Who Watches the Rewatchers

Jarrod opens by turning the word "amends" over — old-fashioned, and for him inseparable from the 12 steps — which turns out to be the perfect key to Buffy's one true Christmas episode. He and Alan work through "Amends," the Angel-centric hour that flashes back to 1838 Dublin (Angel newly turned, chasing a debtor named Daniel through the snow) and forward to a sweltering Sun...

Jarrod and Alan finally get to a top-tier one, and they frame "The Wish" as Buffy's It's a Wonderful Life — the episode that answers what Sunnydale becomes if Buffy never came to town. Gutted by the Xander betrayal and freshly back from her injury, Cordelia befriends a too-eager new girl named Anya, complains that Buffy is the common thread in all her misery, and wishes her away...

Jarrod's daughters said it best — "Spike's back!" — and Alan mostly agrees, with the hot take that Spike improves every scene he's in, sometimes at the expense of everything else the show has going. He and Jarrod dig into "Lovers Walk," the James Marsters showcase that opens on SAT scores and closes with every romance in Sunnydale in ruins. They trace the episode&#3...

Jarrod cops to grimacing at the title (a Bible nerd's reflex — it's Revelation, singular, and this one has nothing to do with the book anyway), and then he and Alan make the case that "Revelations" isn't a mythology-mover so much as a masterclass in community dynamics: everyone's a little bit right, everyone's a little bit wrong, and everyone's furious at everyone...

Jarrod opens with a confession about a Great Pyrenees named Sebastian who once ate fifty caramel chocolate bars meant for a school fundraiser, which is exactly the right doorway into "Band Candy" — the Jane Espenson episode where Ethan Rayne's cursed chocolate turns every adult in Sunnydale into a reckless teenager. Alan and Jarrod trace the whole delicious mess: Snyder's forced...

Alan calls it out before the credits even roll: the fact that Scott Hope dumps Buffy the moment a shinier love interest is on the horizon is one more brick in the case that this guy was never any good. From there Jarrod and Alan dig into "Homecoming," the by-the-numbers-but-a-blast hour where Buffy, freshly single and feeling invisible (a teacher doesn't even remember the student who...

Content note up top: Jarrod opens with a real one, flagging that this episode's domestic-violence material can hit hard for anyone who's lived near it. Then he and Alan get into "Beauty and the Beasts," the Monster-of-the-Week hour that lines up three beasts at once — Oz on his werewolf nights, Pete roiding out into a jealous monster, and a chained, feral Angel back from a hell d...

A limo rolls up to a Sunnydale burger joint, the window slides down, and Mr. Trick steps in as one of the slickest vampire intros the show has ever pulled off. Alan and Jarrod take on "Faith, Hope and Trick" — the episode that drops the bad-girl Slayer into town and quietly sets up half of season three. They dig into the on-the-nose naming of Scott Hope (and why his apologetic, impatient...

Buffy's back from L.A., and now everyone has  feelings  about it. Alan and Jarrod dig into "Dead Man's Party" — the one where a Nigerian mask of dubious provenance raises the dead, the Scoobies throw the world's most ill-advised welcome-home party, and a milquetoast blond casserole-bearer named Pat proves the gang predicted the Karen years ahead of schedule. Along the way: Gi...

Buffy's gone. The Scoobies are slaying without her (poorly — "that never works"). And somewhere in LA, a waitress named Anne is wearing gingham at Helen's Kitchen, keeping her head down — until a street preacher with a sketchy flyer, a familiar face from "Lie to Me," and a vat of black baptismal sludge drag her into a literal hell dimension. Alan and Jarrod open Season...

Season two ends the way the best Buffy ends — with a kiss, a sword, and a school bus pulling out of town. Alan and Jarrod close the book on "Becoming, Part 2," the finale Vox ranks #4 of all 144 episodes, and dig into why a story this devastating is also the show operating at its absolute peak. They walk the wreckage left by Part 1 (Kendra dead, Giles kidnapped, Buffy arrested for murder), unpack...

The world's about to end. Finals are still happening. And somewhere in 1996 Manhattan, a malnourished vampire is eating rats out of a dumpster while a demon in a porkpie hat tells him he needs a sense of purpose. Alan and Jarrod dig into "Becoming, Part 1" — the episode that took an already-shallow Angel and gave him a backstory big enough to launch his own series. We talk Acathla an...

The swim team is winning. The coach is celebrating. And something in the steam room is peeling the skin right off Sunnydale High's elite athletes. Alan and Jarrod take on Go Fish — an episode Alan freely admits is one of his least favorite — and dig into why this Monster of the Week swims a little out of its depth. We talk Wentworth Miller's surprise Chipping Norton-meets-Clarkson's Fa...

Sunnydale High is haunted — but not by just any ghost. In I Only Have Eyes for You, a lovesick student from 1955 keeps replaying the worst moment of his life, possessing anyone who wanders too close to his loop of regret. Alan and Jarrod unpack the parapsychology cold open (residual vs. intelligent hauntings — yes, it's a real field), debate whether the episode was too clever for its own good, and...

Buffy has the flu—and a leftover Season 1 script. In  Killed by Death , our slayer lands in a hospital haunted by creepy kids, nonsensical science, and Der Kindestod: a hat-wearing, eyeball-extending monster who preys on sick children. Alan and Jarrod dig into the episode’s disjointed metaphor, its  Nightmare on Elm Street  vibes, and its unlikely roots in a lost Season 1 production. We debate whe...

In one of Buffy’s most haunting episodes,  Passion  explores love’s shadow side. Angelus becomes a predator of intimacy, creeping into bedrooms, drawing Buffy as she sleeps, and leaving messages of death in his wake. Alan and Jarrod dissect Angel’s chilling voiceover, comparing its poetic meditation on passion to the writings of Plato, Aquinas, Nietzsche, and the Passion of the Christ. We discuss...

It’s Valentine’s Day in Sunnydale, and love is in the air—along with a whole lot of magical chaos. In this delightfully unhinged episode, Xander tries to win Cordelia back with a love spell, only to trigger a mass hysteria of obsessive desire from nearly every woman in town (including Buffy, Amy, Jenny, and even Joyce!). Alan and Jarrod dive deep into the episode’s themes of obsession vs. love, ma...

It’s Buffy meets  Teen Wolf  as we dive into  Phases —the series’ first werewolf episode. Oz is adorable and tortured, Larry is overcompensating, and Giles is packing heat (well, a tranquilizer gun). Alan and Jarrod unpack werewolf lore from Peter Stump to St. Patrick, discuss Jeph Loeb's unexpected connection to  Teen Wolf  and  Buffy , and explore the episode’s layered metaphors: toxic mascu...

Buffy loses her innocence—literally and metaphorically—and the emotional fallout hits hard. In  Innocence , we explore Angel's tragic transformation into Angelus, Willow’s heartbreak, Jenny’s betrayal, and Giles’ grace. Alan breaks down cinematic one-ers and Whedon’s directorial growth, while Jarrod dives deep into the thematic richness of guilt, betrayal, and sexual vulnerability in 90s teen...

This is the moment we've been waiting for. In  Surprise , Buffy’s dream foreshadows catastrophe, Drusilla rises while Spike falls, and Angel’s fate begins to twist. We dive deep into story structure, symbolic dreamscapes, and the metaphors of desire, duty, and disillusionment. Alan expresses his theory about Claddagh ring marketing conspiracies, and Jarrod drops some truth on teen melodrama an...

Alan and Jarrod discuss " Bad Eggs, " the twelfth episode of the second season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the twenty-fourth episode in the series. Written by Marti Noxon and directed by David Greenwalt, it was originally broadcast on January 12, 1998, on The WB network.

Alan and Jarrod discuss " Ted, " the eleventh episode of the second seasonof Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the twenty-third episode in the series. Written by Joss Whedon with David Greenwalt and directed by Bruce Seth Green, it was originally broadcast on December 8, 1997, on The WB network.

Alan and Jarrod discuss " What's My Line? Part Two" which is the tenth episode of the second season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the twenty-second episode in the series. Written by Joss Whedon with Marti Noxon and directed by David Semel, it was originally broadcast on November 24, 1997, on The WB network.

Alan and Jarrod discuss " What's My Line? Part One ," which is the ninth episode of the second season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the twenty-first episode in the series. It was written by Joss Whedon, Marti Noxon, and Howard Gordon, and directed by David Solomon. It was originally broadcast on November 17, 1997, on The WB network.

In this episode Alan and Jarrod discuss "The Dark Age" the eighth episode of the second season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was written by  Joss Whedon ,  Dean Batali , and  Rob Des Hotel  and directed by  Bruce Seth Green . It was originally broadcast on November 10,  1997 , on  The WB  network. RUNNING FROM THE PAST —  Giles ' quiet existence in  Sunnydale  is jeopardized when a...