The 10 Best Episodes Of Buffy The Vampire Slayer

On March 10, 2017, the WB debuted a Buffy the Vampire Slayer new series from relatively unknown creative Joss Whedon that was based on a mostly forgotten film from five years earlier.

From these inauspicious beginnings Buffy the Vampire Slayer became one of the most influential pieces of genre television ever, and one of the greatest television series of all time.

With its dedication to long-form storytelling, Buffy helped change what people thought television could be. Its heroine, Buffy Summers, was an icon for girls everywhere long before Hermione Granger, Katniss Everdeen, and Daenerys Targaryen.

On top of all of that, Buffy the Vampire Slayer remains just as watchable two decades later as it was in its original run, and the show produced several single episodes of television that rank among the best hours of television (or two hours, in some cases) ever produced.

To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, we’re ranking the ten best episodes of the show’s seven seasons. These rankings are largely based on which episodes we find ourselves returning to most often. We’ve even managed to include at least one episode from each season.

Keep reading through the slideshow to see our picks for the best episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

10. The Zeppo

Season 3, Episode 13
Written by: Dan Vebber
Directed by: James Whitemore Jr.

“Xander: Did I mention I’m having a very strange night?“

In a show with vampires, vampire slayers, werewolves, and witches it can be easy to overlook the normal guy.

Xander Harris was that normal guy through seven season of Buffy, but “The Zeppo” was his moment to shine.

“The Zeppo” is Xander’s coming-of-age story and sees him dealing with a band of undead bros who plan to blow up the Sunnydale High.

At the same time, the episode performs double duty as a comedic take of some of Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s own tropes.

 

9. Welcome to the Hellmouth/The Harvest

Season 1, Episodes 1 and 2
Writer: Joss Whedon
Directors: Charles Martin Smith/John T. Kretchmer

“Buffy: Well, I gotta look on the bright side. Maybe I can still get kicked out of school.
Xander: Oh, yeah, that’s a plan. ‘Cause lots of schools aren’t on Hellmouths.
Willow: Maybe you could blow something up. They’re really strict about that.
Buffy: I was thinking of a more subtle approach, y’know, like excessive not studying.
Giles: The Earth is doomed.”

For newcomers watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the first time, the first season can be a bit tough to swallow. No season of Buffy feels quite as stuck in the 1990s in terms of production as the first.

That said, the two-part pilot “Welcome to the Hellmouth/The Harvest” is something special. It’s a solidly written introduction to the world of the Slayer and Sunnydale, and it actually gets better when you revisit it after enjoying the rest of the series since you’re able to see the seeds of what each of these characters will become being planted at the very beginning.

 

8. Conversations With Dead People

Season 7, Episode 7
Writers: Jane Espenson, Drew Goddard
Director: Nick Marck

“From beneath you, it devours.”

If nothing else, “Conversations With Dead People” is a testament to the resourcefulness of Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s writers room and production staff. As the legend goes, production was running way behind and so four different writers – Espenson and Goddard, who were credited, and Joss Whedon nd Marti Noxon, who were not – contributed an individual storyline featuring a different member of the show’s core cast.

Not only did these different storylines come together beautifully, but Nick Marck’s direction turned “Conversations With Dead People” into one of the most artistically bold episodes of the entire series, with a mesmerizing musical opening that breaks with series convention.

7. Chosen

Season 7, Episode 22
Written By: Joss Whedon
Directed By: Joss Whedon

“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?”

After seven years of saving the world, Buffy the Vampire Slayer came to a close in “Chosen.”

The series finale brought back some major characters who had been missing from the show, including Faith and Angel, and pit Buffy, the Scoobies, and the junior Slayers against the First Evil.

More importantly, Buffy ended by making everything Whedon weaving the very thing Whedon wanted Buffy to be into the show itself. What started as “one girl in all the world” ended with an entire world full of empowered women.

 

6. Becoming

Season 2, Episodes 21 and 22
Writer: Joss Whedon
Director: Joss Whedon

“Angelus: Now that’s everything, huh? No weapons… No friends… No hope. Take all that away and what’s left?
Buffy: Me.”

The second season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a testament to the ability of genre fiction to tell relevant and relatable stories that speak to real issues.

A young girl falling for a charming boy only for that boy to become someone much less charming after a night of intimacy is a familiar tale from real life and fiction. But what if that boy became something actually monstrous?

Angel was already a vampire, but a night of pure happiness with Buffy causes him to lose his soul and turn control of himself over to Angelus, the demon living inside him.

The rest of the season is about Buffy working up the strength and the will to do what has to be done. In “Becoming,” when things seem darkest, she finds that strength and then some.

 

5. Graduation Day

Season 3, Episodes 21 and 22
Written by: Joss Whedon
Directed by: Joss Whedon

“Oz: Guys, take a moment to deal with this. We survived.
Buffy: It was a hell of a battle!
Oz: Not the battle. High school.”

For three seasons, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a show that told stories about the high school experience using genre tropes as metaphors. The season three finale was all about growing up, both for the character and the show.

Buffy faced down Faith, the rogue slayer. The entire Sunnydale High graduating class stood up to the giant snake monster. The school blew up.

It was clear from “Graduation Day” that there was no turning back for Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

 

4. Once More, With Feeling

Season 6, Episode 7
Written By: Joss Whedon
Directed By: Joss Whedon

“I think this line’s mostly filler.”

Its no secret now that Joss Whedon is a big fan of musicals. Since “Once More, With Feeling” first aired, plenty of other shows have attempted to imitate the success of the musical episode, but none have captured the same spirit.

That’s largely because doing a musical in any other show feels somewhat unnatural. Whedon recognized that the sometimes melodramatic, sometimes silly, and always fantastic world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the perfect fit for playing with the musical drama, and was a much needed breath of air during the otherwise dour sixth season.

 

3. Hush

Season 4, Episode 10
Written By: Joss Whedon
Directed By: Joss Whedon

“Riley: Well. I guess we have to talk.
Buffy: I guess we do.”

“Hush” is arguably the most artistically ambitious episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Attempting to do an episode of broadcast television that was nearly entirely silent sounds like a recipe for disaster, but Whedon turned it into one of the most memorable hours of television ever with the help of some amazing performances from his cast.

The other standout feature of “Hush” is the absolutely terrifying monster of the week. The Gentlemen, with their unnatural smiles, threatening dapperness, and mock genteelness rank them among the scariest monsters in modern television.

 

2. The Body

Season 5, Episode 16
Written By: Joss Whedon
Directed By: Joss Whedon

“Buffy: It’s not her… it’s not her… she’s gone.
Dawn: Where’d she go?”

“The Body” subverts everything that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is about to create one of the most brilliant and heart-wrenching hours of television ever produced.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a show built around death. The entire purpose of the Slayer is the battle the supernatural undead. That makes an entire episode devoted to the Scooby Gang coming to terms with an entirely mundane death all the more affecting.

“The Body” is structured like a play, with no score to temper to the raw emotion of the moment or tell audiences how they’re supposed to feel. Viewers are left just as adrift by Joyce’s death as the character living in the world of the show.

 

1. The Gift

Season 5, Episode 22
Written By: Joss Whedon
Directed By: Joss Whedon

“The hardest thing in this world…is to live in it.”

“The Gift” was very nearly the series finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and, no offense to “Chosen,” what a note it would have been to go out on.

Buffy and the Scooby Gang have graduated up from fighting demons to fighting a god who wants to open a portal to a demon dimension. Dawn, Buffy’s mystically created sister, is the key to that portal. It takes every resource and skill that Buffy and her allies possess to save the day.

But saving the day comes at a cost. Buffy, still getting over the death of her mother, gives a passionate speech to Dawn about what it mean to live in the world before diving into the portal herself to close it down.

It’s a beautifully written and beautifully directed moment and Buffy’s headstone, reading “She Saved The World A Lot,” adds just the right amount of Buffy humor to tie it all together.

“The Body” and “Hush” may be the more ambitious episodes, but “The Gift” brings everything “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” was about to its peak.