Synopsis: The Complete Second Season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer 6 Disc Set. 

Now for the Zone's Eye View:

By Scott Maravilla

By far the best season of a great series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete Second Season contains all 22 episodes of the first full-length season of the series on 6 discs chocked full of extras. Where the first season sets up the premise and introduces the characters, the second season goes full throttle in elaborating upon the show's mythology and deepening the budding romance between the Slayer and Angel, the vampire with a soul. Joss Whedon continues to artfully blend humor with terror, and portray high school life in a satirical manner so as not to merely create Dracula's Creek. Buffy begins to find the life of a Slayer tough to endure, and as the season unfolds many tragic events occur which lead to her sad downfall in Becoming Part 2. The entire season is a tragic-comedy.

Season two opens with Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) returning to Sunnydale after spending the summer vacation in L.A. with her father shopping and going to parties. In other words, she is enjoying a normal teenage life, an ironic way to open a season in which it will become clear that her life is anything but. Buffy saves Willow (Alysson Hannigan) and Xander (Nichola Brendan), who is still pining for Buffy after her rejection of his affections at the conclusion of the previous season, from a vampire to kick off the season. What they're doing walking past a graveyard at night on a hellmouth is anybody's guess. 

In When She Was Bad, Buffy is having a hard time recovering from her battle with the Master and dealing with the fact that she was technically dead before Xander revived her. She acts like such a bitch that even Cordelia has to say something to her. All of this simultaneous with the efforts of the Masters' minions led by the Anointed One try to resurrect him. 

In School Hard, we're introduced to the season two Big Bad vampire Spike and his insane paramour Drusilla (Juliet Landau) who both have a tie to Angel's unholy past. Spike, played to the hilt by character actor James Marsters, is both threatening and comedic. As Giles Anthony Stewart Head) discovers in the Watcher diaries, William the Bloody is called Spike for his hobby of torturing his victims by driving railroad spikes through their heads. He fought two Slayers in the last century and killed them both. Newly arrived in Sunnydale to restore Drusilla to full health, he makes a pact with the Anointed One to kill the Slayer in return for solitude. As he tells the vamps about his past history with Slayers, "I don't like to brag…wait a minute…I love to brag. I've done a few Slayers in my time." 

As the season unfolds, Spike and Drusilla unfurl a number of schemes to kill the Slayer, and, at one point, revive a demon called The Judge who it took an army to severe him into pieces and hide them in the four corners of the world because "no weapon forged by man can kill him." Xander continues his run as a demon chick magnet. And Principal Snyder (Armin Shimmerman who played Quark on Deep Space Nine) watches Buffy's every move with an eye toward expulsion. Being a Slayer and a full time student is very stressful.

Corelia (Charisma Carpenter) joins the Scoobies in this season and even begins to date Xander to Willow's chagrin. However, she finds first love herself in the form of lead guitarist of Dingoes Ate My Baby/ Werewolf Oz (Seth Green who played Scott Evil in the Austin Powers movies). Even Giles begins to shyly court computer teacher/ techno-pagan Jenny Calendar. But most of all, the relationship between Buffy and Angel deepens with tragic results. Once they make love, Angel has attained a moment of true happiness and loses his soul in accordance with the gypsy curse that returned it to him. He spends the rest of the season as the uber evil vampire Angelus. We are also introduced to Kendra the Vampire Slayer who is called upon Buffy's death. The two Slayers issue will hold significance in season three.

As the story arc unfolds, Buffy must stop Angelus and Drusilla from reviving a demon that will turn our entire world into a demon dimension with help from an unexpected ally. The 6 disc box set includes commentaries by Joss Whedon and on camera interviews for select episodes. I give this DVD set and season two a perfect 10. 

The Season Two Episodes Are:

1. When She Was Bad
2. Some Assembly Required
3. School Hard
4. Inca Mummy Girl
5. Reptile Boy
6. Halloween
7. Lie To Me
8. The Dark Age
9. What's My Line? Part One
10. What's My Line? Part Two
11. Ted
12. Bad Eggs
13. Surprise
14. Innocence
15. Phases
16. Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered
17. Passion
18. Killed By Death
19. I Only Have Eyes For You
20. Go Fish
21. Becoming Part One
22. Becoming Part Two