Buffy faces the end of the world ~ again

"death is your gift"

with that maddening obtuse phrase, the image of the primitive first slayer
left buffy puzzling over just what the hack she was supposed to do about her
increasingly clouded future of a coed and destroyer of supernatural evil.

On tuesday, at 7 PM, she finds out.

that night, 'btvs' celebrates it's 5th season finale and it's 100th episode
(and finale on the WB, it moves to UPN this fall) with 'the gift.' death
will no doubt be involved, but just whose and under what circumstances
remains a closly guarded secret--and creator joss wedon aims to keep it that
way.

"my whole philosophy of life is built around not revealing things and no one
respects that."

...ok i'm not typing the long paragraph about the dawn/glory/ben arc~you guys
know the score...

just because whedon keeps the specifics close to the vest doesn't mean he
isn't willing to share some *tanrtalizing* hints "we're going to deal with
glory and her whole plan, and with dawn and the question of, not only how to
save dawn, but whether to save dawn

"we're going to learn more about how this whole thing works, adn we're going
to test the strength of buffy and her quote unquote family ties just about
as far as they can be tested."

part of this test has already come, when buffy's mom unexpectedly died. that
opened questions of who would care for dawn, where she might live, and so on.

"there are a lot of practical questions" says whedon

"the question is after the finale, how many of those question will need to be
answered and how many of them will be moot?"

so is there a word for the finale?

"ummm... sacrifice" says whedon, "what are you willing to give up? how much
can you lose? that's the question (hey, is it just me or does joss sounds
like spike?!) buffy's had to deal with more than her fair share this year.
she's strained the breaking point... it's going to be interesting (is this
referring to the weight of the world??)

once again, whedon wrote/directed the season finale.

"not only did we get to work with joss as a director," said trachtenburg "but
also an incredibly talented writer. it was a wonderful show. we make you
cry, we make you laugh. we surprise you to no end - really *no end.* it's
going to be quite exciting."

if buffy felt strained, then so did her creator. just as the long
negotiations about the show's future were in there final stages, whedon
rolled into production of 'the gift'

"so tired" he said.

"i had no idea how huge it was. they all said 'we;re going to do this' then
halfway through shootin we're like 'wait a minute, maybe we shouldn't do
this. maybe we made a horrible mistake, cause this is killing us' it was so
hard to shoot, so hard. it was so big."

"but you know what, it's very hundredth-y, i don't hink the bigness gets in
the way of the emotions. the emotions are there, and they're hard. it goes
to some dark, nice, swell places, the places i like to hang out in."

"extrapaloopala!" said david greenwalt (is that even a word??)

"i just watched the rough cut and it's just extraordinary. it's joss at *his
very best* and that's saying a lot. it's so big, it's so huge, there are so
many big, emotional moments. every character has huge moments (geez get
these guys a dictionary~how many times are the gonna say big, huge??!) we're
going outta one home with a *bang* to a new one.

along with a new home, comes a new season, which whedon already has mapped
out. contrary to rumor, spike will not be moving to angel.

"spike is too much of buffy. that desn't mean i won't kill him, it just means
i'll kill him on buffy."

and to those who think willow hasn't got her due this year--which also
incudes alyson hannigan--he said to her 'i said this once to sarah once when
she was complaining~sarah you don't have to trust me, trust the story. the
story will not let you down. the story exisists beyond me. the story will
find you, and the story will exult you and all will be well" and it was well
and will be again.

"i say the same thing to alyson. the story, the wheel, never stops turning.
next year's going to be huge for her.

"next season, i would say, is about being grown-ups. 'oh we're in the world
now!' that's going to be the theme."

whedon created the series because he was dismayed with the 1992 film version
of 'btvs.'

has this tv experiance turned out the way he thought it would be at the
beginning?

"only better and richer and deeper and darker." he said

"but i don't think i had a clue how cool this was going to be, or how tiring."