The Angel Season Summaries includes a tagline, summary, main cast and recurring characters.
Season One
Season One (Welcome To The Hellmouth - Prophecy Girl)
Buffy goes to a new town and school to battle high school, new friends, enemies and a powerful vampire called the Master.
Buffy Summers: short, blonde, hair on top and keeps a wooden stake in her bag. Expelled from her old school for burning down the gym, Buffy is jumping at the chance for a new life away from Hemery and her past. She makes friends with nerd Willow and class-clown Xander, who falls for her. However, her duty as...a Vampire Slayer...blah blah vampires are real...evil....come back to nip her in the neck. Worst, the stuffy librarian at her school turns out to be her new Watcher who is overtly British and annoying. Poor Buffy tries to get a normal life but once again she's dragged in when her new friends Willow and Xander are kidnapped by vampire master called...The Master. She saves them but at the cost of their friend Jesse and her secret identity.
Character Developments:
Buffy: Tries to balance slaying with life. Finally accepts her responsibility and destiny as the Slayer.
Willow: Becomes Buffy's friend and part of the gang.
Xander: Becomes Buffy's friend and part of the gang.
Giles: Develops a friendship with Buffy.
Angel: Falls in love with Buffy.
Cordelia: Finds herself involved in Buffy and the gang's plans.
Love Developments:
Buffy/Angel: Even after finding out that Angel is a vampire, Buffy falls in love with him.
Buffy/Xander: Xander develops a crush on Buffy but she tells him that she only wants to be friends.
Willow/Xander: Has a childhood crush on Xander but he doesn't notice.
Giles/Jenny: Start flirting.
Cast: SMG (Buffy), AH (Willow), NB (Xander), ASH (Giles), CC (Cordelia), DB (Angel)
Recurring Characters: Joyce, Principal Flutie, Snyder, The Master.
Season Two
Season Two (When She Was Bad - Becoming)
Buffy continues to battle highschool and demons as two new vampires move into town and her relationship with Angel escalates and ends in tears.
Life is sweet for Buffy. Master dead? Check! Or so she thought. Cliff Notes version: Master resurrected. Buffy trauma. Of dying. Master dead. Buffy sane again. Anyway, two new vampires come to Sunnydale, old friends of Angelus. Spike, blonde-vampire-british-accent-cool-leather-coat and his undead girlfriend Drusilla the insane-sired-by-Angelus-vampire pop into Sunnydale to shake things up. Spike's already killed to Slayers and wants to mount Buffy's head on his wall too. The blood couple stake the Annoying One and get their own gang together. Spike plans to revive his weak pale-r Drusilla back to full health.
While that plans going afoot, Angel is nabbed by Spike for the ritual. Buffy's miffed and even more so when Kendra pops up in Sunnydale. Voila! There's apparently two Slayers now: Buffy died. Kendra become Slayer. Buffy CPR alive again. Kendra is all Slayer business. However she lends a hand. Meanwhile, Xander and Cordelia have secret romances in the janitor's closet, much to everyone's yuck. Willow is majorly wrecked but gets over it. And into Oz the werewolf's arms. Even though he tried to eat her. The TWO vampire-slaying vixens stop Spike's show, ending with Buffy hitting him on the head with a lamp. Its not as ridiculous as it sounds, I promise. Angel's saved. Kendra leaves and Buffy is comforted by the fact that she's now one of two freaks in the world. Unbeknownst to them, out of the darkness rises a fully-revived Drusilla, holding poor battered and wheel chair contained Spike. Oh, the irony.
All's well again and our heroes a coupling. Xander-Cordelia, Willow-Oz and Buffy-Angel. Even Giles is getting some luvin' from Computer Science teacher pagan witch Jenny. Drusilla and Spike-on-wheels are up to no good again. Meanwhile, Buffy and Angel heat things up and finally sleep together. Alas, somethings wrong. In the midst of the night, Angel runs out, staggering and tripping over himself. He cries out in pain, calling to Buffy. Something flashes through him. When he rises, he is Angelus.
Buffy is devastated by the big meany Angelus, who has joined his old pals Drusilla and Spike. But Buffy can't stake her ex, she still loves him. So she settles for kicking him in the... Meanwhile, Jenny gets exposed as being a spy from the gypsy clan that originally cursed Angel. She gives them the number on the curse: Angel is meant to suffer for his crimes. If he ever experiences a moment of perfect happiness, where his soul no longer plagues him, then that soul is taken from him! Wow, dramatic much? Giles is feeling all betrayed and dumps that dreadful Calender woman.
Meanwhile, poor Spike is feeling jealous as Angelus and Drusilla flirt overtime. Angelus stalks and hounds Buffy day and night, turning her into a basket case. Willow's poor fish! Gypsy-Jenny finds a way to re-ensoul Angel and hopefully find her way into Giles' good graves. Angelus hears and after a lot of running and chasing around the stairs, kills Jenny. Giles is devastated, swearing vengeance and etc. Meanwhile, Spike recovers from his wheelchair and doesn't tell Angelus and Dru.
Once again, the vampire-trio are making bad mojo by raising a big block of wood to hopefully doom the entire world. However, the stone called Acathla lost the manual and Angelus, being a mass-murderer-small-brain needs some help. Meanwhile, Kendra pops by again to help the gang. Willow finds Jenny's spell to re-ensoul Angel and wants to try it. Buffy finally faces off Angelus. However, it turns out the mass-murderer-small-brain has smarts after all. It's a trap. Buffy runs slow-motion back to the library. Giles is gone, abducted by Angelus to help him with Acathla. The gang are hospitalized and Kendra is dead. Who's to blame? Buffy. That's what the police think.
Buffy's a fugitive. Shock horror, Spike appears and wants to help Buffy. He's majorly miffed at Angelus at taking away his girlfriend. He makes a deal that he'll help and afterwards he and Drusilla will leave Sunnydale. Meanwhile, Buffy-mum Joyce is miffed that her daughter's a fugitive suspected for murder. She's even more miffed when Buffy tells her the big secret. A Slayer?! Have you tried not being a Slayer? Poor Joyce can't handle and Buffy doesn't have time. The two have a row and it ends with Buffy getting disowned. Meanwhile, Giles gets all tortured. Eventually, Angelus gets Giles to spill by using Drusilla's hypno mojo. The gang are recovering. Willow plans to re-soul Angelus again. Buffy is marching off to save Giles, with Whistler-old-demon-know-it-all's info. However, its too late. When is it not? Angel has started the ritual, using his blood to awaken big-stony Acathla. Xander rescues Giles. Spike betrays his vampire friends, knocks out the protesting Drusilla and drives her out of Sunnydale, unconscious.
Meanwhile, Buffy and Angelus are left sword-fighting while Acathla prepares to awaken and suck the world into hell. Switch scenes to the hospital, Willow is working some scary mojo and it's working. Just at the moment that Buffy gets the advantage and prepares to whack off Angelus' head seven days from Sunday, a big whiff of wind/magic courses through him. When he gets up, he is Angel. Poor Buffy is conflicted. She and Angel have some smoochies, hugs and big reunion. But out of the corner of her eye, she sees Acathla about to kill them all. She tells Angel to close his eyes. Then with a big gesture, runs him through with a sword and right into Acathla's portal, his blood ending the ritual. Thanks, Whistler. The world is saved, but all Buffy can do is cry.
Next day, the gang see the world is okay. They don't know what happened between Buffy and Angelus, but she isn't here at school today. Screen wipe to Buffy's house, Joyce finds a note on Buffy's bed; she's gone. Screen-wipe again, Buffy's got a bag with clothes and belonging's, she hops on a bus and rides on out of Sunnydale. Come back soon!
Character Developments:
Buffy: Gets kicked out of school. Gets kicked out of her home after her mother discovers that she is the Slayer. Leaves Sunnydale.
Willow: Develops an interest in magic.
Xander: Gets over Buffy.
Giles: We learn that Giles used to be involved in dark magic.
Angel: Loses his soul and becomes Angelus. Is then sent to Hell by Buffy.
Cordelia: Reluctantly becomes part of the gang.
Spike: Gets stuck in a wheelchair. Eventually, makes a deal with Buffy and leaves Sunnydale.
Oz: Joins the gang after learning about vampires.
Jenny: Is killed by Angelus.
Joyce: Learns that Buffy is the Slayer but can't handle the truth.
Love Developments:
Buffy/Angel: They sleep together but Angel loses his soul. Buffy is forced to send Angel to Hell, even after he got his soul back.
Willow/Oz: Their friendship eventually turns to love.
Xander/Cordelia: Strangely, they start making out but it eventually becomes genuine love.
Giles/Jenny: Giles finds out Jenny's secret and they break up. Later, they make up but Jenny is killed by Angelus.
Spike/Drusilla: Spike becomes jealous of Angelus and betrays him, taking Drusilla away.
Drusilla/Angelus: Flirting and possibly more, it drives Spike crazy.
Cast: SMG (Buffy), AH (Willow), NB (Xander), ASH (Giles), CC (Cordelia), DB (Angel/Angelus)
Recurring Characters: Spike, Drusilla, Joyce, Oz, Snyder, Kendra.
Season Three
Season Three (Anne - Graduation Day)
Buffy returns to Sunnydale and meets the new Slayer, Faith who has a dark side.
After a trip to hell and Oz's cool yet hopeless attempt at throwing a stake at a vampire, we find our Slayer returned to Sunnydale, but not all is well. The gang and her mum are having mixed feelings about Buffy's return, which coincidentally explodes at the same time when they're attacked by dead people. After some fighting against evil (and each other), Buffy pops back into school where Snyder is less than thrilled. Soon, a feisty new leather clad Slayer called Faith drops into Sunnydale. She's the polar opposite of Kendra. After some snarling over chips, Buffy and Faith are happy compadres.
However, just as Buffy seems to be moving on, shock-horror, Angel returns from Hell, with no reason. Or clothes. Naturally, our little Slayer is shocked and decides to keep Angel hidden from her friends. Buffy and Angel decide to just be friends. As if. Of course, this plan backfires when Xander sneaks a peek and spots Buffy and Angel tonguing each other. Her friends are miffed and Buffy's excuse is that it was an accident. Her lips just happened to fall onto Angel's. After some forgiveness and Lagos killing, Buffy manages to convince everyone that she and Angel are strictly friends. Everyone but herself. So, on Buffy and Angel go. Playing the little act of friends, dancing around each other etc.
Meanwhile, the other couples are exactly doing great either. Willow and Xander become lust puppies in their formal wear which leads to kissing, tipsy toeing and a roll in an abandoned factory. Where Cordelia and Oz find them. Horrified, Cordelia gets literally staked when she runs from the scene, dodgy stair support, collapses and gets impaled on a steel rod. This leads to major drama resulting in Cordelia and Xander breaking up and hating each other again, Oz getting hurt but deciding to give Willow another chance. Another chance results in Barry White music but Oz tells Willow that he wants to wait.
On the Watcher/Slayer front, Giles gets fired by the Watcher's Council after he's told that he has an unprofessional fatherly affection for his charge, Buffy. After a psycho Watcher pops by and gets electrocuted, Buffy and Faith are given a new Watcher, very British and very cowardly called Wesley. Obviously Buffy and Faith are resentful, especially since Wesley doesn't have the cookies nor attitude to handle them.
Character Developments:
Buffy: Experiments with the dark side. Realizes she can never leave Sunnydale, because she is the Slayer.
Willow: Decides to stay in Sunnydale because she realizes it's a fight worth fighting for.
Xander: Decides not to go to college.
Giles: Loses his position as a Watcher.
Angel: Haunted by questions as to why he isn't being tortured in Hell, he goes on a path of redemption in LA.
Cordelia: Loses everything after her parents are caught for evading their taxes.
Oz: Gives Willow another chance. Graduates.
Anya: Becomes human. Struggles with human life.
Faith: Accidentally kills a human and turns to the dark side. Falls into a coma after fighting with Buffy.
Wesley: Struggles with a rogue Slayer, Faith, and Buffy who decides not to take the Watcher's orders anymore.
Love Developments:
Buffy/Angel: Angel returns from Hell but realizes he and Buffy can never have a future and leaves Sunnydale to go to LA.
Willow/Oz: Given a second chance, the two rebuild trust and sleep together.
Willow/Xander: Become attracted to each other and are caught kissing.
Xander/Cordelia: They break up after Willow and Xander are caught kissing.
Xander/Faith: He loses his virginity to Faith.
Cordelia/Wesley: Some kissing but go their separate ways after Graduation.
Spike/Drusilla: Spike reveals that Drusilla broke up with him once they were out of Sunnydale.
Cast: SMG (Buffy), AH (Willow), NB (Xander), ASH (Giles), CC (Cordelia), DB (Angel), SG (Oz)
Recurring Characters: Faith, Scott Hope, Wesley, The Major, Joyce, Anya.
Season Four
Season Four (Freshmen - Restless)
Buffy enters the new and frightening world of college while moving on from Angel and learns of a secret government demon hunting operation beneath the campus.
Character Developments:
Buffy: Survives college with limbs and friends intact.
Willow: Realizes she is a lesbian.
Xander: Feels lost and an outsider in Willow and Buffy's new lives.
Giles: No longer a Watcher or librarian, Giles is just as lost and an outsider as Xander.
Oz: Confused about him and the wolf inside, he leaves Sunnydale.
Spike: Becomes a neutered vampire and grudgingly starts helping the gang.
Riley: His entire world involving the Initiative is destroyed. Becomes a fugitive.
Love Developments:
Buffy/Riley: A normal innocent relationship changes when they learn each other's real identities but are determined to continue it anyway.
Buffy/Angel: Agree to stay away from each other.
Willow/Oz: Willow is devastated when Oz cheats on her and leaves Sunnydale. When he returns, she chooses Tara.
Willow/Tara: Their friendship turns into love.
Xander/Anya: An awkward relationship turns into real love.
Cast: SMG (Buffy), AH (Willow), NB (Xander), ASH (Giles), SG (Oz), MB (Riley)
Recurring Characters: Professor Walsh, Adam, Forrest, Graham, Tara, Angel, Anya.
Season Five
Season Five (Buffy vs. Dracula - The Gift)
Buffy gains a new sister who proves to be a challenge and key to the world's future, while Buffy's mom's health takes a turn for the worst.
Character Developments:
Buffy: Focuses on Slayer training. Struggles with her mother's illness and death, along with a new sister.
Willow: Her magic continues to grow as does her leadership when Buffy is catatonic and Giles is hospitalized.
Xander: Settles down with a steady job, apartment and Anya, who he proposes to.
Giles: Is reinstated as a Watcher and opens his own business, The Magic Box.
Dawn: Discovers she is The Key.
Spike: Falls in love with Buffy.
Riley: Feeling lost and unloved, he leaves to join the army.
Anya: Gets a job at The Magic Box.
Tara: Becomes part of the gang.
Joyce: Dies on her couch from a brain tumour.
Love Developments:
Buffy/Riley: Riley realizes that Buffy doesn't really love him and leaves. Buffy realizes that she really loves Riley but is too late.
Buffy/Spike: Buffy is horrified when Spike professes his genuine love for her, but eventually trusts him as a friend.
Willow/Tara: Tara is turned insane by Glory but Willow finds a way to save her.
Xander/Anya: They get an apartment together and Xander proposes to her.
Spike/Harmony: Harmony finally walks out on Spike.
Spike/Drusilla: Drusilla comes to take Spike back, but he's already fallen in love with Buffy.
Cast: SMG (Buffy), AH (Willow), NB (Xander), ASH (Giles), MB (Riley), JM (Spike), MT (Dawn), EC (Anya)
Recurring Characters: Joyce, Glory, Ben, Tara.
Season Six (Bargaining - Grave)
Buffy returns from heaven as the entire gang as adults fall apart with secrets, magic, addictions and misery.
Character Developments:
Buffy: Pulled out of heaven, she finds a reason to live (and fight) again.
Willow: Becomes a magic junkie and tries to end the world.
Xander: Leaves Anya at the altar and saves the world.
Giles: Leaves Sunnydale to return to England.
Dawn: Becomes a kleptomaniac.
Spike: Tries to rape Buffy. Gets a soul.
Anya: Becomes a vengeance demon again.
Tara: Is killed by Warren.
Love Developments:
Buffy/Spike: Sleep together. A lot. Buffy dumps Spike after she realizes she's just using him to make herself better. Spike tries to rape Buffy.
Willow/Tara: Willow does a spell on Tara, who breaks up with her when she finds out. Eventually, the two make up but Tara is killed by Warren.
Xander/Anya: Xander leaves Anya at the altar on their wedding day because he realizes that they're both not ready for that kind of commitment. Anya is devastated.
Anya/Spike: They have a fling after getting drunk and depressed.
Riley/Sam: Riley is now happily married.
Cast: SMG (Buffy), AH (Willow), NB (Xander), JM (Spike), MT (Dawn), EC (Anya)
Recurring Characters: Giles, Clem, Tara, Warren, Jonathon, Andrew, Amy.
Season Seven (Lessons - Chosen)
Buffy learns that the First is killing all potential Slayers and that she is the only one to protect them all against this ancient evil.
Character Developments:
Buffy: Becomes the leader of an army in a war.
Willow: Struggles the find the balance between good and evil magic.
Xander: Loses his eye.
Giles: Comes back to Sunnydale with Potentials.
Anya: Struggles with demon life, she chooses to be a human again. She's killed in the final battle.
Spike: Comes back with a soul and saves the world, but sacrifices himself.
Dawn: Trains to fight with Buffy.
Andrew: Joins the gang.
Faith: Comes to help Buffy out.
Love Developments:
Buffy/Spike: Confess their love for each other.
Buffy/Robin: Go out on a date.
Willow/Kennedy: After a nervous beginning, they fall in love.
Xander/Anya: Admit they will always love each other, but their relationship is over.
Faith/Robin: Their fling may turn out to be much more.
Cast: SMG (Buffy), AH (Willow), NB (Xander), JM (Spike), EC (Anya), MT (Dawn)
Recurring Characters: Giles, Faith, Robin Wood, Andrew.