28 Years Ago Today, This Buffy Death Shocked Us All & Set Up the Show’s Best Season Finale

One great Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode changed the show with a major death, and it led to something even better by the end of its season. There was no shortage of important character deaths across all seven seasons of Buffy, from Joyce Summers to Tara Maclay, and, of course, Buffy Summers herself on multiple occasions. But one of the biggest, earliest deaths arrived in Season 2, in what’s still one of the show’s darkest installments.

Season 2 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the one that saw the show go from good to great, and a big part of that was the transformation from Angel into Angelus. The villain is one of the show’s best, and the back half of the season sees him increase the torment of his former love interest, leading us to Episode 17, “Passion.” Coming just a few episodes after his dark turn, this is all about him playing his sick mind games with Buffy, but it then goes to a whole other level with the death of Jenny Calendar.

The death is one of the show’s most brutal, as he mercilessly snaps her neck, and one of its most theatrical, as Angel lays it all out like a grand romantic gesture for Rupert Giles to discover, making it extra heartbreaking. But it’s also among the most shocking because, Buffy aside (and that was only a few moments), Jenny is the first major character to be killed off.

Jenny had been an increasingly important part of the second season, especially because of her knowledge of Angel’s soul and the spell that would return it, and so her dying was a total game-changer for the series. It’s a fantastic, creepy installment as a whole, fraught with tension throughout, but the tragedy makes it truly memorable.

Jenny Calendar’s Death Led To Buffy’s Best Season Finale

The battle with Angel would continue through the final episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 2, leading us to “Becoming.” The two-part finale is, for me, the very best end to a season in the entire show, and “Passion” is an important pivot point in getting there. While Angelus was established as evil, this was a line he hadn’t yet crossed; with Jenny’s death and the increased stakes that come with it, it becomes clearer that Buffy may have no choice but to take Angel out for good.

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As much as I love “Graduation Day” and “The Gift,” the Season 2 finale has always stayed with me the most of the show’s finales, for a few reasons. There are the roles of Willow and Xander, which feel bigger than ever – with the former’s spell, and the latter’s plan to kill Angel, this represents another step-up for them into being more Buffy’s equals than sidekicks. The team-up of Buffy and Spike is a brilliant addition, adding some comedy to help balance the emotion. Kendra’s death in Part 1 is another brutal twist, ensuring this isn’t all just weighted towards the second half.

But above all, it’s the tragic, doomed romance of Buffy and Angel, which culminates in those perfect, devastating moments as his soul returns right as she kills him. And there is also what may be the moment that defines the entire show and Buffy as a character:

Angelus: “No weapons, no friends, no hope. Take all that away and what’s left?”
Buffy: “Me.”

It encapsulates, on such a fundamental level, who and what Buffy is as a hero, and Jenny’s death was an important, if tragic, step towards her reaching that point. That makes, to paraphrase Angelus, “Passion the source of one of Buffy’s finest moments.”

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is available to stream on Hulu.

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