The opening episode to one of my favourite ever tv series.
Buffy Summers arrives in Sunnydale and meets the people who will come to form her close circle of friends.
I’m going to enjoy rewatching this series along with Angel when I get to it.
Warning: Spoilers Ahead!
There are spoilers below as I am openly writing about some of my favourite moments in Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Please don’t read on if you haven’t watched the whole series. Unless you don’t mind spoilers that is.
It seems unbelievable that, even within the world of Buffy, no-one had noticed how the weird happenings and dangers that have plagued the students have somehow linked to Buffy Summers.
So it was great to see Buffy presented with a custom award at the school Prom towards the end of Season 3. That award was “Class Protector” and was presented by none other than Jonathan Levinson.
After Buffy beats Glory to a pulp with Olaf’s Hammer, she left the one-half of the shared body, Ben, on the floor. (Ben and Glory shared the same body, you see). She then warned him that Glory must never return, on pain of death.
As she walked away I remember thinking, “Oh Gosh, what a weak way to give a villain an open ending.”. That was until Giles came along and showed us a twinkle of his inner-darkness:
Giles: …[Buffy] couldn’t take a human life. She’s a hero you see. She’s not like us.Ben: …us?
Where then Giles grabbed Ben’s mouth and nose and suffocated him right there, essentially killing him and Glory. Dark times.
In all of the fantastical moments of the Buffyverse, Demons and Vampires; spells and curses, it’s amazing how close to the human condition Buffy managed to stay. A crowning achievement of this was during season 5 when Buffy walked in on her mother, lying open-eyed, dead on the sofa.
Normally during Buffy the deaths were par for the course, with the slaying of Vampires and such, but this was the closest it got to real tragedy and was expertly handled by all involved.
Possibly my top favourite moment, as it is with many people I think, is Giles’ cool as feck return to stand against the doped-up dark witch that was now Willow. Giles had been out of the series for a while, and in my opinion the series lacked slightly for it. But this made it all worth it when Willow, overcome with grief and high on the dark magics, met her match:
Willow: … and there’s not a person in the World who can stop me.A bright flash of light knocks willow back several feet and on to her back. In the doorway stands Giles looking cool as heck.Giles: I’d like to test that theory.
One of my favourite end of season finales was that of Season 3. This saw Mayor Wilkins finally reaching his ascension into… a giant snake.
That wasn’t the best bit though. The high point came when the school kids, who the Mayor was expecting for his first bite to eat, turned out to be armed to the teeth under their graduation gowns. Faster than sunlight they pulled out an array of weapons and gave him hell.