The Gift (Buffy episode)
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| “The Gift” | |
|---|---|
| Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode | |
 |
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| Episode no. | Season 5 Episode 22 |
| Guest stars | Clare Kramer (Glory) Charlie Weber (Ben) Amber Benson (Tara) Joel Grey (Doc) |
| Written by | Joss Whedon |
| Directed by | Joss Whedon |
| Production no. | 5ABB22 |
| Original airdate | May 22nd 2001 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "The Weight of the World" | "Bargaining, Part One" |
"The Gift" is Episode 22 in Season 5 of the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was the last episode to air on The WB Network and therefore, the network called it the series finale. The TV Series moved to rival UPN .
Contents |
[edit] Plot synopsis
[edit] Summary
Buffy faces Glory as the ritual commences.
[edit] Expanded overview
Buffy slays a vampire to save a teenage boy in an alley. The Scooby Gang, knowing that Glory has the advantage over them, make plans to try to avert the apocalypse that will result if her plans succeed. None of them have any ideas apart from killing Buffy's sister Dawn, which Buffy refuses to consider. In the end Anya suggests the use of two items that had been found earlier in the series: the Dagon Sphere, which is supposed to repel Glory, and the hammer of Olaf the Troll God. They then try to find out where Glory's plan might be occurring, but Tara, who had been made insane by Glory in a previous episode, tries to lead them there saying that she has a big day and needs to be somewhere. All of Glory's victims who had been turned insane instinctively knew where Glory's base was. Dawn is tied up at the top of a tower that Glory's minions have constructed for the ritual to open the gates between dimensions, allowing Glory to return home but setting all hell loose on Earth in the process.
The group prepares to leave, waiting until sundown with the aim of delaying the ritual that will dissolve the barriers between dimensions long enough for Glory's window of opportunity to pass, if not to kill her. As Tara arrives at the tower, she is accosted by Glory who demands to know what she is doing there. Glory is then ambushed by Willow, who performs some sort of spell that restores Tara's sanity, confuses and dazes Glory and throws all three of them backwards violently. Glory, still dazed, decides that she need a brain to psychically feed on and sees Buffy. She tells her minions to guard the path up the tower.
Buffy brandishes the Dagon Sphere and tosses it to Glory, who is obviously in pain holding it. Glory manages to crush it in her hands. In this time Buffy runs up and attacks her, initially gaining the upper hand. Giles, Spike and Anya attack the minions at the base of the tower, with the hope of breaking through to rescue Dawn. Glory regains her senses during the fight with Buffy and throws a punch that is hard enough to knock Buffy's head off, revealing that she was actually fighting the Buffy-Bot that had been constructed earlier in the season. The real Buffy sneaks up behind Glory and strikes her with the hammer. Glory is thrown backwards into a wall by the force of it. Buffy then forces her way past Glory's minions and attempts to climb the tower. However, Glory again regains her senses and fast catches up with her. They fight on the path up the tower and Buffy desperately tries to climb higher, hindered by Glory eventually resulting in both of them falling off the tower path to the ground. The hammer lands several feet away from Buffy and Glory confronts her before she can retrieve it. Glory is knocked off her feet, however, by a wrecking ball that Xander is using. Buffy picks up the hammer and sets about beating a dazed Glory repeatedly with it. Glory quickly reverts back to the form of the mortal Ben, and Buffy tells him to leave Sunnydale and never return. She then leaves to try and rescue Dawn. Giles approaches a panting Ben and suffocates him to prevent Glory ever returning.
At the top of the tower, Dawn is nervously watching the battle raging below. She is surprised to see Doc at the top of the tower and, unaware that he is working for Glory, cries to him for help. He instead pulls out a knife and advances on her.
Giles, Anya and Spike are not making any progress through the minions and fall back, until Spike notices that there is someone at the top of the tower along with Dawn. Willow communicates telepathically with him and tells him to run to the top of the tower and rescue Dawn, and then she and Tara use magic to knock all the minions down. Spike sprints to the top of the tower and when Dawn sees him she calls to him. Doc turns round and Spike advances on him. The fight is short-lived however, as Doc proves to be far stronger than suspected and throws Spike from the tower, giving himself time to initiate the ritual. He makes two shallow cuts on Dawn's stomach.
Buffy runs to the top of the tower and pushes Doc from the top of it. She unties Dawn but some of her blood has already dripped into the air and the portal has been created. It expands and all manner of demons emerge from it around Sunnydale. Dawn, knowing that the portal won't close until her blood stops flowing, plans to jump into the portal, believing that would close it and save the world, even if she dies in the process. Buffy stops her; she then suddenly has a flashback of several points in the season---telling Dawn they both shared "Summers blood," her earlier proclamation that "the monks made [Dawn] out of me," and most significantly, when she met the spirit guide who told her that "Death was [her] gift." Buffy realises that she and Dawn share similar blood, and that if she, Buffy, throws herself into the portal, it will close. After exchanging a few brief words with Dawn, she throws herself into the portal, closing it. Her battered body is found as the sun is rising at the bottom of the tower.
Buffy's friends grieve — Giles and Spike in particular show very pained expressions — and the last scene of the episode is Buffy's grave bearing the epitaph 'Devoted Sister, Beloved Friend. She saved the world. A lot.'
[edit] Writing and acting
[edit] Cast
- Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris
- Emma Caulfield as Anya Jenkins
- Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers
- Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg
- James Marsters as Spike
- Michelle Trachtenberg as Dawn Summers
- Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles
[edit] Production details
[edit] Music
- Christophe Beck - "Sacrifice"
[edit] Quotes and trivia
- Buffy: "Dawn listen to me, listen. I love you. I will always love you, this is the work I have to do. Tell Giles that... Tell Giles I figured it out... And I'm ok. And give my love to my friends. You have to take care of them now, you have to take care of each other. You have to be strong. Dawn, the hardest thing in this world, is to live in it. Be brave, Live... for me." These are the last spoken words from BtVS on WB, and also the last thing that she says to her sister, Dawn, before giving her life to close the portal. The camera pans out and the last thing we see before the episode ends is Buffy's gravestone.
- Tara: "You are a killer" -- She says this as the gang leaves to take on Glory, foreshadowing Giles' killing of Ben/Glory.
- Buffy: "Everyone knows their jobs. Remember, the ritual starts; we all die. And I'll kill anyone who comes near Dawn."
- Glory: The Slayer's a robot? Did everybody else know the Slayer was a robot?
- Buffy: Glory. (Buffy hits Glory with Olaf's hammer) You're not the brightest god in the heavens, are you?
- As Giles and Spike leave to take on Glory, Spike says, in response to the above quote, "Well, not exactly the St. Crispin's Day Speech, was it". This is a reference to Shakespeare's "Henry V", in which the St. Crispins Day Speech appears. Giles follows this with the most famous quote from the speech, "We few, we happy few", and Spike finishes the line, with his own interpretation, "We band of buggered". The real quote is "We band of brothers".
- This is the last episode that would be aired on the WB.
- The "Previously on..." portion of this episode included clips from every previous season of the show.
- As mentioned by Joss in the commentary for both this episode and "Chosen," this episode was originally written to serve as the series finale, and several ideas that were used in the real finale were originally written for this episode.
- Originally Sunnydale was supposed to be destroyed by the Hellmouth in this episode but it was decided to save the idea for the series finale, "Chosen".
- Joss Whedon joked at the Noctural convention in 2001 that Anya was originally supposed to die in this episode, however, he had to keep her alive because Emma Caulfield kept moving as Xander was carrying Anya [1].
- This episode marks the first episode where Rupert Giles kills an innocent.
- Giles would have later confessed to killing Ben in Season 7, "Lies My Parents Told Me", but the scene was cut right before it aired.
- Dawn, standing atop the tower with her arms bound to poles, is strongly reminiscent of Rogue in the climactic scene in the film version of X-Men
- Olaf is never mentioned as being a Troll God until this episode. In "Triangle" he is simply referred to as a man who was magically changed into a troll. Anya mentioned that his power was contained in his hammer, however, which makes the hammer a more valid weapon.
- Originally, Dark Willow was going to bleed Dawn, when Tara dies in an earlier episode.[citation needed]
- Buffy's statement to Dawn, "The hardest thing in this world, is to live in it," was repeated by Dawn in "Once More, with Feeling."
[edit] Translations
- Italian title: "Il dono" ("The gift")
- German title: "Der Preis der Freiheit" ("The price of freedom")
- French title: "L'apocalypse" ("The Apocalypse")
[edit] Continuity
[edit] Arc significance
Crossover with Angel: Willow goes to Los Angeles to give Angel the bad news in "There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb".
[edit] Timing
- Stories that take place around the same time in the Buffyverse:
| Location, time (if known) |
Buffyverse chronology: January 2001 - Spring 2001 (non-canon = italic) |
|---|---|
| Sunnydale, 2001 | B5.12 Checkpoint |
| L.A., 2001 | A2.12 Blood Money |
| L.A., 2001 | A2.13 Happy Anniversary |
| Sunnydale, 2001 | B5.13 Blood Ties |
| L.A., 2001 | A2.14 The Thin Dead Line |
| L.A., 2001 | A2.15 Reprise |
| Sunnydale, 2001 | B5.14 Crush |
| L.A., 2001 | A2.16 Epiphany |
| Sunnydale, 2001 | Buffy book: Wisdom of War |
| Sunnydale, 2001 | B5.15 I Was Made to Love You |
| L.A., 2001 | A2.17 Disharmony |
| L.A., 2001 | Angel book: Vengeance |
| Sunnydale, 2001 | B5.16 The Body |
| L.A., 2001 | A2.18 Dead End |
| L.A., 2001 | Angel book: Haunted |
| Sunnydale, 2001 | B5.17 Forever |
| L.A., 2001 | A2.19 Belonging |
| Sunnydale, 2001 | Buffy graphic novel: Ugly Little Monsters |
| Sunnydale, 2001 | Buffy comic: 'Chaos Bleeds' prequel |
| Sunnydale, 2001 | Buffy video game: Chaos Bleeds |
| L.A., 2001 | Tales of the Slayer: Again, Sunnydale |
| Sunnydale, 2001 | B5.18 Intervention |
| Sunnydale, 2001 | Buffy book: Tempted Champions |
| Sunnydale, 2001 | Buffy book: Little Things |
| Sunnydale, 2001 | Buffy book: Crossings |
| Sunnydale, 2001 | Buffy book: Sweet Sixteen |
| Sunnydale, 2001 | B5.19 Tough Love |
| L.A., 2001 | A2.20 Over the Rainbow |
| Sunnydale, 2001 | B5.20 Spiral |
| L.A., 2001 | A2.21 Through the Looking Glass |
| Sunnydale, 2001 | B5.21 The Weight of the World |
| Sunnydale, 2001 | B5.22 The Gift |
| L.A., 2001 | A2.22 There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb |
| Sunnydale, 2001 | Buffy graphic novel: Death of Buffy: Lost & Found’ |
| Sunnydale, 2001 | Buffy graphic novel: Death of Buffy |
[edit] External links
- The Gift at the Internet Movie Database
