Screen Rant

Nicholas Brendon's Xander Harris was notably absent from one BtVS episode. 1 / 10

Across seven seasons, the actor was credited on all 144 official episodes. 2 / 10

Despite that, he was nowhere to be seen in a BtVS Season 7, episode 7... 3 / 10

...which saw various characters interact with deceased people from their pasts... 4 / 10

...most of who turned out to be the villainous First in disguise. 5 / 10

Xander was originally intended to be in the episode... 6 / 10

..."reuniting" with best friend Jesse McNally, who was tragically killed in Season 1. 7 / 10

Unfortunately, scheduling issues made the return of Jesse was scrapped... 8 / 10

...and the episode's tighter, real-time nature meant Xander couldn't just be shoehorned in. 9 / 10

With two versions of Xander appearing in BtVS season 5, however, it all balanced out. 10 / 10