Buffy The Vampire Slayer: 10 Reasons Season 2 Was The Best

4. Passion Changed The Show

The episode that really cemented Angelus as the baddest Big Bad who ever badded was Passion, episode 17 of season 2. This was a turning point for the show generally. Though Buffy racked up a pretty sizeable body count every week, it was usually tertiary characters getting knocked off or random vampires getting dusted. It was shocking enough when Ford died in Lie To Me, and he'd only been introduced that same episode. Apart from Buffy's extremely temporary death at the end of season 1, the drama of the show was largely small, without too many lasting consequences. And then there was Passion. It's a remarkably shot episode, featuring voiceover from Angelus as he stalks Buffy and her friends and, ultimately, kills one of them. It was terrifying and beautiful and marked a new chapter in Buffy- one in which no one was safe and everyone's actions had real consequences. It changed Giles from a kindly father figure to a desperate man. It also contains something of a thesis for the show in one of Angelus' monologues: "If we could live without passion, maybe we'd know some kind of peace. But we would be hollow. Empty rooms, shuttered and dank... without passion, we'd be truly dead."