Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Lore & Background

In the episode, Xander plans to give Cordelia a silver necklace for Valentine's Day, but she breaks up with him under pressure from her friends. Heartbroken, Xander blackmails Amy Madison into casting a love spell on Cordelia so he can take revenge by breaking up with her. Because his intent is impure, the spell goes wrong: Cordelia, protected by the necklace, becomes the only woman unaffected, while all other women in Sunnydale become obsessed with Xander. The chaos escalates as Buffy attempts to seduce Xander, Amy turns Buffy into a rat, and a mob of love-crazed girls pursues Xander and Cordelia. Giles and Amy eventually lift the spell, and Cordelia reconciles with Xander, standing up to her friends.

Reader's Guide

The episode is frequently discussed for its thematic parallels to Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, particularly regarding the dangerous nature of love spells and the importance of intent. Essayist Theresa Basile notes that the spell backfires either because Cordelia already loved Xander or because Xander's intentions were not pure. Reception has been mixed: Vox ranked it #68 out of 144 Buffy episodes, praising its tonal balance between slapstick and horror. Noel Murray of The A.V. Club commended Nicholas Brendon's comic and emotional performance. Reviewer Billie Doux called it a delight, while Mark Oshiro observed that the episode confronts Xander's past behavior regarding consent, making it both terrifying and hilarious. The episode is significant for advancing Xander's character arc and for its exploration of revenge, consent, and the consequences of magic.

Did You Know?

• The episode was written by Marti Noxon and first broadcast on The WB on February 10, 1998.
• Cordelia is protected from the love spell by the silver necklace Xander gave her.
• Amy Madison turns Buffy into a rat during the episode.
• Essayist Theresa Basile compares the episode's treatment of love spells to Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Broadcast History & Season Structure

The second season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer hit The WB's airwaves on September 15, 1997, and ran its full twenty-two-episode arc through May 19, 1998. The season's scheduling tells a small but telling story about the show's growing confidence. The opening thirteen episodes were slotted into Monday nights at 9:00 pm Eastern Time, a late-weekend positioning that kept the series in a familiar late-night groove. Beginning with episode fourteen, however, the producers made a deliberate shift, moving the show to Tuesday at 8:00 pm ET. That earlier, more accessible timeslot proved to be a permanent home; the series would hold that slot for the remainder of its entire run. This structural decision effectively repositioned Buffy from a niche late-night property to a more mainstream evening fixture, signaling to both the network and the audience that the show had earned a broader viewership. The twenty-two-episode order also gave writers considerably more room than the first season's shorter run, allowing for longer serialized arcs and deeper character development across the full year.

The Angel and Angelus Duality

The emotional and narrative spine of Season 2 is the slow-burn romance between Buffy and the ensouled vampire Angel, and the catastrophic unraveling that follows. Over the course of the season, the two fall deeply in love, their relationship building steadily until Buffy's seventeenth birthday, when they finally consummate their bond. That single moment of perfect happiness, however, is the precise trigger that strips Angel of his soul, transforming him back into the sadistic, evil Angelus. The rest of the season becomes a desperate race against this darkness. Jenny Calendar, a techno-pagan teacher who had been quietly embedded in Sunnydale to watch over Angel, is revealed to have failed in her mission and is ultimately murdered by Angelus, her body left as a grotesque gift for Giles. Buffy, unable to kill the man she loves, resorts to a brutal, personal act of defiance. By the finale, Angelus has set his sights on awakening Acathla, an ancient demon who once tried to swallow the world into Hell, and the entire Scooby Gang must rally to stop him.

Love, Loyalty, and the Expanding Scooby Gang

Season 2 is where the ensemble truly finds its romantic and social shape. Xander and Cordelia, two characters who had barely connected as a couple, begin an unlikely but genuine relationship that eventually earns both of them full membership in the Scooby Gang. Willow's arc takes a different turn: she falls for guitarist Daniel "Oz" Osbourne, a relationship complicated when Oz is bitten by his young cousin and transforms into a werewolf. Willow also steps into a new role, taking over Jenny Calendar's computer science class due to her exceptional aptitude, and through Jenny's notes and websites she discovers a deep fascination with witchcraft. Meanwhile, Giles' brief romance with Jenny is shattered when her true mission is exposed, and Willow's discovery of Xander and Cordelia's relationship causes a painful rift between the two longtime friends. These intertwined love stories are not mere subplots; they fundamentally reshape who each character is and how the group functions as a unit by the time the season closes.

New Threats and an Expanded Mythology

Season 2 dramatically widens the show's supernatural landscape. Two new vampires, Spike and the weakened Drusilla, arrive in Sunnydale with a sinister plan: to use Angel's blood in a ritual that will restore Drusilla to full strength. Spike, impatient with the rigid Order of Aurelius, murders the Anointed One and seizes informal leadership of the town's vampire community. The season also introduces Kendra Young, a new Slayer activated by Buffy's brief death at the end of Season 1, who is sent to Sunnydale by her Watcher under the pretense of a dark power rising at the Hellmouth. Buffy and Kendra are forced to cooperate to rescue Angel from Spike and the Order of Taraka, a horde of bounty hunters. The mythology escalates further with the resurrection of "The Judge," a seemingly invincible demon capable of burning humanity out of people, and culminates in the threat of Acathla, an ancient demon whose original ambition was to swallow the entire world into Hell.