Favorite Season Premiere and Finale

[burkle25]

What's your favorite season premiere?


Finale poll is here: https://www.buffyforums.net/showthread.php?t=3349
I didn't realize until after I made the thread only one poll question was allowed

My favorite is between Buffy vs Dracula and Bargaining. They are so different .. showcasing the fun side of Buffy and the depressing side.

My least favorite would have to be Anne. But I love the beginning scene, especially when Oz throws the stake and it hits the tombstone and also the last 10mins or so, the Gandhi line : )

[Anya]

Ick, I HATED Anne. The others are weak also...in my opinion, they could have done Bargaining Part 1 and two a lot better.

My favourite would have to be Buffy VS Dracula.

[kassyopeia]

I'm gonna go with "Lessons". The execution sucked, but the premise is still cool enough to make this easily the best premiere. If I were to judge the episodes on their own merits rather than as premieres in the context of their seasons, I'd probably go with "The Freshman", mostly because I really liked Sunday.

[Ralphie]

My favourite is When She Was Bad

[buffyholic]

Bargaining pt 1 and 2. It shows the Scoobies in a very dark place, trying to live without Buffy. Giles also leaves and that gives one amazing scene at the airport. And then of course, when they ressurect Buffy is also amazing. We see that Willow is totally dominated by the magics now.

[Rexx Raul]

I love Bargaining a LOT. But ultimately didn't do what I think a season premiere should do: get me super-excited about the season. It does set the storyline and themes better than any other season premier did, it just didn't spark the excitement that I think it should've. I agree with Anya in that I also HATED Anne. Ugh, almost stopped watching the series after that show.

My vote went for Lessons. Now, unfortunately, the season didn't pack the punch I was hoping for, but the scene at the end with Spike and the First taking the guises of all the old Big Bads was soooo bad-ass that it really got me stoked for the season.

[holypotatoes]

HEY! Anne is awesome! I mean what's not to love about "I'm Buffy, the vampire slayer and you are?" ? :eek: That's awesome and you know it.

I did however choose When She Was Bad. Anne would have been my second favorite and Lessons would've been third. Bitca!Buffy won out in the end. Who doesn't love Bitca!Buffy? I mean that's probably one of the greatest things WSWB gave us. Buffy being alone is something I always love so that's probably why I love Anne as much as I do. I don't find it necessary to have the damn scoobies around all the time so it was a nice little break to start off a season without them being involved in Buffy's life. I liked the way Lesson's ended. Not so much the entire episode but that last morphing part. It basically makes that entire episode.

[Theresa Marie86]

A BITCA???
I love "when she was bad!!' Buffy got to play the bad girl role for a ep. Cordy got to be nice. Xander/willow kissy time! And we get to see Buffy smash the master up! Oh and not to mention angel telling buffy he missed her... oh so cute!

[Pandora's_Box]

I like Anne, The Freshman, Lessons and my favorite is Bargaining because of the strong plot and the darkness of it.

[Matt]

I liked When She Was Bad, Anne, The Freshman and Bargaining.

The first because it sort of picks off where the first season finished and ties up the loose ends, that and we get another shot of Bitch!Buffy which is a rareity and I love it.

Anne because it was interesting to see how Buffy and the Scoobies had been getting on and to see how much Angel's death had affected Buffy, also it had a great line of dialogue, "I'm Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and you are?"

The Freshman because, again, it was interesting to see the Scoobies integrate into a new location, to see how each of them would get on over the season, it was also great to see Buffy feeling isolated, a great example of her loneliness, and also Xander's speech was quite moving in a I'm-still-sitting-in-the-same-place kind of way. Sunday was also a pretty good villain, in a humerous way.

Finally, Bargaining because of the way it unfolds how Willow and Co. have been planning to bring Buffy back, but haven't told Dawn, Spike or Giles. I liked the darkness and the way it sets you up for the rest of the season.

[miscjj06]

My favorite is "When she was bad". Buffy was just so sexy, dangerous, and cruel in that episoide, not traits we often get to see. Plus, this is the episoide where the term "bitca" was born thanks to Xander's spelling problem, . Plus, I love how her friends forgive her right away at the end of the episoide. Bitca Buffy is always welcome. The annointed was kind of lame, but you can't have everything in a season opener, right. My second favorite would have to be "Bargining" because it had a strong story line and a stong tie to the rest of season 6. If "Barginning" had bitca buffy and a little more humor and sexual tension it would have been perfect. If only there was an episoide that combined my favorite parts of "When she was Bad" and my favorite parts of "Barginning". Oh well, you can't have everything.

[Dark Ages]

Well my vote went to "Bargaining", but i really like "When she was bad" also. The thing i like about "Bargaining" is the group came together for one big purpose and they stuck together. I feel that this was the only time that the group was so close to one another. Even Anya and Willow, who dont get along at all. Also the demons coming into town was pretty cool!

[Rexx Raul]

The thing i like about "Bargaining" is the group came together for one big purpose and they stuck together. I feel that this was the only time that the group was so close to one another. Even Anya and Willow, who dont get along at all.

I agree and disagree with your assessment here. For Xander, Willow, Tara, and Anya, yes, it was as close as they ever got. But if you include the entirety of the cast, this was about as divided as they got (barring the countless number of times that Buffy kept something crucial secret from everybody). I think Spike was right, Willow knew that something could've gone wrong with the spell, and that's why they kept it secret from Dawn. Knowing that Dawn would be left alone by the four of them when they did the spell, Spike would be the one to watch her, so clearly he couldn't know. But when it comes to leaving Giles out of the loop, I think it was pure arrogance by Willow. On some level, she knew that Giles would disapprove, even forbid them to do the spell. Willow didn't want to go over his head, which I firmly believe she'd try to do, so she had to keep it a secret from him, too.

But then again, Willow was keeping secrets from the other three as well! She would never tell them that she had to slaughter a deer for the spell.

I love Bargaining. I think it does such a great job of establishing Willow for the season, what her arrogance and selfishness can ultimately become.

[kassyopeia]

I think Spike was right, Willow knew that something could've gone wrong with the spell, and that's why they kept it secret from Dawn.

I concur. And of course Xander knew he was, too, at some level, he just tried not to admit it to himself. And Spike may well have been right about the reason for not telling him, too - they knew he loved her and mightn't be able to cope if something did go wrong.

She would never tell them that she had to slaughter a deer for the spell.

I wouldn't go that far. She wouldn't have hesitated to tell them if they had needed to know. But since they didn't, she saw no reason to "burden" them with the knowledge.

Willow was certainly being arrogant, but I'm not sure I'd call her selfish. She was sure that both of the ritual's risks, i.e. that something might go wrong and that she might get harmed while performing it, were managable. She wasn't sure that she'd be able to convince the others of that, if she had been open about everything, though. Thus, she decided to parcel out the knowledge more or less on a need-to-know basis.

[ShinyFirefly]

Anne gets the one (and so far only) vote off me. Although it was a toss-up between that and When She Was Bad. They'd both be in my top 20ish episodes.

Not only do I like Chantrelle/Lily/Anne as a character but it has some truly KickAss!Buffy moments at the end. I don't know why people don't like this episode to be honest.

When She Was Bad has some classic bitchy Buffy moments, the dance with Xander, and the conversation with Cordelia. Good stuff.

[urbanlegend23]

When She Was Bad is the best in my opinion, but Anne also has a sentimental value to me because it was the first BtVS episode that really got me into the show.

[ThePoet's<3]

Out of ALL of them I voted Bargaining I & II. That was just awesome! Resurrecting Buffy?? Amazingly great!

[Retrograde]

It was between Welcome to the Hellmouth and When She Was Bad - went with the classic first ever episode! You can't beat old skool Buffy it completely set the premise for the entire show!

[Amuk]

Yep. Gotta go with WTTH. It's got a purity the others just lack. And besides, the Scoobies look sooooo young.

[?DarkWillow?]

I love Welcome to the Hellmouth, but i have to go with Bargaining I & II. WTTH is a total classic episode of BTVS, but no matter how many times I watch Bargaining, it never gets old. I always marvel at the amazing actor that is SMG, I mean, the scenes after she wakes up in her coffin are just incredible in my opinion.