Oz & Willow
Willow meets stoic Oz in the second season. Their courtship is slow and patient. Oz is bitten by a werewolf, and just as Willow begins to confront him about why he does not spend time with her, he transforms and attacks her. She must shoot him with a tranquilizer gun se veral times while he is wild, but her assertiveness in doing so makes her more confident in their relationship.
Oz's trials in dealing with a power he cannot control is, according to authors J. Michael Richardson and J. Douglas Rabb, a model for Willow to reference when she encounters her own attraction to evil. When Willow and Oz decide to commit to each other, Willow is enthusiastic that she has a boyfriend, and, as a guitarist in a band, one so cool. Her relationship with Oz endures the high school storylines of exploring her attraction to Xander, which briefly separates them. She worries that she is not as close to Oz as she could be. They stay together through graduation into college, but Oz is drawn to Veruca, another werewolf. He admits an animal attraction to Veruca, which he does not share with Willow. He sleeps with Veruca and leaves shortly after to explore the werewolf part of himself. Willow becomes very depressed and doubts herself. She drinks, her magical abilities are compromised, her spells come out wrong, and she lashes out at her friends when they suggest she get over it ("Something Blue").
Some months later, Oz returns to Sunnydale, having made progress with his lycanthropy through techniques learned in Tibet. He no longer uncontrollably changes into a werewolf during a full moon, and can now control his transformations, and shows Willow this when he takes her outside and shows her that the moon is full and he has not changed. However, when experiencing the powerful negative emotion of jealousy evoked by the discovery that Tara Maclay has replaced him in Willow's affections, he does change, and is seized by The Initiative and locked in their cells until Buffy, helped by Riley Finn, sets him free.
The knowledge that Willow now loves Tara makes Oz leave Sunnydale for good, though he and Willow each affirm the depth and permanance of their connection.
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