10 Buffy Moments That Hit You Hard
4. Buffy Kills Angel
What can be harder-hitting than killing the man you love? Thinking you're killing his evil alter-ego, only to realize at the last moment that he has returned to his former, good guy self. Worse: he has no idea why you're in the process of (essentially) murdering him by sending him to a hell dimension after running a sword through his gut.
Buffy had no choice but to do it, of course. Angelus had opened a portal that would have sucked the world into hell by way of the demon Acathla, and even with Angel restored, there was no other way to close the portal than his blood, and (so Buffy at least thought) death.
The act hit the Slayer so hard that she left town, running away from home to Los Angeles, where fans find her in the third season. It hit fans just as hard, frankly.