Summary
- Buffy and Angel’s post-resurrection reunion was never shown on screen, leaving audiences to wonder about what happened.
- The reunion between Buffy and Angel after her resurrection could have been one of the pair’s most emotionally powerful scenes.
- The Buffy comics also chose not to answer what happened during their reunion, suggesting that the creators wanted to leave it open-ended and allow viewers to imagine their own version of the scene.
Buffy Summers and Angel had many great moments across their two shows, Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel, but what could have been the best was never actually shown on TV. Buffy and Angel’s romance shaped much of the first three seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but their journey continued on even after Angel walked out of Sunnydale and into his own Los Angeles-based spinoff. Buffy and Angel had multiple crossovers, both the characters themselves and with supporting players.
The pair’s reunions led to some of their best moment, such as Angel season 1, episode 8, “I Will Remember You,” which gave them a shot at true happiness and then turned it into a heartbreaking twist. Sarah Michelle Gellar didn’t appear in Angel beyond season 1, episode 19, “Sanctuary”, although David Boreanaz did return as Angel for Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s final two episodes. Somewhere in between all that, though, is one reunion that would have been incredible to witness.
Buffy & Angel’s Post-Resurrection Reunion Could’ve Been Their Best Ever Scene
Audiences are given insight into how Angel reacts to Buffy’s death in Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 5, as Angel season 3 begins with him returning from a long break of working through his grief. The same can’t be said for Angel and Buffy’s reunion after her resurrection, although it is teased in both shows. The setup comes from Buffy season 6, episode 4, “Flooded,” where she has an off-screen phone call with Angel and arranges to meet him, intriguingly at “a place,” which is never specified. What happens is not shown on screen, though, and the closest to an answer comes in Buffy‘s next episode, “Life Serial,” where she describes it “intense” and wants to keep it to herself.
Given the long history Buffy and Angel have, and just how emotional, passionate, and, well, intense that relationship is, then their reunion must have been something monumental, especially as it wasn’t purely happy based on their reactions. There’s a hell of a lot to spill out there, from the joy of her being back to the trauma she was going through from being ripped out of heaven and everything in between. That has the makings of one of the most powerful scenes between the pair, which could have carried the full weight of their past and the present into an emotional blockbuster of a sequence.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer moved to UPN from season 6 onwards, while Angel remained on The WB. Being on separate networks made crossovers a lot more difficult from a contractual standpoint – although some did happen, these were often without the biggest stars (i.e. Gellar not returning for Angel) or relatively brief scenes. Especially during Buffy season 6 and Angel season 3, it seems as though having a big crossover reunion between the two wasn’t possible, which is why it happens off-screen.
Did Buffy’s Death Restore Her Memories Of Angel’s “I Will Remember You”? Theory Explained
While it’s unknown what happened when Buffy and Angel reunited after her death, one theory makes it even more powerful: that Buffy’s memories of their day together in “I Will Remember You” were restored. Since Buffy went to Heaven, then it’s possible she would be allowed to remember all the happiest moments of her life and see all that happened to her and those she cares about. This would then lift the magic that made her forget, and thus when she was resurrected she came back with those memories still intact.
There’s no confirmation either way, and certainly neither character alludes to this being the case, but the theory does hold some weight insofar as it fitting the missing scene. If that’s what Buffy and Angel talked about then it makes sense why neither would go into detail of what happened, and especially why Buffy would want to keep it to herself. There’d be an even greater mix of anguish, love, sacrifice, and likely anger because of that, and it’s something so deeply personal to them that having it as such a private moment would be right.
Even The Buffy Comics Refused To Answer What Happened When Buffy & Angel Reunited
The Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics continued the story and added a lot to canon, but while they went into what happened to Buffy after the show ended, they never revealed details of her and Angel’s reunion. Interestingly, though, it did come close: the Buffy the Vampire Slayer one shot comic Reunion (written by longtime Buffy writer Jane Espenson, with art by Paul Lee, Brian Horton, Ryan Sook, Randy Green, Eric Powell, and Chynna Clugston-Major, and color by Guy Major).
Reunion takes place after Buffy and Angel’s reunion (though its canonicity is debatable at best), and finds the rest of the Scooby Gang wondering what happened between them. Xander begins to imagine an encounter when Angel is in danger and needs Buffy’s help; Dawn envisages a romantic meet-up; Anya has them meeting at a Denny’s so Buffy can tell Angel a secret. However, every story is interrupted by a fire demon, which actually comes from a spell-gone-wrong by Willow and is able to infiltrate their subconsciousness before eventually being defeated by Buffy in the real world.
With this comic, it becomes even clearer that, while network logistics may have prevented the crossover, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer team ultimately didn’t want audiences to know what happened between Buffy and Angel after her resurrection. Given how big it would’ve been, and the challenge of living up to expectation versus the version viewers can have in their own heads, then that’s possibly for the best.