10 Weirdest Buffy The Vampire Slayer Episodes
4. The Zeppo (Season 3, Episode 13)
This is another episode where Buffy isn’t the main character. ‘The Zeppo’ is a Xander-centric story which takes place predominantly over the course of one night.
Giles informs the others that the Hellmouth is due to open again. At first, this feels like a re-tread of ‘Prophecy Girl’, but the opening of the Hellmouth isn’t the focus of the episode. Instead, we watch Xander experience the strangest night of his life away from the end of the world plot.
It’s a fun plot to follow owing to how many twists and turns there are. In the space of a couple of hours, Xander is held at knifepoint, encounters the undead, loses his virginity to Faith, and stops a bomb from killing his friends.
The first time you watch it, the lack of focus on the other characters feels like a misstep. But once you accept the Hellmouth storyline is simply a backdrop to the main adventure, ‘The Zeppo’ shines out as one of the smartest episodes in the show’s history.