When Angel spun-off from Buffy in 1999, regular crossovers became a common occurrence between the two shows. Some are prolific, such as Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Buffy visiting Angel in I Will Remember You. Some, like a brief phone call in Blind Date or a silent cameo from Willow in There’s No Place Like Plrtz Glrb serve a small purpose: to remind us that what happens to these characters matters and, despite the fact that they no longer battle alongside each other in Sunnydale, they care deeply what happens to each other.

Five of the ten series regulars of Angel started on the parent show. Several characters, such as Drusilla and Faith, move back and forth between the two. For the first two seasons of Angel, it aired on the same network as Buffy and things made sense chronologically if you watched the episodes as aired. However, when Buffy moved to the UPN, the crossovers physically stopped. Characters now met off-screen, rather than face to face, network negotiations being tense in the first place. By the time of Buffy‘s final season in 2002, the WB, hoping to ensnare the viewers – and James Marsters’ Spike – back to the WB, allowed a final crossover with Willow, Faith and later Angel himself to aid Buffy’s final battle. Unfortunately, or perhaps rather sneakily, the WB aired the Angel episode earlier – meaning viewers all over saw Willow arrive in Los Angeles, cure Angel, grab a hold of Faith and return to Sunnydale before she even received the phone call to summon her there!

Below is the watch order for the two series, starting with Buffy‘s fourth season premiere. The Angel episodes are in red.