Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 2 - The Bad Boyfriend

So Buffy's first year at Sunnydale High School ended with her dying at the hands of The Master and being resuscitated by Xander. The staking of The Master led to a happy enough ending for Buffy and her circle of friends, which by this time includes Cordelia, who has learned about the real reasons so many students are dying, as well as Jenny Calendar, a computer teacher who may provide Giles with something he hasn't had in a while, a girlfriend. So with such a happy ending, how does Season 2 begin? Strangely, it starts with a whole lot of paranoia.

After spending the summer with her father, Buffy returns to Sunnydale in an agitated state. She has had visions of The Master returning, since his bones remained while the rest of him turned to dust. By the end of the season premiere, her fears are laid to rest; I think that if this story had taken place later in the series, the problem wouldn't have been resolved so quickly, and her paranoia would grow for a few episodes. But here, things go back to normal... until the arrival of Spike and Drusilla. This pair of vampires bring a whole new dynamic to Sunnydale; played as a Sid and Nancy-esque punk couple, they aren't weighed down by tradition and convention the way The Master was (one of the first things they do is kill the Annointed One). They also change some of the dynamics we know about vampires because they have human emotions. Spike feels love for Dru, while Dru has a child-like innocence about her.

Spike and Drusilla have come to Sunnydale looking for a cure for Dru; you see, she is batshit crazy, and in a most entertaining way. She speaks in non-sequitors, barely sees hunting humans as hunting (to her, it is an innocent game), and brings her dolls with her wherever she goes. Spike is famous in the vampire world for having killed two slayers throughout history, and he is looking to add a third when he hears that Sunnydale is home to the current slayer.

Originally (like so many other Buffy characters through the years) Spike was supposed to show up for a few episodes and be killed off (his death was to occur at the end of "What's My Line?, Part 2"), but he proved to be such a fun character to write, and fans loved him as well, so he stuck around to cause more trouble. I'm guessing that his original purpose was to serve as the bad boy reflection of the gentlemanly Angel, and his death would spur Drusilla, who would likely have become more cured than she became, to seek revenge. However, Spike would go on to live and see the end of the series.

Spike and Dru are made out to be this year's big bads, but the rug is pulled out from under our feet about halfway through the season. There turn out to be three big bads; Spike, Drusilla, and Angel. Or more specifically, Angelus. After escaping from a super-powerful demon sent by Spike and Dru, Buffy and Angel run to Angel's apartment to hide out. In the heat of passion, they consummate their relationship. Meanwhile, a strange man has approached Jenny Calendar, reminding her about the curse placed upon Angel, giving him his soul back. If Angel experiences a moment of pure happiness, the curse will be broken. The gypsies who cursed him wanted him to suffer, to remember his crimes and be miserable. If he is happy, their punishment hasn't worked. And let's just say that a relationship with Buffy can make him very happy.

Angel wakes up in the middle of the night screaming. He runs out into the street and meets a woman. When she asks him if he's in pain, he drinks from her, and Angelus is reawakened. Angelus is the name used by the vampire when he didn't have his soul, and he was probably one of the most twisted demons in history. He nailed puppies to the doors of young girls, killed people not to feed, but to drive their loved ones mad. His greatest triumph was Drusilla; he is the reason she is crazy. He drove her to madness by killing everyone she knew and then having sex with Darla, his sire, in front of her. But instead of killing her, he made her a vampire, so that her torment would last forever. And Angelus hates that he had to live in Angel for 100 years, acting like a human. The person he is angriest with the most is Buffy, because of how alive she made Angel feel. And so, for the rest of the season, his plans involve making his attacks on her as personal as possible.

This storyline represents the idea of the boyfriend changing after sleeping with the girl. Often, after getting what the boy wants, his personality will completely change, he will become "evil". Only here, it becomes a little more literal.

Meanwhile, the relationships between the lead characters began changing. Xander and Cordelia were able to put aside their differences long enough to begin a relationship, while Willow finally found love in Oz (whose full name, Daniel Osbourne, was never given until after he left the show). Even Giles had a relationship with Jenny. I think that Season 2, up until the arrival of Angelus, showed us the most characters at their most happy. Xander and Cordelia were never meant to be, but their relationship was positive, since it started Cordelia on her road to becoming a better person (though the full impetus wouldn't come until Angel), while Willow and Oz were nearly perfect for each other (let's just say that a decision made by Whedon sometime in Season 3 is what doomed the relationship, even though it has nothing to do with either of their personalities). Angel's transformation is one of the darkest things to happen on the show, and definitely marks a change in the show's overall tone. After this, things start to go wrong for the characters, and I don't think that so many people are ever so happy again. But is that a bad thing...?

Up next: Trouble with authority...