After running through the woods Buffy, Xander and Anya find that Willow has broken Xander's car. Anya teleports ahead, Buffy runs ahead and Xander remains, frustrated and feeling useless. Buffy busts Jonathan and Andrew out of jail while Willow busts the jail to get at them. They all escape in a Xander stolen police car. Willow gives chase on a stolen transport truck but her power drains and they escape to the Magic Box where they relink with Anya.
Dawn, meanwhile, convinces Clem to help her find Rack on the hope that he can give them some spell to find Willow. And that kind of works because they find Willow at Rack's, having drained/killed Rack and gaining Interview Wtih The Vampire veins on her face. Willow is downright nasty to Dawn and then to Buffy when she arrives, wondering why the heck they're fighting her when they should be asking for her help. After all, the world sucks so why hang around let alone protect it. While saying she teleports them to the Magic Box, a trip that drains Buffy and Dawn. While they're down Willow attacks Jonathan and Andrew but something stops her. Angry she buffs herself up to kill them physically but Buffy intervenes. In the fight Dawn and the boys all run. Willow defeats first Buffy and then Anya, gaining her powers back in time to make an anti-forshadowing comment about being all powerful and Giles arrives. Using borrowed power Giles captures Willow long enough to have a brief talk in the training room before Willow escapes. She beats everyone up a bit and then sends a fireball to kill Jonathan and Andrew and anyone aiding them. Buffy races off to save them while Giles tries to reason/fight Willow. Willow wins, drains Giles of his power and becomes the most powerful human ever, connected with every living thing and feeling their lives and souls.
This is not a good thing. Because, you know, life and the world pretty much suck.
As the sun rises Buffy and Dawn are trapped in a hole, Xander is trying to figure out how to get them out, Jonathan and Andrew are making a run for the border, Giles is dying in the Magic Shop and Anya is playing teleporting FedEx delivering messages. The main message is that Willow is going to suck the life energy from the planet and then turn it into cinder and where she's going to do it. Anya pops back to the Magic Shop to be with Giles and Xander disappears. Willow, aware of Buffy struggling, makes demony rooty things attack so that when the world ends Buffy will go down swinging. Except there's too many and she enlists Dawn. Dawn turns out to be a pretty good fighter having studied the CJ Cregg Style (not so much done as seen it in the movies a lot) and the two hack away merrily.
Xander goes to Willow. She keeps knocking him down and he keeps getting up. And tells her, plainly and simply, that if the world is going to end then it will end with him standing with his best friend. Whom he will love even if she breaks the yellow crayon and ends the world.
And maybe, you know, life and the world doesn't suck as much when you have a friend like that.
Defeated, Willow collapses into Xander and cries through the entire denounment. A healed Giles and Anya hobble out of the destruction of the Magic Box. Buffy, finally realizing that life is about the future, and Dawn help each other out of the dark hole.
And, undefeated in the trials, Spike is handed back his soul.
2) For some reason Anthony Stewart Head was not who I was expecting.
3a) I, being VCR-challenged, managed to not tape the last half hour and had to wait 24 hours to watch the end.
3b) Then I taped three hours of blue screen. Whoohoo 4) The only thing worse than missing the last half hour is having your computer crash before you hit the Save on the review.
5) They really build their Dark Temples well. My Lego Dark Temples always fall apart when I pick them up by the steeple.
6) Raise your hand if you thought it was Tara protecting Andrew and Jonathan.
7) Nice to see Spike leaving the Punk Era and hitting the Grunge Era. Soon he'll be all caught up.
8) Raise your hand if you knew the demon was going to trick Spike.
9) Season finale stats. Finales involving apocolypse: 5/6. Finales where the world was successfully saved: 5/5. Finale where Sarah warbled: 2/6. Finale where a character was killed in the finale proper: 3/6. Finale where a character was killed and they stayed dead: 0/3.
10) Giles proves, once and for all, the healing power of laughter.
Giles: (to Buffy in Lie To Me) The good-guys are stalwart and true. The bad-guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats and we always defeat them and save the day. Nobody ever dies and everybody lives happily ever after.
Willow: (to Tara during Hush): "I'm definitely nothing special."
Tara: "No, you are."
Tara: (to Willow during Restless) "Everyone's starting to wonder about you. The real you. If they find out, they'll punish you, I... I can't help you with that."
Tara: (to Xander during The Body) "It hurts."
Willow: (to Buffy during Wrecked) "It was... But, I mean, if you could be plain old Willow - or Super Willow? Who would you want to be?
Jonathan: "Still can't believe that was Willow. I mean, I've known her nearly as long as you guys have. Willow, was, well, you know. She packed her own lunch and wore floods and just was, you know, Willow."
Spike: "Here we are now. Entertain us."
Willow: (to Dawn) "Hey, cutie."
Dawn: "You're back on the magics."
Anya: (to Xander) "I care if you live or die. I'm not sure which one I want."
Willow: "Okay, didn't see that coming."
Willow: "And there's no on in the world that has the power to stop me now."
Willow: "Uh-oh, daddy's home. I'm in wicked trouble now."
Giles: "There."
Buffy: "Will, there's nothing wrong with you. You don't need magic to be special-"
Willow: "Don't I? Buffy, who was I? Just some girl. Tara didn't even know that girl..."Random Quotes
Andrew: "Oh my God. Warren."
Jonathan: "Oh my God. Me."
Willow: "No, I am the magics."
Giles: "I'd like to test that theory."
Anya: "What?"
Giles: "It isn't over."