Buffy The Vampire Slayer Should Have Ended With Season 5 – Screen Rant

Buffy the Vampire Slayer was originally supposed to end after season 5, but it continued through season 7, to the series' detriment.

Joss Whedon's cult favorite supernatural teen drama,Buffy the Vampire Slayer, almost saw its series finale with the ending of season 5, "The Gift"; while the show continued for two more seasons, for many reasons, season 5 would have been the stronger ending.

Buffy the Vampire Slayerstarted airing on The WB in 1997 and ended up switching networks to UPN for season 6 and season 7. The series finale aired in 2003. Throughout the series' seven season run, Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and her friends battled against vampires, demons, Gods, and many other different enemies in a somewhat untraditional "monster of the week" format that was also utilized by shows likeThe X-Files andCharmed. Setting itself apart from those shows was a lot of heart and teen drama, punctuated by Joss Whedon's iconic humor and dialogue that aided in developing beloved characters that remain dear to audiences nearly 20 years after the show has been off the air.

Related: Buffy The Vampire Slayer: How Season 6 Completely Changed The Show

While "The Gift" would have certainly been a polarizing ending for fans, it was planned that way for a reason, at least originally. Not only was the episode the landmark 100th episode for the series, but it did well to wrap up the Slayer's storyline in a way that was tragic, but actually sensible, and sometimes preferred to the actual series finale, "Chosen" for a few reasons.

Even though "The Gift" effectively and permanently killed off Buffy Summers, part of the Slayer's legacy is deeply involved with death, and they have short lifespans for a reason. The build-up to Buffy's season 1 showdown with The Master revolved around the acceptance of a 16-year-old girl coming to terms with her inevitable demise, as it was prophesied. Even though Buffy did die at The Master's hands, she was resurrected, resulting in a second Slayer being called; this goes against the Slayer prophecy of one Slayer at a time, so even after Kendra's death, Faith was called. Now, there are always two. Because of this, Buffy's permanent death makes even more sense; she inadvertently messed with the fabric of the universe and destiny's design - there's nothing to directly connect this subversion of her demise to everything that followed season 1, but it could be argued that Buffy has been cheating death since then.

Beyond that, Buffy's death in "The Gift", and many events in season 5, were teased by the season 4 finale, "Restless", and even before. Dawn's arrival was foreshadowed heavily as early as season 3, through a dream where Buffy and Faith are discussing "Little Miss Muffet". The line "counting down from 7-3-0" has been confirmed by Joss Whedon as counting down to the exact number of days before Buffy sacrifices herself to close a portal that will bring about the apocalypse at the hands of Glorificus and save her sister, Dawn, whose blood was used to open the portal, since she is actually a mystical key given human form by an ancient order of monks. The first slayer, Sineya, told Buffy directly that "death is your gift", which coincides with the episode's title. In essence, Buffy was not only willingly sacrificing herself to save the world, she had come to terms with this fact instead of avoiding it any longer; she was giving a gift to the world by giving up her own life to save everyone.

While The WB did not renewBuffy the Vampire Slayer, the show was picked up by UPN and continued the story, beginning in season 6 with a two-part episode that saw Willow and the Scooby Gang resurrecting the Slayer after Sunnydale was overrun with monsters and other evil forces in the absence of a Slayer to protect the city. Though their actions weren't completely selfish, they ended up pulling Buffy out of Heaven, and this rift in the cosmic balance ended up having major, dark effects on many of her friends and on Buffy herself. While certainly a sad ending to the show, it's not always possible for everything to end happily.

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Jack Wilhelmi is the horror features editor at Screen Rant, and has been with the site since 2019. He is a lifelong fan of the horror genre, and loves any excuse to discuss genre-related topics, since none of his friends dare challenge him in horror trivia. He has been published on the independent horror blog Morbidly Beautiful, and has covered major genre film festivals such as Cinepocalypse in Chicago. He has also served as a judge for the Ax Wound Film Festival.In his free time, he is a devoted dog dad to a high-spirited rescue pup named Peter Quill and enjoys volunteering with various animal rescue organizations. Jack likes to travel and explore dark tourism-related and other various haunted locations. He enjoys studying psychology, the paranormal, and will watch literally any schlocky B-movie on the planet for a laugh. Follow him on Twitter @JackMacabre or his dog on Instagram @quillthethrill.

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Buffy The Vampire Slayer Should Have Ended With Season 5 - Screen Rant