Graduation day p2 . . . .

Buffy and the students of Sunnydale High battle the Mayor during their senior graduation.

Expanded overview

After stabbing Faith, Buffy stands stunned for a few minutes, then drops the knife and escapes from the rooftop just before the Mayor enters Faith's empty apartment with a group of vampires. The Mayor, devastated by the thought of losing Faith, orders the vamps to find her.

At the library that night, Xander and Giles search for information on the demon Olvikan, while at the mansion, Willow watches over Angel; delirious, he mistakes her for Buffy and confesses how much he needs her. When Buffy finally returns, she sends Willow away, then demands Angel drink her blood so that he will be cured. He refuses, weakly, but she strikes him to bring out his vampiric nature, then pulls his head to her throat. He drinks deeply, pulling away when Buffy loses consciousness from blood loss. Angel rushes Buffy to hospital, explaining that she's lost a lot of blood. In another room, a doctor tells the Mayor that Faith's head trauma coupled with massive blood loss means she is unlikely to regain consciousness. The Mayor notices Buffy in bed, and tries to smother her until Angel tears him away. The Mayor leaves with a message not to miss the second act of the show.

Dreaming, Buffy visits Faith, who is packing up her apartment. Faith says human weakness never fades, "Not even his." Faith tells Buffy that it's time to go and then Buffy wakes up in the hospital bed. She walks over to Faith and kisses her forehead, then strides into the waiting room, telling her friends to get ready for war.

At school, Buffy outlines a plan which relies heavily upon Xander's mystical military training and exploits the Mayor's human weakness - Faith. Meanwhile, the Mayor explains to his group of vampires that when the eclipse takes place, he wants the vampires to keep the people from running, as he must feed within the first few minutes to sustain the change. Angel and Xander get to work creating a bomb, which Giles is assigned to detonate. While putting away books, Cordelia and Wesley finally kiss, and discover they have no sexual chemistry. Willow and Oz decide to finally have sex, since they may die later that day. In the library, Angel tells Buffy he'll simply disappear when the battle is over, because to say goodbye would be too painful.

At graduation, the Mayor starts his speech, but is interrupted by the eclipse, which triggers his transformation into the 60-foot snake demon Olvikan. The parents scatter, and the students gather together in one large group. At Buffy's call, everyone rips off their robes, revealing weapons and crosses. Students attack the demon and vampires with fire launchers and flaming crossbows. Principal Snyder is eaten by the snake-demon in mid-lecture. Cordelia stakes her first vampire, but other students - including Larry and Harmony - are killed. Buffy taunts the snake with Faith's dagger; enraged, he chases Buffy through the school. Reaching the library, Buffy dives through a window. The snake smashes through the doors to find the room laced with explosives: "Well, gosh." Giles hits the plunger, exploding the Mayor as well as Sunnydale High.

As Wesley is taken away in an ambulance, Giles congratulates Buffy on a job well done, presenting her diploma which he pulled from the rubble. After he leaves, Buffy sees Angel at a distance. The two stand there, near tears, until Angel turns and walks away. Buffy meets up with her friends and they head for home, marveling that they survived. "Not the battle," Oz clarifies, "high school."

Controversy

During the time of its airing, the episode caused a great deal of controversy in the media. The Columbine High School shootings which occurred in April 1999, caused huge tension between the public and the Entertainment Industry. Buffy at the time was viewed as a very violent show that took place in a high school setting, and was considered inappropriate, especially after the Columbine shootings. The <DEADILNK entry_key="The WB Television Network">WB Network</DEADILNK> had already pulled the plug on an earlier episode "Earshot". ^[1] When the media saw several clips from "Graduation Day, Part Two" they feared that several scenes would provoke high school students to do the same thing, especially in the scenes when the entire graduating class were handling weapons against the mayor of the city. On <DEADILNK entry_key="May 25">May 25</DEADILNK>, 1999, "Graduation Day, Part Two" was all set to air. However, only a couple of hours before the network was going to air the season finale, they suddenly decided to pull the plug due to all the pressure they were receiving. Instead, a re-run from earlier in the season was aired without any kind of notice.^[2]

The sudden move by the WB received huge attention in the media and thousands of letters were sent to the network demanding them to air the season finale. Sarah Michelle Gellar publicly spoke out against the decision the network had made, although Seth Green agreed that the episode would seem "callous and inappropriate" after the Columbine shootings.^[3] The WB would not air the episode until <DEADILNK entry_key="July 13">July 13</DEADILNK>, 1999, almost two months after it was originally supposed to air. At that point, the network felt that all real life graduations had already passed, so it was safe to air the episode. The episode attracted 6.5 million viewers, which is atypically high for the WB during the summertime. Even though the show aired in mid-summer, the ratings for the episode were on par with what the other episodes of the season had received. This episode was aired in Canada at the time it was supposed to have aired in the U.S., however, therefore many bootleg digital downloads were available for American viewers. ^[4] The creator of the show, Joss Whedon, stated, "Bootleg the puppy".

Found andb [c] to http://www.answers.com/topic/graduation-day-part-two-1