Buffy the Vampire Slayer: How the Buffy Finale Took a Step for Women Power
From the outside, the final episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a normal, though excellent, final episode which wraps up stories, kills off characters and features the good guys triumphing over evil.
Yet, underneath, the concluding episode of the series takes such a big step in the evolution of the shows seven-year-old central message, that you don’t even realise how much it resonates with you until it’s over.
The key to a successful finale, apart from concluding a story satisfyingly, is to give meaning to the show’s central themes and develop the mission statement that began it. Buffy was always about woman power, giving us some of the strongest female characters on TV whilst delicately unpicking the problems inherent with modern, male-driven entertainment.
It proved that you could have a strong, kick-ass woman, with layers and depth, who was respected and demanded respect. She was smart as well as strong, flawed as well as attractive and as a role model to a young audience, you can’t get much better.
This was all reflective in the way the show was conceived, turning the cliché on its head by having the blonde in the alley be the person monsters should be afraid of. The spiel from the start, about a chosen one who would fight the forces of darkness, became a mantra to be broken.
Buffy was entirely devised to break this tradition, to be the chosen one, a slayer, yet still be a teenager in high school, who had friends, went to parties and then, at the end of the day, slayed a few vamps.
Despite times in which she felt it, she was never alone, with her friends and family to keep her from fighting solo.
She was the kicker of asses whilst being your typical teenage girl and by having a group of slayerettes alongside her it gave the show it’s patriarch busting message whilst giving the audience a great bunch of characters to root for.
She wasn’t just arguing with the stuffy old men on the watchers council or stopping sleazy men from hollering at women, she aimed to break down the very rules that kept her alone.
The finale managed to so perfectly capture the spirit of the show’s mission statement that it makes complete sense that this is how it ended. Despite the fact that the Season five finale ‘The Gift’ is technically a better episode, I think that 'Chosen’ makes a statement that echoes the heart of Buffy in a way that’s a pure summation of her seven years of slaying.
In the final episode, Willow uses the power of the scythe to make every potential slayer into a full slayer, destroying a thousand years of tradition and giving Buffy the day off she deserved. Whether you liked the potential slayer story or not, and I did, it works exceedingly well in reflecting the deeper meaning of Buffy
She passionately gives the potentials the chance to stand up and be the women they were meant to be, whilst also saying the same to every person watching it too. During seven years of story, the female empowerment message gets a little lost, but in 45 minutes Buffy reminds you to stand up and fight against the patriarchal constraints of the world.
Thirteen years after the final episode and I still can’t stop watching her take on the world. She’s such an incredible role model, to me and to everyone and without her the landscape of Television would be a lot worse.