This was a test demanded by the Watcher’s Council to be performed on Slayers on their eighteenth birthday. The Slayer’s powers are secretly taken from her by her Watcher using a muscle relaxant. She is then imprisoned with an insane vampire in a boarded up house, with only her wits …

There have been several female Watchers seen on screen and mentioned on the show. Faith’s Watcher was a woman and Giles’ grandmother (mentioned in Never Kill a Boy on the First Date) was one. In Revelations we met a rogue female Watcher - Gwendolyn Post, and in Checkpoint we meet …

Rupert Giles became Buffy’s Watcher when she moved to Sunnydale (Welcome to the Hellmouth). This was a career he was told he was destined to have when he was ten so he rebelled as much as he could when he was in college. At Oxford, Giles (known then as ‘Ripper’) …

Gwendolyn was a maverick Watcher who wanted the Glove of Mynnigon. She tricked the Scoobies into believing she was Faith’s new Watcher and got them to find the Glove. Buffy killed Gwendolyn when she realised she was bad in Revelations. Gwendolyn successfully isolated Faith from the rest of the Scoobies.
Giles …

Head of the Watcher’s Council in England. Quentin attempted to impose an age-old a secret test on Buffy where her Slayer powers were removed and she was left to fight an insane vampire without them. The test went wrong, as Giles eventually told Buffy why her powers had gone. Buffy …

In This Year’s Girl, the Watcher’s Council send a tough retrieval team to get Faith and take her back to England. Giles describes them as “This is a special operations unit. They handle the Council’s trickier jobs: smuggling, interrogation… wetworks.” The team include Weatherby, Collins and Smith.

In Bring on the Night, the Scoobies research the First Evil in The Watcher’s Codex.

A Watcher is a person who works for the Watcher’s Council. Watchers are assigned to Slayers to train, help and prepare them. The main Watcher on the show was Rupert Giles, Buffy’s Watcher. He and the Slayer became very close and he acted as a father-figure to her and her …

The Watcher’s Council is a powerful and ancient organization who train Slayers, and whose aim is to rid the world of evil. Their history is unclear. The Council is based in England and all Watchers on screen have been English, of the stuffy old variety. The Council has access to …

All Watchers who are assigned to Slayers must keep a journal of activities, as a reference for future Watchers. It is from these that Giles and Buffy learnt about the histories of Angel (in Halloween) and Spike (in School Hard).

There is a Watcher’s Retreat held annually in The Cotswolds, mentioned in Faith, Hope and Trick. There are lectures and other activities including riding, hiking, punting, and kayaking. It is a great honour to be invited to the Retreat, though for some reason, Giles has never been. Joss Whedon has …

Wesley was sent to Sunnydale as the replacement Watcher when Giles was fired. He was a weak man who was unable to control Buffy and Faith, who still relied on Giles. He eventually lost Faith altogether to the Mayor. His technique as a Watcher was terrible: he would give orders …