Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 5 Was a Better Series Finale Than Season 7 (So Why Didn’t the Show End?)

While Buffy the Vampire Slayer was never outright bad, the show did fall off after its fifth season finale, and, in the process, proved that this acclaimed episode would have been a more fitting ending than the eventual series finale. The success of The X-Files has a lot to answer for. The classic ‘90s show was such a huge hit that, in the years after The X-Files premiered in 1993, the airwaves were flooded with other shows that combined a police procedural format with a supernatural twist.

Although David Lynch and Mark Frost’s classic murder mystery Twin Peaks pioneered this genre blend before The X-Files, it was the monster-of-the-week style of the later show that shaped Supernatural, Evil, Fringe, Grimm, and so many other hits. Perhaps the most notable of these was Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a series that eventually left an even bigger mark on pop culture than The X-Files itself. The show’s seven seasons followed Sarah Michelle Gellar’s titular sardonic heroine as she navigated young adult life while also ridding the world of evil.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 5’s Tragic Final Death Perfectly Ended Its Story

At least, that’s what Buffy the Vampire Slayer focused on for its first five seasons. The show followed Buffy and the rest of the Scooby Gang as they battled vampires, demons, demi-Gods, ghosts, and all manner of other paranormal threats, while also dealing with their own interpersonal dramas. However, season 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer saw the show take on a darker, more mature tone as the title character fought the hell god, Glory.

Buffy’s most formidable foe to date, Glory pushed the show’s eponymous character to make a bigger sacrifice than she ever imagined possible when Buffy was faced with an impossible choice. Throughout much of season 5’s finale, the show focused on Buffy trying to work out a way to defeat Glory without sacrificing her little sister Dawn, played by Inspector Gadget’s late star Michelle Trachtenberg. Eventually, the plot took an even darker turn when Buffy realised she could sacrifice her own life instead of Dawn’s existence, prompting her to ask Dawn to be brave and live for her before Buffy jumped into Glory’s inter-dimensional portal, saving the world and ending her own life.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Later Seasons Struggled Thanks To Its Missed Finale Mistake

Written as a potential series finale when the show’s creators were unsure whether the series would be renewed, “The Gift” pays off the themes of death and sacrifice that ran through season 5. Its elegant, elegiac conclusion to Buffy’s character arc proves that this outing would have made for a perfect series finale, flawlessly encapsulating the way that the show’s writing found unexpected depth, profundity, and poignancy in its seemingly silly premise.

While the later seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer were never quite as bad as many fans suggested, the reason behind the general dissatisfaction with seasons 6 and 7 is clear. The creators needed to start from scratch and literally revive the main character of the show after “The Gift,” so it is no surprise that the series was never able to craft another series finale that felt as moving and unexpectedly tragic as Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s original planned ending in the years that followed.