Riley’s first encounter with Buffy was jarring—she accidentally knocked some heavy textbooks onto his head her first week in college. Originally from Iowa, Riley was psychology Professor Walsh’s teacher’s aide, and at first he assumed Buffy was just a normal girl. Buffy didn’t know he was a member of a secret government agency called the Initiative, who trapped demons and conducted nefarious experiments on them, supervised by Professor Walsh.
Once they learned the truth about each other, their romance bloomed in earnest and he became Buffy’s first serious, adult relationship. But Riley had issues with dating the Slayer, and constantly felt the need to try and live up to her near-superhuman abilities. After Professor Walsh’s Initiative lab was disbanded, Riley lost his focus and became self-destructive when he felt Buffy was pushing him away, even though he always knew in his heart she didn’t love him the way he loved her.
Knowing they were just treading water with their relationship, Riley accepted a new job hunting demons in Belize. After a year, Riley eventually got over Buffy and married a beautiful fellow demon-hunter named Sam.
Faith (Eliza Dushku)
Full of bravado and rage and possessing an overactive thrill-seeking gene, Faith was the Slayer sent to replace Kendra after Kendra was killed by Drusilla. Ever since the Master ever so briefly drowned the life out of Buffy there have been two Slayers, because a new Slayer is automatically called whenever the preceding one dies—even if she comes back to life.
From the beginning Faith was trouble—and troubled. Traumatized by seeing an ancient vampire named Kakistos torture and kill her Watcher, Faith takes too much pleasure in killing vampires. That’s because for Faith, killing vamps is an erotic rush. After accidentally killing a human during a fight with vampires, she had trouble reconciling her guilt with her power. Believing herself to be above the law, the dark side of Faith’s nature overwhelmed her and she turned into a rogue Slayer, aligning herself with the mayor as his right-hand muscle. During a confrontation, Buffy stabbed Faith and put her in a coma. When she woke up a year later, she was still out of control. On the verge of being shipped of to the Watchers’ Council in London, she fled to Los Angeles where she tried to frame Angel for murder. Finally accepting Angel’s help, Faith repented. She turned herself in and is currently in prison.
(Since the imprisonment happened on Angel, there’s no telling how this will affect Faith’s storyline on Buffy.)
Wesley Wyndam-Pryce (Alexis Denisof)
When Giles was relieved of his duties as Buffy’s Watcher, he was replaced by Wesley. Although he was well intentioned, his by-the-book manner put him at immediate odds with Buffy and alienated him from Faith. In over his head, Wesley quickly lost control of the situation. As a fighter Wesley was also lacking and, more often than not, went down with the first blow while shrieking.
Unable to control either Slayer, the Watchers’ Council fired Wesley. Rather than go back to England, he reassessed his life and moved to L.A. to become a rogue demon-hunter. Unfettered by the constraints of trying to follow the Watcher’s code, Wesley finally loosened up. His skill at research and his good heart earned him a position at Angel’s detective agency, and his story continues on Angel.
The Dearly Departed
Kendra (Bianca Lawson)
Kendra was called to be a Slayer after Buffy’s brief death at the hands of the Master. Dedicated to a fault, Kendra prepared her entire life to be the Slayer, and had faithfully studied all the prophecies, demons, and vampires. However, her immersion in all things Slayer left her a little short-changed in the socialization and having-a-life departments.
When Kendra first showed up, Buffy was resentful and Kendra was appalled that a Slayer would be in love with a vampire, and in fact tried to kill Angel before she knew he had a soul. Kendra returned to Sunnydale later to help Buffy fight Acathla during the time Angel had re-lost his soul. While Buffy was off searching out Angel, Drusilla made a surprise attack on the library and slit Kendra’s throat with the tip of a wickedly manicured finger.
Jenny Calendar (Robia La Morte)
A self-professed technopagan, Jenny combined old-fashioned mystical beliefs with Information Age technology to keep an eye on the forces of evil. In her spare time she read rune stones and attended pagan festivals for fun.
As Sunnydale High School’s computer teacher, Jenny was often at odds with Giles over the value of cyberspace and Internet information; she saw it as the dawn of a new era, while to him it was temporary and elusive. Add to that Jenny’s easy sensual aggression and Giles’s shy eagerness, and it was a match made in Hellmouth heaven.
But as is often the case in Sunnydale, Jenny wasn’t what she seemed. She was actually a member of the Kalderash Gypsies, the same clan that put the curse on Angel. Jenny had been sent to make sure he was suffering as the clan intended. When Angel re-lost his soul after making love with Buffy, Jenny re-created the long lost spell that gave Angel his soul. But before she could act on it, Angel tracked her down and broke her neck.
Joyce Summers (Kristine Sutherland)
After Buffy was kicked out of school for burning down the gym, her mom decided to leave Los Angeles and start a new life in Sunnydale. As a divorced single mom, Joyce was often too preoccupied getting her new business, an art gallery, off the ground to have time to pay close attention to exactly what her daughter was doing. She initially thought Giles was simply a concerned teacher trying to help her often academically-troubled daughter, and took Buffy’s sometimes-moody behavior to be typical teenage angst, unaware her child faced life-threatening danger nightly.
But for all her worries, Joyce also ultimately had faith in Buffy and saw her daughter as self-reliant and someone not afraid to intervene on the behalf of others. When Buffy finally told her mother she had a Slayer for a daughter, Joyce was understandably shocked and incredulous and handled the news badly—so badly that Buffy ran away for several months before finally returning home. Through it all, Joyce remained Buffy’s main source of emotional support. So when Joyce died of a brain aneurysm, Buffy didn’t just lose her mom, but her very foundation.
Principal Flutie (Ken Lerner)
A kinder, gentler administrator, Mr. Flutie believed that even the most incorrigible students would come around, given enough support and understanding. He ultimately learned just how woefully wrong his philosophy was, when he was eaten by a pack of students possessed by the spirits of hyenas.
Principal Bob Snyder (Armin Shimerman)
Children, shmildren. This administrator could see his students for what they really were: horrible little troublemakers who would just as soon eat you as pick up a book and study. Sneaky, with a mysterious aura, Principal Snyder always seemed to know much more than he let on.
Or at least, he thought he did. He always considered Buffy one of the school’s most troublesome students and would go out of his way to see she stayed on the straight and narrow by forcing her to participate in school activities she would otherwise spurn.
When the mayor turned graduation day into a potential teenage smorgasbord, Snyder stood his ground and demanded order—and for his bravery was eaten by the politico–turned–giant demon snake.
Professor Walsh (Lindsay Crouse)
No-nonsense and ever so vaguely menacing, Professor Walsh was the head of the Initiative who took a dislike to Buffy. Not only did she supervise the capture of and experimentation on demons and vampires, she also busied herself with a pet project—creating a super-solider she named Adam. But she suffered the same fate as Dr. Frankenstein and died at the hands of her creation-gone-bad.
Tara Maclay (Amber Benson)
Shy and unassuming, Tara was the daughter of a powerful witch who died young when Tara was 17. Not having a mother seriously impacted Tara, particularly in the self-worth department. Though sometimes stammering and unsure, Tara met Willow at a school Wicca meeting and the two immediately hit it off. Tara was attracted to Willow’s intelligence and spirit while Willow found Tara’s gentleness enchanti
ng, and eventually they became lovers.
Although generally nonconfrontational, Tara could stand firm on a position she believed in. She temporarily broke up with Willow to show her disapproval over Willow’s addiction to magic. Their reunion was tragically cut short after Tara was shot and killed by Warren, who was gunning after Buffy.
Ben (Charlie Weber)
Half the time Ben was a kind and gentle intern at Sunnydale General Hospital. The rest of the time he was Glory, the demon god pursuing the Key. That’s because he shared the same body with Glory. When Glory’s fellow Hell-gods expelled her, they imprisoned her in the body of a human infant boy. Once the baby grew old and died, so would Glory. Unfortunately for Ben, Glory was too powerful, and she was able to appear for stretches of time to cause havoc. In order to prevent Glory from returning, Giles suffocated Ben.
The Big Bads
SEASON ONE
The Master (Mark Metcalf)
The oldest vampire—and most powerful on record—the Master was a megalomaniac bent on destroying humankind and reclaiming the earth for “the old ones.” After being trapped in a mystical portal beneath Sunnydale when his plan of opening the Hellmouth was interrupted by an earthquake, the Master spent his time plotting evil schemes and using ancient prophecies in hopes of being set free so he could begin his long anticipated extermination of man.
Buffy unwittingly set the Master free by going and confronting him, and in return he killed her—briefly. Xander was able to revive her using CPR. The experience left the Slayer stronger and she was able to finish off the Master by impaling him on a large shard of wood. Interestingly, though his flesh turned to dust, his bones stayed intact.
Darla (Julie Benz)
This four-hundred-year-old vampire had a penchant for dressing up in Catholic-school uniforms when she led young men expecting a good time to their unexpected deaths. When she was alive, Darla was a Virginia prostitute dying a slow and painful death of syphilis until she was turned into a vampire by the Master in 1609. She in turn sired Angel and together they roamed the streets of Europe, leaving death and horror in their wake. When Angel went over to the other side after regaining his soul, Darla was determined to win him back—or, failing that, kill him. But Angel turned the tables on her and killed his former lover.
Four years later, Darla was brought back as a human by an evil law firm in Los Angeles, but she never appeared in Sunnydale again.
The Anointed One (Andrew J. Ferchland)
The Anointed One was one of five people killed by vampires in order to fulfill an ancient prophecy. The twist was that the One chosen was a child, who was destined to help free the Master and sit at his right hand when Armageddon came. Although he still had the body of a child, the Anointed One’s ruthlessness was second only to the Master’s.
After Buffy killed the Master, the Anointed One persisted and conjured up a plan to resurrect him and fulfill Armageddon. But Spike, annoyed by taking orders from a whiny child, locked him in a cage and hoisted him into the sunlight and incinerated him.
SEASON TWO
Drusilla (Juliet Landau)
Not only is Drusilla a vampire, she’s certifiable—as in nuts. She was driven to madness by Angel, who killed off her family one by one just for fun before turning her into a vampire and becoming her lover. Drusilla eventually turned her amorous attentions to Spike and they spent the next century happily causing mayhem.
But an attack by an angry mob in Prague nearly killed poor demented Drusilla so she and Spike headed for the Hellmouth. Using a ritual that included Angel’s blood, Dru was cured, a terrifying situation because, while most vampires are simply evil, Dru is evil and insane.
Spike eventually made a deal with Buffy to help her prevent the end of the world in return for a free pass out of Sunnydale for himself and Dru. But Dru likes her men mean and she felt Spike had lost his edge so she dumped him for a series of demon lovers.
After a nasty run-in with Angel in Los Angeles in which he tried to torch her, Dru came looking to cry on Spike’s shoulder. But instead of open arms Dru was greeted with manacles. She discovered to her horror that not only had Spike fallen in love with the Slayer, but he was willing to dust Drusilla to prove it. Dru fought her way out and hasn’t been heard from since.
The Judge
The Judge was an ancient demon so powerful that “no weapon forged” could destroy him. After an epic battle that killed thousands, the Judge was cut into pieces which were buried in the four corners of the earth. In a moment of demented whimsy, Drusilla decided to reassemble the Judge and bring annihilation to all mankind.
Back in one piece, the Judge was a blue-colored demon with the power to burn anyone who carried even a trace of humanity in them. Interestingly, because they were capable of feeling emotion for one another, the Judge was disdainful even of Spike and Dru.
While no weapon forged hundreds of years ago could stop the Judge, a rocket launcher could. His shattered remains were boxed and scattered where he could never be reassembled again.
SEASON THREE
Mayor Richard Wilkins III (Harry Groener)
This is the politician of your worst nightmares. By all appearances he seemed like a dedicated, concerned public servant. He always had a word of encouragement and was a stickler for courtesy. But Mayor Wilkins had a much darker side. He was a sorcerer at least a hundred years old, who posed as both Richard Wilkins I and Richard Wilkins II.
Obsessed with power, and blindly ambitious, Mayor Wilkins made some unholy alliances to get to the top of Sunnydale’s political heap, including a deal with a baby-eating demon named Lurconis. His ultimate goal was to become a full demon, with a very hearty appetite, through a transformation called the Ascension, scheduled to take place on the afternoon of Buffy’s high school graduation. Making him even more dangerous, Wilkins enlisted the help of Faith, a Slayer-gone-bad, to be his muscle. Ironically, though, he genuinely cared for Faith and was very much a father figure to her. He was also the first to voice the doomed nature of Buffy’s romance with Angel. If he hadn’t been a power-hungry demon-to-be, the mayor actually would have been rather parental.
Recruiting her entire graduating class to help, Buffy was able to lure the demon mayor into the school library, which was rigged with dynamite, and killed him by blowing up the entire school.
Mr. Trick (K. Todd Freeman)
Mr. Trick was a thoroughly modern vamp recruited by the Mayor to head up his security team. A slick dresser, and lover of hi-tech gadgets, Mr. Trick ended up getting staked by Faith.
SEASON FOUR
Adam (George Hertzberg)
A modern-day Frankenstein’s monster, Adam was the part-man/part-demon/ part-machine creation of Dr. Walsh, meant to be the perfect soldier. But in a case of absolute power corrupting absolutely, Adam turned evil, killing his creator, and was bent on killing everything else he encountered by creating an army of others like him. A spell that combined the strength of all the Scoobies into one unleashed Buffy’s primeval Slayer powers, handily enabling her to defeat and destroy Adam.
SEASON FIVE
Glorificus/Glory (Clare Kramer)
One of three gods who ruled a demonic dimension, Glory was unceremoniously booted out and trapped inside the body of a human baby boy in an attempt to kill her. Too powerful to be kept inside, Glory was able to emerge occasionally and when she did, she was hell on earth. Vain, whiny, and obsessed with her appearance, Glory was also driven insane by being trapped on earth. To cope, she needed to drain other people’s sanity to maintain her own. When Giles killed Ben, Glory presumably died with him. But since gods are immortal …
SEASON SIX
The Trio (Danny Strong, Adam Busch, Tom Lenk)
Sometimes the most terrifying evil can be human. The Trio were three of Sunnydale’s aimless Generation Y losers, who teamed up with aspirations of becoming the town’s ultimate Big Bads. Warren, an electronics genius who once created a robot girlfriend for himself and later made a Buffy ’bot for Spike, wa
s the ringleader. Warren recruited Andrew—whose brother Tucker once tried to ruin prom by unleashing hellhounds on his fellow students—and Jonathan, who Buffy had talked out of committing suicide during senior year, to form a gang.
Andrew’s expertise was summoning demons. He was desperate for attention after having lived in the shadow of his brother, and saw the gang as a chance to make a name for himself. Jonathan dabbled in magic and also had an intense desire to be noticed.
At first Andrew and Jonathan treated the alliance as a game, but after Warren killed his ex-girlfriend, they both realized this was much more serious. Having tasted the dark power that comes from murder, Warren set his sights on the Slayer.
Jonathan wanted no part of hurting anyone, especially Buffy, since she had saved his life. But fear of Warren kept him from bolting. After Warren killed Tara in an attempt to shoot Buffy, Willow hunted him down and literally skinned him alive. Buffy was forced to protect Jonathan and Andrew from a Willow gone mad with grief. They went on the run, to avoid facing the consequences of their actions.
.3.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE VAMPIRE
Mythological versions of the creature we know today as the vampire—a reanimated corpse that rises from the grave to feed on the living by drinking their blood—have been around in many cultures, certainly since the time of the ancient Greeks and possibly even since the beginning of recorded time.
The Romans, and the Serbians of Eastern Europe, had specific names for these bloodsucking monsters—sanguisuga and vukodlak, respectively. Many scholars believe that the Slavic countries of Eastern Europe were the hot zone of early vampire belief from the Middle Ages on, and that our current perception of the vampire can be traced back to there.
Between 1600 and 1800, reports of suspected vampire cases reached epidemic proportions. Although it began in the Balkans region, the paranoia eventually spread west into Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and England. There were so many purported occurrences of vampire activity that writers of the time began to use the myth as the basis for literature.
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