Buffy the Vampire Slayer - "Graduation Day"
Spring in Sunnydale means graduation, and our intrepid heroes will finally be free of high school... provided they manage to survive the coronation. Buffy's third season culminates in a two-parter that puts Buffy and her Slayerettes at ground zero for ascension. The Mayor, who has proved to be an excellent resident evil despite a somewhat slow start, plans to take the final step in his Big Evil Plan by turning himself into a demon -- a 60-foot serpent, to be exact. And what better place to start an evil rampage than a high school graduation? It's like an all-you-can-devour buffet! While the lesser demons are blowing town in hopes of surviving, Buffy and crew gear up for a final confrontation. Will they defeat the Mayor and save Sunnydale, yet again? Well, we don't really know. Safe to assume yes, of course, since the show's fourth season will begin this fall along with the Angel spinoff, but the smoke has yet to clear to reveal the survivors. As related in our Staked feature, the second half of "Graduation Day" was pulled before it aired in the US, leaving viewers hanging in the middle. What we did see, however, was very well-executed; the Mayor shows himself more menacing than ever, Buffy toes a dangerous line, and Angel falls ill and -- surprise! -- loses his shirt yet again. All of the characters show some kind of growth, and the introduction of former demon Anya adds another variety of spice to the mix. Though the struggle itself hasn't proved as heart-wrenching as last year's Buffy/Angelus showdown and subsequent hell-sucking fiasco, Joss Whedon has yet again delivered a statement on high school life: it's much like being devoured by a giant snake. Or something like that. "Graduation Day" was highly enjoyable... even if we're still waiting impatiently for part two.
GRADE: A

Millennium - "Goodbye To All This"
A season finale that was ultimately the series finale (a fact that FOX neglected to mention until the actual airing), the last episode of Millennium hardly served as a solid conclusion to the endless mysteries and dramas that have unfolded over the past three years. However, this vague, half-hearted quality is true of the third season-by far the series' weakest-in general. With the loss of intriguing characters like Lara Means and, in particular, the death of Catherine Black, a good part of me feels that the series actually ended a year ago. What has sustained Millennium throughout the third season is its compelling characters. Even in the show's most inane or tedious moments, the original characters of Frank Black, Jordan Black, and Peter Watts (wonderfully played by Lance Henriksen, Brittany Tiplady, and Terry O'Quinn, respectively) have made the series one you can invest your heart in. (Newer additions such as walking plot device Emma Hollis have not proved nearly as intriguing.) "Goodbye To All This" fails due more to what it doesn't show -- Legion, Lucy Butler, or any of the religious/apocalyptic themes that are staples of the series -- than the tolerable serial-killer-of-the-week police drama that it does. However, once again the well-drawn relationship between Frank and Jordan redeems the show; the final moments of the two running desperately away from the horrors of their lives are among the series' finest.
GRADE: B-

The X-Files - "Biogenesis"
Opening with a pretentious monologue filmed to the tune of The Discovery Channel and ending with an awed Scully gaping at yet another spaceship (are they ever going to address what happened in the movie?), "Biogenesis" is an episode best summed up by the first and last letters of its title. As the conclusion of a season whose only redeeming quality is that it wasn't as bad as the one before, this episode did nothing to further the convoluted mytharc that has not evolved since fourth season opener "Talitha Cumi." Sparse appearances by the almost totally abandoned Skinner and Krycek only draw attention to how disorganized and inconsistent the series has become; the same is true for the sudden, unexplained reappearance of Cancer Man and Diana Fowler, the latter of whom, in one memorable scene, gives a whole new meaning to "supporting" role. Also indicative of the current staff's inability to come up with new ideas, the character of Albert ("Anasazi") Hosteen now joins Pusher and Max Fenig in the beloved-XF-characters-who-return-to-crappy-episodes category. "Biogenesis" is a meandering, poorly thought-out installment of a faltering series, but what makes it all the worse is that even the meager developments made here will undoubtedly be forgotten in episodes to come.
GRADE: D+