An incredible finale to S5. We just knew for the beginning montage of every previous episode that this was going to be something special. Buffy finally discovers her truth 'Death Is Your Gift', and we were all nonplussed that this would be the end of our heroine. There was of course lots of foreshadowing for this, when Giles and Buffy are in the gym before the final battle and Buffy says to Giles, 'I don't want to live in a world like this is these are the choices, if everything gets stripped away', we can see her pain and PTSD from the previous episode where was catatonic with stress. Still the moment when Giles suffocates Ben/Glory is a shocking scene and when we realise she will sacrifice herself, it is utterly heart breaking. In the aftermath where all the Scoobies are crying over her body, we get the greatest quote from the series when Buffy has said to Dawn ' the hardest thing in this world is to live in it' The Final shot of the gravestone adds to our unimaginable pain. This was the greatest of all the Buffy The Vampire Slayer episodes, nothing could match it for plot, drama and pure heart breaking scenes. A true finale, an episode unmatched in the show.
Review of The Gift
