This content has been archived. It may no longer be relevant
4. Becoming Part 2 (Season 2, Episode 22) — Words by Beckie Grunewald
We saw Angelus for what he truly was in Becoming Part 1. Here, in Part 2, we’re faced with the question of whether Buffy can bring herself to kill the man she loves. She’s already lost her home; her mother has forbidden her to come back if she chooses to leave. Her friends are suffering for her choices. Implicated in a crime she didn’t commit, Buffy is a fugitive in nearly every way.
She’s got nothing to lose, until she figures out that Willow has made the curse work again. Knowing that she is killing the man she loves, not the demon she hates, she still plunges that sword through Angel’s heart – telling him to close his eyes, kissing him as she does it. Sacrifice is always an underlying theme in the Buffyverse, and it’s definitely at the forefront of this episode.
