Poor Buffy. You'd think that with a life-threatening job like Vampire Slayer, she'd at least get a break once a year, on her birthday. No such luck for Buffy, but great luck for the viewers; we get really meaningful episodes, with significance to both the story arc and insight to the characters' motivations. Buffy's birthday episodes have been some of the strongest of the series.

Season One
These is no birthday episode in season one, since the series began as a mid-season replacement.

Season Two, episode 13, "Surprise"
In this episode, the Scooby Gang throws a surprise party for Buffy, but that is only one minor surprise in an episode filled with significant surprises. We learn that Jenny Calendar is actually "Janna of the Kalderash Gypsies" and that her people were the ones who cursed Angel's soul. Oz gets his surprise when he finds out that vampires are real and that Buffy is the Slayer.

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Oh, this has "argument starter" written all over it.

FOX is going to release a "best of" DVD for Buffy, The Vampire Slayer on September 5, titled "Tales of the Hellmouth." It will be a two disc set, and the first disc with contain the episodes "The Pack," "Halloween," "Passion," and "The Wish," while disc two will contain "Helpless," "Fear Itself," "Hush," and "Same Time Same Place."

OK, Keith picked his best episodes a while back. What would you put in this set that's not in here? I'm surprised the singing and dancing ep isn't on here.