10 Buffy The Vampire Slayer Episodes That Are Almost Perfect
3. Graduation Day, Part 2 (Season 3, Episode 22)
It’s hard not to love the finale of Season 3. The gang’s high-school years come to a close with an epic battle sequence between the students of Sunnydale and the Mayor’s crew of vampires.
But the final battle will always be tarnished by the horrific CGI. There’s just no getting away from the fact that Olvikan looks like something from a PS1 game – the textures and the lighting are both awful. So, far from being an intimidating sight, the Mayor’s transformation is laughably bad.
It’s a shame because the general lack of CGI is one of the reasons why the show has aged so well. Most of the time, the monsters are 100% practical, but on this occasion, someone made the wrong decision.
Thankfully, we don’t have to witness this poor spectacle for very long. After provoking the Mayor into chasing her, Buffy leads him into a room full of explosives, Giles triggers the detonation, and this terrible CGI villain is blown to bits.