Buffy The Vampire Slayer

4. Buffy The Vampire Slayer, “Older And Far Away” (2002)

Bad Buffy birthdays were a well-established tradition by the time Joss Whedon’s series reached its sixth year on the air, and true to the most angst-filled season, Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) endures an excruciating one in “Older And Far Away.” And it isn’t necessarily a monster that’s the big problem—though there is one, in the form of a demon that can disappear into the ether and reappear at inopportune moments—but the fact that she and her miserable friends are literally forced to spend time with each other. It all starts with perpetual third-wheel Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg), at her whiniest, inadvertently unleashing a vengeance demon’s spell after wishing everyone would stay with her. In a Luis Buñuel-esque twist, when all of Buffy’s friends come over for a birthday party, they’re unable to leave the house the next morning. The extra time together means that simmering conflicts between them—Buffy’s ugly tryst with Spike, Willow’s awkward post-breakup reunion with Tara, Dawn’s neglect in the wake of her mother’s death—can no longer be deferred.

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