HOLY WATER. Buffyverse Term/Concept/Idea/Intratext.

Water which has been blessed and sanctified within the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic branches of Christianity. It is among the weapons of the vampire hunter mentioned in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and remains a consistent, though relatively infrequent, object in vampire stories and films. Holy water is used occasionally by the characters in Buffy—mostly to do work a cross or stake could not accomplish as effectively. Willow throws holy water on Darla, burning her, in “The Harvest”; Drusilla tortures Angel by dripping holy water on him in “What’s My Line," Part 2; Buffy tricks Alexander Kralick into drinking holy water in “Helpless.” Like most religious symbols, appearances of holy water became less frequent after the first three seasons.

--Jonathan Edwards