Chosen (Buffy episode)
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"Chosen," the series finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is Episode 22 of Season 7. See also List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes.
Plot synopsis
Summary
Buffy and her associates organize an attack on The First Evil. Buffy comes up with a plan: The gang makes an attack on the First's army, aided by Willow, who performs a powerful spell to imbue all of the Potentials with Slayer powers. Meanwhile, wearing the amulet that Angel brought, Spike becomes the decisive factor in the victory, and Sunnydale is eradicated. Buffy and the gang look back on what's left of Sunnydale, deciding what to do next.
Expanded overview
Buffy greets Angel, who has not learned from the horror genre that anyone who has not been shown killed is not. A bloody Caleb rises and Buffy finally kills him with the scythe by apparently slicing him in two from the crotch up. Angel gives Buffy an amulet intended to be worn by someone ensouled, but more than human. He tells her he will fight alongside her, but she turns him down. She asks him to organize a second front in case she loses to The First. They discuss Spike, his soul, and Buffy's feelings for him. When Angel asks about the future, Buffy explains that she still needs to grow up. As he walks into the shadows, echoing his very first appearance, Buffy tells him there might be a future for them. He tells her he will wait.
Back at the house, Buffy arrives where Dawn is back and angrily kicks Buffy's leg for having Xander try to take her away from Sunnydale. Spike is in the basement, working out his anger on a punching bag with a crude drawing of Angel's face on it. He asks for the amulet, whose exchange he had seen, and she explains that it is very powerful and meant only for a champion. She then hands it to him.
Buffy tells Spike coyly that Faith is staying in her bedroom. He pretends to reject her, but stops her when she is about to leave.
Late at night, The First appears, first as Caleb, and then as Buffy where it taunts Buffy. When Spike wakes up, Buffy tells Spike that she now knows that they will win. Buffy then goes to her confidantes with her plan.
The next morning, Buffy unveils the plan to the potentials. The audience does not hear the details. Afterwards, Willow expresses to Kennedy her concerns about using magic again. She says this is the most powerful magic she will have attempted and asks Kennedy to kill her if it turns bad. Faith and Principal Wood also have a discussion while preparing the school for the battle. Wood demonstrates that he understands her defensiveness over getting emotionally involved with men and asks her to give him a chance after the battle.
The next morning, everyone arrives at Sunnydale High in a yellow school bus. The Potentials head to the seal in the basement while Kennedy heads to Principal Wood's office to set up Willow's stuff. After trying to give a farewell speech, Andrew is dragged off by Anya. Dawn leaves to set up her post with Xander, determined to see her sister again. Principal Wood leaves to wait at his post for Giles. The core four share a moment before each one peels off, leaving Buffy walking alone to the seal. The Potentials, Faith and Spike are waiting, and the females cut their hands to open the seal with their blood. They climb down the hole in the ground and come face to face with the army of Turok-Han. The Ubervamps spot Buffy, Faith and the Potentials, and attack. "Come on, Wil," Buffy pleads.
In Principal Wood's office, Willow sits in front of the scythe chanting a spell, touches it, and both it and she turn into a radiant white. In a flashback to Buffy's final speech to the Potentials, we find explaining that the tradition of the Slayer was decided by three men. Willow is more powerful than them combined. Willow was to share the scythe's strength amongst all the Potentials in the world. As Willow performs the actual magic, Kennedy tells Willow that she is a goddess. "And you're a Slayer," Willow replies. Kennedy takes the scythe to Buffy, who is deep in the fight with Faith and Spike against the army of the Turok-Han, numbering in the thousands.
As she pauses to give orders, Buffy is stabbed through her abdomen from behind by one of the Turok-Han and falls to the ground. She passes the scythe to Faith and asks her to hold the line. As she lies on the ground, she sees several Slayers fall, including Amanda. In the halls of the school, a few Turok-Han make it to the surface and attack the group guarding the entrances. A small group of Bringers also appear and attack. During the battle, Anya is bisected by a Bringer. Andrew fights until he is overwhelmed. Principal Wood is brutally stabbed by a Bringer who is then killed by Giles. Xander and Dawn take on some Turok-Han who are disintegrated by sunlight when Dawn throws open a skylight window, but more still come after them. In the Hellmouth, the First then appears to Buffy as a mortally wounded Buffy herself, taunting her. Buffy arises with renewed determination. Other Slayers are reinvigorated as well. Just then, Spike's amulet consumes him in blue light and blasts a hole upward into the sky. The sunlight is channeled through the amulet and in powerful rays that begin dusting the ubervamps. The ground begins to shake and rocks tumble. The few surviving Slayers start to flee. Buffy tells Spike to do so as well, but he insists on finishing it. They share a quiet moment as the world crumbles around them. She tells him that she loves him. He thinks she does not mean it, but thanks her for saying it anyway. She leaves and he disintegrates as the Hellmouth collapses.
On the way out of the school, the Slayers find Andrew crouched in a corner. Xander yells for Anya, whose dead and mangled body lies nearby. Dawn pulls him out. Faith is the last onto the bus and it pulls away, with Dawn looking through back for Buffy. Buffy, in the meantime, has climbed to the roof of the school and is running along rooftops trying to outrun the enlarging crater. She leaps onto the top of the bus. Watching as the bus speeds off out of town, the entire town collapses into itself.
The ground stops shaking. Everyone gets off the bus. Xander asks Andrew about Anya's death. He embellishes the truth to comfort Xander by telling him Anya died saving him. Faith looks after a wounded Principal Wood. While Kennedy, Vi and a few others tend to the wounded newly made Slayers, everyone joins Buffy as they look at the large crater which was once Sunnydale. Buffy slowly begins to smile as she contemplates the future.
Writing and acting
- Hiding the full extent of the plan from the viewers is a Buffy tradition for season finales (3rd and 5th, specifically).
- Willow is the only one of the core four who ended up with a lover. Whedon said on the DVD that someone had to be happy.
- DB Woodside, who played Principal Wood, said on BBC that he imagined his relationship with Faith would be dark and sexually charged.
Production details
- Joss Whedon wrote and directed a scene. He explained to Dreamwatch magazine, It was Principal Wood and Giles sharing a joint right before they go into battle, or as I referred to it in the script, a hand-rolled cigarette. That was shot and not aired.. [1]
- In an early version of the script the conversation between Buffy and Angel was more complex. Angel revealed to Buffy that he loved Cordelia and also that he had a son. This was later changed.
Music
- Robert Duncan - "Every Girl A Slayer"
- Robert Duncan - "Slayer Victory"
- Robert Duncan - "The Final Fight"
- Nerf Herder, who recorded the show's theme song, can be heard playing over the final scene. They were also the last band to play at the Bronze.
Quotes and trivia
- The episode was nominated for a 2003 Emmy in the Category of Special Visual Effects for a Series.
- The survivors: Buffy Summers, Willow Rosenberg, Xander Harris, Dawn Summers, Rupert Giles, Andrew Wells, Kennedy, Faith Lehane, Principal Robin Wood, Rona, and Vi.
- The fallen: Spike, Anya Jenkins and Amanda.
- In the episode, Giles, Andrew, Amanda and Xander played Dungeons & Dragons, a popular role-playing game. They made a reference to Homestar Runner in the process.
- Gellar's stirring speech was shown in two parts in this episode, but it was filmed as one scene, half of which was deleted in the editing room (DVD commentary).
- Willow's spell ended with the line "Oh, my Goddess." This might be in reference either to the popular manga Oh! My Goddess (sometimes translated as Ah! My Goddess as well) or to the title of the season 5 finale of Charmed. It is most likely a play on the vernacular phrase "Oh my God", since Willow has substituted "Goddess" several times in the past, after becoming fully immersed in Wiccan religion.
- The very last line of the episode, and thus of the series, is: "Yeah, Buffy. What are we gonna do now?" (spoken by Dawn). The first line of the series (spoken by Darla in "Welcome to the Hellmouth") is: "Are you sure this is a good idea?"
- Two characters who died in the final battle — Spike and Anya — are shown to have slept in the episode. Buffy could have had a doze in the same scene with Spike; Amanda did not.
- SFX, a British sci-fi magazine, called "Chosen" the 8th best episode of Buffy (number one was "Hush").
- As with a number of the series' episodes, the original script was cut down to fit into its time slot. Rumors (need reference) mention that the original script featured a somewhat larger role for Angel, who barely appeared in the final cut; Dawn becomes a slayer; a fight scene between a corporeal First Evil, appearing as Joyce Summers, and Buffy; and Xander dying rather than Anya, the two of which having their places and many of their lines exchanged. Many of these differences are not verified, however, and many fan scripts exist on the internet. In fact, Joss Whedon said on the final DVD that there was barely time for Angel to film his scenes and that the core four would never die. [source: http://www.whedon.info/article.php3?id_article=731&img=]
- Principal Robin Wood is the only Sunnydale High Principal on the show to ever survive.
- The end of this season was supposed to feature Glory, in replace of Caleb, however fan reaction to that idea was so intensly hostile that the producers decided to keep Caleb.
- The Mutant Enemy monster is actually animated in this one (as opposed to just a paper monster walking across the screen) and growls at the viewers, in a way saying goodbye to them as well.
- "Chosen" attracted 4.9 million viewers on its original first run. Although those numbers seem low compared to earlier seasons, it was actually one of the highest rated episodes of the season as viewership at this point in the show had diminished.
Continuity
- Buffy tells Angel early in this episode that she does not see herself having fat grandchildren with Spike. In season three's "Amends", The First appeared as Jenny Calendar and told Angel that she was dead and could not do precisely that.
- The scene between Giles, Buffy, Xander and Willow talking while walking down a corridor in Sunnydale High mirrored the closing scene from the two-part series opener, "The Harvest". Giles, then saying "The Earth is doomed," now finds "The Earth is definitely doomed."
- In the same scene, Xander says he needs a new look. Buffy tells him to "go with the full black secret agent look," referring to his James Bond outfit on Halloween in the fourth season ("Fear Itself"). Willow suggests he could go as a pirate with a puffy shirt, as on Halloween in the sixth season ("All the Way").
- Andrew mentioned his brother Tucker in his Oscar speech — the Hellhound-raiser in "The Prom".
- Buffy told Spike she loved him. Cassie Newton had strongly implied that this would happen in "Help".
- Spike's last words are "I want to see how it ends," while Buffy's was "Spike." Both would reappear on Angel.
- Giles mentions that there is a Hellmouth in Cleveland. In season three's "The Wish", Giles in an alternate reality said, "I realize that there's a great deal of demonic activity in Cleveland."
Arc significance
- Crossover with Angel: The amulet Spike wore here inexplicably reappears in "Just Rewards". Andrew is seen again in "Damage" and "The Girl In Question".
- The Buffyverse continues, with Buffy involved with The Immortal in Italy ("The Girl In Question"). Giles pointed out that "there is another one (Hellmouth) in Cleveland." However, any events more than a year after the Sunnydale cave-in would probably have to mention how the events of Angel's series finale turned out.
- Willow became a "White" Willow performing her magic here in another step towards redeeming for her Dark phase. Her hair briefly turned white and her face was bathed in light.
- The open-ended nature of the finale resulted in many fan-based virtual season continuations popping up after the show's closure.
Timing
- Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:
| Location, time (if known) | Buffyverse: January 2003 - Spring 2003 (non-canon = italic) |
|---|---|
| Sunnydale, 2003 | B7.11 Showtime (Buffy episode)>Showtime |
| Sunnydale, 2003 | B7.12 Potential (Buffy episode)>Potential |
| L.A., 2003 | A4.11 Soulless (Angel episode)>Soulless |
| Sunnydale, 2003 | B7.13 The Killer in Me (Buffy episode)>The Killer in Me |
| Sunnydale, 2003 | B7.14 First Date (Buffy episode)>First Date |
| L.A., 2003 | A4.12 Calvary (Angel episode)>Calvary |
| Sunnydale, 2003 | B7.15 Get It Done (Buffy episode)>Get It Done |
| L.A., 2003 | A4.13 Salvage (Angel episode)>Salvage |
| Sunnydale, 2003 | B7.16 Storyteller (Buffy episode)>Storyteller |
| L.A., 2003 | A4.14 Release (Angel episode)>Release |
| Sunnydale, 2003 | B7.17 Lies My Parents Told Me (Buffy episode)>Lies My Parents Told Me |
| L.A., 2003 | A4.15 Orpheus (Angel episode)>Orpheus |
| Sunnydale, 2003 | B7.18 Dirty Girls (Buffy episode)>Dirty Girls |
| L.A., 2003 | A4.16 Players (Angel episode)>Players |
| L.A., 2003 | Angel book: Nemesis (Angel novel)>Nemesis |
| L.A., 2003 | Angel book: Book of the Dead (Angel novel)>Book of the Dead |
| L.A., 2003 | A4.17 Inside Out (Angel episode)>Inside Out |
| L.A., 2003 | A4.18 Shiny Happy People (Angel episode)>Shiny Happy People |
| Sunnydale, 2003 | B7.19 Empty Places (Buffy episode)>Empty Places |
| L.A., 2003 | A4.19 The Magic Bullet (Angel episode)>The Magic Bullet |
| L.A., 2003 | A4.20 Sacrifice (Angel episode)>Sacrifice |
| Sunnydale, 2003 | B7.20 Touched (Buffy episode)>Touched |
| L.A., 2003 | A4.21 Peace Out (Angel episode)>Peace Out |
| L.A., 2003 | A4.22 Home (Angel episode)>Home |
| Sunnydale, 2003 | B7.21 End of Days (Buffy episode)>End of Days |
| Sunnydale, 2003 | B7.22 Chosen (Buffy episode)>Chosen |
References
[1] - [Restlessbtvs.com] - Trivia for this episode
External links
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