However, she often finds herself in perilous situations and relies on Buffy to save her.

Buffy reluctantly undergoes training in her abilities by Merrick, and as her responsibility as the Slayer causes her to become alienated from her valley girl peers, she finds friendship and romance with fellow outcast Pike ( Luke Perry ).

In the show's second season ( 1997 – 1998 ), Buffy continues to come to terms with her destiny, finds forbidden love with benevolent vampire Angel ( David Boreanaz ), and clashes with new villains Spike ( James Marsters ) and Drusilla ( Juliet Landau ).

Buffy eventually finds a new love interest in the form of Riley Finn ( Marc Blucas ), a soldier in the demon-hunting government task force known as the Initiative.

He finds it and attacks Buffy in daylight, but she wrests the ring from his finger and sends it to Angel.

The relationship is frequently violent, with Buffy most often initiating both the violence and the sex between them ; the violence is made all the easier when Spike finds that ( as a side effect of Willow's resurrection spell ) his chip now does not stop him from harming Buffy.

When Buffy briefly finds herself endowed with telepathic powers, she ' hears ' her mother remembering that Giles was " like a stevedore " during sex.

In the final issue, Xander and Dawn have settled into an apartment together in San Francisco, where they let Buffy live until she finds her own place.

On his third night as a wolf, Oz is nearly killed by werewolf hunter Gib Cain for his pelt, but is saved by Buffy and the Scooby Gang, with whose help he quickly finds a way to minimize the danger posed by the wolf: he locks himself into a cage for the appropriate nights, watched over by the Scoobies in shifts.

As his relationship with Dawn in " Potential " and his support of Buffy show, Xander finds that his real calling seems to be in his role as the " eternal supporter ".

While infiltrating a military installation two miles ( 3 km ) south of Sunnydale, Buffy attempts to break Ethan out of his cell, but instead finds him dead, having been shot and apparently killed by General Voll in " The Long Way Home, Part Four ".

When Buffy arrives in the school library, however, she finds that the new librarian, Giles ( Anthony Head ), is expecting her and ready to continue her training.

Buffy finds the Master on the roof of the library watching through windows in the ceiling.

Buffy and Willow begin attending college, an experience which overwhelms Buffy immediately as she finds herself far outside her comfort zone.

Buffy finds two of The Gentlemen's minions, kills one and runs after the other.

He turns to attack and finds himself face to face with Buffy.

The breaking of the spell finds Giles and Anya kissing, Willow atop Tara after a fall, and Spike and Buffy deep in mid-action conversation.

Spike finds Buffy at the Bronze, but she turns her face away and he stalks off.

* Buffy, who does not find any identification card and so calls herself Joan, retains her semi-maternal protectiveness towards Dawn, who finds out her name by looking at her " Dawn "- necklace, even before guessing they may be related.

When Buffy finds her weapons bag, the only thing in it is mud, which she smears on her face.

Buffy finds Angel imprisoned ; when she sees that he is a vampire, she initially rejects his help, but the marks of torture persuade her that he is no friend of the Master.

Giles has become Buffy's father figure following her parents ' divorce, and Buffy finds Joyce's attraction to Giles disquieting.

While fetching fancy company plates for a dinner with her friends, Buffy finds a dead cat.

First forming in the Season One episode " The Harvest " to prevent The Master from opening a portal to hell, the line-up of the group varied from year to year, but the core that remained intact throughout the series ' run was Buffy herself and her best friends, Xander Harris and Willow Rosenberg, as well as her Watcher, Rupert Giles.

In the beginning, Buffy often had to protect her friends from monsters, but over the course of the series most of them gained superpowers and fighting skills of their own, with Xander the only notable member with no mystical abilities or connection to the supernatural, though he does acquire extensive military knowledge thanks to a spell.

Due to the show's strong themes of female empowerment, the most powerful members of the team are often female ( Buffy and Willow ), while the men play passive roles such as that of father-figure ( Giles ) and supportive best friend ( Xander ).

However, after the events of the series finale, the Scoobies have, as stated above, been spread across the world, with Buffy and Xander maintaining a " command center " in Scotland.

The series begins as Buffy, Willow, and their friend Xander are in 10th grade and Willow is a shy and nerdy girl with little confidence.

She grows faint at the sight of monsters, but quickly forms a friendship with Buffy Summers ( Sarah Michelle Gellar ) and is revealed to have grown up as friends with Xander ( Nicholas Brendon ).

In the second season when the characters are in 11th grade, Willow becomes more sure of herself, standing up to the conceited Cordelia Chase ( Charisma Carpenter ), and approaching Xander, on whom she has had a crush for years, although it is unrequited as Xander is in love with Buffy.

Her relationships with Buffy and Xander become strained as they try to find their place following high school.

Willow becomes much more confident in college, finally finding a place that respects her intellect, while Buffy has difficulty in classes and Xander does not attend school.

Willow is able to escape with Buffy, Xander, Giles, and Kennedy as Sunnydale is destroyed.

Willow appears to Buffy and Xander, who are in charge of thousands of Slayers, a year after the destruction of Sunnydale.

Willow's earliest and most consistent relationships are with Buffy and Xander, both of whom she refers to as her best friends although they have their conflicts.

Willow is part of a powerful quartet: she represents the spirit, Giles intelligence, Xander heart, and Buffy strength of the Scoobies.

In the Tales of the Slayers comic one-shot " Broken Bottle of Djinn " ( 2002 ) by Doug Petrie and Jane Espenson, Buffy battles a spirit in Sunnydale High, while the Tales of the Vampires comic book story " Antique " ( 2004 ) by Drew Goddard sees her breaking into Dracula's castle to rescue Xander from the infamous vampire.

A pariah in the community of Slayers and former witches, Buffy moves to San Francisco where she lives with her sister and Xander, and resumes her former duties as Slayer: patrolling at night for vampires.

In Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine, Buffy continues slaying vampires in San Francisco but discovers a new threat: creatures dubbed " zompires " by Xander: feral and nearly mindless vampires created when vampires sire people after the destruction of the Seed, as demons can no longer enter this dimension to fully possess their bodies.

After years of relating more to Xander, he says, " Buffy was always the person that I was in that story because I'm not in every way.

The shallow cheerleader of the original film had grown more mature and open-minded, identifying with social outcasts such as Willow and Xander, and instead, the character of Cordelia was created to embody what Buffy once was.

He kidnaps Willow and Xander, and forces Willow to conduct a love spell for him to make Drusilla love him again, even coercing Buffy and Angel to help him in exchange for the safe return of their friends.

The excitement of a brawl with the Mayor's vampires helps him see that Drusilla left him because he had begun to go soft ; he resolves to win her back by torturing her until she likes him again, and tells Buffy where to find Willow and Xander.

( Though he still spars with Buffy, provided he has no real intent on harming her ) His inability to bite is comically compared to impotence, much to Spike's constant humiliation ; in " Doomed ", he attempts to commit suicide by staking himself at Xander's house, but is stopped by Willow and Xander.

Among his favorite targets are Angel, Xander, Giles, and ( to a lesser extent ) Buffy.

As the series progresses, Giles increasingly becomes a father figure to Buffy and her friends Willow ( Alyson Hannigan ) and Xander ( Nicholas Brendon ).