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In the episode “Angel” in which Buffy and Angel decide to walk away from each other, the song playing is “I’ll Remember You”.
3 years later, there is an episode where they come back together before parting again and the writers called it “I Will Remember You.”
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In "Welcome to the Harvest", Buffy tells Angel, “Maybe I don’t need a friend” and Angel replies, “I didn’t say I was yours” as he walks backward into the darkness.
In Chosen Angel says, “Shoulder to shoulder – I’m yours”.
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In the episode "Welcome to the Hellmouth", Angel gives Buffy a cross necklace that is later (in the episode “The Harvest”) at least partially responsible for saving Buffy’s life.
In "Chosen", Angel comes bearing a necklace that is at least partially responsible for saving not only Buffy but the world.
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In the episode “Angel”, Angel tells Buffy that she even looks pretty when she goes to sleep. Buffy tells him that when she wakes up it’s an entirely different story.
In the episode "The Prom", Angel gets to see Buffy as she wakes up, she is embarrassed, thinking she has to go and kill a cat on her head, but Angel tells her she looks perfect.
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In “Never Kill a Boy on the First Date”, Buffy mutters under her breath, “bite me” – and she and Angel share a look. At this point, Buffy doesn’t yet know that Angel is a vampire.
In "Graduation Day II", Buffy makes Angel bite her, drink from her to save his life.
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The first time Buffy bandages Angel up is in “Angel”. She will do it again in season 2 and season 3. Ted and Grad Day I.
In "Ted", Xander asks Buffy if she was loving playing "naughty nurse". The comics have Buffy being a naughty nurse.
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In the episode “Angel”, Darla says, “Did you think she would understand? That she would look at your face….your true face….and give you a kiss?”
In the episode “What’s My Line”, Buffy does look at his vampire face and she gives him a kiss.
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In "Becoming II", Joyce told Buffy that if she left the house, she shouldn't bother to come back:
Buffy: I'm *not* crazy! What I need is for you to chill. I *have* to go!
Joyce: (angrily) You walk out of this house, don't even *think* about coming back!
In "The Prodigal", Angel's father told him the same thing:
Angel: “You’ll want to move away from the door now, father.”
Dad: “Go through it, but don’t ever expect to come back.”
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Buffy's mom expressed disappointment in Buffy in the episode "School Hard":
Joyce: "What I don't want is to be disappointed in you again."
In "The Prodigal", Angel's father also expressed disappointment in Liam:
Liam's Dad: “It’s a son I wished for – a man – instead God gave me you! A terrible disappointment.”
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In the episode “Some Assembly Required”, Angel talks about how Xander gets to see Buffy in the sunlight. Buffy replies that she doesn’t look that good in direct light.
In “I Will Remember You”, Angel will also get to see her in the sunlight – and Buffy does look very good in direct light.
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In “Halloween”, Angel tells Buffy that he found the noblewomen of his time boring – told her that he’d always wanted to meet someone exciting and interesting….someone like who Buffy really is.
When Buffy fears she is losing her powers in “Helpless”, she confesses to Angel that she used to be more like those “simpering morons” he detested in his own time. She fears that he might find less to like about her if she isn’t the slayer. But Angel assures her that SHE could never be boring or helpless. That he saw her before she was called and it was her heart that drew him in because she held her heart out for all the world to see and he worried that it would be bruised or torn.
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In the episode "Halloween", Buffy reverted to being an 18th century woman. She was afraid of the cars, calling them demons.
In "Spin the Bottle", Angel reverted to back to the 17th century and thought the cars outside were demons.
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One of my favorites ever!
In "Bad Eggs", Buffy and Angel have some serious kissage in a gaveyard while a couple of vampires watch. They have a conversation in that same graveyard about the future and Angel asks her if she ever considers her future....:
Angel: So you don't think about the future?
Buffy: No.
Angel: Never?
Buffy: No.
Angel: (swallows) You really don't care what happens a year from now? Five years from now?
Buffy: Angel, when I look into the future, a-a... all I see is you! All I want is you.
Angel: I know the feeling.
Flash forward 5 years and we have: Buffy and Angel kissing while a vampire - Spike - watches. Buffy and Angel talking about the future - in a graveyard. Angel asking her who and what she sees in her future. Buffy telling Angel that she's not thinking that far ahead. And Buffy telling Angel that when she DOES look that far ahead, she still hopes for a future with him. And Angel clearly hoping the same, telling her he's not getting any older. Ah, I love it SO much.
Angel: Any thoughts on who might enjoy— Do I have to go with the cookie analogy?
Buffy: I'm not really thinking that far ahead. That's kind of the point.
What's nice about this exchange in "Chosen" is that - unlike in "Bad Eggs", Buffy DOES sometimes look that far ahead. Because now - unlike when she was 16 - she CAN look that far ahead. There isn't that same fatalism, the sense that she won't get a future. Now she knows she can and will have a future and she is looking forward to exploring it. But she still wants Angel in that future.
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This is the only couple to have TPTB interfere on their behalf - Whistler brings Angel to Buffy (which helped them both) and later, Whistler helps Buffy when she has to defeat Angelus.
Buffy has a prophetic slayer dream about Angel's death in "Surprise" and it comes true not only metaphorically - with Angel losing his soul - but literally, with Buffy having to send Angel to hell. In this case, the dream didn't help stop it. But it did warn of danger and the fact that Drusilla was still alive and around.
TPTB brougth Angel back from hell after Buffy set down her claddagh ring.
TPTB brought Angel and Buffy together in a series of dream sequences that eventually provided Buffy with at least part of the answer needed to save/help Angel in "Amends". They also provided the magical snow to assist Buffy with saving Angel's life.
TPTB gave Doyle a vision that sent Angel to L.A. to protect and save Buffy in "Pangs".
TPTB intervened on their behalf in "I Will Remember You".
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Angel was depressed in season 2, turned away from his friends and turned to Darla - a soulless, blonde vampire who stalked him and wanted him in a sick, obsessive way. He engaged in an abusive sexual encounter with her because he was tired of feeling the cold all the time. He had also just been told by Holland Manners that Earth was hell - the "home office". - "Reprise":
Angel: "I'm not playing. I just wanna feel something besides the cold."
When Buffy was depressed after being brought back from Heaven, she said that she lived in hell. She also turned away from her friends and had an abusive sexual relationship with a blonde, soulless vampire - Spike - who was obsessed and stalking her. In the episode "Once More With Feeling", she sang:
Buffy: "I guess my friends can't face the cold." And “"This isn't real, But I just want to feel" –
Last line credited to link for finding another parallel.
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For both Buffy and Angel, their encounters with Spike and Darla respectively brought about more despair.
In "Epiphany", Angel said to Darla:
Angel: "Yeah. And it *was* perfect, Darla. - It was perfect despair."
In "As You Were", Buffy tells Spike she has been using him and says:
Buffy: "I'm just being weak, and selfish......and it's killing me."
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Of course, we know Buffy told Angel to "close his eyes" when she had to kill him - how painfully angsty to have their love theme called "Close your eyes".
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In season 3's episode "Anne", Buffy dreams of seeing Angel, having him with her at the beach.
In "IWRY", Angel will find Buffy at the beach and they will actually be together in the sunlight - a dream come true.
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In "Anne", dream Buffy asks Angel to stay with her and dream Angel says, "forever - that's the whole point".
In season 5, an episode aptly titled "Forever", Buffy would mirror that hope by telling Angel what she'd always dreamed - that he'd stay with her forever.
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After Angel's death, Buffy leaves for months on her own to deal with her grief.
After Buffy's death, Angel left for months on his own to deal with his grief.
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When Angel was losing his soul in the episode "Surprise", he was calling out Buffy's name.
When Angel got his soul back as Buffy was about to kill Angelus, his first, immediate response was, "Buffy".
When Angel was being sucked into hell, his only word was "Buffy".
When Angel came back from hell, his first word was "Buffy".
When Angel found out Buffy died in season 2 of AtS, all he said was "It's Buffy".
When Angel was having his soul sucked out of him in season 4 ‘Awakening’ of AtS, he was calling out Buffy's name.
When Angel thought something bad had happened to Buffy in "TGiQ", all he said was, "It's Buffy".
In 243 years, Angel has loved only one person in THAT way. In 243 years, he's only told one person he loved them (well, romantically anyway).
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In "Amends", Buffy refused to let Angel die, willing to fight with him to prevent it.
In 'The Zeppo", Buffy said she couldn't watch him die again. She told him that she couldn't lose him.
In "Graduation Day II", Buffy told him again that she wouldn't let him die - that she couldn't. She said it was never over and forced him to live, telling him he HAD to live.
4 years later, Buffy still can't risk Angel - "Chosen" - "I can't risk you".
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In "Faith, Hope, and Trick", Buffy dreams about Angel again. They are dancing.
In "The Prom", Buffy and Angel get to dance for real.
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The song Buffy and Angel dance to in "Faith, Hope and Trick" is called, "The Background" with lyrics like this:
Everything is quiet, Since you're not around
And I live in the numbness now
In the background
I don't see you anymore
Since the hospital
The plans I make still have you in them
'Cause you come swimmin' into view
And I'm hanging on your words like I always used to do
The words they use so lightly, I only feel for you
I only know because I carry you around
In the background
I felt you long after we were through
We were through
The plans I make still have you in them
'Cause you come swimming into view
And I'm hanging on your words like I always used to do,
The words we use so lightly, I only feel for you
I only know because I carry you around
In the background.
Particularly of interest are "the plans I make still have you in them", "the words they use so lightly, I only feel for you", and "I felt you long after we were through".
Tell me they aren't Buffy POV lyrics. Think Buffy, Angel, future, and "whether I see you or not, I feel you - inside".
Here are some of the lyrics from the song they danced to in "The Prom":
You know I can't let you,
slide through my hands
Wild Horses,
couldn't drag me away
Wild, wild horses,
couldn't drag me away
I watched you suffer,
a dull, aching pain
Now you decided,
to show me the same
No sweeping exits,
or off-stage lines
Can make me feel bitter,
or treat you unkind
I know I dreamed you,
a sin and a lie
I have my freedom,
but I don't have much time
Faith has been broken,
tears must be cried
Let's do some living,
after we die
Wild, wild horses,
we'll ride them someday
Wild, wild horses,
We'll ride them someday.
And think again of "End of Days" and "Chosen". I have my freedom (free of the hellmouth, free of the burden of being "the one", but I don't have much time (not nearly enough time to bask with him). You know I can't let you slide through my hands - "I can't risk you." I think the "no sweeping exits or off-stage lines" part is self-explanatory - for both then and now/Chosen.
And of course, Wild horses, we'll ride them someday. Hope - for "someday" - for B/A.
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In "Faith, Hope, and Trick", in Buffy's dream, her claddagh ring slips off her hand and onto the floor.
At the very end of the episode, she takes her ring, puts it on the floor in an effort to say goodbye but instead, it returns Angel from hell - to her.
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in "Helpless", Angel gives Buffy a book of poetry - "Sonnets of from the Portuguese", classic love poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning to her husband, Robert Browning. On the title page, Angel has written simply, "Always"
Later, in "Enemies", Angel asks if Buffy is still his girl and her reply echoes his to her in "Helpless" - a simple one word answer: "Always."
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I just love how they use the words always and forever and interweave them with Buffy and Angel.
Another interesting parallel that I hadn't considered before....but one I like.
In season 3's episode "Choices", Buffy and Angel are left in doubt about a potential future between them because of the whole vampire/slayer/curse issue. At the end of the episode, they have this dialogue, ironically in a graveyard:
Buffy: I don't know what the Mayor was talking about. How could he know anything about us?
Angel: Well, he's evil.
Buffy: Big time. He doesn't even know what a lasting relationship is.
Angel: No.
Buffy: Probably the only lasting relationship he's ever had is with evil.
Angel: Yeah.
Buffy: Big, stupid, evil guy. We'll be okay.
Angel: We will.
Flash forward 4 years to an episode called "Chosen" and Buffy and Angel finally start to think maybe it CAN work out. They clearly both want it to, there is no "we can't, no matter how much we may want it" - instead it's just hope for a future, hope that they might FINALLY one day work out. And the only romantic kiss Buffy shares with anyone.
Choices. Chosen.
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In "The Prom", Buffy tearfully asks Angel how she's supposed to stay away from him after he breaks up with her:
"Buffy: How am I supposed to stay away from you?"
In season 1 of AtS, "IWRY", after Angel has agreed to become a vampire with a soul again in order to keep Buffy alive, she says:
Buffy: "How am I supposed to go on with my life knowing what we had?
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In "The Gift", Buffy reminds Giles about how she had to sacrifice Angel to save the world - talks about how much she loved him, but she did it because she knew she had to.
In "Selfless", Buffy once again reminds her friends of her greatest heartbreak, her greatest sacrifice and pain. She killed Angel. And she would have given up everything she had to be with him. Because she loves him more than she WILL EVER love anything in this life.
The Gift, Selfless.
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The pictures are to show just how connected they really were together and apart.
Angel in peril – WML II and IWRY (1)
Angel in peril – WML II and IWRY (2)
Buffy and Angel's headstones (Angel)
Buffy and Angel's headstones (Buffy)
Taking care of each other – Earshot, Grad Day I (Buffy)
Taking care of each other – Earshot, Grad Day I (Angel)
Dying – Portals (Angel)
Dying – Portals (Buffy)
Crawling from their graves (Buffy)
Crawling from their graves (Angel)
Crazy in Alternate dimensions (Angel)
Crazy in Alternate dimensions (Buffy)
Body switches (Buffy)
Body switches (Angel)
Nightmares about the other one dying (Surprise, The Prom) (Buffy)
Nightmares about the other one dying (Surprise, The Prom) (Angel)
For the love of their “child” – mystical teens connected to portals (Buffy)
For the love of their “child” – mystical teens connected to portals (Angel)
