5 Saddest Buffy The Vampire Slayer Character Deaths, Ranked

Sunnydale, California isn’t exactly Seattle Grace Hospital, but it’s still a dangerous place to be if you’re a TV show character. “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” may often carry a campy tone, but it can also be downright brutal, especially in the later seasons once the main characters grown up. The trail of bodies left by the Hellmouth is long, including a few standout deaths that still draw tears from fans to this day.

Today, we’re ranking the five saddest “Buffy” deaths, but we’re only looking at characters who died in the main show — no “Angel” deaths, or anything from the “Buffy” comics. That said, we will take into consideration how long these deaths actually stuck, which — in this universe — often isn’t very long. A resurrected death can still be a tearjerker, but a character may lose points for jumping back too quickly.

Of course, the saddest death of all may be the canceled “Buffy” reboot, still seemingly dead in the water after it failed to gain ground at Hulu. In the aftermath of that unfortunate fate, we still have what “Buffy” fans have always had: The next rewatch. Knowing these deaths are coming, though, hardly softens the blow.

One of the best “Buffy” characters ever, the reformed vengeance demon Anya (Emma Caulfield) is admittedly not the most high-profile death in the series finale. That honor belongs to Spike (James Marsters), who makes a noble sacrifice at the very end. But Spike gets to come right back in “Angel” Season 5, where he remains important. His death is a big moment, to be sure, but the permanence of Anya’s death makes it much sadder as a whole.

It’s even more tragic when you run through Anya’s full arc. After being left at the altar by Xander (Nicholas Brendon) in one of the show’s more controversial episodes, Anya is left almost adrift in the larger story, only to go on a murder spree in Season 7 and then, in the aftermath, die rather unceremoniously in the final episode.

It’s an unfortunate decline for a character who was absolutely fantastic in Seasons 4 and 5. It feels like “Buffy” only killed Anya off because she was the easiest character to detach from the larger story by the time the show ended. This is a tragic fate on two fronts — the permanent death of a beloved character, and one where the victim deserved much better. 

One of the first major character deaths in “Buffy” comes in Season 2, when Angelus (David Boreanaz) murders Jenny Calendar (Robia LaMorte) in the episode “Passion.” It’s a major turning point for the show, and it all happens in truly horrifying fashion — first with a tense chase, then a savage kill, and finally with an extra knife-twist when Angel leaves Jenny’s body in a mock-romantic setup for Giles (Anthony Head) to find.

Jenny Calendar never fully reaches main character status, but she’s about as close as you can get, making this early rug-pull both a famous “Buffy” moment and one of the show’s saddest deaths. It only makes things worse to see how Giles reacts in the aftermath. This is the moment when it becomes crystal clear that Angelus has no shred of the old Angel left inside him.

The “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” Season 5 finale, “The Gift,” is widely viewed as one of the best episodes in the show. It features the series’ most climactic showdown to that point, and one of the best (and darkest) “Buffy” moments for Anthony Head – but the series is called “Buffy,” and Sarah Michelle Gellar absolutely steals the show. We excluded Spike from this list since he comes back right away and Buffy does the same, but only a fool would say that her sacrificial death doesn’t deserve mention in the top three. Debate rages on whether or not “The Gift” was conceived as a potential end for the show, given that “Buffy” moved from The WB to UPN for Season 6. Regardless, Season 5 succeeds in large part because of Gellar’s performance throughout, culminating in her heroic sacrifice. 

It’s the kind of death that elevates the entire character. Although Buffy faces plenty of massive threats through the first four seasons, Season 5 is when she steps fully into adulthood, and the responsibility that comes with it — a responsibility not just to fight, but to even die if necessary. Gellar is outstanding as this fully realized version of Buffy, and her death is hardly cheapened by her resurrection in Season 6 (especially considering that most of that season is spent dealing with the consequences). The power of her dying scene is more in her determination to go through with the sacrifice. There is no sadder shot in all of “Buffy” than her friends and family looking absolutely hollow in the aftermath.

Any discussion of the most unnecessary TV character deaths will conjure at least a reference to Tara Maclay (Amber Benson). Yes, it’s the kickoff to the “Dark Willow” finale arc, which has some standout moments (“Bored now”), but the lasting legacy of Tara’s death is one of missed opportunities — a textbook example of the queer fridging so prominent on TV in the 2000s (and beyond). None of that makes Tara’s death any less sad. If anything, the unfairness of it all — the randomness and the way the gunshot feels like a knife-turn on the audience itself — only makes the whole thing more tragic.

“Buffy” Season 6 is a rough watch. The eponymous hero battles demons and depression in equal measure, alongside a healthy dose of self-loathing, while Willow spirals deeper and deeper down a heavy-handed but still affecting dark magic addiction. Anya and Xander break up. Spike is practically begging for death. Nobody is having a good time. And then Tara dies, which is the final straw. While Buffy’s Season 5 death may have more drama in the moment, Tara doesn’t get to come back.

“The Body” is the greatest episode of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” It is the show’s crowning achievement in writing, acting, and dramatic pacing, all centered around the sudden, shocking, horrifyingly mundane death of Buffy’s mother, Joyce (Kristine Sutherland). It’s not just the saddest death because it gets its own episode, or since Joyce was the main character’s mother. It’s because we see the death break every other character in turn — especially Buffy herself, who for all of her power and determination, can only react the way children do when slapped by such a tragedy.

There are other highlights. Anya’s monologue about death, anchored in a soup of grief and confusion, stands out. But really, this is Sarah Michelle Gellar’s series, and her moment to prove once again just how titanic she can be on screen. “Its conclusion is the most unpopular thought in popular culture,” Jennifer Armstrong wrote succinctly for Rolling Stone back in 2017. “We all die, it’s no one’s fault, and there’s nothing we can do about it.” This isn’t just the most powerful character death in “Buffy,” or one of the most affecting character deaths in the history of television. It is arguably the definitive television episode about death as well.