Season 5, Episode 22 | Aired: 22 May 2001 | Written by: Joss Whedon | Directed by: Joss Whedon
The 100th episode and the show’s finest hour. Glory opens the dimensional rift. Buffy kills Doc, saves Dawn, and then understands what the First Slayer meant: death is her gift. Her blood — Summers blood, the same as Dawn’s — will close what Dawn’s opened. She tells Dawn she loves her. She dives. The rift closes. The gravestone reads: “Buffy Anne Summers. 1981-2001. Beloved Sister. Devoted Friend. She saved the world. A lot.”
What Happens
The Scoobies attack Glory’s tower — Xander with a wrecking ball, Willow restoring Tara’s mind and overwhelming Glory, Giles killing Ben before he can be rescued, Spike fighting and failing on the tower. Doc cuts Dawn and the rift opens. Buffy runs up the tower and throws Doc off. She holds Dawn, looks at the rift, and understands what she has always been moving toward. She talks to Dawn, quickly and with complete love, and then runs and jumps.
The rift closes. The dimensional dissolution stops. Buffy’s body is on the ground. The Scoobies stand around it in silence. The gravestone. The end of the season.
Key Moments
Giles killing Ben — not Buffy, who can’t, because she has a code. Giles, who loves her, doing what needs doing. It’s handled in close-up and silence and is one of the most quietly devastating moments in the series.
Buffy’s final words to Dawn: “The hardest thing in this world… is to live in it. Be brave. Live. For me.” And then she runs.
Monster / Villain
Glory — defeated by Willow restoring Tara’s mind and turning the power back on her. Ben — killed by Giles. The rift itself.
Notable Quote
“She saved the world. A lot.” — the gravestone. It is perfect. It says everything that matters.
Where It Fits
The Gift is the end of the show’s best season and the argument, if one is needed, that Buffy the Vampire Slayer was as good as television gets. Season 6 will resurrect her and grapple with what that means. But this is the ending the show earned — quiet, certain, and kind.