Happy deathday, Buffy!

When you’re a slayer of the supernatural, you grow accustomed to celebrating weird milestones. Your first year without an apocalypse, the anniversary of the time you turned into a cavewoman, and yes, your deathday. On June 2, 1997, Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) died for the very first time in Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Season One finale “Prophecy Girl.” That’s right, it’s been 20 years since Buffy drowned in a shallow pool of water after being bitten and tossed aside by the fruit punch-mouthed vampire The Master. Buffy’s Season One finale, the first installment in the series both written and directed by creator Joss Whedon, actually established a lot about the series and where it would go over the next six seasons. In addition to just being a stellar episode, it’s kinda the template for what Buffy would soon become.

The episode kicks off with the discovery of a prophecy foretelling the rise of the Master from his underground prison. After initially swearing off being the Slayer, Buffy begrudgingly accepts her fate and decides to halt the Master’s ascension (and, if she gets done at a reasonable hour, she’ll hit up the school dance). Things don’t go the way Buffy planned and the ancient vampire proves to be too much for Buffy to handle. She falls under his vampiric thrall and the creepy villain whispers the horrible irony in the Slayer’s ear: if she hadn’t come, he wouldn’t have had the strength to break free of the magic holding him prisoner. He feeds on her, casts her body aside, and steps out into the world for the first time in centuries. No dance for Buffy.

Except that’s not the end of Buffy’s story. Her brooding vampire boyfriend with a soul Angel (David Boreanaz) and her BFF Xander (Nicholas Brendon) arrive moments after her death and resuscitate her the old fashioned way: with CPR. Buffy’s season six resurrection with be a bit more involved and utilize powerful magic. Remember how I said this was Buffy’s first death? Anyway, the revived Buffy takes the fight directly to the Master, who has made it as far as the skylight overlooking the Sunnydale High library. Buffy quickly gets the upperhand and, in the most badass moment of Season One, she chucks the villain through the skylight. The Master falls into the library and gets impaled by a piece of broken furniture, ending his reign and leaving him reduced to nothing but his yellowed old bones.

There are a few major things this one episode sets up, both plotwise and thematically. The most important plot development is Buffy’s death, which is something that will be referenced time and time again throughout the series. Since a new Slayer is called upon following the death of their predecessor, a new Slayer (Kendra) arrives in Sunnydale in Season Two. Buffy’s resurrection is unprecedented in Slayer lore; when a Slayer dies, they’re dead. Kendra learns that the hard way in the Season Two finale when the ethereally menacing Drusilla slices her throat open. Kendra’s death, in turn, summons Faith (Eliza Dushku) into the fold. A fan favorite character, Faith plays a major role in Season Three and comes back throughout the series’ run (and Angel, too). Faith’s even around for the big Buffy series finale, meaning that an event in the Season One finale (Buffy’s death) has ramifications that are felt all the way through to the series’ end.

Buffy’s first finale also set in place the tradition of defeating the Big Bad at the end of the season. Buffy was one of the first (if not the first) show to prominently feature a singular threat throughout the year. The term “Big Bad” comes from Buffy, by the way. Following the Master’s defeat, subsequent season finales (or penultimate episodes) would see Buffy’s Scooby Gang defeat Angelus, the Mayor, Adam, Glory, Dark Willow, and the First. The Master, equally terrifying and flippant, set the tone that many of those Big Bads would follow.

Buffy’s first death also includes a bit of foreshadowing to Buffy’s second death in the Season Five finale “The Gift.” Buffy arrives at the Master’s lair because of a prophecy, and she’s felled by a loophole (it’s the Slayer’s strength that frees the Master). The same thing kinda happens again in “The Gift”; while standing above a sky portal pouring demons into Sunnydale, Buffy knows that only the blood of her sister Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg) can close it. That’s the rule. Buffy then finds a loophole in the rule: since the monks created Dawn using Buffy as a template, their blood should be the same. Buffy leaps into the portal, sacrificing herself to save the world. Buffy is killed by a loophole in “Prophecy Girl” and she then uses a loophole to save the world in “The Gift.”

Buffy’s very survival is also a major example of the show’s central theme of family. Following this episode, the point is made over and over again that the Slayer has, traditionally, been a lonely profession. For centuries it’s just been the Slayer and her Watcher fighting the forces of darkness. Buffy changed all that by forming friendships with courageous people and, more importantly, letting them help. Buffy survives her battle with the Master because Angel and Xander find her in time. This is a Slayer with people watching her back, and this comes up repeatedly. Buffy initially loses against Adam in Season Four because she turned her back on her friends, and there’s a whole episode in Season Five (“Checkpoint”) wherein the Scoobies have to justify their role in the Slayer’s life to the stuffy old Watchers Council.

“Prophecy Girl” is still a killer rewatch, 20 years later. It has everything that makes Buffy special: one-liners, monsters, heartbreak, kick-ass fight scenes, and a vanquished Big Bad. Viewers didn’t know it when the episode aired back in 1997, but they were watching a series come into its own and nail down all the themes it would play with for years to come. In that way, “Prophecy Girl” was hella prophetic.

Where to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer