Who actually liked the end of season 5?

R

robotbuffy

Townie
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I ask this because when I finished watching season 5, I was filled with a lot of emotions, but none of them were particularly good. Now don't get me wrong - some of the greatest episodes ever were things like "Hole in the World" or "The Body", and my very fav Buffy ep was "Conversations with Dead People", again not the funnest of the bunch. So I don't mind more serious ones. My problem was that the show just seemed so... unresolved I guess.

Season 7 of Buffy had some up and down moments, but at least there was a sense of closure at the end. Buffy starts with her coming to Sunnydale, wanting to be normal, and not be the slayer. It ends with her sharing her power with all the other potentials, and closing the Hellmouth. I felt like after 7 years, that things had come full circle.

I don't need that from every show. I understand Angel was supposed to be a darker ending. But it just didn't seem very... satisfying. At all, actually. Partly it was the Circle of the Black Thorn. I mean, we'd seen the members in other random episodes, but they were never mentioned as being part of this elite group until the 2nd last ep, and it just seemed so rushed and sprung upon us. The other was the way they handled, or midhandled, Illyria. I didn't understand the point of introducing her, then weakening her down, and then at the end they're like "we can't beat the Sr. Partners, but we can take out their minions" and stuff; yet in her day Illyria was more powerful than the Wolf, Ram, and Hart.

It felt like the show just ran out of time, and everyone said "we'll just kill off all these guys, and wrap it up in 2 eps". Who knows, maybe I'm the only one, but season 5 was disappointing to me.
 
no i agree, i thought it was very rushed. the only thing i like about season 5 is that spike is in it, and the humour between angel and spike.
buffy had a far better ending, but everybdy knows tht!
 
S
Summerlilly
yeah, Spike made the show even better!
As far as I know, they did actually run out of time, the network didn't want to have a 6th season at that time, but I didn't really felt it was too rushed. From the moment Angel entered W&H, it was clear that the whole situation would escalate at some point, Angel is just not the type of guy to fall under the thrall of evil W&H and all their associates. I guess everything might have felt hurried up because a great part of the story - Angel slowly working to destroy evil from inside - was not on screen. But it was there. We only saw what happened when things weren't 'secret' anymore and everything went down, and I can't see how they should've drawn that out. As soon as the final fight started, it was clear that team Angel had to act fast to make an impact. If they hadn't taken the initiative and attact everyone when they had the chance, they would've lost the final battle for sure!

What I didn't like was the death wave at the end. There was just too much death near the end of the show, pretty much everyone of team Angel died!
 
I like season 5 quite a bit. Maybe it was rushed, I don't know, but I wasn't put off by the Circle of the Black Thorn coming in to the show so late. After all, it was a secret society, so the writers covered their bases at least a little bit.

I was as satisfied as I could be though. I'd have liked to see a season 6 on TV (I don't think the comics are that great) but the way the show ended gave me a lot to think about. I mean, Angel did some pretty dark things to get into the Circle, which makes you question how far you have to go in the name of fighting the good fight (as well as how far is too far...)

The very end though, when you see them just about to start taking on Hell then the screen goes black, gave me such a great feeling when I first watched it. I was really blown away.
 
I'm torn on that. Initially I wanted as clear of an ending as I could get, good or bad, and when it was less than so, I felt cheated. Like the OP said, unresolved. However, after watching the season a few more times since then (thanks TNT. lol) I get it and I don't think there's really a way you could end a series like that, being not only a spin-off in which the other show's ending had such a profound affect on it, but an amazing stand alone show as well. I can accept it now. However, damn all the deaths. That to me made it so much more unnecessarily darker.
 
Not Fade Away is my favorite Angel episode ever. 🙂

I love the fifth season best because it really was about the line between good and evil. And I think that the final episodes are just huge moments, all epic and stuff. I always get tingles during Not Fade Away at the humor and the sadness and the shock and the questions and I like how it just BAM! ended when my heart was pumping and I had goosebumps all over me.
 
Some of my favourite episodes are in season 5 so i guess thats why i keep watching it but to be honest i agree. it was completely rushed however they did come up with a good idea fast by using some of the random characters we saw in past episodes.but of course buffy had the better ending.
 
Crashing Doors said:
The very end though, when you see them just about to start taking on Hell then the screen goes black, gave me such a great feeling when I first watched it. I was really blown away.
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I agree; it was one of those goosepimply endings that you rarely get on television or the movies. I love the ending and would not want it changed. The series was all about the heros journey, and the ending was very much the same.
 
I really like the end of season five, although some things about it tend to tick me off.

For instance, this was the 100th Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode. They could have done something a little more extravagant. I mean, the ending is brilliant, yeah, but the beginning and middle kind of lack, even for a regular episode.

Second, it could have been the series finale, not just the season finale. For a series finale, I would not be satisfied with "The Gift." I usually do not want the main character in one of my favorite shows to freaking DIE to save one of the most annoying characters in the series.
 
I kind of agree with you, but to have your favorite character die to save the world, while saving her sister in the process? That's a pretty good way to go.

Edit: clicked this in the "new posts" thing, but I realized a second later that you're talking about the Buffy season 5 finale; we're in the Angel forum. Still.
 
Really, I wanted to see Angel take down the Sr. Partners. I wanted to see them bring things from previous episodes in. They could have left Illyria at full power. They could have used the tatooes that Lindsay was wearing that hid him from the partners as well. I suggested something on another forum, that I think would have been cool, which would be sending Angel in, covered in the tats, to basically assassinate the Sr. Partners, while Illyria, Spike, Gunn, Wesley, etc all draw the Partners attention (and army) towards them. They could have brought in guest stars if needed, like Buffy, or Faith, Willow, Giles, some of the potentials/slayers, or whatever, but they wouldn't be necessary either. Like others have said, 5 years of Angel shouldn't come down to Buffy saves the day or anything stupid like that. But in my scenario, Angel would be the one who actually takes the partners out, so it wouldn't happen anyways.

Buffy was more about each season having a different villain, and at the end of each season she would find a way to stand victorious. Really, you can sum up each season by who she fought (the master, the mayor, Glory, etc). But Angel was always about Wolfram and Hart. And the prophecy. And to just have him sign it away, and the writers to just decide "the sr Partners are too powerful, we'll just take out their minions" just seemed so... weak and disappointing. With firms like Wolfram and Hart opperating in multiple dimensions (as was mentioned many times on the show), I'm sure losing some minions on one world wasn't much of a set back to them. I wish they'd found a way to take them down.

Like I said, using the tatooes would have been cool. I mean really, they were introduced, and then nothing was ever done with them again. I felt a little like that with Illyria. Fred was my favorite character on any TV show ever. But at least when they killed her, they did it well, and they replaced her with another interesting character. But then she didn't really get to do much, and they weakened her down, and then the show ended. In her day she was more powerful than the Sr. Partners. And she could open portals to other dimensions. It just felt to me like they had all the tools they needed to end the series well, and just didn't do it. The 3rd last episode was basically a filler, as they run around the world looking for the Immortal. Why? That episode would have been fine in the 1st half of the season, but the 3rd last?

And Angel trying to infiltrate the Circle could have been cool, but again so rushed. Take season 2 for example, when he starts going dark, and ends up with Darla and fires the rest of the team; it took TIME to tell that story, but it was great! They didn't just throw it at us in 2 episodes. If we'd known about the Circle, and seen Angel infiltrate them over the 2nd half of the season, while the rest of the team actually has time to see him going bad, it may have meant something to me. But it just didn't. Oh well, sorry about the rant. I've been watching a lot of Angel and Buffy again recently, and I think a lot of my bitterness at the poor ending of this show is resurfacing, lol.
 
Both seris 5 finale ( angel and Buffy) were about the main charater serving their own needs and giving up
Buffy jumping wasn't about her saving the world , it was only a little bit about saving Dawn, but it was ultimatley about giving up and having the escape she needed and finding a way out.
Death is your gift - it the only way out that your getting out.
Angel was about trying to fulfill his phrophecy the way that he wanted and trying to get to his finale apocalyptic battle - partly because he was fed up with his life enough of being played and just wanted it over.
which also why it seemed rushed
 
I am a huge fan of season 5 but the only thing i didn't like was the ending,I feel that it was too rushed (as everyone else is saying) and it needed a bit more at the end. I would of loved to see angel and the rest of the gang beat all of the other guys. But thats just my opinion!
 
I loved Angel season five up until the last few episodes. I agree, it was pretty rushed and I was only young at the time, and really didn't have the faintest idea what was going on. It makes a lot more sense to me, these days, but I still think that there wasn't really much closure, I don't much enjoy the ending.
 
I think that if the Circle of the Black Thorn had have been introduced early on as a big bad then it would have been workable, I just felt that introducing it so late on was a bit to intense. It just seemed similar to the Buffy last big bad (The first), but without the prior knowledge that it existed. I always wonder what would have happened with the Angel series if it hadn't been prematurely ended. Would Illyria been the Season 5 big bad, and then The Circle of The Black Thorn been the Season 6 big bad? It would have made a lot more sense, both to the characters arc and the general season arc.
 
I think Joss and the writers did a great job, considering they had to wrap it up without much preparation. There was less of a big show and dance at the end, unlike Buffy. It was more intimate, and totally true to the themes of the show. I loved that. 🙂
 
First Post! I had to log in and post in this thread due to my passion on the subject.


A lot of dithering about the killing of Lindsay and whether or not he was screwed.... well I must say he deserved everything he got. Although he was poorly written during Season 5 just look at what he did during the season. He showed up and dropped Spike into the works just to destabilize the world, then he tried to have Spike kill Cordelia, and then when that didn't work (after telling Eve that he's angry the Senior Partners gave 'that euro-trash vampire' everything he's ever wanted) he tried to release some big tentacle monster to kill Angel. This was a bad guy with obvious intentions towards murdering Angel.

Not only that but he warned Lindsay not to come back. Lindsay did. Lindsay didn't get boned by Angel (literally or figuratively) he was just to dumb to realize that Angel might hold 'trying to kill me, Cordelia and everyone else I care about' against him I guess.


Also the last episode is very good for what they had to work with. I'm just angry it had to BE the last episode... stupid WB.
 
They did rush the last episode and you didn't even know what happened who survived. Buffy had a feeling of closure at the end but not with Angel. up untill recently i didn't know what happened after.
 
I think a drawn-out ending would have not been viewed well. I liked how it was straight and to the point. It didn't leave anything resolved, really, because we're not sure who died and survived, but I'm sure they'd all be squashed flat. Except Illyria, she's beast mode.
 
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