List #9: Buffy Episodes

Thanks to bombasticus, I have the uneviable task of ranking the best episodes* of the best tv series ever.**  No, this isn't something I'm going to obsess over.  No, not at all....

* Out of 144!  I feel like I should re-watch all of them, too, just to be sure.

** Okay, so that's another list idea.  But hard to imagine what could beat Buffy, at least for me.

First a brief note about "best."  This is a ridiculous, trite personal blog, not some manner of critical* nonsense or search for objective truth.  Like....well, everyone...I have idiosyncratic tastes.  So while you're not going to see "Inca Mummy Girl" or "Teacher's Pet" or anything, these are the eps that I liked best, as determined by random whim, as of today.

* Or even meta-critical.


Having said that, best just to get on with it....

(10) Prophecy Girl (Season 1, Episode 12).  The season finale of the first season, and just one of the most intensely satisfying hours of TV.  Buffy actually manages to defeat the original Big Bad, showing that she can actually accomplish things instead of having the show be all about the eternal struggle against The Master (which it certainly looked like it would be).  She also manages to actually have a fun time with her friends afterwards, even though she made the tough choice to be true to her destiny as The Slayer.  Also, of course, she dies, setting up all kinds of fun throughout the rest of the series.

(9) Selfless (Season 7, Episode 5).  The long-awaited Anya backstory episode.  How did she become a vengeance demon?  What was she doing in the centuries since?  Why is she terrified of bunnies???  Even better, there is some great tension and unusually good acting in the A plot where Buffy determines that Anyanka is out of control and must be stopped.*  Lots of threads leading up to this (Xander/Anya troubles, Anya/Rest of the Scoobies tension, Buffy's struggles with determining what is human and what isn't and how the difference is determined) and they all pay off.  And, of course, D'Hoffryn's solution to the mess at the end is perfect.

* Honestly, fair enough, considering that she slaughtered a handful of frat boys with a spider demon.


(8) The Zeppo* (Season 3, Episode 13).  I am a total sucker for episodes like this:** while Buffy and the rest of the Scoobies battle some nameless apocalypse to save the world in the background, the episode is actually completely about Xander and his independent adventures with a homicidal pack of rebel-without-a-cause zombies.  When X manages to stop their bomb from blowing up the school using only his own wits and nerve, it gives him renewed confidence and helps us see him as something more than a hanger-on.  I will also admit that the hookup with Faith was a nice touch.

* Amazingly, it's difficult to find much online love for "The Zeppo," so no linkage.  Booooo.


** House, M.D. had an episode like this last season that focussed on a typical day in Cuddy's life as the hospital administrator.  Much fun to see House's team frantically doing crazy nonsense in the background and randomly interrupting scenes to ask approval for ridiculous procedures.


(7) Normal Again (Season 6, Episode 17).  I know that many people hate this episode with the fiery passion of a thousand burning suns, but for me it was excellent in confronting the central conceit of the show, which was to take this fantastically ridiculous premise but to execute it in a world that otherwise had realistic human interactions and emotional reactions.  But if you've got an otherwise "real" world, how could you not have a significant part of your psyche that, even in the face of all of the evidence, screams that it can't possibly be real?  And of course, I love how the show is utterly and completely ambiguous about which is the true reality.*  It's entirely possible that Buffy Summers is actually in a mental institution having these schizoid delusions.  And, actually, doesn't that make much more sense?

* This is what distinguishes this episode from things like "Who Shot J.R." in Dallas,** which the show resolved by definitively stating that the whole thing was a dream.


** Yeah, I watched Dallas, what of it?  I was a kid, I didn't know better.  I blame my parents!***


*** And Toby, of course.


(6) The Body (Season 5 , Episode 16).  Stunning and staggeringly portrayal of Joyce's sudden death, not from a vamp or a demon or a vengeful devil goddess, but from an aneurysm.  The things that people who didn't watch Buffy don't get* is that in spite of the crazy premise it consistently had the most honest emotional responses of any show in television history.  These characters just lost a loved one,** and the impact on them is immense and long-lasting.  As it should be.

* Not that you can really blame them.  History is not exactly littered with meaningful dramas with the word "Vampire" in the title.


** Recall how very very long it took Willow to get over Tara's death, even after not-quite destroying te entire world in her depressed rage.  When she finally did feel attraction to another character a year later, she pretty much went nuts again just at the grief from allowing herself to be happy with someone else.


(5) Fear, Itself.(Season 4, Episode 4).

Buffy: This is Gachnar? 
Xander: Big overture, little show. 
Gachnar: I am the Dark Lord of nightmares, the bringer of terror. Tremble before me! Fear me! 
Willow: He's so cute. 
Xander: Who's a little fear demon? Come on. Who's a little fear demon? 
Giles: Don't taunt the fear demon. 
Xander: Why? Can he hurt me? 
Giles: No, it's just....tacky.


Giles: Oh, bloody hell. The inscription. 
Buffy: What's the matter? 
Giles: I should've translated the Gaelic inscription under the illustration of Gachnar. 
Buffy: What's it say? 
Giles: Actual size.  


(4) Becoming, Part II (Season 2, Episode 22).  For a season and a half we watch Buffy and Angel's relationship grow and develop, then in his moment of true happiness he loses his soul,* and turns back into Angelus.  And after encountering more and more evidence of his return to brutal evil, on the brink of him unleashing Hell on Earth, he gets his soul back......but it's too late.  And she has to slay not Angelus, but Angel.  The worst possible outcome.****  Another example of how Buffy didn't fall pray to the usual tropes - oh, we got the spell done just in time!  Well, sometimes you do, and sometimes....well, just a moment too late.


* And boy did it hurt to leave "Innocence" off the list.  The scene in the link is just so incredibly brutal.  "Love ya too."  Wow.  Let's consider that one #11.**


** With apologies to "Villains."***


*** Yes, I could do this all day.


**** Well, okay, it's better than Hell on Earth.


(3) Dopplegangland (Season 3, Episode 16).  Dark Willow!  This is as low as I could possibly be expected to rate this episode.  Just a world of fun, and great character development for Willow - not only does she see the value in cutting loose every once in a while, we get to see the potential that is obviously within her for taking charge when needed and kicking ass through the development of Dark Willow.*  Also, did I mention the cat suit?


* Okay, so, in theory the vamp that takes over a human's body is a different (soulless) creature than the human that embodied it before.  But we clearly see throughout the show how close the two can relate to each other.  Look at Harmony, for example - basically the same personality whether vamp or human.  I vaguely recall Angel discussing this at some length later in the series as well.


(2) Hush (Season 4, Episode 10).  Groundbreaking in its conception* and remarkable in its execution.**  A modern fairytale told in true fairytale fashion, amazingly without altering the Buffy ethos.  The transparancies slide show alone (with Anya eating popcorn contentedly and, um, certain evocative hand gestures) is better than almost everything on TV currently.


* I'm fairly certain that no other prime-time network TV had 27 minutes with absolutely no dialogue.


** "Hush" garnered the series' only non-technical Emmy nomination (for Joss's writing).  Of course, the lack of more recognition is criminal, but not only did they have to deal with the genre prejudice but being on upstart WB (and for the last two seasons, UPN).


(1) Once More, With Feeling (Season 6, Episode 7).  As if there was ever any doubt.  If you need me to tell you about this episode, there is no hope for you.