15 Most Shocking Buffy The Vampire Slayer Moments

Season three’s episode Earshot is one of the show’s most intelligent, mature and overlooked gems, full of hysterical confrontations balanced out by a sudden journey into the ideas of depression, loneliness and a possible school shooting.

For all its sad moments and funny looks at everyone’s favourite characters, the most shocking part of the episode comes when Buffy confronts school nerd (and future Big Bad) Jonathan Levinson at the school.

Arming himself with a rifle, it looks as though he’s going to perpetrate a massacre. As he grovels and tells Buffy how lonely and broken he feels, the rug is pulled from under the audience when he reveals he wasn’t going to kill anyone – he was going to kill himself.

It’s a tragic and heartbreaking confession, the whole scene brilliantly acted by Sarah Michelle Gellar – who gives one of her best ever speeches – and Danny Strong, and perfectly caps off a great hour of TV.