27 Years Ago, an Iconic Buffy Episode Changed One Character Forever (And For the Better)

It has been 27 years since a Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode took a major character and hinted at major changes coming down the road. While Buffy Summers was the main Buffy the Vampire Slayer hero, the Chosen One who kills vampires and other monsters, her friends in the Scooby Gang were just as important. This included mainly her best friends, Willow and Xander, and these two characters changed a great deal over the series’s run. However, one of the biggest changes was hinted at in the third season episode, “Doppelgängland,” which aired on February 23, 1999. The episode featured characters from a previous alternate reality.

This was the first hint that Willow would soon come out as a lesbian in the series. This brought back characters introduced in the previous episode, “The Wish.” That was another Season 3 episode where Cordelia wished Buffy had never moved to Sunnydale, which created a horrific vampire dystopia in the town. This includes vampire versions of Willow and Xander.

Willow’s Alternate Version Vampire Led to Her Eventual Coming Out on Buffy the Vampire Slayer

There were two moments in “Doppelgängland” that foreshadowed the moment where Willow finally came out on the series as a lesbian. This episode sees Anya after losing her powers and becoming a human, so she went to Willow and asked for help. She wanted Willow to use dark magic to help her get her demonic powers back. However, this all went wrong when Willow accidentally teleported Vampire Willow from “The Wish” to the real world at the moment right before Oz staked her.

Vampire Willow is extremely confused, especially when she finds Xander is still alive (he had already been staked before she was magically transported), and is also still alive (he is obviously not a vampire in this world). It is up to Willow and her friends to stop Vampire Willow and her growing legion of vampire minions before it is too late.

There were two moments in this episode that foreshadowed Willow eventually coming out as a lesbian, as she was still romantically connected to Oz at the time of this episode. During their initial fight, Vamprie Willow obviously displays her open lesbian tendencies, which took real-world Willow by surprise. When Willow wonders aloud how much alike the two might be, Buffy insists that there is no similarity between a human and the vampire they become, although Angel knows that is not true, but he keeps quiet. It was clear Willow was starting to question her own sexuality in this moment. Buffy rejected the idea, but Angel knew better.

There was also a fun little line when Willow convinced Buffy not to kill Vamprie Willow and instead to send her back to her time to attempt to survive there. When Willow asked Vampire Willow if they “have to snuggle,” it was another little foreshadowing clue that hinted at Willow eventually coming out in “New Moon Rising” in Season 4. Of course, things didn’t work out well for Vampire Willow as the spell did send her back just in time for Oz to spike her and kill her, just as he did in “The Wish.”

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Willow Ended Up Presenting Groundbreaking Representation For Buffy

When Willow and Tara began to date, it was groundbreaking for network television, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer was known to push the envelope in situations like this. Willow dated Oz on Buffy and even had an affair with Xander that was thankfully short-lived. However, it was her relationship with Tara that really allowed Willow to come into her own as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. It was also what almost destroyed the world when Tara died in a shooting.

However, even after that, Willow remained strong in her new life and happiness when she began to date Kennedy in the final season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. While Willow chose Tara over Oz in “New Moon Rising” and said that she loved her, it wasn’t until the fifth season episode, “Triangle,” that Willow officially referred to herself as gay (while fighting with Anya about her friendship with Xander). That season also went a long way to cement things when Willow tells the Waters’ Council she and Tara are lovers, and then later, when Willow says she isn’t going to start dating men again.

While there were no overt clues that real-world Willow was going to end up coming out as gay in “Doppelgängland,” it was as close to seeing what was going to happen as anything. As Angel hinted, a vampire might have lost their soul, but they are still the person they were before they died, other than that. Vampire Willow was a lesbian, and turning into a vampire shut off her inhibitions. All it took was meeting Tara for Willow to finally be comfortable coming out, and it didn’t take turning into a vampire for this to happen.

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