10 Buffy The Vampire Slayer Moments That Shocked Us All

10. Possessed Anya - After Life (Season 6, Episode 3)

There's a wealth of overlooked gems in the Buffy canon, and After Life is certainly chief amongst them.

Taking place after Buffy's traumatic resurrection, this episode sees The Scooby Gang besieged by a malevolent presence that was created as a byproduct of the spell that brought Buffy back to life, and without a physical body to call its own, it begins tormenting and possessing each member of The Scooby Gang in turn. For the most part, the hauntings and possessions are fairly par for the course of the show - which is to say they're mildly spooky and kinda fun.

The absolute stand-out moment however is when the being takes control of Anya and has her lurching towards Xander. Her eyes are completely white and she's carving up her own face with a blade, all the while laughing maniacally. It's a surprisingly violent and genuinely disturbing image that comes completely out of nowhere and helps to further cement the much darker tone that season six would become so infamous for.

Aside from Anya's impromptu facial surgery, this episode also delivered a gut-punch ending in which Buffy revealed that she'd actually been pulled from heaven when resurrected.

Truly bleak stuff.