Grave (Buffy episode)

Infobox Television episode
Title=Grave


Series=Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Season=6
Episode=22
Airdate=May 21, 2002
Production=6ABB22
Writer=David Fury
Director=James A. Contner
Guests=Anthony Stewart Head
(Giles)
Danny Strong
(Jonathan)
Tom Lenk
(Andrew)
Episode list=List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes
Prev=Two to Go
Next=Lessons

"Grave" is the 22nd and last episode of season 6 of the television series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".

Plot synopsis

ummary

While Xander and Dawn whisk away Jonathan and Andrew for an unknown sanctuary, Anya and Buffy take on the very evil Dark Willow at the Magic Box using Anya’s newly returned demon powers and Buffy’s Slayer abilities, until Giles suddenly appears back in town and takes on and subdues Willow with some borrowed magics of his own. But Willow has a few tricks up her sleeve and gets Anya to help her escape.

At daybreak, the final conflict approaches. While Jonathan and Andrew take advantage of the chaos to slip away, Buffy finds herself fighting side-by-side with Dawn against underworld demons conjured by Willow to kill them. With Buffy otherwise occupied, Willow rallies her dark powers on the ruins of a Satanic temple to bring about the end of the world, and every good person in it, once and for all.

Meanwhile, Spike’s African sojourn comes to a climax when he endures hours of physical and mental pain in his cave fighting demonic opponents and at the end gets his wish... of a soul.

Expanded overview

Willow starts to recover from Giles' attack, but she is not interested in his attempts to help. He tries to keep her down, but she is persistent and he is forced to bind her physically and magically with his powers. Buffy and Anya hug Giles, who then offers his sympathies to Willow and then catches up with Buffy. Giles reveals that he was given power from a powerful witches coven in England to stop Willow. Buffy fills him in on everything he's missed and Giles reacts by laughing hysterically at what has happened. At the same time, Willow communicates with Anya telepathically and tells her how to end the binding spell. Buffy and Giles continue to laugh about the luck of their lives and then talk about Buffy's feelings about being alive in the world. The subject goes back to Willow and Giles explains that the coven is trying to extract Willow's powers without killing her. Willow appears in the doorway, holding an unconscious Anya, and reveals that she's free of the binding spell.

Willow magically throws Buffy aside and sends weapons flying at Giles. He blocks them though and sends her flying through a brick wall into the main room. Meanwhile, Xander and Dawn walk down a road with Jonathan and Andrew just behind them, talking about what to do next. Xander again rambles on that he believes how useless he is, that he's really a coward because he did nothing when Warren shot Buffy and Tara, and did nothing at the Magic Shop to stop Willow. When a smug Dawn mentions that Spike would help out and not be afraid, Xander lets it slip that Spike tried to rape Buffy the night before last. Dawn is not quick to accept that.

In the cave in Africa, Spike wins another round in the cave and asks for whatever else the demon can dish out. He gets it when his body is suddenly covered in beetles.

In the Magic Box, which has been almost completely destroyed from the magical battle, Willow is confident in her strength and a weakened Giles tries one last attempt to hurt Willow by bringing up Tara and what her thoughts on the situation might be. After Buffy saves Giles from Willow's rather destructive response, Willow creates a fireball that she sends off to find and destroy those that remain of the Trio. Buffy rushes off to try and stop the fireball before it hurts Jonathan and Andrew, as well as Xander and Dawn.

Willow lectures Giles while she slams his body repeatedly against the ceiling and the floor. He interrupts her with some magic but she doesn't let that stop her. She sucks the power from Giles' body and revels in the overflow in her body. The magic she took from him though is accompanied by an emotional burst that makes her feel so much that she decides it has to end; there's too much pain in the world and she must end it all.

Xander, Jonathan, and Andrew try to break into crypts at the cemetery looking for a hiding place, but they're interrupted as Willow's fireball heads for them. Buffy races through the cemetery and tries to get everyone out of the way before they're hurt. After the fireball hits, Xander is knocked out, the ground shakes and opens up and Buffy and Dawn fall into a large hole. Andrew and Jonathan take the moment to escape and head for Mexico.

At the Magic Box, Anya finally comes to and finds a weakened Giles on the ground. He can feel Willow's presence and knows that she's going to end the world. Buffy tries to climb out of the hole but struggles and tries to pull coffins out of the surrounding dirt walls to stack and try to escape on. After Xander comes to, Buffy sends him to find some rope to help them get out.

Dawn questions why Buffy didn't tell her about what Spike did and tells her sister that she can't protect her from the world. Anya appears in the hole and updates Buffy on the situation with Willow. On a bluff elsewhere in town, Willow raises the altar of Satanic temple out of the ground to help her with her plans. Anya explains how Willow is going to end the world by using her powerful newfound magic to drain Earth's life energy though an effigy of a demon, and that anything magical or supernatural (including Buffy) cannot do anything to stop her. She leaves with the parting information that Giles is short on time.

Xander, standing at the top of the hole, overhears this and runs off. Willow senses Buffy's desire to stop Willow, and talks to Buffy telepathically; Giles can also hear her as she speaks. Willow wants Buffy to die fighting and creates creature-like earth elementals for her to battle. Buffy tries to fight the elementals as best as she can and, outnumbered, Buffy asks Dawn to help.

Willow begins her magic on the cliff and the earth starts to shake all over town and ground begins to blacken. Willow is feeding power into the temple when Xander arrives. Finally breaking his cowardice and self-pity, Xander jumps in the way, disrupting the flow. He tries to reach her humanity through their friendship, but gets tossed around and magically sliced at. Giles wakes up and realizes that there is still hope. After one of the elementals attacks her, Dawn kills one, which she credits to watching her sister in action. On the cliff, the wounded Xander talks to Willow and appeals to her emotions by reminding her of her past and telling her that he loves her and he'll stick by her side no matter what she does. She uses magic to physically wound him every time he tells her he loves her until he finally gets through to her and her powers drain away. Willow tearfully breaks down in Xander's arms as the dark magic drains from her and she returns to her usual red-haired appearance.

No longer on the edge of death, Giles wakes up and tells Anya that the magic he received was intended for Willow to steal. It tapped into her remaining emotions and gave Xander the chance to reach her humanity. Anya is shocked to find that Xander saved the world. Back in the crypt, the Earth-creatures disappear, and Buffy starts to cry happy tears. Dawn questions whether instead she really wanted the world to end. Buffy assures that things are going to get better and she's now really ready to live. Buffy and Dawn climb out of the hole and check out the horizon while Xander continues to comfort Willow, the surviving members of the trio ride off to Mexico, and back at the Magic Box Anya helps Giles to his feet and out of the wreckage.

In Africa, a severely bruised and bloodied Spike lies on the ground of the cave as the demon approaches him and announces that Spike has successfully endured all the required trials to grant his request. Spike rises to his knees and again asks the demon to give him what he wants so he can, "give Buffy what she deserves." The demon places his clawed hand on Spike's chest... and returns the vampire's soul.

Writing

Xander's importance to the "gang" is explored as he prevents Willow, as a powerful witch on the rampage, from destroying the world by trying to get across to any part of the humanity Willow has left inside her. He tells her stories of their childhood, and says he loves her no matter what she does to him, which includes slashing his face and arms, to which he replies "I still wanna hang." His love eventually breaks through as she breaks down crying in Xander's arms, reverted back to the old Willow. It had been earlier stated that no Slayer or supernatural force could stop Willow, therefore Xander, having no powers, was the only one who could stop her.

At the beginning of the episode, Buffy comments to Giles that she feels that when she crawled out of her grave, she left part of herself behind. At the end of this episode, she must once again crawl out of a grave, this time with Dawn. The first time, she was disoriented, it was night time, and Sunnydale had been overrun by demons. This time, it is morning and she is with Dawn, and they look out over a beautiful forest. It is a chance for her to start over, and really live for the first time since she was brought back to life at the beginning of the season - thus completing the circle begun with her resurrection the previous fall.

Acting

tarring

* Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers
* Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris
* Emma Caulfield as Anya Jenkins
* Michelle Trachtenberg as Dawn Summers
* James Marsters as Spike
* Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg

pecial guest star

*Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles

Guest starring

*Danny Strong as Jonathan Levinson
*Tom Lenk as Andrew Wells

Co-starring

*Steven W. Bailey as Cave Demon
*Jeff McCredie as Officer (credited but does not appear)
*Damian Mooney as Patrol Cop (credited but does not appear)
*Michael Younger as Truck Driver (credited but does not appear)
*Brett Wagner as Trucker

Production details

Music

*Sarah McLachlan - "Prayer of St. Francis" - As Buffy climbs out of the ground with Dawn. - The song appears in the U.S. version of the (12 songs), but not in the UK one (21 songs).

Translations

* Italian title: "Baratro" ("Chasm")
* German title: "Der Retter" ("The savior")
* French title: "Toute la peine du monde - 2ème partie" ("The Sadness Of The Whole World - Part 2")

Quotes and trivia

*"Uh-oh, daddy's home! I'm in wicked trouble now."- Willow. A reference to the father-daughter relationships that Buffy, Willow and Anya share with Giles. Drusilla also says a similar line in the "Angel" episode "Reunion" when Angel arrives to seemingly stop her and Darla.

*"Fly, my pretty, Fly."- Willow. A reference to the Wicked Witch of the West in "Wizard of Oz".

*The running gag of Andrew being unimportant and unknown is continued with Willow's line, "You probably even think you're buying escape time for Jonathan and the other one."

*This is the only Buffy season finale not written and directed by Joss Whedon.

*As the camera pans across the destroyed Magic Box, and comes to rest on Willow's boots, one of the books on the floor is a novel by William Shatner.

*The legend of the Slayer says that when one Slayer dies, another takes her place. This happened the first time Buffy died, resulting in two Slayers. However, when Buffy died at the end of Season 5, no Slayer replaced her at the beginning of Season 6. No mention of this is made until this episode, in which Buffy says "But it was my time, Giles; someone would have taken my place". Buffy suggests in the next season that, should she die, one of the potentials may be "called." Joss Whedon has stated that the Slayer line did indeed pass from Buffy to Kendra, and then to Faith, so that Buffy's death would no longer affect the Slayer line.Fact|date=February 2007

*In the DVD commentary for this episode, director James Contner says that while filming the scenes with Willow and Xander on the cliff, the wind churned up dust, which blew into Alyson Hannigan's eyes. Because of the dust, Hannigan removed her black contacts and her eyes were blackened digitally in post-production.

*Also in the commentary, David Fury mentions that he had intended for Willow to stand and pace while she talks about the effects of sucking Giles's magic, but Alyson Hannigan wanted to sit during the speech. She wanted to convey that draining the magic weakened her at first but then made her stronger.

*Upon Giles return, Anya states "I'm blonde...I had my hair coloured...again. I'm blonde!". Anya has been blonde throughout seasons 5 and 6 so Giles would have known this.

Continuity

*The incident Buffy and Giles are laughing at occurred in "Normal Again", in which a demon's poison made Buffy believe she was in a mental institution for dreaming up Sunnydale.

Arc significance

*The Magic Box is destroyed in this episode.

*This episode brings to an end the "Big Bad Willow" story arc, with Xander, the show's everyman, saving the world through love and friendship rather than violence.

*Meanwhile, Buffy's own grief, which started in the middle of Season Five with Joyce's death and was aggravated by Tara's, is finally resolved as she completes the process of accepting life that she began in "Normal Again."

*Dawn proves herself to be a capable fighter and Buffy agrees to stop being overprotective of her, which will become important in Season Seven.

*Andrew and Jonathan leave town and head to Mexico.

*Spike receives a soul, an event that will significantly impact both Season Seven and Season Five of "Angel."

Timing

*Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:

External links

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