First things first: Buffy the Vampire Slayer was not a perfect show, much in the same way that basically every long-running show that tended to have 20+ episodes per season was imperfect. There’s a high level of quality here, generally speaking, but quantity was also a necessity for those behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and it did result in a few hours of television that were less-than-amazing.
But… those episodes were rare. Most of what this coming-of-age/supernatural horror/action/romance/fantasy/comedy/drama show had to offer was very good, and then sometimes, what it had to offer was truly great. When Buffy the Vampire Slayer was at its best, few television shows could come close to feeling as satisfying or emotionally resonant. And, of its truly great episodes, the following just so happened to be the very greatest.
10
“The Wish”
Season 3, Episode 9 (1998)
So, with a ranking like this, a good many episodes are going to be those that forward the story in some way, or otherwise prove particularly dramatic. But there are also some more “one-off” sort of episodes that are worthy of being counted among the best of the best that Buffy the Vampire Slayer ever aired, including Season 3’s “The Wish,” which is a highlight of what could well be the show’s most consistent season.
In “The Wish,” things get a bit It’s a Wonderful Life, with Cordelia wishing to see a world where Buffy had never come to Sunnydale, which is granted by Anya in her first appearance (and well before she became a main character). Most of it takes place in an extra nightmarish alternate universe, and though things do ultimately go back to normal, seeing terrible things happen to so many main characters, even if not permanent, is still distressing. That being said, much of the episode is also very funny. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is just that sort of show.
9
“Chosen”
Season 7, Episode 22 (2003)
And then on the other end of something like “The Wish” is “Chosen,” which is, as Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s finale, naturally one of the most dramatic episodes of the entire show. Buffy hadn’t been too shy about killing off characters before, but all bets are off during the final battle depicted in this episode, with the aforementioned Anya dying suddenly and tragically, and Spike sacrifices himself, too.
Though, with Spike, he did get better, and ended up stealing many scenes when he made the jump to Angel, becoming a main character on that show for its final season. But, um, back to “Chosen”… yeah, it’s great. It plays things safe (outside all the death) and satisfies in the ways you’d expect a series finale to. It goes big, has heart, brings some old characters back, and feels fittingly climactic, all things considered.
8
“Tabula Rasa”
Season 6, Episode 8 (2001)
The sixth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is controversial for some understandable reasons, sure, but it’s also largely overhated and, in some other ways, more than a little misunderstood. It goes dark and feels depressing, sure, but there were so many devastating things that happened in Season 5 that it was only fitting that a certain degree of misery lingered. Being a young adult and having no direction in life sucks, and this season of the show captures that feeling almost too effectively.
It’s not devoid of fun, though, because Season 6 does also have episodes like “Tabula Rasa,” which is appealing as a self-contained bottle episode (with tons of memory loss causing comedic chaos) of sorts, though it still furthers the story of the season quite drastically and itself proves to be an effective aftermath to the musical episode of Season 6. As for that musical episode… well, its time will come, within this ranking. Rest assured.
7
“Graduation Day: Part 2”
Season 3, Episode 22 (1999)
There are four season finales featured in this ranking, and honestly, the ones that aren’t here (for season 1, season 4, and season 6) are all so good that they’re nonetheless worthy of honorable mentions. Still, those ones aren’t quite as excellent as “Graduation Day: Part 2,” which is the episode that ultimately wraps up the whole “Buffy and her friends at high school” part of the overall series.
After this, things move to college for a bit, and then break away from there and focus more on the misery of being a young adult set adrift in the world. But it’s “Graduation Day: Part 2” that serves as a great last hurrah for the main setting of the first three seasons, feeling like an impressive climax, offering action spectacle, and being an overall consistently exciting episode. Also, as a farewell to Cordelia and Angel (the latter at least as a main character on Buffy the Vampire Slayer), it’s very effective.
6
“Innocence”
Season 2, Episode 14 (1998)
The first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer certainly showed hints of greatness, but other than the Season 1 finale, things didn’t get truly amazing until Season 2. The second season of the show was more mature and ambitious, and “Innocence” is a great indication of that, given this episode sets in motion the events that come to define so much of an already great season’s immense back half.
In episode 13, Angel is changed into Angelus because he experienced a moment of happiness, and so in “Innocence,” he emerges as the ultimate big bad of the season. He rejoins some very old friends, Spike and Drusilla, all the while treating Buffy like absolute dirt, even though they were previously deeply in love (before he was Angelus). Anyway, Buffy goes through emotional hell, but then by episode’s end, she’s wielding a rocket launcher and being even more badass than ever before. It’s equal parts iconic and wonderful.
5
“Hush”
Season 4, Episode 10 (1999)
Though there’s a good deal of supernatural stuff in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it wasn’t always very scary… with some exceptions. Something like “Hush,” plus a handful of other episodes, were frightening enough to make Buffy the Vampire Slayer at least partially deserving of being called a horror show, with the villains in this particular episode being demons who cause everyone in Sunnydale to lose their voices, then go around harvesting hearts.
It has the feeling of a nightmare throughout, and is notable for playing out almost entirely without dialogue (you get a little at the episode’s start and end). But also, “Hush” manages to find a good deal of comedy with such an outlandish premise, and it’s a testament to how great the episode is that it’s one of the show’s scariest and funniest episodes, simultaneously. Also, even if the villains are monsters of the week, “Hush” still builds the narrative for the season as a whole, particularly as it pertains to Buffy and her rather dull post-Angel boyfriend, Riley.
4
“The Gift”
Season 5, Episode 22 (2001)
“The Gift” is a remarkable episode for reasons that are very obvious to anyone who’s watched it. The episode was the 100th in the show’s run, and was made in a way that could’ve had it serve as a very bittersweet finale for the show as a whole, given it ultimately has Buffy sacrificing herself to save the world, but not coming back to life after a few minutes the way she did in Season 1’s “Prophecy Girl.”
It took a few months for her to come back, seeing as Season 6 did eventually come to fruition, but that doesn’t dilute the power of her sacrifice here. It’s also an episode that contains what’s arguably the most powerful Buffy the Vampire Slayer quote, when Buffy tells her sister, Dawn, that: “the hardest thing in this world… is to live in it… Be brave. Live. For me.” Just perfect, really.
3
“The Body”
Season 5, Episode 16 (2001)
If anyone looks at you funny when you say that Buffy the Vampire Slayer might well be one of the greatest dramas in TV history, just show them “The Body,” and they’ll probably come around. Admittedly, it works best if you understand just how devastating and shocking the death here is for the characters of the show, but even without context, it’s still a powerful exploration of how it feels to receive devastating news, in the moment.
As a look at grief, few works of fiction are as brutal and authentic as “The Body.” It works even more as a dramatic episode because the death here is so ordinary, and because before this, most people on the show who died perished because of something supernatural. This is an episode that says, “No, death can be mundane and something that happens out of nowhere, and this is how it feels.” It’s not a fun or particularly rewatchable episode, sure, but it is still an incredible one.
2
“Once More, with Feeling”
Season 6, Episode 7 (2001)
Compared to “The Body,” “Once More, with Feeling” is a good deal more fun… for the most part. It’s the iconic musical episode of the show, but even with a loopy premise that sees all of Sunnydale breaking into song at random, it still furthers the overall drama of the season, and also has a revelation regarding Buffy’s resurrection that’s honestly quite upsetting.
It can be compared to “Hush” because of the high-concept nature of the premise, but it absolutely nails what might’ve failed in lesser hands, and emerges as an undeniable highlight of the entire show in the process. Even if you dislike most movie musicals, you’ll probably find “Once More, with Feeling” hard to resist if you’re a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer overall, since it’s such a novel way to continue building on what the (again, divisive) sixth season was already doing.
1
“Becoming (Part 2)”
Season 2, Episode 22 (1998)
As far as shows that began in the 1990s and finished in the 2000s go, both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Sopranos might well be the very best. And, just as the latter show had one of its finest episodes be the finale for Season 2 (“Funhouse”), so does Buffy the Vampire Slayer have an exceptional episode that concluded its second season: “Becoming (Part 2).”
This is one of the most important hours for the entire show, bringing about a heartbreaking conclusion to the amazing overarching storyline of the season, all the while creating this sense of “nothing being the same” going forward. It isn’t as soul-crushing as “The Body,” but it’s a different kind of emotion being gone for here; more of a tearjerker than something likely to cause despair. But the heightened melodrama of it all fits the high school setting and the relative youth of the (non-vampire) characters. In the end, it’s an episode that fully established Buffy the Vampire Slayer as an all-time great show, entirely laying to rest any fears that great episodes prior to this had somehow been flukes or anomalies. It’s a textbook example of how to stick the landing for a whole damn season of television.
