Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Every episode ranked! (Part 2/5)

#93 – Never Leave Me – season 7, episode 9

The episode pulls off two things: First, it reveals for us the big bad for the season, and second, it illustrates the unwillingness of Buffy to write off Spike, despite how violent he has become (under the influence of the First). Buffy can’t deny her feelings for him and refuses to dust him, insisting that he needs help. That one admission creates a throughline that will carry the viewer to the finale of the show, making this one an important episode, even if it’s a bit skimpy on actual plot (a running problem with much of season seven).

#92 – The Killer In Me – season 7, episode 13

So, when I say season seven struggled with plots, what I mean is the individual story that lasts the duration of the episode. A lot of season seven episodes had very little in the way of plots. Instead, they were just interconnected scenes that dealt with the big bad arc of the whole year. This one is an exception, and it’s not a great one. It focuses on Willow’s appearance changing into Warren’s, the result of a spell cast by the returning Amy. While the character really soured on me in season six, I am at least appreciative that she received closure here in the final season. The plot isn’t much, but it’s at least something, which is more than can be said for about half of the season’s episodes.

#91 – The Freshman – season 4, episode 1

Buffy’s greatest strength as a show is how delicately it balances the physical strength of the heroine with the vulnerabilities of her still being a teenage girl. She can punch a hole in a concrete wall without breaking a sweat, but she can also turn into a puddle over a bad relationship. She’s superhuman…and also human. Her vulnerable side is on display in the opening of season four, which sees Buffy starting college and being taken advantage of by a sleazy older student. If he were a demon she could pummel him into dust, but he’s just a jerk, so all she can do is be sad. She’s helpless and we are helpless to watch it. It’s not the best first episode in the show, but it’s a strong outing and one that does a good job resetting things after the old high school setting was blown up in the previous episode.

#90 – Faith Hope Trick – season 3, episode 3

Season three takes a few episodes to goof around before it really settles into its arc, but in those opening episodes, we meet some delightful new characters. One of them is the vampire Trick, and the other—more importantly—is Faith, the Vampire Slayer. Faith will become arguably the most important side-character in the series, and one of the most beloved. She’s introduced to us here with all the attitude, cockiness, and confidence that will come to define the character (at least on the surface) for years to come. Her chemistry with Buffy is instantaneous.

#89 – No Place Like Home – season 5, episode 5

First, there’s the plot, which gives us our first hint at the big bad for the season and sheds a little more light on the nature of Dawn (with still many unanswered questions left hanging). That’s all fine and good. Perfectly cromulent. What really sells the episode for me, however, is this magical exchange:

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Twin flames.

#88 – Doomed – season 4, episode 11

This one is knee-deep in the Initiative arc, but while that usually is an instant turn-off for me, what works here is the fast pace and the many twists in the story as it progresses. This is the episode that immediately follows Hush, where Buffy and Riley discover the other is more than they suspected. Here we get the fallout, which happens amidst the backdrop of a demon invasion. Concentrate on the action, tune out the pseudo-military crap that makes the Initiative stuff such a drag, and this is a perfectly fine episode.

#87 – Empty Places – season 7, episode 19

Two things of note happen here. First, Buffy is kicked out of her own house, which infuriates me every time I watch it. It’s such a short-sighted move and feels like a character-betrayal to everyone present. I hate it hate it hate it. If Spike had been there he never would have allowed it to happen. And where was Spike? He was on a motorcycle with Andrew, on their way to hunt for clues about the First’s henchman, Caleb that leads to the second thing of note in this episode, the bonding that happens between these two unlikely friends over a bloomin’ onion…

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#86 – Welcome To Hellmouth/The Harvest – season 1, episodes 1-2

First episodes do not always accurately reflect the quality of a TV series. Buffy didn’t become “Buffy” until mid-way through season two, and the show didn’t really hit its high-water mark until season three, but all the things that make the show great are still here on display in the very first episodes. The opening, with Darla playing the part of a seeming damsel in distress, about to be attacked by a blood-sucking fiend, only to flip the script and reveal herself to be the danger, is still a fabulously-done subversion of the cliched trope. Considering how the whole series is built around subverting the idea of the damsel in distress, and showing her to be the ultimate hero, starting the show with a damsel that is really a villain was a stroke of brilliance. The rest of the two-part opening is a standard 90s adventure TV set-up. It reminds me a lot of the Smallville opening episodes in how it methodically establishes the characters, the destiny of the hero, and a small threat to overcome to whet the appetite and get the viewer to come back. The show will improve by leaps and bounds in episodes to come, but it nevertheless had a pretty solid start.

#85 – Out Of Sight Out Of Mind – season 1, episode 11

Season one episodes all have a different kind of charm compared to the rest of the series. It’s probably because all the episodes were written and filmed before anything had aired, so there was no audience feedback to take into consideration. The show was just what they set it out to be and nothing more. The penultimate episode of the season is very cliched and very much in keeping with the “high school is hell” theme. Who among us hasn’t felt invisible in high school? At Sunnydale, that’s a feeling that is made literal. The result is an episode about as good as the average season one outing. It’s fine, but not much else.

#84 – Entropy – season 6, episode 18

You know how Buffy repeatedly told Spike she was not interested in a real relationship? And remember how Xander literally left Anya at the altar? Well, in this episode, both are furious to see Anya and Spike making out. That’s it. That’s the episode. It’s good.

#83 – The Puppet Show – season 1, episode 9

There are a few episodes of BTVS that polarize the fanbase, episodes that some hate and some adore. I know more than a few who completely dismiss this episode but, for all the criticism season one rightly deserves, I can’t help but love this weird tale of a possessed ventriloquist dummy. There’s something about the way the episode ends with a casual conversation between Buffy and the dummy, the matter-of-fact way the villain speaks, despite his mouth just going up and down like a…well, like a dummy. It’s all so bizarre. It’s something that would only have been done in season one and I can’t help but dig it.