Today in TV History: Buffy Summers Realized Death Was Her Gift

Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone. 

IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: May 22, 2001

PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “The Gift” (Season 5, Episode 22). [Stream on Netflix.]

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: One of the comforting things about television is that off-screen chatter is temporary, on-screen product is forever. Nobody remembers the contract renegotiations that were happening at the time. It’s the episode that lives on forever. That said, it’s fairly impossible for me to consider “The Gift,” the final episode of the fifth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, without remembering that there was a chance this would be the last Buffy we’d ever see. Contract renegotiations with The WB had gone south, and Buffy was not going to be coming back to the network it had helped build. Anyone looking at the big picture had to know that the odds were still good that Buffy would be coming back somewhere, but pre-Twitter, information didn’t disseminate as quickly. So while finality wasn’t certain for “The Gift,” it was more possible than fans would have liked.

Which means that Joss Whedon’s viewers were in prime position to have their fragile emotions absolutely shattered. Good thing Joss came loaded for bear in that regard. It had taken a while to warm up to the notion of newly-materialized sister Dawn to take root in fans’ hearts, but the storyline about the Key made flesh was ultimately so well told that we ended up caring about her, if only because of how much Buffy did. So it made sense that Buffy would sacrifice herself for Dawn, even if it left her friends and every single home viewer utterly broken.

As a moment of sisterhood, it’s wrenching. It’s also a full-circle moment, taking Buffy a long way from the season 1 finale, when her voice quavered as she admitted to Giles that she was scared to die.

Buffy — the character and the show — came back the next season, but whether it was through staff shakeups (Joss Whedon drifted from the series to focus on Firefly and Angel) or the subliminal effects of a new network (R.I.P. UPN), it was never quite the same. Back-from-the-dead Buffy was harder, more miserable; back-from-the-dead Buffy was way more intent on redeeming Spike than it should have been. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that “The Gift” should have been how it all ended, but there’s a certain poetry to it.

[You can watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s “The Gift” on Netflix.]