THE BUFFY/ANGELVERSE IN SIGNIFICANTLY FEWER EPISODES, SEASON 7: Dirty Girls And Undead Boys

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.

This season is the end of Buffy's portion of the Buffy/Angelverse, though a significant chunk of this season focuses on Angel in LA because...well...the final season of Buffy wasn't great. It, um, failed to live up to its, I'm so sorry about this, potential. But it does have a great ending, and that's here. And there's still one more season to go after this, as we focus entirely on Angel's part of the story.

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Episode 1: Selfless
(Buffy, Willow, Xander,  Anya, Dawn, D'Hoffryn, Halfrek)

Last season ended on a downer, huh? One of the Scoobies turned out to be The Big Bad. But that threat is totally over now, and things can get back to normal. Wait, is the new Big Bad another Scooby? Damn it.


Episode 2: Soulless
(Angelus, Cordelia, Wesley, Gunn, Lorne, Fred, Connor, The Beast)

Well, if the Big Bad is going to be from the main cast of good guys over on Buffy, let's wander back to LA and check in with...seriously? Angelus?  I mean, they're just using Angelus to get at the real Big Bad, The Beast. So I guess it's fine that the main character of the show is evil now. Fine. Everything's Fine.


Episode 3: Cavalry
(Angelus, Cordelia, Wesley, Gunn, Lorne, Fred, Connor, Lilah, Wo-Pang, The Beast)

Woah. The Beast took out Wolfram & Heart? Is The Beast maybe not The Big Bad that we thought? Or is The Beast such a Big Bad that it's powerful enough to take down all the previous Big Bads? Does this mean the surviving lawyers will be joining Angel's Investigations?


Episode 4: Salvage
(Angelus, Cordelia, Faith, Wesley, Gunn, Lorne, Fred, Connor, Lilah, The Beast)

Ooooh, a slayer is in town! A Big Bad is unbiggenated. Someone dies, and someone else is bound to be born. This kind of stuff is usually saved for a season finale, I wonder where this weird story will go next.


Episode 5: Conversations With Dead People
(Buffy, Willow, Xander,  Joyce, Spike, Anya, Dawn, Jonathan, Andrew, Warren, The First)

In possibly the darkest episode since The Body, each member of The Scooby Gang has an interaction with a different dead person, as the real Big Bad for the Buffy portion of this season reveals itself. 

Episode 6: Release/Orpheus
(Willow, Angelus, Cordelia, Faith, Wesley, Gunn, Lorne, Fred, Connor)

Back to LA, precisely where we left it. But Angelus is talking to himself. Oh, man. Is The First here, too? Do we finally have a non-vampire Big Bad crossing over to both shows? This calls for a witchy guest appearance!


Episode 7: Storyteller
(Buffy, Willow, Xander,  Spike, Anya, Dawn, Jonathan, Warren, Andrew, Principal Wood, Kennedy)

I'm skipping over the entire middle of the final season of Buffy. It's not bad, but if you're going to invest all the time with the minutae of the final season, you should just watch every Buffy episode out there. This episode gives you all the info you need on the entire season, as a familiar face sort of joins the Scooby Gang, and updates everyone on exactly what's been going on as the apocalypse approaches.


Episode 8: Dirty Girls
(Buffy, Giles, Willow, Xander,  Spike, Faith, Dawn, Andrew, Principal Wood, Kennedy, Caleb)

Willow didn't come back from LA alone, Faith is with her, making Buffy's house more full of slayers than any other house in history. Also The First recruits a mini-Big Bad who totally changes the game for the final two episodes of the season.


Episode 9: Touched/End Of Days
(Buffy, Giles, Willow, Xander,  Angel, Spike, Faith, Dawn, Andrew, Kennedy, Principal Wood, Caleb, The First)

The penultimate Buffy storyline. You know shit is real when both the two major slayers, and the two major good guy vampires are all in the same episode. 


Episode 10: Chosen
(Buffy, Giles, Willow, Xander,  Angel, Spike, Faith, Dawn, Andrew, Kennedy, Principal Wood, Caleb, The First)

It's the end of the Sunnydale portion of the Buffy/Angelverse. Villains will be redeemed, love will conquer, people will die (it is a Joss Whedon show, after all), and there will be a game changing event that, should the forthcoming Buffy series end up being less of a reboot, and more of a different story told within the same continuity, makes the world significantly more interesting. And don't be too sad about this being the last Sunnydale season, there's still an entire season left over in LA.