Buffy and Angel Rewatch part 15

3.21 Graduation Day part 1

This is one of my favourite season finales and unlike some of Buffy's two parters I think the first is just as strong as the second part. The Faith Mayor stuff is just excellent and there is a real chemistry between the pair. Everything they did was just so dastardly and evil and you really get the feeling that they are a threat. I think bringing Anya into the mix, describing the Ascension she had seen was a brilliant decision and made what was going to happen a whole lot scarier.
I must admit I got a twinge of saddness in the early scenes of this episode with Willow feeling nostalgic about high school. This is my first time watching Buffy seasons 1-3 in full and consecutively and in such a short space of time too and I have to admit I'm really going to miss the high school years of the show. I really get why some people say these are the best years of Buffy.
There are a lot of highlights in this episode, Willow and Oz having sex for the first time was sweet, Buffy finally getting the true meaning of graduation when she quits the Council as well as some lighter moments such as Angel slipping or playing hangman in school. I think its these lighter moments in amongst the more serious ones which made Buffy what it is.
The final fight between Buffy and Faith was pretty epic and had such an exciting outcome, but in all honesty I fund some of the fight sequences in shows a little boring sometimes and whilst this was a good fight, it wasn't my favourite bit of the episode (10/10)

3.22 Graduation Day Part 2

What an amazing episode. Everything about this episode just works so perfectly, from the dramatic Angel feeding on Buffy scene to that excellent and perfect final scene with the Scoobies, its just a brilliant finale. Despite saying that however I'll start with my one nit-pick, which is that Buffy could have easily chased after Faith's body and retrieved it for Angel. However dramatically it worked so much better with Angel feeding off Buffy. That's such a powerful scene, as is the scenes where the Mayor watches over Faith and confronts Angel. One of the things which makes the Mayor stand out from the rest of the villains on the show (apart from maybe dark Willow) is that he has a human weakness. Its picked up on obviously and is the key to winning the battle. However his father's love for Faith which is a powerful force, makes him a different type of evil altogether because he really cares about someone. His anger in the scene with Angel is proof of this.
Another great scene is when Angel has to tell Giles and the others what he did. Once again they are disgusted by his actions. Even though it was set-up like this for the spin-off, you can't help but think that at this point in the show's reality, Angel has hurt Buffy so many times that her friends can't really keep forgiving him any more and even if he had stayed he wouldn't be very welcome any more.
One of my favourite plot devices probably in the whole series is using the Sunnydale students to fight the Mayor. It works on so many levels and really helps round of the high school years. When the students take off their gowns to reveal the weapons I get chills, as its really a poignant and exciting scene. There are some casualties of course, but I think that made it realistic and made it have a little more impact.
The CGI for the Mayor monster is actually alright and better than most of their similar demons. I also liked the Faith Buffy dream sequence though apart from the '730' comment (standing for the countdown to Buffy's future death) I realised I don't really understand any of it! (10/10)


Season 3 Overall

Even though I've enjoyed season 1 and 2 a lot more than I originally did, I think season 3 just beats them as one of the best Buffy seasons. However this is odd since I don't really like all the main arcs in the season. For instance I didn't really like the Willow/Xander thing, and Buffy and Angel can be pretty dull. However I think its strength lies in it's other arcs, Faith, the Mayor, and the gang growing up which are all very strong. I think also that this season out of the 3 so far has the most consistent season in terms of episodes. Whereas in season 2 there was some really bad episodes in amongst the great ones, season 3 has less of these. Not all the episodes are classics by any stretch and there are some real peaks and troughs in the episode order(some good episodes followed by a couple of bad and then some good ones again). However I think generally the episode quality remains quite high throughout the season. Also a much smaller thing but I think this is my favourite title credits of the show. It has lots of iconic moments featured in it, plus I think its the best cast line-up overall.

One thing that struck me about the season even before I started it, when I was reading through the episode descriptions was that a lot happens before the half way mark in the season, Willow and Xander have their affair, causing the latter's relationship with Cordy to end, Angel returns and gets back to normal, Faith appears and is developed as a character, and the Mayor is revealed as evil. I couldn't really remember then what happens in the later half of the season, however there was still a lot of action, with the arrival of Wes, the gang approaching graduation and Faith turning bad. Its a credit to the writers that the season remained strong despite being a little lighter on storylines.
I think another thing that makes this my favourite season is its Big Bad- the Mayor. He's just so different from the other Big Bads. He's not so focused on 'evil' but on other things as well (germs!) which I think makes him more well rounded as character and not a cartoonish 2D enemy. Not that Buffy ever had those, but the Mayor's personality and general demeanor was just so much more entertaining than some of the other Big Bads. His love of Faith was particularly endearing to watch, the father's love he had was definitely meant to parallel Giles' love for Buffy and in a way it made the two men very similar as they cared so much for their Slayers. I liked the way the writers built him up as a threat as well. There are a lot of early mentions of the Mayor. It isn't abundantly obvious that he is going to be the big evil unless you've seen the show, but I like the hints that he might be evil with constant links to Snyder.


Overall I'm quite sad to be finished with this season, not just because it was so good, but because its the end of the high school years and after this the show changes quite a lot. Its not necessarily for the bad, but there is a real innocence in the high school years that is never quite recaptured in the later seasons and I'll definitely miss the tone of the Buffy high school years. Although this season had the least number of purely high school storylines, it was always there as the familiar background. It shall be missed. (9/10)