Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Top Ten Moments Part 2 of 2

Well, I didn't intend to take so long to post this, but here we are. Part 2 of my Top Ten Buffy Moments includes five more scenes that I feel stand out above the rest, and further prove Buffy was one of the greatest shows ever made. It was also a complete coincidence that three of these five ended up being the 20th episode of their respective seasons.

So what else made the list? Check it out after the break…

New Moon Rising (4.20) - Extra Flamey
My favorite couple on Buffy is always going to be Willow and Tara. They were simply right for each other from the beginning, and Amber Benson was just instantly endearing as the shy, nervous Tara. It's almost strange watching the first three seasons now where Willow is… you know, straight.

New Moon Rising is the most important episode in their early relationship stage. While we as viewers know the girls have not only crazy chemistry, but obvious feelings for each other, none of Willow's friends have picked up on it. So, for everyone else, Oz returning was a great thing for Willow, given how devastated she was when he left. Good thing she's just been waiting for him to come back and doesn't have feelings for anyone new in her life!

Oh, crap.

Since Willow is still figuring things out in regards to Tara, and well, "the gay thing," Oz came back at a really confusing time. She unintentionally ends up leading him on, which ends up pushing Tara away as well. Not that I'm here to summarize the episode... I just want to make it clear how many things lead up to the end of the episode, where Willow finally realizes - for certain - that while she'll always care for Oz, Tara is the one she loves and wants to be with now. The final scene is a defining moment for the couple, moving them from their transitory state to an official couple. And there's simply nobody that could walk into a room with a candle and deliver the line, "It's extra flamey" better or more adorable than a short-haired Alyson Hannigan.

The Prom (3.20) - Every Now and Then
While I try to avoid getting into the eternal fan-favorite debate of "Spike or Angel?" in regards to who Buffy is meant to be with, there's a few key scenes that make excellent arguments for both sides. The Prom in particular has one of the greatest Buffy/Angel scenes.

By this episode, it's clear to Buffy that Angel is leaving after Graduation Day, and that there's no long-term for them as a couple until Buffy is done baking (a metaphor that of course doesn't come into play for another four years), she still loves the guy and wants to be able to have something normal girls get: a real, actual prom night.

...After she hunts down the kid training formalwear-seeking demon dogs, that is. I labored a bit about which Prom scene to include here. It was down to Jonathan awarding Buffy the Class Protector Award and the Buffy/Angel dance. I watched each again and felt silly that I even had to think about it. The Award scene is wonderful, but what follows tugs at your heartstrings much more. There's very little dialogue to it, past Giles' perfectly-timed "Every now and then," as he notices a tuxedo-clad Angel walk into the room, but nothing more is needed.

It's heart-warming, sad, emotional, touching, bittersweet and a bit happy all at once. It's perhaps not the ideal circumstances, but for once, Buffy gets her "normal girl" moment that she's usually deprived of, and she cherishes it.

Grave (6.22) - Crayon Breaky Willow
Xander saves the world? Really? It's not a concept you'd ever believe. Not that there's anything wrong with Xander, but as one of the only "plain" members of the Scoobies, you certainly wouldn't expect it. Many people contributed to bringing the darkness out of Willow - herself included - but when it came to bringing her back, nobody could touch her heart the way Xander could. He was usually the voice of reason, the heart of the group. The Kaylee (think Firefly) of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, if you will. If anyone was going to reach out to Willow with unconditional love and save the world, who else could it have been?

My first thought for a Xander moment on this list was his tough guy act in The Zeppo, where he stands up to bad guy Jack in the face of certain death. Questioned whether or not he was ready to die, Xander responds simply and calmly, "I like the quiet." It's his most badass moment, and nobody living will ever know it. In any case, the emotional scene with Willow wins me over, so it had to be the official entry.

After Life (6.03) - They Can Never Know
Adjusting to being alive after being dead must be pretty tough. How do you make your friends - the friends that brought you back to life - understand what it was like, spending who knows how long in some form of hell dimension? Probably not nearly as hard as telling them that they pulled you from heaven.

As the Scoobies try their hardest to make Buffy's transition as easy as can be, it never occurs to them that she was in a happy place, their minds stuck on the notion that they saved her from eternal torment. She can't bear to tell them, since she knows they did what they did out of love. In something that will become commonplace through the season, Buffy finds herself confiding in Spike. She tells only him of where she really was, and making sure he understands that her friends can never know the truth.

It's a pivotal moment for both Buffy herself and Buffy and Spike's odd relationship. That she'd choose him to tell this secret to seems to shock him almost as much as the secret itself. This is the moment the two really connected, and would form the groundwork for the remainder of their relationship in the final two seasons.

(Also, the news is a shock to us as viewers, but that's not nearly as important to the narrative of the show as the effect it has on its characters.)

Touched (7.20) - A Hell of a Woman
While I've stated this list is in no particular order, I did feel it fitting to end with a scene from the third-to-last episode, which of course had to be grouped with the one just above this. Spike and Buffy had more ups and downs than most relationships on the show, and all the weird tension, lust, one-sided love, violence, uninviting spells, brain chips, and most of all, a soul, bring them to where they are here, near the end of it all.

After being exiled from her own home and position as leader, Buffy is alone, once again fulfilling that whole "one girl in all the world" prophecy stuff. With the town nearly deserted and nowhere to go, she finds herself in a (sort of) abandoned house, seeking both Tab and solace.

Upon learning of her ousting, Spike follows Buffy's trail and tries to comfort her. While he has no specific plan, and will only know what he's trying to say when "he's done saying it," it's clear to him that not only is she depressed over the things her friends and family said to her - but that she now believes they were right, that she's unfit to lead. In addition, Buffy claims that Spike only cared for her because she was "unattainable," something he intends to set straight.

Not that we as viewers really think Spike is heartless at this point, but he makes it crystal clear that he loves her for who she is inside, for what she does, and for how she tries. We and Buffy both learn that he truly is a changed man, far from the obsessed vampire who really did want her for all the wrong, selfish reasons several years prior.

The entire speech is exactly what she needed to hear, and is what inspires her to go out the next morning to confront Caleb and claim her legendary unpronounceable Slayer's scythe... axe... thing. The whole moment is capped by her asking Spike to stay with her for the night - nothing sexual, just because she doesn't want to be alone. I really do love their scene in Chosen, but I think this scene is the best one they ever had together, on so many levels. (Also, the song that fades in before the big sex fest is the first and only time my favorite artist, Heather Nova, made it into the show, so that's awesome too.)

More to Come
So ends my Top Ten Buffy Moments. I hope you enjoyed reading, or at least were inspired to re-watch some of these for yourself (luckily both Buffy and Angel are now available to stream on-demand from Netflix!). While my next few posts should be iPhone-related, keep checking back, as I have two more Buffy features in the works for the near future.