And so the end is nigh…
This is it, the final Chapter in the Buffyverse.
For seven years we have been guided through all manner of hell and
things that go bump in the night and now we must say goodbye, once and
for all. But in true “Buffy” style, they will go out the way they came in.
With a Bang.
When Season Seven opens up, Buffy is teaching Dawn everything about
being a Slayer, Willow returns to Sunnydale after spending time in
England with Giles learning to control her powers. Xander and Anya have
officially broken up and Anya is officially a vengeance demon again.
Each must learn to live with the decisions that they made in the previous
Season and learn to fit into each other’s lives
The basic premise is that The First has come to Sunnydale. The First is
the first evil that lay across the land. Before man, before time, before any
creature set foot upon the planet, the First existed. It is in every person
who has the potential to commit a crime and every man who ever has. It
has the ability to take the form of any person who has died (including
Adam, Glory and even Buffy herself) and is non-corporeal (it is not
physically there and thus cannot touch anything). The First recruits a
group of no-eyed, high priests known as the Bringers to kill all the future
Slayers and their Watchers. Giles begins to bring young girls to Buffy’s
home so that she can protect them and teach them how to be Slayers.
Amongst this group is a spirited young woman named Kennedy who will
become Willow’s new girlfriend.
For some viewers, introducing Kennedy for this purpose gave them a
sense of unease. Intended to be slightly younger than our Willow, some
felt that jumping into a new relationship so quickly sullied the beautiful
relationship that had been built up between Willow and Tara in previous
years. Joss Whedon struck back at the raised eyebrows by explaining that,
with Tara, Willow never really had to face the harshness of coming out to
other people outside of her friend base and family. With Kennedy she got
the opportunity to do this and finally deal with death of Tara.
We are also introduced to Robin Wood; Sunnydale High’s new Principal
and the son of a Slayer that Spike killed in 1977 (Fool For Love). An
interesting new addition Robin was raised by his mother’s Watcher and
possess knowledge and skills that only a Slayer has and also has an,
understandable, grudge against Spike.
As the numbers grow, so too does the tension, until the viewer can’t
breathe. With the great reintegration of Faith (who appears to have
smoked more than her fair share of cigarettes in prison) into the mix,
our heroes set about destroying the Hellmouth once and for all…
