Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
Buffy Summers arrives in Sunnydale with her mother, Joyce, hoping school can be ordinary after her Slayer duties drove her from Los Angeles. Librarian Rupert Giles identifies himself as her Watcher and explains that Sunnydale High stands over the Hellmouth. Buffy resists returning to slaying, but Willow Rosenberg and Xander Harris become her allies after they learn her secret. Xander’s friend Jesse is abducted while still human, then turned by the Master’s vampires. At the Bronze during the Harvest, Jesse impales himself on the stake Xander is holding as frightened clubgoers flee; Buffy defeats Luke before the Master can break free.
The Master remains trapped beneath Sunnydale, but his attempts to escape build toward a prophecy that says Buffy will face him and die. Angel, a vampire living with a soul imposed by a curse for his past killings, helps Buffy while concealing who he is; when she learns the truth, his remorse explains why he can oppose other vampires. Cordelia becomes involved in the group’s work, and Giles moves from researching threats to putting himself in danger beside Buffy. In the finale, the Master bites Buffy and leaves her apparently dead; Xander revives her with CPR. She returns to the school and throws him through the roof window, impaling him below. He disintegrates, and the monster rising through the library floor disappears. With the apocalypse stopped, Buffy suggests they celebrate.