• Home
  • Movies
  • Music
  • TV
  • Video Games
  • Wrestling
  • Topics
  • Latest Comments
Search
Cult of Whatever logo
  • Movies
    Featured
    • The Living Daylights: Timothy Dalton as James Bond

      The Living Daylights is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 28, 2022
      Movie Blogs
    Recent
    • Top Gun Maverick: Tom Cruise

      REVIEW: Top Gun Maverick is a sequel that soars!

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 27, 2022
    • Star Wars New Hope Mark Hamill Carrie Fisher Harrison Ford Luke Skywalker Princess Leia Han Solo

      Star Wars: 45 Years Later and the four people who made it happen

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 23, 2022
    • Chip 'N Dale Rescue Rangers Poster

      REVIEW: Chip n Dale: Rescue Rangers is a fever dream of family fun

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 22, 2022
    • Doctor Strange Multiverse of Madness: Benedict Cumberbatch, Xochitl Gomez and Rachel McAdams as Steven, America Chavez and Dr. Christine Palmer

      REVIEW: Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is Sam Raimi’s Sam Ramiest movie in ages!

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 7, 2022
    • Full Metal Jacket: Vincent D'Onofrio

      Full Metal Jacket is still awesome thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 5, 2022
    • Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore: Jude Law as Albus

      REVIEW: Fantastic Beasts 3 (The Secrets of Dumbledore) is a gloomy sequel with little pizzaz

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 18, 2022
  • Music
    Random
    • Bg Elvis 4

      Elvis's 40 Year Reign (1958-1959)

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 4, 2017
      Music Blogs
    Recent
    • The Beatles: Get Back

      What GET BACK reveals about the Beatles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 15, 2021
    • Simon And Garfunkel at Feyenoord Stadium in Rotterdam1982

      The Boxer is a song about being conned

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 4, 2021
    • Lady Gaga: Chromatica Album Cover

      Lady Gaga’s discography is totally out of order

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 3, 2021
    • Michael Jackson Thriller Album Cover

      Thirty years ago music fans said “Nevermind” to Michael Jackson

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 21, 2021
    • Queen II Album Cover

      On Queen’s The Miracle, and the importance of track ordering

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 16, 2021
    • Linda Paul Mccartney 1976

      50 years ago, McCartney dropped “Lennon” and went solo…

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 5, 2020
  • TV
    Featured
    • Nancy Drew S03e01: Kennedy McMann as Nancy

      Nancy Drew S03E01 Review: The Warning of the Frozen Heart - Uh-oh!

      By Salome G
      | October 10, 2021
      TV Blogs
    Recent
    • The Flight Attendant S02e08: Kaley Cuoco and Cheryl Hines as Cassie Bowden and Dot Karlson

      The Flight Attendant S02E08 Review: Backwards and Forwards – A satisfying conclusion

      By Salome G
      | May 27, 2022
    • Riverdale 6 15 3

      Riverdale S06E15 Review: Things That Go Bump in the Night – Unexpected allies

      By Salome G
      | May 23, 2022
    • Doctor Who S10e8 Peter Capaldi

      Why is it that The Doctor can never seem to become ginger?

      By Jason Collins
      | May 23, 2022
    • Big Sky S02e18: Katheryn Winnick and Jensen Ackles as Jenny Hoyt and Beau Arlen

      Big Sky S02E18 Review: Catch a Few Fish – Solid finale

      By Salome G
      | May 22, 2022
    • The Flight Attendant S02e07: Griffin Matthews and Kaley Cuoco as Shane and Cassie

      The Flight Attendant S02E07 Review: No Exit – Huh?

      By Salome G
      | May 22, 2022
    • Star Trek Strange New Worlds S01e02 Celia Rose Gooding and Ethan Peck as Uhura and Spock

      Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Episodes 2-3 review (Good stuff!)

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 21, 2022
  • Video Games
    Featured
    • Arkham Knight

      Batman: Arkham Knight - A fitting end to a trilogy

      By Tom Farr
      | July 18, 2015
      Video Game Reviews
    Recent
    • Legend Of Zelda

      Can a Legend of Zelda movie work?

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 6, 2022
    • Super Mario 64

      Which system had the better launch: A battle of four Nintendo consoles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2021
    • Luigi's Mansion

      Happy twentieth to Nintendo’s underrated gem, the Gamecube

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 18, 2021
    • Metroid Dread

      Metroid Dread – Post Game analysis and sequel needs

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 29, 2021
    • Mario Headphones

      The SNES Turns 30: A look at some of the system’s best soundtracks

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 22, 2021
    • Metroid Dread Poster

      REVIEW: Metroid Dread reawakens the old gamer in me

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 11, 2021
  • Wrestling
    Featured
    • Wwe Payback 2017 Poster 2

      Your SO OF COURSE preview of WWE Payback 2017

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 30, 2017
      WWE Blogs
    Recent
    • Raw 210501: Triple H and Stephanie McMahon

      May 21, 2001 – A (forgotten) date that will live in WWE infamy

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 20, 2022
    • WWE WrestleMania 39 Logo

      Your WAY TOO EARLY predictions for WWE WrestleMania 39!

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 20, 2022
    • WWE WrestleMania 38 Poster

      Your SO OF COURSE preview of WWE WRESTLEMANIA 38!

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 30, 2022
    • Wrestlemania 31 Paige Aj Lee 2

      BOOK REVIEW: The Women of WrestleMania is a balanced take on an under-valued slice of history

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 16, 2022
    • ROH Proving Ground 2009: El Generico aka Sami Zayn

      In buying ROH, AEW has a chance to redo history (the right way)

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 14, 2022
    • Cody Rhodes Tnt Title Belt 220720

      Cody Rhodes is gone from AEW. What does that mean for wrestling?

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 16, 2022
  • Topics
    • site logo
    Latest
    • The Flight Attendant S02E08 Review: Backwards and Forwards - A satisfying conclusion
    • REVIEW: Top Gun Maverick is a sequel that soars!
    • Star Wars: 45 Years Later and the four people who made it happen
    • Riverdale S06E15 Review: Things That Go Bump in the Night - Unexpected allies
    • Why is it that The Doctor can never seem to become ginger?
    • Big Sky S02E18 Review: Catch a Few Fish - Solid finale
    • Latest Comments

    Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Every episode ranked! (Part 4/5)

    By Matthew Martin
    | April 24, 2022
    TV Blogs
    Previous Page

    #7 – Graduation Day 1-2 – season 3, episodes 21-22

    Every season finale of Buffy, with the exception of season six, was designed to function as a “series” finale if the show was never renewed. Had the show ended after a season, I would have found the finale frustrating in that it seemed to finally figure out what it was trying to be right as it was canceled. Had it ended after season two, I would have been sad because it would have ended right as it was great. Season three, however, had an ending that would have been a perfect send-off if need be. The ending of the Big Bad’s plot is of secondary importance here. Everyone graduates high school. The school blows up. Buffy’s class assists her in fighting the monsters that have been terrorizing everyone. All the Scoobies get great moments to shine. Angel rides off into the sunset shadows to start his own show. There’s closure everywhere you turn. It’s a beautiful ending at the end of a phenomenal season. Thank goodness there was more.

    Buffy the Vampire Slayer S03e22: Scooby Gang

    #6 – The Gift – season 5, episode 22

    Had the show never been picked up by UPN, this would have been Buffy’s series finale. Unlike the previous three years, this is a single episode installment, but it wraps up the arc of the season and sends the heroine out in the most beautiful and poignant way imaginable. “The Gift” is all about Buffy’s willingness to do anything to save the day, even if that means dying. That’s how the first season ended, except Buffy wasn’t trying to die on that occasion; she lost a fight. The second ended with her being willing to sacrifice her lover to save the world. This one ends with her sacrificing herself to save the world…something she did “a lot,” as her gravestone said. The final two shots of the episode, which occur quickly to fit them into the allotted runtime, almost happen too fast for the viewer even to process. Buffy dies, and we see everyone surrounding her body, silently wailing in agony. The camera cuts quickly to her tombstone, lingering over her freshly laid grave, and then fades to black just as rapidly. The hurried nature of it works to its benefit; everything else to be said was already said in the moments leading up to her sacrifice. This is who she is: She saves the world (a lot), even if it means dying for it. What a hero.

    #5 – Surprise/Innocence – season 2, episodes 13-14

    These two episodes form the moment when Buffy went from an okay little show, on a little-watched network, to the show you were missing out on if you weren’t watching it. Buffy is a seven-season show that can definitively be divided into two unequal parts: There is the period before “Surprise,” and the period after. There is before Angelus took Buffy’s innocence, and after. From here on out, Buffy is not just a show about a girl fighting monsters; it’s a show about a woman wrestling with the weight of the world on her shoulders.

    #4 – Becoming 1-2 – season 2, episodes 21-22

    The two-parter “Becoming” combine to be the best finale of the show. Despite, as said, the somewhat average-feeling run of episodes (other than “Passion”) leading up to the finale, the stakes and the showdown that was looming were never forgotten. It was clear, especially after “Passion,” that the Buffy/Angelus feud would come to a head in the finale of the season. A first-time viewer would not be thought a fool for thinking it would end with Angelus’ death and the subsequent removal of David Boreanaz from the series. Indeed, the finale did end with Angelus’ death, but what was not expected was the fact that Angel was re-souled in the moments just before Buffy “killed” him.

    It would have been easy to play it more conventionally, to have Buffy slay the hero-turned-villain and then mope about it for an episode or two. It would have been even easier and safer for Buffy to save Angel and the two of them team up to defeat someone like Spike. It even would have been easy for Buffy to save Angel after dooming him to the hell dimension or to have Angel be saved and killed without Buffy ever realizing it. Instead, Joss and co. went for maximum drama: Buffy saved Angel and then, because the world was still on the line, killed him.

    If Surprise/Innocence is the two-parter where Buffy’s “girlhood” was stolen away from her, then “Becoming” is the two-parter where she forcefully claimed her adulthood on her own terms. If Surprise/Innocence is the two-parter where Buffy (the show) turned the page to become something greater than what it started as then “Becoming” is the two-parter where the show solidified that change and told everyone this show was here to stay.

    #3 – The Body – season 5, episode 16

    I don’t know what I can add to my previous comments on “The Body.” There isn’t another episode like it in the entire series. There’s no music score. There’s no monster of the week. There are no quips. There are no gags. “The Body” is the episode that rips our characters away from their fantasy playground and reminds them—and us—that they are mortal people living in a world where people sometimes just die. They don’t all get eaten by demons. They don’t all get sucked into a portal. They don’t all get stabbed dramatically in the heart with a stake or a sword. Sometimes people have brain aneurysms, and they just drop dead.

    Joyce battled a brain tumor all season long, the ultimate red herring. For the multiple episodes she struggled with the malady, we watched Buffy struggle to hold it together. We watched her at the hospital, bloodshot as she worried over her mom. We watched her at the kitchen sink, crying silently in front of the running water while she tried to do dishes. We watched her gripped with fear as she waited for news of her mother’s surgery. And then, when it was all over, we watched relief overtake her. Joyce is fine. Everything is okay. And it was. The problem was resolved.

    And then she died anyway.

    Buffy The Vampire Slayer S05e16: Sarah Michelle Gellar and Kristine Sutherland as Buffy and Joyce Summers

    And it was the needlessness of it, the senselessness of it, the randomness of it, that makes everything about it so beautifully captured on film. It’s a death that wouldn’t work on a normal dramatic show. On the other hand, this is fantasy; something as mundane as dying of an aneurysm is the most shocking way someone could die. Watching the characters—who had previously witnessed hundreds of “deaths” (of a sort)—try and fail throughout the episode to process what happened was like being a parent forced to watch your child crying and being unable to console them. You feel helpless.

    For forty-some-odd minutes, Joss Whedon turned off the fantastical show and gave us a short film on grieving, loss, trauma, and the frustrated feelings of unfairness that come with losing a loved one to death. It’s Emmy worth. Under a different format, I’d say it was Oscar-worthy.

    #2 – Hush – season 4, episode 10

    The ranking difference between #3 and #2 is so razor-thin it might as well be a tie. These are two distinctly different episodes, so putting “Hush” one notch above “The Body” is purely because, while I appreciate “The Body” more, I enjoy “Hush.” I’m not supposed to enjoy “The Body.” I admire it, but I also admire “Hush.” This is Joss’ silent film. This is the episode where the guy everyone said was a one-trick pony (“he can write good dialogue and that’s about it”) decided to challenge himself to craft a good episode of TV without any talking (once the plot kicks in, at least).

    I don’t know if there is a “best thing” about an episode that is flawless from top to bottom, but at least the thing I love the most about it is that the episode is not just content with being a “special attraction.” This isn’t just an episode you can throw on and admire for its technical achievement while enjoying a story detached from the rest of the narrative. No, the happenings of this episode are integral to the arc of season four. This is the episode that plants a dozen seeds for the future (Willow and Tara meet here) and reveals major plot points (namely Buffy and Riley discovering each other’s secrets). All the while, the backdrop is the show’s best-looking and acting villains by a mile.

    Gif - Buffy The Vampire Slayer S04e10: Hush Gentleman

    They’re just so darn polite as they cut you open and eat your insides!

    What makes “The Gentlemen” such amazing one-off villains? Is it the fact that they’re silent? Is it their giant, frozen smiles? For me, it’s the way they glide along the ground, moving from point A to point B with only their gently swaying arms or gently bobbing heads to hint at life.

    Once everyone in town is voice-deprived, the real fun of the episode kicks in. Whedon uses every trick, every possible gag, every innuendo, everything he can employ to get every bit of creativity from the premise. This could have been a ninety-minute special feature, but instead, it’s a forty-minute, rapid-paced, horror short. It’s probably the scariest episode of the so-called “horror fantasy” series, but it knows how to intersperse the thrills and chills with plenty of…

    Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

    YouTube privacy policy

    If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

    brilliance.

    You might rank this one below “The Body” but, as I say, they’re both 10/10 to me. You might even rank it #1, or you might put “The Body” at the top spot. Wherever you slot it, the odds are good it is placed around the very very top of the charts for Buffy episodes, and with good reason. While “The Body” proved Joss Whedon didn’t need jokes to tell a great story, “Hush” proved he didn’t even need dialogue.

    * * * * *

    That’s it. Only one episode left. We’ll be back next time to consider why “Once More with Feeling” is the greatest episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

    Buffy the Vampire Slayer S03e22: Scooby Gang
    Previous Page
    1 2 3 4

    Share this article:

    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit

    Tags

    Buffy the Vampire Slayer

    You might also like

    • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Every episode ranked! (Part 3/5)

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 9, 2022
    • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Every episode ranked! (Part 2/5)

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 21, 2022
    • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Every episode ranked! (Part 1/5)

      By Matthew Martin
      | January 24, 2022

    FIND THE TOPICS YOU WANT...

    TV Topics

    Recommended for you

    • The Flight Attendant S02E08 Review: Backwards and Forwards – A satisfying conclusion

      By Salome G
      | May 27, 2022
    • Riverdale S06E15 Review: Things That Go Bump in the Night – Unexpected allies

      By Salome G
      | May 23, 2022
    • Why is it that The Doctor can never seem to become ginger?

      By Jason Collins
      | May 23, 2022
    • Big Sky S02E18 Review: Catch a Few Fish – Solid finale

      By Salome G
      | May 22, 2022
    • Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Episodes 2-3 review (Good stuff!)

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 21, 2022
    • Star Trek Picard Season 2 (not a review but a rant)

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 10, 2022
    • Star Trek Picard S02E10 Review: Farewell – Future perfect?

      By Ethan J
      | May 7, 2022
    • Meditating on Moon Knight (Season One Review)

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 5, 2022
    • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Every episode ranked! (Part 4/5)

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 24, 2022
    • Why “The Body” from ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ remains one of TV’s greatest explorations of the five stages of grief

      By Jason Collins
      | March 27, 2022
    • On a scale of 1 to really messed up, how well does The Boys translate to the small screen?

      By Jason Collins
      | March 15, 2022
    • Who’s Who? We have some ideas about the new Doctor Who

      By Oliver Johnston
      | September 13, 2021
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Affiliate Disclosure
    • Cookie Policy and Settings
    • Terms of Use
    • Photo Credits
    • RSS
    All Cult of Whatever articles, logos, illustrations and graphics are copyright CultOfWhatever.com. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. © 2021 CultOfWhatever. All Rights Reserved.
    • facebook
    • twitter