he might fight for the forces of good, too (if, to start out, only in a self-serving way).

Season two's final episodes thus brings the show's concerns to a head like no episode before it. While Angel will be back, the threat of an evil version of him is subdued for BtVS purposes. The Scoobies are beaten down and look the worse for wear in their final frames, while Buffy is leaving on a bus out of town.

I didn’t watch “Becoming” when it originally aired, but watched the two episodes back to back when I caught up on the second half or so of season two over the summer after it was originally broadcasted. It’s an understatement to say that these episodes connected with me. At the time, I’d have readily proclaimed them the best hour and a half of television I’d ever seen, and certainly my favorite episode(s) of Buffy. I’d have carried on telling you that for years to follow, as I dug in my heels that while season three was more polished, season two was better; if I remember rightly, season five finale “The Gift” was the first episode to challenge my placement of “Becoming” on top.

While I will still engage in esoteric thought processes that go with ranking BtVS episodes, and all too readily challenge articles that claim to have a ranking down definitively, I’ll also acknowledge how silly and arbitrary such an enterprise is now. For while I have a deeper connection to and appreciation for “Becoming” than “Surprise,” “Innocence,” or “Passion,” I nonetheless recognize it wouldn’t have worked to nearly the extent it does without those emotionally rich episodes to precede it.

“Becoming” is less a two part episode that should be compared and ranked than it is an ultra-satisfying last chapter to season two that actualizes so much of the potential established for the show up to that point, besides setting up so much of what works about the show to follow, in Buffy needing to mend fences with friends and family, Willow showing glimmers of the witch she’ll become, and Angel needing to leave town (after he makes it back from hell). This is Buffy clicking on all cylinders, and it was thankfully just the beginning.