Buffy : the greatest episodes

Okay, so I'm a bit late to this party but over at SyFy, they're asking everyone to vote for the greatest episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer from the 20 they've listed. Then, over the weekend of 03 and 04 March, they'll play the results in ascending order.

First of all, fair play to the SyFy team for managing to pick 20 out of 144 episodes. I think I'd have found it a lot easier to list the episodes that didn't hit the spot for me than to try and narrow my favourites down to 20.

Secondly, the deadline to vote is tomorrow, 07 February, so what are you waiting for? Get over there now!

So which episode have I voted for?

That would be the one where Buffy loses everything; her friends are injured, her watcher is kidnapped and tortured, she's wanted for murder, and her mum finds out about her "secret identity" and in shock, disowns her.

But all the pain and heartache allows her to come to terms with the fact she has to kill Angelus in order to stop him from opening a hell dimension. She finally accepts there's no possibility of restoring Angelus' soul and that her true love, Angel, is gone.

Fine and dandy you say? Well it would have been if, at the eleventh hour, just as Buffy defeats Angelus and is about to kill him, Willow hadn't managed to restore his soul. Before her eyes, he becomes Angel again; the man she loves and never stopped loving.

But it's too late, the hell dimension is opening and there's only one way to close it and save mankind. Buffy tells Angel to close his eyes. She kisses him and then she kills him.

Yes, my vote was for the two-part, Season 2 finale episode "Becoming". It breaks my heart everytime and leaves me in floods of tears. Just writing about it is making me tearful.

If you haven't seen it, seriously, watch it. I defy you not to cry.

Image credit: hidinginneverland.tumblr.com