This paper explores how the stories of Seasons Six and Seven provided the United States with a chance to think about its own identity after September 11. Significantly, Season Six began on 10/2/01 with the Scooby Gang struggling to cope with the loss of Buffy in a demon-filled world. At the same time, the United States was struggling with its own loss of  innocence; a loss caused, in the eyes of George W. Bush, by “evil.” If,  as it has been argued, the earlier Buffyverse was a place where teen  problems could be personified in the demons and vampires, then, this  paper argues, the final two seasons presented a venue in which the  nation’s troubles could be dramatized.

This presentation compares shifting national narratives of  identification following 9/11 with the following storylines from Seasons  Six and Seven: one, the ambivalence and hesitation with which Buffy  resumes her role as the Slayer after her (unwanted) resurrection; two,  the well-meaning but ultimately unhealthy revenge with which Willow  reacts to Tara’s death; and, finally, the end of Season Seven in which  an apocalypse is averted not by Buffy alone, but by many. While it is  not being argued that these storylines were written with September 11,  in mind it is maintained that they did provide a useful place for the  nation to think about its own identity, complicity, and responsibility  in a post 9/11 world.