When she first learns the true reason for her daughter's strange behavior, that she is a vampire slayer, she has a hard time dealing with this, especially when Buffy is first in the frame for murder, then gets expelled from school again. The ensuing argument between mother and daughter leads to Joyce rashly telling Buffy that if she leaves the house she better not return. Buffy has no choice to leave, the world being in danger from her ex-boyfriend, and once she has solved that problem she runs away. When Buffy returns, however, Joyce gradually starts to come to terms with her daughter's calling and even has a romantic tryst with Buffy's watcher, Giles, albeit under the influence of the enchanted band candy.

Taking a bite on the way, Darla takes him to the Master’s lair where she runs into Buffy but manages to re-capture her prey whilst Buffy is fighting Luke. On learning that Jesse is a friend of the slayer he gets an upgrade from food to bait and is turned into a vampire. He fails even at this though and Buffy and Xander escape the trap left for them.

On the night of The Harvest, Jesse returns to the Bronze, picking Cordelia out as his victim only to have Darla give her to Luke. Of course, Buffy intervenes once again and Jesse is staked, partially accidentally, by his once friend Xander.

Trivia – Jesse was introduced as a main character only to be killed off in the second episode, Joss Whedon wanted to include the character in the main titles for the first episode but the budget wouldn’t run to two sets of titles.

The Harvest enables a ritual to be performed whereby one of his subjects could become a vessel through which The Master could receive the nourishment he needs to regain his power and break down the magical barrier holding him in the church. Unfortunately, the pesky Slayer has come to Sunnydale and ruins his plan by killing the vessel before The Master can become free. However, you can always rely on a good prophecy and The Master has two in his favour.

First, one which will bring him the Anointed, who will lead the Slayer to him. And another saying that the Slayer will come to him and she will die. Both prophecies come true and The Master's protege, The Anointed faithfully leads Buffy to The Master, where he kills her and gains the strength to free his bonds at last. The prophecy, however, didn't take into account the Slayer's friends, who save her life enabling her to get her revenge and The Master is eventually dust. Unlike other vampires, The Master's bones remain, and, despite the scoobies burying them in sacred ground, his followers dig them up and perform a ritual to bring him back. Buffy, of course, interferes and this time makes sure she grinds The Master's bones so that he cannot be ressurected again.

A loyal, although not too bright, subject of The Master, Luke has only once before meeting Buffy, come across any human that has fought him and lived, and then only because he caught Luke sleeping! At the coming of The Harvest, Luke becomes the vessel for The Master, and, taking over the Bronze, starts taking his victims, one by one. Buffy, however, has other ideas, and though they fight evenly matched, she gets the upper hand when she smashes a window with a light behind it and convinces Luke that daylight has come. While he is distracted by this, she beheads him.

The Judge

The Judge is an ancient demon brought forth to rid the world of the plague of humanity, he is so powerful that no weapon forged can kill him. However, on his last visit to earth, 600 years ago, an army managed to dismember him and bury the separate parts of his body all around the world. In 1998, Spike decides that he wants to give his lover, Drusilla a present and orders his henchvampires to find and bring him the pieces. Once placed together, The Judge lives once more and can't wait to finish what he started 600 years ago. Buffy, however, has other ideas, finding a weapon that has not been forged, namely a rocket launcher, she takes out The Judge once and for all.

For the next few years Amy remains a rat, living in a cage in Willow's bedroom, with only a brief respite when Willow unknowingly changes her back from rat to human and then back to rat again.

Willow, however, grows in power and, in need of company when Tara leaves her, she finally manages to turn Amy permanently human again. Life is confusing for Amy at first, especially coming to terms with the fact that Prom is long over, and Larry, who was going to take her, is not only gay, but dead, and Tom and Nicole spilt up. Amy soon returns to her old ways though and introduces Willow to a friend of hers, magic drug dealer, Rack. As Willow becomes addicted to magic, she soon realises that she is putting her friends in danger and decides to quit. This means ending her friendship with Amy. Despite a giving a Willow a little magic hit, Amy is unable to persuade her to go back to her magical ways. It takes Amy some time but she eventually gets her revenge on Willow, briefly turning her into Tara's killer, Warren.

Confused as to why her boyfriend is no longer the man he was, Buffy finds the answer in Jenny, discovering that she knew about the curse. Feeling betrayed, Giles breaks up with Jenny leaving her to try and right her wrongs by translating the original curse. Unfortunately for her, Angelus gets wind of her plan, and, murders her just as she and Giles are about to be reunited.

Jenny's image would later be used by Drusilla to torment Giles and by The First to torment Angel.

From first meeting Buffy he takes an instant dislike for her and believes that she will come to a bad end. He makes it his life's work to find an excuse to expel her from the school and her seeming involvement in the murder of Kendra gives him just that opportunity. He finds himself beaten though when both Giles and Joyce go over his head to the school board who decide that Buffy deserves an education.

Having scorned the previous Principal for getting himself eaten, Snyder finds an ironic death when he himself gets eaten by the Mayor-snake on Graduation Day.