David Boreanaz's 25-ish best “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel” Episodes

You can’t even talk about David Boreanaz as Angel without first talking about the original episode dedicated to his whole thing, “Angel.” Want to know how important this episode is? In college I had a friend who loved Boreanaz from his days on "Bones" but had never seen "Buffy" or "Angel." She truly knew nothing about either show, other than that Buffy was, in fact, a vampire slayer. (And even then, she would often call it, Buffy the Vampire.) So I got her to start watching "Buffy", and when we watched this episode, she was all about it…and was freaked the heck out at the reveal that Angel was a vampire. Yes, she was the one person in the world who had no idea that Boreanaz’s Angel was a vampire. A lot of “WHAT?” and “NOOO” came out of this realization. It was beautiful.

Oh yeah, now we’re cooking with gas. (Or, holy water?) Buffy and Angel exchange “I love yous and have sex…only for Angel’s curse to be broken and revert him back to Angelus. Talk about a game-changer and the first time we really got to see Boreanaz let loose and bring something new to the Angel character. OK, “Lie To Me” had jealous Angel a few episodes before. That was also new. But come on — this is a big deal two-parter.

While “Surprise”/”Innocence” were game-changers for both "Buffy" and the Angel character, this is the height of Angelus’ villainry on the series and honestly probably the best episode that isn’t always considered when talking about the best episodes. You have your Angelus voiceover, your poor Jenny Calendar, your poor Giles, and you get a true glimpse of just how sadistic Angelus is and why Angel had so much to atone for.

To this day, the way this episode flips the script — where the loop that keeps putting normal humans in danger is finally broken when the non-human Angelus ends up being the one possessed by the spirit of the female teacher who was shot, not Buffy — is still an impressive bit of storytelling. And it works because of the circumstances both characters are in at this point — and because Boreanaz and SMG just frickin' nailed it.

After hearing about Angel’s past self over the course of two seasons — from himself, from texts, from other characters — finally, we see his origin story. And it’s as Angelus is planning to bring hell on Earth (in a plan that has him torture Giles, which is something Giles reasonably doesn’t get over when Angel is back to his ensouled self in Season 3). This is, of course, the big finish of "Buffy" Season 2, and I dare you to find a more toxic ex-boyfriend than Angelus here. (Spike doesn’t count. They never defined the relationship.)

Oh, broken, tormented Angel. Haunted by the sins — you know, murders — of his past as Angelus by The First (in its official introduction, pre-Season 7), to the point where he’s ready to give up and end it all via sunrise. Yes, this episode features a flashback Angelus with a most unfortunate (and upsetting) mustache, but it also allows another reminder of just how bad of a dude Angelus was and why Angel has a lot of reasons to be as broody as he is.

Due to flashbacks, Angelus was never gone for too long after "Buffy" Season 2. But in “Enemies,” Faith and Mayor Wilkins decided to summon Angelus via magic (basically as a boyfriend for Faith — it was a whole thing)...only for the plan to fail and actually turn out to be a sting operation (officially revealing to the Scoobies that Faith had heel turned).

While the early first season episodes of "Angel" had plenty of moments of comedic Angel in between all the darkness — especially when it came to how bad he was at socializing with human beings — it wasn’t until this episode — surprisingly, the one that introduced Kate’s daddy issues and effectively began the downfall of her character — that Boreanaz got to go as full comedy as he wanted. “Sense & Sensitivity” of course has the most memorable undercover actor Angel moments (“Herb Saunders, Baltimore”), but the key to it all is when Angel gets the sensitivity whammy right along with Kate and all the LAPD officers. The “rainbow”/”painbow” fight-ending line will forever be one of the greatest moments of comedy Angel.

If you ever just want to go straight to crying, start with this episode. Angel/Buffy is a pairing that’s interesting because while it works pretty perfectly within those first three, high school seasons of "Buffy," every time they even think about doing anything with it after that time (on either show) only highlights how immature the relationship is/makes them when they dwell on it. (It’s why Buffy is actually kind of the villain in “Sanctuary,” honestly.) Except for this one episode. Human for a day, Angel finally giving himself and Buffy the relationship they always wanted is honestly lovely, which makes the eventual heartache even more soul-crushing. And Angel just has to live with that memory forever.

Yes and yes and yes and yes. This "Angel" two-parter is post the events of “This Year’s Girl”/”Who Are You?” on "Buffy" and one of the greatest (and earliest) representations of Angel’s thesis statements. As great as "Buffy" was, when it came to stories of redemption and shades of gray, Angel always had the advantage. (Sure, Spike and Andrew had their “redemption,” but let’s just say, the former tried to rape Buffy — and yes, despite the fact he was soulless, this was after a lot of time was dedicated to how different he was from other vampires despite this — and the latter, unlike Faith, didn’t voluntary go to prison to atone for the sins.) Despite Faith existing prior to "Angel," she was a character tailor made for the show’s world and one that brought out some of Angel’s more interesting motivations for atonement.

For all the flashbacks about Angelus and Angel, this is the first one about Angel showing that having a soul didn’t always mean he was tormented by it. (This also introduces The Hyperion, Angel Investigations’ home for the rest of Season 2 through Season 4.) Angry at humanity, ‘50s-era Angel is definitely a mood, unlike one we’d ever seen before and only really similar to the Angel who would come in Season 2's “Redefinition” (which just narrowly missed this list, along with "Reunion") until “Epiphany.”

Oh yes, Darla and the lawyers of Wolfram & Hart playing mind games with Angel (and the flashbacks to how Angelus did the same to Drusilla, so you know, karma). This Hitchcockian episode of "Angel" really kicks the Darla arc into gear, and as such we get a frenzied, presumably mad (at least to his friends and detective Kate) Angel, a definite change from the fearless leader he’d become by that point.

While the "Buffy" half of this sort of, kind of crossover event is more about Spike (and Spike revealing to Buffy that he’s into her), it really gives the "Angel" half an extra kick when you watch it first. Obviously, Spike didn’t know what was going with Angelus/Angel during that time (of the flashbacks), but it makes things even better because of how self-centered Spike was/is. But even if you don’t watch “Fool For Love,” “Darla” is a truly excellent episode of "Angel," during its truly excellent Darla arc.

As “champion” became the buzzword of "Angel" over the years, the Season 2 premiere introduced it into the Buffyverse lexicon, and “The Trial” is the episode that truly proves Angel’s worth as such. If you want to see a hero in action, then look no further than Angel going through figurative hell to give Darla a new lease on life and a chance at redemption. Unfortunately, things end poorly — no happy ending here — but that’s just par for the course with "Angel."

When "Buffy" and "Angel" did body swap episodes, they made sure to let everyone know that body swaps are actually horrific situations and not the feel-good stuff of "Freaky Friday." This is "Angel’s" body swap episode, in which a senior citizen named Marcus (played by Rance Howard) body swaps with young men to relive his glory days for as long as he can before he has to leave their meat suits behind. (This episode actually has a lot of similarity to the second episode of the series, “Lonely Heart.”) And then he swaps body with Angel, who — as a vampire — doesn’t have a body that will quit on him. And if you ever want to see lecherous “Angel,” here you go. (Speaking of, has anyone noted that Marcus in Angel’s body is honestly a lot like "Angel" Season 4’s version of Angelus? Because he kind of is.)

While Angel/Cordelia were the definition of star-crossed lovers — sorry, Buffy, you at least actually got to have a relationship with him — they sure had some amazing chemistry. Strangely enough, Season 3 was actually the only one that intentionally focused on that. Considering how rabid people could be about Buffy/Angel and Cordelia/Angel (and Bones/Booth), you’d actually think David Boreanaz would be acknowledged more for his romantic leading man ability. It’s on full display here in “Waiting in the Wings,” even before he and Cordy get a little bit possessed by two spirits and almost get it on.

You know what’s actually the scariest Angel has ever been? When he calmly approaches Wesley at the end of this episode, only to flip the script and try (then threaten) to kill him for kidnapping baby Connor (and then losing him to Holtz). Angel letting Wesley know it’s not Angelus speaking but instead Angel before he just snaps? Honestly one of the most traumatic things to happen on a show where pretty much nothing but traumatic things happened.

“Spin the Bottle” is pretty much "Angel’s" version of "uffy's" “Tabula Rasa,” which is apt because in terms of criticism, Season 4 of "Angel" is basically Season 6 of "Buffy." (Though, Season 4 of "Angel" is actually great, as well as one of the first seasons of television truly made for binge culture, before binge culture even existed. Seriously.) Only, instead of amnesia, we’re returned to everyone’s teenage states. Think “Band Candy” but with Wesley as somehow an even douchier version of himself than we saw in "Buffy" Season 3 and Angel as Irish lad Liam…from the 18th century, now in the 21st century…and a vampire. (In fact, this was the first and only glimpse we got of a version of Liam who wasn’t a complete mess.)

"Angel" Season 4 saw an arc where Angelus returned, though this version of Angelus was a lot talkier and jokier than the original version back in "Buffy" Season 2. However, the first full episode of this return — as the previous episode was a good “it was all just a dream” episode leading up to this — is a standout for the character and Boreanaz. It served as both a reminder of and an introduction to just how manipulative and sadistic Angelus was, and he spent most of the episode locked up in a cage.

We’ve already established the power of the Angel/Faith storyline and the power of Season 4 Angelus, and this is what happens when you put them together, Faith actually returns to help bring Angel back two episodes before this (“Salvage”). While there are certainly great (well, the Connor/Cordelia stuff never gets better) moments in the two episodes before this, this episode specifically gets the highlight of this particular arc as Angelus and Faith share a coma within the former’s unconscious…and they go through the greatest hits of all the unseen moments that made Angelus hate Angel. (Oh yeah, this season really hits hard on the concept of them being separate entities. And this episode has them eventually fight for supremacy in their shared mind.)

Finally: Angel vs. Spike in a battle to determine which one is the true champion. (It was Angel. It was always Angel. Sorry, Spike.) This episode is honestly hundreds of years of tension and complexes (including the Buffy thing) between the two finally being dealt with. Yes, it's dealt with in the most macho pissing contest possible, but still — it’s something the two of them really needed after all those years of both "Buffy" and "Angel."

This is a trippy ass episode, also directed by Boreanaz — his first episode of television ever, actually, which is quite the creative statement coming out the gate. Apparently, he’d actually wanted it to be even trippier. Make of that what you will.

Not only is this the return of Cordelia, but this also is the 100th episode, a love letter to the past of the series and a satisfactory (to a point) wrapup for the Cordelia/Angel romance. The way Angel lights up over the return of Cordelia and gets fired up by the return of Lindsey (who considers Angel his nemesis, but the feeling was never mutual) honestly makes this one of the best episodes of a season that, as good as it was, was the season of "Angel" for people who didn’t necessarily love "Angel" the series. ("Angel’s" increasingly serialized nature was honestly ahead of its time, and as such it was forced to go back to a mostly episodic place in Season 5.)

Two words: Puppet. Angel. This is perhaps the true test of David Boreanaz’s skill as Angel because he’s not even on the screen for most of the episode…and he still kills it.

Angel the champion — then, now, forever. You know how the whole point of "Buffy" Season 4 was to examine how the Scoobies grew apart as they began college but is maligned because Adam is a boring Big Bad and Riley Finn is…also boring? "Angel" Season 5 is kind of like that— with the team straying further from its original mission statement as it tries to change Wolfram & Hart from the inside — but better.