This Year's Girl
Surprise: We’re both huge, rabid, geeky
Buffy, the Vampire Slayer fans! Oh, wait, we already mentioned that? Yeah? Well, did we also note that if our baby was a girl, Cordelia was on the shortlist of names? Or that back in those kinder, gentler pre-blogosphere days of the Interweb, Teresa operated a Buffy fansite?
Anywho, blogger/
Buffy nerds that we are (and--come on, admit it--that most of y’all reading this are, too), we put our heads together to assemble the “ultimate” (okay, highly subjective and personal) list of episodes from the Greater Whedonverse (
Buffy, plus
Angel and
Firefly). We wrote a little bit about our ten favorites; click the link below that for the 40 we like only a little bit less.
-Josh
10. "Selfless"
There are surely some valuable lessons to be gleaned from this Season 7 gem – what should one do, for example, when a close friend crosses a line between condonable and uncondonable behavior; or the extent to which heartbreak hardens us, often leading, in turn, to others being similarly hurt by our consequent lack of feeling. These strong ideas are certainly in the mix in “Selfless,” but, let’s be clear here: it’s “Mrs.,” Anya’s gorgeously tender aria, that really seals the deal on this one. It’s funny, too, natch – “Mrs. Anya Lame-Ass Made-Up Maiden Name…Harris” – which only sharpens the (literal) blow that brings us jarringly back from memory to the here and now. [Josh]
09. "Who Are You?"
You can tell by the charisma that drips off the screen in this episode (
Buffy, season 4), and in many episodes where she plays The First in season 7: Sarah Michelle Gellar loves playing bad. And she’s rarely better than when she’s doing just that. “Who Are You?” allows our flaxen haired heroine to slip into the skin of Faith, and Gellar into the role of the rogue, rebellious slayer who will stop at nothing to tear down every aspect of her rival’s “perfect” life. From hitting on Spike, making fun of Willow’s new gal and lifestyle, to taking her game as far it’ll go (sleeping with Riley and buying plane tickets out of town before anyone notices), Whedon doesn’t just use the setup as an excuse to let Gellar have some leather fun. He also allows moments of major vulnerability for Faith to show through, and the scene where she--still in Buffy’s body--pummels the hell out of her own face (with Buffy inside of it) is one of the more disturbing, ingeniously revealing moments for any Whedon character. [Teresa]
08. "Fool for Love"
Ah, Spike: to be sure, one of Whedon’s most interesting and – more often than not – likeable characters. But, the question is, when do we like him best? Right from the get-go, terrorizing Buffy & Co. in Season 2? Or during the last couple seasons of the show’s run, when he and Buffy are alternately (and sometimes simultaneously, as in “Smashed”) getting down and dirty in, uh, each sense of the term? Perhaps, instead, you prefer him, back from oblivion and in Los Angeles just in time for
Angel’s final season? For our money, Spike’s at his best when he’s straddling that tenuous line between straight-up villain and reluctant hero – namely, in
Buffy Seasons 4 and 5 and, most specifically, in the wonderful “Fool for Love.” Spike’s moral crossroads is, in fact, best exemplified in the episode’s concluding scene, wherein Spike decides to blow Buffy’s head off with a shotgun…until he notices her crying on the porch and opts instead to console his long-time nemesis. [Josh]
07. "Conversations with Dead People"
From the very first frames of Buffy, walking through a graveyard as usual, intercut with a band setting up to play at the Bronze, you can tell this episode will be one of the artsy-fartsy ones (always a good sign). “Conversations with Dead People,” in being so artsy, really pulled the so-far drab season 7 into a higher gear. For the first time, the severity of the situation--and the sadness that this really would be the last season--became impossible to ignore. It was also one of the earliest episodes to really utilize The First, and the tricky fact that it could take on the form of any dead person. This allows for the reappearance of Joyce, albeit in a less lovable, mom-like state. Her scenes are undoubtedly some of the most genuinely scary ones in
Buffy (which is saying something, as the show’s monsters are usually campy or overly humanized to the point of being anything but scary). There’s also the interesting decision--possibly caused by behind the scenes conflicts, of schedules or otherwise--to have a minor, one episode character stand in for Tara (instead of Amber Benson) in Willow‘s segment. Somehow it works, as not to be overwhelmed with blasts from the past, the story and conversations are the main attraction. It’s also the only Xander-less episode, and it’s good enough that you won’t even miss him. I wouldn’t have minded seeing him having another chat with Snyder, though. [Teresa]
06. "Soul Purpose"
“Soul Purpose,” (
Angel, season 5) one of the finest episodes of any Whedon series--any series period--oddly enough is also the directorial debut of star David Boreanaz. While he obviously played Angel as no one else could, and pulled off a roller coaster of character paths and changes, no one had any reason to suspect he was a daring visual artist with an eye for the absurd and grotesque. And yet, the episode, not unlike “Restless,” uses dreams (in this case, poison-creature-induced fever dreams had by a sweaty, bed-ridden Angel) as springboards to act out a character’s inner turmoils in the most outlandish, colorful, yet still plot-advancing ways. The difference between this and
Buffy’s season 4 finale is that Angel was already totally weird and audacious by the time it aired “Soul Purpose.” Thus, instead of being a revelation, it was simply a graceful, compelling feat of storytelling to hammer home the show’s greatness as it neared the untimely end of its final season. [Teresa]
05. "Hush"
Within Whedon-centric circles, what is there really left to say about this one? That it saw the level of innovation at work on
Buffy graduate to a new level, paving the way for future experiments like “Restless,” “The Body” and “Once More with Feeling.”? That it challenged TV’s most talented cast and crew in ways they’d never really previously been challenged, and that they all rose brilliantly to the occasion? That the Gentlmen might be Our Man Joss’s single creepiest creation? That it remains a real pleasure to watch, from start to finish? [Josh]
04. "The Body"
The most realistic depiction of the moments directly after learning of a loved one’s death that I‘ve ever seen, “The Body” (
Buffy, season 5) spans just one day--one long, confusing, foggy-headed day--where most episodes cover around a week in Sunnydale time. Buffy returns home to find her mother, Joyce (who we’d cruelly been led to believe had fully recovered from her brain tumor), dead on their living room couch. She reacts with disbelief, violently shaking Joyce’s corpse, as though she’s simply stuck in a midafternoon nap. Then with denial, as she fantasizes about getting home just a little earlier, and saving her mother’s life. The most heartbreaking moment in the episode, however, comes from the unlikely source of ex-demon Anya, already coming to terms with the fact that she herself now has to eventually sleep with the fishes. “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.” [Teresa]
03. "Once More with Feeling"
A friend of mine, who is a tremendous fan of both
Buffy and musical theatre, once tried to make a case that this universally adored classic isn’t one of the series’ Great Episodes. His argument, in a nutshell, went something like this: “Once More” exists for its own sake, without really advancing the arc of the season, whereas
Buffy’s best episodes tend to work well as stand-alone’s while also serving to further their season’s narrative. I disagree. Aside from the obvious plot-progressing moments – Tara discovering Willow’s manipulation of her, Buffy revealing to the gang that she was actually in Heaven while dead, Buffy and Spike locking lips as the curtains close – it seems to me this episode captures, and represents, a very significant turning point in the larger arc of the series. The Scoobies are drifting in different directions, with feelings of alienation and ambivalence precisely inserted into almost every musical number, from Xander and Anya’s deceptively sunny “I’ll Never Tell” to the aptly titled closer, “Where Do We Go from Here?”. [Josh]
02. "Restless"
You may not think of a show that’s essentially about a teenage girl demon-killing machine and her various conflicts as ‘conventional,’ but everything in
Buffy up to the point of “Restless” (season 4) was just that, in comparison. Joss Whedon--after four successful seasons and no longer fearing the outside of his own box--let go of the standard arc formula after “Primeval,” which aired just before the dizzy, surrealistic finale. No one saw it coming at the time--but shock/awe factor aside, the episode is still endlessly rewatchable. Each viewing reveals something new, hidden in the dreams of the Scoobies; something that alludes to the past of the series, or brilliantly foreshadows future events. Whedon also achieves some of the most stunning visual coups ever seen on television (the now iconic image of Buffy, alone--or not quite--and barefoot in a vast desert, for example). There is not one wasted frame in “Restless,” with every corner of the gang’s psyche crammed to bursting with rewards for those of us willing to delve in and explore. Although, there is the matter of the apparently meaningless Cheese Man… but we’ll let that one slide. [Teresa]
01. "Not Fade Away"
Some of the Whedonverse’s most memorable season closers are action-packed, dramatically charged thrill rides (see the first few seasons of Buffy, or the excellent “Tomorrow,”
Angel’s dynamic Season 3 finale), while others serve as portentous, moody denouements, which effectively leave us hanging (think “Restless” and “Home” from Seasons 4 of
Buffy and
Angel, respectively). “Not Fade Away,”
Angel’s controversial final episode, falls into both categories. On the one hand, the
Godfather-style series of executions dictate a close to break-neck pace, and Wesley’s death scene is as heartrending as any moment on either show. That final bit’s the kicker, though: there’s no epic battle sequence; no grand, tidy wrap-up, with questions answered and problems solved; hell, we don’t even get to see if Angel manages to slay that goddamn dragon. Before the
Sopranos cut to black, this was the ultimate cliff-hanger, an ingenious non-conclusion for a program centering largely on immortality and its discontents, and, right, a major reason why this one catapulted to the top of our list. [Josh]
Our Full Top 50...
