Restless as the series finale

Oh God, no. Restless had way too much foreshadowing that didn't make sense until later. It was meant to prelude certain aspects of the show to come. It would have driven me absolutely crazy as a series finale.
 
I don't even like 'Restless' and have only watched the episode once or twice at most. So, no, it would have been horrible, if it was the series finale. I'm pretty satisfied with 'Chosen' as the actual series finale, though I sometimes think the show should've ended with 'the Gift'.
 
Definitely not IMO. 🙂 Would have loved The Gift to be the series finale though. That's in hindsight though, at the time of The Gift I definitely wanted more Buffy. But looking back now and being more mature, I would have loved to see The Gift be the last ever episode.
 
I think Prophecy Girl should have been the Series Finale.


Just kidding!!!


Ok, I'm new here, but I just don't get it. I happen to love Season 7, but I know it has plenty of flaws. But come on people.... IT'S BUFFY!!! A crummy season of Buffy is better that 99.9% of all other television. No disrespect, but I do not get how anyone would not want Seasons 5, 6, or 7 to exist. Season 7 may have been weak, but Season 5 and 6 are amazing.

No "The Body?"
No "Once More, With Feeling?"

No thanks!!! I am so grateful to have 7 amazing seasons of Buffy to watch over and over and over and over.
 
No Once More, With Feeling, yes... but also no Doublemeat Palace, no Smashed, Wrecked, Gone, Hells Bells, Seeing Red, Get it Done or Empty Places... seems like heaven to me.
 
S
sylvanscribe
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Actually Restless as a series finale would have been great! I cannot believe I did not think of it at all. It would have been like the finale for Quantum Leap, where you have a sense of dread for the upcoming days but never see them.
 
TheVoid68 said:
No Once More, With Feeling, yes... but also no Doublemeat Palace, no Smashed, Wrecked, Gone, Hells Bells, Seeing Red, Get it Done or Empty Places... seems like heaven to me.
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hehehe.... Some of those I love, some are ok, but they are all Buffy, which makes for an enjoyable 42 minutes of television watching. 🙂 But I do see your point.
 
There needed to be a fifth season. They could have rewritten it to have been a better season ... I'm thinking specifically the entire concept of "Dawn" needed to be redrawn. But Season 4 left too many loose threads to end the series there.
 
The entire purpose of "Restless" was to examine the core four and set up the events of the fifth season. Dawn's arrival was heralded in "This Year's Girl" and by Tara's line "Be back before dawn," meaning Buffy has to wake up so she can take care of her new sister. Not to mention that in "Graduation Day, Part Two", Faith mentions the number 730 and in "Restless", Buffy notices the same number and Tara tells her that the clock is always wrong... because 730 days is two years and Buffy has two years in "Graduation Day" until "The Gift" when she will die.

Also, The First Slayer's dialogue about "not knowing who you are... what's to come" will be parroted back at Buffy by Dracula when she meets him, prompting her to discover what a Slayer really is... also leading to her ultimate realization that death is her gift and that she can give her live to save the sister and the world that she loves. So, you see, while "Restless" is an amazing episode, it's essential for Buffy's arc that the events of Season 4 are followed by Season 5.

As for the last two seasons, one of the things I adore about Buffy is its ability to turn around and subvert any of our expectations, including the ones we have about the show itself. Season 6 delivers this is spades, where every noble act in "The Gift" is twisted into something terrible: Buffy's self-sacrifice leaves Sunnydale defenseless, Xander's proposal to Anya is something that he can't follow through with (which, by the way, was foreshadowed all through Season 4 and especially in "Restless"), Willow being the team's "big gun" makes her feel as though she let Buffy down and the powerful magic she performed at the end of the season pushes her over the edge into addiction. Even Spike's apparent love for Buffy doesn't turn out well when she uses his feelings to give herself punishment sex. I adore this subversion and I love Season 6, even if fulfilling the season's mission meant losing Tara.

Season 7 was required to end the show on an upbeat note and leave Buffy's story with something resembling a conclusion. It may not be perfect but I love every minute regardless, and you've got to admit that seeing Buff's little, hopeful smile as she surveys the Sunnydale Crater is the epitome of satisfaction.
 
P
paks
nice review. I enjoyed reading it.
I think Restless fit as a suitable season finale. Suspense and major foreshadowing for Season 5 which made me especially excited. Also I think it was a fantastic episode, the writing and scenes were amazingly cryptic and clever (what else could you expect from the Buffy writers). It contained a lot of mentions that link up to things that characters had said before in previous seasons -

Also in Buffy's dream, Buffy mentions how late it is, after looking at the clock in the room (which says 7:30), to which Tara replies "oh, that clock's completely wrong." This is a foreshadowing of her death at the end of Season 5, and a reminder of Buffy's dream in the season 3 finale, in which Faith says "...counting down from 7-3-0" (it was approximately 730 days later that Buffy died). Tara saying that the clock is wrong means that she no longer has 730 days.

After defeating Adam it gave fans a look into the character's present and future worries that we saw play out in later episodes.
 
I don't think Joss ever intended Restless to be a series finale. As a few people have said, way too much foreshadowing. We could have never seen those things come to fruiition if it had been the end of the series. I found it really bizarre watching Restless, because it was like such a departure from what the season had been, but that is really the whole point of it, to set up what is to come next. I can't wait to find out...
 
I agree. Restless wouldn't have been a good series finale because of the fact that it's foreshadowing. It is an interesting episode but as a finale it isn't satisfying enough, it raised too many questions.
The character's dreams showed so much of their personality, and that's something what made me curious for more episodes.
 
I agree with what everyone else is saying. Restless was a great season finale, it wrapped up the strings of season 4 but I really think to have a season like season 5, you needed to have a season 4. Season 4 was all about going off and doing your own thing. And I mean, that's the only reason Spike was able to play them all against each other so easily, they weren't as tight as they had been. But Yoko Factor/Primeval/Restless are all about bringing the core four back together to show they strength is with each other.

And that sets you up for the theme of season 5 being all about family and the closeness you have with them. That's where Buffy found her strength. So to have Restless without a season 5 would have been weird and a big let down.
 
No way! I would have felt completely cheated if Restless was the whole series finale. The only good thing about it was that it foreshadowed things to come, in a very interesting way.
 
Daniel Osbourne said:
Not to mention that in "Graduation Day, Part Two", Faith mentions the number 730 and in "Restless", Buffy notices the same number and Tara tells her that the clock is always wrong... because 730 days is two years and Buffy has two years in "Graduation Day" until "The Gift" when she will die.

As for the last two seasons, one of the things I adore about Buffy is its ability to turn around and subvert any of our expectations, including the ones we have about the show itself. Season 6 delivers this is spades, where every noble act in "The Gift" is twisted into something terrible: Buffy's self-sacrifice leaves Sunnydale defenseless, Xander's proposal to Anya is something that he can't follow through with (which, by the way, was foreshadowed all through Season 4 and especially in "Restless"), Willow being the team's "big gun" makes her feel as though she let Buffy down and the powerful magic she performed at the end of the season pushes her over the edge into addiction. Even Spike's apparent love for Buffy doesn't turn out well when she uses his feelings to give herself punishment sex. I adore this subversion and I love Season 6, even if fulfilling the season's mission meant losing Tara.
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I agree- a wonderful post. I never noticed the 730 references before; watching this show a 2nd time through is making me fully aware of Whedon's foreshadowing-wizardry.

Restless is incredible television-making (I feel like I'm watching a Fellini-Bunuel-Whedon hybrid of some sort) but it raises too many questions to be a series finale. Its whole purpose is to raise questions and get you juiced for season 5, so without any follow up episodes it really doesn't serve any purpose.

I love what you said about season 6; couldn't have said it better. So I won't 🙂
 
I'm watching the commentary at the moment. Annoying: Buffy is wearing flip flops when fighting the first slayer and they don't fall off. ???? I can barely keep mine on just walking!
 
PassionBecoming said:
I'm watching the commentary at the moment. Annoying: Buffy is wearing flip flops when fighting the first slayer and they don't fall off. ???? I can barely keep mine on just walking!
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That's because she's got Slayer flip-flops 😉 Sold in a limited edition, only available in certain stores ;P
 
PassionBecoming
PassionBecoming
Ooooh, THAT'S what it is. I feel better now.
Restless wasn't my favourite episode, but i can appreciate how clever it is. I think it was cleverly filmed and had some interesting metpahors. As a series finale, I don't consider it to be the season 4 finale. I think that Primeval (is that it? episode 21 s4?) to be the series finale. I think that season finales should have some kind of big wow factor, and restless didn't really do it for me.
 
Restless is not even a season finale, much less a series finale. The whole purpose of this episode is to bridge the gap between seasons 4 and 5. The calm before the storm. I really enjoy watching this episode, but it only makes sense in the context of season 5. So ending the series here I don't think would have worked at all.
 
K
KellGreen
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