Season Five begins in a nice, normal way. Both Willow and Xander are still in
strong relationships with the women they love, Buffy and Riley are as strong as
they can be when Buffy is one of the pair and Dawn is as irritating as always.
Wait a minute…Who’s Dawn?
This sudden and interesting character inclusion left fans around the world sitting
up saying, “Huh…Have I missed an episode?” Well, no, you haven’t. Dawn is
Buffy’s sister. Yes, I know that she wasn’t mentioned before, that’s because she
didn’t exist before.
I’ll try and explain.
Dawn is The Key, a glowing mass of energy that opens all the doors to other
worlds and dimensions. Made human by a group of monks who wanted to hide it
from “The Beast”, they rearranged the gang’s memories and inserted her into
their lives so that Buffy would protect her.“The Beast” wants to find The Key,
put her in the lock and “Give her a good twirl” is actually a Hell God named Glory
Glory once ruled an unpleasant Hell dimension,but was thrown out for the
atrocities that she inflicted. All she wants is to go home and reclaim her seat
power. But with the greatness that is this season, comes loss and in this Season
we lose two main characters. One whom we loved and one I eventually came to
tolerate and appreciate.
The first was Joyce Summers, Buffy and Dawn’s mother. Joyce was shot down
in her prime when she develops a Brain tumour during this Season. From her first few words in the opening episode to her beautifully played death episode (The Body) she was everything a mother should be. Caring,, hard if required, guiding and forgiving. She was (eventually) accepting of her eldest daughter’s calling as a Slayer. She had her life put in danger many times, but remained consistently graceful
Joyce, we will miss ye.
The second was the departure to the jungle of Riley Finn, Buffy’s ex-marine
boyfriend. For many fans, Riley’s leaving was not considered a great loss.
By the standards of any other show, Riley would be considered super-cool.
He was a good-looking, fairly well toned soldier who fought demons for the
Government, but was smart and sensitive, too. But, by the standards of
BTVS, he was boring. The problem was that we had all fallen into Buffy’s
way of thinking and expected more from our men. We wanted danger,
excitement and the possibility of them turning evil. Sweet, sensitive men
would never satisfy us.
This season was the last to be made by Warner Bros. and so in true "Buffy" style,
its departure had to be glorious and fitting.
In short, Buffy dies.
