“Revelations”

“Lovers’ Walk”

“Amends”

“Enemies”

“The Prom”

“Graduation Day” Parts 1 & 2

While not quite as central to the ongoing plot as it had been in Season Two, Buffy and Angel’s relationship remains a major focus in Season Three, where it undergoes several twists and turns. These episodes should cover most of them (though “Beauty And The Beasts,” included for its one major plot development, is skippable if you’re in a hurry—just watch the Previously Ons carefully).

Season Four:

“Pangs”

“The Yoko Factor”

Angel left to star in his own spin-off show at the end of Season Three, so these are the only episodes in which he appears in Season Four. To enjoy all the crossovers between Buffy and Angel: The Series fully, you need to watch “Pangs” (BtVS)/”I Will Remember You” (AtS) and “This Year’s Girl”/”Who Are You?” (BtVS)/”Five By Five”/”Sanctuary” (AtS)/”The Yoko Factor” (BtVS). The first crossover, “In The Harsh Light of Day” (BtVS)/”In The Dark” (AtS) doesn’t feature Buffy and Angel interacting themselves, but is well worth watching anyway. If you want to fill in the gaps in Buffy’s love life after Angel left, add “The Initiative,” “Hush,” “The I In Team,” and “Goodbye Iowa.”

Season Five:

“Forever”

During Buffy Season Five/Angel Season Two, the two shows started to splinter off a bit more, with an early crossover occurring only through over-lapping flashbacks. However, for Buffy/Angel fans, his brief reappearance in “Forever” is well worth a look.

Season Seven:

“End Of Days”

“Chosen”

When Buffy moved networks and Angel stayed put after Season Five, crossovers between the two shows were banned altogether for a while. The networks eventually relented, with Willow appearing in Angel Season Four, and Angel finally returning to Buffy for one last visit at the very end of Season Seven. Filling in developments in Buffy’s love life between their previous substantial encounter in “The Yoko Factor” and “End Of Days” would be a fairly long and complicated task, but watching “Fool For Love” (Season Five), “Once More With Feeling,” “Smashed,” “Seeing Red (Season Six),” “Beneath You”, and “Touched” should cover the basics for the curious.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Route 4: Spike

Spike is Buffy’s big breakout character, the evil blond vampire who is slowly brought over to our heroes’ cause through a combination of luck, selfishness, and raging hormones. He is Damon Salvatore, Eric Northman, and Lestat all wrapped up in a Billy Idol costume and an iconic black coat. Is bleached-blond, British-accented James Marsters the reason you’re interested in watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer? Then these are the episodes you need to watch.

Season Two:

“School Hard”

“Lie To Me”

“What’s My Line?” Parts 1 & 2

“Surprise/Innocence”

“I Only Have Eyes For You”

“Becoming” Parts 1 & 2

From his barn-storming introduction in “School Hard”, Spike makes his mark as the new bad guy in town. For many fans, this is his only truly awesome season, the year in which he was, as originally intended, a thoroughly bad guy through and through and powerful with it. If you can’t get enough of purely evil Spike, add “Halloween,” “Bewitched, Bothered, And Bewildered,” and “Passion” to get the complete set of Season Two episodes featuring Spike.

Season Three:

“Lovers’ Walk”

Spike only made one appearance in Season Three, but it was a memorable one; a few threats, a few snarks and some well-timed observations on love, and he blew out of town leaving a trail of destruction in his wake.

Season Four:

“The Harsh Light Of Day”

“The Initiative”

“Pangs”

“Something Blue”

“Doomed”

“A New Man”

“The Yoko Factor”

Season Four saw Spike added as a regular character, which of course required him not to be trying to kill all the other protagonists all the time. “The Harsh Light Of Day” lets us see badass Spike one last time (add Angel’s “In The Dark” for just a little more of him) and for the rest of Season Four, Spike remains evil but de-fanged, making him rather pathetic at times. Add “Wild At Heart” to see Spike’s initial re-appearance in which he introduces us all to horribly grammatically incorrect phrase “Big Bad” (earlier used rather more correctly in “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered”) to describe the major enemy faced in each season. Add “Who Are You?” to see the chemistry between Marsters and Gellar, already pretty evident in “School Hard” and “Becoming,” really take off.

Season Five:

“Out Of My Mind”

“Fool For Love”

“Crush”

“Forever”

“Intervention”

“The Gift”

While still evil and largely powerless, Season Five saw Spike given new motivation, and with it, some new life was brought to the character. He also finally gets his own vampire flashbacks in “Fool For Love,” and they are worth waiting for.

Season Six:

“After Life”

“Once More, With Feeling”

“Smashed/Wrecked”

“Dead Things”

“As You Were”

“Entropy”

“Seeing Red”

Season Six of Buffy is divisive, and never more so than in its treatment of Spike as a character and Buffy and Spike’s relationship. However, on one thing all fans are agreed: The musical episode “Once More, With Feeling”—a major turning point for both—is completely awesome. Add “Grave” for a Spike-centric season-ending mini-cliffhanger.

Season Seven:

“Beneath You”

“Sleeper”

“Never Leave Me”

“Bring On The Night”

“Showtime”

“Lies My Parents Told Me”

“Touched”

“Chosen”

Season Seven saw major developments in Spike’s character, many of them aimed at progressing his story while avoiding repeating earlier storylines. There’s also a lot of arc plot in Season Seven, and much of it revolves around Spike and what’s happening to him. Add “First Date” and “End Of Days” to fill in some gaps.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Route 5: Willow

Willow is one of Buffy’s most popular characters. Part of this is due to Alyson Hannigan’s performance, but much of it also stems from the sheer amount of growth her character underwent across seven years on the show.

Season One:

“Welcome To The Hellmouth/The Harvest”

This opening two-parter firmly establishes Willow’s character. If you have time, “I Robot… You Jane” is the first Willow-centric episode (though not a particularly good one).

Season Two:

“Halloween”

“Phases”

“Passion”

“Becoming” Parts 1 & 2

Willow really starts to come into her own when she is forced into a leadership role by being the only person still in possession of her faculties in “Halloween,” and after that she slowly starts to come out of her shell and gain more and more confidence. Add “Inca Mummy Girl” for the first sparks of interest Oz shows in Willow, and “What’s My Line?” Parts 1 & 2 and “Surprise/Innocence” for the early stages of their relationship.

Season Three:

“Dead Man’s Party”

“Homecoming”

“Lovers’ Walk”

“The Wish”

“Amends”

“Doppelgangland”

“Choices”

“Graduation Day” Parts 1 & 2

Much of Willow’s story in Season Three centered on her relationships with Oz, Xander, and her antagonistic relationship with Faith (memorably brought to a head in “Choices”). However, watch “The Wish” to see Hannigan really let go with a spectacularly charismatic performance as an alternate-universe version of Willow, and to ensure you’re adequately prepared for its follow-up and probably the best Willow episode of the series, “Doppelgangland.” Add “Gingerbread” if you just can’t get enough witchy Willow.

Season Four:

“Wild At Heart”

“Hush”

“This Year’s Girl/Who Are You?”

“New Moon Rising”

“Restless”

Season Four saw Willow really start to come out of her shell and become increasingly confident post-high school, and introduced Amber Benson as her new love interest, the fan favorite Tara Maclay. Add “The Initiative” to see how broken Willow was early in the season, and “Something Blue” for an episode in which her actions are really just an excuse for the hilarious consequences that ensue, but which is well worth a look for the aforementioned hilarious consequences.

Season Five:

“Family”

“Triangle”

“The Body”

“Tough Love”

“The Gift”

By Season Five, Willow is a relaxed, fairly outgoing student in a stable and loving relationship, though towards the end of the season her magical powers start to take on a darker edge.

Season Six:

“Bargaining” Parts 1 & 2

“All The Way”

“Once More, With Feeling”

“Tabula Rasa”

“Smashed/Wrecked”

“Older And Far Away”

“Entropy”

“Seeing Red”

“Villains”

“Two To Go/Grave”

Much of Season Six’s arc plot focuses on Willow and her character developments as a whole. In theory, “Once More, With Feeling” could be skipped as its major plot development would be clear from Tabula Rasa, but since it’s one of the series’ best episodes, skipping it is not advised.

Season Seven:

“Same Time, Same Place”

“Conversations With Dead People”

“The Killer In Me”

“Touched”

“Chosen”

While much of the final season focuses on Buffy and what it means to be a Slayer, Willow continues to develop as a character in the aftermath of Season Six, and her story comes full circle with her central role in the finale. Add “Lessons” for a sense of how she went about reconciling herself with her earlier actions, plus Giles on a horse.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Route 6: The Plural of Apocalypse

“I suddenly find myself needing to know the plural of apocalypse,” says Riley Finn on discovering

Season One:

that the cute girl from Psych 101 is also a Vampire Slayer.followed a fairly steady pattern of introducing minor bad guys early on in each season, and revealing that year’s Big Bad Guy or Gal about halfway through. These are the episodes to watch if you want to avoid all Monsters of the Week and focus on the arc plot episodes.

“Welcome To The Hellmouth/The Harvest”

“Never Kill A Boy On The First Date”

“Angel”

“Prophecy Girl”

Season Two:

“School Hard”

“Lie To Me”

“What’s My Line?” Parts 1 & 2

“Surprise/Innocence”

“Passion”

“Becoming” Parts 1 & 2

Add “The Dark Age” for some major character development on Giles.

Season Three:

“Faith, Hope and Trick”

“Revelations”

“Amends”

“Bad Girls/Consequences”

“Enemies”

“Choices”

“Graduation Day” Parts 1 & 2

Add “The Wish” and “Doppelgangland” for a bit of foreshadowing, and to ensure you don’t miss out on a fan favorite character.

Season Four:

“The Initiative”

“Hush”

“The I In Team”

“Goodbye Iowa”

“The Yoko Factor/Primeval”

For the complete set of Buffyverse apocalypses (we’re going with that for the plural) you’ll also need to watch Season Three’s “The Zeppo” and this season’s “Doomed.” That’s right, sometimes the apocalypse isn’t even part of the main plot. Add “This Year’s Girl/Who Are You?” for ongoing developments in the Buffyverse and its characters, and “Restless” for a format-bending dream episode and truly innovate season finale.

Season Five:

“No Place Like Home”

“Checkpoint”

“Blood Ties”

“Intervention”

“Tough Love”

“Spiral”

“The Gift”

Add “Real Me” for a fuller introduction to Dawn, and “Shadow”, “Listening To Fear”, “Into The Woods”, and “The Body” for developments in Buffy’s personal life.

Season Six:

“Bargaining Parts” 1 & 2

“Flooded”

“Smashed/Wrecked”

“Dead Things”

“Entropy”

“Seeing Red”

“Villains”

“Two To Go/Grave”

Season Six is more heavily serialized than earlier seasons, making it harder to differentiate between an “arc” episode and a “Monster of the Week” episode, and we’ve excluded some big emotional and relationship-centric episodes, most notably “Hell’s Bells.” Either way, we’d recommend watching the musical episode “Once More, With Feeling” as well as these arc-heavy installments. Because it’s brilliant.

Season Seven:

“Lessons”

“Conversations With Dead People”

“Sleeper”

“Never Leave Me”

“Bring On The Night”

“Showtime”

“Get It Done”

“Dirty Girls”

“Empty Places”

“Touched”

“End Of Days”

“Chosen”