I think I get what you're saying, Nilly. The battle is her reasserting her right to the things that have been stripped away -- give me those things back, you melodramatic pancake-makeup-wearing lunkhead! And beating Angel's butt all around the town is a bonus. But, to quibble:

In the final summation, however, it does take weapons, friends and hope to save the world, doesn't it?

Well, they could have had thumb wars instead of a sword fight, but it would not have been as cool. Without Buffy's friends, Giles would (probably) have died, and Angel would have gone to hell soul-free, where he would have been given a tickertape parade. (This presumes Buffy can draw blood with her thumbs, which I don't doubt.) I can't be sure on hope, but my general sense is that Buffy didn't have any hope -- and that the cruellest thing the scoobies could do was show her hope right before she had to run it through with a sword.

it took so long to get any followup on THE BIG LIE.

Well, if you like, you can say the repercussions were immediate, just indirect. Because Buffy wasn't prepared for the possibility that Angel would regain his soul, she completely freaked at the end, and fled. And when she returned? Lied to the scoobies until Giles insisted (because he'd already figured it out). So, one selfish but sort of well-intentioned lie sparked another, and Xander's punishment for lying was spending a summer as Nighthawk being bopped on the head.

Er, by which I mean, the characters never openly discussed the Big Lie, but it all shook out in a way that satisfied me dramatically.

Well, they could have had thumb wars instead of a sword fight, but it would not have been as cool.

No, not that final summation, the one after it. In the end, S7, there's a specific weapon, and specific company that gets the win.

It's not a critique of the ending of S2, just, like Nilly said that if you strip it down to the core you have something strong, but then if you don't, you have something stronger.

Sometimes it takes something stronger to win, as is commented on many times later in the series.

(This presumes Buffy can draw blood with her thumbs, which I don't doubt.)

I think todays FW rerun with the Gnarl prety well confirmed that. Ick.

Point. Although by then the metaphor had been strained into a whole bunch of new, previously-unintended shapes. I think that, against a vampire, Buffy could posit herself without resources as a counterbalance. Against the very definition and source of evil in this world? That's a taller order (and besides they'd done that ending before anyway).

Also the part where, if capital-E Evil (or just a hellmouth) could be destroyed by a slayer doing her slayer thing and nothing more, capital-E Evil would be incredibly wussy.

if capital-E Evil (or just a hellmouth) could be destroyed by a slayer doing her slayer thing and nothing more, capital-E Evil would be incredibly wussy.

Which it apparently was, up until the late nineties.

if you strip it down to the core you have something strong, but then if you don't, you have something stronger.

Maybe this is what I'm trying to say: in order to get to that position that ita talked about, you have to have something strong at the core. You have to have something strong at the core, for the possibility of it being stronger when what's around it is not stripped.

Then again, maybe not. Words complicated are. Brain break a takeing is.

I think that Becoming 2 and Chosen have some interesting parallels. We've already mentioned the weapons, friends, and hope thing.

Also, both episodes ended with the sacrifice of an ensouled vampire to bring about the resolution. In B2, Willow unconsciously called on seemingly dark forces to re-ensoul Angel, while in Chosen, she deliberately called on light forces to activate Slayer strength in all the potentials. Both episodes ended with Buffy running away from the scene, but in B2 she was running away from friends and family while in Chosen she was running to rejoin her friends and family.

There's more I could say, but it's hard to compose longer posts while at work.

Chosen and Graduation Day are the two that I find incredibly similar. (Except I like Graduation Day better, because I preferred Let's Bring Regular People On Board And Together We're Strong! to Let's Make All The Proto-Slayers Strong!)

= I preferred Let's Bring Regular People On Board And Together We're Strong!

I think that scene works emotionally, but logistically I would have liked to see a little bit more of how they turned a graduating class into an army in a few hours. But I understand the time limitations.

Oh, yeah, well, that kind of thing I'm willing to skim over. If I start thinking about training kids how to use flamethrowers, next thing I know I'm back to "Buffy, sweetheart, get a good PR guy, convince the world of the existence of vampires, and take a vacation in Bermuda, willya?"