The ABCs of Sunnydale

Willow season 3 shot Willow Rosenberg:

SEASON 3 APPEARANCES

Anne; Dead Man's Party; Faith, Hope, and Trick; All Men Are Beasts; Homecoming; Band Candy; Revelations; Lovers Walk; The Wish; Amends; Gingerbread; Helpless; The Zeppo; Bad Girls; Consequences; Doppelgangland; Enemies; Earshot; Choices; The Prom; Graduation part I; Graduation part II

In Anne, Willow's been doing the vamp slaying with the help of Oz and Xander. She's worried about Buffy, too. Willow tells both Xander and Cordelia that their hair looks fine, too, when they're worried about how they look.

DMP showcases Willow as hurt Slayerette..basically, even though she's glad Buffy's back, there is still some kind of resentment there. She cold-shoulders Buffy and then accuses her of trying to bail out on them again. She tells Buffy that Buffy was her best friend, and even if she couldn't understand the circumstances, Buffy should've at least talked to her. This all happens after Willow stood Buffy up at the coffee shop...Willow and Buffy bond, and we learn that Willow's delved heavily into the black arts and magic -- foreshadowing, anyone? -- and then she and Buffy trade mocking insults. That Will...quite the tongue on that girl!

FHT has Willow trying yet again to coax Buffy back into dating. This episode also elaborates a bit on Willow's witchery, and she learns that her spell to cure Angel worked..right before Buffy had to kill him....

AMAB is a pretty good Willow ep. Here, Willow not only confesses to seeing a half monty a la Oz -- just which half is as yet undetermined! -- but she gets into the thick of things by inspecting the body of Jeff Orkin at the morgue. Willow's got to deal with the fact that Ozwolf may have killed Jeff, and that's not too easy. Fortunately, Oz isn't the killer, and Willow can get back to enjoying jelly donuts. Interestingly enough, when Buffy and Willow go to shake down Debbie, Willow's not the inquisitor she was in Go Fish. Go figure...

In Homecoming, Willow's all excited about going to the Homecoming Dance with Oz...she asks Xander for his help in choosing the perfect outfit. Well..what can I say? A "clothes fluke" happens and she and Xander end up smooching. This, coupled with the whole Cordy/Buffy rivalry, makes Willow as jumpy as she was that time she lied to Buffy in Lie to Me. Willow's upset about what this kiss means, and how it affects her relationship with Oz. Yikes. This ain't over yet...

In BC, Willow's boastful about Oz, playing footsie with Xander, and wondering what's up with all the teachers. When she sees her topless doctor doing a stage-dive, she gets a little freaked. Willow gets the scare of her life when she rides shotgun to Buffy's driving, and then she goes into research mode at the library.

In Revelations, Willow tries to help everyone stay on track during their "Intervention" for Buffy after they've learned that Angel's back. She tells Buffy that she feels that Buffy can't really see straight when it comes to Angel. But later, at the Garden Mansion, when Gwendolyn Post is about to kill her, Angel saves her. So she loses the fear thing, and kinda becomes an Angel supporter again. Oddly enough, when Willow's in the library with Xander, and he's trying to massage her temples to make the headache stuff go away, she tells him to stop it. Actually, that's not the odd part. The odd part is that she then grabs Xander and kisses him right on the lips! It made me think of Willow's line from the episode Angel, when she's in the library with Buffy.

Willow's Twist of Fate?
Willow: "Sometimes, I have this fantasy that Xander's just gonna grab me and kiss me right on the lips!" -- to Buffy, discussing guys when they're supposed to be studying history. (I may've messed up the first few words, I'll check 'em later. That's pretty much it though.)

In Lovers Walk, Willow's bummed about her SATs and complains to Xander that she's Cletus, the slack-jawed yokel. (Any relation to Xander's Idiot Jed?) Anyhoo, she and Xander are still hyper with lust, and to make it worse, they've gotten themselves into a double date with their significant others. So, Oz gives Willow a Pez witch, and she feels all terrible and wants to get rid of the lust she and Xander have. This episode marks the first time we've seen Willow go buy some stuff to do spells, and maybe she shouldn't have gone there. But if she hadn't, Spike wouldn't have gotten wind of her witchy abilities and kidnapped her and the episode probably wouldn't have been any good.

Anyway, Willow and Xander smooch while they're stuck in the basement of the Warehouse waiting for Spike to come back. They get caught by Cordy and Oz, and Willow feels terrible. Wonder what hoops, if any, she'll have to go through to regain Oz's trust? Also important is the fact that I think this is the first time that Willow heard of Spike's truce/alliance with Buffy to save the world last spring. When Spike mentions it offhandedly, her eyes get big for a second. It's interesting. Kinda makes you wonder what if anything she'll do with the info., or if she'll ever be in a position to have to make a truce with one of her mortal enemies...(Is Cordy still her enemy? Hmm...random thought over and out.)

The Wish is one freaky Willow ep. Well, first she's all miserable about Oz, and it beats me how she doesn't get the hiccups all the time. I mean, if I talked all hyper and breathy like that -- and I'm not saying I don't, jk -- I'd get the hiccups. And I'm not just saying that because I had them the other day. Anyhoo, Willow tells Xander that he can't touch any of her stuff since it's all supposed to be meant for Oz. Also notable early on in the ep. is that she gives Buffy a knife so Buffy can kill some head-tentacled, dripping monster.

But everything changes when we see Willow in the alternate, new...Buffyless-world, courtesy of Cordy's wish. Here, Willow's a vamp. She dresses the part in leather and all that, and she's the eternal paramour of Xander. But she seems to have some kind of ADD thing going on. It almost doesn't make sense to me, but I guess I'm being conventional and thinking that Willow would still be Willow, even if Buffy wasn't around. Like, she'd be all shy and freaked. But who knows? All I know is that she's one sadistic vamp who goes around saying "Bored now" all the time. She sucks up to The Master since she's one of his disciples, and she also gets to help Xander kill Cordy. Yow. Sickish. Evil.

Did I mention sadistic? When she calls Angel "puppy" and starts torturing him...I mean, I don't know about you guys, but I wouldn't torture a puppy. Even if it was Angel. (Heh.)

Anyhoo, it's interesting to watch this very unshy Willow vamp get her mitts on Xander. If her mitts are her mouth, that is. Jeepers. And also in this reality, Willow gets killed when Oz shoves her onto a piece of wood. It's like, disturbing, but in a cool way.

Back in normal Sunnydale though, Willow just continues to hang with Buffy and Xander and bemoan her love sitch. Yi. Maybe Oz will forgive her..I had more stuff to say but I forgot it all. Plus I'm yammering too much.

Amends features Stalker-Willow. Okay, not really. Basically, first Willow goes into her "being Jewish" for Christmas schpiel. Heh. Go, Will! Then she's surprised when Oz seeks her out to talk. He tells her he misses her and they make a date. Okay, so Willow basically comes onto Oz big-time when he comes over to her place. Mood lighting, chilled soda, Barry White, no folks...yi! Much like she told Xander in Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered, she tells Oz that she wants him to be her FIRST! Not baseman, okay? By the end of the episode, though, I'm assuming no one has stepped up to the plate...sure she and Oz are in her bedroom, but it looks innocent to me. This marks the first time Willow's seen it snow in Sunnydale, I think.

Gingerbread gives a little insight into Willow's background, while also playing up her witchy-dabblings. Basically, when Willow's accused of killing two kids whose bodies are found in the park, she's taken to City Hall and tied to a stake. She's also set aflame...fortunately she gets saved..by Cordy, no less. (And Giles). But it was neat to see Cordy help put out the fire, especially when you consider the whole Xander/Willow tryst. But back to Willow..

Early on in the ep., Willow is surprised to hear that Joyce wants to accompany Buffy during her slayer duties. She point-blank references that her own mom doesn't take an interest in extra-curricular (and..curricular) activities. Later, Willow sees her mom at the town's vigil for the kids, and her mom finally notices that Will cut her hair.

Anyway, after Willow's gotten in trouble at school for having witchy things in her locker, Willow and her mom have a "slight" argument, about Willow's rebellion in the form of witchcraft, and who she is, and how her mom doesn't even know that she's dating "a musician." Willow's mom is like, trying to lump her into the "adolescent" group, etc., with no regard for who Willow is, so Willow taunts her mom by saying she's into a Satanic cult, goats, yada. Willow gets grounded, gets on the computer, and helps out the gang in this ep., too. Oh. And later she tries her hand at turning Amy back into Amy. Me, I wonder how the "Meet the Rosenbergs" dinner with Oz is going to go...

Willow Defends Doodles:
Buffy: "What is this?"
Willow: "A doodle. I do doodle. You, too. You do doodle, too." --
after Buffy sees the symbol (that was on the dead kids' hands) in Willow's notebook.

Helpless is not a huge Willow outing. Here we see that she's still trying to change Amy back from her rodent status. But to no avail. On the upside, she bought her one of those cute wheelie things. One of the biggest surprises for Willow (and apparently a concept she can't grasp) is the fact that Giles has been fired as Watcher. Yikes.

In The Zeppo, Willow does all of her Willow stuff. She casts some spell to create a fog type thing to help the crew battle the Sisterhood of Jhe; she rats out Buffy to Giles...well, only in a jelly donut capacity, but hey, to this group, that's a pretty serious offense! She also has to subdue Ozwolf, buy stuff at the magic shop, and help fight the Hellmouth beasties. Oh yeah, in passing she tells Xander that she loves him. Just your basic Willow ep.

In Bad Girls, Willow's sort of getting the shove-aside as Buffy's gal pal. Because Faith is exerting her influence over Buffy during the latest crises, i.e., getting a New Watcher, and dealing with the latest vamp/monster thing, Buffy starts to fall in with Faith more. This means skipping classes, going on crazy vamp patrols and killing, and basically, leaving Willow behind because she thinks it's too dangerous. In this episode, Willow's made yet another protective scapula-type thing for Buffy (and for herself), and she's disappointed when Buffy tells her not to come along on the slaying. First Willow gets blown off for the chem tutorial she was gonna give Buffy, then the slaying hijinks are canceled. You gotta wonder, what's next for Willow in all of this...

Dang. Consequences is quite a Willow episode. Sure, she's still caretaker of the Amyrat, but she comes through for Buffy big time. Even though the last episode wasn't great for Willow...namely, her being shoved aside sorta for Faith...she's still able to get over it when Buffy comes by to see her. She does her Willow's upset ramble thing before allowing Buffy a chance to speak, but when Buffy tells Willow she's in trouble, Willow turns off her spout. It's Willow! She's the one who urges Buffy to tell Giles what happened (I think Buffy needed the shove a little, even though she wanted to tell Giles in the first place), and she's also the first one to get it when Xander speaks of his "connection" with Faith. Yow. That was horrendous. She handled herself pretty well, though, in public anyway. If I never see Willow crying on a toilet again, I'll be happy.

And eww. We saw a janitor in the hall...granted, it was a man. But I sincerely thought we were seeing the inside of the guys' john at first. Though, that wouldn't explain the doors on the stalls I guess. That probably made no sense if you're not me. I was just thinking, I thought the bathroom might be cleaner. It looked clean in Halloween, and then I thought, oh the janitor could have cleaned it. But he's a guy and they probably have women janitors for the girls' room. Okay, now you're thinking with me. Oh. I was talking about other stuff...

Anyway, later when Buffy mentions saving Faith from having to appear before the Council, Willow questions it. She admits she doesn't like to share her people -- snicker...I love when she admits this stuff -- but she thinks maybe Faith needs to take responsibility and appear before the Watchers Council. Either way...yow. Go Willow! And hurry up and change Amy back before she loses all sense of humanity. Does Amy live by herself? With her dad I thought..doesn't he notice??? Sorry. That would go on Amy's page.

Wanna be bad? Doppelgangland provides Willow with a chance to explore her dark side, sorta. After she wigs out about being forced by Principal Snyder to tutor Percy West, Willow has to deal with Faith's hanging all over her while she tries to hack into The Mayor's files. Then Percy gives her the brushoff, saying she's supposed to do his homework for him. What's a homework gal to do? In Willow's case, it means eating her banana, "lunch time be damned."

Willow basically tries to cast off her reliable dog geyser person title and agrees to help Anya cast a spell to create a temporal fold.

In the wackiness that ensues, vampWillow from The Wish drops in, everyone thinks Willow's dead, Willow thinks they've all done "a bunch of drugs", and Willow gets to meet up with her skanky, kinda gay, vamp self. What's cool is that Willow is the one who uses the tranquilizer gun on her vamp self. What's not cool, to Willow at least, is having to go into the Bronze dressed as her vamp self to hold off the vampire feeding frenzy. Too many good Willow-y things in this episode, including her little wave to let Oz know she's alive.

Basically, it's a good thing vampWillow showed up; otherwise, Willow might've been killed by the vamps that the Mayor sent after he learned from Faith what Willow was trying to do computer-wise. So, there you go.

Willow gets hugged by almost everyone in this episode: by Oz, Buffy, Xander, Giles, vampWillow. Everyone except Angel, pretty much. We don't count Faith. Who wants to be hugged by her after what happened on her motel bed in Consequences? Where she almost killed Xander, pretty much.

Willow's Way Wigged:
Willow: "This just can't get more disturbing." -- when vampWillow's behind her in the library, talking about making Willow a vamp; also right before the neck lick, I think. I guess it did get more disturbing after all. Heh.

In Enemies, Willow tries to comfort Buffy after Buffy's spied Faith over at Angel's place. Well, maybe she doesn't really comfort or allay Buffy's fears. When Buffy says she doesn't think Faith would move in on Angel or do anything uncool like that, Willow says, "Faith would totally do that. Faith was built to do that. She's the "do that" girl!" Later Willow tells the gang that she can't dig up any information about the Mayor on her computer. It kind of made me wonder if this is when the gang (or, rather, Giles and Buffy or something) figured out the Faith/evil connection with the Mayor. I don't know. No real big Willow developments here.

Choices is such the Willow episode! She not only has been accepted to Oxford, but she gets to be a bad-ass wicca. She performs the spell at City Hall that will remove the supernatural barrier from the Box of Gavrok so Buffy can steal it. Sure, she gets held hostage by Faith and the Mayor, but this chick eats danger for breakfast. While she's locked in a room at City Hall, she meets up with a vamp who's come to chomp on her. Buffy may spout out with the funny when she's battling opponents, but Willow must want to talk them to death! It's like, she almost always spouts out a big monologue thing. She didn't do this in Welcome to the Hellmouth, but she did start sometime around I Robot, You Jane. (I don't count her spout in The Witch, 'cause she was told to distract Amy, etc.) Maybe not as self-assuredly, but hey. Remember Lovers Walk, anyone?

Anyhoo, when the vamp advances on Willow, she floats a pencil up and stakes him from behind with it. Too funny. Then she just has to sit and read some of the Books of Ascension she finds in the Mayor's office. I had to wonder what her initial thought was when she opened up that cabinet in his office and saw all the ghoulish freakish things in it. Then again, this is Sunnydale, big surprise.

Willow stands up to Faith big time when she's caught reading the goods. I don't know, I wouldn't want to get punched in the face by Faith..or well, anyone. But maybe if I knew I was going to die maybe, I might spout more. I don't know. Willow ends up being traded for the Box of Gavrok. And later she admits to Buffy that she'd like to stay in Sunnydale and fight the battle against evil stuff. Then it's just mochas as usual. A good Willow ep., even if she did vandalize the Books of Ascension by ripping some choice pages out for Giles.

Don't Yammer 'Til You See the Whites of Their Fangs?:
Willow: "Hey! Did you get permission to eat the hostage?!?" -- to the vamp who's closing in on her.

Rest of Season 3 coming soon!

Willow Character Page for Season 4.

Previous Willow Character Page (Seasons 1 & 2)

Story Arcs: Xander & Willow, Willow & Oz


happy halloween The ABCs of Sunnydale

The Episodes

The 411/Mythology

The 511/Relationships

The 611/Slayerships

Dingo Action

Sunnydale

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This page last updated May 9, 1999

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