Editing Buffy the Vampire Slayer (section)

==Episodes==
{{main|List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes}}
{{:List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes}}

===Plot summary===
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[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 1)|Season one]] exemplifies the "high school is hell" concept. [[Buffy Summers]] has just moved to [[Sunnydale]] after burning down her old school's gym and hopes to escape her Slayer duties. Her plans are complicated by [[Rupert Giles]], her new [[Watcher (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|Watcher]], who reminds her of the inescapable presence of evil. Sunnydale High is built atop a Hellmouth, a portal to demon dimensions that attracts supernatural phenomena to the area. A mysterious man, Angel, warns Buffy of upcoming danger. She eventually discovers that he is a vampire cursed with a soul, which prevents him from feeding off living humans. Buffy befriends two schoolmates, [[Xander Harris]] and [[Willow Rosenberg]], who help her fight evil throughout the series. Buffy, her Watcher and friends later start to collectively call themselves the "Scooby Gang". Their first major threat is the [[Master (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|Master]], an ancient and especially threatening vampire, who was trapped in the hellmouth underground. When he escapes, Buffy defeats him and saves Sunnydale.

The emotional stakes are raised in [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 2)|season two]]. Vampire couple [[Spike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|Spike]] and [[Drusilla (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|Drusilla]] come to town. A new slayer, [[Kendra (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|Kendra]], who is activated as a result of Buffy's brief death in season one, also arrives in Sunnydale. Popular schoolmate, [[Cordelia Chase]], who resented Buffy and her friends, joins the Scooby Gang and becomes involved with Xander. Willow learns witchcraft and becomes involved with schoolmate [[Oz (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|Daniel "Oz" Osbourne]], who is a werewolf. The romantic relationship between Buffy and the vampire [[Angel (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|Angel]] develops. But after they have sex, Angel experiences a moment of true happiness, breaking the curse that gave him his soul, thus reverting him to a sadistic killer. The evil vampire, famously known as Angelus, joins the other vampires Spike and Drusilla, and he torments Buffy and her friends. He murders multiple innocents and Giles's new girlfriend [[Jenny Calendar]], a [[Romani people|Romani woman]] who was sent to maintain Angel's curse. Kendra is murdered by Drusilla. To avert an apocalypse, Buffy is forced to banish Angel to a hell dimension just moments after Willow has restored his soul. The ordeal leaves Buffy emotionally shattered, and she leaves Sunnydale.

After attempting to start a new life in Los Angeles, Buffy returns to town in [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 3)|season three]]. Angel has been mysteriously released from the demon dimension but is close to insanity due to the torment he suffered there. He recovers, but he and Buffy realize that a relationship between them can never happen and Angel leaves Sunnydale at the end of the season. Giles is fired from the Watchers' Council because he has developed a "father's love" for Buffy and he is replaced by [[Wesley Wyndam-Pryce]]. Towards the end of the season, Buffy announces that she will no longer be working for the council. Early in the season, she meets [[Faith (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|Faith]], the Slayer activated after Kendra's death. She also encounters the affable [[Mayor (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|Mayor Richard Wilkins III]], who secretly has plans to "ascend" (become a "pure" demon) on Sunnydale High's graduation day. Although Faith initially works well with Buffy, she becomes increasingly unstable after accidentally killing a human and forms a relationship with the paternal yet manipulative mayor. The rivalry between Buffy and Faith eventually lands Faith in a coma. At the end of the season, after the mayor becomes a huge snake-like demon, Buffy, Angel, the Scooby Gang and the entire graduating class destroy him by blowing up Sunnydale High. At the end of the season, Angel and Cordelia leave the series to star in the spin-off series, ''[[Angel (1999 TV series)|Angel]]''.

[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 4)|Season four]] sees Buffy and Willow enroll at [[University of California|UC]] Sunnydale, while Xander joins the workforce and begins dating [[Anya Jenkins|Anya]], a former vengeance demon. Spike returns as a series regular and is abducted by The Initiative, a top-secret military installation based beneath the UC Sunnydale campus. They implant a [[Integrated circuit|microchip]] in his head that prevents him from harming humans. Every time he tries to harm a human, he suffers excruciating pain. Upon learning that he can still harm other demons, he joins in with the Scooby Gang, purely for the joy of fighting. Oz leaves town after realizing that he is too dangerous as a werewolf, and Willow falls in love with [[Tara Maclay]], another witch. Faith awakens from her coma and escapes from Sunnydale to L.A. Buffy begins dating [[Riley Finn]], a graduate student and [[US Army Ranger]] seconded to The Initiative. Although appearing to be a well-meaning anti-demon operation, The Initiative's sinister plans are revealed when [[Adam (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|Adam]], a monster secretly built from parts of humans, demons and machinery, escapes and begins to wreak havoc on the town. Adam is destroyed by a magical composite of Buffy and her three friends, and The Initiative is shut down.

During [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 5)|season five]], a younger sister, [[Dawn Summers|Dawn]], suddenly appears in Buffy's life; although she is new to the series, to the characters it is as if she has always been there. Buffy is confronted by [[Glory (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|Glory]], an exiled Hell God who is searching for a [[The Key (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|"Key"]] that will allow her to return to her Hell dimension and in the process blur the lines between dimensions and unleash Hell on Earth. It is later discovered that the Key's protectors have used Buffy's blood to turn the Key into human form–Dawn–concurrently implanting everybody with lifelong memories of her. The Watchers' Council aids in Buffy's research on Glory, and she and Giles are both reinstated on their own terms. Riley leaves early in the season after realizing that Buffy does not love him and joins a military demon-hunting operation. Spike, still implanted with his chip from The Initiative, realizes he is in love with Buffy and increasingly helps the Scoobies in their fight. Buffy's mother [[Joyce Summers|Joyce]] dies of a brain [[aneurysm]], while at the end of the season, Xander proposes to Anya. Glory finally discovers that Dawn is the key and kidnaps her, using Dawn's blood to open a portal to the Hell dimension. To save Dawn, Buffy sacrifices her own life by diving into the portal, thus closing it with her death.

At the beginning of [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 6)|season six]], Buffy has been dead for 147 days, but Buffy's friends resurrect her through a powerful spell, believing they have rescued her from a Hell dimension. Buffy returns in a deep depression, explaining (several episodes later) that she had been in [[heaven]] and is devastated to be pulled back to earth. Giles returns to England because he has concluded that Buffy has become too reliant on him, while Buffy takes up a fast-food job to support herself and Dawn and develops a secret, mutually abusive sexual relationship with Spike. Dawn suffers from [[kleptomania]] and feelings of alienation, Xander leaves Anya at the altar (after which she once again becomes a vengeance demon), and Willow becomes addicted to magic, causing Tara to temporarily leave her. They also begin to deal with the [[Trio (Buffyverse)|Trio]], a group of [[nerd]]s led by [[Warren Mears]] who use their proficiency in technology and magic to attempt to kill Buffy and take over Sunnydale. Warren is shown to be the only competent villain of the group and, after Buffy thwarts his plans multiple times, the Trio breaks apart. Warren becomes unhinged and attacks Buffy with a gun, accidentally killing Tara in the process. This causes Willow to descend into nihilistic darkness and unleash all of her dark magical powers, killing Warren and attempting to kill his friends. Giles returns to face her in battle and infuses her with light magic, tapping into her remaining humanity. This overwhelms Willow with guilt and pain, whereupon she attempts to destroy the world to end everyone's suffering, although it eventually allows Xander to reach through her pain and end her rampage. Late in the season, after losing control and trying to rape Buffy, Spike leaves Sunnydale and travels to see a demon and asks him to "return him to what he used to be" so that he can "give Buffy what she deserves". After Spike passes a series of brutal tests, the demon restores his soul.

During [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 7)|season seven]], it is revealed that Buffy's second resurrection caused instability in the slayer line which also allowed the First Evil to begin tipping the balance between good and evil. It begins by hunting down and killing inactive [[Potential Slayers]] and soon raises an army of ancient, powerful [[Turok-Han]] vampires. After the Watchers' Council is destroyed, a number of Potential Slayers (some brought by Giles) take refuge in Buffy's house. Faith returns to help fight the First Evil, and the new Sunnydale High School principal, [[Robin Wood (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|Robin Wood]], also joins the cause. The Turok-Han vampires and a sinister, [[misogyny|misogynistic]] preacher known as [[Caleb (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)|Caleb]] begin causing havoc for the Scoobies. As the Hellmouth becomes more active, nearly all of Sunnydale's population–humans and demons alike–flee. In the series finale, Buffy kills Caleb and Angel returns to Sunnydale with an amulet, which Buffy gives to Spike; the Scoobies then surround the Hellmouth, and the Potential Slayers descend into its cavern while Willow casts a spell that activates their Slayer powers. Anya dies in the fight, as do some of the new Slayers. Spike's amulet channels the power of the sun to destroy the Hellmouth and all the vampires within it, including himself. The collapse of the cavern creates a crater that swallows all of Sunnydale, while the survivors of the battle escape in a [[school bus]]. In the final scene, as the survivors survey the crater, Dawn asks, "What are we going to do now?" Buffy slowly begins to enigmatically smile as she contemplates the future ahead of her, ending the series on a hopeful note.