A thoroughly enjoyable batch of episodes.
130. Parting Gifts
Angel Season 1, Episode 10
Written by David Fury and Jeannine Renshaw
Directed by James Contner
This episode is a turning point in Angel, for the better (and more comedic). One of my favourite characters, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, arrives in the form of a still-incompetent “rogue demon hunter”, and Cordelia starts getting visions from the powers that be. So much awesome yet to come.
129. Blood Ties
Buffy Season 5, Episode 13
Written by Steven DeKnight
Directed by Michael Gershman
Dawn's existential crisis is real when she discovers that she is the Key. The scene where she cuts herself to see if she is human is truly harrowing. Her inevitable tantrum is relatable for once, since it would be admittedly super fucked up to learn that your past memories are fake because you are a ball of mystical energy.
128. The Initiative
Buffy Season 4, Episode 7
Written by Douglas Petrie
Directed by James Contner
Here’s the thing: Before Adam became the Big Bad of the season, the Initiative, a secret government organization that researches demons, seemed promising. It’s nice to bask in that potential for an episode before everything goes downhill. This one also has that hilarious scene that functions as a metaphor for erectile dysfunction when Spike is unable to bite Willow and the best fight in the entire series between Harmony and Xander.
127. Bargaining, Part Two
Buffy Season 6, Episode 2
Written by David Fury
Directed by David Grossman
This episode is almost entirely about characters trying to find their way back to each other after being physically separated. While there is a lot of great scenes, like the Buffy Bot seeing the real Buffy before getting pulled apart (“where did I go?”), or back-from-the-dead-Buffy asking Dawn if this is hell, there is simply too much going on to focus on the nuance of Buffy’s return. Still part of one of the best Buffy season openers though.
126. Life of the Party
Angel Season 5, Episode 5
Written by Ben Edlund
Directed by Bill Norton
This is a wacky episode where something mystical causes the characters to act in bizarre ways. This time, the setting is an office party and the culprit is a sleep-deprived Lorne. Much of the ensuing wackiness is funny, especially Gunn peeing on everything. The episode could have spent less time on Wesley and Fred pretending to be drunk, though.
125. Unleashed
Angel Season 5, Episode 3
Written by Sarah Fain & Elizabeth Craft
Directed by Marita Grabiak
Alas, Angel does werewolves. And secret societies that eat werewolves. It’s pretty great. Bonus points for the fact that the werewolf costume no longer looks like a man in a Gorilla suit.
124. What’s My Line, Part One
Buffy Season 2, Episode 9
Written by Howard Gordon and Marti Noxon
Directed by David Solomon
This episode definitely has some great moments, especially around Buffy contemplating the life she will never have as a “normal” girl. But part one of this two-parter is primarily about the build-up to the end twist that there is another Slayer.
123. Dead Things
Buffy Season 6, Episode 13
Written by Steven DeKnight
Directed by James Contner
This is the episode where the “trio” go from bumbling nerds to a group of rapey murderers. Warren abducts Katrina to make her into his sex slave, and kills her when the magic wears off. The others are complicit in her murder. They then use hokey spells to make Buffy believe she killed Katrina. It’s an interesting and disturbing premise, and makes for a discomforting viewing experience.
Side note: Tara is an empathetic angel. She keeps Buffy's secrets about possibly coming back wrong and sleeping with Spike, and she supports Buffy when she has a breakdown. Tara is the best.
122. Spiral
Buffy Season 5, Episode 20
Written by Steven DeKnight
Directed by James Contner
Two conflicting truths can exist at the same time. For instance, the Knights of Byzantium are stupid, but their quest to destroy the Key is thrilling. Fights-on-the-top-of- a-moving-vehicle thrilling. Add to the fact that Giles gets impaled and Glory captures Dawn, and the dire situation makes for a good penultimate-penultimate episode.
121. Choices
Buffy Season 3, Episode 19
Written by David Fury
Directed by James Contner
A great episode for the Mayor, who holds Willow captive and speechifies a bunch about Buffy and Angel’s doomed relationship during a tense exchange on school property. Willow also shines by remaining cool, calm and crafty during her time as a hostage.
120. Harm’s Way
Angel Season 5, Episode 9
Written by Elizabeth Craft & Sarah Fain
Directed by Vern Gillum
Mercedes McNab does a great job of bringing humour and relatability to Harmony, one of the Buffyverse’s most underrated secondary characters. Bless you Harmony, and your ridiculously low level of common sense.
119. Amends
Buffy Season 3, Episode 10
Written and Directed by Joss Whedon
Sure, this episode is a little corny, but it’s also really sweet. Angel is tormented by the First Evil, who poses as Angelus' past victims in an attempt to force him to kill Buffy. He eventually tries to kill himself in the sunrise but the universe interferes with a dark morning snow. IDGAF that the snowy ending makes no sense because the watching he and Buffy hold hands amidst the snowfall is really lovely.
118. Power Play
Angel Season 5, Episode 21
Written by David Fury
Directed by James Contner
While I don’t buy that the rest of the group would believe Angel has been corrupted, there is a lot to like in this episode, especially Angel's excellent speech about the need to fight evil even when you know you can’t win.
The nothing-left-to-lose attitude makes sense after Fred’s harrowing death and contributes to a compelling end to the series. Plus it reminds me of a quote from a little indie movie you may have heard of: "There's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for."
117. Judgment
Angel Season 2, Episode 1
Written by David Greenwalt
Directed by Michael Lange
Angel accidentally kills a good demon who was protecting a pregnant woman and takes on the role of protecting her as a form of atonement. This entails going in front of a demon tribunal and… jousting? Aside from the strangely unnoticed street jousting, this is a good season opener, as the focus on the ethics of Angel’s decisions will be a central theme in Season 2. Plus we are introduced to Lorne and Angel’s terrible singing.
116. Same Time, Same Place
Buffy Season 7, Episode 3
Written by Jane Espenson
Directed by James Contner
Willow’s return to Sunnydale has everything you want, really. An accidental spell, a trippy scene where it seems like Spike is talking to himself when he is actually talking to Willow and Buffy at the same time, a terrifying flesh-eating monster called Gnarl, AND a lovely emotional scene between friends. A perfect balance of horror and thematic relevance.
115. Blind Date
Angel Season 1, Episode 21
Written by Jeannine Renshaw
Directed by Thomas Wright
After being a full villain for most of the season, Lindsey gets humanized as he tries to save children from Wolfram & Hart’s blind assassin, thus beginning the series-long rumination on his morality. This is exactly the kind of stuff Angel excels at.
114. In the Dark
Angel Season 1, Episode 3
Written by Douglas Petrie
Directed by Bruce Seth Green
This is the episode that brought Oz and Spike to Angel, confirming that crossovers are real. Much darker than the Buffy counterpart, it features Spike going to brutal lengths to get the gem of Amora from Angel. Seriously, he has Angel tortured by a duplicitous pedophile vampire. Good thing it ends with a nice scene of Angel enjoying sunshine for the first time in 200 hundred years.
113. Origin
Angel Season 5, Episode 18
Written by Drew Goddard
Directed by Terrence O’Harra
If you could make someone happy by wiping something painful from their memory without their consent, should you? If you only consider post-memory wipe Connor, who is waaaay better than his previous self, the answer seems to be a resounding “yes”. Wesley’s desire for the truth complicates the question a bit. In his desperate attempt to uncover Angel’s betrayal, he ironically uncovers his own betrayal from season 3. Way to kick a man when he’s already down, show runners.
112. Phases
Buffy Season 2, Episode 15
Written by Rob Des Hotel & Dean Batali
Directed by Bruce Seth Green
Luke-warm take: Buffy did justice to werewolves, outside of the truly horrible werewolf costumes. For instance, Oz is an interesting character in his own right and he does not fall in love with a baby later in life (Twilight, you really are the worst). Plus, this episode does a great job juxtaposing werewolf Oz with Angelus, the latter of whom has zero humanity without a soul.
111. I Was Made to Love You
Buffy Season 5, Episode 15
Written by Jane Espenson
Directed by James Contner
A classic breakup story with a robot twist. This episode explores the desperation of men like Warren (and Spike) to experience reciprocated desire. Warren makes this robot, April, to be his lover, but when she bores him he leaves her. It’s fun to watch her rampaging around town angry at Warren, because Warren is the worst.
110. Help
Buffy Season 7, Episode 4
Written by Rebecca Rand Kirshner
Directed by Rick Rosenthal
Love me some premonitions and this episode is full of ‘em, from Cassie predicting her own (and very sad) death, to her cryptically telling Spike “one day she’ll tell you”. Chills.
109. Buffy vs. Dracula
Buffy Season 5, Episode 1
Written by Marti Noxon
Directed by David Solomon
The fact that this episode has absolutely no bearing on the rest of Season 5 is part of its charm (well, it introduces Dawn, but I won’t hold that against the episode). It mostly exists to make fun of Dracula and his ridiculous lore. It's worth it for Xander’s bug-eating alone.
108. Something Blue
Buffy Season 4, Episode 9
Written by Tracey Forbes
Directed by Nick Marck
Willow’s accidental spell (there should be a Buffyverse drinking game for accidental spells) leaves Giles blind, Buffy and Spike in love, and Xander a demon magnet. The result is a really funny episode.
107. This Year’s Girl
Buffy Season 4, Episode 15
Written by Douglas Petrie
Directed by Michael Gershman
Faith’s return in this episode really saves Buffy season 4 from being an all-consuming Adam suckfest. Obviously, there are better Faith episodes to come, but her return is done very well, and it includes several foreshadowy dreams with Buffy. The body switch moves into greatness for the next episode.
106. Disharmony
Angel Season 2, Episode 17
Written by David Fury
Directed by Fred Keller
This episode is silly and fun because of course Harmony would betray her friends for a vampire pyramid scheme. Harmony = great comedy. Plus, she brings out Cordelia’s old catty personality, which, let’s be honest, is greatly missed at this point.
105. Time Bomb
Angel Season 5, Episode 19
Written by Ben Edlund
Directed by Vern Gillum
Amy Acker’s performance as Illyria is phenomenal. She elevates what could have been a one-off episode about time loops into something deeply meaningful. And Wesley’s decision to help save Illyria’s life by removing her powers says so much about his grief over losing Fred. He would rather be around a constant reminder of Fred than be without her completely.
104. Pangs
Buffy Season 4, Episode 8
Written by Jane Espenson
Directed by Michael Lange
Yeah, this episode has problems (ahem: Buffy tackles colonialism from the perspectives of white people), but you can’t deny that it’s very funny. Spike tied to a chair with arrows in him is a great sight gag, and Xander getting syphilis is one of the best recurring jokes in the series. The only draw-back is the lame crossover - Angel comes to Sunnydale to be part of the fight but avoids Buffy the entire time. Why bother?
103. Salvage
Angel Season 4, Episode 13
Written by David Fury
Directed by Jefferson Kibbee
Faith returns to Angel and it is extra wonderful because of how bonkers Season 4 is (Cordelia actually makes out with the cloven Beast in this episode). Even though Faith gets her ass kicked by the Beast, the fight scene is so enjoyable because of her dynamic with Angelus, who makes Deadpool-like quips the whole time and then kills the Beast himself.
102. Potential
Buffy Season 7, Episode 12
Written by Rebecca Rand Kirshner
Directed by James Contner
Notwithstanding my dislike for Dawn, this episode is really touching. Her excitement at finally being special when she thinks she is a Potential is very relatable (living in your big sister’s shadow must be especially frustrating when she saves the world a lot). Xander’s speech to Dawn after she discovers she is not special is so lovely it would make anybody's heart grow 5 sizes.
101. Birthday
Angel Season 3, Episode 11
Written by Mere Smith
Directed by Michael Grossman
By Season 3 of Angel, Cordelia is dealing with painful visions that are killing her. When she is given a chance to either become famous and allow Angel to suffer with visions OR die from the visions, she chooses … a convenient third option of becoming part demon (the kind where she still looks hot and has no outward demon qualities whatsoever, other than the ability to levitate). If the stakes were higher, this episode would be too. But it’s still good Cordelia-focused episode.
Side note: Skip is right that Gladiator is not that great of a movie.
100. Eternity
Angel Season 1, Episode 17
Written by Tracey Stern
Directed by Regis Kimble
This episode goes on an unexpected trajectory. At first, it seems like it's about Angel’s tragic romantic life and the vanity of celebrity. Instead, we get a fleeting return of Angelus, who tries to murder everyone but really ends up hurting his friends with his words. It perfectly blurs the line between Angel and Angelus. Sure, they are different because Angel feels empathy and remorse. But what Angelus says is often what Angel thinks, and that is truly unnerving.
99. Anne
Buffy Season 3, Episode 1
Written and Directed by Joss Whedon
Admittedly, a depressed Buffy ending up in hell and being forced to fight is a tad cliché. But it works here because Buffy is understandably in the need of a wake-up call (if you killed your boyfriend to save the world, you would probably need to fight your way out of hell, too). Plus it re-introduces us to Lilly (formerly Chanterelle, soon to be Anne), whose subtle journey in the series, from vampire-worshipper to working at a teen shelter in Angel, is one of the coolest things the Buffyverse ever did.
98. That Vision Thing
Angel Season 3, Episode 2
Written by Jeffery Bell
Directed by Bill Norton
What’s great about Angel as a show is that it never shies away from exploring the moral ambiguity of a decision. In this case, it’s impossible not to cheer for Angel to release that evil dude from prison to save Cordelia's life, even though there are bound to be nasty consequences. Makes you wonder whether you would do the same for a loved one.
97. Dear Boy
Angel Season 2, Episode 5
Written and Directed by David Greenwalt
Uncovering the layers to Angel’s personality is always fascinating when done well, and this episode does it through a human Darla. Her quest to turn Angel evil via the curse doesn’t work, but she is able to bring Angel’s dark, obsessive side to the surface (which we know from the flashbacks is the crux of Angelus’ personality). The confrontation they have in the abandoned temple is intense, especially when Angel brutally breaks down his relationship with Darla: “you took me places, you showed me things, you blew the top off of my head, but you never made me happy”.
96. Triangle
Buffy Season 5, Episode 11
Written by Jane Espenson
Directed by Christopher Hibler
Anya is the underrated comic genius of Buffy. Case in point: she turned her unfaithful ex into a troll and then accidentally summoned him to Sunnydale. Cue hilarious mayhem and baby-eating jokes. This episode would be even better if it didn’t involve “Whiny Buffy," who is decidedly less amusing than her catatonic version.
95. What’s My Line, Part Two
Buffy Season 2, Episode 10
Written by Marti Noxon
Directed by David Semel
The back half of this two-parter has a lot of action involving a man who turns into maggots and a second Slayer who was called after Buffy’s brief death in season 1 (the less said about her accent, the better). It’s a super cool twist that leads to a very fun and action-heavy episode.
Fun fact: Joss Whedon initially intended to kill Spike in this episode. Can you imagine the Buffyverse without Spike?
94. Bad Girls
Buffy Season 3, Episode 14
Written by Douglas Petrie
Directed by Michael Lange
So much happens in this episode! Buffy and Faith go on a bad girl rampage fuelled by their sexual tension and ultimately thwart the evil-doings of a demon who looks like a soggy potato. It culminates with Faith accidentally killing a human man, which will have enormous repercussions for both Slayers. We also meet Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, presently a complete moron, but eventually one of the most fascinating characters in the Buffyverse.
93. The Trial
Angel Season 2, Episode 9
Written by Tim Minear & Douglas Petrie
Directed by Bruce Seth Green
The turning point of season 2: Angel goes through so much effort to save Darla’s human life for naught and Drusilla makes a cameo to sire Darla back into a vampire in a surprise twist ending.
92. Lies My Parents Told Me
Buffy Season 7, Episode 17
Written by David Fury & Drew Goddard
Directed by David Fury
This episode is a bright spot in the dull grey that is the latter half of Buffy season 7 because it explores Spike and Principal Wood’s relationships with their mothers. The intersection of their stories – Wood watching his mother fight Spike, shortly before Spike kills her – raises questions about justice, vengeance, and what the “mission” really is. Tough look for my guy Spike though, who was such a mama’s boy that he turned her into a vampire to be with her forever and she still rejected him.
91. Checkpoint
Buffy Season 5, Episode 12
Written by Douglas Petire and Jane Espenson
Directed by Nick Marck
This episode is elevated by three excellent moments. First, Buffy tells off the stupid Watcher’s Council for being a bunch of Patriarchal douchebags. Second, the Council reveals that Glory is not a demon, but a God. It’s an “oh shit” moment to be sure. Third, and most importantly, Spike and Joyce watch Passions together.
90. School Hard
Buffy Season 2, Episode 3
Written by David Greenwalt and Joss Whedon
Directed by John Kretchmer
Any Big Bad introduced in the course of a Die Hard homage has to be awesome. Spike has arrived and he quickly kills the stupid Anointed One so that he can become the interesting and dynamic villain we all deserve. Spike and Drusilla don’t only have a complicated history with Angel, they also have personalities! I don't mind the Master, but he was hella dull.
89. Normal Again
Buffy Season 6, Episode 17
Written by Diego Gutierrez
Directed by Rick Rosenthal
I’m not really a fan of 'maybe it was all in the character’s head' plot lines, but “Normal Again” works because it leaves everything open to interpretation. I know some people hate this episode, but I like the implication that Buffy might actually be choosing to exist in the Hellmouth with her friends, albeit inside her own head. That choice has thematic significance given Buffy’s dissatisfaction of being brought back from dead in Season 6.
88. Somnambulist
Angel Season 1, Episode 11
Written by Tim Minear
Directed by Winrich Kolbe
Now this is how you make a one-episode character feel significant in the show’s overall narrative (looking at you, WWII submarine episode). Penn, a vampire Angel sired way back when, starts killing people in the present day the same specific ways that he killed people with Angelus in the past. It’s chilling reminder that Angel still has to deal with his horrifying past. The showdown between Angel and Penn is hella personal and when Penn gets dusted, it doesn’t seem like a waste of time.
Side note: Cordelia says a lot of stupid things, but “nocturnal commissions” is not one of them.
87. Consequences
Buffy Season 3, Episode 15
Written by Marti Noxon
Directed by Michael Gershman
After Faith kills a human, she goes off the deep end. Angel is the only person able to get through to her, which speaks to the darkness and the humanity in both of them. Unfortunately, Wesley comes along and fucks everything up in what is probably his audition for the position of biggest asshat of the Watcher’s Council. That said, the journeys that Faith and Wesley go on during the rest of the series highlights the incredible character arcs these shows are known for.
86. The Freshman
Buffy Season 4, Episode 1
Written and Directed by Joss Whedon
