10 Buffy The Vampire Slayer Episodes That Changed Everything

8. New Moon Rising

It's hard to pinpoint just when and where Willow and Tara became a thing, but we're giving credit to New Moon Rising for really changing things: on the show, and in the television landscape. To that point, gay couples had been one note stereotypes, or comic relief, when it came to network television. However, in the fourth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, after her werewolf musician boyfriend Oz (Seth Green) left town to try and cure his condition, Willow embarked on a romantic journey with fellow U.C. Sunnydale student (and witch) Tara. In New Moon Rising, Oz returns to Sunnydale, having learned to control his monthly transformation - yet Willow is full on in love with Tara by then, and chooses her over her ex. While many would point to this episode as key because it marked one of Seth Green's final appearances on the show (he would be in just one more, Restless, at the end of the season), the real reason it changed everything was that for perhaps the first time on a major show, a character was forced to choose between a same-sex love interest and an old flame of the opposite sex - and validated the hope the LGBT community had placed in the character when she was first portrayed as gay.