A classmate of Buffy's and Willow's at Sunnydale High School, in the Season One episode "Witch", it initially appears that Amy is being forced by Catherine Madison, her insane and abusive mother, to try out for the cheerleading squad despite her skills being noticeably weaker than those of the others auditioning. She is distraught when she fails to make the squad, being only the third alternate. Throughout the episode, the cheerleaders fall victim to evil, disfiguring spells cast by Amy, to disable enough members of the squad to get Amy onto it (including Buffy, whom she attempts to murder). However, it turns out that "Amy" is in fact her mother, Catherine, a powerful witch who has used magic to perform a body swap on herself and Amy so that Catherine can relive her teenage years, where she was a talented and popular cheerleader. Buffy, Giles, and the Scooby Gang combine forces to defeat her. When a spell Catherine/Amy cast against the Slayer backfires, Amy's spirit is restored to her own body and Catherine's spirit is trapped in a cheerleading trophy she had won in the 1970s (shown in Sunnydale High's trophy case).