News

Buffy the Vampire Slayer followed Buffy Summer and her Scooby gang as they protected Sunnydale from vampires, demons, and any other supernatural threat that came up. The first couple of seasons featured mostly stand-alone stories, or “vampire of the week” as they were dubbed. It also adopted ending some episodes with little twists or questions, which was a popular storytelling device in the '90s on sci-fi and fantasy shows like The X-Files.

One such episode was season one’s “Out of Mind, Out of Sight.” Buffy and friends took on an invisible girl out for revenge against the popular kids. Its intriguing twist ending still has audiences wondering about it years later. Some fans have even created their own little head cannons to fill in the blanks and tie it to another Buffy storyline from season four—where it would have fit perfectly.

The School for Invisible Assassins Had...

The first season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" has some major gems, perhaps none more so than "Out of Sight, Out of Mind." SAG Award-winner Clea DuVall stars in the episode as a teen girl who is so shy and overlooked by her classmates that she literally turns invisible, causing her to lash out violently.

DuVall's character, Marcie Ross, was named after Marcy Ross, a real-life woman who worked on the "Buffy" set as an assistant to Gail Berman, a producer who helped develop the WB series and has since gone on to produce the Oscar-nominated mega-hit "Elvis." Berman also produced the spin-off series "Angel" and continues to work in television today (most recently on the first season of Netflix's super-successful "Addams Family" series "Wednesday").

Berman still remembers the season 1 episode of "Buffy" as her favorite of the series. Not only was the villain named after her assistant,...

The near-constant rotation of villains in the seven seasons of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" provided ample opportunity for guest stars, and some of these roles went to some of the biggest names in Hollywood. Sitcom star John Ritter is a killer robot in the season 2 episode "Ted," Kal Penn of "Harold & Kumar" plays the victim of a cursed beer in season 4, and "Enchanted" star Amy Adams is featured as Tara's estranged cousin in an episode of season 5. But even in that star-studded milieu, some of the most unforgettable performances in the series were given by breakout actors and indie darlings, like SAG Award-winning multihyphenate Clea DuVall.

You might have forgotten that DuVall made an appearance in "Buffy" — in fact, the actor's character didn't appear very much on-screen at all. In "Out of Sight, Out of Mind," DuVall plays Sunnydale High School student Marcie Ross, a girl who is so shy she turns invisible,...

Buffy the Vampire Slayer could have been even better by developing supporting or one-off characters like Clem, Marcie Ross, and Kakistos. The show missed opportunities to explore the origins of the First Slayer and her powers, as well as the potential of characters like The Judge and D'Hoffryn. Amy Madison and Ethan Rayne had interesting connections to the main characters and could have had more significant roles, while Riley Finn's character was underutilized and could have provided interesting dynamics in the fight against evil.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer boasts some of the most memorable characters in television history, but many great ones were severely wasted. The likes of the titular Buffy Summers, Willow Rosenberg, Xander Harris, Rupert Giles, Angel, and Spike were all thoroughly developed characters, but many weren't so lucky. That's a real shame because some of Buffy's supporting characters could have been as interesting as the series' most...

Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 1 hinted at the return of the She-Mantis, but the plotline was never revisited, leaving a loose end for viewers. The series introduced the idea of an FBI-run school with invisible assassins, but this intriguing concept was never explored further. Despite dropping these plot teases, Buffy the Vampire Slayer excelled in deepening its central relationships, characters, and lore throughout its seven-season run.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 1 had not just one but two future teases that ended up going absolutely nowhere. The fan-favorite series centered on Sarah Michelle Gellar's titular teen, who was her generation's Slayer, a young woman tasked with destroying forces of darkness. While Buffy the Vampire Slayer did have overarching narrative arcs each season, the show often excelled most when it delivered a satisfying monster-of-the-week episode. Notably, Buffy season 1 got off to an uneven start, but its first outing still boasted some memorable one-off characters.