15 Most Important Buffy The Vampire Slayer Episodes

Angel had been a lurking presence throughout the first few episodes of Buffy, appearing in Welcome to the Hellmouth and slowly proving to be a possible ally to the Slayer and her friends. In his self-titled episode, Angel saves Buffy from three vampire assassins and goes to her place so she can patch him up. There, they kiss, but Angel is burned by Buffy's cross necklace and reveals himself as a vampire.

It makes for a shocking twist, but the episode does a lot more than hit audiences with a curveball. Digging into Angel's murderous past as the infamous vampire Angelus, it also links current antagonist Darla as his former paramour and reveals that he was cursed with a soul decades earlier, so he could live forever in torment for all the terrible things he's done.

Angel is a pivotal episode, not just for Buffy, but for its spin-off, in which the neutered vampire works to atone for his sins and more of his background is revealed.