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Buffy: The Vampire Slayer Season Six

Season six may have a few lighthearted moments, but it’s mostly a look at the darkness of human nature. Season five ends with Buffy’s death, and was the end of the show’s tenure on The WB. It was uncertain if the show would continue, but it was picked up for two more seasons by UPN. Thus, Joss had to begin season six with Buffy’s resurrection. She’s thrown off by the sudden upheaval, but finds a connection with Spike that justifies his obsession and gives Buffy an unlikely ally. Her friends do not understand what it meant to die and come back, but Spike does.

Buffy confides in Spike, and it isn’t until a triple-threat demon named Sweet comes to town that Buffy’s true destination after death is revealed. The musical episode of Buffy was Joss Whedon’s long-time wish, and after the show’s migration to UPN, he was given a lot more latitude. Buffy sings about how her friends hadn’t pulled her out of hell (as they’d assumed), but that she’d been in heaven, and her time back on Earth was more like hell. Buffy’s special condition (living after dying) makes her undetectable to the behavior modification chip in Spike’s head. After a long fight, Buffy ends up sleeping with him -— the catalyst of her downward spiral.

Her own decent into darkness blinds her to Willow’s growing dependence on magic. After Giles and Tara leave, Willow changes her friend Amy back into a human (after Amy had made herself a rat to escape a witch hunt), and they start visiting a black magic dealer called Rack. While Buffy and Willow are falling apart, Xander and Anya are doing well -— until their wedding day. Xander ends up leaving Anya at the altar. The main villain in season six ends up being human weakness.

After Tara is shot by one of “The Trio,” and the black forces do not allow Willow to bring her back, Willow steals all the dark magic from the books at The Magic Box and tracks down The Trio members one by one. She flays the first alive, but the Scoobies save the other two. Giles shows up to stop Willow, but it is Xander who finally gets through to her and saves the day. Perhaps the darkest of all the seasons, but one of the best as well.

Written by: Tracy Elledge

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