The Top 10 Greatest Buffy Episodes Ever

In honor of this being Halloween, Geek-tastic would like to present to you it's very first original Top 10 list.  And on this day of ghost and goblins and vampires, what better thing to count down than the ten best episodes of the best monster fighting show of all time...Buffy The Vampire Slayer

 

To make this list, the episodes involved were ranked on a mixture of the episode's impact to the Buffy Universe at large, its creativeness and its straight forward entertainment value.

 

So, without further Ado, Geek-tastic is proud to present:

 

The Top 10 Greatest Buffy Episodes Ever

By Patrick Roach (with help from Wes Strawther, Matt Jeffery and Sarah Wales)

 

10.  Once More With Feeling (Season Six, Episode Seven)

 



 

The hills are alive with the sounds of music!  Ok, it's not really the hills.  It's just the town of Sunnydale.  The entire city seems to be breaking out in full blown song and dance numbers every few minutes.  People are singing about everything ranging from picking up their dry cleaning to spilling their innermost thoughts for everyone to hear.  And that's not the only problem.  Some people are dancing so much that they're bursting into flames.

 

Long before Joss Whedon created Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog, he created the Buffy Musical Episode.  Other shows have had musical episodes at some point in their series (like Scrubs or Xena: Warrior Princess), but Buffy's musical episode is by far the best of them all.  Mixing clever writing with catchy songs, the episode does a great job of fitting into the current storylines that were going on with the show when it aired.  Buffy was upset about being brought back from the dead, Willow and Tara were arguing over Willow's use of her powers, and Dawn was stealing stuff.  Each of those subjects got a song devoted to it.  People's normal thoughts are what were being sung about here, and that's what makes the episode great. 

 

Of course, it also helps that the show doesn't take itself too seriously, and there's enough cheesyness thrown in to make it highly entertaining.  There are good reasons this episode has become so popular that there's a touring group that does Rocky Horror Picture Show type performances of it in front of live audiences all around the US. 

 

9. Wild at Heart (Season 4, Episode 6)

 

 After cheating on Willow with another werewolf, Oz realizes that he needs to gain control of his wolf side.  In order to do this, he'll have to leave Sunnydale.  He and Willow share a long, heartfelt goodbye, and then he's gone.

 

Oz's leaving the show was a sad, life changing event for willow.  It was this break up that really helped to form who she would later become.  If Oz hadn't left, Willow wouldn't have started dating Tara, Tara wouldn't have been there to support and guide Willow as she started seriously studing witchcraft, and thus Willow would not have become the super mega witch she eventually became.  Also, Oz himself was a great character, so seeing him go was sad for the fans too.  Although I guess we shouldn't complain, as Seth Green would eventually go on to make Robot Chicken, which is one of the most awesome shows ever.

 

8.  Tabula Rasa (Season 6, Episode 8 )

 



It's not often that a show will decide to entirely make fun of itself and its characters, but Buffy did just that in Tabula Rasa.  Due to Willow messing up an Amnesia Spell, everyone on the show loses their memories as they are all hanging out at the Magic Box (the store that Anya and Giles run).  Waking up and not knowing who they are, or why they are there, the characters are forced to try to make some sense out of everything by deducing their relationships to everyone else in the room.  Hilarity ensues.

 

Buffy realizes she has super powers, Giles and Spike are convinced they are father and son.  Anya is convinced she's married to Giles.  All sorts of stuff like that happens.  This episode is so amusing because you get to see the regular characters reacting completely differently than how they usually would to events.  You get to see the characters as someone slightly different than who they regularly are.  It was a nice change, and the writing is absolutely hilarious throughout the episode.

 

7.  The Wish (Season 3, Episode 9)

 



Frustrated at Xander's betrayal by kissing Willow, and then embarrassed in front of her friends by Buffy, Cordelia makes a wish that Buffy had never come to Sunnydale.  Anya, a vengence demon who happens to be nearby, grants the wish and the whole city of Sunnydale changes.  The new Sunnydale is a ghost town.  Half of the school's been killed, Xander and Willow are vampires and Oz and Giles are fighting a losing battle against an evil tide of vampires.

 

This episode was great because it showed us exactly how big an impact Buffy's presence was on the town of Sunnydale.  Without her, the whole place would be a monster ridden hellhole.  Plus, getting to see all of the regular characters in different roles was really interesting.  Anyone who tells you that they didn't think that the evil vampire Willow was hot is lying to you.  And since the story involves an alternate timeline, anything that happens in it doesn't really affect the regular show, which means a lot of people die.  During the episode Cordelia is killed by Xander and willow, Xander kills Angel, Buffy kills Xander, Oz kills Willow and The Master kills Buffy.  It's a pretty bloody episode.  In the end Giles saves the day though and the world is brought back to normal. 

 

The most important thing to come out of this episode though, in my personal opinion, was the introduction of Anya.  She would eventually go on to become a regular part of the gang (and was my favorite character on the show, so I'm totally biased here).

 

6.  The Zeppo (Season 3, Episode 13)

 



After a nasty fight with a monster that shoves him aside like he's nothing, Cordelia ridicules Xander and explains to him he's the "zeppo" of his group of friends, otherwise known as the useless one.  Buffy and Faith are slayers, Oz is a werewolf, Giles is a watcher, but Xander is just a regular guy.  He has no super powers.  He's just a hanger on who pretends to be someone.

 

Shaken by this, Xander goes off on his own to find his own "thing".  He borrows a car from his uncle and winds up off on his own adventure while the rest of the gang are busy fighting some big bad demon that's come to town.  Inadvertantly, he finds himself involved with a bunch of guys who are going to blow up the school.  While Buffy and the gang fight the big bad demon in the school, Xander is below them fighting the guys who built the bomb.  He eventually wins and saves the lives of all of his friends above him.  The next day, he chooses not to tell them how they would have died without his help.

 

This episode really was a much needed Xander episode.  Being the only guy in the group without superpowers, Xander's feelings of uselessness were building for a while.  This episode gave him back his sense of self, his confidence that he was a contributing part of the team.  What made the Buffy show so great was it was truly an ensemble show.  In this whole episode, Buffy is only peripherally involved.  It's all about Xander.  Plus, about halfway through the episode, Xander saves Faith and they end up having sex.  So this is the episode in which Xander loses his virginity.  That's a pretty big moment right there too.

 

5.  Passion (Season Two, Episode 17)

 



 With Angelus back and on a terrorizing tear through Sunnydale, Buffy and the gang are freaking out and trying to find a way to stop him for good.  Jenny Calendar, the school's Computer Teacher and love interest for Giles, comes up with a spell that will return his soul to him.  She goes to the high school at night to get the stuff she'll need for the spell, but Angelus meets her there.  He toys with her for a bit before he finally kills her by breaking her neck.

 

The death of Jenny Calendar was the first death of a major character in the Buffy series.  Having joined the cast in the first season, Jenny had been a regular part of the Scooby Gang for a while when she was murdered.  Her death had a huge impact on Giles and affected him for seasons to come.  It also showed the rest of the gang that anyone could die at any time.  Jenny's death was also the final catalyst that made Buffy realize that she would have to kill Angel.

 

4.  The Body (Season Five, Episode 16)

 



 Even for anyone who has never ever seen an episode of Buffy before, this is still a tough episode of TV to watch.  At the very beginning of the episode Buffy walks into her home to find her mom dead.  Just watching Buffy's reaction as she starts to realize what's going on, followed by her frightened 911 call as she desperately tries to revive her mother are incredibly heart breaking.  And then throughout the episode we see how each and every major character on the show reacts to the news.  Xander gets angry and punches a wall, Willow is so distraught that even Tara can't comfort her, Anya is confused and sad and doesn't know how to react.

 

It's all so real, so incredibly down to earth.  This is how people react to death.  It's not neat or pretty or orderly.  It's chaotic and emotional and frightening.  It's in this episode that Buffy first steps up as her sister Dawn's guardian.  This show presented a large shift in the focus of the show.  No longer was Buffy the teenager who was saving the world.  She was an adult now.  She had a little sister to care for.  She now had to put others before herself.  This show was the beginning of what would become the major subtext of the rest of the series, Buffy growing into a mature adult.  Without her mother, Buffy was now forced into a position of responsibility, whether she wanted it or not.

 

3.  School Hard (Season 2, Episode 3)

 

The actual plot for this episode isn't really what gets this episode on the list.  For the most part, the plot revolves around Buffy having to take her mom to school for parent/teacher night.  Buffy's freaking out because the principal hates her and she's always in trouble and yadda yadda yadda.

 

None of that is important.  What is important is that this is the episode that introduces two characters that become pivotal to the Buffy universe...Spike and Drusilla.  Over the course of the next few seasons, as well as the seasons of Angel's show, Spike and Drusilla's past becomes very detailed, as does their relationships with the rest of the characters on the show.  Spike will eventually go from villain to hero, and Dru will get crazier and crazier. 

 

Also, at the end of the episode, Spike kills the Annointed one (the annoying little kid who was to take the place of the Master after he had been killed).  This action changed a lot of the focus of the show.  The whole first season was about The Master and the ceremonies needed to bring him back.  The second season was continuing that story to a degree even after he was dead.  But then, out of left field, Spike and Dru show up and kill the Annointed one.  Spike's line of dialogue as he kills the kid sums up the change in direction perfectly, "From now on we're gonna have a little less ritual, and a little more fun around here."  And that's exactly what happened.  Spike showing up shifted the entire show away from constant rituals to random chaos, and the shift was awesome.

 

 2.  Hush (Season 4, Episode 10)

 

 

 

Hands down the scariest episode of Buffy ever, this episode is also the only Buffy episode to ever be nominated for an Emmy.  A group of demons called The Gentlemen come to town.  Their powers cause the entire town of Sunnydale to lose their ability to speak, so almost the entire episode is done in a very eerie silence.  Add to that the fact that The Gentlemen themselves are very silent, very scary looking and they're in town to rip people's hearts out, and the episode is downright horrifying.

 

What makes this episode so great though is the oppressing silence.  Buffy is a show known for it's very creative dialogue.  Witty banter between the cast members is where this show regularly excelled.  To have an episode then where no one speaks for almost the full hour of the show goes totally against the Buffy mold.  And in spite of the silence, the episode is just as riveting (if not moreso) than any other episode.

 

It's how the characters adapt to not being able to speak that makes it amazing.  The show is pulled off so well that each character still manages to make their personalities come across to the audience, even without speaking.  The perfect example of this is during the classroom scene, in which Giles must explain to the Scooby gang who The Gentlemen are, and what they want.

 



 

1.  Suprise and Innocence

    (Season Two, Episodes 13 and 14)

 



 

I know what you're thinking.  You're saying to yourself, "You can't have two episodes count as one Great Episode!"  Well you're wrong.  I can and I do, so deal with it.  The episodes Suprise and Innocence are a two-part story, and they really have to be considered together.  Near the end of the first episode, Buffy and Angel finally give in to their love for each other and sleep together.  However, this has the unfortunate side effect of causing Angel to lose his soul.  He reverts to his demon form of Angelus and begins to terrorize the town, which forces Buffy to have to hunt down the man she loves and eventually kill him a few episodes later.

 

The huge impact this story had on the Buffy universe as a whole is astonishing.  Not only is this the first appearance of Angelus, these are also the episodes that gave us Angel's backstory.  Here is where it is revealed that he is the vampire with a soul.  We find out he was cursed by a gypsy and his soul was returned to him so that he could feel the pain and suffering he has caused others over hundreds of years.  His curse forces him to live with the guilt of his previous actions and he can never be allowed to feel even a single moment of pure happiness.  If he does ever become happy, he loses his soul and will revert back into his evil demon form.

 

Buffy doesn't know any of this when she sleeps with Angel.  His turning evil, and her subsequent hunting of him causes her more pain than anything else she had endured up to that point.  It emotionally destroyed her.  And the aftermath of the story is felt for the rest of the series.  Even after Angel Returns and and is good again, Buffy and Angel realize that they can never be together.  Their relationship makes him happy, and that's a very bad thing.  So he's forced to leave Sunnydale because he can't be near her anymore.  This created the entire Angel Spinoff, where his curse is a central theme on the show. 

 

No relationship Buffy ever has again is ever as powerful as her relationship with Angel Was.  Not Riley, not Spike, no one comes close.  They were soulmates.  They were star crossed lovers that could never be together.  Buffy never really gets over Angel, nore does he ever get over her.  This single story in some way, shape or form impacted every episode that came after it, and that is why it is number one on this list.