Graduation Day, Part Two (Buffy episode)
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"Graduation Day, Part Two" is the 22nd episode of season 3 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. See also List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes.
Plot synopsis
Summary
Since Buffy's attempt to feed Faith to Angel failed, she forces him to feed off of her to save his own life. Once he does, he rushes her to the hospital, where the gang berates him. Nonetheless, they all work together to stop the Mayor from feeding on the seniors by waiting until he ascends, luring him into the library, and blowing him (and the school) to smithereens. Meanwhile, Faith lies in a coma, from which the doctors don't expect her to ever wake.
Expanded overview
After stabbing Faith, Buffy stands there stunned for a few minutes, the knife still in her hands. She drops it and escapes from the rooftop just before the Mayor enters Faith's apartment with a group of vampires. They survey the room, but find no Faith. The Mayor is seriously devastated by the thought of losing Faith and orders the vamps to find her. At the library that night, Xander and Giles are looking for information on the demon Olvikon. Cordelia comes in, demanding to know why Wesley is returning to England. After Giles explains, Cordelia sits down and helps them save the world.
At the mansion, Angel's slowly slipping away as Willow's watching over him. Delirious, he mistakes her for Buffy and tells her how much he needs her. When Willow makes the correction, he falls asleep again until Buffy returns. Willow and Oz talk then kiss while waiting for Buffy. When she does finally return, she asks them to leave so she can be alone with him. Buffy goes to Angel and explains that she can cure him, all he has to do is drink her blood. Weakly, he refuses and tries to get away from her.
Buffy demands that he do it so that he will live. She won't let him die. He suggests Faith, but she informs him that she killed Faith so her blood is the only way. She hits him three times before the demon comes forth and she forces him to drink. He drinks slowly, and deeply, and knocks them both to the ground. Buffy's unable to make a sound, and finally as she goes unconscious from loosing too much blood Angel pulls away.
Angel takes Buffy to the hospital where they take care of her. Angel just explains that something bit her and that they have to help her. He quickly calls Giles and everyone to come to the hospital. In another room, a doctor talks to the Mayor as they stand around Faith in a hospital bed. The doctor explains the trauma to her head and the massive blood loss is just too much, and there's very little chance she'll ever regain consciousness.
The mayor overhears a nurse talk about another girl, and quickly walks over to Buffy, covering her mouth and nose with his hand. Buffy struggles weakly, but when a nurse can't get him off, Angel shows up and tears him away. The two argue, the Mayor insults Buffy and Angel knocks him across the room. He finally leaves with a message not to miss the second act of the show. Giles and the gang show up at the hospital and Angel explains that Faith is in a coma, and that Buffy cured him when he drank her blood. Angel leaves, because the sun will be up soon and the rest go to check on Buffy.
In a dream sequence, Buffy goes to Faith's apartment where Faith is packing up her stuff. Faith explains that human weakness never fades, not even his. Faith tells Buffy that it's time to go and then we see Buffy wake up in the hospital bed. She gets up, walks over to Faith and kisses her forehead. Then dressed, Buffy walks out to the waiting room, telling her friends to get everyone ready. Ready for war.
At school, Snyder prepares for the ceremony in an eerily quiet school yard. Buffy explains her "crazy" plan to her friends. Buffy explains she needs everyone's help, especially Xander since he remembers his military training. Cordelia suggests a very crazy idea of chasing the Mayor with Ebola virus because of his fear of germs. They find that his weakness is Faith and Buffy says she can work with that.
Wesley shows up, offering to help in anyway he can. Buffy lays out her plan, while the Mayor explains to his group of vampires his plan. He tells that when the eclipse takes place, he wants the vampires to come out and keep the people from running. The Mayor tells them it's very important that he feed within the first few minutes to sustain the change. Buffy assigns Angel and Xander to work together and they start out by bickering. Their plan involves creating a volcano substitute--a bomb. Giles is assigned to detonate it. Everyone goes out and brings people in to help which includes Harmony and Percy. While putting away books, Cordelia and Wesley kiss twice and find that they truly aren't meant for each other.
Larry and Jonathon unload Oz's van of supplies, then leave Willow and Oz in there alone. With some time until graduation, Willow and Oz decide to take advantage of that time and the fact that they may die later that day. In the library, Angel asks Buffy how she's doing and then suddenly tells her that he won't say good-bye. It's too painful to have to face her and he's decided to just leave when it's all over.
At graduation, Willow and Oz show up late. The Mayor starts his speech, but doesn't have the time to finish it as the transformation starts before he expected. After an eclipse, he turns into the giant, 60-foot snake demon, Olvikan. The parents scatter, and the students gather together in one large group. At Buffy's call, everyone rips off their robes, revealing weapons and crosses. Some students step forward with fire launchers and burn the demon. Xander commands a wave of crossbows to be launched. All the students have banded together and their fighting for the survival of their town.
The vampires attack from behind and then several students pick up crossbows with flaming bolts and fire at the vampires. Angel leads another team and they fight off the vampires as well. Snyder tries telling the snake-demon off, but instead gets eaten. Buffy orders everyone back to attack the vampires. While fighting, Cordelia kills a vampire, but other students like Larry and Harmony get killed. Buffy taunts the snake and has him chase her through the school. She goes through the library, and jumps out the window. Just as she reaches a safe distance, and the Mayor is stuck saying, "Well gosh," Giles detonates the bomb.
Wesley is taken away in an ambulance. Xander tells Buffy considering all they went through, they didn't lose too much. Giles congratulates Buffy on a job well done and even presents her with her diploma which he saved from the rubble. After he leaves, Buffy sees Angel at a distance. The two stand there, near tears just looking at each other until Angel turns and walks away. Buffy meets up with her friends and they head for home.
They survived high school.
Controversy
During the time of its airing, the episode caused a great deal of controversy in the media. The Columbine High School shootings which occurred in April 1999, caused huge tension between the public and the Entertainment Industry. Many parents felt that the reason why these acts of violence occur among kids is because they see it on TV, Movies, Video Games, and hear it in Music. 'Buffy' at the time was viewed as a very violent show that took place in a high school setting, and was very inappropriate, especially after the Columbine shootings. The WB Network had already pulled the plug on an earlier episode "Earshot" and originally had not intended on pulling anymore episodes. However, when the media got a hold of several clips from 'Graduation Day, Part Two,' they feared that several scenes would provoke high school students to do the same thing, especially in the scenes when the entire graduating class were handling weapons against the mayor of the city. On May 25, 1999, "Graduation Day, Part Two" was all set to air, however, only a couple of hours before the network was going to air the Season Finale, they suddenly decided to pull the plug due to all the pressure they were receiving. Instead, a re-run from earlier in the season was aired without any kind of notice.
The sudden move caused Buffy fans to rage, as they felt that it was not fair that their show was being blamed for real life violence. The sudden move by the WB received huge attention in the media and thousands of letters were sent to the network demanding them to air the Season Finale. Sarah Michelle Gellar and Seth Green publicly spoke out against the decision the network had made as well. However, the WB would not air the episode until July 13, 1999, almost two months after it was originally supposed to air. At that point, the network felt that all real life graduations had already passed, so it was safe to air the episode. The episode attracted 6.5 million viewers, which is typically high for The WB during the summertime. Even though the show aired in Mid-Summer, the ratings for the episode were on par with what the other episodes of the season had received.
Production details
Music
- Christophe Beck - "Aftermath"
- Christophe Beck - "Drink Me"
- Christophe Beck - "Little Miss Muffet"
- Christophe Beck - "One Last Look"
- Christophe Beck - "War"
- Edward Elgar - "Pomp and circumstance march no. i"
Quotes and trivia
- The yearbook seen in this episode was released as a tie-in product, Sunnydale High Yearbook
- The Buffy novel, The Evil That Men Do was also delayed due to the Columbine incident; it was published one year later than planned.
- Doug Petrie wrote a Buffy comic that takes place immediately after this episode; Double Cross concerns events after Angel left Buffy.
- Angel is the second vampire to bite Buffy. She was bitten by the Master in Season 1 and will be by Dracula in Season 5.
Oz: We survived.
Buffy: It was a hell of a battle.
Oz: Not the battle...high school.
Continuity
Arc significance
- This episode sees the destruction of Sunnydale High, the scene of a great deal of paranormal activities thus far in the series. As the Mayor said, "Nothing will ever be the same. Nothing."
- Angel made his last appearance as a regular character on the show. Leaving for L.A., he would start a new TV show, Angel. The same also applies to Cordelia, who leaves for L.A., unable to afford college. However, unlike Cordelia, Angel does reappear on Buffy.
- In the Buffy/Faith dream, we encounter the first foreshadowing of Buffy's death at the end of Season 5. Faith's "little miss muffet counting down from 7-3-0" comes (roughly) 2 years (730 days) before Buffy dies, however the 'little miss muffet' bit could also be reference to Dawn (Buffy's sister) coming as Tara will also make a Little Miss Muffet' reference before Dawn's first appearance.
- Cordelia and Wesley discover through two bad kisses that their dalliance will lead nowhere.
Timing
- Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:
| Location, time (if known) | Buffyverse chronology: January 1999 - Spring 1999 (non-canon = italic) |
|---|---|
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy graphic novel: Uninvited Guests (Buffy comic)>Uninvited Guests |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy comic: The Final Cut (Buffy comic)>The Final Cut |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy graphic novel: Bad Blood (Buffy comic)>Bad Blood |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B3.11 Gingerbread (Buffy episode)>Gingerbread |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy comic: Food Chain (Buffy comic)#Bad Dog>Bad Dog (by Doug Petrie) |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy graphic novel: Crash Test Demons (Buffy comic)>Crash Test Demons |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy graphic novel: Pale Reflections (Buffy comic)>Pale Reflections |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B3.12 Helpless (Buffy episode)>Helpless |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B3.13 The Zeppo (Buffy episode)>The Zeppo |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B3.14 Bad Girls (Buffy episode)>Bad Girls |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B3.15 Consequences (Buffy episode)>Consequences |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B3.16 Doppelgängland (Buffy episode)>Doppelgängland |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy book: Doomsday Deck (Buffy novel)>Doomsday Deck |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy book: Immortal (Buffy novel)>Immortal |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | B3.17 Enemies (Buffy episode)>Enemies |
| Sunnydale, 1999 | Buffy graphic novel: |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | Buffy book: Prime Evil (Buffy novel)>Prime Evil |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | Buffy book: Revenant (Buffy novel)>Revenant |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | B3.18 Earshot (Buffy episode)>Earshot |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | B3.19 Choices (Buffy episode)>Choices |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | Buffy book: Power of Persuasion (Buffy novel)>Power of Persuasion |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | B3.20 The Prom (Buffy episode)>The Prom |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | Buffy book: Resurrecting Ravana (Buffy novel)>Resurrecting Ravana |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | Buffy books: The Gatekeeper (Buffy novel)>The Gatekeeper [Trilogy] |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | Buffy book: Return to Chaos (Buffy novel)>Return to Chaos |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | Buffy book: Visitors (Buffy novel)>Visitors |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | Buffy book: Unnatural Selection (Buffy novel)>Unnatural Selection |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | Buffy book: Obsidian Fate (Buffy novel)>Obsidian Fate |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | Buffy book: Deep Water (Buffy novel)>Deep Water |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | Buffy book: Here Be Monsters (Buffy novel)>Here Be Monsters |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | Buffy book: The Book of Fours (Buffy novel)>The Book of Fours |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | B3.21 Graduation Day, Part One (Buffy episode)>Graduation Day, Part One |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | B3.22 Graduation Day, Part Two (Buffy episode)>Graduation Day, Part Two |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | Sunnydale High Yearbook (Buffyverse)>Sunnydale High Yearbook |
| Sunnydale, spring, 1999 | Buffy comic: Food Chain (Buffy comic)#Double Cross>Double Cross |
See also
External links
Reviews
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