Vampire Weekend: 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' Marathon on Logo

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Feminist icons don't get any more awesome than Buffy Summers. The vampire slayer's girly wardrobe masked a kick-ass fortitude that helped her easily vanquish bloodsuckers, demons and even gods as she saved the world numerous times over the course of seven seasons.

Though the first five seasons of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" were inarguably better than the last two, which were broadcast on UPN after switching from the WB, the entire series documented the growth of a young woman trying to stay human while nearly everything inhuman wanted to take her out. With reruns on the cable network Logo, "Buffy" is continuing its run on TV more than a decade after it premiered in 1997 (watch a full episodes of Buffy here).

And Logo knows it's got a good thing going, which is why the network is inviting fans to vote for their favorite 10 episodes of "Buffy" online; the 30 with the most votes will be shown from Friday, June 11, to Sunday, June 13. With 144 episodes to choose from, that may seem like a daunting task. But hopefully, fans will vote the three below into the top 30 — after all, who doesn't like a shirtless David Boreanaz or epic sacrifice? Those are two of the best plot elements "Buffy" had to offer.

"ANGEL": Season one, episode seven
In the dark world of Sunnydale, Calif., vampire slayer Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) has few allies: Willow (Alyson Hannigan), the nerdy, sincere one; Xander (Nicholas Brendon), Willow's slacker best friend who has a crush on Buffy; Giles (Anthony Stewart Head), Buffy's Watcher, fatherly mentor figure and school librarian; and the mysterious Angel (David Boreanaz), a dreamy guy with an endless supply of black suits and penchant for keeping in the shadows.

But only seven episodes in to the first season of the show, Buffy and Angel can't fight their attraction for each other, kissing in her bedroom — until she realizes the dude she's been jonesing for is actually a vampire. What follows next is a classic "Romeo and Juliet" tale that explains how the vampire got a soul back (a curse from a Gypsy clan as punishment for his murder of their favorite daughter) and displays Angel's dedication to Buffy as he dusts Darla, the vampire who turned him, so she can't kill the slayer.

Although the episode ends with the teenage slayer and centuries-old vampire vowing to stay away from each other, the final image — of Buffy's cross burned into Angel's chest when they give each other a good-bye kiss — hinted at the importance of their relationship and how its unexpected nature would impact the rest of the series. And since then, the divide between fans regarding whom Buffy should have ended up with romantically — Angel, human Riley or former foe Spike — has been pretty marked. Add one vote to the Angel column, please.

"PASSION": Season two, episode 17
Simply put, "Passion" is the episode that changed everything about "Buffy." Yes, the heroine had died at the end of the first season, and yes, Angel became evil in the second season episode "Surprise" after he and Buffy made love, giving him a moment of pure happiness that turned him back into the murderous Angelus (thanks a lot, Gypsy curse).

But viewers at that point were so used to Angel being the helpful baddie-gone-good that his evil actions in "Passion" were stunning in their brutality: After learning that Jenny Colander, a teacher at Sunnydale High who was beginning a relationship with Giles, was actually a member of the Gypsy clan who had originally given Angel back his soul, Angelus decided to murder her to ensure that her spell restoring his soul would never be completed.

Snapping her neck wasn't enough, though: Angelus also tortured the librarian by propping up Jenny's body in Giles's bed and making it look a romantic scene planned for a lover. That was the moment when Buffy realized her boyfriend was really gone, and Angelus had to be killed, which set up the emotionally wrenching two-part second season finale, "Becoming."

"THE GIFT": Season five, episode 22
Maybe you're shocked that "The Gift" is the last episode in this trio of awesome, not "Hush," the nearly dialogue-less fourth-season episode, or "Once More, With Feeling," the sixth-season episode that featured all of the cast breaking into song. But while both of those episodes were effective extremes, "The Gift" presented what viewers feared all along: that one day the wisecracking heroine would die. And she did, not only fulfilling the premise that Buffy's "gift is death" but that her willingness to sacrifice herself for others was her greatest strength.

It was depressing but fitting, and though the next two seasons were horribly dark because of Buffy's untimely return from Heaven, "The Gift" cemented Buffy's role as society's greatest — and most sympathetically tormented — protector.

Written by Express contributor Roxana Hadadi
Photo by Justin Lubin/20th Century Fox