10 Greatest Giles Episodes of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’

On 5 June 2026, news broke that Anthony Head had passed away at the age of 72, and there was an understandable outpouring of sadness from those who’d appreciated his work in the past, not to mention tributes to the actor paid by both fans of his and actors he’d worked with. Head had a steady acting career over decades, and also boasted a pretty varied body of work on both the big screen and in the world of television, with notable roles played in movies like Repo! The Genetic Opera, and TV shows like Ted Lasso and Merlin.

The role he might be most beloved for, though, is that of Giles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Of all the cast members on that show, he was the fourth most regularly occurring character, being a member of the main cast for seasons 1 through 5, and then appearing as a recurring character throughout the final two seasons. He brought his A-game throughout all those appearances, but the following episodes stand out particularly so, doing a great deal for the character of Giles and providing undeniable stand-out moments for Head, as an actor.

10

“Lie to Me” (1997)

Season 2, Episode 7

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The second season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is where things start getting both more dramatic and largely better in quality overall, with “Lie to Me” not quite being the ultimate turning point, though it is a sign of darker things to come. Buffy runs into an old friend of hers who wants to become a vampire because he’s dying from a terminal illness, and he falls in with Spike, trying to get the new-to-Sunnydale vampire to sire him.

It happens at the end, but Buffy and Giles are prepared for it, waiting over Ford’s grave so that Buffy can stake/slay him, as she has to do. It’s a naturally more personal and morally difficult kill for Buffy than the usual kind of slaying, and it makes her reflect on the challenges of being the Slayer going forward. She talks to Giles about this, and asks him to lie to her about her probable future, which is where Giles gets to sarcastically drop one of the season’s best lines:

“The good guys are always stalwart and true. The bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats. And, uh, we always defeat them and save the day. No one ever dies and… everybody lives happily ever after.”

9

“Prophecy Girl” (1999)

Season 1, Episode 12

Okay, there was some shade directed toward season 1 just then, but the first season does conclude with “Prophecy Girl,” and it is the first properly great episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The prophecy states that Buffy is to die while fighting the Master (season 1’s big bad), and it’s the first time she – and you, as a viewer – really feel the emotional weight of her situation and bleak destiny.

She does die, albeit temporarily, and of course that’s going to happen when the show’s seven seasons long, and this is only the 12th episode overall. But it creates compelling drama either way, with Sarah Michelle Gellar getting to be the obvious MVP, but Head’s Giles is also given more dramatic material here than he had up until this point in the show, with both cast members’ acting doing a lot to elevate an already very compellingly written episode.

8

“The Gift” (2001)

Season 5, Episode 22

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Another season finale, “The Gift” concludes season 5, and was done in a way where it could’ve been the series finale, had the show not been brought back, on another network, for a sixth and then seventh season. Buffy and the other Scoobies have their final battle with Glory, who’s a full-on God, albeit one who shares a body with a mortal man named Ben, switching back and forth between one and the other.

It’s Giles who gets his hands dirty by killing Ben before he switches back to Glory, with it being perhaps the character’s darkest moment, even if doing so is something that helps save the world. Of course, it pales in comparison to Buffy’s sacrifice at the end of “The Gift,” which is the most memorable part of the episode, and an all-time iconic scene within the show overall, but what this episode does for Giles, as a character, also shouldn’t be overlooked.

7

“Helpless” (1999)

Season 3, Episode 12

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The premise of “Helpless” is an inherently quite frightening one, as it sees Buffy temporarily stripped of her Slayer powers, and made to take part in a cruel test that involves surviving and defeating a vampire. It’s done by the Watcher’s Council, who are notoriously terrible, given what they put Slayers through, even outside the extreme tests one finds in an episode like “Helpless.”

Giles is torn between his loyalty to the Council, and his loyalty to Buffy, and while the episode does make Giles and Buffy clash, the whole ordeal does convince Giles to distance himself further from the Council. Their bond is strengthened in the long run, since Giles sticks by Buffy in the end, even if the Council has fired him and he’s no longer Buffy’s official Watcher (which leads to the introduction of Wesley, who’s a frustrating goofball more loyal to the Council, all before he gets a compelling character arc later on, when he makes the jump to Angel).

6

“Innocence” (1998)

Season 2, Episode 14

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Since “Innocence” deals with the events immediately following on from Angel reverting into Angelus (Angel without a soul, basically), it’s a particularly Buffy-focused episode, since so much of the show up until this point had been about her falling in love with Angel. The two have sex for the first time in the previous episode, this makes Angel lose his soul, and then Buffy struggles with him starting to rampage around while beating herself up for some time, feeling responsible.

Buffy does keep on fighting, though, and Giles also gets a moment to shine near the episode’s end, talking to Buffy in his car and telling her it’s not her fault and that he still supports her. This is one scene in the overall episode, but it was one that people were bringing up surprisingly often while remembering Head’s finest moments on the show, since the warmth and compassion Giles exudes here feels incredibly sincere, and progressive for the time, as he’s an authority/father figure not blaming a female character for her sexual behavior (and it can’t be delved into in detail here, but there is a history of female – and some male – characters, particularly in supernatural/horror stories, effectively being punished for having sex).

5

“Tabula Rasa” (2001)

Season 6, Episode 8

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“Tabula Rasa” occurs right after the musical episode, which will be broken down in a bit. It’s not convenient to talk about the second half first, when the two episodes are almost a two-parter, but that musical episode does deserve a better placement ranking-wise. Anyway, certain things are revealed during the musical episode, and while everyone is coming down from all the singing, dancing, and uncomfortable truths, Willow tries to make some things forgotten, through magic, but the spell goes wrong and everyone forgets too much.

After waking up with amnesia, Giles ends up assuming he might be married to Anya, and then Spike and Giles both come to the conclusion that they’re related, and all that’s undeniably funny, and the episode’s admirably committed to its high-concept premise. “Tabula Rasa” does get more somber by the episode’s end, though, with Willow and Tara’s relationship permanently affected for the worse, and Giles committing to leaving Sunnydale and returning to England (and it’s from this point on, in the series, that Giles becomes more of a recurring character than a true main one).

4

“A New Man” (2000)

Season 4, Episode 12

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There are some slower and less amazing episodes in season 4, truth be told, but it would be wrong to call it a bad season of television. It’s more the case that it’s just not quite as consistent as season 3, and it doesn’t quite have as many highs as the more dramatic second and fifth seasons (a couple of characters leaving the show post-season 3 didn’t help, since Angel and Cordelia went over to Angel, and then there were some growing pains with the setting going from high school to college).

But to stick with the positives, and to stick with Giles, he gets one of his best episodes in season 4, with “A New Me.” This does for Giles what “The Zeppo” in season 3 did for Xander, as he’s the center of this one, getting turned into a demon who can’t speak English, and forced to fend for himself while trying to return to his human form. It’s been described as a midlife crisis episode for Giles, and it’s also fun/novel to see a main character put in the sort of extensive make-up and prosthetics usually only reserved for certain villainous characters. Giles is, for this one episode, the monster of the week, in effect.

3

“Band Candy” (1998)

Season 3, Episode 6

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“Band Candy” is Head’s finest comedic hour, since this episode’s premise involves the adults of Sunnydale falling under a spell that makes them revert to their teenage selves. Giles does not get out of this, and acts in an incredibly different way than he had always been up until that point, with the episode laying out how he used to have a rebellious streak as a teenager, and went by the nickname “Ripper.”

Ripper Giles is obviously interesting/fun to get some insight into, but that he looks like grown-up Giles (with different hair and after losing the glasses, admittedly) obviously makes him funny, too. And he strikes up a brief fling with Buffy’s mom, who’s also acting like a teenager again, and while all that’s all obviously horrifying for Buffy, it’s funny when you’re on the other side of the TV screen.

2

“Once More, with Feeling” (2001)

Season 6, Episode 7

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Anyone who appears in “Once More, with Feeling” can have it count as one of their best episodes, since it’s an all-around very strong musical episode that gives pretty much everyone at least a moment or two to shine (with the possible exception of Alyson Hannigan, who reportedly didn’t want to be given too much to sing). Anthony Head has always been a singer on top of an actor, though, so he really got to shine in this musical episode.

His singing was previously heard in “Restless,” albeit in a dream sequence, but he gets one solo song here (“Standing”), and then participates in a few of the ensemble numbers. “Once More, with Feeling” is also an important episode for the character of Giles, since he grapples with the conflict of how much he can – or should – be involved in Buffy’s life, with what she’s going through at that particular moment as someone who’s now been an adult for several years. That Head is, as mentioned before, perhaps the best singer in the main cast (though Amber Benson, as Tara, is also worth a shout-out) does also help him make a particularly strong impression here.

1

“Passion” (1998)

Season 2, Episode 17

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“Passion” is one of the heaviest episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and gives Giles what’s probably his most dramatic hour in the show’s entire run. In that sense, it gives Anthony Head a lot to do, as an actor, and he really rises to the occasion, intensifying what is an already grim and emotionally harrowing episode: the first to have a significant non-villainous character die.

It is the “Jenny dies” episode, to put it bluntly, but it’s also a bit more interesting than that, given that it doesn’t happen right at the end of the episode, meaning parts of “Passion” deal with the immediate aftermath of that death, and Giles’ almost suicidal attempts to avenge her murder. Giles discovering Jenny’s body, and then the sequence where he breaks down after nearly dying while trying to murder Angelus, are two of the very best scenes in the whole of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s run.