FAQ

While it's never explicitly stated in the series what the actual process is, it is shown that the Watchers Council has magical means of locating the Slayer and potential Slayers. Also every Slayer has a Watcher who not only trains her, but chronicles her time as the Slayer and reports this back to the Council.

No one has answered this question yet.

Most of the music featured in BtVS is available on this site:

http://www.buffygalaxy.com/audio.htm

Never. The show ended years ago. However, Season 8 has begun in comic book form. Best of all? It's being written by Joss Whedon and other alumni script writers. You can find more information on the series from Dark Horse Comics. - http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=14-798 - or skip to the bottom of this FAQ to find all the nitty gritty details. Mutant Enemy is also still producing films (most recently Serenity (2005) and the upcoming Goners) and television (Dollhouse (2009)).

Joss Whedon has signed on to write 20-or-so issues of a BtVS comic for Dark Horse, set a year after final episode Chosen (2003), in what will essentially be Season 8.

Deader than a really dead thing, to the surprise of...well, absolutely no one. Joss himself has said this project is no more, so that's pretty much that.

Here. Be warned, it's fairly craptacular, but probably worth it for the simple fact that it shows you how bad BtVS could have been. It is also available to watch on You Tube.

The short answer is to simply start with Buffy and alternate back and forth episode by episode for the first three years that both series were on the air (although there are no actual crossovers between Buffy season six and Angel season three). Things don't get out of sync until Buffy season 7/Angel season 4.

Angel: Season 1 / Buffy Season 4

4.1 (Buffy) The Freshman: 5 October 1999..... 1.1 (Angel) City of...: 5 October 1999..... 4.2 (Buffy) Living Conditions: 12 October 1999....... 1.2 (Angel) Lonely Hearts: 12 October 1999.... 4.3 (Buffy) The Harsh Light of Day: 19 October 1999....... 1.3 (Angel) In The Dark: 19 October 1999....... 4.4 (Buffy) Fear, Itself: 26 October 1999....... 1.4 (Angel) I Fall to Pieces: 26 October 1999....... 4. 5 (Buffy) Beer Bad: 2 November 1999....... 1.5 (Angel) Rm w/a Vu: 2 November 1999....... 4.6 (Buffy) Wild at Heart: 9 November 1999....... 1.6 (Angel) Sense and Sensitivity: 9 November 1999....... 4.7 (Buffy) The Initiative: 16 November 1999....... 1.7 (Angel) The Bachelor Party: 16 November 1999....... 4.8 (Buffy) Pangs: 23 November 1999....... 1.8 (Angel) I Will Remember You: 23 November 1999....... 4.9 (Buffy) Something Blue: 30 November 1999....... 1.9 (Angel) Hero: 30 November 1999....... 4.10 (Buffy) Hush: 14 December 1999....... 1.10 (Angel) Parting Gifts: 14 December 1999....... 4.11 (Buffy) Doomed: 18 January 2000....... 1.11 (Angel) Somnambulist: 18 January 2000....... 4.12 (Buffy) A New Man 25 January 2000....... 1.12 (Angel) Expecting: 25 January 2000....... 4.13 (Buffy) The I in Team: 8 Febuary 2000....... 1.13 (Angel) She: 8 Febuary 2000....... 4.14 (Buffy) Goodbye Iowa: 15 Febuary 2000....... 1.14 (Angel) I've Got You Under My Skin: 15 Febuary 2000....... 4.15 (Buffy) This Years Girl: 22 Febuary 2000....... 1.15 (Angel) The Prodigal: 22 Febuary 2000....... 4.16 (Buffy) Who Are You?: 29 Febuary 2000....... 1.16 (Angel) The Ring: 29 Febuary 2000....... 4.17 (Buffy) Superstar: 4 April 2000....... 1.17 (Angel) Eternity: 4 April 2000....... 4.18 (Buffy) Where the Wild Things Are: 25 April 2000....... 1.18 (Angel) Five By Five: 25 April 2000....... 4.19 (Buffy) New Moon Rising: 2 May 2000....... 1.19 (Angel) Sanctuary: 2 May 2000....... 4.20 (Buffy) The Yoko Factor: 9 May 2000....... 1.20 (Angel) War Zone: 9 May 2000....... 4.21 (Buffy) Primeval: 16 May 2000....... 1.21 (Angel) Blind Date: 16 May 2000....... 4.22 (Buffy) Restless: 23 May 2000....... 1.22 (Angel) To Shanshu in L.A.: 23 May 2000.......



Angel Season 2 / Buffy Season 5

5.1 (Buffy) Buffy vs. Dracula: 26 September 2000....... 2.1 (Angel) Judgment: 26 September 2000....... 5.2 (Buffy) Real Me: 3 October 2000....... 2.2 (Angel) Are You Now or Have You Ever Been: 3 October 2000....... 5.3 (Buffy) The Replacement: 10 October 2000....... 2.3 (Angel) First Impressions: 10 October 2000....... 5.4 (Buffy) Out of My Mind: 17 October 2000....... 2.4 (Angel) Untouched: 17 October 2000....... 5.5 (Buffy) No Place Like Home: 24 October 2000....... 2.5 (Angel) Dear Boy: 24 October 2000....... 5.6 (Buffy) Family: 7 November 2000....... 2.6 (Angel) Guise Will Be Guise: 7 November 2000....... 5.7 (Buffy) Fool for Love: 14 November 2000....... 2.7 (Angel) Darla: 14 November 2000....... 5.8 (Buffy) Shadow: 21 November 2000....... 2.8 (Angel) The Shroud of Rahmon: 21 November 2000....... 5.9 (Buffy) Listening to Fear: 28 November 2000....... 2.9 (Angel) The Trial: 28 November 2000....... 5.10 (Buffy) Into the Woods: 19 December 2000....... 2.10 (Angel) Reunion: 19 December 2000....... 5.11 (Buffy) Triangle: 9 January 20001....... 2.11 (Angel) Redefinition: 16 January 2001....... 5.12 (Buffy) Checkpoint: 23 January 2001....... 2.12 (Angel) Blood Money: 23 January 2001....... 5.13 (Buffy) Blood Ties: 6 February 2001....... 2.13 (Angel) Happy Anniversary: 6 February 2001....... 5.14 (Buffy) Crush: 13 February 2001....... 2.14 (Angel) The Thin Dead Line: 13 February 2001....... 5.15 (Buffy) I Was Made to Love You: 20 February 2001....... 2.15 (Angel) Reprise: 20 February 2001....... 5.16 (Buffy) The Body: 27 February 2001....... 2.16 (Angel) Epiphany: 27 February 2001....... 5.17 (Buffy) Forever: 17 April 2001....... 2.17 (Angel) Disharmony: 17 April 2001....... 5.18 (Buffy) Intervention: 24 April 2001....... 2.18 (Angel) Dead End: 24 April 2001....... 5.19 (Buffy) Tough Love: 1 May 2001....... 2.19 (Angel) Belonging: 1 May 2001....... 5.20 (Buffy) Spiral: 8 May 2001....... 2.20 (Angel) Over the Rainbow: 8 May 2001....... 5.21 (Buffy) The Weight of the World: 15 May 2001....... 2.21 (Angel) Through the Looking Glass: 15 May 2001....... 5.22 (Buffy) The Gift: 22 May 2001....... 2.22 (Angel) There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb: 22 May 2001.......



Angel Season 3 / Buffy Season 6

3.1 (Angel) Heartthrob: 24 September 2001....... 3.2 (Angel) That Vision Thing: 1 October 2001....... 6.1/2 (Buffy) Bargaining: 2 October 2001....... 3.3 (Angel) That Old Gang of Mine: 8 October 2001....... 6.3 (Buffy) After Life: 9 october 2001....... 3.4 (Angel) Carpe Noctem: 15 October 2001....... 6.4 (Buffy) Flooded: 16 October 2001....... 3.5 (Angel) Fredless: 22 October 2001....... 6.5 (Buffy) Life Serial: 23 October 2001....... 3.6 (Angel) Billy: 29 October 2001....... 6.6 (Buffy) All the Way: 30 October 2001....... 3.7 (Angel) Offspring: 5 November 2001....... 6.7 (Buffy) Once More, with Feeling: 6 November 2001....... 3.8 (Angel) Quickening: 12 November 2001....... 6.8 (Buffy) Tabula Rasa: 13 November 2001....... 3.9 (Angel) Lullaby: 19 November 2001....... 6.9 (Buffy) Smashed: 20 November 2001....... 6.10 (Buffy) Wrecked: 27 November 2001....... 3.10 (Angel) Dad: 10 December 2001....... 6.11 (Buffy) Gone: 8 January 2002....... 3.11 (Angel) Birthday: 14 January 2002....... 3.12 (Angel) Provider: 21 January 2002....... 6.12 (Buffy) Doublemeat Palace: 29 January 2002....... 3.13 (Angel) Waiting in the Wings: 4 February 2002....... 6.13 (Buffy) Dead Things: 5 February 2002....... 6.14 (Buffy) Older and Far Away: 12 February 2002....... 3.14 (Angel) Couplet: 18 February 2002....... 3.15 (Angel) Loyalty: 25 February 2002....... 6.15 (Buffy) As You Were: 26 February 2002....... 3.16 (Angel) Sleep Tight: 4 March 2002....... 6.16 (Buffy) Hell's Bells: 5 March 2002....... 6.17 (Buffy) Normal Again: 12 March 2002....... 3.17 (Angel) Forgiving: 15 April 2002....... 3.18 (Angel) Double or Nothing: 22 April 2002....... 3.19 (Angel) The Price: 29 April 2002....... 6.18 (Buffy) Entropy: 30 April 2002....... 3.20 (Angel) A New World: 6 May 2002....... 6.19 (Buffy) Seeing Red: 7 May 2002....... 3.21 (Angel) Benediction: 13 May 2002....... 6.20 (Buffy) Villains: 14 May 2002....... 3.22 (Angel) Tomorrow: 20 May 2002....... 6.21 (Buffy) Two to Go: 21 May 2002....... 6.22 (Buffy) Grave: 21 May 2002.......



Angel Season 4 / Buffy Season 7

7.1 (Buffy) Lessons: 24 September 2002....... 7.2 (Buffy) Beneath You: 1 October 2002....... 4.1 (Angel) Deep Down : 6 October 2002....... 7.3 (Buffy) Same Time, Same Place: 8 October 2002....... 4.2 (Angel) Ground State: 13 October 2002....... 7.4 (Buffy) Help: 15 October 2002....... 4.3 (Angel) The House Always Wins: 20 October 2002....... 7.5 (Buffy) Selfless: 22 October 2002....... 4.4 (Angel) Slouching Toward Bethlehem: 27 October 2002....... 4.5 (Angel) Supersymmetry: 3 November 2002....... 7.6 (Buffy) Him: 5 November 2002....... 4.6 (Angel) Spin the Bottle: 10 November 2002....... 7.7 (Buffy) Conversations with Dead People: 12 November 2002....... 4.7 (Angel) Apocalypse, Nowish: 17 November 2002....... 7.8 (Buffy) Sleeper: 19 November 2002....... 7.9 (Buffy) Never Leave Me: 26 November 2002....... 7.10 (Buffy) Bring on the Night: 17 December 2002....... 7.11 (Buffy) Showtime: 7 January 2003....... 4.8 (Angel) Habeas Corpses: 15 January 2002....... 7.12 (Buffy) Potential: 21 January 2003....... 4.9 (Angel) Long Day's Journey: 22 January 2003....... 4.10 (Angel) Awakening: 29 January 2003....... 7.13 (Buffy) The Killer in Me: 4 February 2003....... 4.11 (Angel) Soulless: 5 February 2003....... 7.14 (Buffy) First Date: 11 February 2003....... 4.12 (Angel) Calvary: 12 February 2003....... 7.15 (Buffy) Get It Done: 18 February 2003....... 7.16 (Buffy) Storyteller: 25 February 2003....... 4.13 (Angel) Salvage: 5 March 2003....... 4.14 (Angel) Release: 12 March 2003....... 7.17 (Buffy) Lies My Parents Told Me: 19 March 2003....... 4.15 (Angel) Orpheus: 25 March 2003....... 4.16 (Angel) Players: 26 March 2003....... 4.17 (Angel) Inside Out: 2 April 2003....... 4.18 (Angel) Shiny Happy People: 9 April 2003....... 7.18 (Buffy) Dirty Girls: 15 April 2003....... 4.19 (Angel) The Magic Bullet: 16 April 2003....... 4.20 (Angel) Sacrifice: 23 April 2003....... 7.19 (Buffy) Empty Places: 29 April 2003....... 4.21 (Angel) Peace Out: 30 April 2003....... 7.20 (Buffy) Touched: 6 May 2003....... 4.22 (Angel) Home: 7 May 2003....... 7.21 (Buffy) End of Days: 13 May 2003....... 7.22 (Buffy) Chosen: 20 May 2003.......

The short answer is that Joss, warped as he is, always wanted to kill off a character on his or her first episode in the credits. Joss had originally planned to kill off a main character in the pilot episodes (Unaired Pilot (2002) and The Harvest (1997)); that character being Jesse. However, it proved too costly to add his character to the credits, as they would have had to pay him more than their budget allowed. Benson has said in interviews that she'd have taken a place in the credits if they wanted her to, but they never asked. Speculation suggests that, since she was originally due to die by mid-Season Five, adding her in meant paying double what she was worth to Mutant Enemy, the production company. Still, it's all pure speculation.

It may also be worth noting that Amber Benson was not the first cast member to have a delayed listing in the opening credits.

The reason being is that Sarah became a "big star" during Buffy with her many movies, and she likely did not have the time to dedicate to the DVD extras. This was also the reason why the show ended with the seventh season. The other reason is her agent. Most top notch agents do not want the big stars to be seen making mistakes. She was in the Easter Egg for the musical episode, and there are some bloopers with her on YouTube. She also showed up for the reunion.

It's Torrance High School in California, where they have filmed:

Beverly Hills 90210/Buffy the Vampire Slayer /Skin /Bruce Almighty /The Hot Chick /Not Another Teen Movie /She's All That /Whatever It Takes /The Wild Life /Cursed/Fuffy

Note, these are region 1/USA. A few episodes (notably "Wild At Heart," missing from Region 2 discs) change between countries.

Season One: Welcome to the Hellmouth (Joss Whedon), The Harvest (Joss Whedon).

Season Two: Reptile Boy (David Greenwalt), What's My Line Pt. 1 (Marti Noxon), What's My Line Pt. 2 (Marti Noxon), Innocence (Joss Whedon).

Season Three: Helpless (David Fury), Bad Girls (Doug Petrie), Consequences (Michael Gershman), Earshot (Jane Espenson).

Season Four: Wild At Heart (Joss Whedon, Marti Noxon, Seth Green), Hush (Joss Whedon), The Initiative (Doug Petrie), This Year's Girl (Doug Petrie), Superstar (Jane Espenson), Restless (Joss Whedon).

Season Five: Real Me (David Fury and David Grossman), Fool For Love (Doug Petrie), I Was Made to Love You (Jane Espenson), The Body (Joss Whedon).

Season Six: Bargaining (Marti Noxon and David Fury), Once More with Feeling (Joss Whedon), Smashed (Drew Z. Greenberg), Hell's Bells (David Soloman and Rebecca Rand Kirshner), Normal Again (Rick Rosenthal and Diego Gutierrez), Grave (James Contner and David Fury).

Season Seven: Lessons (Joss Whedon and David Solomon), Selfless (David Solomon and Drew Goddard), Conversations with Dead People (Nick Marck, Jane Espenson, Drew Goddard, Danny Strong, and Tom Lenk), The Killer In Me (David Solomon and Drew Z. Greenberg), Lies My Parents Told Me (David Fury, Drew Goddard, James Marsters, and D.B. Woodside ), Dirty Girls (Drew Goddard and Nicholas Brendon), Chosen (Joss Whedon).

They fill in various bits of the Slayer mythology throughout the series; the basics are as follows: thousands of years ago, the Shadowmen used magic to fuse the essence of a demon into a young girl, to give her the strength to fight off the demons and vampires that were threatening humanity. When she died, her power was passed on to another girl, and so on until we come to Buffy. Buffy dies in 'Prophecy Girl', but is brought back with CPR - despite this, her death is enough to activate a replacement (Kendra) who, in turn, later dies and activates Faith. The reason some girls have been trained for years before activation (as Kendra was) is that the Slayer isn't picked randomly, but is selected from a group of Potentials - thousands of girls around the world born with the power to one day be chosen. Even if there are dozens of girls trained to fight vampires, until the end of the first season there is still only one "Slayer".

As for "one in every generation", it sounds better than "one for a couple of years, until she's horribly murdered". Or in other words, one living slayer, per generation. That is until Buffy was resuscitated. She remained a slayer, however, the lineage transferred to the next tapped when she died for a few minutes. Though the theory was never fully explored, it's common belief that before the episode "Chosen" the next slayer would only be tapped were Faith to die, which is why Buffy was able to die in Season 5 without another slayer being activated.

Jamaica, apparently. And, believe it or not, we have it on good authority (well, Marti Noxon) that the accent is 100% correct and was verified by an accent specialist from Hollywood.

Magic, literally. The Watcher's Council use a variety of spells (as seen in Season Seven) to track down Potentials, but they can't find every single one of them, so some (like Kendra) are trained from a young age, while others (such as Buffy) are only located once they've been called (which presumably makes them much easier to find). One possibility is that the magic is linked to the Shadowman's bag which was in the possession of Slayer Nikki Wood when she was killed by Spike in the 1980s and retained by her son Robin Wood rather than returned to the Watcher's Council.

There is no canonical answer. Fans came up with this sometime after the series ended: "When Buffy dies in Season One, her replacement is called (Kendra), so the Slayer line no longer moves through her. When Kendra dies, Faith is called, and any future line would move through Faith. By the time Buffy dies in Season Five, whatever power activates new Slayers no longer recognizes her. From that point, another Slayer would not have been called unless Faith died." There are rumors that Joss later confirmed this in an interview but so far there has been no proof of it.

They do.

Multiple possibilities. One is that they're genuinely mistaken. Another is that they're lying to avoid having to confuse the Potentials with the whole "second Slayer" issue (or dishearten them by mentioning that Buffy already died twice). A third is that because Buffy was resurrected by magic, it could mean that she's back on the radar of whatever calls new Slayers, and so her death would call a new one. The fourth is that the writers *beeped* it up. Pick any one, or a combination.

Slayers are not demons. After Get It Done (2003), a lot of people got the false notion that Slayers are demonic based on the original source of their power (as given to the First Slayer). The source of the Slayer's power is the "heart of a demon", but a Slayer herself is still a human girl infused with that demonic essence. The only one that can be described as "demonic" is Buffy herself: Spike could hurt her even with the chip functioning. This was because of her resurrection by Willow using magic. Tara explained that Buffy's body came back slightly different on the molecular level due to the rapid healing. It's important to remember that Spike's chip was designed by the government, who at that time didn't recognize magic, and so it relies entirely on technology to do its demon sensing, which would include anything whose cells aren't structured like a standard human's.

Buffy's strength varies from depending on how the writers want the plot to progress. Generally speaking, she became progressively stronger as the show advances. For example: in The Harvest (1997), an early episode, she mentions that the door of The Bronze is too thick to break through, whereas in Once More, with Feeling (2001), a Season Six episode, she kicks it down without breaking her stride. This probably culminates in Season Five when she was utterly focused on her training and on the Slayer powers. Her death at the end of this season literally sucked a lot of the life out of her, causing her to not seem as strong as she was then. There's also the fact that Buffy (like all of us) has off days. If a vampire or demon catches her on one of those (as happens in Season Five's Fool for Love (2000)), she could easily be hurt. Additionally, in 'Fool For Love' we also see that her moods (such as her "death wish", as was the case in this episode) affect her performance in the field. And of course, Glory is a Hell Goddess, therefore more powerful than vampires or demons, so her ability to best Buffy is explicable in context.

Spike's actual Sire is Drusilla which was discussed in the season 5 episode of Destiny (2003) where Drusilla states "Look what I made. It's called 'Willy'." Spike affectionately (or arrogantly) tends to refer to Angel as his Grandsire (kind of like Grandfather in the siring sense). A term which is used in the episode Just Rewards (2003) where Spike was offered a deal from a necromancer. However, "sire" does have other meanings:

Straight from Joss himself: a "sire" can refer to any vampire in your lineage, not just the one that turned you (which basically fits with the dictionary definition of "sire," if you warp it for the vampire part). Some people see this as a continuity error (since Spike was meant to die before the end of Season Two, they had to start planning ahead for him and changed their minds about his sire). Technically speaking, the one who sired him was Drusilla, but it appears Angel was the one who tried to teach him what it was to be a vampire.

Yes. - Drew Goddard said on the commentary for Selfless (2002) that they were the same person, which is why they switched that flashback to the Russian Revolution from the Renaissance. She greets Spike as "William" (his human/real name - the name Cecily knew him by) in Older and Far Away (2002), but in the Joss-scripted Lessons (2002) she refers to the Crimean War (between 1854-56, at which time Cecily would have been about 5). Halfrek posed as Cecily to exact vengeance on someone, thus making it possible for her to know human William while still being around during the Crimean War. Kali Rocha (who plays the character[s]) personally believes that they're the same character, and that she was at the party on assignment. Spike and Cecily recognize each other in season six's "Older and Far Away".

It's a thought - Willow does state in many episodes that she is gay, but there is evidence to suggest she might have a bisexual side to her, such as her strong (heterosexual) relationship with Oz and her twelve year crush on Xander (until Season Four). She also later revealed her former crush on Giles and said that Dracula was sexy (however, it's supposed that any human who meets Dracula falls under his spell). Also, Vampire Willow from The Wish (1998) and Doppelgangland (1999) displays overt bisexuality, and Angel reveals that a vampire's personality is a reflection of who that vampire was as a person. This could suggest that Willow is choosing women but is capable of loving men. If she was not with Tara when Oz came back into the picture, it seems very likely that she would have taken up her relationship with him again.

This evidence might just have been a character quirk - in some other shows, characters have been shown to have gay mannerisms (like Chandler in Friends and Elliott in Scrubs), so it could work both ways - that a gay character have straight mannerisms.

However, it's also worth remembering that a person's sexuality isn't always consistent throughout their life. A lot of people (of different ages) find themselves feeling attracted to a different sex than they were used to. Some will then like both genders, whereas others change interests completely. Some people will be/feel bisexual, but later find that they haven't been interested in the opposite sex for a long time, and then feel/identify as gay/lesbian. For many, the new preference is permanent, but for others it's not. So, it could be that Willow felt straight when she had her heterosexual crushes, felt bisexual when she fell for Tara but was reminded of old feelings for ex-boyfriend Oz (Season Four's New Moon Rising (2000)), and later felt and identified as gay when her love for Tara deepened (and when she continued to feel attracted to seemingly only women throughout the series after Tara's death).

Yes, it's Lehane. She was given one after Joss had to come up with a last name for her to put in an official RPG book, and chose to emphasize her Boston roots by giving her a Boston-Irish surname (it means "grey", apparently). She was confirmed to be named Faith Lehane in the last issue of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight. Kendra was also given a last name (Young) despite saying in the series that she doesn't have one.

Basically, Jesse was Xander's best bud (and Willow's friend) until he died, at which point Buffy replaced him in their lives (though she was introduced to them before Jesse's death) and they never spoke of him again. The main reason they killed off Jesse so quickly was that Joss wanted to kill someone in the credits in the first episode - and although he couldn't afford to get Eric Balfour into the credits, he stuck with the idea of killing someone close to the main characters right off. As for why he's never mentioned in the TV series again, there's no real reason, but probably the sad fact is that in terms of the show, he's a two-episode character that only got a few scenes and was killed off twice in that space of time. While he'd be important to Xander and Willow if they were real, I guess a throwaway character from a Season One episode wasn't seen as being worthy of airtime later on in the run.

Jesse was supposed to make an appearance in the Season Seven episode Conversations with Dead People (2002), where he was meant to have scenes with Xander, but Eric Balfour was unavailable at the time. The writers/producers then decided to cut the whole bit, making 'Conversations...' the only episode of the entire series that Nicholas Brendon was not in.

In the official comic book continuation of the series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine, an angry and grieving Xander finally remembers his friend, stating that every time he slays a vampire he sees Jessie's face instead.

Vampires eat. Part of becoming a vampire is how it affects your sense of taste. Angel says in his own series that he can eat food it just doesn't sustain their lives like blood does. They can still enjoy it. Spike seems to have a preference for spicy and fried foods as a vampire. He also likes to mix weetabix in his blood.

Much has been made of the fact that vampires do not have souls -- with one exception. Angel (David Boreanaz), a broody Irish vampire, was given back his soul as a punishment via a Gypsy curse. Now he suffers (and does he) from guilt over his past misdeeds and is constantly striving -- both on "Buffy" and now on his WB spin- off, "Angel" -- to redeem himself. Along the way, he fell hard for Buffy, but ultimately had to give her up to pursue his destiny.

But, as the last couple of seasons have shown, even a vampire without a soul can love Buffy. Spike (James Marsters), a Britpunk vampire introduced as a villain in season two, has also fallen for the Slayer. Prevented from killing by an experimental microchip in his brain, he not only has been a fool for Buffy's love, but has shown definite inclinations toward doing good for its own sake.

So, that begs the question, what is the role of the soul in the Buffy-verse, if one can love and do good without one? Says Whedon, also from March 2001, "A soul is the thing that separates a human from a demon. It's the thing that points you north instead of south, that makes your instinct to do good instead of to do bad."

"Therefore a vampire can feel love. They can have all the whims and quandaries of a normal person, if they're a vampire or a demon, but their basic instinct is to create chaos and evil and destruction, instead of love and bonding and nurturing and stuff. That's the basic difference."

"A lot of demons, like Spike, for example, are not that different from a lot of people we know. It's not cut-and-dried. He is capable of great love, but great love is usually a very selfish thing, but he's trying."

David Greenwalt partnered with Whedon on "Buffy," and now is the show-runner and executive producer of "Angel." From Aug. 2001, he says, "Are we human because we have a soul, or do we become human and therefore gain a soul? Certainly there are people in the world without souls." "Angel's soul is based on the fact that he must feel guilt and pain and sorrow for all he's done. The Slayer had an incredible effect on Angel. Angel saw her and wanted to be a better person, seeing her, and he'd had a soul for 100 years at that point."

"Same thing, Spike, to his incredible horror, has fallen in love with the Slayer and wants the best for her. To me, he's become a little bit human because of that." }

Harmony trying to figure out what is right and wrong says, ""I mean, it's not like I have a soul - I have to try a lot harder."

In Season 4 episode 2 we get a taste of what Buffy would be like without a soul when her roommate is trying to remove hers to use it to hide from the people who try to take her back to her own dimension.

In Angel season 1 episode 14 we see that a human can be without a soul. Proving that a soul is not a separate person or being.

Angel did not suddenly drop the "us" on his name as soon as he was cursed to feel the impact of what he has done as a vampire. He more than likely modernized it sometime in the early to mid-1900's.When he is called Angelus by Darla he doesn't stop and say, "Oh your mistaken thats a completely different person than me." It's Cordelia who basically says that to Darla which Angel just ignores. Angel is, by nature of his personality, very selective in what he has ever told anyone about himself at any given time.

Buffy says this to Ford in Season 2 during a heated conversation, "You die, and a demon sets up shop in your old house, and it walks, and it talks, and it remembers your life, but it's not you." Slayers and the watchers council, just like soldiers in a war, often dehumanize the enemy to process what they do. This is contrary to what Angel himself (and he would know) told Buffy in the season 1 episode Angel which is that he is a vampire with a conscience. Buffy saying this to Ford showed her mindset of what the vampires she slays are, not what they actually are.

The short answer: We don't know. We see her dressed as a bunny, the most frightening thing she could think of, in an episode in which it's Halloween. We also see her express fear at the word "bunny"; at the sight of a stuffed bunny; and at the sight of many live bunnies, so we write it off as a generic phobia. However, to confuse things further, we see Anya (as her human self 'Aud') loving and (inadvertently) breeding bunnies during a flashback in Selfless (2002). So, what's the deal? One interpretation: it's just a funny character quirk. We're never given a clear explanation. It's been suggested that Anya's fear of bunnies comes from the fact that she associates the worst period of her life (Olaf cheating on her, and the losing of her mortal life) with the bunnies that were breeding in her home at the time, thus explaining both her rabid capitalism and her phobia. How well this theory holds together psychologically is another matter. It's notable that the one thing Anya retains about herself (after temporarily losing her memory of who she is, etc.) in Tabula Rasa (2001) is her fear of bunnies, suggesting how deep-rooted this phobia is.

It's also possible that bunnies remind her not of the sadness, but of the happiness in her life - one of her happiest pastimes as a human seemed to be keeping bunnies. Once Olaf cheated on her and she became a Vengeance Demon, she developed a hatred of humanity and tried to distance herself from it. Because of this, she may have also developed a strong hatred of bunnies. After 1,000 years, it might have developed into an irrational fear out of complete forgetfulness of her humanity.

Further speculation suggests that it was a result of another dimension she visited, such as the ones like the 'World Without Shrimp', that may have caused an irrational fear on her part due to her experiences.

Their sirings are all shown in flashbacks: Angel was turned in 1753, Spike in 1880, Drusilla in 1860, and Darla in 1609. Angel is 26, Drusilla is 19.

Those dates seem to be from whence they count their ages. However, we do know that Liam (Angel) was born as a human in 1727. Angel also spent 100 years in a Hell dimension (though this was only a few months in 'normal' time), but never seems to count these when calculating his age. As to why their ages are sometimes fudged in the series, there are three possibilities. One is that Giles' books are wrong. Another is that, after a few centuries, you begin to forget your exact age. The third (and most likely) is that the writers either forgot or they changed the dates to make other events possible.

She was born in 1981 (revealed on her tombstone in The Gift (2001)). Yet, her date of birth was given differently on the computer screen in I, Robot... You, Jane (1997), but that was just Moloch screwing the system up, or something. Her birthday is around 19/20 January (she mentions she's "Capricorn, on the cusp of Aquarius" in Doomed (2000)).

Joss Whedon finally decreed Buffy's birthday to be 19 January 1981.

According to the storyline for the Buffy/Angel crossover, only Spike's physical body dies in the episode Chosen (2003). The amulet itself, basically uses Spikes soul to amplify the "good" to destroy the hellmouth, but also then traps in inside itself. Spike is also in the Angel series the next year. It's the Buffyverse; people die and come back to life sometimes. If you want to know the specifics: Spike dies in 'Chosen' using a magic amulet to close the Hellmouth (a self-sacrifice). Lindsey, a recurring Angel character, later digs up the amulet and mails it to Angel. This would also explain why Spike can remember the dying. Spike's ghostly essence, trapped inside the necklace, is released as soon as Angel opens the envelope. As the season goes on, Spike is eventually made corporeal again whilst Lindsay (who hoped to screw with the Shanshu Prophecy, another long-running Angel plot line, by introducing another ensouled vampire to the Wolfram & Hart apocalypse) is captured and eventually killed. As for the hows and whys of all this, nobody knows. They never actually explained how the amulet works, what Lindsay did to it, how Spike became real again... just go with it.

It has been speculated, however, that the amulet held his in transit, as it were, until such a time as the Wolfram and Hart senior partners could retrieve it for their personal use, or that the amulet was meant to remove a key player from the mix of "THE" apocalypse (which goes back to the fact that the amulet was meant for Angel, and not Spike).

She cheated on Spike and abandoned him in Brazil (mentioned during her visit to Spike in Sunnydale during Crush (2001)). She later appeared on Angel in Season Two and killed a bunch of people in L.A. She comes back to Sunnydale in said Season Five episode, "Crush," trying and failing to win back a Buffy-obsessed Spike. Once she leaves at the end of this episode, we never see her again - any later Drusilla appearances are either flashbacks or The First appearing as her.

Non-canonically, she later appears in the IDW Angel comics (written by actress Juliet Landau herself) where she's killed by a crazed mob of psychiatric patients during the apocalypse triggered at the end of Not Fade Away (2004), sacrificing herself to save the lives of her doctors. Her soul goes to heaven where she is reunited with her beloved family whom Angelus killed. In her final scene she is being called to dinner by her mother, Drusilla wondering how long this paradise she's experiencing can last. The implication being that it lasts forever.

Canonically, Drusilla is featured in the IDW Spike comics set between Angel: After the Fall and Dark Horses's Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight. In Las Vegas, Drusilla is recruited by Wolfram & Hart as part of a plan to assist a sociopathic murderer named John in stealing Spike's soul. Although she was sleeping with John, after her initial encounter with Spike, she later joined him in his journey with his team consisting of firestarter Beck, telepathic fish Betta George, a possessed Jeremy Johns, and Willow Rosenberg. Drusilla briefly had her soul granted back but had it extracted as it made her crazier. Later in Angel & Faith (which is part of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine), Angel and Faith meet a sane Drusilla in London. She was cured by a demon and is later thrown back to the depths of her insanity before the issue ends.

Another Dark Horse canonical Drusilla one-shot was announced, written by Juliet Landau, but cancelled for scheduling conflicts.

Age takes different vampires in different ways. seems to have gone ugly ("moved beyond the curse of human features") before he was 300, while Darla remained normal in her 388th year. , Russell Winters, and the Master all looked animalistic in different ways - as did the Nosferatu-esque "Prince of Lies" that Angel staked on that submarine back in World War II (Why We Fight (2004)). So presumably the differences were more than just skin deep. It's also possible that Angel's "vampire form" as seen in Pylea is what Angel will turn into after a certain age. Suggested factors include how much blood was taken from the victim when they were sired, how much blood they swallowed from their sire and what sort of person they were when alive. After all, the four main vampires weren't "evil" when alive: Darla was a seemingly good hearted prostitute, Angel a rebel and a drunkard but not violent or evil, and Drusilla and Spike both being meek persons.

She died. Sorry. Dawn shot her with a crossbow bolt sometime off-screen between mid-Season Five and late Season Seven - she reminds Xander of it in End of Days (2003) (or, to be completely accurate, she says that she left the crossbow lying around - how exactly it went off and killed Miss Kitty Fantastico isn't explained).

Because they're a gang of teenagers who fight monsters (a reference to the gang in Scooby Doo, Where Are You! (1969) and subsequent series who do the same thing). The term was first used in What's My Line?: Part 1 (1997), when Xander tells Cordelia "You want to be a member of the Scooby Gang, you gotta be willing to be inconvenienced every now and then."

Note that the gang in the Scooby Doo cartoons never called themselves "the Scooby Gang": the name "Mystery, Inc." was occasionally used.

It would seem that vampires' supernatural healing abilities mean that they don't scar like humans do. As for Spike's scar, the most plausible theory is that the sword was blessed in some way to make it more powerful against vampires, and this allowed it to leave a permanent mark. (We've seen both blessed swords and vampire-specific poisons on the show, so it makes sense.)

Another reason as to why Spike has a scar is because the scar is actually real - James Marsters was mugged in NY. Todd McIntosh, the make-up artist for Buffy, liked the scar and accentuated it for the role of Spike in the early seasons.The scar becomes less noticeable after Season 5 of Buffy.

There are many possibilities. You could suggest that the magical implications of re-ensouling tens of thousands of vampires would be catastrophic; or that it's a cruel and unnecessary punishment that only affects the good half of the vampire (which can feel guilt and does have a conscience when given a chance - i.e. when the vampire has a soul), which wasn't responsible for their bad behavior. The most likely explanation is that the amount of magic needed to pull off just one resouling is seen to be quite great, and therefore is not practical on a worldwide scale. Willow, who performs the magic, is drained afterwards - and that was just for one vampire. It's also possible that the curse was written by the gypsies specifically for Angel, and therefore couldn't be used to create a blanket effect. This seems likely as the curse, once cast, does effect only Angel (rather than every vampire, like one would assume it would if the spell was not specifically for him).

Another possibility would be the danger of re-ensouling EVERY vampire. All souls, human and non, have both good and evil. This point was made by Holland Manners in Reprise (2001) where it was found that Wolfram & Hart's home office was in fact the same place as reality.

Nothing at all. Joss (creator) has even gone on record stating that he means nothing - he's there to show that dreams always have something in them that makes no sense at all. So, you can look for all the hidden meanings you want, but the official line is that he's meaningless.

However, it's worth mentioning that the cheese theme appears again in the Season 8 comics from Dark Horse. One can only assume (and hope) that the idea will be given further explanation.

Six possibilities.

1) The guy was in another dimension when the wishes were reversed, and so missed out on the magic.

2) Giles' book was wrong.

3) This wish was still in progress, while the 1920's wish had long since been completed. There may have safegaurds in place to prevent every wish granted over thousands of years from suddenly unravelling, as that could be catastrophic on several levels.

4) It was stated by Anya in Something Blue (1999) that she used magic to curse people before becoming a vengeance demon, so it's possible that she used a magic spell to curse the guy instead of using the necklace's power.

5) The writers screwed up.

6) It only affected the most recent wishes at that time.

It's true that time passes more quickly in that demon dimension, as Ken tells Buffy and Lily, but only in reference to our dimension. In the demon dimension, an hour is still an hour. Rickie was missing for only a day or so in real time, but from his perspective he'd been in the demon dimension for decades - long enough to live his remaining life and become an old man. Buffy and Lily only spend a few hours there, so they don't noticeably age, and in the normal world they would've been absent for maybe only a few seconds.

The basic answer is that we don't know. A number of entities have claimed or been given responsibility over the course of the two shows, and there's never been official confirmation. In Amends (1998), the First Evil claims it brought Angel back from Hell to make him into Angelus again and have him kill Buffy. At the start of Angel, Angel believes he was brought back from Hell by the Powers That Be (see I Will Remember You (1999), etc.) to be a warrior for good and to seek redemption - a belief enforced by the prophecy from To Shanshu in L.A. (2000), which says that a vampire with a soul will play a vital role in the apocalypse (this was before Spike was made into Angel Redux, so he naturally assumed it was about him). In Inside Out (2003), Skip claims that Jasmine, a fallen Power, arranged for Angel to be released to bring about her birth (Angel being her grandfather). Basically, (Joss) Whedon and Mutant Enemy are unlikely to reveal the answer (if there even is one) as long as there's still the potential to use it as a storyline in a spin-off Angel movie, so until either of those is actually made, we're pretty clueless.

The Master in the Wishverse was freed during the Harvest (with no one around to stop it), so Buffy's blood wasn't necessary. If Buffy hadn't stopped the Harvest in the usual reality, he would have been freed then (rather than needing her blood later on).

As for the Hellmouth thing, that's just a goof. But if you want an explanation, Anya can shape the universe she's creating with a temporal fold in just about any way she wants, and she opts to not have the world be sucked into oblivion. Could also be that Angel or some other party (Giles, Wolfram and Hart etc) managed to prevent the Hellmouth from opening but not the Master being freed.

Nope. She has a very similar hairstyle to Eliza Dushku, but if you look closely, it's not her. One theory is that it is her stand-in/stunt double earning some spare cash by working as an extra.

This is unknown. You can presume that Xander was sired by Darla, and Willow by the vampire in the "carbon-dated" outfit (but if you want to get technical and say that since Buffy wasn't there to tell Willow to "seize the day", she was turned another night). The two seem to be the Master's 'top' vampires, which implies that they were probably turned at the age the Gang were in Season One (or at least early on).

Well, multiple possibilities: Cordelia decided not to go out the night of the Harvest because Buffy wasn't there; Giles and the White Hats managed to save her if she became in danger of being killed or sired; or Anya merely transported Cordelia from the real world into the alternate one and moulded the events to have her be human there, etc.

Cordelia begins her stint in the alternate dimension with no knowledge of that world's prior events, so it would appear that Anya dropped her in at the same moment that she (Cordelia) left the 'real' world, and therefore she was not subject to any events that would've naturally befallen her had she actually lived there her whole life.

However, unlike Xander and Willow, not every character we know is a vampire in this reality. Harmony is still human, and (upon seeing Cordelia at school) addresses Cordelia as if Cordy had always been human. This implies that the Cordelia in this reality (before being replaced by the unknowing Cordelia of the usual Buffy reality) had so far been kept safe from vampires. This seems likely as Cordelia has things to keep her safe that Willow and Xander wouldn't have had (e.g. a car to drive around in and no desire to protect anyone but herself!).

Also, Anya grants wishes to women looking to seek revenge (or "vengeance") in some way. Cordelia made the wish (that "Buffy Summers had never come to Sunnydale") because she blamed Buffy for her (Cordelia) not being popular any more (amongst things). Therefore, Anya (despite being evil) is likely to have moulded the reality so that Cordelia was at least the way she wanted to be (i.e. popular in school - which I doubt a vampire Cordelia would be!).

The most likely possibility would be that since it was Cordelia's wish, all things are affected by it except Cordelia's person itself. In example, in the episode "Superstar" where reality was bent so Jonathan was the best at everything, everyone around him was affected to believe this version, however he did in fact know the truth of it. Anya explains the endless possibility of realities in this episode as well.

Sandy? Yes. The Sandy that Willow bites in this episode is the same one who shows up in Season 5 as Riley's vamp interest. As for how she got turned when Willow clearly doesn't turn her here, insert your own explanation as to how it could have happened (e.g. Willow came back and turned her later; Sandy survived this attack and got vamped later, etc.). Tara? No. That's not Amber Benson, despite a vague resemblance.

The only strong one was from Doppelgangland (1999), when Willow encounters her seemingly bisexual vampire self and comments "I'm all skanky and evil... and I think I'm kinda gay." Buffy assures her that the vampire is nothing like the person it was (shushing Angel when he tries to correct her) and it's not hinted at again until Willow starts a friendship with to-be lover Tara.

It is also referenced in the Season 6 episode Tabula Rasa (2001), when Willow loses her memory and repeats the "I think I'm kinda gay" line. At the end of 'School Hard' Cordelia and Willow end up 'in the closet' together. In 'Phases' both she and Cordelia complain about the men in their lives and think they should just give up on them. In 'Smashed' the girl whom Amy selects for Willow at the Bronze looks very like Cordelia (and is actually her stand-in/stunt double). In the official Sunnydale High 1999 Yearbook Willow is pictured in one photo grinning with an adoring cheerleader on each arm and a very bemused Xander looking on.

Also, in Prophecy Girl (1997), Xander says (about Willow) "But she doesn't want to date you, and if she does she's playing it really close to the vest." This isn't an out-and-out hint, but it's kind of suggestive.

Although, technically, these weren't really hints. Joss was uncertain of whether or not he was going to have Willow be gay or have it be Xander. This wasn't decided until season 4 was officially being written. They just lucked out with that single line they had from a past episode - technically speaking, there were no hints to Willow being gay.

From the Watcher's Guide Vol. 2. GILES: "-the house where we're all sleeping. All your friends are there having a wonderful time and getting on with their lives. The creature can't hurt you there." XANDER: "What? Go where? I don't understand." GILES: "Oh, for God's sake, this is no time for your idiotic games." ANYA: "Xander! You have to come with us now! Everybody's waiting for you!" XANDER: "Honey, I don't - I can't hear you..." ANYA: "It's not important. I'll take you there.

The reason is that the first time they used it, the Slayer power nearly killed them all in their dreams (Willow, Giles and Xander had been defeated - if Buffy hadn't overcome it just in time, they'd all have died), and pissing off a Primal power more than once? Not such a good plan.

Also, in the books written about Slayers, it's stated that "She alone will stand against the darkness." Everyone uniting with Buffy to create a super-Slayer goes against the Slayer law - hence the primal power being mightly pissed off.

Another reason could be that the items needed for the spell are extremely rare.

It's completely explained in Season 5 (the first episode of this season is also Dawn's first appearance), but in short: Dawn is "The Key"; a magical energy force that can be used to open a portal between worlds. Glory, a Hell God banished to this (Buffy's) dimension, wants to use the Key to get home again. A group of monks who were hiding the Key (which was originally a ball of energy) sent it to Buffy in the form of a sister (rewriting history and everyone's memories using magic) so that Buffy would protect it from Glory with her life. After Glory was defeated and the portal was closed, Dawn simply became a normal human.

Graduation Day: Part 2 (1999): Faith is in Buffy's dream and says, "Little Miss Muffet counting down from seven-three-oh." There was a "Little Miss Muffet" theme with Dawn in Real Me (2000): a crazy guy comes up to Dawn and says, "I know you. Curds and whey. I know what you are. You.. Don't.. Belong.. Here!" And in No Place Like Home (2000), during Glory's insane ramblings she says "..someone's going to sit down on their tuffet and make this birthing stop!" The seven-three-zero represents the two years (730 days) that pass between 'Graduation Day' and The Gift (2001).

This Year's Girl (2000): Again in a dream, Faith tells Buffy to get ready because "Little sis is coming". Restless (2000): Tara tells Buffy in a dream to "be back before Dawn", and the time on the clock reads 7:30 (seven-three-oh...) Also, Buffy and Tara are looking at the bed Faith and Buffy made in This Year's Girl (2000).

It is also rumored that Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn) was one of the kids in front of Xander's ice cream van in the same episode, but there's no definitive word on that.