Unlike the previous four seasons, the metaphor for season five
was a little harder to pin down.
The problem was that, so much was crammed into the
twenty-two short episodes that there wasn't just one
metaphor, there seemed to be an amalgamation of several
all strung together.
Firstly, we had the sense that, collectively, the gang was all
growing up. With sudden inclusion of Dawn, and the death of
their mother, the character of Buffy was suddenly forced to
grow up and take responsibility for the people and situations
around her. She is no longer the child, she has to play the
adult in an unusual situation and some times that means
saying and doing things that most people of her age should have
to even consider. She has to worry about bills, the possibility
of social services taking Dawn away and making hard decisions.
Similarly, the people around her grow stronger. Xander gets a
promotion and suddenly gains the stability and independence
that he desperately craves in his life. He moves in with Anya
and eventually proposes. Willow becomes more proficient
with her magic and moves in with Tara. And Giles is reinstated
as Buffy's Watcher, giving him the chance to reclaim his place in
Sunnydale.
Secondly, Buffy spends a good portion of the season attempting
to find out more about her power, the history of Slayers, what
happened to the other girls that resulted in their deaths. In that
sense it could be compared to finding out about your family
tree. By understanding where you came from and where your
mannerisms took route, you can understand yourself that much
better.
While there are many high points, there are many low points,
too. The death of Joyce places a huge shadow of the lives over
the group and force them to confront the very real issue that
sometimes things just happen in life that you can't plan or
prepare for and that you can't always fight them physically. This
fought back at the television viewer who felt that "Buffy" over
fantasized very real issues of life.
In essence, season five is a prelude to events that would
essentially take a definitive shape in Season Six and would be
rounded off by the end of Season Seven.
