In his book Cities of the Dead: Circum-Atlantic Performance, Joseph Roach states “all violence is performative; it needs an audience, even if that audience is only God.” Roach argues that every violent act is a performance and not merely an isolated moment of cruelty. So much of BtVS centers around violence ­– vampires on humans, demons on humans, slayers on vampires, etc. While years of watching the show may have dulled the viewer’s sensibility to violence, the creators of the show know when to highlight the portrayal of violence in the series. Staked vampires give brief yet suspended looks of horror and dread seconds before they turn to dust, their looks often mirroring the terrified faces of their human victims. Even more significant are scenes in which major characters are the victims or deliberate perpetrators of violence. In the Season Three episode “The Wish,” vampire Willow and vampire Xander make Giles a literal captive audience as they kill Cordelia. Furthermore, they incarcerate and torture a helpless Angel. Willow’s dropping of lit matches onto Angel draws us into a sympathetic relationship with him, as we helplessly watch Angel’s suffering. Additionally, the season six episode, “Villains,” culminates in Willow’s savage revenge on Warren. As is the case with Angel in “The Wish,” Willow’s torture of Warren draws a sympathetic chord between victim and viewer as Willow performs her ultimate revenge in front of Buffy, Xander and Anya. We would like to examine these two episodes and explore the performative nature of violence.