10. Wesley's death scene. Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker deserve Emmy nominations for their work this season. It'll never happen, of course, but it should.
9. Mercedes McNab in her baby-blue bra and panties. Yeah, yeah, Harmony was the Judas and still skated, just like she always does, blah blah blah. Mercedes McNab in her underwear.
8. "Sebassis! Your manservant has become tangled in my bodily fluids again!!" "Eeeep!"
7. Angel: "I understand jokes! I was at the first taping of The Carol Burnett Show. Tim Conway was on fire. It was special..."
6. When they finally slammed the door on the whole "Shanshu" thing. You know, the ancient prophecy that Angel would someday become human again? The carrot that's been dangled in front of him since the end of the first season? Gone, signed away in a heartbeat (so to speak) as a test of his loyalty to the secret society he'd infiltrated. WHICH WAS AWESOME. It summed up the whole show: You keep going even when there's no hope, no possibility of reward. You just keep going. Hell, the guy is practically a blogger.
5. Lorne quitting. It just makes sense. He's an empath, after all, and he's always been squeamish about the more hands-on aspects of the whole operation. He did that one last thing for the team (big thanks to the WB promo dept. for giving it away!), and then he was out. Look on the bright side, Lorne fans: He's one of the few characters with more than a 50% chance of survival.
4. The "Spike goes into a biker bar looking for a fight" fakeout. Glad his poetry finally got the recognition he always thought it deserved. I mean, come on:
My soul is wrapped in harsh repose
Midnight descends in raven-colored clothes
But soft... behold! A sunlight beam
Cutting a swath of glimmering gleam
My heart expands, 'tis grown a bulge in it
Inspired by your beauty... effulgent
And he had to wait like 130 years for somebody to truly appreciate that. Brings a tear to me eye, it dooz.
3. The scene with Gunn and Anne at the runaway shelter. So what if that woman cannot act, never could act, and never will be able to act. It was kind of nice to see her.
2. The utter Butchcassidyandthesundancekidness of the final scene. That's how you go out, man. The shrieking demon horde might as well have been wearing WB T-shirts, huh? And:
1. They couldn't have given Angel a more perfect last line than, "Well, personally, I kinda wanna slay the dragon. Let's go to work." The Dark Knight Is Forced into Retirement? Fuck that!
Now I almost hope this is really it, no TV movies or any of the other rumored stuff, because I don't see how they can possibly top this last episode. Seven years and over 250 episodes in all? Even the worst of them better than almost anything else on TV that you don't have to pay extra for? Not bad. Not bad at all.
See also Top 10 Favorite Moments In The Final Buffy, In No Particular Order
Posted by Jim Treacher at May 20, 2004 10:32 AM