The Top 20 Episodes of 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer'

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BTVS) today celebrates its 20th anniversary! As a show Buffy would go on to do stuff which people have written whole bloody papers on but I will quickly sum up here as: revolutionise serialized storytelling, lean heavily into feminist characters and themes, be generally pretty great and loads of other stuff. For me, it was one of the most formative television experiences I have ever had. Coming off the back of the Avengers and having my Nolan-esque grim and serious view of storytelling challenged, Buffy was the ultimate next step and it was its unique approach to metaphorical storytelling and committed character development that really stuck with me. No other show (maybe Community and Doctor Who) has come close to replicating the ‘highs’ that this show delivers.

In celebration of BTVS’ 20th anniversary, I have attempted to list 20 episodes of Buffy that either represent those aforementioned high points, or are just episodes that I personally really enjoy. There’s no ranking according to quality going on here: just a listing by order of the episode’s release. Also, given BTVS means a lot to me, expect this list to sound a bit more hyperbolic and soppier than I would normally write.

Also I cheated: there are really 24 episodes. FIGHT ME.

Also: SPOILERS.

1. Innocence

Until this point, Buffy has been slowly gathering pace as a show. The first season is 90s-drenched and fun but almost universally acknowledged as, at the very least, being a bit rough. The first half of season 2 ups the game with a more focused game plan and the introduction of Spike (his introduction in ‘School Hard’ is forever an all-timer). But it’s really ‘Innocence’ where the training wheels come off and BTVS really locks in to its sense of drama. All the character touches and development before this episode really shine through as Angel transforms into Angelus. This is a mean episode that doesn’t hold back and to top it all off, we get one of Buffy’s most iconic moments involving her, the judge and a rocket launcher. Buffy has been taking little steps forward for a while up to this point. ‘Innocence’ is where it really takes a flying leap.

1. Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered

Okay, so if ‘Innocence’ is where Buffy really finds itself, the BBAB is where I found Buffy. Yes I’d been enjoying the show for a season and a half or so, but here is where I remember having my first true euphoric moment with the show. Having been dumped by Cordelia, Xander attempts to cast a love spell, but ends up infatuating everyone but her. As the hilarity escalates into hysteric-horror, it was the moment when Xander’s storyline crossed paths with Angelus where I was like ‘Oh now you’re just showing off’. To cap it all off, Cordelia makes arguably her biggest step so far away from her original social standing and towards the Scooby Gang. One of BTVS’ best strengths was its balance of long-form and short-form narrative. It’s still one of the all-time greats at this and BBAB is a fine example of why.

1. Passion

Okay, ‘Innocence’ was a mean episode, but this is a mean episode. Miss Calendar’s death is a sucker punch, both for its surprise and for its impact. Giles, who is essentially the rock of BTVS (you really feel his absence throughout Season 6), has so far held largely steadfast. He’s a bit bumbling, yes, but in ‘Passion’ we see him at a distressing new low. His slow walk up the stairs to Jenny’s corpse is agonizing and his assault on Angelus (probably more accurate to call it a suicide mission) is heartbreaking. As Season 2 continues its descent into ever-darker territory, ‘Passion’ is the episode that sends it tumbling down ever quicker still.

1. Becoming Parts 1 and 2

Bit of a cheat here, but really it’s difficult to properly separate the two episodes of ‘Becoming’ apart. Here Joss Whedon and co. present us a finale that’s practically Shakespearean, with the ultimate tragic ending to cap it off as Buffy is forced to kill a newly revived Angel in order to save the world. This episode is also notable for pushing Spike away from potential Season 2 Big Bad towards being a far more complex character as well as finally revealing to Joyce just what her daughter has been up to for the last two seasons. Also for a show replete with fight scenes, ‘Becoming’ puts in a strong contender for BTVS’ best fight scene in Buffy and Angel’s sword fight. Pure television gold.

1. Lovers Walk

Gah I’m resisting talking about Spike properly until an episode later down this list which I feel is more appropriate. Safe to say, by this point in the show he’d become a firm favourite amongst fans and the BTVS writer’s room and his brief return in Season 3 is destructive, a little bit weird and darkly hilarious. Forlorn after a breakup with Drusilla, Spike returns to Sunnydale in order to create a love spell, forcing Willow to help him make it. This episode is notable for taking the messy relationship of Xander and Willow and laying it out bare for all to see. The result: Oz and Willow’s relationship is on the rocks, Cordelia is impaled (with one of the shows all time fake-out moments as we’re lead to believe she’s dead before Willow and Buffy discuss her hospitalization) and Spike screams out of Sunnydale in his car, Sid Vicious’ ‘My Way’ blaring from the speakers. Bonus points for continuing Spike’s actually-quite-sweet-if-a-little-weird-at-times friendship with Joyce.

1. The Zeppo

Much has been made of BTVS’ influence on Doctor Who and ‘The Zeppo’ is arguably one of the episodes that gets brought up the most in this discussion. Apparently inspiring such ‘Doctor-lite’ episodes as ‘Love and Monsters’ and ‘Blink’, 'The Zeppo' relegates what would usually be the A-plot (the hellmouth is reopening and threatening to end the world) into the background, instead focusing the attention on Xander as he, amongst other things, helps a gang rob a store, loses his virginity and saves the school from destruction. It’s a great look at Xander’s character and his position in the Scooby Gang and also leads to some great skewering of BTVS’ more melodramatic moments (the scene where Xander interrupts Buffy and Angel’s argument is amazing).

1. Doppelgangland

I’m one of those BTVS fans who always preferred Joss Whedon’s nutso pseudo-sequel to ‘The Wish’ rather than ‘The Wish’ itself. Whilst ‘The Wish’ is a pretty interesting take on the ‘what if?’ episode, ‘Doppelgangland’ goes pretty bananas by taking vamp-Willow out of the alternate reality and placing her into the show’s main storyline for an episode. `Alyson Hannigan really goes for broke as vamp-Willow, creepily juxtaposing against actual-Willow whilst providing room for a neat bit of foreshadowing (“…and I think I’m kinda gay”).

1. Fear Itself

Okay so ‘Fear Itself’ is one of those episodes of BTVS I think to show to people if they’re interested and want to watch any episode to see what the show’s like. It may be tempting to throw ‘Hush’ or ‘Once More…’ at them but those are really one-off concept episodes. ‘Fear Itself’ is BTVS in a nutshell. It’s a great episode that gets its kicks from a bizarre blending of horror and comedy with a bit of subversion to round it all off. Remember: “Don’t taunt the fear demon…it’s just tacky.”

1. Something Blue

BTVS could be a really funny show. Joss Whedon apparently looked to stock his writer’s room with sitcom writers as opposed to strictly drama writers and it shows often in the trademark dialogue and exchanges between the mains that was a big part of the show’s popularity. ‘Something Blue’ easily ranks as one of Buffy’s funniest episodes. Even before Willow’s spell to have her will done goes haywire, there’s great moments such as Spike’s frustration at being imprisoned in Giles’ house and the ire it produces in poor Giles (“You’ll do what? Lick me to death?!”) After the spell is cast, the episode is just an escalating mountain of bizarre, with the highlight easily being – what else? – Buffy and Spike’s sudden engagement. Powering all of this is Willow’s sadness after Oz’ packs up his bags and leaves campus, seemingly for good. A true comedic and BTVS masterpiece.

1. Hush

Right, so seems like we can’t have a top episodes list of Buffy without Hush. Undeniably it’s one of the shows most daring episodes, committing its cast to perform in what is effectively a short silent horror film. For all the talk of how scary this episode is, however, that's not really what sticks with me. Yes, the gentlemen are probably the show’s best monster design ever and that fake out with Tara knocking on what we think is Willow’s door is great, but I was never as scared as this episode as I was lead to believe I’d be (I maintain ‘Killed by Death’ is the show’s most nightmarish bit of monster work). Really, if I’m going to pick a highlight, aside from the introduction of Tara, it’s going to be the forever classic ‘Giles’ presentation’ scene.

1. Restless

What better way to end the fairly underwhelming ‘Initiative’ plotline by clearing it up an episode early to make way for a gonzo dream-epilogue in which we break down each of the main four characters through what Joss Whedon effectively described as a “…forty-minute tone poem”. Restless is a dizzying display of visual and storytelling inventiveness from beginning to end. It’s properly balls to the wall crazy throughout, with odd camera angles, characters suddenly speaking French and a truly disarming sense of not having a bloody clue where the character’s dreams are going to head next. It also culminates in one of the series’ briefest but oddest fight scenes as Buffy fights the spirit of the first slayer in a desert. Apparently there are people who have sort of a ‘take it or leave it’ attitude to ‘Restless’. For me, this episode is one of my all time favourite BVTS offerings.

1. Fool for Love

Oh Spike. Finally I can talk about you properly. See, for a long time Spike was my favourite character, not just in BTVS or television, but in anything. What fascinated me wasn’t how funny or unpredictable he could be, but his arc. Spike was different from season to season and often would go through an astonishing amount of changes within those seasons as well. But you could always track it – it always made sense. Looking at Spike all the way back in ‘School Hard’ and then looking at him in the very last episode of the show, it’s crazy to think how far he’s come. I bring this up now because ‘Fool for Love’ is Spike’s episode, through and through. It’s a look through his backstory that’s utterly fascinating, taking us from his pre-vamp days through to his murdering of the two slayers. But it’s also illuminating, as we really begin to see just how far back his fascination with the slayer goes, just as we’re beginning to see him fall for Buffy in the present day. To cap it all off we have one of Spike’s best moments – as he goes to kill Buffy and end his torment, he notices her upset, lowers his shotgun and sits down to comfort her. ‘Lies My Parents Told Me’ would offer us another (disturbing) look at Spike’s past in Season 7, but it can’t beat ‘Fool for Love’.

1. The Body

If I’m going to rewatch all of Buffy, this is the episode I dread. Stripping back the show’s supernatural elements to one lone vampire at the end, ‘The Body’ is television’s greatest and most devastating depiction of death and grief ever. Every actor in the show brings their A-game, Whedon’s direction is completely disarming and the whole episode comes together to be utterly physically exhausting to sit through. ‘The Body’ arguably marks Buffy’s biggest turning point. After Joyce’s death, nothing is ever quite the same again for any of the characters. If you can sit through Anya’s speech without every crying, you’re made of stronger stuff than I am.

1. The Gift

Dawn, love her or hate her, represents probably the most batshit crazy and downright audacious arc to happen in any TV show. Despite me arriving to BTVS waaaaay after it had ended, I actually didn’t know exactly who Dawn was, so I got experience the same feeling of WTF that fans at the time got to experience, as Dawn was plopped into the show and the show acted as though she’d always been there. At the other end of the Season we find Dawn at the mercy of Glory (one of the show’s best Big Bads) with her blood to be used in order to open a portal to another dimension. Its an appropriately grand way to finish off a season that had seen a slight more emphasis on serialization at times, the aforementioned Dawn arc and the death of Buffy’s mother. ‘The Gift’ is pretty jam-packed with great BTVS moments, from Tara’s mind returning to Xander manning a fucking crane to Giles killing Ben/Glory to Buffy’s eventual death, accompanied by one of the show’s best musical scores. BTVS was supposed to end its run here. Thankfully, it didn’t.

1. Once More With Feeling

‘OMWF’ is not just best episode of Buffy ever made. It’s one of the best episodes of television ever made. I had heard about the episode way back when I was watching Season 1 and couldn’t wait to see how they would pull it off. Thinking back, it’s actually crazy the episode lived up to my deliriously high expectations but then ‘OMWF’ is better than a musical episode of any television show probably has any right to be. What is there to say about this episode that hasn’t been said before? The episode comes along at exactly the right time. The songs are great (I got the album the same evening I saw the episode). I’m trying to do it justice but really the best way to understand is to watch it for yourself. Just note that whilst watching ‘OMWF’ without context must still be really fun, watching it having seen the last five and a bit seasons beforehand is one of the greatest television experiences you’ll ever have.

1. Tabula Rasa

Tabula Rasa is one of those episodes that tends to get remembered for being really funny. That’s because it is. I’m not going to argue with that; Spike and Giles are hilarious (“’Randy’ Giles?! Why not just call me ‘Horny’ Giles or ‘Desperate for a shag’ Giles?!). But it’s also bookended by some decidedly unfunny sections; the first where Giles announces his intention to leave and the last where Giles does leave, Willow breaks up with Tara and Buffy follows her horrific existential crisis (a term that I feel kind of undersells what Buffy’s going through) down the rabbit hole and into the arms of Spike. The ending’s also set to that Michelle Branch song ‘Goodbye to you’ which is one of the show’s best uses of music, if perhaps a little on-the-nose side. In this case, though, it works incredibly well.

1. Seeing Red – Grave

Okay, I’m really cheating here, but I was trying to think of which episode from Season 6’s staggering final run of episodes that could sum them up and thought it best just to go and throw them all in the list. Season 6 was a nasty season and from what I’ve read online, quite a divisive one. The season is certainly a rough ride with probably the most drastic tonal and narrative shift the show ever pulled. Pulling it altogether, though, is the final four episodes: ‘Seeing Red’, ‘Villains’, ‘Two to go’ and ‘Grave’ – ‘Grave’ being the only season finale not written by Whedon. It’s a gauntlet of gut punches, featuring Tara’s death, Dark Willow, Willow vs. Buffy and that Xander speech. Willow’s shift over to dark magic had been brewing for a while, but here we get Dark Willow, fully formed, terrifying and ready to destroy the world. Really, though, ‘Seeing Red’ through to ‘Grave’ is just a staggering display of storytelling, wrangling arguably Buffy’s most tumultuous season into something that’s at once melancholic, horrifying and ultimately beautiful.

1. Selfless

Season 7 is kind of a rough season – the roughest since Season 1. There’s a tendency for a lot of the episodes to blur together nondescriptly and the whole thing feels weirdly at odds with the rest of the show. Happily, there are some diamonds in the rough and we find our first with ‘Selfless’ – the ultimate Anya episode. Drew Goddard steps up to the plate for this one and knocks Anya’s downward spiral right out of the park. We get a pretty dizzying succession of flashbacks peppered throughout the episode, from Anya’s pre-demon days (so that’s where the fear of rabbits comes from) to an unexpected return to the events of ‘OMWF’. Running in parallel to this is the present day timeline, where Buffy realises that Anya’s return to vengeancing warrants her a place on Buffy’s ‘to slay’ list. The two intertwine gradually, with the capper coming in the form of a smash cut from Anya joyously singing about her upcoming married life, to her having been impaled by Buffy with a sword. Its not only one of the more distinct episodes of Season 7, it’s probably the show’s best look at one of its most unconventional and complex characters.

1. Conversations with Dead People

Coming up next from Season 7 is ‘CWDP’ in which every character is separated, four writers tackle one character each and we get the only episode not to feature Xander. ‘CWDP’ isolated structure makes for a strange episode and the escalating events of each storyline just lends the whole affair a creeping sense of discomfort. The First is easily at its scariest here, particularly in Dawn’s storyline where writer Jane Espenson really goes all out and pure exorcist-esque screaming horror. Andrew’s arc as a wannabe villain both peaks and self-complicates with his murder of fan-favourite Jonathon and Buffy has a psychoanalysis session with a vampire. ‘CWDP’ feels like an attempt at being Season 7’s take on restless, but I prefer to watch it largely as a mood piece that tightens the tension like a piano wire and sets the stage for the rest of the season to come.

1. Chosen

It seems a little strange now to think that BTVS could have ended way back in Season 5, with Buffy sacrificing herself to save both her sister and the world – the final shot being her grave. Instead we have ‘Chosen’, which is both the best episode of Season 7 and one of the best series finales of all time. Buffy finally flips the script of her life on its head, ditching centuries of ancient old men logic to no longer be the only slayer in existence, all set against the backdrop of a final battle that aims for Lord of the Rings levels of grandiosity (yes the 2003 television production values can’t match that ambition but it really couldn’t matter less). As a payoff to seven seasons worth of character development ‘Chosen’ is spectacular and manages to close out with some great iconic moments, including the exchange between the four main characters whose swirling camera and final sign off by Giles (“The Earth is most definitely doomed”) call back to the very first two parter of the show. The final shot itself is a perfect grace note to the show as Buffy looks out over the remains of Sunnydale feeling not just alone, but finally having achieved some semblance of peace.

She earned it.

There we have it. My 20(ish) favourite episodes of BTVS. I’ll probably look at this list at a later point and wonder “Why the hell isn’t that there?” or something similar but hey ho. Honestly, BTVS truly is one of the greatest television series ever created and though I occasionally desperately wish that there would be more, the show really finished at just the perfect time. Buffy’s story is over, but it’s still a story worth

revisiting 20 years after it started.

Happy Anniversary Buffy!

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