- Buffy Summers: I haven't processed everything yet. My brain isn't really functioning on the higher levels... It's pretty much, "fire bad, tree pretty."
- Rupert Giles: Understandable. Well, when it's working again, congratulate it on a, a good campaign. You did very well.
- Buffy Summers: Thank you. I will.
- Rupert Giles: I, uh, I ferreted this out of the wreckage. Now, it may not interest you, but, uh...
- [reaches into his jacket and pulls out a high school diploma]
- Rupert Giles: I'd say you earned it.
- [takes a deep breath and looks around at the remains of the school]
- Rupert Giles: There's a certain, um... dramatic irony attached to all this... a synchronicity that borders on-on predestination, one might say.
- Buffy Summers: Fire bad, tree pretty.
- Rupert Giles: Oh, yes. Sorry. I'll... I'll go and tend to Wesley. See if he's still, um, whimpering.
- Cordelia Chase: I personally don't think it's possible to come up with a crazier plan.
- Oz: We attack the mayor with hummus.
- Cordelia Chase: I stand corrected.
- Oz: Just keeping things in perspective.
- Cordelia Chase: Thank you.
- [watching the mayor address the school]
- Buffy Summers: My God. He's gonna do the entire speech.
- Willow Rosenberg: Man, just ascend already.
- Buffy Summers: Evil.
- Willow Rosenberg: You're awake.
- Angel: You... You've been watching over me?
- [takes Willow's hand and kisses it]
- Willow Rosenberg: Well, we've been takin' turns.
- Angel: I thought... I thought I'd never see you again... I can't leave you. I-I... I was wrong. I need you.
- Willow Rosenberg: Oh... You mean you need Buffy.
- Angel: [pauses] Willow?
- Willow Rosenberg: Yes. Right. Willow.
- Angel: Where is she?
- Willow Rosenberg: She'll be back soon.
- [Angel falls back asleep and Willow leaves]
- Oz: Any change?
- Willow Rosenberg: He's delirious. He thought I was Buffy.
- Oz: You, too, huh?
- Xander Harris: Here's your coffee. Brewed from the finest Colombian lighter fluid.
- Rupert Giles: Thank you.
- [takes a sip]
- Rupert Giles: Horrible.
- [takes another sip]
- Xander Harris: Aren't you supposed to be drinking tea, anyway?
- Rupert Giles: Tea is soothing. I wish to be tense.
- Xander Harris: Okay, but you're destroying a perfectly good cultural stereotype here.
- Oz: Guys, take a moment to deal with this. We survived.
- Buffy Summers: It was a hell of a battle.
- Oz: Not the battle... High School.
- Cordelia Chase: I demand an explanation.
- Xander Harris: For what?
- Cordelia Chase: Wesley.
- Xander Harris: Uh... inbreeding?
- Cordelia Chase: So very funny. Any minute I am sure to laugh.
- Buffy Summers: Faith told me to play on his human weakness.
- Willow Rosenberg: Faith told you? Was that before or after you put her in a coma?
- Buffy Summers: After.
- Willow Rosenberg: Oh.
- [introduction to graduation]
- Principal Snyder: Congratulations to the class of 1999. You all proved more or less adequate. This is a time of celebration, so sit still and be quiet.
- Buffy Summers: You and Xander are gonna have to work together now. Can you guys handle that?
- Xander Harris: I'm still Key Guy, right?
- Buffy Summers: Right.
- Xander Harris: Great. Then Angel, in his non-Key-Guy capacity, can work with me.
- Angel: What fun.
- Xander Harris: Hey, Key Guy's still talkin'.
- Oz: Well, Angel, you hung with him the most. Was there something that he's afraid of?
- Angel: Well, he's not crazy about germs.
- Cordelia Chase: Of course. That's it! We'll attack him with germs!
- Buffy Summers: Great! We'll get him cornered, and then you can sneeze on him.
- Cordelia Chase: No! No, we'll get a container of Ebola virus and, and, uh- or it doesn't even have to be real. We could just get a box that says "Ebola" on it and, um, chase him.
- [long pause]
- Cordelia Chase: With the box.
- Xander Harris: I'm starting to lean towards the hummus offensive.
- Oz: He'll never see it comin'.
- Mayor Richard Wilkins: It's been a long road getting here, for you, for Sunnydale. There has been achievement, joy, good times... and there has been grief... There's been loss... Some people who should be here today... aren't... But we are. Journey's end. And what is a journey? Is it just distance traveled? Time spent? No. It's what happens on the way. It's the things that shape you. At the end of the journey, you're not the same. Today is about change. Graduation doesn't just mean your circumstances change. It means you do. You ascend... to a higher level... Nothing will ever be the same. Nothing...
- [eclipse starts]
- Mayor Richard Wilkins: And so, as we look back on...
- [winces in pain]
- Mayor Richard Wilkins: On the events that have brought us to this day...
- [more pain]
- Buffy Summers: [whispers to herself] Come on.
- Mayor Richard Wilkins: We... We must all...
- [yells and groans]
- Mayor Richard Wilkins: It has begun... my destiny... It's a little sooner than I expected. I had this whole section on civic pride... but I guess we'll just skip to the big finish.
- [to ascended Demon Richard Wilkins]
- Buffy Summers: Hey!
- [holds up Faith's knife]
- Buffy Summers: You remember this? I took it from Faith. Stuck it in her gut... Just slid in her like she was butter... You wanna get it back from me... Dick?
- Buffy Summers: That's the basic plan. So, am I crazy?
- Willow Rosenberg: Well, "crazy" is such a strong word.
- Rupert Giles: Let's not rule it out, though.
- Rupert Giles: Buffy's quit the Council... She'll not be working with Wesley from now on.
- Cordelia Chase: But he's her Watcher.
- Rupert Giles: Buffy no longer needs a Watcher. She'll not be working with Wesley from now on.
- Cordelia Chase: But he is her Watcher.
- Xander Harris: Buffy no longer needs a Watcher.
- Cordelia Chase: Well, does he have to leave the country? I mean, you got fired, and you still hang around like a big loser. Why can't he?
- Xander Harris: Cordelia! We're trying to stop a massacre here. Wanna give us a hand?
- Cordelia Chase: Sure... This is just *such* a Buffy thing to do. She's always thinking of herself.
- [mayor is smothering Buffy at the hospital when Angel stops him]
- Angel: Don't do that!
- Mayor Richard Wilkins: [angry] I will. I'll do worse. Murderous little fiend! Did you see what she did to my Faith?
- Angel: Hadn't made plans to weep over that one.
- Mayor Richard Wilkins: Well, I'd get set for some weeping if I were you. I'd get set for a *world* of pain! Misery loves company, young man, and I'm looking to share that with you and your whore!
- [Angel pushes the mayor, who flies back against a window, who gets back up and regains his composure]
- Mayor Richard Wilkins: [laughing] Well... Looks like somebody's been eating his spinach.
- [to hospital staff]
- Mayor Richard Wilkins: No, it's okay, folks. It's all right. The show's not *over*, but there will be a short intermission.
- [to Angel]
- Mayor Richard Wilkins: Don't want to miss the second act. All kinds of excitement.
- Angel: [as the mayor leaves] I'll be there.
- Buffy Summers: There's something I'm supposed to be doing.
- Faith: Oh yeah. Miles to go. Little Miss Muffet counting down from 7-3-0.
- Xander Harris: [to Angel] Well, it's just good to know that when the chips are down and things look grim, you'll feed off the girl who loves you to save your own ass.
- Buffy Summers: I'm gonna need every single one of you on board, especially you, Xander. You're sort of the key figure here.
- Xander Harris: Key...? Me...? Okay, pride, humility... and here's the mind-numbing fear... What do I have to do?
- [last lines]
- [as the group walks away]
- Willow Rosenberg: Why do demons even come here, anymore? I mean don't they know...
- [first lines]
- Vamp Lackey: There's nobody here, sir.
- Mayor Richard Wilkins: No... No, she'd take the fight outside... My Faith doesn't like to be cooped up... We have to find them. Put everyone on it. Do it now.
- Vamp Lackey: But, sir, the Ascension...
- Mayor Richard Wilkins: *Find them*!