What episode has the most meaning to you?

TwoToGo-Grave · What episode has the most meaning to you?

Just curious about this.
Which episode has the most meaning to you (not necessarily which one is the best)? Why does it have such meaning to you? What makes it special?

Mel

Although it is not in any way my favourite I will always have a special thing for Bargaining as it was the first episode I remember seeing.

I remember watching it and phoning my sister (who I knew was a Buffy fan) and asking her all these questions about what had happened and who was who!

The next day she arrived with season 1 that she had borrowed for me to watch and the rest is history!

beagle

To me it's Family. I love the theme of family outside of your bio-family. How you may not have a bio-family, or your bio-family may not accept who you are but you can still find "family"

HarFang

It's hard to say what makes an episode meaningful.
On a personal level, it's small scenes rather than whole episodes that really strike me : Willow's diffidence in the first episodes, Buffy's belltower speech to Jonathan in Earshot, Buffy's obsession with her roommate's slightest habits (which definitely rang a bell...) in Living Conditions, or the ugly, hyperrealistic scene at the beginning of the Body.

On a "I love Buffy" level, though, it's other things entirely.
The one episode that really got me was Becoming Part 2. I had been idly watching a few episodes on TV, and I went away for a week while the 2nd season was just beginning. I only came back for Becoming Part 2, and boy, had things changed ! I watched the 10-sec recap in a daze, and decided then and there that I HAD to get the rest of the season. One thing led to another and, to quote Mel, the rest is history.

Oh, and Graduation Part 2 shook me up a lot. There were so many great things in it, and it felt like the end of an era, watching Angel leave and Sunnydale High disappear. It was like "where do we go from here?"

Wow, maybe I should narrow down my "most meaningful" episode. I really talk too much.

MysteryEND

Im with Beagle... I was so moved by Family the first time i watched it as I was having a lot of trouble with my own at the time I was living with my brother because my mother kicked me out which was a long time ago I was 15 I think.
Mum and I made up.
but i still love the episode its in my top 5

Beckyxx

Prophecy Girl has the most meaning to me. Its the episode when Buffy truly realises that her life will end soon and that she is forced to grow up right then. The infamous quote "I'm sixteen years old, I dont wanna die"

This is the episode that shows how much support Buffy actually has and its the first REAL proof of the power of the scoobies!

When I was younger I was a pretty depressed girl. I thought about death a lot, thinking I was unimportant to the world because I didnt feel I made an impact to anyone and that I would be better off gone. (I was really weird and borderline loony!)

Then after hearing those words I realised I didnt want to die, I just wanted to be noticed and thats when I changed and finally grew up!

I know this is gonna sound sooo tacky but it really did help. I'm a loser, I know!

beagle

Absolutely Becky.
It's when Buffy realizes it's not about being alive, it's about what you do when you are alive. And that fighting and losing is better than not fighting at all.
I love me some Prophecy Girl.

cardboardy

most meaning?
gosh, thats hard.
my interpretation of 'most meaning' is probably those episodes that i identify most with... and that move me deeply. id have to say a tie between (or perhaps a combination of) the Body and Normal Again.
The body is in my top 5 but normal again isnt (i still think its teriffic though)
the reason is that the body is just such a perfect symphony of loss, and it makes me think every time of what it was like when my brother died. he was mentally ill and normal again just so perfectly illustrates the terror that people experience when their world stops making sense. but he was a sweet boy and didnt try and kill his family and friends though, so thats a plus Wink

x

dramagirl

There's loads, but the one that I can think of now is Grave. It's just the Will-Xander bond that, after six years, gets a real chance to shine. And I love how everyone grows up a bit, Giles has come back all protector-ish, Buffy starts treating Dawn like an adult and loads of other reasons that I won't go on about.

On a completely seperate thing, the first episode I remember seeing is the end of Smashed, and I was just like "huh?" I didn't know who anyone was, and it wasn't til I saw some of the other episode reruns that I started getting obsessed. The only character I remembered was Willow. I didn't watch it when it was first on at all, I don't even remember it. I was about five anyway.

So, yeah... that's them.

greengirl00

I think that for me, it might have to be Becoming (II). I always think that it's really the start of Bufy growing up and making more and more adult decisions. It's kinda sad in some ways: she's just that little bit less innocent after season 2.

Sunnydalehigh

Great thread! I have to say Family (for all the reasons Beagle stated above) and also The Body, because it was my first episode and the opening scenes made me cry, even though I didn't know any of the characters. I was so blown away by the concept of having the camera keep rolling. In every other show, someone finds a body and there's a reaction shot and then a cut to commercial. No one ever gets to see what happens in that time after the initial reaction. The quiet after the paramedics leave--the beautiful day outside--the vomiting on the carpet and cleaning it up. F___ing brilliant! It got me thinking about all the other times in life when the "cameras aren't rolling." Although I can't relate to finding a body myself, The Body has the most meaning for me because it epitomizes the innovativeness of the show and made me think about stuff that no other show has done before or since.