A Senseless Entry

Since season and series finales seem to be a big thing, I think I'll recap and comment on my favorite shows.
For starters-- I cannot believe that Survivor: Marquesas beat out the series finale of X-files! Well, maybe I can, but I'm just slightly surprised. After all, X-files has been running for so long, and this episode promised to *answer some questions!* At long last! Since I'm a very retired baby X-phile, I wonder (having not watched the finale) whether the show lived up to anyone's expectations. I know several people stopped watching it because Mulder left... it's amazing how high schoolers can be attracted to a guy that's 40-something and married with children... As for Survivor, I find it rather silly. All the reality shows I have a strong dislike to, since there are idiotic parodies, shameless promotions, ridiculous imitations, and rather inane rules. I could go into details, but I already have an old entry (Reality Bites) that I inflamed all this about.

Starting my favorites list is Angel-- whose ratings for the finale weren't that great. I don't think they'll be that great if they move the time slot again either-- at least when Buffy was still on the WB, preceding Angel, there was no question as to what to watch after Buffy. But with Angel on the WB and Buffy on the UPN Network, Angel comes first-- and crossovers are practically an impossibility. Crossovers between the two star-crossed do-gooders of SoCal usually highlighted the season, but this move impacted both show's ratings, as far as I can see. Angel was rather weak this season (not just because of that) but also because Joss (Whedon, writer and creator of both BtVS and Angel) HAD to make Angel start feeling something for Cordelia.

*cough* I can understand the need to have romance for the male and female leads, but with each other? I figured this season would all be about the impossible for Angel becoming possible-- that is, having a son. Far from a normal life, he's a father now. The climatic moment of the season had to be when Connor was taken away-- and I think the season *should* have ended there. But no, they continued it, with Groo starting to doubt Cordelia's feelings for him (despite my "dislike" of Groo, I still think that he and Cordy belong together) and Connor returning all of three episodes later. Since the whole incident seemed fueled by Wesley, he is now a side character who has been "seduced by the dark side--" and quite literally too, surprisingly, after sleeping with Lilah. His British wit don't escape him even after sleeping with the enemy, and being given the chance to work for Wolfram and Hart. His skills, missing from the Angel alliance and in hiatus for anyone else, would be a valuable asset to the continuing enemy that is W&H. With Connor returned (as "Steven") to normal land, Angel is put into a sort of fatherly-defensive mode-- he hasn't had the opportunity to raise his own son, and though the boy was raised in a hell dimension as "The Destroyer," he seems okay. He gets quite used to the presence of women, which makes one wonder just what Quar-Toth is like. Justine, the evil wannabe-slayer with a thing for Holtz helps Holtz carry out one final plan of revenge against Angel, as she and Connor dump a sealed-in-all-things-impossible-to-break-through Angel into the Pacific. Oh great. What with Cordy "becoming a higher neing" (I still think she'll be a major player on the show, despite her other-worldliness), and Groo and Lorne leaving, this leaves Gunn and Fred all alone...

So, overall, we have Angel with the following Next Season Questions to Answer:

• What happens to Angel? He doesn't need to breathe, but he can't break out of steel binding, a two-ton metal box, sealed with blowtorches-- especially considering he'd be some 400 feet underwater, with all the pressures of Earth on him. Since he lives forever (or would assuming he doesn't die of starvation of blood) he'd just be sitting down at the bottom of the ocean forever...
  
  
• Where does Cordy go, exactly, and will she ever come back? She doesn't refuse "The Powers That Be" (and hey, weren't they killed?) so she goes up... in an ironically "angelic" way. Where to, what for, or the extent of her powers is still unknown. Will Angel know how she feels about him? Another unknown.
  
• Where does Groo go? They can just kick him off the show, but still, he's a deposed champion from another dimension-- doesn't easily blend in. Maybe he'll go to Sunnydale? The Hellmouth seems to be lacking in male leads lately...
  
  
• Will we ever see Lorne again? We know he's disliked by Connor, but since "the kid" is pretty twisted by Justine, it's unlikely he'd just return to the hotel anyway.
  
  
• Wesley, Lilah, and the Wolf, Ram, and Hart reference in the other dimension. We don't know WHAT is going on is Wesley's mind, and between using him to help out in dire need, avoiding his name when around Angel, and wondering what the heck this former Watcher is up to, it's kinda odd that the secondary male lead is so... brushed aside. It's certainly plausible that Angel is still pissed, but since his anger at Holtz calmed, maybe the same can be true for Wes, who was misled by a prophecy that wasn't true? As for Lilah... yeah. ^^;; Petty rivalry with Garrett will no doubt continue, even as she keeps on dropping hints to Wes to join the evil Galactic Empire that is W&H. I think we'll be seeing more of the Other Dimension as well, since the reference to Wolfram and Hart was never explained.
  
  
• And finally-- what about Faith? ^^ She's still in jail, but since Buffy died, did she receive powers? Speaking of Buffy's death (and leading into Buffy, anyway) was another slayer awakened in the three month period of her death? Or did Faith just receive a jolt of power-- which was/n't taken away, with the return of the Slayer?

Coming up next: Buffy, Alias, Charmed, Enterprise, Felicity. Stay tuned!

Xander Saves The World (At Last!)

Ah, Buffy's finale-- well, what can I say? The last half hour of Buffy's two-hour finale lacked in a kick-- and, like Angel, I think the finale should have been the *previous* episode (the one where Warren, sick of losing to the power-imbued Buffster, shot Buffy and Tara and then got ripped to shreds by Evil Willow for killing Tara). Most shows this season seem to think finale means "closing up all the loose ends and then adding ONE last one." Some writers seem to be doing this in the most ridiculous ways-- and case in point is the sudden maniac transformation of Willow, out to destroy the world by summoning some ancient god named Prosperpexa. The show seemed good for random laughs rather than the dramatic seriousness/violence and romance that made Buffy so appealing originally- last season's ending was far better.

With Buffy still getting used to LIFE on Earth again, and with her "secret" out in the open, it seems the coming seasons will be more about her and Dawn growing as people. There's no doubt that this season's ender, with the death of Tara, the short-lived return of Giles, and the departure of Spike will have repercussions in the future; the things that Evil Willow said and did to Buffy and Co. will probably put a huge gap in the friendship of all the Scoobies, especially Buffy and Willow.

Xander, for once, earns his place outside of the doghouse. Throughout most of the episode, he was his usual runaway self-- but at the very end, he came through, and rather than Buffy saving the world, it was him. I think it's about time. His proclamations of love (friendship love, for all you die hard fans of the age-old Xander/Willow 'ships) touched that tiny spark in Willow that the Dover coven of witches gave to Giles to transfer to her.

As for Anya, I think it was impossible for her to avoid going back to the life of a vengeance demon, but now, she might start falling for Xander again, right when he grows up and learns to move on from his mistakes. With Dawn, it's a possibility that she will learn to "channel" her inner powers-- for, as Evil Willow mentioned, Dawn is STILL the Key, regardless of the time passed and the blood already spilled. She no doubt, being from the blood of the Slayer, has some inner powers that have yet to manifest. Finally, with Spike-- well, what can I say. For most of the season, we could see he was falling down a sort of pit-- and at the bottom, Buffy "leaves" him. It was for the better of both of them, considering the emotion he thought he was feeling was "chip-based," not to mention based off Buffy's distorted view of her life and her return to it; Buffy was just using him. However, after all the trials he went through-- it was quite definitely a surprise that his SOUL of all things was returned to him. I wonder why no one tried that on Spike to begin with-- that is, using the old Romanian spell to restore his soul to him. Why is Angel the special circumstance? I don't think that, even with a soul, Spike will be able to go back to Sunnydale like that-- after all, Xander wants to kill him, Anya doesn't NEED him, Buffy hates him, and Dawn is probably disappointed in him. Should he return, it will not be into open arms.

Next Season Questions to Answer:

• What about Willow? She won't just "get over" Tara's death. It's feasible that the "time effect" will take place, where months pass between the finale and the next season premiere. How will she avoid the lure of the magicks? She sure channeled a lot of power into Prosperpexa, despite the fact that Xander blocked a lot of it. The very intake of such power could have repercussive effects on Xander, but will Prosperpexa be a new enemy? The Satanic church won't just *disappear,* and since Willow is the only witch of power... *shrugs*



• Xander and Anya...? A remote possibility, but a possibility nonetheless. In the finale, Xander did a lot of growing up, so will he be able to get over his mistakes... or will he keep on regretting them? Anya's got her work cut out for her too, restoring the Magic Box.



• Spike with a SOUL!? Are they trying to insert a blonde Angel into Buffy? After all Buff's been through the past two seasons, I think the last thing she needs is romance-- or sex.

Comments, questions, addendum? I want to know what other fans think! I'm going to follow this up with the finales for Felicity, Enterprise, Alias, and Charmed. Stay tuned!