LIST: The 11 Best "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Episodes

NOTE: This is the third part of a month-long extended multi-part look at various horror (/sci-fi/fantasy) series.  The schedule's been adjusted to:

08/06: The 13 Best X-Files Episodes

08/13: The 8 Best Masters of Horror Episodes

08/23: The 11 Best Buffy the Vampire Slayer Episodes

09/12: The 9 Best Angel Episodes

09/24: Review: American Horror Story
??/??: The Twilight Zone

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11. "Villains"

Written by Marti Noxon

Directed by David Solomon

Season 6

The darkest, saddest pit of a season full of dark, sad pits.  Excessive?  Possibly.  But with the "magic as a drug" subtext and pratfalling "Trio" of villains pushed aside, Season Six discovers focus and ferocity.  The point of the season - that the characters are their own worst enemies - reaches its apex/bottom with the formerly sweet Willow going Dark Pheonix as a black-eyed, black-haired avenger.  Her skin-crawling confrontation with the loathsome Warren Mears is one of the most shocking moments of the entire series.

10. "I Only Have Eyes For You"

Written by Marti Noxon

Directed by James Whitmore Jr.

Season 2

"I Only Have Eyes For You" could be dismissed as monster-of-the-week tripe.  When two ghosts possess the living - in order to repeatedly re-enact their tragic final moments - the heroes need to bring their souls to rest.  The irony is that, late in the story, the murderous boyfriend possesses Buffy, while the victimized girl possesses the de-souled Angel (aka Angelus).  The inversion allows a fresh look at Buffy and Angel's corroded bond, prefigures her efforts to kill him in the finale, and, best of all, allows Buffy to call Angel a bitch.

9. "Once More With Feeling"

Written and Directed by Joss Whedon

Season 6

The tunes aren't the best part of "Once More With Feeling."  The best part is how miserable the episode is.  Although the people in Sunnydale are singing their true feelings to the point that they literally explode... well, singing their true feelings is a big enough problem.  Because everybody's lying like hell just to get through the days.  The cast's amateur singing ability makes the songs even more endearing; Gellar especially throws herself into the challenge with Disney-princess highlight "Going Through the Motions."

8. "The Zeppo"

Written by Dan Vebber

Directed by James Whitmore Jr.

Season 3

Buffy offers countless comedic one-off's that seem sharper than necessary.  "The Wish" and its sequel, "Doppelgangland."  Season Seven's "Him."  Season Six's "Replacement."  "The Zeppo" deserves mention for focusing not only on Xander's uselessness, but on why that uselessness is his best characteristic.  It's one thing to be a Slayer and confront evil.  It's something else to be a frail little human.  Is Xander suicidal?  Possibly (he seems remarkably calm when sitting on a bomb).  Is he just as heroic?  Heck, maybe he's even heroic-er.

7. "Chosen"

Written and Directed by Joss Whedon

Season 7

The super-final finale of Buffy feels quashed for time, given its single-episode duration, and a few special effects look silly (and not in the charmingly silly way of a snake-mayor), but the episode ties a nice, big, obvious bow on the feminism that was more or less implicit for much of the show's run.  The showdown with evil preacher Caleb makes this explicit, with - spoilers - Buffy jamming an ax between his legs.  The action sequences hit like a sword to the sternum, Spike finds glorious purpose, heroes die, vampires dust.  Buffy smiles.

6. "The Gift"

Written and Directed by Joss Whedon

Season 5

Should the show end here?  Maybe.  If it did, many Buffy fans would be perfectly happy.  "The Gift" ends the superb fifth season with not a single hold barred, as uber-blonde Glory tries to use keymaster Dawn to open a hellish interdimensional crossroads in the middle of California.  Joke on them is that we already have one - it's called the 101/405 interchange.  Wokka wokka.  Plenty of poignant (and cruel) moments round out the high-stakes action and Buffy-isms.  "This is how many apocalypses for us now?"  Answer: a lot.

5. "Hush"

Written and Directed by Joss Whedon

Season 4

Buffy almost always pushed for weekly monsters as campy metaphors instead of actual life-threateners.  "Hush" is an exception.  It features grinning, suit-clad demons called "The Gentlemen," who cut out people's hearts - and also steal voices to prevent potential cries for help.  This detail forces the cast to perform mute, and it forces the writers to find clever ways to circumvent the limitation (whiteboards, misread gestures).  Doug Jones (Pan's Labyrinth) plays the lead Gentleman with eerie grace.

4. "Graduation Day"

Written and Directed by Joss Whedon

Season 3

One of the few times that Buffy allows itself to be both epic and joyful - later finales retained the former and abandoned the latter.  Mayor Wilkins has plans to ascend into a God-like form, but Buffy and the "Scooby Gang" have a plan to stop him.  Their plan amounts to a satisfying riff on big-budget fantasy battles, capped with the destruction of Sunnydale High.  Building off Buffy's newfound status among her schoolmates as "class protector," "Graduation Day" is a triumphant, reassuring response to the despair of the Season Two finale.

3. "Innocence"

Written and Directed by Joss Whedon

Season 2

A milesteone for the still-young series, "Innocence" turns Buffy's vampire squeeze Angel into a proxy for every guy who gone to bed a nice guy and woken up as someone different.  The difference is that Angel literally loses his soul.  With their romance now a memory, Buffy must resolve her conflicting responsibilities and desires.  The bitch of it is, Angelus isn't conflicted at all.  His purity of (evil) spirit leaves the episode's ponderous villain (the Judge) in the televisual dust.  This story arc is when Buffy changes from a diverting Kolchak derivative into... well, Buffy.

2. "The Body"

Written and Directed by Joss Whedon

Season 5

Considering how constantly, relentlessly, unendingly death has occurred around Buffy, an episode focused purely on the reality of death shouldn't work.  Instead, "The Body" is an unbearably effective piece of television in which somebody important to the cast dies.  Smaller details - an oversized phone, a cruel daydream - combine with larger stylistic decisions, like the complete lack of musical score.  With these elements and the raw despair of the characters' reactions, "The Body" skips tawdry uplifting conclusions and presents death as the messy, unforgiving business it is.

1. "Restless"

Written and Directed by Joss Whedon

Season 2

You're late for the big performance.  You're searching for your lover.  You're chased by shadows.  "Restless" presents classic dream anxieties through the eyes of the four main heroes of the series (Buffy, Willow, Giles, Xander).  The tone of "Restless" is superb - the camera glides from location to location, weirdness is accepted with dazed hesitation.  In addition to its technical triumph, the episode is a keystone to the entire series.  "Restless" sets up each character's anxieties, pulls in players from the past, hints at countless story developments in the season to come, and firmly swivels the show from a story of maturing teenagers to a story of struggling adults.