Kat, this is a good link for a lot of the finale articles:

[link]

thanks sue! You're fab!

Hey, Ted, I love your list, except for:

Get it Done C I remember little about it, never a good sign.

Shadow puppets, slayer dream, Spike retrieving his coat, "they chained her to the earth", Willow briefly becoming BlackHaired!Willow again. One of my favorite episodes of the season, though few others seem to like it much.

I, too, was one of the ones that started with it, and finished with it, and it's a good feeling to have done that with a show that wasn't cancelled unrisen.

And a good feeling to still feel a great deal of love for the show. Yeah, I'm still working on getting rid of the residual X-Files bitterness.

Hoya, could you back and whitefont this: HoyaSaxa "Buffy 4: Grr. Arrgh." May 21, 2003 7:40:21 am EDT

Casting spoiler.

It was a really satisfying episode.

One of the best bits, for me? Watching Joss empowering all those proto-Slayers while holding a 12-year-old girl on my lap. He set the myth free.

I am happily spoiled on casting issues, but they really shouldn't be discussed here. That is what the Lite thread is for. This should be a safe zone for the spoiler phobes.

I'm still hung up on Anya dying. But on reflection I feel better about Xander's reaction. He was in shock about everything that happened and even though Sunnydale is just a crater the situation isn't over--there were wounded to take care, figuring out a place to go, supplies to get. I'm sure Xander was still in crisis mode, all he could process at the time was Anya was dead but she'd died saving Andrew.

I'm sure later, when things settled down, it really hit him that Anya was dead and he grieved.

Watching Joss empowering all those proto-Slayers while holding a 12-year-old girl on my lap.

Ya know, when I saw that my first thought was that Willow just set loose a fair number of super-strong potential bullies on the world. My second thought, much later on, was that the government will hunt them down.

mearaing a bit:

What I hurt the most about Anya dying was her being left behind, not being found. Just lying there.

Yes, this. Anya has been my favorite character from the get-go, and watching her die, and then abandoned by Xander...

I just have this to say: Msbelle is as tough as she says she is.

There was this glow that seemed to descend upon her around about 8:45 EDT. I really think she got some of the slayer powers. It was either that or all the bourbon...

I'm just still coming to terms with the whole on-line culture thing. It's partly me being a bit wary of meeting people (this is not just an on-line thing), and me being aware or overly cautious or ridiculously self-conscious of imposing my presence on others (so to speak). I still want to go through the whole meet and greet stage on-line, and then let people (including myself) decide if the F2F is appropriate.

Ken, we were thinking of you last night, mostly kicking ourselves for not inviting you after your delurk. Sorry about that. We have a mailling list. Instructions on how to subscribe are here.

but didn't you just love VI!

She kicked ass. I'd watch a show about her.

I SO TOTALLY CALLED IT. Okay, I didn't, I thought Buffy would have to give up her own power somehow and then get it back, but I called the empowering other Slayers thing. Along with Cindy and a lot of other people. But in any case I feel smug.

When Buffy had her brilliant idea immediately the FE taunted her that she would have to die for further slayers to be called, I was really scared they were going to try that whole "let's kill and revive Buffy and Faith again and again until we have a ton of slayers called," that we once discussed here. Thank god I was really, really wrong.

Since I couldn't fall back asleep when the cats woke me up at 5:30, I just rewatched the episode, and I ffel better about Xander's reaction too. It was clear that someone (I think Dawn) more or less dragged him out of the building, and that finding out what happened to her was very important to him.

I'm sure you'll be happy to know that my house in Somerville was also filled with drunken laughing/crying Buffy fans, including most of the cast of Buffy the High School Slayer's High School Reunion. We had Blood Oranges, (s)Layer Cake, Angel Cake and Bloomin' Onions. Also averaged more than one bottle of red wine per person.

My friend Kevin is a crossword puzzle constructor, and he made a wonderful cryptic in honor of the finale. It's available at [link]

Warning: Kevin makes fiendishly hard puzzles. If you're not a cryptics fan, you probably don't want to tackle this, though you'll probably get a kick out of the clues.

I was completely blown away by the puzzle. First of all, it must have been incredibly difficult to create (the way the puzzle is designed there are very serious constraints on both the grid entries & the first few letters of each of the clues). Second, like all of Kevin's puzzles, it is extraordinarily well-constructed and fair. Third, it was made for a very small audience. There aren't that many people who are into psychotically difficult word puzzles AND Buffy fans. Of course, Kevin did bring it to the place where there would be the highest concentration of such people.

Anyone who wants help or hints on the puzzle, feel free to email me.