Thanks to FX and SciFi Channel, I have caught random episodes of Buffy lately that have prompted me to want to start re-watching the series yet again from the beginning.  Before I embark on this mammoth journey, I just wanted list a few of my favourite Buffy episodes that I will be looking forward to, just one per season (yikes this is going to be hard!).  These won’t necessarily be the best episodes, just ones I love.

Season 1:  The Pack (1×06)

Xander gets a bit hyena-y and the school mascot Herbert the Pig and Principal Flutie are eaten.  This was the moment when I can remember thinking, OK, so they aren’t afraid to kill off a school principal – this show is AWESOME!  Plus Xander got to be bad for a while which was fun.

Favourite quote: “It shouldn’t be too hard to find a new principal. Unless they ask what happened to the last one.” Buffy Summers

Season 2: I Only Have Eyes For You (2×19)

I love this episode because it has plenty of creepiness (haunted school), Christopher Gorham (Jake 2.0 and Henry from Ugly Betty), and Angelus caught up in the haunting.  Much as I love Angel, I also really love Angelus too (although just for a few episodes – he is so mean!) and it was really cool seeing David Boreanaz having to switch from embodying a female ghost back to Angelus.  Also, there was so lovely creepy ’50s music.

Favourite quote: “To forgive is an act of compassion, Buffy. It’s not done because people deserve it. It’s done because they need it.” Rupert Giles

Season 3: Earshot (3×18)

There are so many superb episodes to choose from in this season but I really love this episode where Buffy develops a telepathic ability afer being infected by a demon, only to find the one person’s thoughts who she wants to hear , Angel’s, are closed to her.  She also catches a thought in the masses which tells her that there will be a school massacre unless she can stop it. I also love that she hears Giles’ thoughts about having sex with Buffy’s mum (which happened during the Band Candy shenanigans)!

Favourite quote: ‘Sure. We can work out after school. You know, if you’re not too busy having sex with my mother!‘ Buffy Summers to Rupert Giles

Season 4: Hush (4×10)

The first of many landmark episodes, Joss Whedon has said that he wrote this episode as he felt he was starting to get a little too reliant on the witty dialogue and as such, the film-making part of the show was starting to get a little stale for him, I suppose.    Hush is an episode, then, where the characters lose their voices and as such, there are whole acts with no dialogue.  The Gentlemen are completely creepy and terrifying (as is the accompanying nursery rhyme:

Can’t even shout, Can’t even cry,
The Gentlemen are coming by,
Lookin’ in windows, Knockin’ on doors,
They need to take seven and they might take yours,
Can’t call to mom, Can’t say a word,
You’re gonna die screaming but you won’t be heard.

The music written for the episode really made it for me too and I was delighted to find that it appeared on the Once More With Feeling CD.  There is also very little Riley (certainly, speaking Riley) so that’s a plus too.

Favourite Quote:  ‘This is the burden we bear brother. We have a gig that inevitably would cause any girl living to think that we are cool upon cool. Yet we must Clark Kent our way through the day never to use it to our advantage. Thank God we’re pretty.’ Forrest Gate to Riley.

Season 5: The Body (5×16)

Heartbreaking, haunting and devastating, this episode deals with the death of Joyce, Buffy’s mum.  Again, a landmark episode for the lack of music.  Whedon was in conversation with Sarah Michelle Gellar earlier in the season and she commented on a particular scene that she can just imagine the music which would be added.  Now instead of being reliant on the dialogue, Whedon felt he had started to over-rely on music so this terribly sad episode is all the more powerful and stark without a beat.  I can’t watch Anya’s monologue without crying.  Sarah Michelle Gellar knocks it out the park with her performance.  And Angel returns, if only to hold her hand at the graveside.

Favourite quote: ‘But I don’t understand! I don’t understand how this all happens, how we go through this. I mean – I knew her, and then she’s… there’s just a body, and I don’t understand why she just can’t get back in it and not be dead anymore! It’s stupid! It’s mortal and stupid! And… and Xander’s crying and not talking, and… and I was having fruit punch, and I thought, “Well, Joyce will never have any more fruit punch – ever, and she’ll never have eggs, or yawn, or brush her hair, not ever,” and no one will explain to me why.’ Anya

Season 6: Once More with Feeling (6×07)

So I had to include the musical episode which was breakthrough TV and superbly executed.  Whedon wrote the music too which I find all the more impressive and it had romance (Buffy and Spike! Willow and Tara!), intrigue (Xander likes to sing!), humour (Anya’s hate bunnies!), betrayal (Tara finds Willow’s charm!), sadness (Giles is going to leave!) and of course a demon to fight.

Season 7: Chosen (7×22)

Of course I had to pick the season finale which ties up the Buffy tale so well and gives the show a fantastic send-off.  The moment when all the potentials become slayers blows me away (White Willow!) and love how girls are empowered by this show and Buffy who has been this chosen one and given such responsibility can now share her burden with thousands of others. Angel returns (I always love his episodes) and buffy gives the cookie dough speech… And the hellmouth, along with Sunnydale, is destroyed.

Favourite quote: ‘None of you have the power that Faith and I do. So here’s the part where you make a choice. What if you could have that power… now? In every generation, one slayer is born… because a bunch of men who died thousands of years ago made up that rule. They were powerful men. This woman is more powerful than all of them combined. So I say we change the rule. I say my power… should be our power. Tomorrow, Willow will use the essence of the scythe to change our destiny. From now on, every girl in the world who might be a slayer… will be a slayer. Every girl who could have the power… will have the power… can stand up, will stand up. Slayers… every one of us. Make your choice. Are you ready to be strong?’ Buffy Summers

I am so doing this again until I have covered all the episodes! Maybe. Probably. Possibly.