Oh, yeah, I'd be disappointed. I liked Season 6, and to a certain extent, Season 7 (The Body notwithstanding), better than Season 5, so I'm glad they kept going. I thought Chosen was better than The Gift, too, both in terms of the show's metaphorical completeness and as an individual episode. Don't get me wrong, I got teary at the ending, I absolutely loved the bit when Willow cured Tara and I appreciated how Buffy's death was used to signify a "rebirth" into adulthood in S6, but it felt a bit too much like Buffy by-the-numbers, like most of the fifth season. A cryptic prophecy misinterpreted leads to a great sacrifice made in order to save the world from the toughest enemy Buffy has faced yet. The Gift is Becoming pt. 3, right down to the memorable music that accompanies Buffy's death, recalling the use of the B/A love theme in Becoming's climax. The problem is that Becoming was something legitimately exceptional and new for Buffy when it aired, and so had a raw violence and shock value that effectively underlined S2's themes of love, intimacy and the loss of innocence, whereas The Gift feels a little overwrought. Then there are other issues with The Gift, like the anti-climactic battle with Glory (she just kind of...whacks her over and over again with the troll hammer) and a strangely rushed feel, which I think is because way too much stuff happens in the space of the one episode to meditate meaningfully on any of it. Pile that on to the other flaws of the season – the somewhat contrived world-building (coughknightsofbyzantiumcough), the focus on Dawn, who is virtually a caricature of a young, angst-filled teenager, making her very difficult to relate to even though Buffy's sisterly love for her was genuinely heart-warming – and you've still got an excellent Buffy episode, but not an outstanding Buffy episode. Honestly, I think The Gift is my least favourite season finale, aside from perhaps Prophecy Girl, and I've never understood why it overshadows what I feel are much stronger finales like Grave, Restless and Graduation Day.
Still, although S7 rounds off Buffy once and for all, I think it's S6 that really completes BtVS. It subverted everything we'd seen so far and really showed the audience Buffy's moral sense and strength in the face of depression. She was at the lowest point she'd ever been, and she hated herself for it – more than that, she pulled herself out of it. Meanwhile, Warren was much more interesting than any villain since the Mayor if only because he wasn't something intrinsically evil. No, Warren was just a horrible guy. A human being. With a gun. The Dark Willow arc also emotionally engaged me a lot more fiercely and consistently than most of S5's main plot arc, excepting Buffy's death. Plumbing the depths of S6 was the necessary step that made S7's plot arc effective – otherwise, it would have been another season of Buffy fighting an enemy even stronger than the one she fought last season.
