- Earshot: Is supposed to go immediately after "Enemies," but a kid brings a gun to school in it and Columbine happened four days before it was supposed to air. Buffy gets telepathy but can't read Angel's mind (heh) so she has to trust him when he says he wasn't attracted to Faith while he was pretending to be evil.
- Choices: the Scoobies steal something the Mayor needs for his Ascension, but he kidnaps Willow. Faith's in it; she gets a new knife (which would later turn up in Star Trek Nemesis of all things), but loses it in the fight to Buffy. (The episode's subtext is Billow, not Fuffy.)
- The Prom: Angel dumps Buffy and then shows up to be her Prom date anyway. Thanks, buddy.
The Class of 1999 is collecting their graduation robes. Xander is convinced he's going to die. Willow and Harmony sign each others' yearbooks and Willow nonchalantly insults her after she walks away. Buffy says she doesn't even get the whole Graduation thing: "you get a piece of paper and nothing changes." Well, these next two episodes will have to change that.
The bombshell is dropped: the Mayor is giving the commencement speech.
Faith murders a professor and the titles roll. Let's talk about the murder scene: Faith is basically playing a college student looking for some "extra credit" in order to get him to drop his guard (yes, she says she's not from the college, but that doesn't really stop the scene from playing out exactly the same). Faith is, depending on your particular outlook, either a tramp or the only character who's actually confident in her sexuality. And also, apparently, her murdering.
Back from the credits: the Mayor puts Faith in this demure pink sundress. It's so obviously not "her." Their surrogate father/daughter relationship is explicit.
At school, Anya starts hitting on Xander. He tells her maybe they could hang out if they survive the Ascension. She knows the term. 800 years ago, she was doing some vengeance when a sorcerer Ascended. Also, all the demons that walk the earth are human hybrids; an Ascension means a human becomes a "pure" demon. (This does not gel with Angel season 1 but seems to be canon again by Angel season 2. Meanwhile, Buffy graduates to fighting Frankensteins, gods, and nerds, so the "pure demon" thing never really comes up again.)
The gang starts researching a spell to stop the Ascension. The Mayor shows up to taunt them. Giles runs him through with a sword. (Hey, Giles, did you have the slightest idea that this guy was invincible? Because if not, you're setting a wonderful example for The Only Slayer Who Hasn't Killed A Human Yet.)
Everyone has a different reaction to their impending demise. Anya wants to run away. Buffy wants her mother to run away. Xander and Cordy skip Fifth Period. Amy remains a rat. Willow and Oz have the sex.
Buffy goes to the professor's place. He was a vulcanologist who found something in some lava bed. Angel shows up. Buffy's still annoyed because he's leaving for his own show. There's enough tension to be cut with a knife. Or shot with an arrow. Angel is poisoned by Faith.
Now, I have to wonder about this. To skip ahead a bit, the Mayor leaves Faith one final gift, so it's not like he considers her totally disposable. On the other hand, here, he has Faith shoot Angel with a poisoned arrow which can only be cured by a Slayer's blood. He had to have known that this would provoke a Buffy/Faith smackdown, which is tactically unsound. Faith is, until his Ascension, the strongest asset he has. It would make much more sense to just eat Buffy himself and send Faith after prey he knows she can beat. Yeah, it's condescending... But Buffy and Angel can do nothing until the Mayor Ascends, and once he does, the only reason Buffy's able to beat him is because Faith is already out of the picture. With their pre-emptive string against Angel, Team Mayor is ensuring that they'll be at half strength both before and after the Ascension. (To go back to my original point, though, the Mayor does look concerned when he hears that the Buffy/Faith smackdown is taking place, so it's less like he's setting her up and more like he just didn't anticipate this happening. Which is... stupid.)
The flip side of this is that in this episode, the Mayor and Faith try to use Buffy's affection for Angel against her, while in the next episode, Buffy is going to use the Mayor's affection for Faith against him.
When Wesley arrives with the news that the Council is prepared to let Angel die, Buffy quits. Or, in her words, "graduates." (Giles supports Buffy over Wesley. Yay Ripper!)
This is the real center of this two-parter. Buffy stops playing by other people's rules here. And in the very next scene, we learn that the cure for Angel's poison is Slayer's blood. Buffy takes about five seconds to decide that this is a perfectly acceptable solution to two of her most pressing problems. Then she goes and grabs Faith's Shinzon knife from "Choices" and goes to Faith's place. Faith is pretty happy to see that Buffy's ready to play, lending credence to my Faith-sees-Slayers-as-Ubermensh-and-wants-Buffy-to-do-the-same theory. Their stunt doubles fight to the same music that will be re-used in 4.15, "This Year's Girl," (and I have to say it's a pretty good piece).
Buffy handcuffs Faith to her as the fight moves to the balcony, but Faith is eventually able to break loose. Buffy pulls out the knife, Faith says it's hers, so Buffy gives it to her. In the gut. Faith deliberately falls off the balcony and onto a moving truck so as to deny Buffy her prize.
To be continued...
At this point I don't have a plan to do an in-depth look at Part 2. I don't subscribe to the notion that Slayers share dreams (or to put it another way, that Dream!Faith is anything other than an aspect of Buffy's subconscious - I'll hopefully remember to explain that when I get around to doing either 3.10, "Amends" or 4.22, "Restless"), so our next stop will be 4.15, "This Year's Girl."
As for "Graduation Day, Part 1," unlike virtually any other two-part season finale, the real crux of the story happens in the first part. Part 2 really is a bit of an afterthought. Yes, seeing all of Sunnydale High rise up and fight as one is one of the series' best "hell yeah" moments. But as Buffy herself said, she actually graduated in Part 1.
As a whole, the two-part episode gets a 9 out of 10. Easily the series' second-best finale.
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