With the sixth and seventh seasons, it’s a bit easier to pick a favorite episode, seeing as the good ones actually stand out against a backdrop of crappy ones, but the fifth season is definitely a challenge. Just behind Season Three in cohesive awesomeness, Season Five has a fairly consistent spread of excellence over its twenty-two episodes, minus a few duds (like “Family” and “Into the Woods”), so it’s an honest pleasure to watch the whole thing … which I have done over the past several weeks in between NaNo and changing shifts at work.

And after much hemming and hawing, I have come to the conclusion that “Checkpoint” is my favorite.

The main reason? Well, this scene, actually:

I’ve had a lot of people talking at me the last few days. Everyone just lining up to tell me how unimportant I am. And I’ve finally figured out why: power. I have it. They don’t. This bothers them.

Buffy has come a long way since she had her first test given to her by the Watcher’s Council, and fuck me if she doesn’t show that here. We’ll get plenty of Buffy speeches as the series trudges along to the series finale, but this one right here is warranted. She’s been spoken at, berated, humiliated, etc. up until she’s had enough. Everyone loves that sequence in the seventh season where all the young possible Slayers are given their powers, but I don’t think it is as poignant as this scene. Women have had a shit time of it for millennia, but the past few years have been … exhausting. I want to show this to every single one of us who’s out there dealing with it because seriously, why would people be fighting us so hard? Because we have the power.

I think it’s about time we use it.

Art Credit: Buffy Wiki