The Gift

"The Gift" is Episode 22 in Season 5 of the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was the last episode to air on The WB Network and therefore, the network called it the series finale. The TV Series moved to rival UPN. Buffy faces Glory as the ritual commences.

Quotes and trivia

 * Buffy: "Dawn listen to me, listen. I love you. I will always love you, this is the work I have to do. Tell Giles that... Tell Giles I figured it out... And I'm ok. And give my love to my friends. You have to take care of them now, you have to take care of each other. You have to be strong. Dawn, the hardest thing in this world, is to live in it. Be brave, Live... for me." These are the last spoken words from BtVS on WB, and also the last thing that she says to her sister, Dawn, before giving her life to close the portal. The camera pans out and the last thing we see before the episode ends is Buffy's gravestone.
 * Tara: "You are a killer" -- She says this as the gang leaves to take on Glory, foreshadowing Giles' killing of Ben/Glory.
 * Buffy: "Everyone knows their jobs. Remember, the ritual starts; we all die.  And I'll kill anyone who comes near Dawn."
 * Glory: The Slayer's a robot? Did everybody else know the Slayer was a robot?
 * Buffy: Glory. (Buffy hits Glory with Olaf's hammer) You're not the brightest god in the heavens, are you?


 * As Giles and Spike leave to take on Glory, Spike says, in response to the above quote, "Well, not exactly the St. Crispin's Day Speech, was it".  This is a reference to Shakespeare's "Henry V", in which the St. Crispins Day Speech appears.  Giles follows this with the most famous quote from the speech, "We few, we happy few", and Spike finishes the line, with his own interpretation, "We band of buggered". The real quote is "We band of brothers".
 * This is the last episode that would be aired on the WB.
 * The "Previously on..." portion of this episode included clips from every previous season of the show.
 * As mentioned by Joss in the commentary for both this episode and "Chosen," this episode was originally written to serve as the series finale, and several ideas that were used in the real finale were originally written for this episode.
 * Originally Sunnydale was supposed to be destroyed by the Hellmouth in this episode but it was decided to save the idea for the series finale, "Chosen".
 * Anya originally was supposed to die in this episode. She would later die in the final episode.
 * This episode marks the first episode where Rupert Giles kills an innocent.
 * Giles would have later confessed to killing Ben in Season 7, "Lies My Parents Told Me", but the scene was cut right before it aired.
 * Dawn, standing atop the tower with her arms bound to poles, is strongly reminiscent of Rogue in the climactic scene in the film version of X-Men
 * Olaf is never mentioned as being a Troll God until this episode. In "Triangle" he is simply referred to as a man who was magically changed into a troll.  Anya mentioned that his power was contained in his hammer, however, which makes the hammer a more valid weapon.