13. Season Two: Buffy Deals With Her Inner-Demons
Season 2 is widely believed by many people to be Buffy's best season. Personally, season 2 is my second favorite season with season 5 instead being my personal choice, but it is easy to see why season 2 is favored so highly. In the opening episode of season 2 entitled "When She Was Bad" we see a different Buffy than we had previously- a more damaged, defensive and arguably cruel Buffy. We later learn that Buffy hadn't really gotten over the fear The Master gave her all throughout the last season, and it is this episode in which Buffy really confronts her demons and releases them. After having visions of The Master rising from the dead, Buffy finds his skeleton and smashes it to dust with a sledge hammer. We had never really seen Buffy so emotionally fragile before, and this moment made her a more relatable and likable character. Though she began the episode as the most unsympathetic and unlikable we had ever seen her, she ended it with all of our sympathy. Season 2 would be tough on Buffy and this was just the beginning of what would be almost literal hell for her later on...