12 Small Details You Only Notice Rewatching Buffy The Vampire Slayer
11. Sabotage
As season four progresses, Willow nurtures two interests: witchcraft, and love interest Tara Maclay. As the young wiccans’ relationship blossoms, they attempt to utilise their newfound skills to help Buffy track down an elusive demon. As the spell reaches its peak, though, Tara sabotages their efforts, blowing away some magical powder when Willow isn’t looking.
Little is made of this at the time, and it’s an incident you can easily forget by the time season five episode Family rolls around. Tara’s titular family show up to drop the bombshell that their daughter is part demon.
It transpires that she is no such thing, but suddenly her earlier squirreliness makes perfect sense. It’s not just a neat payoff but an elegant bit of storytelling: Tara’s fear of who she really is led her to hide herself from Willow. Now that it’s all out in the open, their relationship can (and does) really blossom.
Tara and Willow are probably the strongest and most stable couple in the series, and this is a great example of how the show was able to use fantastical elements to tackle real societal issues. While the pairing would ultimately end in tragedy, this moment is a beautiful demonstration of the importance of openness and honesty in a relationship.