UK Mall 1 - Buffy The Vampire Slayer - Season 5 (Box Set 2) [1998]

Episode 12, "Checkpoint" (Written by Douglas Petrie & Jane Espenson, First aired January 23, 2001) has Buffy and the gang going up against the Watchers Council. Quentin Travers has information about Glory, but insists the Slayer and her friends undergo a review first, which does not go well (although Willow declaring Tara is her "lesbian-gay-type lover" is awfully cute). At least Buffy finally gets to find out that Glory is not a demon (4.5 Stakes).

Episode 13, "Blood Ties" (Written by Steven S. DeKnight, February 6, 2001), finds Dawn hanging with Spike and reading in a Giles' journal that she is the Key. If that was not bad enough, Ben learns that Dawn is the Key, right before he turns into Glory. This just cannot be good (4.5 Stakes).

Episode 14, "Crush" (Written by David Fury, February 13, 2001), is what Spike has on Buffy and dressing up Harmony as the Slayer is just not cutting it. Then Drusilla shows up in a forgiving vein and when she knocks out Buffy, Spike knocks on Dru so that he can offer to kill her to prove his love for Buffy. Not that Harmony likes any of this (4.5 Stakes).

Episode 15, "I Was Made to Love You" (Written by Espenson, February 20, 2001), has a strange girl name April looking all over town for some guy named Warren. It turns Warren made April, who is a robot, to be the perfect girlfriend. Apparently there is such a thing as too perfect (4 Stakes).

Episode 16, "The Body" (Written & Directed by Joss Whedon, February 27, 2001), Buffy comes home and finds Joyce dead. After Joss received an Emmy nomination for writing "Hush" we figured there would be a second one for this episode. He did not get that, but the bigger insult might be not getting a directing nomination (5 Stakes).

Episode 17, "Forever" (Written & Directed by Marti Noxon, April 17, 2001), is how long Joyce will be dead and a grief stricken Dawn cannot take it. So she does a spell to bring Joyce back from the dead (4.5 Stakes).

Episode 18, "Intervention" (Written by Espenson, April 24, 2001), is what is called for when Xander and Anya see Buffy boinking Spike. The only thing is that Buffy is out communing with the First Slayer (Buffy's gift is death apparently). It seems Spike got Warren to create the Buffybot, which provides Sarah Michelle Gellar's funniest moments in the entire series. But before Buffy can kill Spike it seems Glory will beat the Slayer to it because she thinks Spike knows who is the Key (5 Strakes).

Episode 19, "Tough Love" (Written by Rebecca Rand Kirshner, May 1, 2001), finds Buffy quitting college to look after Dawn. But then Glory drains Tara's brains, turning her insane, and Willow goes off to take revenge against the god. Then things get really bad as Glory finally learns that Dawn is the key (4.5 Stakes).

Episode 20, "Spiral" (Written by DeNight, May 8, 2001), has Buffy getting Dawn and everybody else out of town to try and save the Key from Glory. But then the Knights of Byzantium, sworn to destroy the key, attack the Winnebago carrying everybody, and Buffy and the gang have to hold up in an abandoned gas station. Giles is seriously wounded, so Buffy calls Ben, not knowing that she has invited Glory's host past Willow's mystic defenses (4.5 Stakes).

Episode 21, "The Weight of the World" (Written by Petrie, May 15, 2001), finds Buffy has gone off the deep end and is in a catatonic state. Willow takes charge and gets everybody back to Sunnydale, where she enters Buffy's mind to make sense of the circular dream images that Buffy shows her. Meanwhile, Glory plans to use Dawn's blood to open up the doors between the hell dimensions (4.5 Stakes).

Episode 22, "The Gift" (Written & Directed by Whedon, May 22, 2001), begins with a reaffirmative that Buffy is not "just a girl." If Dawn's blood is spilled, Hell will be unleashed on Earth and the only way to stop it is to kill Dawn. But Buffy did that with Angel and she refuses to do it with her sister. Glory is going to enact the ritual atop a giant scaffolding constructed by her minions, and Buffy leads an all-out attack on Glory. Although they defeat glory, it is too late, and the demons are coming to make Earth their home (5 Stakes).

If you think the show can't get any better, wait until you see The Body, written and directed by the God that is Joss Whedon. Buffy's mum tragically dies and leaves her two daughters to fend for themselves. The episode is split into four different sections (Buffy's living room, Dawn's school, Willow and Tara's dorm and the hospital). There are simply no words to describe how phenomenally professional and downright brilliant Sarah Michelle Gellar is in her role as a confused and upset Buffy. The Body is my second favourite Buffy episode ever (after Once More, With Feeling) and never fails to make me shed a tear everytime I watch it. It's the little words such as Buffy's line to Giles, "We're not supposed to move the body!" and Willow's "Can't I be a grown-up?" that hurts your heart and forms that lump in your throat. Emma Caulfield (Anya) is also excellent in her one scene about not understanding human death. The complete lack of music (for example, when Buffy finds her mum motionless and when the vampire rises from its table to see Dawn's hovering hand over the body of her mum) makes for the greatest portrayal of grief ever witness on TV. The next episode, Forever, sees Dawn coping very badly with her mum's death. She tries to do a spell that brings her mum back, but the final body that returns could be totally different to what it was in the first place. Buffy has been so pre-occupied with the funeral that she barely notices Dawn. She only realises this after slapping Dawn across the face when they argue over the consequences bringing their mum back could cause. They both get so caught up in grieving that Buffy almost welcomes her mum back when the body starts banging on the door - but Dawn rips up a photo of her mum (which in turn banishes the body from Earth) before Buffy can open the door. The two sisters are left to sob their hearts out on the floor. Intervention and Tough Love focus on the season's main story arc, in which Glory finds out that the Slayer is protecting the Key. She realises all she has to do is "rip through the people she loves" until she finds the Key. She goes after Spike and Tara, before one of the Scoobies accidently reveals that Dawn is the Key to Glory...

After finding out this news, Glory sets out to look for Buffy and the rest of the gang after they flee from Sunnydale in Spiral. At the end of the episode, Glory arrives and runs off with Dawn. Buffy is left in a catatonic state of shock in which she has a total system shutdown and is left motionless. Willow has to enter her mind pyschologically to try and see why Buffy is acting this way. Buffy's back at the end of this episode to face Glory, save Dawn and save the universe from total destruction in the season finale, The Gift - also the 100th episode of the show. The episode starts off with the usually annoying "previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer" words by Giles. Except this time, it shows clips from the show's Season 1 pilot opener, Welcome To The Hellmouth with introductions to Buffy from Giles, Xander, Willow, Cordelia and Angel. It then moves on to show a short clip from every episode (getting faster all the time) as it works its way up to the current episode. The Gift is without a doubt the best Buffy season finale episode ever. Sacrifice, the music that plays when Buffy jumps to save Dawn, easily beats Season 2's finale (Becoming Part 2) music (Sarah McLachlan's Full Of Grace) as the most tear-kerking soundtrack to any Buffy episode to date. Directed by none other than Joss Whedon, The Gift is my third favourite Buffy episode ever - and I'm sure a lot of people would agree with me. I think I've made a point that proves Season 5 - Part 2 is absolutely essential for Buffy fans everywhere...

Buffy (again played with consistency by Sarah Michelle Gellar) is further tested by her foe, demonic hellgod Glory (Clare Kramer), all the while looking after her vulnerable sister(Michelle Trachtenberg) and being forced to watch as her mother dies in front of her.

The second part of the season starts off very well, with the episode "Checkpoint" signalling the return of the duplicitious Watcher's Council. The best bit is Buffy standing up to the Council and bullying them for information about Glory.

"Crush" is an excellent follow-up to the Spike-centred episode "Fool For Love" and James Marsters does an excellent job as the confused and increasingly demented vampire who becomes completely undone by the end of the episode.

One of the most hyped episodes of the season, "The Body" is an excellent episode even if it does feel a little too much like the event it is depicts: a bereavement. No matter, the use of creepy camera tricks and the complete lack of incidental music make the sense of shock and loss the characters experience all the more real to the viewer.

The much vaunted finale episode, "The Gift" is touching and would have made a very good ending to the series. The knowledge that it isn't, though, lessens the emotional impact of an otherwise very good season finale.

Performance-wise, this set produces a few surprises. Sarah Michelle Gellar brilliantly portrays a Buffy who becomes increasingly helpless in the face of a seemingly unstoppable foe. James Marsters is excellent as Spike, as his deluded crush on Buffy becomes a feeling of almost genuine care and respect. Amber Benson is also on fine form as an increasingly confident yet still very vulnerable Tara.

Villains-wise, the triumph of this season overall is not Glory (Claire Kramer, who is simply trying too hard) but her minion Doc, played by veteran actor/performer Joel Grey. Grey is clearly a natural at on-screen menace, and whereas Kramer screeches and screams her head off to little effect, all Grey has to do is look at the camera in a certain way and the audience is scared witless. His subtlety makes his character all the more effective.

It's just a pity this sufficiently mysterious and intriguing character did not develop a plot arc of his own. But Grey certainly makes the best of only three appearances in the season and here's hoping he returns to the show in the future.

All in all, plenty of action, comedy and alot of character development as "Buffy" hurtles toward its sixth season. Each and every episode contributes something to the plot and combined with brilliant performances it makes the second part of the Season Five among some of the best episodes yet.

Episode 12, "Checkpoint" (Written by Douglas Petrie & Jane Espenson, First aired January 23, 2001) has Buffy and the gang going up against the Watchers Council. Quentin Travers has information about Glory, but insists the Slayer and her friends undergo a review first, which does not go well (although Willow declaring Tara is her "lesbian-gay-type lover" is awfully cute). At least Buffy finally gets to find out that Glory is not a demon (4.5 Stakes).

Episode 13, "Blood Ties" (Written by Steven S. DeKnight, February 6, 2001), finds Dawn hanging with Spike and reading in a Giles' journal that she is the Key. If that was not bad enough, Ben learns that Dawn is the Key, right before he turns into Glory. This just cannot be good (4.5 Stakes).

Episode 14, "Crush" (Written by David Fury, February 13, 2001), is what Spike has on Buffy and dressing up Harmony as the Slayer is just not cutting it. Then Drusilla shows up in a forgiving vein and when she knocks out Buffy, Spike knocks on Dru so that he can offer to kill her to prove his love for Buffy. Not that Harmony likes any of this (4.5 Stakes).

Episode 15, "I Was Made to Love You" (Written by Espenson, February 20, 2001), has a strange girl name April looking all over town for some guy named Warren. It turns Warren made April, who is a robot, to be the perfect girlfriend. Apparently there is such a thing as too perfect (4 Stakes).

Episode 16, "The Body" (Written & Directed by Joss Whedon, February 27, 2001), Buffy comes home and finds Joyce dead. After Joss received an Emmy nomination for writing "Hush" we figured there would be a second one for this episode. He did not get that, but the bigger insult might be not getting a directing nomination (5 Stakes).

Episode 17, "Forever" (Written & Directed by Marti Noxon, April 17, 2001), is how long Joyce will be dead and a grief stricken Dawn cannot take it. So she does a spell to bring Joyce back from the dead (4.5 Stakes).

Episode 18, "Intervention" (Written by Espenson, April 24, 2001), is what is called for when Xander and Anya see Buffy boinking Spike. The only thing is that Buffy is out communing with the First Slayer (Buffy's gift is death apparently). It seems Spike got Warren to create the Buffybot, which provides Sarah Michelle Gellar's funniest moments in the entire series. But before Buffy can kill Spike it seems Glory will beat the Slayer to it because she thinks Spike knows who is the Key (5 Strakes).

Episode 19, "Tough Love" (Written by Rebecca Rand Kirshner, May 1, 2001), finds Buffy quitting college to look after Dawn. But then Glory drains Tara's brains, turning her insane, and Willow goes off to take revenge against the god. Then things get really bad as Glory finally learns that Dawn is the key (4.5 Stakes).

Episode 20, "Spiral" (Written by DeNight, May 8, 2001), has Buffy getting Dawn and everybody else out of town to try and save the Key from Glory. But then the Knights of Byzantium, sworn to destroy the key, attack the Winnebago carrying everybody, and Buffy and the gang have to hold up in an abandoned gas station. Giles is seriously wounded, so Buffy calls Ben, not knowing that she has invited Glory's host past Willow's mystic defenses (4.5 Stakes).

Episode 21, "The Weight of the World" (Written by Petrie, May 15, 2001), finds Buffy has gone off the deep end and is in a catatonic state. Willow takes charge and gets everybody back to Sunnydale, where she enters Buffy's mind to make sense of the circular dream images that Buffy shows her. Meanwhile, Glory plans to use Dawn's blood to open up the doors between the hell dimensions (4.5 Stakes).

Episode 22, "The Gift" (Written & Directed by Whedon, May 22, 2001), begins with a reaffirmative that Buffy is not "just a girl." If Dawn's blood is spilled, Hell will be unleashed on Earth and the only way to stop it is to kill Dawn. But Buffy did that with Angel and she refuses to do it with her sister. Glory is going to enact the ritual atop a giant scaffolding constructed by her minions, and Buffy leads an all-out attack on Glory. Although they defeat glory, it is too late, and the demons are coming to make Earth their home (5 Stakes).

If you think the show can't get any better, wait until you see The Body, written and directed by the God that is Joss Whedon. Buffy's mum tragically dies and leaves her two daughters to fend for themselves. The episode is split into four different sections (Buffy's living room, Dawn's school, Willow and Tara's dorm and the hospital). There are simply no words to describe how phenomenally professional and downright brilliant Sarah Michelle Gellar is in her role as a confused and upset Buffy. The Body is my second favourite Buffy episode ever (after Once More, With Feeling) and never fails to make me shed a tear everytime I watch it. It's the little words such as Buffy's line to Giles, "We're not supposed to move the body!" and Willow's "Can't I be a grown-up?" that hurts your heart and forms that lump in your throat. Emma Caulfield (Anya) is also excellent in her one scene about not understanding human death. The complete lack of music (for example, when Buffy finds her mum motionless and when the vampire rises from its table to see Dawn's hovering hand over the body of her mum) makes for the greatest portrayal of grief ever witness on TV. The next episode, Forever, sees Dawn coping very badly with her mum's death. She tries to do a spell that brings her mum back, but the final body that returns could be totally different to what it was in the first place. Buffy has been so pre-occupied with the funeral that she barely notices Dawn. She only realises this after slapping Dawn across the face when they argue over the consequences bringing their mum back could cause. They both get so caught up in grieving that Buffy almost welcomes her mum back when the body starts banging on the door - but Dawn rips up a photo of her mum (which in turn banishes the body from Earth) before Buffy can open the door. The two sisters are left to sob their hearts out on the floor. Intervention and Tough Love focus on the season's main story arc, in which Glory finds out that the Slayer is protecting the Key. She realises all she has to do is "rip through the people she loves" until she finds the Key. She goes after Spike and Tara, before one of the Scoobies accidently reveals that Dawn is the Key to Glory...

After finding out this news, Glory sets out to look for Buffy and the rest of the gang after they flee from Sunnydale in Spiral. At the end of the episode, Glory arrives and runs off with Dawn. Buffy is left in a catatonic state of shock in which she has a total system shutdown and is left motionless. Willow has to enter her mind pyschologically to try and see why Buffy is acting this way. Buffy's back at the end of this episode to face Glory, save Dawn and save the universe from total destruction in the season finale, The Gift - also the 100th episode of the show. The episode starts off with the usually annoying "previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer" words by Giles. Except this time, it shows clips from the show's Season 1 pilot opener, Welcome To The Hellmouth with introductions to Buffy from Giles, Xander, Willow, Cordelia and Angel. It then moves on to show a short clip from every episode (getting faster all the time) as it works its way up to the current episode. The Gift is without a doubt the best Buffy season finale episode ever. Sacrifice, the music that plays when Buffy jumps to save Dawn, easily beats Season 2's finale (Becoming Part 2) music (Sarah McLachlan's Full Of Grace) as the most tear-kerking soundtrack to any Buffy episode to date. Directed by none other than Joss Whedon, The Gift is my third favourite Buffy episode ever - and I'm sure a lot of people would agree with me. I think I've made a point that proves Season 5 - Part 2 is absolutely essential for Buffy fans everywhere...

Buffy (again played with consistency by Sarah Michelle Gellar) is further tested by her foe, demonic hellgod Glory (Clare Kramer), all the while looking after her vulnerable sister(Michelle Trachtenberg) and being forced to watch as her mother dies in front of her.

The second part of the season starts off very well, with the episode "Checkpoint" signalling the return of the duplicitious Watcher's Council. The best bit is Buffy standing up to the Council and bullying them for information about Glory.

"Crush" is an excellent follow-up to the Spike-centred episode "Fool For Love" and James Marsters does an excellent job as the confused and increasingly demented vampire who becomes completely undone by the end of the episode.

One of the most hyped episodes of the season, "The Body" is an excellent episode even if it does feel a little too much like the event it is depicts: a bereavement. No matter, the use of creepy camera tricks and the complete lack of incidental music make the sense of shock and loss the characters experience all the more real to the viewer.

The much vaunted finale episode, "The Gift" is touching and would have made a very good ending to the series. The knowledge that it isn't, though, lessens the emotional impact of an otherwise very good season finale.

Performance-wise, this set produces a few surprises. Sarah Michelle Gellar brilliantly portrays a Buffy who becomes increasingly helpless in the face of a seemingly unstoppable foe. James Marsters is excellent as Spike, as his deluded crush on Buffy becomes a feeling of almost genuine care and respect. Amber Benson is also on fine form as an increasingly confident yet still very vulnerable Tara.

Villains-wise, the triumph of this season overall is not Glory (Claire Kramer, who is simply trying too hard) but her minion Doc, played by veteran actor/performer Joel Grey. Grey is clearly a natural at on-screen menace, and whereas Kramer screeches and screams her head off to little effect, all Grey has to do is look at the camera in a certain way and the audience is scared witless. His subtlety makes his character all the more effective.

It's just a pity this sufficiently mysterious and intriguing character did not develop a plot arc of his own. But Grey certainly makes the best of only three appearances in the season and here's hoping he returns to the show in the future.

All in all, plenty of action, comedy and alot of character development as "Buffy" hurtles toward its sixth season. Each and every episode contributes something to the plot and combined with brilliant performances it makes the second part of the Season Five among some of the best episodes yet.