A total of 294 episodes of Whedon shows have aired on television starting with the first episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Welcome To The Hellmouth - to the last episode of Dollhouse, Epitaph Two: Return; Season and series finales, premieres, more comedic episodes such as Spin The Bottle from Angel Season 4 or origin episodes like Out of Gas in Firefly. Choosing 10 of the “top” episodes from the four series is a hard task as there are a lot more than 10 episodes that are great but this list has (hopefully) covered the best of the best. In no particular order, here we go. Buffy The Vampire Slayer - The Body (Season 5) This is the episode that will, to this day, make most fans get a bit emotional. After 5 seasons of Buffy fighting vampires, demons and other supernatural entities, in this episode we saw (with the death of Buffy’s mother) that it is the natural evils that are the worst. The bright lights and no music shows the reality of the situation while the one lone vampire of the episode tells us that Buffy’s fight never ends, regardless of the situation. Buffy The Vampire Slayer - Who Are You (Season 4) The Freaky Friday episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer that many TV shows (Futurama, Charmed, Red Dwarf) had done before, however when there are slayers (Buffy as Faith, Faith as Buffy) involved it is a different type of freaky. Fighting, flirting and embarrassment by Giles, this episode had it all. It also gave the actresses a chance to change their normal Buffy acting. Sarah Michelle Gellar got to dress trashier and act carelessly while in Buffy’s body (as Faith), while Eliza Dushku had to convince everyone that she was in fact Buffy. Overall, a change in season 4 with little involvement from the Initiative while Faith went on a long journey out of Sunnydale to L.A. to visit our friendly Vampire with a soul. Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Once More With Feeling (Season 6) The Whedon Musical Event of the Series! The words “musical episode” don’t seem to fit with a dark series such as Buffy but it completely worked in this episode. It wasn’t a standalone episode that happened to have musical moments in it, it progressed the plot. From Spike belting out his feelings for Buffy through his song in the graveyard (“Rest In Peace”) to Tara and Giles singing their torn feelings about their own situations (Tara with Willow, Giles with Buffy). From the classic Hollywood style opening credits to the curtains closing on a kiss this is all around a great episode and one of the best in any of the Whedon shows. Angel - Hero (Season 1) This was the episode that I first began to enjoy Angel for what it was rather than being “just a Buffy spin off”. Doyle (the half demon/half human who was Angel’s guide from the “Powers That Be”) moved out of his role as sidekick by making the ultimate sacrifice on a suicide mission to become the hero. Also, while this episode seemed like the standard “Monster-Of-The-Week” at the beginning it turned into a great dramatic moment for the new series (while slightly soppy). Having Angel Investigations losing one of their own allowed us to see the dark edge it had over Buffy and that both sides would have losses in Angel’s war. Angel - Not Fade Away (Season 5) This series finale was packed full of moments that made it one the greatest episodes in any of the Whedon shows. It had tender moments as each of the beloved members of the Angel team says goodbye to their lives as they prepare to go fight to the death in one last battle to the soul crushing moment at that loss of Wesley. As the surviving members came together in the final scene to battle hordes of demons and (for Angel at least) a Dragon. Many fans beamed with joy, while their hearts broke a little at the realisation of no more Angel. Angel - The Magic Bullet (season 4) An often overlooked gem of an episode. With Fred discovering the truth of Jasmine’s (Gina Torres who previously played the part of Zoe on Firefly) appearance following contact with blood in the previous episode, this episode follows Fred in attempting to show up Jasmine for who she is. Everyone who has come to see the “beauty” of Jasmine comes under her thrall and is soon hunting Fred down including the rest of Angel Investigations. Amy Acker (in my opinion one of the better Whedonverse actors) gets to stretch her acting muscles again in this “Fred-centric” episode by slowly acting Fred’s growing strength and confidence which in turn allows the rest of the team (minus Connor) to see Jasmine for what she really is. Firefly - Out of Gas The eighth episode of this short lived series (I know, it still hurts me too) allowed us to see this ragtag group of heroes beyond the surface characteristics that we had come to know. The heroes are slowly running out of air on the good ship Serenity and for all we know this could be their last few hours alive. Through flashbacks we are able to explore who the characters were before they became a group and saw who they really were while still having the Firefly action that we all know and love and can be argued to be a better representation of the show than the original U.S. pilot -The Train Job. Firefly - Objects In Space The (unfortunate) series finale of Firefly is also one of the better episodes of this show as it is where we got to see River truly shine. She cleverly outwit’s the Bounty Hunter that is after the crew, and shows that there is more to her than just the weird, genius girl who causes trouble and annoyance to the rest of Serenity’s crew. A lot of potential was built up in this episode about what the rest of the show would be about. Alas, it was never to be. Regardless, it does remain one of the best episodes of this series and one of the better Whedonverse episodes. Dollhouse - Epitaph One (Season One) The episode that almost never was. Well, in America at least. We got to see it in its full TV glory on Syfy in what might have been the last episode of the series. This was the episode that changed the game of Dollhouse, the way it was run and what was the come. Previously, the series was sort of disjointed with “Doll of the week” type episodes but this one showed the full extent to what the Doll tech would have in the post-apocalyptic future, where they could even imprint through any technology. While not the complete perfect episode, at the time it gave fans hope for a second season (which this episode did arguably help towards getting) and that if there was one, that it would be more consistent than the first. Dollhouse - Getting Closer (Season 2) This episode may be the best Dollhouse out of the 26 episodes of the series. The episode was fast paced with twists that completely shocked you upon watching it for the first time. Firstly, Summer Glau guest starring once again as Bennet helped to flesh out the history of both Caroline and Bennet (Caroline being a terrorist against Rossum, Bennet being the newest up and coming genius) even further but enabled us to see that she wasn’t the cruel person that abandoned Bennet as we originally thought. Secondly, the return of Whiskey (the Doll) and her status as a sleeping agent was not completely surprising. However, her shooting Bennet in the head was. Lastly, the final twist that makes this episode not only one of Dollhouse’s best, but one of the Whedonverse’s best is the final twist in the last minute of the episode. Boyd, the man that we trusted with our life in this show, is revealed to be the head of Rossum. Caroline becoming a Doll, Echo being formed and the post-apocalyptic world that came. While this episode appears to cram a lot of plot into a short time, the twists and answers that it reveals more than make up for the speedy nature. There are many more episodes that could’ve been in this list (Hush, A Hole In The World, Ariel, Epitaph Two: Return) however it is these ten episodes that can still capture my attention like it’s the first time I have ever seen them whenever I watch them during a repeat DVD viewing. Everyone has their own mental list of their favourite episodes of the episodes of Buffy, Angel, Firefly and Dollhouse and hopefully fans will be able to enjoy them for many years to come." |
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