User Reviews

This is an episode about change. Endings and new beginnings, for both the characters and for BTVS. It is (basically) the last episode with Cordelia, Wes and Angel in the cast. (Angel will pop up a few more times over the years, but he'll never really come back to stay.) Sunnydale High is destroyed, so starting next season there will be all new sets. Snyder and Larry are killed in the battle. Harmony becomes a vampire. Faith is put in a coma and the Mayor dies. All in all, a lot happens in this episode. And you really shouldn't skip it if you're watching the show on DVD.

The episode picks up right where "Graduation Day Part One" leaves off. Angel is dying and The Mayor is still planning to ascend. Desperate to save Angel, Buffy forces him to drink her blood. This cures him, but it nearly kills her in the process. Angel rushes her to the hospital, where Faith is also laying injured. The Mayor is devastated to learn that Faith is in a coma and may never wake up. He blames Buffy and attacks her in her hospital bed. Angel has to pull him off. While she's asleep, Buffy has a dream where Faith urges her to play on the Mayor's human weaknesses. Buffy wakes up with a plan on how to stop the Ascension.

Rallying the other Sunnydale students, Buffy and the Scoobies go to graduation. Halfway through his speech, the Mayor transforms into a giant snake demon. The students are prepared for this and fight back. Snyder is eaten. Xander calls on his army-guy training from season two's "Halloween." Buffy, going for the Mayor's human love for Faith, brandishes the knife she used to stab her. The Mayor/snake tries to kill Buffy as she races through the halls of Sunnydale High. Dashing into the library, she runs past the now-empty shelves. (Giles' books have been evacuated.) Buffy dives out the window... And Giles detonates the pounds of explosives they've rigged throughout the school. The Mayor is blown to little snake-y bits. The end of the episode has Angel walking off into the smoke and the Scoobies leaving Sunnydale High forever... Or at least until season four's "Doomed."

There are a lot of good parts to this episode. I love the Mayor and Angel's confrontation in the hospital. They're both so overwhelmed and worried about their respective Slayers that their argument is just great. The Mayor blames Buffy for Faith's coma and Angel has to throw the Mayor through a window in order to stop him from hurting her. And I like Buffy's dream about Faith. The Little Miss Muffit and 730 references will play into season five's story arc. (It's 730 days until "The Gift.") It's also nice that the students of Sunnydale High finally start fighting back against their demons. For once they're not just super-natural victims for Buffy to save. They're adults now and they're standing up for themselves. And Cordy's right, Wes coming back to help the Scoobies after they've made fun of him all season is just so classy. Finally, I love the scene where Angel feeds off of Buffy. It's so seductive and dark and beautiful all at the same time. Wow.

On the downside, I think the snake effects were a little fake. And I am sorry to see Larry die. Also, Angel's exit leaves a big hole in the show that only heals when Spike takes over as leading man in season five.

My favorite part of the episode: Snyder's introduction speech. "This is a time of celebration, so sit still and be quiet."

Buffy sacrifices herself to Angel, while The Mayor searches frantically for Faith. The gang prepare for the final showdown and their own graduation.

Why It's So Good - Terrific connection between Buffy and Faith continues, while The Mayor's seemingly genuine care for Faith elevates their toxic connection. The final battle acts as a huge goodbye to High School, and the first phase of Buffy the show.

Watch Out For - She'll be alright, she'll be alright, she'll be alright.

Quote - "Key? Me? Okay, - pride, - humility, - and here's the mind numbing fear." - Xander.

Graduation Day: Part 2 is about Buffy restoring Angel to health and preparing for the mayor's ascension.

Starts off strong, with Angel draining Buffy then encountering the mayor at the hospital, but it's not all roses in my opinion. Has a fair bit of weak dialogue and the battle's uneventful and silly. I mean, what does the mayor actually do in demon form, he kills Larry and Snyder... he should be taking out masses and those of importance and it's just students and Angel verse like fifteen vamps. Really, there shouldn't be many left standing at the end of this. Buffy and Angel part ways and Cordy with the show too, leading to a decline but also the creation of a wonderful spin-off.

The Good; The end of SDH (for the moment). The chance to see some familiar faces again and to say goodbye to others. Buffy and co finally graduate into the adult world, if not exactly putting childish things aside growing past them. Great to see the kids of Sunnydale High fight back at last (although has this spoiled the survival record they were all so proud of in The Prom?) Snyder's speech is a definite highlight. It's all terrific and I think we should all be proud to say that we graduated Sunnydale High, class of 1999

The Bad; Are you kidding? Well, one thing that always bothered me was after we see a devastated Mayor visiting Faith in hospital he's awfully chipper when briefing the vamps for the Graduation? Maybe the briefing the vamps scene was supposed to in a different order in the script?

Best line; Willow; "Man, just ascend already!" just beating Xander's 'Good to know that when the chips are down you can feed on the girl who loves you to save your own ass!' Also fond of Oz 'Our lives are different to other peoples'.

Character death; Byebye Larry (although his death isn't confirmed until season 6). Byebye Snyder who quite obviously had no clue what was going on. We see Harmony bitten but not sired? And byebye the Mayor, Harry Groener will be missed, glad we'll see him again a few more times. Cordy bags her first solo vamp.

Shot; Vamps with flaming arrows, western style.

Knocked out; Faith in a coma and Buffy also unconscious. A pained Wes asks if he could he be knocked out.

Women good/men bad; The Mayor refers to Buffy as a whore, a nastily misogynist remark. Buffy says Wes 'Screams like a woman' and compares Xander and Angel to squabbling old ladies.

Jeez!; Watching the Mayor try to smother an unconscious Buffy is awful

Kinky dinky; Angel biting Buffy. The sexiest scene you'll ever see between two fully clothed lovers, once again a vamp feeding is seen as a sexual act with violence as foreplay (the second time Buffy has been bitten by a vampire but by no means the last). Willow loses her virginity to Oz, it's all so sweet. Their van sex proves Cordy's theory about danger being an aphrodisiac. Willow says that its the best time of her life.

Calling Captain Subtext; The entire Buffy/Faith dream sequence is just one huge Buffy/Faith love in, especially Faith's caressing of Buffy's face and Buffy kissing an unconscious Faith. Face it, they love each other, they're meant to be together. And remember it's Faith who gives Buffy the secret of defeating the Mayor. Angel in his delirium also mistakes Oz for Buffy, THAT would have been an interesting conversation! Wes and Cordy's kiss is a disaster, one day they'll love each other plenty.

Guantanamo Bay; Buffy gets Angel into vampface by slapping him around. Is Buffy going to let Angel drain Faith entirely or give him a bit of each of their blood?

Scoobies to the ER; Buffy is taken to hospital for blood loss whilst Wes is carted away at the end.

Where's Dawn? Safely out of town with Joyce. However I think it's no great leap of imagination to say that the cat in the dream sequence is representative of Dawn. Indeed this could be the moment it's decided she's Buffy's sister rather than Faith's, you wonder if there's still some link between the two? Faith remarks about 'Little Miss Muffet, counting down from 730' which of course is 365x2 and it'll be 2 years before Dawnie shows up.

Questions and observations; Goodbye Angel, he makes a fantastic exit. Again, what exactly is the Mayor's plan? He obviously believes in a sort of idealised vision of Sunnydale, how is being a huge snake going to achieve that? Also although this is referred to as an apocalypse it really wouldn't be the end of the world, we've had demons like this before and the world goes on. Also surely the Initiative/Military/National Guard would just blast the Mayor to bits? Xander's soldier knowledge once again comes in useful. Although I'd really have liked to have seen the hummus offensive.

The Mayor says Faith doesn't like to be cooped up, prison must have been tough for her then. Why should Wes leave the country? Would the Council really give up that easily? Shouldn't the hospital staff call the police when the Mayor tries to smother Buffy? There's a great picture of Wes in the Sunnydale High Yearbook asking 'Who is this guy? The first mention of shrimp in the Buffyverse. Anya refers to her car but then in 'Triangle' says it's the first time she's driven? The Mayor says Sunnydale is 100 years old but surely the town dates back to Spanish/American times?

Lot of fanfic based on the concept of 'what if?' the ascension had succeeded. Like the one where WR&H, the Initiative, Doyle, Gwen, Spike, Fred, Warren, Lorne, Tara, Gunn etc team up to set the world to rights, also fond of the monks sending Dawn to Faith as her sister, Glory killing the transformed Mayor in her quest for The Key and Faith killing her then being won back over to the good guys by her little sis' love. Also love Faith realising the transformed Mayor doesn't love her anymore so she goes to the Oracles and turns back time, even if it means she ends up in a coma, 'A Higher Being'

Marks out of 10; 10/10 and no mistake. For me Buffy peaks at exactly this point, it's still a wonderful show for the next 4 years and never jumps the shark but this is the best of the best and we'll never see TV consistently as good as this ever again.

I love this episode. It's one of my all-time favorite episodes, and favorite finales.

In this episode, it's Graduation Day, also known as Ascension Day, and Buffy is recovering from her bite from Angel. During the gradation ceremony, the Mayor transforms into his true demon form, during the eclipse, which puts vampires in the mix, including Angel. Buffy and all of her graduating class all have weapons stashed and begin to attack. During the fights, some people die, including Larry and Principle Snyder, and Harmony is bitten by a vampire, presumably dying. Buffy then gets the Mayor's attention by showing him the knife she stabbed Faith with. The Mayor, now a giant-snake-demon, chases her through the school until they get to the library, where she runs outside and Giles blows the school up, with the Mayor inside.

Fun Fact: During the Faith/Buffy dream sequence, Faith says, "Little Miss Muffet, counting down from 7-3-0". This is a reference that hint the arrival of Buffy's sister. The 730 is the number of days until the sister comes into the show.

Fun Fact: This episode shows the first and only time Cordelia stakes a vampire in this series.

Best part of the episode: When the Mayor sees that he's about the be blown up, and says, "Oh gosh."

Worst part of the episode: When Larry dies.

Overall, I give this episode a 10 out of 10, which in my ratings book is: Freaking Ridonkulous.

The High school years of BTVS, were the best. It was the essence of the show. And even the bad got a free pass from me. I can't empathize on this enough. Season 3 is the best. This is where the show reached its full potential, and did honor to those grand finale episodes of season two. Graduation day, part one and two, is what you would expect of such a good year. It ties up all loose ends, and give patient fans rewards and surprises. Without falling down the pandering route. If you look at it closely, none of our heroes are made to look without reproach. And it fits the ramp-up on different scenes. Faith getting stabbed and Angel feeding on Buffy, are two of my favorite moments. For being so raw and intense. With the hospital segment, being its best conclusion. The infamous demon looking Mayor, was the most talked about thing, back in the day too. We thought it was hilarious and crushing. For being not as spectacular as we would expect. Then we remembered being in 1999... The part where the class joins the war, was epic. Snyder being eaten alive, without flinching as well. And that last line, before demon Mayor gets blown to pieces... They really put on a great spread. The way Angel disappears into the night, still leaves a pit in my stomach. Because I know the series, won't reach this level of genuine greatness again. And regardless of what the yearbook says, the future of the franchise unfortunately belongs elsewhere.

The exciting conclusion as Buffy must offer herself to Angel healing his sickness. The mayor's plans finally come to fruition as he gets ready for battle. I really felt for Angel as he suffers from the poison and the guilt he feels for hurting Buffy. He never wanted to harm the love of his life yet forced to in order to save his life. It was also very reckless as the day has finally approached otherwise Buffy would be out of the fight with no one to defend the senior class. The graduation scenes was wonderfully shot as they march down the aisle in red like a lamb to the slaughter only for them to turn the tables on him by packing weapons to take on his army of vampires and the giant snake. The battle scenes feel right out of private Benjamin as they rush them hard shooting arrows and flinging stakes as an army united against evil. The school blowing up symbolizing school is over and the horror plaguing the town was defeated for once instead of ignored.

Another aspect was the mayor's love for Faith as he tries to smother Buffy in her sleep and watching over her bedside. It was also his downfall as he follows after Buffy for revenge and to get the knife back used to put her in a coma. Just like Buffy, she uses his one weakness to distract him ruining his plans and sabotaging his goal of world domination.