These 5 Minutes Redefined 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' Forever

Do you know why no one talks about the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie?

It’s because the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show far surpassed it. Series creator Joss Whedon had more leeway to make the show darker on TV than he did with the film.

Season 2 as a whole was a game-changer for Buffy, but it was a five-minute sequence from the season 2 finale, “Becoming, Part 2,” that firmly gave the show its own identity.

Sarah Michelle Gellar and David Boreanaz did exceptional work together for this episode, but they weren’t the only ones who thrived in the spotlight.

Willow Touches Real Magic

To appreciate the context of why these five minutes are so impactful, we need to briefly revisit what led to this point. Buffy (Gellar) fell in love with Angel (Boreanaz), a vampire who was cursed with a soul. When Angel felt true happiness with Buffy, the curse was lifted, and he reverted to his pure evil persona, Angelus. The only woman who could have restored Angel’s soul was Jenny Calendar (Robia LaMorte), a descendant of the tribe who cursed Angelus a century in the past. Naturally, Angelus killed Jenny before that could happen.

That left Buffy’s best friend, Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan), to step up and fill the void left by Jenny’s death. Willow had displayed some affinity for magic, but restoring Angel’s soul was her first taste of real power. Something beyond Willow briefly possesses her to complete the spell like an expert. In the seasons to come, Willow became an extremely powerful witch, and she eventually went down her own dark path. And it all started here.

The Unforgivable Sin

Spike (James Marsters) and Drusilla (Juliet Landau) were originally introduced in Buffy season 2 as the show’s new “big bads.” Drusilla was a vampire sired by Angelus, while she was the one who turned Spike into a vampire. They were the Bonnie & Clyde of the undead set until Angelus returned and muscled in on Spike’s territory. Earlier in the season 2 finale. Spike confessed to Buffy that he wasn’t on board with Angelus’ plans to unleash a demon on Earth who would drag everyone to Hell. Spike wanted to maintain the status quo, and he allied with Buffy to help her defeat Angelus in exchange for safe passage out of town with Dru.

For the most part, Spike lived up to his end of the bargain… even though he didn’t come to Buffy’s aid when Angelus briefly had her cornered. What Spike didn’t count on was that Drusilla sided with Angelus over him, and she never forgave him for turning against his vampire family. In later seasons, Spike returned as a regular character and found himself falling in love with Buffy after his relationship with Dru ended. It took a long time to get to that point, but the seeds were planted in these five minutes.

Buffy vs. Angel Changes Everything

This is the cleanest video on YouTube that has most of the five-minute sequence that this post is about. However, it’s not complete, and some of the smaller moments are edited out. The five minutes in question begin at around the 1:35 mark as Angelus successfully starts the process that will bring about Hell on Earth before engaging Buffy in one of the show’s most thrilling sword fights.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer achieved epic status in these final minutes as Buffy fought Angelus to a standstill long enough to see his soul restored. In a bittersweet emotional gut punch, Buffy’s reunion with Angel is cut short when she realizes that to save the world, she has to murder her boyfriend and send him to Hell. And she does it.

That wasn’t the end for Angel, and the third season of Buffy found a way to bring him back. But the show’s bold finale was a game-changer for the entire series. These five minutes set the tone for the rest of the series and established Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a show that was willing to take big swings — and it succeeded, for the most part. It had more ambitious episodes in later seasons, but this episode made it a legend among genre fans and cemented its status as a late 20th-century pop culture institution.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is streaming on Hulu.