By Kyle McClosky

So, here we are: the finale of Buffy’s premiere season. It’s arguably the first great episode of the show, with some epic moments and a great deal of storylines reaching their inevitable climaxes. Not coincidentally, this is creator Joss Whedon’s directorial debut, and while it is still a bit rough around the edges, there is a noticeable increase in the amount of energy in the performances, as well as the quality of the episode as a whole.

Buffy learns that the Master, that evil old vampire trapped underneath the city, is going to rise soon and will destroy the whole town and eventually the world unless she fights him. What she doesn’t know, but Giles does, is that there is a prophecy that states that her confrontation with the Master will end in her death.

Clearly, there is already a great deal dramatic potential in this story, but Whedon decides to pile even more heft onto this episode by amping up the tensions within the relationships of the characters: Xander finally gets up the courage to ask Buffy to the (rather clichéd) Spring Fling, but she shoots him down; he then turns and asks out Willow, who also rejects him, because she no longer wants to be his backup plan. Buffy eventually discovers Giles knew about the prophecy and feels betrayed by her friend and Watcher. This all reaches a boiling point when Buffy (wearing a new dress her mother bought her) descends into the cavern where the Master lives to face her destiny. And dies. But not before she accidentally releases the monster she came to fight.

I do have to give Whedon credit for juxtaposing the supernatural and the everyday (even if subtlety isn’t his strongest suit). As the vampire populace of Sunnydale becomes more aggressive, Whedon shows a great series of images that are amazingly horrific: Willow uncovers the murdered members of the football team and notices a bloody handprint on the television set playing old Looney Tunes cartoons. It’s a great little moment that demonstrates Willow’s loss of innocence. Too bad there is a later scene with Willow and Buffy that unnecessarily underlines the horror of this. I understand why it was there for plot purposes, but still, a little too heavy-handed for my taste.

Of course, Buffy is resurrected when Xander and Angel arrive and administer CPR (there really should be a list of all the times in movies when someone has been brought back to life with just CPR). She then proceeds to go back and kick the Master’s undead butt in a fight on the roof of the library, while her friends fight a Lovecraftian beast that emerged from the Hellmouth under the school. This monster puppet looks particularly awesome and makes me nostalgic for those times before CGI infested all movies and TV shows. It is a little cheesy, but at least there is the sense of an actual physical presence, rather than just a series of zeros and ones in a computer (yet I’m still excited for James Cameron’s Avatar).

So, all-in-all, Buffy’s first season ends on a high note, but it still has a long way to go before I start trumpeting Joss Whedon’s greatness. The potential is definitely there, it just needs to be unlocked. Maybe next season.

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