Congratulations, Class Of 1999

It's not possible for me to start watching the last quarter of Buffy's third season and not keep going until the end. It has a majestic, sad momentum to it, and though some of the suspense is lost -- you know how it ends, and that the world doesn't end for our heroes -- it's suffused with that feeling from the actual end of high school, or college or camp, that sense of something you didn't know you loved slipping away.

Some of the suspense does linger, though. My memory of how I saw the last half-dozen episodes is gappy; "Earshot" got pulled, then "Graduation Day Pt. 2," after the Columbine massacre in April of that year, and I don't remember whether I watched them when they "really" aired or somehow got a bootleg of "Pt. 2," but I do recall that, even when I expected to watch "Pt. 2" a week later, that week seemed like an eternity after the end of "Pt. 1." Had Buffy really killed Faith? How would she save Angel? Would anyone like to explain how they plan to kill an "impervious" ascending demon? I HAVE TO WAIT TWO MONTHS?!

This isn't to say that the back end of S3 is perfect television. It's far from it. Buffy and Angel's relationship continues to wobble towards the moment when the writers will let themselves break them up for real so Angel can start his spinoff; until then, it's cutesy one minute, tortured the next, and Angel's guarantee that he won't get "worked up" and turn evil isn't backed up with any proof, or an explanation of what's different now. Xander's relationship to Angel is also frustratingly expedient, and when he's not being a needlessly territorial dick to Buffy about Angel's potential for destructive behavior, he's given lines like "the suspense is killing Angel." Like, what? Xander's just fine with something killing Angel…eeeeexcept when he's not. The pacing is sometimes weird and labored ("Choices"; the climactic graduation battle, which is staged a little strangely too -- what's with the almost no parents, and the parking them over to the side?).

The hellhounds of "The Prom" have Muppet-y pelts, and the way they're controlled isn't as clever as Marti Noxon might have thought. Buffy's dismissal of Wesley in "Pt. 1" seemed brave and compelling once upon a time, but lands as bratty and counterproductive now.

But while the parts don't all work, the whole is that much greater than the sum of them. I still fall for the dupe in "Enemies" every time and I still chuckle at "I introduced him to his wife." I still tear up every time Jonathan takes the mic in "The Prom" and by the time Giles looks over Buffy's shoulder and murmurs, "Every now and then" at the sight of Angel in a tux, I'm drenched. The Sundays' "Wild Horses"...I can't even. I still get a tiny chill when the cat in Buffy's dream blinks into Faith's comatose form for a split second, and their final fight is still cathartic while at the same time hard to watch -- the viewer wants both insecure id Faith and sanctimonious superego Buffy brought down a peg or two. Cordelia and Wesley's terrible kiss is one of the great "yeah…no" resolutions of sexual tension in TV history, and Groener as the Mayor one of the great villains, because of his "human weakness" -- his fearful rage at the hospital is his most sympathetic and terrifying scene.

So, none of it's quite as good as I remembered, and at the same time it's all even better. …Well, not "I'm talking about watching my lover die," because that shit's just not good no how, and I try not to think about how contrivedly bad it's about to turn for Willow and Oz when they're gettin' it on in the Dingoes van. Still, S3 emerges from the Rewatch as my favorite, for grand dramatic ambitions realized. For having a moment.