The 6 Worst Episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Every great show has a few missteps along the way, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer is no different.
While overall, the seven season cult classic had some of television’s most memorable episodes with heavy hitters, “The Body” and “Once More, With Feeling,” both of which earned Emmy Award nominations.
Despite the mostly incredible home runs Buffy the Vampire Slayer hit, there were a number of balks that definitely raised a few eyebrows and generally get skipped during a series re-watch.
Here are Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s six worst episodes!
Where the Wild Things Are, Season 4 Episode 18
This is the episode where Buffy and Riley have sex. And then they have sex again. (And again. And again. And again…) We wish it had stopped there.
The basic premise of the story is that there’s a frat party, and sexually repressed spirits of abused children start to spoil the party. They are fueled by Buffy and Riley’s, erm…passion.
This plot line is bad enough. Does it have to involve Riley? I mean, really, if a demon wanted to feed off of some lovin’, shouldn’t it have fed off of Buffy and Spike?
The Pack, Season 1 Episode 6
We’ve detailed the awfulness of this episode here, in our Buffy the Vampire Slayer Re-Watch, but for those of you who need a refresher, here’s the basic plot:
The Scooby gang heads to the zoo, where they meet the meanest bullies ever who are about to feed this kid to hyenas in a TOTALLY off limits part of the zoo. Xander goes to the hyena house to stop them, but WHOOPS… they all get infected with someone sort of mystical hyena juice, behave like hyenas, eat a live pig (and the principal) and then after they’re cured, everyone has a good laugh about it.
Yeah, I’m still just as confused.
Double-Meat Palace, Season 6 Episode 12
Buffy already has a job: slaying vampires. Unfortunately it doesn’t pay the bills so Buffy gets a job at Double-Meat Palace, a local food chain that’s serving up a special surprise in their meat. (It’s not meat at all! Surprise!) Never trust a sweet old lady who orders an apple pie.
This episode was gross, predictable, and just plain silly.
Beer Bad, Season 4 Episode 5
Remember that time when Buffy went to college and got drunk?
Remember that time when the beer turned her into a cave-woman?
The plotline of this episode was actually important: teen drinking is a huge problem, and leads to a number of dangerous scenarios. The biggest problem here was boiling it an enormous episode down to two little words: “Beer bad.”
Buffy vs. Dracula, Season 5 Episode 1
We want to like this episode so much, and it was an obvious crossover that would happen eventually. But let’s face it, Dracula wasn’t so great. He confused the Scoobies and left ever so quietly into the night. His presence ended up being pretty pointless.
And let’s never forget the final moments of this episode, the ones that introduced us to one of the most controversial characters in the Buffyverse: Dawn.
Ted, Season 2 Episode 11
Even mega guest-star John Ritter couldn’t save this trainwreck Buffy episode, where Buffy’s mom starts dating a great guy…who’s totally a robot and keeps his ex-wives bodies in a closet. (Great job choosing a guy, Joyce!) John Ritter is not creepy. This story is clunky. And how this killer robot is taken down by Buffy’s frying pan swat still makes no sense to this day.
What do you think? Can anyone defend these bad episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Did we forget any? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
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Christine Laskodi
Christine is guilty of watching Hart of Dixie more times than the average human will in their lifetime. She's the host of Long Live the Hart: A Hart of Dixie Podcast (available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!) as well as co-host on The Shipping Room, a podcast devoted to television's greatest relationships. You can find some of her older television reviews at TV Fanatic and IGN. Christine eagerly anticipates every cheesy holiday movie that networks can throw at her, and current favorite shows include The Good Place, The Resident, Shark Tank, and All Rise.
4 comments
Sorry, can’t really agree. My main complaint with “Where the Wild Thigns ARe” is that the feedback aspect, the spirit in the hosue was not just feeding off their own passion but pusshign them to have more. And the Riley bashing is just weak indulgence after all this time;”Oh, look, I found new way to bash this character I didn’t like.”
And you completely blew it on some of the ep.s. buffy took Ted down with a frying pan swat. The Doublemeat Medley wasn’t soylent green (even though Buffy had a notion it was,) it was veggie roughage flavored to taste like beef and chicken. I don’t like them; “Ted” was poorly w ritten s-f-, unconnected tot eh Buffyverse, on a show which usually took science seriously. “DP” had a truly disgusting and uninteresting villain, and the satire was overblown.
And the confusion of “Buffy vs Dracula” was exactly the point. And that you missed a piece of garbola like “Bad Eggs” is disturbing.
You’re absolutely right about Double Meat Palace! My memory was completely off on that one. The secret was that it wasn’t meat at all! That’s totally my error and I will correct it. The frying pan error was just a matter of me typing the name incorrectly. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!
And “the PAck” was well-put-together analysis of clique-based bullying.
I gotta say, as a vampire nerd, I kind of love the Dracula episode. The parallel of Xander and Renfield alone was enough to make it great. And people may not like Dawn, but I think her reveal is great. As the audience, you’re just like wait, what? …No seriously, who’s the kid?
But with all the other ones, you’re spot on! UGH The Pack.
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