Dead ought to count for something narratively.

But she didn't kill him, so dead doesn't matter.

But having a loved character come back is having and eating the cake.

Mmmmm, yeah -- good point. I hadn't thought of it quite that way. But to her, at the time, dead was dead and she killed him, (er, well, not including undead. whatever.), so I think that's why it works for me. Plus, so much other great stuff in that ep.

But your saying that makes me think Buffy has warped my perception of character death -- I was just reading something recently where a character died, and, although it had an impact, my immediate thought was, "I wonder if [character] is really dead?" (it was a science fictiony kind of thing, so it's not totally outside the realm of reason). Which, I'm not sure would've been my first thought three or so years ago ...

[And I still wonder if the character is really dead!]

Edited to clarify to what I was responding. And to add ....

[Also? I like cake!!!]

He wasn't dead. I think it worked because the trauma was in the act, and the act was never nullified. He was consigned to a long time in hell, compared to which killing might be kind.

He wasn't dead.

Also true. For me, it works because she thought that's what she'd done until she discovered otherwise (having said that, if she'd known she had sent him to hell for 100 years -- also bad, also would've worked if known at the time. But I think her thinking she had killed him worked better for me in terms of the finale's impact. On me). It continues to work for me after they discover he's alive because of ...

the trauma was in the act, and the act was never nullified. He was consigned to a long time in hell

Edited because some of that made no sense to me on re-read.

My conversion story:

I watched bits of some Season 2 eps as I had heard the show was great but I did not see it then. I watched a few minutes and was like, "Lame teen show." (One of the eps I saw a bit of was Halloween, FWIW.) Then I heard about Willow/Tara and decided I needed to tune in (it's not every day that you get girl-on-girl action on TV). I also knew Dawn was coming and it sounded interesting, so I started watching regularly in Season 5, beginning with the 1st ep of the season. Loved Season 5 - having seen everything now, 5 is still my favorite. My ranking (yet again) is 5, 3, 4, 2, 6, 7, 1.

Oh! Lots of catching up!

Earlier someone asked about what happened so that the Pylea arc had to be written. My understanding is that someone (Fox?) told ME to cut costs - so no more Darla.

My conversion story - no conversion. I started with the first episode because I like SMG from AMC. I never taped a show to keep before Buffy, and for some reason I taped the very first ep, taped the rest, and never looked back. I knew it was something special during The Pack when they ate the principal! and I became addicted after Prophecy Girl.

Favorite seasons 3, 2, 5, 4, 1, 6, 7 (and 7 is by far the last!)

Finales:

Restless
Becoming
Graduation Day
The Gift
Prophecy Girl
Chosen
Grave

Openers:

When She Was Bad
Anne
Buffy v. Dracula
WTTH
The Freshman
Bargaining
Lessons

So I had an hour at work today that was actually FREE and not just me not doing work when I was supposed to be doing work.

To fill it, I made a list of everybody's last lines from Chosen. No, I don't know why I chose to do this, but here you go:

Amanda: Buffy?
Andrew: She was incredible. She died saving my life.
Angel: I ain't getting any older.
Anya: Bunnies. Floppy, hoppy, bunnies.
Buffy: The Smile/"Spike."
Caleb: Stupid girl. You'll never stop me. You don't have the ba-
Dawn: Yeah Buffy, what are we going to do now?
Faith: Yeah, you're not the one and only Chosen anymore. Just gotta live like a person. How's that feel?
The First: You pulled a nice trick. You came pretty close to smacking me down. What more do you want?
Giles: We have a lot of work ahead of us.
Kennedy: I could get used to this!
Principal Wood: Surprise...
Rona: Really? 'Cause I'm flashing back to Xander's whole bathroom speech.
Spike: I want to see how it ends.
Vi: Look at me! This is nothing! Stay awake! This is nothing!
Willow: Yeah, The First is scrunched so what do you think we should do, Buffy?
Xander: All those shops, gone. The Gap, Starbucks, Toy R Us? who will remember all those landmarks unless we tell the world of them.

OK somebody post something brilliant about the deeper meaning in Rona's last line. Go!

t really really bored

Finales:

Restless
The Gift
Becoming
Graduation Day
Prophecy Girl
Grave
Chosen

Openers:

Bargaining
The Freshman
Anne
When She Was Bad
Lessons
Buffy v. Dracula
WTTH

OK somebody post something brilliant about the deeper meaning in Rona's last line. Go!

It's telegraphing Xander's secret cocaine addiction, which nobody would ever discuss.

OK somebody post something brilliant about the deeper meaning in Rona's last line. Go!

It's telegraphing Xander's secret cocaine addiction, which nobody would ever discuss.

Which was foreshadowed by the bathroom scene from Xander's dream in Restless.