15 Most Important Buffy The Vampire Slayer Episodes
7. Fool For Love (Season 5, Episode 7)
The best flashback episode of the show, Fool for Love finally gives rebel vampire Spike the backstory he was long overdue. After a close-call fighting a vampire, Buffy begins to wonder how the Slayers before her died, and asks Spike to reveal how he killed two Slayers in the past - one during the Boxer Rebellion, one in New York in the 70s.
Not only does he tell Buffy why Slayers are destined to die young ("Every Slayer has a death wish. Even you"), but we also get to see what Spike was like before he was sired, and what he got up to as part of Angelus's little clique.
Buffy has always had a knack for creating brilliant flashback episodes, digging into the pasts of deep and complex characters, but Fool for Love works as a startling balancing act, reminding fans that Spike is evil, but also that he was once an innocent man, forced to become a monster.