Welcome to the Hellmouth/The Harvest: The Master's got big party plans. After a spot of homoerotic wrist-feeding, his servant Luke becomes The Vessel. Meaning that as Luke feeds, The Master will draw strength - enough to free himself from mystical lockdown. And a free Master would mean pretty much hell on earth. Buffy has a hard time against Luke until she tricks him into turning his back on her. Big mistake, Luke. He's dust, which means The Master stays stuck underground.

I Robot, You Jane: Huh? Yeah! Although I didn't think of this one at first, Moloch could easily have destroyed the world. As the Scoobies pointed out, an evil, incorporeal entity with access to all the world's nuclear launch codes is a very bad thing. In the short time he was "free", Moloch was responsible for several deaths and caused untold mayhem. From reports on the radio, he was already causing disasters worldwide and would doubtless have escalated if not stopped by the Scoobies. So even if it wasn't technically an apocalypse, it was certainly a global massacre in the making - close enough, in my book, to make the list.

Nightmares: Also one I didn't think of at first, this was yet another global catastrophe in the making. With the worst nightmares of everyone in Sunnydale coming true (and the nightmarish mayhem getting worse and bigger), it was likely only a matter of time before someone's fears of worldwide disaster became reality. Oh, and also? The Master was free! No telling what he was up to after he buried Buffy, but I'm betting it wasn't good. So between that and the nightmares that were spinning larger and larger, this was definitely an apocalypse waiting to happen. Good thing Billy woke up, huh?

Prophecy Girl: The Slayer is dead (technically for the second time, imo, since 'Nightmares' saw her buried and risen as a vampire), and The Master walks free. And in case that's not enough, the Hellmouth itself is open, and all manner of demons threaten to come forth. It's the end of the world as we know it. Fortunately, Buffy feels fine, courtesy of some Xander-flavoured CPR, and The Master's bones (vampire bones?!) wind up a dusty heap on the Library table. A related effort to create a Master-run Sunnydale is thwarted in 'When She Was Bad' when Buffy takes a sledgehammer to said bones.

Innocence: Drusilla's big birthday present is a giant Smurf-demon called The Judge, whose main function is to burn up all of humanity. Once he gets going, the people of the world are pretty much toast. Not a very practical gift but a riot at parties. Soon as The Judge is all juiced up and ready to go, Dru and Angelus take him for a test run at the mall. No weapon forged can destroy him, but apparently the prohibition doesn't extend to rocket launchers. And fortunately, "Private Harris" knows just where to pick one of those up. Papa Smurf is blown to smithereens.

Becoming I & II: Angelus is not a happy guy. Dissatisfied with all the killing and the terror, he decides to add "destroy the world" to his to-do list. When he removes the sword from the monolithic demon Acathla, the entire world will be sucked into hell. Fortunately, Buffy finds an unlikely ally in Spike, who just wants his sire (okay, his "grandsire") out of the picture. Willow restores Angel's soul, but it's too late. The vortex is opening, and only Angel's blood will close it again. Buffy runs Angel through with her sword, and the vortex closes, sucking Angel into hell. The world is saved, but Buffy is devastated.

The Wish: Vengance demon Anyanka grants Cordelia's wish, and everything changes. What is an "alternate universe" to us is suddenly the real world, and again, The Master is free and in charge. Plus, he's discovered the wonders of automation, which means even more efficient slaughter. Even though Sunnydale's become his beloved hell on earth, it doesn't automatically equal apocalypse, but after hearing all through the first season how his freedom meant pretty much the end of the world, I figure what's one more for the list? Fortunately, the "Wishverse" Giles destroyed Anyanka's pendant, halting Buffy's death, as well as Angel's, and bringing Willow and Xander back to the ranks of the living. Not exactly your conventional apocalypse, granted, but it could easily have become one.

The Zeppo: Not much is known about this one, other than it was supposedly the most dire peril that the Scoobies had ever faced. A group of all-female demons called the Sisterhood of Jhe attempted to reopen the Hellmouth and nearly succeeded. We missed the main action, however, because the cameras were downstairs with Xander as he stopped a bombing that would have taken out the only resistance to this latest apocalypse-to-be.

Graduation Day: Mayor Wilkins is planning a coming-out party, and the Class of '99 is invited. He's ascending to pure demon form, and it took a volcano to stop the last guy who pulled this off. And what does a massive MayorSnake eat? Anything it wants, starting with Principal Snyder. This pure demon, as opposed to the hybrids that have provided sufficient threat until now, would have cut a swath of death and destruction through the region and beyond. But where an exploding school might have destroyed any resistance to the last apocalypse, it's just the thing to stop this one in its tracks.

Doomed: Giles informs the gang that a recent earthquake means that the end of the world is nigh. The gang's reaction: "Again?!" With some blood, a bag of bones, and an estate sale bargain, a trio of demons has the astoundingly original idea of opening the Hellmouth. Fortunately, Buffy, Riley, the assembled Scoobies, and an Hawaiian-shirted Spike are there to spoil their fun.

Primeval: Good ol' Adam. Blunt, inquisitive, and disturbingly goal-oriented. His plan? Create a new breed of soldier-demon hybrids to pretty much take over. Maggie Walsh's original plan was to create a "race" of super-soldiers, but Adam decided to work towards more of an unopposed evil rampage. And he'd have gotten away with it too if it weren't for those meddling Scoobies and ComboBuffy, aka The Enjoining Spell.

The Gift: All Glory wanted was to go the hell home, but those pesky do-gooders just didn't appreciate her pain. No, they had to be all "But it'll destroy the world!" Where Angel wanted to send everything to hell, Glory's trip home would bring hell right here as it tore down the walls between dimensions. Even a momentary tear brought all manner of destruction before Buffy sealed the rift by jumping to her death. She did save the world. A lot.

Grave: Hopped up evil magicks, Willow became so powerful that she could feel everything and everyone. Added to her fury and grief over Tara's death, it was more pain than she could bear - and more than she thought the world should have to. So she decided to end everyone's pain by burning the world to ashes. Gosh, that was thoughtful of her. This was one apocalypse the Slayer was powerless to stop, and it took Giles' resourcefulness and Xander's love to bring Willow - and the world - back from the brink.

Chosen: The First Evil, dissatisfied with lurking and taunting, decided to take a much more active role in world ruination. It spent the season raining on Buffy's already miserable parade, picking off her allies, messing with Spike's head, and generally trying to isolate her. Faced with a threatening army of ubervamps, Buffy decided to change the rules. Willow used a mystical weapon to "activate" all potential Slayers, giving Buffy her own army to confront The First Evil's, and with the aid of another artifact, Spike channeled the power to complete the obliteration of TFE's forces, closing the Hellmouth in an effort which cost him his life. The surviving Scoobies (which sadly did not include Anya) escaped as Sunnydale was swallowed into the earth, leaving Buffy finally free to choose her own path.

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