Graduation Day part 1

These snapshots may contain SPOILERS for the entire series, so if for some reason you haven't yet seen some of the episodes and do not want to know what is going on, read no further.

----------------------------recap-------------------------------
The gang receive some valuable information from their old enemy Anya, who has actually witnessed an Ascension. She reveals that the Mayor plans to transform himself into pure demon, something that has not been seen for hundreds of years. When Angel is poisoned by Faith, Buffy faces with Faith in order to get the only cure to the poison: the blood of a Slayer.
--------------------------end recap--------------------------

Willow: I'm going to miss her.
Buffy: Don't you hate her?
Willow: Yes, with a fiery vengeance. She picked on me for ten years. Vacuous tramp... It's like a sickness, Buffy. I'm missing everything. I miss P.E.!


Good character development, good dialogue and an average plot.

Lots of good individual parts to this but doesn't quite come together as well as part 2.

Lots of big things happening in this episode, with long lasting repercussions. Faith’s chilling cold-blooded murder of Professor Worth is something that would have been almost inconceivable a few episodes ago. Anya’s romantic scene with Xander (“When I think that something could happen to you it feels bad inside, like I might vomit”) is funny. The funniest moment of the episode, though, has to be the scene in the library, when Giles and Xander unfold the illustration of Olvikan ("We're gonna need a bigger boat."). And there’s a genuine atmosphere of menace during the scene when the mayor visits the library. Though you have to hand it to Giles for stabbing the mayor with the sword. Buffy quitting the council, after their refusal to help Angel. It won't be 'till season 5 ("Checkpoint" 5x12) before she rejoins them again because she needs their help with Glory.

Lots of people don't think the ending with her being knocked down before Faith jumps is in character / believable. Buffy's reaction after mortally wounding Faith is reminiscent of the reaction she had when she thought she'd killed Ted. So I don't think its too far out of character for her to lie there stunned for a couple of seconds. I mean how else would we have gotten the villains lasts words?


My views/status of characters;
Buffy - like
Willow - like
Xander - like
Giles - like
Cordelia - like
Spike - absent
Angel - neutral
Oz - like

Overall I consider this a good episode compared to the rest of the season.