Buffy The Vampire Slayer – “Amends”
When you think “Christmas”, Buffy The Vampire Slayer may not be the first show that comes to mind, but that doesn’t mean they never celebrated Christmas in Sunnydale! On the season three episode “Amends”, everyone is in Christmas prep mode, but it’s a more difficult time of year for some of them, mainly Angel.
Angel has a nightmare about a man named Daniel in the 1800s. Angel is chasing him down a dark alley, because apparently the man is in debt to him from his gambling problem, so Angel is going to take his payment his own way, by killing him. Angel wakes up from the nightmare and, when he can’t sleep, walks through Sunnydale to clear his mind. Who does he happen to run into? Buffy, who’s out doing some Christmas shopping, stops to talk to him for a bit, and it’s a bit awkward, only made worse when Angel sees the ghost of Daniel in front of him.
The nightmares continue for Angel and the only place he can think of to turn for help is Giles. Giles knows how dangerous Angel can be, though, so he keeps a crossbow in his hand while Angel is talking to him. Angel gets distracted yet again because he sees the ghost of Jenny, Giles’ lover whom Angel killed when he found out she was sent to Sunnydale to watch over him.
In a strange twist on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Angel is still unable to sleep and gets visited by the ghosts of many of his victims. His dreams are driving him crazy, and eventually the spirit of Jenny tells Angel something he doesn’t want to hear: he needs to kill Buffy. Even when he confronts Buffy in person to clear his mind, Jenny is still coaxing him into killing her, which drives him to frantically jump out her window, head first.
Buffy, who is obviously worried about Angel, finds him on the top of Kingman’s Bluff cliff, with the sun minutes from rising, which means the vampire was planning on killing himself. He thinks he’s evil and he loves Buffy so much that he’s willing to lose his soul as long as it means he can be with her. Buffy fights with him, tears in both of their eyes, until she finally tells him if he really doesn’t think he belongs on Earth, he can burn… and then it starts to snow and the sky gets dark. Yet another Christmas miracle!