In this episode of The Bitch Is Back, I watch "Passion," Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 2, Episode 17, for the first time. I knew Jenny Calendar dies in this one, but I didn't know how, and it left me stunned. I break down the olive branch scene between Jenny and Buffy, Joyce finding out about Buffy and Angel in the worst possible way and my thoughts as a mom on how she handled it, Giles going full vengeance mode after finding the rose on his door, and why I think the show cut away from its biggest emotional beats too fast. I also share what I remember from set about Robia’s final episode.

I threw out the playbook this week. No 20-page document, no teleprompter, no prep. For the first time ever, I'm watching an episode in real time with you, and of course it's Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, the Valentine's Day love spell disaster. Season 2, Episode 16 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, written by Marti Noxon.

I turned another year older in Manchester, surrounded by my Buffy family and a sea of fans. So this week is a full show and tell the cards that made me cry a little (Meg and her mom Catherine, I'm looking at you), the homemade ones that got me the most, Swedish gummies I've already half-eaten, ruby jewelry, friendship bracelets, a random duck, and a Taylor Swift Showgirl CD. Plus why Patreon members showing up at cons means more than any of you know.

This week I'm first-watching Buffy Season 2, Episode 15, "Phases," the one where Oz finds out he's a werewolf, Larry finds out it's easier to just be honest, and everyone learns that hiding who you are is a full-time job. But you know where my head really went: that car scene. Xander drags Cordelia out to do things she can't tell her father about, then spends the whole time obsessing over Willow, and somehow she's the one getting slut-shamed for it. As the woman who actually played her, I have thoughts. Plus Willow and Oz land the sweetest ending the show's done yet, and I'm begging this entire cast to try saying the thing out loud sometime. Full recap, my sharpest Hot Takes, and behind-the-scenes I actually lived through. New episodes every other week.

The team pulled up two decades of my old red carpet photos and made me sit here and look at every single one. Here's what I learned: I've had some genuinely great looks, that Italian silk blouse, my hair, and my makeup combined, and I'd wear it again tomorrow. Some things I'd style differently now, I'm owning my crimes against pantyhose, the shoe choices that should've been slingbacks. There's a Gucci suit that I still have, and an outfit I wear to a water charity Gala that would be better suited for the Grammys.

This is a heavy one. Buffy gives Angel everything and wakes up to a man who is no longer home, and I could not stop thinking about how fast she assumes it's her fault. Because that's what we do.

New segment: Rewind in Time. The team dug up old footage of me promoting Buffy back in the day, and now I have to sit here and comment on all of it. First up is a five-minute KTLA interview with Sam Rubin from the set of the Halloween episode. I get into: Meeting the cast back when nobody knew if this show was even going to be a thing, stalking Michelle Pfeiffer at the Emmy party, and, decades later, still being genuinely furious that Buffy got snubbed for everything but a makeup nomination. It's surreal, it's a little cringe, and it's very me.

Charisma breaks down the will they won't they tension of Buffy and Angel's first night together and refuses to look away from the age gap that flew under the radar in 1997 and reads as a red flag on fire in 2026. She dissects the fever dream cold open, the infamous towel scene and the door left ajar that wrecked her nerves, and the gut punch reveal that sweet Jenny Calendar is actually Jana of the Kalderash. She cheers Cordelia owning her sexuality at the lockers, offers a rare and honest critique of her own ambiguous "happy birthday" read, and full on cries over the Claddagh ring goodbye at the docks. Then there's the thing she already knows is coming. Angel loses his soul.

The Bitch is Back! is my first ever watch of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, and this channel is now your one-stop shop for everything Buffyverse. I'm bringing the full interviews out from behind the paywall and onto YouTube, alongside new segments covering Buffy and Angel news, reboot and non-reboot talk, the new Angel comic, and the pop culture moments worth weighing in on. I'll be vlogging too, giving you a look at my process and how the podcast actually comes together. Subscribe, stick around, and tell a friend! And if you want the deeper experience, weekly content, monthly Zoom hangs, early drops, and merch discounts, that all lives on my Patreon at patreon.com/charismacarpenter. Tell everyone you've ever met right now, cause people, The Bitch is Back!

The Bitch is Back, and the vault is still open. More of our favorite Patreon interviews are making their way to YouTube for the first time, and this one is a fan favorite.

Charisma Carpenter sits down with culture critic and TV writer Ira Madison III for a deep dive into Season 2, Episode 2, Some Assembly Required, Buffy's Frankenstein episode, and one of the most unexpectedly rich hours of the series. They get into the circle of pining, Angel's 241 years of emotional stunting, grief as the real horror of the Hellmouth, and what a Buffy reboot actually needs to get right. Ira makes his case for being one of the few Angel Season 4 defenders on earth, Charisma pushes back, and somewhere in the middle Ira confesses to writing Buffy fan fiction.

More from the vault. The B*tch is Back.