"Don't you cry tonight, I still love you, baby. Don't you cry tonight. Don't you cry tonight, there's a heaven above you, baby. Don't you cry tonight."
~Guns N' Roses, "Don't Cry"

"I love you... I try not to, but I can't stop."
"If I was blind I could see you."
"Forever... that's the whole point. I'll never leave. Not even if you kill me."

Other than Romeo and Juliet, these two have by far the most complicated romance I've ever seen. It's tragic and forbidden, and in my opinion, with better reason than that of Romeo and Juliet.

They first met on Buffy's way to the Bronze the very first episode-"Welcome to the Hellmouth." They talked, and when she asked who he was, he said: "Let's just say I'm a friend." When she answered: "Maybe I don't want a friend," he said: "I didn't say I was yours." After tossing her a small box, he left, leaving her oblivious to his true nature.

They met again (in "The Harvest") inside a mausoleum when Buffy was on her way to rescue Jesse, Xander's best friend... in broad daylight. Here, she learned that his name was Angel. After this, they didn't see each other again until "Angel" when she was attacked by the Three (3 powerful vampires sent after her by the Master), and he saved her. (Personally, I don't know how she didn't realize what he was right there, because no one could be powerful enough to hit a vampire like that except another vampire or the Slayer and not break their hand.) They ran to her house, and she invited him in, not knowing what he was. She saw that he was wounded, and she bandaged him up.

When her mother got home, Buffy introduced Angel as her history tutor. After her mom went away, she snuck him up to her room, when he supposedly slept on the floor next to her bed. The next night, Buffy let it slip that she liked him when she thought that he had read her diary and he confessed that he wanted to kiss her. They kissed and as a result, he lost control and his game face slipped out. She screamed and he jumped out the window. The next day at school, Giles found out that Angel's real name was actually Angelus, and that he was 240 years old.

His jealous sire, Darla, went to Buffy's house and fed off of her mother. When Angel came in to save her, Darla left... leaving him with his game face on and holding Buffy's bleeding mother. When Buffy came in, she assumed that Angel had bitten her. She hunted him down, but gave him the chance to explain. Here she found out that about 80 years ago he fed off of a "beautiful, but dumb as a post" Romany gypsy girl who was a favorite among her clan. As a punishment, they restored his soul. Darla came in, shot Angel with two pistols she was hiding and engaged in a long fight with Buffy. Angel recovered and managed to sneak up and stake Darla. A few nights later, Angel and Buffy decided that they shouldn't see each other anymore. They kissed goodbye, and at the end, we see that she has accidentally burned her cross into his chest.

He didn't show up again until "Invisible Girl"(a.k.a. "Out of Mind, Out of Sight") where he saved Giles, Willow, and Xander from suffocating. They did not tell Buffy of their encounter with Angel.

They met again in "Prophesy Girl", when Buffy found out that she was supposed to die at the hands of the Master. When Xander told Angel that Buffy had gone up against the Master (and after threatening him with a cross), Angel agreed to take Xander to the Master's liar. There they found Buffy dead (drowned and with the Master's bite), and Xander revives her with CPR, for Angel had no breath.

Buffy was particularly cruel to him in "When She Was Bad" and did the infamous 'sexy dance' with Xander at the Bronze (to Cibo Matto's "Sugar Water") to make Angel jealous. When she got over the crisis of dying at the Master's hands by crushing his bones with a sledgehammer, she turned to Angel.

In "Some Assembly Required", Angel admits to being jealous of Xander because he gets to see her when Angel can't, and Buffy pointedly tells him that she doesn't love Xander. This is the beginning of their actual relationship, and we also get to see that Cordelia is relatively interested in Angel.

Their star-crossed romance comes up again in "Reptile Boy" where Angel gives Buffy the brush-off, telling her that one thing could lead to another(boy, was he right!) of they dated. She goes to a fraternity house with some college guy who in the end, we see he belongs to some demon-worshiping cult. We also get to see Willow uncharacteristically yell at Angel and Giles. Angel later changes his mind about the whole not dating thing.

Things develop rapidly and relatively smooth from there on. Angel lets Buffy know that he's not interested in Cordelia, and we see the first kiss of season two in "Halloween." Buffy gets jealous when she thinks that Angel is cheating on her with Drusilla(she doesn't know who Dru is yet), and Angel explains to her the whole story about how her drove Dru insane and sired her. She tells him that she loves him for the first time in "Lie to Me."

Buffy goes after Spike & Dru when they kidnap Angel in hopes of doing a ritual to restore Drusilla's strength in "What's My Line" parts 1 and 2. Buffy puts Spike temporarily in a wheelchair, but not before they manage to restore Drusilla's strength.

Things go smoothly for our favorite couple(at least mine, anyway) from here on. We take a glimpse at their make-out sessions in the graveyard in "Bad Eggs," and Buffy tending to his wounds on "Ted." Everything goes smoothly alright... that is, until they decide to sleep together in "Surprise," and from "Innocence" on, their relationship takes on a drastic turning point. We learn from Ms. Calendar(who belongs to the clan that cursed Angel) that if we ever had one moment of complete happiness and utter contentment, he would loose his soul.

For the following episodes, evil Angel tormented Buffy mentally by killing Ms. Calendar in "Passion," turning Theresa into a vampire(who Xander later kills) in "Phases," killing Willow's fish in "Passion"(it's nothing compared to the rest, but it had to be said), leaving drawings of her and her mother sleeping at night for her to find in the morning in "Passion," leaving flowers for her with a note saying 'soon' in "Bewitched, Bothered, & Bewildered," telling her mother that they had made love in "Passion," and finally, the last straw, kidnapping Giles and torturing him in order to get the information on how to open Acathla from him in "Becoming" parts 1 & 2.

She finally stabs him with a sword in this episode after he opened Acathla, but not before Willow had restored his soul. Willow had sent Xander to tell Buffy that she would be trying the curse again, but Xander had instead told her that Willow had said to "kick his ass." After stabbing Angel and sending him to Hell, she left town. Among other reasons she left was that her mother had kicked her out of the house after finding out that she was the Slayer, being charged for the murder of Kendra, which she did not commit, and being expelled.

For the next few episodes, Angel only appears in her dreams. It is not until "Faith, Hope, and Trick" that Angel gets back from Hell. After accepting a date from Scott(he had to do a lot of convincing, though), she went to the mansion and as a way of getting over Angel, she set the Claddagh ring down, she said goodbye. She left, and then we see Angel falling down, naked, next to the ring. Buffy doesn't notice.

He is very disturbed and doesn't see to remember who he is. In "All Men Are Beasts," he saves Buffy from a friend of Scott's who was drinking some potion that made him into a beast. He remembers who she is, falls to his knees and hugs her from there, and they both cry.

In "Homecoming," Buffy goes up against Cordelia for Homecoming Queen (they both loose in the end), and she tells Angel that she is involved with some one else. She tells him that Scott makes her happy, and that he is what she needs... some one she can count on. Then they immediately cut to Scott telling her that she's too distracted, and that he wants to break up. Angel accepts the fact that she is dating some one else. We see this in "Band Candy."

Everything is pretty quiet again until "Revelations." They are practicing Tai Chi, and they almost kiss. She leaves, and when she comes back later on, we see them involved in a very passionate kiss. She breaks off and scolds him for kissing her (although we don't really know what triggered the kiss).

"Lover's Walk" is probably one of the best episodes of the season. Spike comes back, breaking the deal he had made with Buffy to leave the country. He points out to Buffy and Angel the fact that they(Buffy and Angel) will never be friends. That they will love each other until they kill each other, but they would never be friends. Buffy decides that he is right, and tells Angel that she doesn't want to see him again.

Although a lot of people didn't like this episode, "Amends" was an incredible episode, in my opinion. Angel still wants Buffy, and he doesn't realize it until the First Evil, who claimed to have brought him back, showed both him and Buffy dreams of them making love. He attempts to commit suicide when the First Evil appears to him in the form of some of his past victims(Ms. Calendar being one of them), and refuse to forgive him and therefore fueling his hatred for himself. The First Evil tried to convince him that he should sleep with Buffy to loose his soul, and then to kill her. Buffy shows up and stops him from facing the sun for the first time in over two hundred years, and it starts snowing magically.

Angel makes Buffy realize that she is not fighting in vain in "Gingerbread." He tells her that she had taught him that the evil doesn't go away, but she can keep it from taking over the world, and that she needs to keep fighting.

Finally, it is her 18th birthday. They have two scenes together here. The episodes starts out with them training. He knocked her down falls on top of her, and she kicked him off from her and knocked HIM down. She took a loaf of bread, and pretended to stake him with the loaf of bread, landing on top of him. She asked if he was satisfied, and he said he's not sure if that's the word for it. Then she got up and started saying how he didn't get satisfaction in the personal sense, and he was like: "Of course." She told him that had plans for the weekend, when he asked if he could see her that weekend. He asked if it was a date, and she said that she did, and that it was an older man and handsome and that he loved it when she called him 'daddy.' He realizes that she is referring to her father.

They meet again in the same episode("Helpless") and he gave her a book for her birthday. She liked it, but didn't seem excited. He asked her what was wrong, and she answered that she was afraid of loosing all of her powers. She didn't know what she would do without them, or why would he like her. He told her that he had seen her before she was a Slayer and he like her for her heart.

In "The Zeppo", with the threat of the hellmouth wiping out life as we know it, Buffy and Angel tell each other, "I love you" Angel tells Buffy that nothing will change that, not even death. Buffy tells him, "Don't talk to me like that. You may be ready to die but I am not ready to lose you again". Luckily, the world doesn't end. *grin*

In "Bad Girls", Buffy follows in the footsteps of Faith and becomes more aggressive. When Angel comes to the Bronze to give Buffy some information, Buffy jumps on him, wrapping her legs around his waist. Unfortunately, Angel has come for business. He takes her to the side where she tries to cuddle up to him but he moves away so he can give her the news. After talking for a while, Angel gets up, kisses Buffy, and tells her to be careful. The real Angel is finally back! The Angel who informs and helps in a fight without becoming weak at the end. If not for the curse, life would be good for the Slayer and Angel...

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