Random styling comment... the beginning scene where all the girls, sans Buffy, are all talking over each other is filmed all NYPD Blue-like -- super shaky handheld camera work. I dunno if that was about trying to make the audience feel as lost as they were or what. It just seemed odd, and it stuck out.

After being kicked out of her own house, Buffy walks alone amidst the paniced evacuees and looters. She breaks into someone else's house to get some sleep. Spike and Andrew return with news about the Caleb and the vineyard. He quickly finds out what happened with Buffy and he's off trying to pick up her scent. He finds her quickly. They talk about the difference between quitting and being rejected. The power is still in her hands. She just has to take it back.But still feeling the hit of rejection, Buffy just wants to sleep, and she asks Spike to hold her. So he does, and they fall asleep in each other's arms. *sigh* So sweet.

Spike: You listen to me. I've been alive a bit longer than you, and dead a lot longer than that. I've seen things you couldn't imagine, and done things I prefer you didn't. I don't exactly have a reputation for being a thinker. I follow my blood, which doesn't exactly rush in the direction of my brain. So I make a lot of mistakes, a lot of wrong bloody calls. A hundred plus years, and there's only one thing I've ever been sure of: you. Hey, look at me. I'm not asking you for anything. When I say, "I love you," it's not because I want you or because I can't have you. It has nothing to do with me. I love what you are, what you do, how you try. I've seen your kindness and your strength. I've seen the best and the worst of you. And I understand with perfect clarity exactly what you are. You're a hell of a woman. You're the one, Buffy.

The First visits Faith in the form of the Mayor, he once quasi-father figure. He taunts her and tries to unbalance her by telling her that Buffy only thinks of her as a killer, and that's all Buffy will ever consider her. Robin Wood finds her and they discuss the First and how it showed itself to Robin. They share a moment or something, and since this is the night before the end of the world... there's only one thing left to do. Yup, SEX. Then later on there is this great scene with them discussing quality of said encounter. She thinks it was stellar, he says it was a'ight. She says she's gorgeous, and he tells her he's far prettier than she is. Which is kinda true. D.B. Woodside is a very beautiful man. The eyes alone. Good stuff.

It really ends up being quite the night for the lovin'. Kennedy and Willow get it on upstairs. Xander and Anya seem pissy at all the moaning and groaning from upstairs, and eventually scratch their jealous  itches on the kitchen floor. I guess impending death will do that to ya.

The next morning Buffy goes to visit her bud Caleb at the vineyard. This time she's much more prepared for what he's capable of and she keeps making him miss. Quite cute really. It starts with a very Matrix-esque lean back scene, then proceeds to her being super fast and tiny and all avoidy. They do this for a bit, and Buffy eventually discovers a hidden room containing a weapon.

Faith and the Potentials are in the sewers, thanks to some information they managed to squeeze out of a captured Bringer. After a wee skirmish there, they realize there's not much going on down there, until Faith discovers a bomb about to explode.

Ugh. It's really started to set in. There's only 2 more episodes left. It's so sad :(

7x21 End of Days

Buffy has found what The First was keeping from her and what Caleb was taunting her about having -- a weapon. They keep referring to it as a scythe, but it doesn't really look like one I'm familiar with. Whatever it is, it's wicked cool. It's supposed to be some ancient tool, but it looks awfully new to me. It's got clean sparkly chrome looking stuff on it. Could they achieve chrome way back when? Just a thought.

Guardian: I'm sorry, what was your name?
Buffy: Buffy.
Guardian: No, really...

So, she must be like King Arthur or something, cuz she just pries the weapon out of stone where Caleb and his blind buddies have been trying to get it out of. Caleb looks quite exasperated when she manages to pick it up like any other daily household object.

Over in the bomb-land with Faith and Potentials, well, the bomb went off. It killed quite a few and left Faith unconscious. So unconscious in fact, she could go off and film her new show at the time -- Tru Calling. Decent show, but it didn't fare well. So, bomb goes off, ubervamps come out of the woodwork to attack, Buffy comes by to save the day with her new shiny weapon. I think it may have even matched her outfit. Our Buffy, always about the style.

Buffy gives Xander a task that he's most de-balled by. She wants him to run and take Dawn with him. Dawn's a slick one, so he has to knock her out to do it. Once she comes to and finds out what's going on, she manages to turn things around on Xander, what with the one eye and all, and head back to Sunnydale.

I forget what lead her there, but Buffy ends up at this tomb in the graveyard that we've never ever noticed before. It has all kinds of ancient design stuff on it, and no one ever noticed it. Hmm. In the tomb, she finds an old woman who tells her the story of the scythe and why it was created. It was made in secret and kept from the shadowmen. Just as she's reallly relaying the info, Caleb comes and snaps her neck. Oh snap, indeed.

As the two of them tussle about, Caleb appears to get the upperhand, until Angel arrives and knocks him down. But, this is Buffy's thing and Angel knows this, so he steps aside and lets her finish it. She ends up doing a nice gut move on Caleb then gives Angel a luscious liplock worthy of any hello. Well, no hello I've ever been a part of, but I'm betting I'm just weird.

Nearby, Spike is watching with a look of either disappointment or total broken heart. Sometimes it's just hard to tell. The First visits him as Buffy. Man, when they are down, the First is always just right there. Oh right, original pure evil... sounds about right.

7x22 Chosen

Buffy and Angel's reunion of the lips is interrupted by Caleb. Guess that gut-check wasn't the end-all after all. Buffy quickly dispatches him with a good slice with the scythe - starting at the man melons and goes straight up. That should take care of him now, I'm thinking. Buffy goes back to Angel to get some more lip action, but then Angel brings up the fact that he can smell Spike all over her. Buffy tells him that Spike has a soul now. This scene gets so cute, cuz Angel actually gets jealous.

Angel: That's great. Everyone's got a soul now.
Buffy: He'll make a difference.
Angel: You know, I started it. The whole having a soul. Before it was all the cool new thing.
Buffy: Oh, my God. Are you twelve?

After their cute tete-a-tete, Buffy asks Angel to go back to LA. She needs him there in case she's not successful in Sunnydale. He can be her next line of defense. Oh, he also came with an amulet that Wolfram & Hart gave him, and he thought it was meant for him cuz they said for something ensouled that wasn't human. So, I guess having that Spike around is a bit handy in those situations where you'd rather not be the one helping. Anyway, he does like his woman tells him and he leaves.

Later, Buffy comes to the conclusion that she can use the scythe to access crazy awesome power to give to all the Potentials. However, Willow is going to have to access those wicked powers that made her all evil last time. So, she's a bit worried about that. Everyone heads to the school, to the seal which they intend to open. They are taking the fight to the ubervamps. The fight ends up starting a tad early, but they manage to hold on... then pooof, Willow's magic works and all the Potentials around the globe get their powers. So, now the Potentials in Sunnydale can start kicking ass, Buffy-style. Willow didn't do all dark and veiny either. Her hair actually got super white and Kennedy called her a goddess. Guess she's learned that just cuz she has power, doesn't mean it always has to be a bad thing. Her hair quickly goes back to red though, in case you were wondering.

Buffy: I hate this. I hate being here. I hate that you have to be here. I hate that there's evil. And that I was chosen to fight it. I wish a whole lot of the time that I hadn't been. I know a lot of you wish I hadn't been either. But this isn't about wishes. This is about choices. I believe we can beat this evil. Not when it comes, not when its army's ready, now. Tomorrow morning, I'm opening the seal. I'm going down into the Hellmouth and I am finishing this once and for all. Right now you're asking yourselves what makes this different. What makes us any more than a bunch of girls getting picked off one by one. That's true. None of you have the power that Faith and I do. So here's the part where you make a choice. What if you could have that power... now? In every generation, one slayer is born... because a bunch of men who died thousands of years ago made up that rule. They were powerful men. This woman is more powerful than all of them combined. So I say we change the rule. I say my power... should be our power. Tomorrow, Willow will use the essence of the scythe to change our destiny. From now on, every girl in the world who might be a slayer... will be a slayer. Every girl who could have the power... will have the power... can stand up, will stand up. Slayers... every one of us. Make your choice. Are you ready to be strong?

So, as they fight the ubervamps, they just keep coming. At one point they realize they can't take 'em all. They've lost a lot of Potentials and Anya has even died -- sliced from shoulder to waist, it was wicked gross. As they start to realize they are outnumbered, a big chunk of sun or something hids Spike who is wearing the amulet. He doesn't burn up though. The amulet sends numerous rays of sunshine into the ubervamp cavern which incinerates them. Only thing is, he must stay there to make sure they all get gone. Buffy and Spike have a small moment and she heads off to catch up with everyone else who's already left via school bus. Spike stays until all the ubervamps are dead, and then he is finally incinerated himself -- going out a champion. Who'da thunk?

Buffy: I love you.
Spike: No you don't, but thanks for saying it.

Buffy has to run like mad though cuz the town seems to be caving in from the school outwards. Jumping from rooftop to rooftop, Buffy manages to catch up with the bus. They stop once they get clear of the town, and when they turn back, it's just a huge crater. No more town.

The show ends with Buffy starting a bit of a smile, when she realizes that she's not the only Slayer anymore. She might even be able to step back and have a bit of a life. That is something for our Ms. Summers to smile about... it's only what she's wanted from the beginning.

Hiding from Jasmine in the sewers, Angel, Fred, Wes, Lorne, and Gunn run into a strange creature who claims that the beings of his world loved and worshipped Jasmine first. As Jasmine's forces close in, Angel realizes that he must travel to this other dimension to find the key to defeating her.

Lorne: I really hate today.
Gunn: I'm worried about tomorrow myself.

Ugh. Just a bad episode. Ok, the alternate universe where Angel goes to get more info was kind of cool, but other than that... bleh. There must be something about 4th seasons in the Joss-Verse. Cuz Buffy's 4th season sucked and it's happening with Angel as well.

For later reference, he finds out a dude called the Keeper of the Word seems to hold Jasmine's true name. Now he just needs to get the guy to talk... which is kind of hard with the dude's mouth sewn shut.

4x21 Peace Out

Angel comes back from that other world or dimension or whatever with the head of the Keeper of the Word. The word in this case is Jasmine's true name. He cuts the sewn-shut mouth and out the name is whispered.  As soon as that happens, Jasmine loses her power. People also start to see that same maggot-y face that I guess is her true face. So, they start running scared.

He and Angel end up having a big fight. She tries to throw a car on him. Guess her strength is still around. Connor saves the day by coming up behind her and punching her through the back of her head. It was gross. He then just walks away all mopily in true teenager fashion.

Jasmine: Why do you hate me so much?
Angel: Let's run down the list, huh? Rain of fire, blotting out the sun, enslaving mankind, and yeah, oh yeah. Hey! You eat people!
Jasmine: Like you never have?

Angel returns to the hotel, and the gang look beyond spooked. Just as Angel catches their vibes, Lilah walks out of the office.

This could be a good episode, I don't know. I just really really really REALLY hate season 4. It's just so hard to be unbiased.

4x22 Home

So, Lilah is back. And she's sporting a real nifty scarf thing. Wonder why? Oh, yah, that's right. Wesley cut her head off after she died. Silly Wesley. Since Lilah does work for the law firm from hell, death does not necessarily mean the end of her contract with them. She's been brought back to offer the gang Wolfram & Hart, LA Division. Yup, the whole shebang. They get to take over W&H and do whatever they like. They ask why, and she says cuz they just ended world peace, and that's just bad for business. They take a bit of offense to that, but ultimately realize that yes, they did indeed end world peace. Hard to argue with.

She says they just have to be outside the hotel at dawn, and there will be a limo waiting for them. They all act completely put out, and yet all of them end up out there waiting for the limo. They figure they will just see what's going on. Oh, and Connor is out wandering the streets being all emo and shit.

As they arrive at W&H, everyone greets "Mr. Angel". That was kind of humorous. Lilah greets them and wants to split them all up to see the various departments they would be working in. After some initial suspicion, they end up going. Looks like Lorne will head the Entertainment Division, Fred would be in the Science Division, Wesley would be an uber-librarian. Charles thinks he's being taken to security cuz all he ever seems to be good for is muscle. Seems like he is being taken up into that freaky White Room. Wonder what that's about.

Angel: I'm not bursting into flames.
Lilah: Necro-tempered glass. The whole building's fitted with it. Helps keep those uplifting, wholesome, rays from charbroiling the boss...and 30% more energy efficient.

Angel is shown his office, with his fancy new glass, and also told they have an amulet that will help Buffy with her current apocalypse. He can have it, if he agrees to takeover the firm. He seems completely bored until she shows him his big screen TV in his office, until he sees Connor on the news. He has taken families hostage from a nearby mall or sporting goods store or something. So, off he goes to rescue him, of course.

Back at W&H, Lilah finds Wes in the archives looking for something. He finds her contract and burns it, but it just appears in the file again. Lilah actually seems a bit moved by the gesture.

Back at the store, Connor is doing bomb-y things with batteries and such. Cordelia is there, still in a coma, and strapped up with a bomb too. He's mad at Angel for letting Holtz get him. Well, actually he's just mad about anything and everything. He did grow up in a hell dimension, so maybe that's natural. Connor goes to turn on his bomb, but Angel punches him and they fight. Angel frees everyone in the store, throws knife in Connor's leg, tells Connor he really loves him. Typical family issues.

Everyone returns from their tours and they look very impressed and wide-eyed. Angel enters and tells them all he took the deal. Lilah says they will take care of Cordelia, and try to find out how to get her out of the coma. She gives him the amulet, and mentions something about taking him to see Connor. The rest of the Gang don't seem to know who Connor is.

Angel's limo arrives in woods. He's looking at a nice big log cabin-y type house. He looks in the windows, and sees Connor at a table with a family eating dinner. They are talking about college and how well he did in high school. This is his family now, apparently.

Angel takes his amulet package and heads out... to Sunnydale.

Random observation. It's just weird that he's all about Cordy, "The woman he loves"... but he goes to Sunnydale and talks about his possible future with Buffy. He's a SLUT HO BAG. I'm just sayin'.