Graduation Day, Part Two

"Graduation Day, Part Two" is the season finale of the third season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and is the fifty-sixth episode altogether. It was written and directed by Joss Whedon. It originally broadcast on July 13, 1999.

Buffy forces Angel to feed on her to save his life and he must rush her to the hospital to save her. The Mayor Ascends, and the Class of '99 blows him and the school up.

Synopsis


After stabbing Faith, Buffy stands stunned for a few moments, then drops the knife and escapes from the rooftop just before the Mayor enters Faith's empty apartment with a group of vampires. The Mayor, devastated by the thought of losing Faith, orders the vamps to find her.

At the library that night, Xander and Giles search for information on the demon the Mayor will become Olvikan, while at the mansion, Willow watches over Angel; delirious, he mistakes her for Buffy and confesses how much he needs and loves her. When Buffy finally returns, she sends Willow away, then demands Angel drink her blood so that he will be cured. He weakly refuses, but she strikes him repeatedly to bring out his vampiric side, then pulls his head to her throat. He drinks deeply, pulling away when Buffy loses consciousness from loss of blood.



Angel rushes Buffy to hospital, explaining that she's lost a lot of blood. In another room, a doctor tells the Mayor that Faith's head trauma coupled with massive blood loss means she is unlikely to regain consciousness. The Mayor notices Buffy in bed, and tries to smother her until Angel tears him away. The Mayor leaves with a message not to miss the second act, "...with all kinds of excitement." The scoobies arrive, and Angel explains to them what happened to Buffy. Xander notes to Angel, "...that's good to know. That when the chips are down and things look grim, you'll feed off the girl you love to save your own ass." Giles persuades Angel to leave the hospital before sunrise.

Dreaming, Buffy visits Faith, who is packing up her apartment. Faith says human weakness never fades, "Not even his." Faith tells Buffy that it's time to go and then Buffy wakes up in the hospital bed. She walks over to Faith and kisses her forehead, then strides into the waiting room, telling her friends to get ready for war.



At school, Buffy outlines a plan which relies heavily upon Xander's past mystical military knowledge and discusses what the Mayor's human weakness is. Eventually Angel realizes what it is - it's Faith, given the Mayor's grief at the hospital. Meanwhile, the Mayor explains to his group of vampires that when the eclipse takes place, he wants the vampires to keep the people from running, as he must feed within the first few minutes to sustain the change. Angel and Xander get to work creating a bomb, which Giles is assigned to detonate. While putting away books, Cordelia Chase and Wesley Wyndam-Pryce finally kiss, and discover they have no sexual chemistry at all. Oz reassures Willow that they'll make it through this and they share a passionate kiss. In the library, Angel tells Buffy he'll simply disappear when the battle is over, because to say goodbye would be too painful. Buffy is upset, but doesn't lose focus as she pulls out the most important weapon of the upcoming battle... Faith's knife, still covered with her blood from when Buffy stabbed her.



At graduation, the Mayor starts the commencement address and goes into the meaning of graduation... making Buffy worry he's going to read the whole speech. The Mayor then mentions that there's been losses, and people who should be there, aren't (referring to Faith). Just then the eclipse begins, vampires arrive to catch anyone who tries to escape and the Mayor starts to feel pain as the Ascension begins. He regretfully drops his cue cards, and begins to transform in front of everyone... eventually becoming a giantic 60-foot snake demon. The parents and teachers scatter, and the students gather together in one large group as the monster towers over them.

At Buffy's signal, everyone rips off their robes, revealing weapons and crosses. Under Xander's guidance, the students attack the demon with flame throwers and flaming arrows. Principal Snyder is eaten by the snake-demon in mid-lecture. Some students break from the group and run in fear - right into the mayor's vampires. Students in the rear, including Oz, mount a ranged counterattack and drive the vampires back into another group, including Wesley and Percy West, at the rear led by Angel. They fight the vampires and are able to stop them from attacking the students, however Wesley is downed in a single punch and spends the rest of the fight lying on his back asking for help.

The attack on the Mayor continues, however Larry is killed when the snake swipes him with its tail. Buffy tells everyone to fall back, and Xander leads them down while telling them to prepare for hand-to-hand combat. Willow wishes Buffy luck before leaving. The vampires attempt to attack the students, only to be asounted when almost the entire graduation class plow down the stairs, more than ready to fight. Cordelia manages to stake one, Jonathan throws himself on a vamp, however Harmony is grabbed and bitten.

Suddenly, Buffy calls up the demon-mayor, still holding the knife:

"Hey! You remember this? I took it from Faith. Stuck it in her gut. Just slid in her like she was butter. You want to get it back from me, ... Dick?"

Buffy then starts to make a run for it as the now enraged monster gives chase, determined to kill her. She leads him through the school, as he smashes the place apart following her. Buffy reaches the library, then dives through a window to the outside where Giles is waiting. The demon smashes through the doors to find the room filled with explosives. He says, in the Mayor's voice, "Well, gosh." Giles then hits the detonator, killing the Mayor, obliterating the library and completely destroying Sunnydale High School.

As Wesley is taken away in an ambulance, Giles congratulates Buffy on a job well done, presenting her with her diploma, which he pulled from the rubble. After he leaves, Buffy sees Angel at a distance. The two stand and look at one another for a brief time before Angel turns and walks off into the night, headed for a new life in Los Angeles.

Buffy meets up with her friends and they preapre to head for home. Before they do, Oz tells them they should take a moment to reflect on the fact that they survived. Buffy comments that it was a hell of a battle, but Oz tells her he doesn't mean the battle, but the fact they survived High School. After taking the moment the friends walk away from the remains of the school, ready to face a new chapter in their lives, as a charred yearbook lies nearby bearing the legend: "The Future is Ours".

Continuity

 * Willow suggested to Buffy in the Season One episode "The Harvest" that one way they could get kicked out of school would be to "blow up the school".


 * This episode sees the destruction of Sunnydale High, the scene of a great deal of paranormal activities thus far in the series. As the Mayor said, "Nothing will ever be the same. Nothing."


 * The ruins of Sunnydale High will be revisited in "Doomed", but the school itself won't be rebuilt until Season Seven.


 * The death of recurring character Larry in this episode, a subject of significant debate amongst fans, was established at the shooting script but not confirmed on-screen until Season Six ("Smashed"). Harmony, seen in this episode being bitten by a vampire, will be confirmed dead - and arisen as a vampire - just three episodes later in "The Harsh Light of Day".


 * In the Buffy/Faith dream, we encounter the first foreshadowing of Buffy's death at the end of Season 5. Faith's comment, "Little Miss Muffet counting down from 7-3-0", comes (roughly) 2 years (730 days) before Buffy dies. The term "Little Miss Muffet" is a reference to Buffy's little sister Dawn's arrival. A crazy man also refers to "curds and whey" when he accosts Dawn in "Real Me". Glory also makes references to "sitting on a tuffet" when she goes looking for the Key during Season 5. Also, exactly one year from this episode, Buffy sees a clock in her room during her dream reading 7:30, which Tara tells her is completely wrong, as one whole year has passed ("Restless").


 * This episode is the last in which David Boreanaz and Charisma Carpenter are series regulars, and in which Alexis Denisof is a recurring character. The three will return to the Buffyverse the following season on the spin-off show, Angel. But while this episode marks the final appearance of both Cordelia and Wesley on Buffy, Angel will appear on Buffy at least once (either in person or in flashbacks) in every season with the exception of Season Six.


 * This marks the second time in a row that the Principal of Sunnydale High has been eaten alive. The first, Mr. Flutie, was eaten alive when a pack of hyenas possessed a group of kids. Of his predecessor being eaten, Principal Snyder says that that's what happens when you're soft on students. He is the 9th member of the SDH faculty to be killed.

Body Count

 * Unidentified female student, eaten by Olvikan
 * Three students, killed by vampires
 * Three vampires, burned by Oz and two students with flamethrowers
 * Larry Blaisdell, killed by the tail of Olvikan
 * Snyder, eaten by Olvikan
 * Harmony Kendall, drained and sired by a vampire
 * One vampire, dusted by Cordelia
 * Olvikan, killed in the explosion of Sunnydale High School

Production

 * According to Marti Noxon in a DVD commentary, the explosion scene was filmed at 5 a.m. in Torrance, California, where the outdoor scenes had been filmed for the previous three years. The explosion was so huge it woke up many of the residents, broke windows and set off car alarms. As a result, the town refused to allow Buffy to film there again


 * During the time of its airing, the episode caused a great deal of controversy in the media. The Columbine High School massacre, only four weeks before the airing of Part One, was widely blamed on violence in entertainment. The WB had already pulled the plug on an earlier episode, "Earshot" (which itself was not aired until September), and feared that several scenes in Part Two would provoke high school students to do the same thing, especially those depicting the entire graduating class handling weapons against the Mayor. On May 25, 1999, only two hours before Part Two was due to air, The WB suddenly decided to replace it with a re-run from earlier in the season. This sudden move received huge attention in the media and thousands of letters were sent to the network demanding that the season finale be shown. Sarah Michelle Gellar publicly spoke out against the decision, although Seth Green agreed that the episode would seem "callous and inappropriate" after the Columbine shootings. The WB did not air the episode until July 13, 1999, almost two months after it was originally scheduled; since nearly all US schools end their term in May or June, it was then felt safe. The episode attracted 6.5 million viewers, atypically high for the WB during summer, and comparable to what the other episodes of the season had received.


 * As the episode was not delayed in Canada, many bootleg digital downloads were available. Joss Whedon stated, "Bootleg the puppy."


 * The Buffy novel The Evil That Men Do was also delayed due to the Columbine incident; it was published one year later than planned.

Deleted Scenes

 * This line was cut:
 * Xander: "Guys, we blew up the school! It's the best day ever!"

Pop-Culture References

 * When Angel punched Mayor Wilkins, he said, "Looks like somebody has been eating his spinach," referring to Popeye, who gained his super strength when he ate spinach.

Music

 * Christophe Beck - "Aftermath"
 * Christophe Beck - "Drink Me"
 * Christophe Beck - "Little Miss Muffet"
 * Christophe Beck - "One Last Look"
 * Christophe Beck - "War"
 * Edward Elgar - "Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1"

Other

 * According to stunt coordinator Jeff Pruitt, stunt double Sophia Crawford was uncomfortable with Buffy's signature leather pants, since she felt they were preventing her from kicking freely.
 * This episode portrays the first time Cordelia ever "dusts" a vampire, as well as the first time Angel and Wesley fight side by side.


 * Douglas Petrie wrote a Buffy comic, Double Cross, that takes place immediately after this episode and concerns events after Angel left Buffy.


 * The Mutant Enemy zombie that always appears at the end of each episode is wearing a black graduation cap.


 * The Sunnydale High Yearbook seen in this episode was released as a tie-in product after this episode aired.


 * This is the first episode of the series to feature the last appearance of a main character (in this case, Cordelia). Later episodes to do this are "Restless" (Oz), "As You Were" (Riley), "Villains" (Tara), and, of course, the series finale "Chosen".


 * The background music when Angel is draining Buffy is the same as used on the episode main menu's sequence of the Season 3 DVDs.


 * In classic Buffyverse style, writers and producers retire the Sunnydale High School sets by utterly destroying them.