"", the series finale of ''
Buffy The Vampire Slayer '', is Episode 22 of Season 7.
"Chosen" depicts the events leading to and including the final battle between the potential Slayers, organized by Buffy and her associates, and
The First Evil . In this episode, Buffy and her friends fight
The First Evil and in the end, stand victorious.
A bloody
Caleb rises and Buffy finally kills him with the scythe by slicing him in two from the crotch up. Angel gives Buffy an amulet intended to be worn by someone ensouled, yet more than human. He tells her he will fight alongside her, but she turns him down, asking him to instead organize a second front in case she loses to The First. They discuss Spike, his soul, and Buffy's feelings for him. When Angel asks about the future, Buffy explains that she still needs to grow up. As he walks into the shadows, echoing his very first appearance, Buffy tells him there might be a future for them, but it will be a long time coming, if ever. He walks off after saying "I'm not getting any older".
Back at the house,
Dawn angrily kicks Buffy's leg for having
Xander try to take her away from Sunnydale in the
Previous Episode . Spike is in the basement, working out his anger on a punching bag with a crude drawing of Angel's face on it. He asks for the amulet, whose exchange he had witnessed from the shadows, and she explains that it is very powerful and meant only for a champion. She then hands it to him. Buffy tells Spike coyly that
Faith still sleeps in her bedroom and she has nowhere to sleep. Spike says he doesn't want Buffy downstairs with him, because he still has his pride. When Buffy starts to walk upstairs, he says he doesn't have any pride at all when it comes to her and he says she can stay.
Late at night, as Buffy and Spike are sleeping in each other's arms, the First appears to taunt Buffy in the form of Caleb. His words give Buffy a plan; when Spike wakes up, Buffy tells him that she now knows that they will win.
The next morning, Buffy unveils her plan to the potentials off-camera. Afterwards, Willow expresses to
Kennedy her concerns about using magic again. She says this is the most powerful magic she will have attempted and asks Kennedy to kill her if it turns bad. Faith and
Principal Wood also have a discussion while preparing the school for the battle. Wood demonstrates that he understands her defensiveness over getting emotionally involved with men and asks her to give him a chance after the battle.
The next morning, everyone arrives at
Sunnydale High in a yellow school bus. The
Potentials head to the seal in the basement while Kennedy helps Willow set up her spell in Principal Wood's office. After trying to give a farewell speech,
Andrew is dragged off by
Anya . Dawn leaves to set up her post with Xander, determined to see her sister again. Principal Wood leaves to wait at his post for
Giles . The core four share a moment before each one peels off, leaving Buffy walking alone to the seal. The Potentials, Faith and Spike are waiting, and the potentials/slayers cut their hands to open the seal with their blood. They climb down the hole in the ground and come face to face with the army of
Turok-Han . The Ubervamps spot Buffy, Faith and the Potentials, and attack. "Come on, Wil," Buffy pleads.
Willow sits in Principal Woods' office, the scythe before her. While chanting a spell, she places her hands upon the scythe, and both she and the scythe light up in an ethereal glow. A flashback to Buffy's final speech to the Potentials reveals that Willow is channeling the essence of the scythe in order to activate Potentials all over the world. Defying the tradition of only one slayer per generation, Willow's spell will raise an army strong enough to do battle with The First. As Willow performs the actual magic, Kennedy tells Willow that she is a goddess. "And you're a Slayer," Willow replies. Kennedy takes the scythe to Buffy, who is deep in the fight with Faith and Spike against the army of the Turok-Han, numbering in the thousands.
As she pauses to give orders, Buffy is stabbed through her abdomen from behind by one of the Turok-Han and falls to the ground. She passes the scythe to Faith and asks her to hold the line. As she lies on the ground, she sees several Slayers fall, including Amanda. In the halls of the school, a few Turok-Han make it to the surface and attack the group guarding the entrances. A small group of Bringers also appear and attack. During the battle, Anya is bisected by a Bringer.
Andrew fights until he is overwhelmed. Principal Wood is brutally stabbed by a Bringer who is then killed by Giles. Xander and Dawn take on some Turok-Han who are disintegrated by sunlight when Dawn throws open a skylight window, but more follow. In the Hellmouth, the First then appears to Buffy as a mortally wounded Buffy herself, saying "What more do you want?". Ordering The First to "get out of my face!" Buffy arises with renewed determination and knocks several Turok-Han off the ledge. Other Slayers are reinvigorated as well. Just then, Spike's amulet consumes him in blue light and blasts a hole upward into the sky. The sunlight is channeled through the amulet and in powerful rays that begin dusting the ubervamps. The ground begins to shake and rocks tumble. The few surviving Slayers start to flee. Buffy tells Spike to do so as well, but he insists on finishing it. They share a quiet moment as the world crumbles around them. With tears in her eyes, Buffy tells Spike she loves him, to which he replies, "No you don't. But thanks for saying it." He orders her to leave as he has to stay and finish the job. Buffy leaves and Spike disintegrates as the Hellmouth collapses.
On the way out of the school, the Slayers find Andrew crouched in a corner. Xander yells for Anya, whose dead and mangled body lies nearby. Dawn pulls him out. Faith is the last onto the bus and it pulls away, with Dawn looking through back for Buffy. Buffy, in the meantime, has climbed to the roof of the school and is running along rooftops trying to outrun the enlarging crater. She leaps onto the top of the bus. Watching as the bus speeds off out of town, the entire town collapses into itself.
The ground stops shaking. Everyone gets off the bus. Xander asks Andrew about Anya's death. He comforts Xander by telling him that Anya died saving him. Faith looks after a wounded Principal Wood. While Kennedy, Vi and a few others tend to the wounded newly made Slayers, everyone joins Buffy as they look at the large crater which was once Sunnydale. Giles asks how this could've happened, since everyone either died or is alive and with them. With sad eyes, Buffy answers with one word: ''"Spike"''. A silence follows, as everyone remembers their fight. Giles mentions that they should go to Cleveland as there's another Hellmouth there and lots more work to do. An exhausted Faith responds, "Can I push him in?". Then, Dawn asks, "What are we going to do now?" Buffy slowly begins to smile as she contemplates the future.
- Felicia Day as Vi
- Mary Wilcher as Shannon
- Demetra Raven as Girl at Bat
- Katie Gray as Indian Girl
- Lisa Ann Cabasa as Injured Girl
- Ally Matsumura as Japanese Girl
- Kelly Wheeler as School Girl
- Jenna Edwards as Trailer Girl
- Julia Ling as Potential with Power #2
- Joss Whedon acknowledges that the magic unleashed from the Scythe in this episode is somewhat convenient. He says that to him as a writer, it was more important to get to the show's message of empowerment through both Willow's magic and Buffy's status as the Slayer, and what that means to each of them.Whedon, Joss, "Chosen" (Commentary by Joss Whedon), ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete Seventh Season on DVD'', Twentieth Century Fox , 2004.
- Whedon also admits that the Turok-Han vampires in this episode are far easier to kill in this episode than in previous episodes, which noted that the Turok-Han vampires have tough chestbones that make staking them extremely difficult. Whedon says:
- According to Joss Whedon, season seven of ''Buffy'' explored the fundamental differences between the Slayer and other people, with the series finale turning the "idea of separateness" upside down.
- In a BBC interview before this episode aired, Whedon said:
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- The Scene in which Giles, Buffy, Xander, and Willow are together in the hallway before they eventually split off into their separate parties mirrors a scene in " The Harvest , in which Buffy, Xander, and Willow ignore Giles completely and walk off talking to each other leaving Giles to remark to himself, "the earth is doomed." In this episode, the same thing occurs when Buffy, Xander, and Willow ignore Giles completely and walk off talking to each other and Giles is left standing there alone where he comments that "The earth is definitely doomed."
: That's my girl, always doing the stupid thing.
: The Earth is definitely doomed.
: That was nifty.
:: We destroyed the mall? I fought on the wrong side.
: Buffy: "So here's the part where you make a choice: What if you could have that power... now? In every generation, one slayer is born... because a bunch of men who died thousands of years ago made up that rule. They were powerful men. This woman is more powerful than all of them combined. So I say we change the rule. I say my power... should be our power. Tomorrow, Willow will use the essence of the scythe to change our destiny. From now on, every girl in the world who might be a slayer... will be a slayer. Every girl who could have the power... will have the power... can stand up, will stand up. Slayers... every one of us. Make your choice. Are you ready to be strong?"
- ''' the night before the final battle.
- The Mutant Enemy logo at the end of this episode is slightly changed. The monster's head turns towards the camera when going "Grrrrr Ahrrgg"
- French title: "La Fin des Temps - 2ème partie" ("The End of Times - Part 2")
- German title: "Das Ende der Zeit – Teil 2" ("The End of Time: Part 2")
- Italian title: On TV "La Prescelta" ("The Chosen One") or, on DVD, "Prescelta" ("Chosen")
- Spanish title: "La Elegida" ("The Chosen")
- Wires attached to Felicia Day can clearly be identified when Vi leaps in the air.
"Chosen" attracted 4.9 million viewers on its original first run.
The 30 second television ad begins with the mention of sponsor Acuvue Cam, cutting to a montage of clips from "Chosen," such as Caleb threatening, Buffy and Spike in the Hellmouth, Willow enchanted, and Buffy knocking three Turok-Hans off a cliff.
It also features clips from previous episodes of the season, such as Xander lighting a match ("
Get It Done "), the Hellmouth seal ("
Storyteller "), and Buffy rising from the floor in ("
Never Leave Me ").
Throughout the ad, the voiceover utters: ''The end is here… Be there when the Slayer takes her last stand. Will this be Buffy’s final hour? Or her finest hour? The earth shattering series finale…''
The ad concludes with a final mention of Acuvue Cam.
The subsequent images have been professionally taken to endorse the episode or the series. They are available to all media who wish to present a production relating to the series, such as in magazines, novels, or websites.
