Graduation Day (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

The second part was to originally be aired on May 25, 1999, but was postponed due to the episode's content and the occurrence of the Columbine High School shootings one month prior.

Myles McNutt notes various episodes which are "all part of the series’ journey to this point: "Enemies" reveals that Faith is unquestionably joined with the Mayor, while "Choices" brings the Mayor into Sunnydale High and gives him a chance to get in Angel’s head about his relationship with Buffy... And in "The Prom,” that final moment of Buffy’s school chums acknowledging her work in saving them from assured destruction on countless occasions[2] is a nice bit of foreshadowing for where we eventually end up.

As long as Faith is still technically alive, there will be no second slayer; and they have a great character waiting in the wings who could wake up at any time and re-enter the fray.

Buffy and Faith have been mirroring each other all season — gleefully in "Bad Girls," with trepidation in "Enemies" — and when it finally comes to a head, the release of tension is astonishing.

[4] Part 2 was described as suitably epic for a season finale, preparing the ground for the Angel spin-off series and building to a fast-paced and large-scale climax.

Club said "Graduation Day" was a "wonderfully calibrated mix of life-lessons, dramatic moments, thrilling heroics and well-observed character interactions".

[6] Billie Doux, giving the episodes of "five out of four stakes," writes that "In a sense, this was Buffy's slayer graduation,"[7] and that it "was also cool that Xander, after all the growing he did this season, got to be in charge of the Battle of Sunnydale.

On May 25, 1999, only two hours before "Graduation Day, Part Two" was due to air, The WB suddenly decided to replace it with a re-run from earlier in the season, "Band Candy".

[11] This sudden move received huge attention in the media and thousands of letters were sent to the network demanding that the season finale be shown.

Sarah Michelle Gellar publicly spoke out against the decision, Seth Green agreed that the episode should have been broadcast in its original slot.

[12] The incident was also lampooned in a segment on Comedy Central's The Daily Show in which then-host Jon Stewart joked that the episode was delayed "until the heat is off and networks can go back to being irresponsible".

Stewart then quipped that "in addition to postponing the finale, WB executives are considering changing the show's name to Buffy, the Vampire Inconveniencer".

[13] The WB did not air the episode until July 13, 1999, almost two months after it was originally scheduled; since nearly all US schools end their term in May or June, it was then felt safe.