Free at Last!

Mercury is finally out of retrograde and it's time to get back to business.

Whoever wrote the copy for IBM's new ThinkPad subway ads needs to relearn grammar. "None of these posters have been stolen," is just wrong. Think of "none" as a contraction of "not one." You'll find that the correct form for this sentence is "None of these posters has been stolen." I know, I know, grammar isn't important in the digital age.

I've been so busy lately that my wall of calendars is still on March.

If anyone can shed some light on the deeper meaning of Freda Payne's "Band of Gold," I'm all ears.

I was actually impressed by the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series finale. It was almost as if whoever wrote, directed, and acted in the show had actually seen it before. I'll list my grievances, then praise. First, the Slayerettes don't get to make a choice, as Buffy says in the big speech. How could they? If one of them chose not to have the Slayer power, would they not do the spell? Then anyone who chose to have the power wouldn't get their choice. I think that wording was a way of throwing the viewer off the scent, to the conclusion I came to, that they were going to activate Slayers by killing and raising them. More complicated, but at least rooted in the show's mythology, unlike the vague spell to activate all potential Slayers that they just pulled out of their asses. (Reminds me of the troll hammer Buffy used to defeat Glory. Not originally the hammer of a Troll God, but just of a troll. When did Olaf become a God?) The spell thing is my second grievance. Third, why does Xander have to give the dead Anya such a backhanded compliment? "That's my girl, always doing the stupid thing." Sure, it's supposed to convey that Andrew's life was worthless and she shouldn't have protected him, but since when did Anya always do "the stupid thing?" Xander was never nice enough to her. Bad Xander. And the big one: There was no reason to wait until the very last moment to do the Slayer activation spell. If Willow could do it, why couldn't she just do it at the house, get them all used to their new powers, and give the scythe to Buffy before she goes into the Hellmouth? It makes absolutely no sense. There was no pressing time constraint. Saving it for the last minute was such an obvious contrivance to make the viewer anxious. It just annoyed me.

Now praise. Buffy was actually tolerable. I even liked her again. I was almost sad when I thought she was going to die. The scenes with Angel brought back her humanity, ironically. And those scenes also showed how much the character of Angel has changed since the spinoff. He has a sense of humour and he's less mopey. I like that they kept an opening for the "someday" of them both becoming who they need to become before they can see a future with each other. The demise of Spike was brilliant. He was never meant to be a vampire with a soul. Angel was right to be annoyed. Spike was able to do one truly good thing before he paid for all his misdeeds. The interaction between Willow, Xander, Giles and Buffy before the big fight was awesome, even if the sound was screwy. Willow and Xander were like Willow and Xander again. Andrew was really funny, giving a shout-out to Tucker... And the reference to homestarrunner.com (Trogdor the Burninator!) was inspired. The idea of Giles playing D&D with the dorks cracked me up. But a hoodie on Giles? A bit much. The conversation between Wood and Faith seemed natural and cool. Leaving Sunnydale as just a big crater was a great idea. Very reminiscent of blowing up the school at the end of Season Three (otherwise known as The Best Season Ever). The First Evil as Buffy talking to Buffy was very awesome.

Wait, how do they know they are free of the First? I mean, it's incorporeal and really evil. Like, the evillest. I guess that will just have to be filed with the question of why all the citizens of Sunnydale fled for apparently no reason.

Where was I? Oh, right, liking the finale. So, I was impressed. I would have liked a funny line at the end, but I guess we can't have everything. I am sad that Anya died and Dawn lived, because Anya was a lot better than Dawn. I am glad Spike died so we don't have to get him on Angel. All in all, much better than I thought it would be, and much better after the second commercial break. I forgive, you Joss, but you still have to stay in the cellar for a while before I can trust you again. I heard what happened on the season finale of Angel and I am not amused.