10 Buffy The Vampire Slayer Episodes That Changed Everything

9. Passion

The killing of a main, or beloved, character is nothing new in the post Game of Thrones landscape. And to be fair, Game of Thrones (which is mostly following the source material) isn't the first show to kill off a key character - it just seems to take a certain amount of glee in it, or George R.R. Martin does anyway. In any case, the world of Buffy seemed somewhat secure as far as main characters and key supporting cast members went, at least until Passion came along in the second season. In the episode, Angel, Buffy's love interest in the early years, kills the popular Sunnydale High computer teacher Jenny Calendar, lover of Rupert Giles. Or more accurately, his evil side, Angelus does. Either way, the character, beloved by fans at that point, wound up dead, and suddenly Buffy had announced that it was a take no prisoners sort of show. Afterwards, all bets were off. To that point, "teen" dramas had stayed away from carnage that dark (Angelus goes so far as to place Calendar's body in Giles' apartment, surrounded by flower petals as if for a romantic evening, to torture the man further). Buffy proved that "teen" dramas (though whether it really counts as one is debatable) were capable of being as twisted as anything else on television. And it proved that it was no longer just for teens.