The Buffy/Angelverse In Significantly Fewer Episodes, Season 5: It's Always Sudden In Sunnydale

I'm the midst of coming up with a Stargate In Significantly Fewer Seasons. But, much like when I did Star Trek In Significantly Fewer Seasons, my unfamiliarity with the series makes creating anedited season challenging, as I have to watch every episode before I can figure out a good bar for quality. I wished there was a series that I was more of an expert in, whose entire run I had seen at least two or three times alr...Buffy!

There are 254 episodes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel. I have whittled it down to the 80 best. Buffy and Angel seasons each tended to be defined by a Big Bad, where each season had one main enemy. I've ditched that, and tried to end each season on the series' biggest emotional beats.

Season Four gave us a deep dive into the Angel/Spike/Drusilla/Darla family of vampires. Season Five is dark and sad. So sad. So very, very sad. There's an episode from this season that is on almost every Saddest Episode Ever list by Media Studies Majors. Maybe stay away from this season if you've recently suffered a major loss in your life.

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Season Five:
​It's Always Sudden In Sunnydale

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Episode 1: Checkpoint
(Buffy, Giles, Willow, Xander, Anya, Joyce, Tara, Dawn, Ben, Quentin, Glory)

While the Scoobies are trying to figure out how to handle Glory, The Watchers' Council shows up in Sunnydale to evaluate Buffy's job as The Slayer.


Episode 2: Crush
(Buffy, Giles, Willow, Xander, Anya, Joyce, Tara, Dawn, Ben, Spike, Drusilla, Harmony)

We're back to the whole Fangtastic gang from last season, as we see how awful love is for pretty much everyone in the show.


Episode 3: The Body
(Buffy, Angel, Giles, Willow, Xander, Anya, Joyce, Tara, Dawn)

In a show dedicated to the dead and undead, we finally reach an episode dealing with grief. Don't watch before a big date or...leaving the house even.


Episode 4: Through The Looking Glass
(Angel, Cordelia, Wesley, Gunn, Lorne, Fred, Groosallug)

Things are too sad in Sunnydale. Even LA isn't far enough away, so let's go to Lorne's home dimension and meet the newest member of Angel Investigations.


Episode 5: Lullaby
(Angel, Cordelia, Wesley, Gunn, Lorne, Fred, Darla, Gavin, Lilah, Sahjhan, Holtz)

At the end of last season I said something happened between Angel and Darla that was going to change the game. Well, this is the episode where the fallout hits. 


Episode 6: Intervention
(Buffy, Giles, Willow, Xander, Anya, Tara, Dawn, Ben, Spike, Glory)

Buffy is lost, Spike is creepy, Glory is a god, and somehow it seems like things just might work out.


Episode 7: Sleep Tight/Forgiving
(Angel, Wesley, Gunn, Lorne, Fred, Lilah, Sahjhan, Holtz)

This season is going to close with a bunch of misunderstandings about prophecies. Over in LA, Wesley learns of a prophecy that suggests that Angel is unlikely to win Father Of The Year, so he decides to do something about it.


Episode 8: A New World
(Angel, Cordelia, Wesley, Gunn, Lorne, Fred, Connor, Groosalugg, Lilah, Holtz)

Oh, cool. The prophecy was wrong, Angel's son is totally fine, he's just uhhh...well, he's a teenager who grew up in a Hell dimension. I'm sure that's fine. Everybody can go back to being friends and stuff now, right, guys? Right...guys?


Episode 9: Tomorrow
(Angel, Cordelia, Wesley, Gunn, Lorne, Fred, Connor, Groosalugg, Lilah)

Yea. Totally fine. Father and son fight demons together, Wesley gets a new job. Everything is sunshine and rainbows in LA. Even Cordelia is, ummmm, moving on. What a great way to leave the gang until next season.


Episode 10: The Gift
(Buffy, Giles, Willow, Xander, Anya, Tara, Dawn, Ben, Glory)

Meanwhile, everything in Sunnydale is just going to go great, too. Sure, there's a prophecy about how one of the Summers family must die in order to vanquish Glory, but we've already lost one this season, so obviously the gang will figure out a way to beat a god without a single one of them dying. Obviously.