It has been 27 years since the best season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended with the best two-part finale in the show’s history. However, while the season was great and the finale easily stuck the landing, it wasn’t easy getting onto television. In fact, it was the only episode of Buffy to ever air for the first time in July, and it was delayed for two months before anyone ever saw it. The first part of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 3 finale, “Graduation Day (Part One),” aired on May 18, 1999. The episode ended in a cliffhanger with part two scheduled the next week. However, it didn’t air and was missing in action until July 13, 1999.
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The reason for the delay was a real-world tragedy, and the network felt that the subject matter was not proper for what had just happened. “Graduation Day (Part Two)” was delayed because of the Columbine school shooting, and the episode had a moment where the students of Sunnydale brought weapons to graduation to fight a great evil.
The Columbine Attacks Delayed Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Season 3 Finale
Buffy the Vampire Slayer was flying to a satisfying conclusion in Season 3 when a real-world school shooting occurred. On April 20, 1999, two high school seniors went to Columbine High School in Colorado, and when the day ended, 13 students and one teacher had died. This was, at the time, the deadliest mass shooting at a school in United States history, and it was something that caused copycat events across the country as schools, parents, and politicians tried to figure out how to deter tragedies like this from happening in the future.
It was less than a month later when “Graduation Day (Part One)” aired, and it was clear that the network was worried about the second part of the Season 3 finale. The first part was written and directed by Joss Whedon, and Anya had finally joined the Scoobies to help them learn more about the Ascension. These were also the episodes that showed Buffy step over the line as she tried to kill Faith, and almost succeeded, although Faith survived the attack and ended up in a coma. Buffy realized she was becoming like Faith, willing to kill a human. Finally, it was up to Buffy to stop the Mayor from ascending before it was too late.
The biggest moment came when the students all stepped up and let Buffy know that they knew she had been saving them since she arrived and that it was time they stood by her as well. The seniors all brought weapons to graduation and prepared to defend their school against the Mayor and help stop the Ascension. However, the idea of bringing weapons to school one month after Columbine was a little too much, and the episode was indefinitely delayed.
There was one twist, and that was the fact that networks in Canada didn’t learn soon enough that the show was being delayed, and they aired it anyway in its time slot. People were able to find copies to watch, but most of the world had to wait to see the episode, and The WB was not talking when it came to when they planned to finally finish the season. Finally, The WB aired the episode on July 13, 1999, safely after all the high school graduations had completed. What resulted was 6.5 million viewers watching “Graduation Day (Part Two),” an unusually high number for The WB during the summer months.
“Graduation Day (Part Two)” Changed Buffy Forever
The biggest changes happened before the delay. The two-parter was all about Buffy Summers graduating from high school and becoming an actual adult. This meant more than just getting out of school. Since Buffy was an adult, she officially became a free agent of sorts, and she no longer needed a Watcher to guide her. These were the episodes where Buffy leveled up. It seemed that Buffy was leaving high school with a boost in confidence after her classmates told her how much she meant to them to serve as their protector. However, the next season, Buffy was in college and was lost once again.
These were also the episodes that saw Angel finally leave Buffy the Vampire Slayer and head off to headline his own series. Cordelia also left, eventually joining Angel at his private investigator firm in Los Angeles, and this helped change Buffy, eliminating her most important love interest and her high school bully turned ally, forcing the show to go in a very different direction in Season 4. Buffy ended up going through more relationships after his, notably her polarizing time with Riley, but it was time to take the show out of high school and put these kids in the real world. After this two-part finale, Buffy the Vampire Slayer changed forever.
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