Don't expect Buffy to show when the end comes for Angel.
Set storylines and scheduling conflicts mean onetime vampire slayer Sarah Michelle Gellar won't be reunited with her undead love when the WB's Buffy spinoff takes its final stab this May.
In an interview with TV Guide Online, creator Joss Whedon said he didn't invite Gellar to appear in the Angel series finale because he didn't want the sendoff to "revolve around a guest star."
"We will deal with the issue of Buffy and how much she means to Angel and Spike, but I want to end the show with the people who've been in the trenches together, the characters who have lived--and occasionally died--together...the regulars."
Gellar was invited to return for the second-to-last episode--the same way David Boreanaz appeared in Buffy's penultimate episode--but the blonde babe couldn't make it because she was in Tokyo shooting the horror film The Grudge.
And by the time producers learned she'd be available for Angel's final episode, it was too late. "We had already written and shot the episode [for which we originally wanted her] which emotionally dealt with [the romantic rivalry]," Whedon's partner, Jeffrey Bell said. "So, to go [back] and force her into the very last episode to retread stuff that we already dealt with didn't make any sense.
"By the time it became a possibility," he goes on, "the ship had sort of sailed."
Instead, the Buffy-Angel-Spike love triangle will be resolved sans the Slayer's participation. "Angel and Spike arrive at an understanding--that's all I'll say about that," Bell said. "And without her being involved, Buffy's character has come to some sort of understanding too."
Less understanding about the show's two-part finale airing May 12 and 19 are the diehard fans, who are hoping for an eleventh-hour miracle. Devoted viewers have mobilized a "Saving Angel" campaign, blitzing the network and media targets with pleas to spare the show, now in its fifth season. A rally is planned March 31 at the Warner Brothers production offices in Burbank.
They might as well try tapping the legal services of Wolfram and Hart. According to E! Online's TV guru Kristin Veitch, Boreanaz is already "looking forward to new challenges." He feels for the fans "because they have been so supportive," but "it's time to start a whole new journey."