Of all the Buffy blogs, this has been the hardest to write – partially because such a lot of the meat of it has been covered in the episode by episode thread and so would just be needless repetition here, but also because it’s such a tricky season to get a handle on.

It’s no secret that the theme of this season is ‘Life is the Big Bad’ and the season arc is something of a classic misdirect. For much of the season, we’d be forgiven for thinking that Willow’s magic addiction is the ‘B’ story with the rise of the Trio being the main arc.

And indeed it is, for three quarters of the season. And the development of the Trio is done really well. We see them slowly worsen, become less harmlessly cute and incrementally more corrupted by Warren, until bang, they’re suddenly accomplices to murder and attempted rape in Dead Things. They travel from ‘we’re your arch-nemiseseses to ‘because you deserved it, bitch’. It’s chilling and genuinely scary, I think.

We’ve known Jonathan for a while now, so we kind of know the effect it’s going to have on him – and I take back my earlier snootiness about the character – as it’s been really cool to see a long-standing minor character given such development. He’s graduated from being a one-line joke to an interesting figure in his own right.

Andrew is another matter, however. His moral ambivalence at Katrina’s death – and his slavish devotion to Warren – are possibly just as shocking Warren’s murderous actions themselves and are going to have definite repercussions in future seasons.

But the extended season finale, which essentially stretches out over four episodes, switches the whole thing around. The Trio’s plans collapse and unleash a crazed, grief-stricken Dark Willow. It’s basically Buffy does the Dark Phoenix Saga but it really, really works and I’d say it counts as my favourite Buffy season finale. (The Gift is close and an awesome piece of TV, with an ending that leaves you shell-shocked, but I’d say that s6 takes you on such a prolonged, and often dark ride that you’re actually more ready for some resolution – despite the fact that what resolution you’re offered here is definitely somewhat qualified. Plenty of loose ends are left dangling to be picked up the following year.)

Those dangling threads are one of the things that make me feel that the influence of sister show Angel is starting to be felt here. It’s been one of Angel’s trademarks throughout its run that it ended each season on something of a cliffhanger, or dangling plot point. But until this year, it wasn’t something that Buffy particularly went for. (You could argue that s5 could also qualify but there was a strong possibility that Buffy was going to stay dead and that was going to be the end of the show, so I’m not sure it qualifies.) Similarly, the strong interconnectedness of the arc, with fewer standalone episodes is also an Angel trait, as is the darker colour palette of the production design this year. Lots of muted dark reds and browns and deep greens. Compare that with the brighter lit, sunny pastels of the earlier season of Buffy.

But despite the darkness, there were still lots of great Buffy moments this year. I enjoyed seeing Amy return at last. As discussed on the other thread, she’s a key figure in Buffy mythology and was in fact the catalyst for Willow’s descent into the world of magic.

And Giles benefits from possibly one of the most kick-ass entrances in, like, ever. His reappearance is a moment which can’t help but raise the hairs on the back of your neck. And yet there is part of me that feels it is somehow wrong. His departure was so that Buffy (and the rest of the Scoobies) could learn to stand on her own two feet and for him to return to bail them out seems to negate that entire lesson. The writers are clearly aware of that too because you get the line “sometimes the most grown-up thing you can do is ask for help when you need it”. But it still essentially makes a mockery of too many of the preceding episodes. And yet I don’t really care because I’d missed Giles and was really glad to see him back. And for me, it’s his last great moment for glory as I’m not a massive fan of where his character goes in s7.

And there are slight flaws in this season. The first glaring one is in Bargaining 1&2. If the Scoobies are determined to maintain the fiction that the Slayer is still alive, a prominent gravestone was probably not a good idea. And since the undead traditionally spend rather a lot of time in graveyards, it’s hardly likely they would have missed the big old clue of Buffy’s death. And the heavy metal biker demons didn’t seem to be that deterred by the idea of a Slayer anyway – and didn’t seem to be that far from Sunnydale. I didn’t buy the fact of them being terrified of Buffy to the extent they would have stayed away till now.

Similarly, great as it is, the finale has one big flaw in that it struggles to find a role for the title character within it. Dark Willow gives her a few token root monsters to battle while it is Xander who actually saves her. And this translates throughout the entire season. What are Buffy’s major achievements throughout s6? Sure, she wins a few punch-ups etc but really she achieves little except banging Spike in a destructive S&M abusive relationship. But all the big character beats this year belong to the other Scoobies – Willow, Giles, Xander, even Spike.

But the biggest flaw is perhaps the lack of texture to the season. It took me a long time to love s6 – I do now but on first viewing I kind of hated it. It’s definitely one that improves with time and rewatching. But tonally it doesn’t have the variation that most of the other seasons have. This is probably down to just a change in approach. Joss’s trademark is his high contrast – high comedy on the back of high tragedy and so on. But by this time, he’s deep in work on Firefly and this season is very much Marti Noxon’s baby. And while she’s clearly capable of comedy and has written some of the funniest Buffy episodes of the past, this time she was clearly in ‘mistress of pain’ mode.

The only real respite is the mighty Once More With Feeling and Tabula Rasa, both real high points of the season. There’s not much more to say about OMWF that hasn’t been said already. Songs that will stay in your head for months. And the songs are not there just for the sake of it – as was often the case in certain copycat musical TV episodes. Every song, every moment, was a character moment and/or progressed the arc along. The episode felt as if it were there for a reason – primarily for a major arc point that it would have been too angsty to reveal in any other way that early in the season.

Tabula Rasa too is a fine episode. Introducing Clem – again another rather Angelesque addition, a demon who is thoroughly benign and not at all evil – a great sight gag in the lone shark and lots of great comedic, Scoobie moments. And a fine send-off for ASH in his last episode as an ongoing series regular.

Six down, one more to go. Buffy’s last season coming up. And lots of questions. What’s Spike going to be like with a soul? What’s to become of Willow? Is Buffy actually going to, you know, start doing stuff. Stay tuned as we return to Sunnydale High.

Leave your thoughts, musings, violent debate and blood oaths below. Though nothing about Buffy season 7 or Angel seasons two through five please.