We’re all familiar with readings of Buffy as a young woman set in opposition to patriarchy, and her isolation in the role of “one girl in all the world” has been a consistent plot point for the show. I propose that the series-ending episode allows Buffy to free herself from her isolation by freeing herself from a particularly crippling aspect of patriarchy, that of female competitiveness. Throughout the series, Buffy’s relationships with other young women are competitive, even when they are not hostile. The tension and envy Buffy experiences with both Kendra and Faith, for example, expose her ambivalence about her position as the slayer. While she often does hate her singularity, she becomes defensive when it is threatened. Buffy and Cordelia dramatize the stereotyped cattiness between beautiful women, and the show’s writers take care to diffuse any threat Willow might pose, first by making her too geeky to compete with Buffy and then by making her gay. Only when Buffy lets go of jealousy and facilitates the empowerment of other women does she really free herself from the loneliness imposed on women in patriarchy.