With Five big seasons under her belt, Buffy probably isn't surprising anyone when she overcomes the grave itself to return for another two.
It's a weird feeling when you walk away from a life or a lifestyle and then, after some time, return to it. This is nothing new for Buffy, who departed at the end of Seasons One and Two, only to return at the beginning of the following respective season. But this time, not only is Buffy gone for almost five months, but time flows differently where she's been. To her, it was more like a few hundred years.
Back in the real world, not much has changed. Spike might have thought he was getting past his feelings for Buffy, but maybe not. Willow is still in it with the black magic, although it is a bit of a stretch to believe the conflict between her and Tara could have gone unresolved for that long. Xander and Anya are still anticipating their big day since Xander proposed to her at Five's end. Giles is getting ready to jump ship for the umpteenth time. Dawn, bless her little heart, is just trying to make it as a human.
Although Six is widely considered to be the darkest, most depressing season, I'd still have to give that honor to Five. There are just too many bright spots in Six, such as the musical Episode
Once More, With Feeling and all the comedy that comes at the expense of the archvillains, the Trio.
The Trio are a group of guys, including cult favorite Jonathan, who rather than going to college and pursuing the American Dream, decide to "take over Sunnydale" instead. They are the least physically intimidating of all the archvillains in the Buffyverse, but they do pull some interesting tricks to compensate. Joss Whedon's love of
Star Wars manifests itself greatly though them.
The ongoing relationship between Buffy and Spike is the hardest pill to swallow. Buffy finds herself drawn to him and revolted at the same time. Spike is just ecstatic that his long lost love is finally being returned to him. But this is a complicated romance, 'cause even if you could tell whether they were getting what they really wanted (which you can't), you wouldn't be sure that they even knew what they wanted. Gyah!
But in the end, Season Six has one of the longest and greatest final battles, a chain reaction that starts with the Trio's last great attempt at badness before villaindom is turned over to someone else. It's a three-hour orgy of pure Buffy with great action, great special effects, and emotions up the wazoo.
My sister Mary will cite without hesitation that Six is her favorite season of them all. I've yet to see if I agree with her...
Episode 1: Bargaining, Part I (8/10) This is one of the best Season openers there is. The gang are out and about, slaying demons on their own with a little help from Willow's magical power and the Buffybot, but things just aren't the same. After Giles makes his way back to England, Willow and the others prepare for the grandest spell of all -- to resurrect Buffy. At some point, Willow has to stab a baby deer, and
Alyson Hannigan cried a lot during filming that day 'cause the thought upset her. What a sweetie.
Best Quote: Spike:
"Oh, poor Watcher. Did your life pass before your eyes? Cup of tea, cup of tea, almost got shagged, cup of tea?" Episode 2: Bargaining, Part II (7/10) A bunch of lame biker demons have just found out that the "Slayer" is actually a robot, and return to Sunnydale to dispose of her quickly. Am I the only one who feels just a little bit sorry for that poor Buffybot? Right off the bat, you can tell the show is in more daring hands (it was sold to UPN), just by the violence and images alone. Well, the demons just so happen to interrupt the resurrection spell, causing the gang to split up, running away and thinking they failed. What nobody knows is that Buffy is down there, clawing her way out while all this chaos is happening. This Episode definitely keeps you hanging as far as what's going on inside Buffy's mind, even after she comes out of it long enough to wail on those biker demons for a few minutes.
Best Quote: Xander:
"I happen to be a very powerful man-witch myself." Episode 3: After Life (7/10) Magic always has consequences, always. Or so Spike says. Turns out he's right. Buffy's resurrection released a phantom demon that goes around possessing members of the gang at all the wrong times. Spike and Buffy grow closer here, as now it seems they have a few more things in common. Buffy confides in Spike that it wasn't Hell she was pulled out of with the resurrection... it was Heaven.
Best Quote: Xander:
"Look me in the eyes and tell me when you saw Buffy alive, that wasn't the happiest moment of your entire existence." Episode 4: Flooded (7/10) Still in a state of slight denial, Buffy slips back into her regular life as best she can. But things are different now. Debt is creeping on in, and to make matters worse, a Trio of nerds including Warren, a new guy named Andrew, and our old buddy Jonathan, are planning to take over Sunnydale. Giles returns from England to see Buffy, but is not as impressed as Willow was hoping he'd be. You'll find that this Season is more about Willow than anyone else.
Best Quote: Giles:
"You're..." Buffy:
"...a miracle." Giles:
"Yes. ...But then I always thought so." Episode 5: Life Serial (8.5/10) While Buffy attempts to find a job workin' with Xander, the Trio start doing their little nerdy experiments on her. Some of the stuff they do to her is pretty cool; one involves time moving differently for her than for everyone else, and another one puts her in a kind of inescapable loop a la Bill Murray in
Groundhog Day. Aw, but wait til she goes out with Spike for some drinks. Absolutely hilarious.
Best Quote: [at the poker table]
Spike:
"Me? I cheat? He's got X-ray vision." Demon:
"I'm not using it!" Episode 6: All The Way (6/10) It's Halloween time again, and after a busy day at the Magic Shop, Xander finally announces his and Anya's engagement. Party time! Willow takes the opportunity to show off again with the magic, "decorates" the house with the wave of a hand. Tara takes a second chance at expressing her worry over Willow's apparent addiction, but Willow disposes of the problem by casting a spell to make Tara forget the argument. The stuff with Dawn's first kiss is kind of bleh, but we get to see some nice Spike action again when it is discovered that the guy she was with was (surprise!) a vamp.
Best Quote: Janice:
"So?" Dawn:
"He's okay." Janice:
"Ho hum okay, or like, Oh my god, I think I'm gonna pee my pants okay?" Dawn:
"Pee." Episode 7: Once More, With Feeling (11/10) I know, I'm cheating. But there's only one thing I love more than movies, and that's music. Put the two together and you have the greatest thing since MTV. Musicals don't typically appeal to me, I guess 'cause it's different when you don't truly "know" the characters as much as you will have come to know these guys by now. And all of a sudden, here they are, spontaneously breaking into song! The consequence is that they often end up expressing their true feelings against their will. Sometimes they practically have conversations even as they're singing. The cast members are actually singing themselves, no dubbing here. Each character sings along to a genre that goes with their personality -- Buffy's song is traditional, Spike's is (relatively) hard rock, Giles sings a kind of brooding classic rock, Xander and Anya have an exorbitant, frilly silly little tune, and Tara's is a soft pop ballad that might have stormed the charts one day. The more you listen, the more you start to notice pieces of songs used within each other. How it all blends together, especially when the group start teaming up on songs like "Walk Through The Fire" (is that SLIDE guitar? Awesome!), it's all nothing short of ravishing. Joss actually wrote all the music for this himself. He's a madman!!!!!!!
Best Quote: Dawn:
"The hardest thing in this world is to live in it." Episode 8: Tabula Rasa (7.5/10) "Tabula rasa" translates into "clean slate", which is pretty much the theme here. Although Willow promised to go on a permanent magic hiatus since Tara found out about her "forget" spell, she quickly succumbs to the temptation to use a stronger version of that same spell. Only this time, it affects
everyone. They all wake up in the Magic Box, having no clue who they are. So they are left to their own assumptions. Spike thinks he is Giles' son, Giles and Anya think they are engaged (and they KISS, oh my God!!!), Willow and Xander think they're together, it's a mess!
Best Quote: Spike:
"Dad can drive. He's bound to have some classic mid-life crisis transport. Something red, shiny, shaped like a penis." Episode 9: Smashed (6/10) Willow realizes she is finally able to bring Amy out of rat form and back into being human again. It's kinda interesting having a 3rd witch in the mix again, and someone who is not nearly as hard on Willow for her magic addiction as everyone else. Spike makes a rather amazing discovery himself when he hits Buffy and the chip in his head doesn't activate. Could it be that the chip stopped working, or could it be...? The last three Episodes now have ended with Buffy and Spike kissing. Well, you know what they say about the third time.
Best Quote: Amy:
"Hi, Buffy." Buffy:
"Hi. How've you been?" Amy:
"Rat. You?" Buffy:
"Dead." Amy:
"Oh." Episode 10: Wrecked (7/10) Amy introduces Willow to a new demon called Rack. As if there weren't already enough... never mind. Anyway, this guy lives in an invisible apartment that moves around the city, and his magic power is SICK. Sort of like Riley with the vamp suckers, Willow finds solace basking in Rack's magic. One night while taking Dawn to the movies, Willow stops by Rack's place for a fix. And "uh-oh" is right.
Best Quote: Xander:
"Anya has a theory. She thinks that Martha Stewart froze that guy." Anya:
"Don't be ridiculous. Martha Stewart isn't a demon. She's a witch." Xander:
"Please, she-- ...really?" Anya:
"Of course. Nobody could do that much decoupage without calling on the powers of darkness." Episode 11: Gone (9/10) Ohh goodie, another what-iffer! While ridding her house of all magic paraphernalia, Buffy is confronted by a social worker at the worst possible time. The social worker doesn't think Buffy is fit to be taking care of Dawn. Ah, but that's nothing -- later, the Trio inadvertently shoot Buffy with their all new invisibility ray, which ultimately ends up helping her with a lot of things. Also, Buffy hacks off some of her hair!
Best Quote: Buffy:
"I'm not saying that I'm doing back-flips about my life, but... I didn't... I don't... want to die. That's something, right?" Willow:
"It's something." Episode 12: Doublemeat Palace (5.5/10) I don't know, there's something almost reassuring about the thought that even a vampire slayer, at some point, would have to stoop to the level of working a job in any way similar to mine. I mean, even if you had a Slayer's abilities, it doesn't mean you could just jump over the counter, scream "I quit" and then go kick some ass. Buffy is stuck in this place for a reason that most of us can relate to, so it's kind of fun. I won't argue with the scorn emanating from that place called "majority", yeah this Episode is pretty bad in a lot of ways, penis monster or no penis monster. But I can't bring myself to trash it all the way. Elsewhere, Willow is doing fairly well with her magic hiatus, but Amy throws a spell called "Potestas" her way. "Potestas" means "you have the power".
Best Quote: Xander:
"It's fast food. I've swum these murky waters, my friend. There's the assorted creepiness, there's staring, there's the enthusiastic not-showing-up-at-all. I think you're seeing demons where there's just life." Episode 13: Dead Things (4/10) Not real big on this one. Warren and the rest of the Trio have a new invention, to make any woman in the world love the person who uses it. We really start to see the rotten side of Warren when he uses it on his old girlfriend Katrina, and ends up killing her when she tries to run away. What a stool. Buffy, on the other hand, is confused about Spike's chip and so she asks Tara to look into the resurrection spell to see what might have went wrong. Not too often you see someone on their knees begging, "Please don't forgive me!"
Best Quote: Spike:
"I love you." Buffy:
"No, you don't." Spike:
"You think I haven't tried not to?" Episode 14: Older And Far Away (7.5/10) Just when you're certain that Dawn is out of the uber-angst zone, here comes inner turmoil once again. A lot of people get aggravated with Dawn's "attitude" here, but personally I sympathize with attention-cravers. Well, aggravating or not, this Episode does pose an interesting trial for our gang -- Dawn makes a wish to a counselor at the school, but "wish" is the key word. When the counselor turns out to be a friend of Anya's, another vengeance demon, the wish comes true and nobody can leave Buffy's house!
Best Quote: Buffy:
"How are you doing?" Tara:
"The word 'gulp' comes to mind." Episode 15: As You Were (8/10) Return of Riley, folks. Nuff said. Actually, this Episode turned out quite good considering the less-than-stellar memories Riley left behind in Season Five. Mr. Finn comes back swinging with a GREAT script... and a wife. But then the wife turns out to be really cool. There is also some great cameraderie between Willow and Buffy, and somehow Riley's departure at the Episode's end is not nearly the devastating spectacle it was last time.
Best Quote: Riley:
"Wheel never stops turning, Buffy. You're up, you're down, but it never changes who you are. And you're one hell of a woman." Episode 16: Hell's Bells (8/10) At long last, it is time for Anya and Xander's wedding! Imagine that, one huge family of humans and one huge family of demons stuck together in a church. Well, there has been no shortage of foreshadowing as to what was going to happen here, but in the end, you can sympathize with both sides.
Best Quote: Willow:
"I'll say this for the Y chromosome. Looks good in a tux." Xander:
"Well, your double X's don't look too bad there, either." Episode 17: Normal Again (7.5/10) As daring Episodes go,
Restless is obviously #1, but this one definitely makes the top five. Buffy finds herself spontaneously hallucinating that she is in a psychiatric ward. When there, her parents are both alive, and all that gobbledygook about Sunnydale, demons and vampires was just a figment of her imagination. Has it been her imagination all this time? What makes this Episode so convincing is that even if everything to this point had been Buffy's imagination, there was still at least some potential to "start over" with the story and expound entirely on a new life.
Best Quote: Willow:
"Hi, Tara, how are you? I was wondering, maybe, if you want to go out sometime... for coffee, food... kisses, and gay love? [sigh] Hi, Tara. Guess what? Magic-free now for - insert number - days now..." Episode 18: Entropy (9/10) Man, the end of this season is so great! In this Episode, Anya is trying to elicit a wish from someone else. A wish that would help her get back at Xander, 'cause she can't do it on her own behalf. Only problem is, she can't find someone to make the wish. And then, in walks the answer to all her prayers, none other than Spike. What happens with Spike and Anya is just... damn, you've just got to see it. On top of everything else, Willow has just hacked into the Trio's system of hidden cameras. What timing!!! I don't know if they meant to make this Episode as hilarious as they did.
Best Quote: Spike [to Anya]:
"I have nothing but respect for a woman who's forthright. Drusilla was always straightforward. Didn't have a single buggering clue about what was going on in front of her, but she was straight about it. That was a virtue." Episode 19: Seeing Red (8/10) The showdown is only just beginning. The Trio steal some balls from an underground demon area with a cool barrier. Warren takes the balls and they give him incredible strength, but of course, Buffy is there to stop him before he does something bad. Warren ain't too happy about those results, let alone his two accomplices getting jailed. With a gun in his hands, he shows up in Buffy's back yard.
Best Quote: Buffy:
"There's two ways this can end. And right now I'm thinking they're both gonna hurt." Episode 20: Villains (9.5/10) Buffy may have been the target, but here is where Tara makes her unfortunate departure as an unintended casualty. Willow is mad as hell! In one of the Season's biggest twists (which is spoiled by the pictures in the DVD case anyway), the role of archvillain is quickly swept away from the Trio and handed to Willow. In kind of a flashback to Season Five's 20th Episode, we find ourselves out on an abandoned desert road, and right back in Sunnydale before you know it. Willow may be on the verge of complete consumption by her own power, but I don't think I speak just for myself when saying I would've done the same thing she did.
Best Quote: Dark Willow:
"Something, isn't it? One tiny piece of metal... destroys everything." Episode 21: Two To Go (9.5/10) Having caught a taste of that good old fashioned death, Willow heads en route to the Sunnydale Jail to take out some more aggression on Jonathan and Andrew, while Xander and Anya work on protection spells at the magic shop. Andrew cuts loose with Star Wars references left and right. Spike also seems to be up to something unusual. Well, Dawn gets cocky and tries to go to Willow herself, but when Buffy arrives to protect Dawn, Willow teleports the lot of 'em straight to the Magic Shop. It's killin' time! This Episode would definitely get my vote for Best Ending, because I was literally jumping up and down like a kid when I saw it.
Best Quote: ????:
"I'd like to test that theory." Episode 22: Grave (9.5/10) Again, I find myself wanting to throw down that elusive 10/10 rating and just can't do it. I don't know, I guess the fireball thing is slightly lame, and Willow's out-of-character antics get to be a bit much. Also, I'm not sure why the title "Grave" except that Buffy and Dawn spend half the Episode in one. Otherwise, the title seems like an attempt to make us think something really bad is going to happen like the end of Season Five. BUT, we do get to see Dawn decapitate a demon, a hilarious scene with more laughing than you can believe, and some sweet special effects which really have been prominent in the last 3-4 Episodes. Again, the means by which evil is brought down here seems cheesy the first time, but is actually quite extraordinary.
Best Quote: Xander:
"You've been my best friend my whole life. World gonna end... where else would I want to be?" Dark Willow:
"Is this the master plan? You're gonna stop me by telling me you love me?" Xander:
"Well, I was gonna walk you off a cliff and hand you an anvil, but it seemed kind of cartoony." Season Six: 169/220 = 76.82% Season Five: 172/220 = 78.18% Season Four: 157/220 = 71.36% Season Three: 169/220 = 76.82% Season Two: 166/220 = 75.45% Season One: 77/120 = 64.17% Season 7 Well now this is interesting. Seems that Six and Three have tied for second place, with Five winning by a hair. I think it's safe to say those are your top three right there, 'cause I know Seven isn't going to change that. This whole scoring system is silly anyway, 'cause a few minor misjudgments on single Episodes could make a world of difference.
Cast Listing Sarah Michelle Gellar - Buffy Summers
Michelle Trachtenberg - Dawn Summers
Anthony Stewart Head - Rupert Giles
James Marsters - Spike
Alyson Hannigan - Willow Rosenberg
Nicholas Brendon - Xander Harris
Amber Benson - Tara Maclay
Emma Caulfield - Anya
Marc Blucas - Riley Finn
David Boreanaz - Angel (is he even in this Season?)
Adam Busch - Warren Meers
Danny Strong - Jonathan Levinson
Tom Lenk - Andrew Wells
Kali Rocha - Halfrek
Andy Umberger - D'Hoffryn
Amelinda Smith - Katrina
Elizabeth Anne Allen - Amy
James C. Leary - Clem
Jeff Kober - Rack
Amber Tamblyn - Janice
Hinton Battle - Sweet (The villain in
Once More, With Feeling)
DVD Extras Audio Commentary by Marti Noxon and David Fury on
Bargaining Audio Commentary by Joss Whedon on
Once More, With Feeling Audio Commentary by Drew Z. Greenberg on
Smashed Audio Commentary by David Soloman and Rebecca Rand Kirshner on
Hells Bells Audio Commentary by Rick Rosenthal and Diego Gutierrez on
Normal Again Audio Commentary by James Contner and David Fury on
Grave Featurettes: "David Fury's Behind the Scenes of Once More with Feeling", "This is my Verse, Hello! Buffy Karaoke", and "Buffy Goes to Work"
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Television with a Bite" episode of A&E's TV-ography
Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Panel Discussion
Outtakes
Season Six Overview
Interactive Game Trailer
DVD-ROM Buffy Demon Guide
I'd like to come up with a better closing, but it would appear I've said everything already. So six down, one to go!
