20 Best Buffy The Vampire Slayer Episodes

9. Helpless

Helpless is one of those episodes that manages to tell a story on two different levels: both the supernatural world that the show normally inhabits, and the real-life issue that it represents. In this instance, it's about Buffy being tested by the Watcher's Council to see if she can function as the Slayer without her powers, but it's also the commentary on the nature of consent and how it ties into the perception of identity. Buffy has something that's very important to who she is taken away from her by a person that she trusts, and she feels not only helpless, as the episode's title suggests, but utterly betrayed. The fact that Giles, who is the only father figure in Buffy's life that matters, is the one who has to stab her in the back makes this such a difficult but important episode.