SEASON 7 (2002-03)
Quote: "It's true none of you have the power that Faith and I do. So here's the part where you make a choice."
Scooby Gang: Buffy, Giles, Xander, Willow, Anya, Spike, Dawn, Faith, Potential Slayers, Principal Wood, Andrew
The Big Bad: Caleb, The First
Best Moment: Spike earns his redemption.

I wish I could say that after the horrid shabbiness of Season Six, the seventh and last season of TV Buffy set things right and brought us back to the old ways. I need to stop wishing, I suppose.

Known as "The Season Where Grumpy Buffy Makes Many Boring Speeches", Season Seven puts some things right while further damaging the franchise elsewhere. In many ways, it was a "getting back to the basics" notion of a small, underfunded group of friends battling world-ending forces. The Scooby HQ moved into Buffy's house for the remainder of their efforts, Sunnydale High was rebuilt (with scary plumbing), and Faith happily returns for a good handful of episodes to keep us going. There's even a frightening preacher (Firefly's Nathan Fillion, who took Joss up on the offer of Buffy after Firefly tanked) and the Biggest Bad of them all — "The First", a shape-shifting ultra-powerful… thingie. I dunno. It's been a long week here.

The problem is that the entire season feels like a 22-episode finale for the series, drawing everything out so much that no character has the chance to get back into their normal swing of things. Everyone seems poised for this final fight, but because it's 21 episodes from now, there's a lot of waiting and half-hearted demons to keep them occupied. To make things worse, the gang rounds up "Potential Slayers" - girls who have the potential to become the next Slayer if Buffy died - and trains them as an army. Cool idea, but this ultimately results in a group of scared, whiny and forgettable faces that muddle things up. Buffy progressively gets more annoying, preferring to verbally bully people around and launch into horribly long, stupid speeches that are supposed to sound inspiring, but then she just doesn't do anything.

The Buffy and Spike saga stutters to a close, Xander and Anya seem split up for good, and Willow makes an attempt at re-entering the dating scene (where's OZ, darn it!) but it's just not the same. What's the worst thing is that there are GREAT ideas in this season which are completely wasted. It's only in the final few episodes when the characters seem to shake off the apathy of the last couple seasons and we're able to see the Scooby Gang as it once was: a vibrant, mouthy fighting force for all things good. The final episode, "Chosen", was penned and directed by Whedon, and is not only a wonderful cap to the series, but brings things back around in a full circle by setting the final fight in the high school.

When Buffy ended, I remember having strong, positive emotions at the time. Buffy had been one of the only shows I watched for a three-year period religiously, and even with the crappy last few seasons, kept me interested and involved up to the bittersweet end.

TOP 10 BUFFY EPISODES, ACCORDING TO JUSTIN

1. "Surprise/Innocence" (Season 2)
2. "The Wish" (Season 3)
3. "Graduation Day pt 1 & 2" (Season 3)
4. "Hush" (Season 4)
5. "Superstar" (Season 4)
6. "The Replacement" (Season 5)
7. "The Body" (Season 5)
8. "Once More With Feeling" (Season 6)
9. "Tabula Rasa" (Season 6)
10. "Chosen" (Season 7)

SEASON 8 AND BEYOND

When a show is cancelled, and the actors and crew go their separate ways, you'd think that a franchise would be at an end. However, this is not always the case — particularly in our Internet era, where various forms of media are capable of continuing a story long after the budget for a weekly TV series has dried up. In the years since Buffy's 2003 cancellation, Joss Whedon and fans alike have been hard at work keeping Buffy going strong.

Whedon obviously wasn't done telling the Buffy story, and made a deal with Dark Horse Comics to do a comic book series entitled "Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Eight". It continued the story from Season Seven's finale, moving Buffy to a worldwide adventure involving dozens of slayers and other beasties. Season Eight released in 2007, with no end in sight.

Buffy's sister show "Angel" lasted through it's fifth season, ending its run (and the Buffyverse presence on TV) in 2004.

Buffy novels, video games and other comic books are quick fixes for the Buffy fan, although there was much speculation that TV Buffy would be revived for an animated series. While work went into the project, both Buffy TAS and the Giles spin-off "Ripper" has never seen the light of day. Other projects, such as Buffy or Angel TV movies, a Faith the Vampire Slayer spinoff, and a Slayer School spinoff, also never progressed past a bit of talk and bluster.

But there's always hope, right? Sure.