My guide to watching Buffy and Angel post-TV

This week the fab­u­lous, genius-man Joss Whe­don is com­ing to Mel­bourne. He’s appear­ing at the open­ing night of the Mel­bourne Writ­ers’ Fes­ti­val and Gwhedeeks (think Gleeks, but Whedon-Geeks) like me are very excited. Despite vis­it­ing Mel­bourne a few times, Joss has never par­taken in a pub­lic event like he’ll be doing this Fri­day evening. Con­se­quently, the event sold out very soon after tick­ets went on sale and come Fri­day the Mel­bourne Town Hall will be full of thou­sands of Gwhedeeks.

There will be plenty of Whe­don projects to talk about on the night includ­ing Dr Horrible’s Sing-along Blog, Fire­fly, Doll­house, The Avengers, the Whedon-directed episode of Glee and, of course, Buffy the slayer of the vampyres.

Speak­ing of which, it’s been a long time Buffy first aired. And the spin-off show Angel with its many com­ple­men­tary sto­ry­lines and cross-over episodes, really needs to be watched in har­mony with Buffy for the full Buffy­verse effect. Unlike giv­ing some­one five sea­sons of The Wire and say­ing ‘Watch this from start to fin­ish,’ watch­ing Buffy/Angel from start to fin­ish isn’t such a straight­for­ward exercise.

And so, I present my com­plete list­ing of Buffy and Angel episodes and the best order in which to view them. Of course, there are many ways you could watch both shows, includ­ing watch­ing the shows one at a time. But this way you get to enjoy the story arcs than span both shows and fol­low char­ac­ters as they crossover between worlds. Plus you get to watch the show pretty much as it aired. The way the cre­ator orig­i­nally intended!

The Com­plete and Most Ful­fill­ing Buffy & Angel Episode Sequence

BUFFY SEASON 1

BUFFY SEASON 2

BUFFY SEASON 3

and then

BUFFY SEASON 4 & ANGEL SEASON 1

• Buffy ‘The Fresh­man’ (S04E01)
• Angel ‘City Of…’ (S01E01)
• Buffy ‘Liv­ing Con­di­tions’ (S04E02)
• Angel ‘Lonely Hearts’ (S01E02)
• Buffy ‘The Harsh Light of Day’ (S04E03)
• Angel ‘In The Dark’ (S01E03)
• Buffy ‘Fear Itself’ (S04E04)
• Angel ‘I Fall to Pieces’ (S01E04)
• Buffy ‘Beer Bad’ (S04E05)
• Angel ‘A Room With A View’ (S01E05)
• Buffy ‘Wild at Heart’ (S04E06)
• Angel ‘Sense and Sen­si­tiv­ity’ (S01E06)
• Buffy ‘The Ini­tia­tive’ (S04E07)
• Angel ‘The Bach­e­lor Party’ (S01E07)
• Buffy ‘Pangs’ (S04E08)
• Angel ‘I Will Remem­ber You’ (S01E08)
• Buffy ‘Some­thing Blue’ (S04E09)
• Angel ‘Hero’ (S01E09)
• Buffy ‘Hush’ (S04E10)
• Angel ‘Part­ing Gifts’ (S01E10)
• Buffy ‘Doomed’ (S04E11)
• Angel ‘Som­nam­bu­list’ (S01E11)
• Buffy ‘A New Man’ (S04E12)
• Angel ‘Expect­ing’ (S01E12)
• Buffy ‘The I in Team’ (S04E13)
• Angel ‘She’ (S01E13)
• Buffy ‘Good­bye Iowa’ (S04E14)
• Angel ‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin’ (S01E14)
• Buffy ‘This Year’s Girl’ (S04E15)
• Angel ‘The Prodi­gal’ (S01E15)
• Buffy ‘Who Am I?’ (S04E16)
• Angel ‘The Ring’ (S01E16)
• Buffy ‘Super­star’ (S04E17)
• Angel ‘Eter­nity’ (S01E17)
• Buffy ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ (S04E18)
• Angel ‘Five By Five’ (S01E18)
• Buffy ‘New Moon Ris­ing’ (S04E19)
• Angel ‘Sanc­tu­ary’ (S01E19)
• Buffy ‘The Yoko Fac­tor’ (S04E20)
• Angel ‘War Zone’ (S01E20)
• Buffy ‘Primeval’ (S04E21)
• Angel ‘Blind Date’ (S01E21)
• Buffy ‘Rest­less’ (S04E22)
• Angel ‘To Shan­shu in L.A.’ (S01E22)

BUFFY SEASON 5 & ANGEL SEASON 2

• Buffy ‘Buffy Vs Drac­ula’ (S05E01)
• Angel ‘Judg­ment’ (S02E01)
• Buffy ‘Real Me’ (S05E02)
• Angel ‘Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been’ (S02E02)
• Buffy ‘The Replace­ment’ (S05E03)
• Angel ‘First Impres­sions’ (S02E03)
• Buffy ‘Out of My Mind’ (S05E04)
• Angel ‘Untouched’ (S02E04)
• Buffy ‘No Place Like Home’ (S05E05)
• Angel ‘Dear Boy’ (S02E05)
• Buffy ‘Fam­ily’ (S05E06)
• Angel ‘Guise Will Be Guise’ (S02E06)
• Buffy ‘Fool For Love’ (S05E07)
• Angel ‘Darla’ (S02E07)
• Buffy ‘Shadow’ (S05E08)
• Angel ‘The Shroud of Rah­mon’ (S02E08)
• Buffy ‘Lis­ten­ing to Fear’ (S05E09)
• Angel ‘The Trial’ (S02E09)
• Buffy ‘Into the Woods’ (S05E10)
• Angel ‘Reunion’ (S02E10)
• Buffy ‘Tri­an­gle’ (S05E11)
• Angel ‘Rede­f­i­n­i­tion’ (S02E11)
• Buffy ‘Check­point’ (S05E12)
• Angel ‘Blood Money’ (S02E12)
• Buffy ‘Blood Ties’ (S05E13)
• Angel ‘Happy Anniver­sary’ (S02E13)
• Buffy ‘Crush’ (S05E14)
• Angel ‘The Thin Dead Line’ (S02E14)
• Buffy ‘I Was Made To Love You’ (S05E15)
• Angel ‘Reprise’ (S02E15)
• Buffy ‘The Body’ (S05E16)
• Angel ‘Epiphany’ (S02E16)
• Buffy ‘For­ever’ (S05E17)
• Angel ‘Dishar­mony’ (S02E17)
• Buffy ‘Inter­ven­tion’ (S05E18)
• Angel ‘Dead End’ (S02E18)
• Buffy ‘Tough Love’ (S05E19)
• Angel ‘Belong­ing’ (S02E19)
• Buffy ‘Spi­ral’ (S05E20)
• Angel ‘Over the Rain­bow’ (S02E20)
• Buffy ‘The Weight of the World’ (S05E21)
• Angel ‘Through the Look­ing Glass’ (S02E21)
• Buffy ‘The Gift’ (S05E22)
• Angel ‘There’s No Place Like Plrtz Glrb’ (S02E22)

BUFFY SEASON 6 & ANGEL SEASON 3

• Angel ‘Heart­throb’ (S03E01)
• Angel ‘That Vision Thing’ (S03E02)
• Angel ‘That Old Gang of Mine’ (S03E03)
• Buffy ‘Bar­gain­ing Part One’ (S06E01)
• Buffy ‘Bar­gain­ing Part Two’ (S03E02)
• Buffy ‘After Life’ (S06E03)
• Angel ‘Carpe Noctem’ (S03E04)
• Buffy ‘Flooded’ (S06E04)
• Buffy ‘Life Ser­ial’ (S06E05)
• Angel ‘Fred­less’ (S03E05)
• Buffy ‘All The Way’ (S06E06)
• Angel ‘Billy’ (S03E06)
• Buffy ‘Once More With Feel­ing’ (S06E07)
• Angel ‘Off­spring’ (S03E07)
• Buffy ‘Tab­ula Rasa’ (S06E08)
• Angel ‘Quick­en­ing’ (S03E08)
• Buffy ‘Smashed’ (S06E09)
• Angel ‘Lul­laby’ (S03E09)
• Buffy ‘Wrecked’ (S06E10)
• Angel ‘Dad’ (S03E10)
• Buffy ‘Gone’ (S06E11)
• Angel ‘Birth­day’ (S03E11)
• Buffy ‘Dou­ble­meat Palace’ (S06E12)
• Angel ‘Provider’ (S03E12)
• Buffy ‘Dead Things’ (S06E13)
• Angel ‘Wait­ing In the Wings’ (S03E13)
• Buffy ‘Older and Far Away’ (S03E14)
• Angel ‘Cou­plet’ (S03E14)
• Buffy ‘As You Were’ (S06E15)
• Angel ‘Loy­alty’ (S03E15)
• Buffy ‘Hell’s Bells’ (S06E16)
• Angel ‘Sleep Tight’ (S03E16)
• Buffy ‘Nor­mal Again’ (S06E17)
• Angel ‘For­giv­ing’ (S03E17)
• Buffy ‘Entropy’ (S06E18)
• Angel ‘Dou­ble or Noth­ing’ (S03E18)
• Buffy ‘See­ing Red’ (S06E19)
• Angel ‘The Price’ (S03E19)
• Buffy ‘Vil­lains’ (S06E20)
• Angel ‘A New World’ (S03E20)
• Buffy ‘Two To Go’ (S06E21)
• Angel ‘Bene­dic­tion’ (S03E21)
• Buffy ‘Grave’ (S06E22)
• Angel ‘Tomor­row’ (S03E22)

BUFFY SEASON 7 & ANGEL SEASON 4

• Buffy ‘Lessons’ (S07E01)
• Buffy ‘Beneath You’ (S07E02)
• Angel ‘Deep Down’ (S04E01)
• Buffy ‘Same Time, Same Place’ (S07E03)
• Angel ‘Ground State’ (S04E02)
• Buffy ‘Help’ (S07E04)
• Angel ‘The House Always Wins’ (S04E03)
• Buffy ‘Self­less’ (S07E05)
• Angel ‘Slouch­ing Toward Beth­le­hem’ (S04E04)
• Buffy ‘Him’ (S07E06)
• Angel ‘Super­sym­me­try’ (S04E05)
• Buffy ‘Con­ver­sa­tions With Dead Peo­ple’ (S07E07)
• Angel ‘Spin the Bot­tle’ (S04E06)
• Buffy ‘Sleeper’ (S07E08)
• Angel ‘Apoc­a­lypse, Now­ish’ (S04E07)
• Buffy ‘Never Leave Me’ (S07E09)
• Angel ‘Habeas Corpses’ (S04E08)
• Buffy ‘Bring On the Night’ (S07E10)
• Angel ‘Long Day’s Jour­ney’ (S04E09)
• Buffy ‘Show­time’ (S07E11)
• Angel ‘Awak­en­ing’ (S04E10)
• Buffy ‘Poten­tial’ (S04E12)
• Angel ‘Sou­less’ (S04E11)
• Buffy ‘The Killer in Me’ (S07E13)
• Angel ‘Cal­vary’ (S04E12)
• Buffy ‘First Date’ (S07E14)
• Buffy ‘Get It Done’ (S07E15)
• Angel ‘Sal­vage’ (S04E13)
• Buffy ‘Sto­ry­teller’ (S07E16)
• Angel ‘Release’ (S04E14)
• Buffy ‘Lies My Par­ents Told Me’ (S07E17)
• Angel ‘Orpheus’ (S04E15)
• Buffy ‘Dirty Girls’ (S07E18)
• Angel ‘Play­ers’ (S04E16)
• Angel ‘Inside Out’ (S04E17)
• Buffy ‘Empty Places’ (S07E19)
• Angel ‘Shiny Happy Peo­ple’ (S04E18)
• Angel ‘The Magic Bul­let’ (S04E19)
• Buffy ‘Touched’ (S07E20)
• Angel ‘Sac­ri­fice’ (S04E20)
• Angel ‘Peace Out’ (S04E21)
• Angel ‘Home’ (S04E22)
• Buffy ‘End of Days’ (S07E21)
• Buffy ‘Cho­sen’ (S07E22)

and then the final (and most won­der­ful) sea­son of Angel…

ANGEL SEASON 5

Happy view­ing. Or re-viewing! NB: I have updated the begin­ning of Buffy S06/Angel S03 after some good cor­rec­tions came through from ‘Morda’ in the com­ments sec­tion (where there are spoil­ers, so beware!)

Oh and if you’ve never seen it before, check out this video of Joss per­form­ing one of his songs from the musi­cal DVD com­men­tary to Dr Horrible’s Sing-along Blog dur­ing a live episode of This Amer­i­can Life. Great stuff.

22. August 2010



13 Comments

Elise

When I can bor­row your DVDs?

Morda

I agree with the whole thing except for the first sec­tion of sea­son 6/3.

You put it like this;

• Buffy ‘Bar­gain­ing Part One’ (S06E01)
• Angel ‘Heart­throb’ (S03E01)
• Buffy ‘Bar­gain­ing Part Two’ (S03E02)
• Angel ‘That Vision Thing’ (S03E02)
• Buffy ‘After Life’ (S06E03)
• Angel ‘That Old Gang of Mine’ (S03E03)
• Buffy ‘Flooded’ (S06E04)
• Angel ‘Carpe Noctem’ (S03E04)
• Buffy ‘Life Ser­ial’ (S06E05)
• Angel ‘Fred­less’ (S03E05)

When it should actu­ally go like this;

• Angel ‘Heart­throb’ (S03E01)
• Angel ‘That Vision Thing’ (S03E02)
• Angel ‘That Old Gang of Mine’ (S03E03)
• Buffy ‘Bar­gain­ing Part One’ (S06E01)
• Buffy ‘Bar­gain­ing Part Two’ (S03E02)
• Buffy ‘After Life’ (S06E03)
• Angel ‘Carpe Noctem’ (S03E04)
• Buffy ‘Flooded’ (S06E04)
• Buffy ‘Life Ser­ial’ (S06E05)
• Angel ‘Fred­less’ (S03E05)

(Alter­na­tively you could watch “That Old Gang of Mine” after “Bar­gain­ing” but that’s per­sonal preference.)

The rea­son that this sea­son should be watched like this is because the cir­cum­stances revolv­ing around **SPOILERS** Buffy’s death and sub­se­quent res­ur­rec­tion are quite com­pli­cated. Buffy has to be dead in “Heart­throb” for the viewer to get the real effect of Angel and Cordy’s con­ver­sa­tions about her legacy and mov­ing on from grief. “That Vision Thing” and “That Old Gang of Mine” should come before “Bar­gain­ing” because Spike men­tions that it’s been roughly five months since Buffy died yet Angel was only been in Sri Lanka for just over three. “After­life” should come straight after “Bar­gain­ing” because really that whole sec­tion is more like a three parter than a two parter. As for “Carpe Noctem”, well it should come before “Flooded” because in the episode Angel gets a call from Wil­low telling him that Buffy is alive. Since Wil­low did this with Giles in “After­life” we can pre­sume that she also called Angel at roughly the same time. In “Flooded”, Buffy gets a call from Angel ask­ing her to meet him in between LA and Sun­ny­dale. This is clearly a few days after Angel found out Buffy was alive. With “Life Ser­ial” and “Fred­less”, you can watch them in what­ever order you see fit since from then on there are zero crossovers for the remain­der of the season.

But, oth­er­wise, great, great list.

Nancy

Whe­don fan? You have just increased 67% in awesome.

All my Ban­gel DVDs are in stor­age so I’ve been rely­ing on the Sci-Fi chan­nel who are tele­vis­ing sea­son SIX of Buffy and sea­son ONE of Angel…?! If I was the sort of per­son who had a type­writer and noth­ing bet­ter to do than whinge to tele­vi­sion net­works, I would totally ref­er­ence this blog post.

melissa

holy crap. will you marry me!?

Anthony Bailey

In the­ory the “easy” way is to use the order in which they aired on TV, with two exceptions:

* watch Buffy S03E18 “Earshot” (aired 1999.09.21) in the obvi­ous place in the series — it was delayed until way after the rest of Buffy S03, due to a per­ceived over­lap of sub­ject mat­ter and real world events.
* watch Buffy S07E17 “Lies My Par­ents Told Me” (aired 2003.03.25) before Angel S04E15 “Orpheus” (aired 2003.03.19) — I believe this was the only time the two dif­fer­ent net­works messed up and sched­uled a cross-show sequence out of order.

I quote “easy” because of course you still need to know the air dates, and if you’re try­ing to avoid spoil­ers, then Googling for episode guides is a bit risky.

So actu­ally apart from Morda’s cor­rec­tion above Andrew’s list is just fine, and any­one read­ing should treat this com­ment as a point­less footnote.

the Constantly Dramatic One

I HAVE NO IDEA THAT YOU ARE WHEDON FAN!!

*squeals like an excited schoolgirl*

Seri­ously, you are waaay cooler in my eyes now.

I got my entire Buffy boxed set from eBay for AUD120, how awe­some is that? Also it sucks that he’s only vis­it­ing Mel­bourne and totally aban­don­ing his fans in Bris­bane. Meh.

James

Awe­some work! Though I must say I whole­heart­edly agree with Morda about B6/A3. Also, if any­one out there wants to expe­ri­ence the crossovers but does not want to have to alter­nate shows every episode, here is a guide to B4/A1 and B5/A2:

Buffy S4/ Angel S1

1. B E1
2. A E1
3. B E2
4. A E2
5. B E3
6. A E3
7. B E4
8. B E5
9. B E6
10. B E7
11. A E4
12. A E5
13. A E6
14. A E7
15. B E8
16. A E8
17. B E9
18. B E10
19. B E11
20. A E9
21. A E10
22. A E11
23. B E12
24. B E13
25. B E14
26. A E12
27. A E13
28. A E14
29. B E15
30. B E16
31. A E15
32. A E16
33. B E17
34. B E18
35. B E19
36. A E17
37. A E18
38. A E19
39. B E20
40. B E21
41. B E22
42. A E20
43. A E21
44. A E22

 
Buffy S5/ Angel S2

1. B E1
2. B E2
3. B E3
4. B E4
5. A E1
6. A E2
7. A E3
8. A E4
9. B E5
10. B E6
11. A E5
12. A E6
13. B E7
14. A E7
15. B E8
16. B E9
17. B E10
18. B E11
19. A E8
20. A E9
21. A E10
22. A E11
23. B E12
24. B E13
25. B E14
26. A E12
27. A E13
28. A E14
29. B E15
30. B E16
31. B E17
32. A E15
33. A E16
34. A E17
35. B E18
36. B E19
37. A E18
38. A E19
39. B E20
40. B E21
41. B E22
42. A E20
43. A E21
44. A E22

dogstar74

What a great list. I found this link at Whe­do­nesque! Thanks so much. I myself have pon­dered a knick­name for Whedon-ites. Gwhedeeks. But I REALLY like Whe­dorks. Thoughts? Really really thanks again for the list.

Andrew

Thanks @Morda. I have update the list to reflect your excel­lent corrections.

Oh and @dogstar74, I really like Whe­dorks. Think I’ll start using it myself.

Damien

I actu­ally have been mak­ing peo­ple watch both shows like this in close to exactly that order for a while. It really is the best way to fully appre­ci­ate both of them and catch all the fun lit­tle cross overs and tie ins. Thanks for putting this out there.

And I’ve always pre­ferred Whedonites.

James

and here is my BS7/AS4 adjusted for lim­ited alter­nat­ing between shows.

Angel Sea­son 4 / Buffy Sea­son 7
7.1 (Buffy) Lessons: 24 Sep­tem­ber 2002
7.2 (Buffy) Beneath You: 1 Octo­ber 2002
7.3 (Buffy) Same Time, Same Place: 8 Octo­ber 2002
4.1 (Angel) Deep Down : 6 Octo­ber 2002
4.2 (Angel) Ground State: 13 Octo­ber 2002
4.3 (Angel) The House Always Wins: 20 Octo­ber 2002
7.4 (Buffy) Help: 15 Octo­ber 2002
7.5 (Buffy) Self­less: 22 Octo­ber 2002
7.6 (Buffy) Him: 5 Novem­ber 2002
4.4 (Angel) Slouch­ing Toward Beth­le­hem: 27 Octo­ber 2002
4.5 (Angel) Super­sym­me­try: 3 Novem­ber 2002
4.6 (Angel) Spin the Bot­tle: 10 Novem­ber 2002
7.7 (Buffy) Con­ver­sa­tions with Dead Peo­ple: 12 Novem­ber 2002
7.8 (Buffy) Sleeper: 19 Novem­ber 2002
7.9 (Buffy) Never Leave Me: 26 Novem­ber 2002
4.7 (Angel) Apoc­a­lypse, Now­ish: 17 Novem­ber 2002
4.8 (Angel) Habeas Corpses: 15 Jan­u­ary 2002
4.9 (Angel) Long Day’s Jour­ney: 22 Jan­u­ary 2003
7.10 (Buffy) Bring on the Night: 17 Decem­ber 2002
7.11 (Buffy) Show­time: 7 Jan­u­ary 2003
7.12 (Buffy) Poten­tial: 21 Jan­u­ary 2003
7.13 (Buffy) The Killer in Me: 4 Feb­ru­ary 2003
7.14 (Buffy) First Date: 11 Feb­ru­ary 2003
4.10 (Angel) Awak­en­ing: 29 Jan­u­ary 2003
4.11 (Angel) Soul­less: 5 Feb­ru­ary 2003
4.12 (Angel) Cal­vary: 12 Feb­ru­ary
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
7.18 (Buffy) Dirty Girls: 15 April 2003
4.16 (Angel) Play­ers: 26 March 2003
4.17 (Angel) Inside Out: 2 April 2003
7.19 (Buffy) Empty Places: 29 April 2003
4.18 (Angel) Shiny Happy Peo­ple: 9 April 2003
4.19 (Angel) The Magic Bul­let: 16 April 2003
4.20 (Angel) Sac­ri­fice: 23 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

stacey mccool

when my old room­mate and i moved in together we watched the episodes in this order. there were so many ref­er­ences i hadn’t noticed the first time around.

also, peo­ple look at me like i’m crazy when i tell them this. glad to see we’re not the only whe­do­nites (!) who obsess over story arcs.

Max Sonntag

today ive got my whole buffy box com­pletly at ebay and taked a look at google, whats the best order for view­ing. thankx for post­ing it!