Anya? They had to kill off Anya?

I will always give Joss Whedon credit for not going where you expect he’s going to go, and even though you know that, you can’t predict it. The “Connor in a happy home” ending to Angel was completely out of nowhere. The finale of Buffy, for which we had no indications (other than that all of a sudden old, spritely Buffy was back) whether the good guys would win or lose, was a nice, not-over-the-top, these-kids-are-some-wicked-cool-demon-slayers killfest. We thought Dawn would turn out to be the key to it all; she wasn’t. Angel shows up, and then goes away — they always tell us he has a role to play in the apocalypse, but they never say which apocalypse. He’s played in a few already. Andrew, the wormboy that you keep expecting to turn out to be an evil mole planted amidst the slayers in training, turns out to be nothing more dangerous than . . . well, than Andrew. And Anya, whom I had certainly hoped to see in a spin-off along the lines of Anyanka, Demon Housewife, is the only one who dies. Which means that Xander, who never had anything to go on but guts and faith in Buffy, lost more than anyone else in all this. (Oh,yeah, well, Spike died, but maybe not, since he’s supposed to be on Angel next season.) Excellent ending to The Best TV Show Ever.

Mr. Johnson notes that when “Buffy” kills someone, it doesn’t take an hour of malingering and heavy looks. He’s still bitter about “Dawson’s”