Richard Wilkins
Encyclopedia
Richard Wilkins III is a fictional character in the fantasy television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003). Portrayed by Harry Groener
, he is the mayor of Sunnydale
, a fictional town rife with vampires and demons in which the main character, Buffy Summers
(Sarah Michelle Gellar
) lives. The premise of the series is that Buffy is a Slayer, a young girl endowed with superhuman powers to fight evil, which she accomplishes with the help of a small group of friends and family, called the Scooby Gang. During the second season it becomes apparent that local authorities are aware of the endemic evil in the town, and either ignore it or are complicit in making it worse. The series regularly employs monsters and elements of horror to symbolize real problems, and the abuse of power in relation to the forces of darkness is a repeated theme throughout the series, as well as in its spinoff Angel
. The third season reveals that the Mayor is involved in many of the evil occurrences and he becomes the primary villain, or Big Bad
. His genial demeanor, promotion of family values, casual phobia of germs, and dislike of swearing belie his evil nature.
This season also marks Buffy's and her friends' last year in high school, and introduces a long-running character named Faith (Eliza Dushku
), who is also a Slayer. Faith's disrupted and painful family life has left her without a stable moral center, and unlike Buffy, she is particularly vulnerable to the dark impulses associated with being a Slayer. After many months of fighting alongside Buffy and being under the authority of Buffy's Watcher, Giles
, Faith becomes estranged from Buffy and aligns herself with the Mayor, who both employs her as an assassin and becomes a father figure to her while preparing to become a powerful demon that will destroy the town.
and the team of writers for the show sought to explore the issues of the abuse of power, and the choices people in or with power make. Veteran stage actor Harry Groener
was cast in the role of the Mayor of Sunnydale, the embodiment of a quintessential American politician. In the second season, it becomes clear that the authorities at Sunnydale High School — under which a portal to hell called a Hellmouth
is situated — are aware of the perpetual influence of evil at the school and have been reporting events to the Mayor's office. While there are scenes in season two which indicate that the Mayor is a fear-inspiring figure, he is not seen until the third season.
Series writer Jane Espenson
credited Groener's performance and his chemistry with co-star Eliza Dushku with propelling his character to greater importance and making their relationship a central focus of the season. The writers created the blue collar Slayer Faith (Eliza Dushku
) as an anti-Buffy: a young woman given extraordinary physical powers with no moral foundation. Whereas Buffy has had a stable family life up until her parents' divorce two years earlier, Faith does not know her father, and it is revealed that her mother was an alcoholic before her death. She has been surviving on her own since her original Watcher, someone who teacher her about the demons and monsters she will face, was tortured and killed soon before Faith's arrival in Sunnydale.
Groener loved the part and was impressed with the writing for it. As a stage actor used to having rehearsal time to prepare for a role, he found himself often with little time for rehearsal in the environment of television production; actors sometimes get their lines the night before and must memorize them, then spend time on set learning how to block shots for cameras. Consequently, Groener said he did not have much time to rehearse and prepare for the role of the Mayor. He was surprised to see how involved Joss Whedon was at preparing scripts: sometimes Whedon would rewrite lines on set. Groener said, "Poor Joss. Here is a man who I think never sleeps. He never, ever sleeps and of course he was writing and directing the last two episodes, and there were times when we would simply get a synopsis the night before...and while they're setting everything up and getting everything ready to shoot the next scene, Joss is over in a corner writing the scene that's going to happen after that. It can be kind of nuts! But it all gets done. That's the magic of it."
(Armin Shimerman
). Except for a small group of his aides, Buffy and the rest of the town are unaware of the Mayor's dark nature.
The script for the fifth episode "Homecoming", where audiences are introduced to the Mayor, describes him as a man who "couldn't be more unassuming ... one feels that this man has not raised his voice in years, and although he is mild enough in demeanor, one hopes he won't". In the previous episode, Faith arrives in Sunnydale, as does a vampire named Mr. Trick (K. Todd Freeman), who tries to kill both Faith and Buffy. When this is unsuccessful, he attempts to kill both Slayers again—for fun—in "Homecoming", charging a fee to those who have come to hunt the two. Impressed with his initiative, the Mayor invites Mr. Trick to work for him. Mr. Trick's first assignment is to distract the entire town so five infants can be taken from the hospital to serve as sacrifice to a demon in "Band Candy". Buffy and the Scooby Gang thwart the Mayor's plans; their successful interference signals to the Mayor that Buffy's efficiency as a fighter of evil will have long-range consequences for him. He tells Mr. Trick to keep an eye on her.
The Mayor carries out his evil schemes while exhibiting a paradoxical "fifties sitcom-dad demeanor". He dislikes swearing and disallows its use in his presence. He asserts that he is a family man; a specifically conservative politician who espouses family values. Inside his office cabinet he keeps a variety of skulls, shrunken heads, weapons, and other evil objects alongside a box of hand wipes, which he uses frequently in between dispensing "goofily prudish advice" tainted with dark threats. The phobia of germs peculiarity was based on Buffy producer David Greenwalt
, who exhibited similar positive enthusiasm while often wiping his hands with wet towelettes. Groener's acting was praised by author Nikki Stafford, who writes that he "is consistently wonderful in this role, one that would have been very difficult for many actors to maintain". Likewise, Jane Espenson remarked that Groener played the part exhibiting a "wonderful innocent glee" towards evil that she thought was "delightful". Groener stated that when he tried to play the Mayor too dark or evil, Joss Whedon or other directors would ask him to tone it down, take it easy and make the part "real nice". In contrast to the series' previous villains and monsters, the Mayor's evil hides behind a mask of humanity. Groener enjoyed this, saying "You don't have to be Snidely Whiplash
to be evil. Look at Ted Bundy
." The Mayor's unassuming appearance, pleasure in such harmless activities as miniature golf and reading The Family Circus
, and his quirky mysophobia
are a part of the season's exploration of moral ambiguity.
Faith, Buffy, and the Mayor come into conflict during "Bad Girls
", an episode in which Buffy allows herself to break rules and ignore responsibility. Needing to distract the Slayers so that he can be assured of the privacy required to complete an important ritual, the Mayor ensures they learn of a cult of vampires loyal to a demon named Balthazar, knowing they will be fully engaged in defeating him, giving the Mayor time to enact a ritual required as part of his preparation to become a demon (referred to as his Ascension). Its outcome is his invulnerability for the next 100 days, illustrated when he allows one of Balthazar's minions to slice his head in two so it can mend itself.
In their efforts to track and defeat Balthazar and his cohorts, Buffy and Faith flirt with lawlessness, breaking into a store and stealing weapons, then escaping police custody to complete their mission. The Deputy Mayor, who has begun to show a reluctance to participate in the Mayor's plans and is keeping track of the Slayers, follows them to warn them of Mr. Trick and the Mayor's intention to have them killed. In the heat of fighting, Faith accidentally stakes and kills the Deputy Mayor, believing him to be a vampire. While Buffy feels terrible guilt for being a part of the Deputy Mayor's death, Faith claims not to, and resents Buffy for continuing to speak of it in "Consequences". Faith tells Buffy's Watcher Giles
(Anthony Head
) that it was Buffy who killed the Deputy Mayor; he does not believe her and she is taken into custody to be dealt with by the Watchers' Council. She escapes and tries to leave town, only to be stopped by Buffy. Mr. Trick appears on the scene to try to kill them both, and Faith saves Buffy by killing Mr. Trick. She then goes to the Mayor's office and offers him her services, but continues to pretend to be fighting on Buffy's side. Eventually her alliance with the Mayor is exposed and she is revealed as Buffy's enemy.
The Mayor puts Faith up in a large, fully furnished apartment, buys her clothes, a video game system, and an expensive knife. He nurtures her, giving her a sense of belonging after her rift with the Scoobies, asking only in return she kill people when required. Faith has no problem with this arrangement and enjoys the lifestyle. Buffy writer Marti Noxon
states that villains who seek out love and social connections to counter their loneliness are complex and interesting to write. The Mayor shows absolute confidence in Faith's abilities and she in turn is validated by him. Among the characters who know them both, the Mayor is the only one who never compares Faith to Buffy. When Faith calls him her "sugar daddy", he gently scolds her, reminding her that he is a "family man". According to author Lorna Jowett, his rejection of any sexual element in their relationship makes their bond stronger. Faith's experience with sex has left her apathetic about her partners, but when the Mayor demands loyalty, she is able to give it. His affection for Faith is genuine; like Faith, he has no living family, his wife having died of old age. The Mayor, according to Harry Groener, is a lonely father figure who "loves unconditionally". In series writer Doug Petrie
's opinion, the Mayor is well-matched to Faith, who Petrie sees as "the loneliest person in Sunnydale" who "desperately needs a father". Eliza Dushku states that one of Faith's major life battles is constructing a viable self-esteem, which the Mayor never challenges, but his evil amplifies the "crazy" aspect of her nature. Whedon declared Faith the writing team's first "really human monster". The Mayor intends Faith to inherit his evil empire, and shows unabashed pride in her achievements. Their tenderness with each other, according to Whedon, is a "beautiful counterpoint" to the violence and evil they wreak on the town.
(Alyson Hannigan
) is captured by Faith, and the Mayor meets Buffy for the first time when they exchange Willow for the box. During the confrontation, the Mayor pointedly asks questions about the viability of Buffy's relationship with Angel (David Boreanaz
), a vampire who has been re-ensouled and who fights alongside Buffy. Although Buffy and Angel have been trying to avoid acknowledging the difficulties involved with continuing a relationship that can make neither of them happy, the Mayor's fatherly questions about their future and his comparison to his own experience of watching his wife Edna Mae die at an old age while he remained youthful, becomes a factor which forces them to admit that the relationship should end.
Buffy and Angel mutually but sadly concede they cannot be happy together in the next episode but they continue to work toward the goal of defeating the Mayor's plan. The two-part season finale "Graduation Day
" reveals that the Mayor will be the keynote speaker at Sunnydale High's commencement ceremony, where he will be able to feed on the students after his transformation. On orders from the Mayor, Faith murders a geologist who has uncovered evidence of a previously ascended demon, then shoots Angel with a poisoned arrow to distract Buffy and the Scoobies, who have to care for, and try to save, Angel. When they learn that the only antidote to the poison is the blood of a Slayer, Buffy tries to capture Faith in order to use her blood to cure Angel. During the fight to do so, Buffy stabs Faith with the knife given to her by the Mayor; Faith escapes, but her injuries put her into the hospital, comatose. Buffy then offers her own blood to Angel, who feeds on her, then takes her to the hospital after he recovers. There, the Mayor is poignantly grieving for Faith. He discovers Buffy in the next room and tries to smother her, but is stopped by Angel.
In a redemptive turn, Faith comes to Buffy in a dream to tell her how to defeat the Mayor, saying "Want to know the deal? Human weakness. It never goes away. Even his." The knife the Mayor gave to Faith then flashes in the palm of Buffy's hand. A fully recovered Buffy and the Scoobies enlist the graduating students of Sunnydale High, outfitting them with weapons to attack immediately after the Mayor's transformation, after learning his invulnerability will end once he is in demon form. The Mayor gives a speech about changes, growing up and moving on, mirroring the loose ends created by the series and the season. A solar eclipse
occurs during his speech, signaling the start of the Ascension. He transforms into an enormous snake, and immediately eats the universally loathed Principal Snyder. While Angel and the Scoobies fight the Mayor's force of vampires, Buffy taunts the now-transformed Mayor with Faith's knife and runs into the school. The Mayor follows her to the library, which is rigged with explosives, killing him and destroying the school with a series of explosions.
whose names are their titles. Buffy Studies
scholar Rhonda Wilcox calls the Mayor — particularly after his transformation — "Mr. Patriarchal Phallus of 1999". Faith's relationship to the Mayor in many ways mirrors Buffy's relationship to her Watcher, Giles, who is Buffy's father figure. Doug Petrie characterizes Faith as "Buffy's evil twin", who gets to do what Buffy would like to do, but cannot because Buffy is moral and not as "free-spirited" as Faith, according to Whedon. Through the Mayor's effort to nurture his relationship with Faith she becomes his subordinate, despite her assertions to Buffy that she is independent. Her motivation to kill the geologist is never more complicated than, "The boss wants you dead", which she tells him just before stabbing him to death. Unlike Giles' mentoring of Buffy, in which he encourages her to make her own decisions despite what she is ordered to do by the similarly patriarchal Watcher's Council, Faith complies with everything the Mayor wants, creating "unquestioning service of the power structure for the sake of approval, comfort, and support of the father". In contrast, Buffy soon stops taking orders from the Watchers' Council. Jowett writes, "The Mayor is ultimately a 'bad' father because he holds the status quo: like the Master before him, he is a powerful patriarch who wants to maintain his position at the top, and the children of such parents will never be able to grow up."
Faith does not die from her injuries, but returns in the fourth season in "This Year's Girl". While still in her coma, she dreams of a pleasant picnic with the Mayor, who picks up a small snake that has slithered onto the blanket and tells it that it does not belong there. The dream-picnic is interrupted by Buffy who stabs him to death. Faith awakens in the hospital to discover that the Mayor has in fact died and left her a video and a device that will allow her to switch bodies with Buffy. After Buffy recovers her own body, Faith goes to Angel in Los Angeles, turns herself into the police and goes to prison, later emerging to begin her redemption on Angel. She returns to Sunnydale in season seven, not only to help Buffy and the Scoobies, but to perform in a position of leadership. In season seven the Mayor also returns as one of the faces of the First Evil
in "Lessons" and "Touched".
Harry Groener
Harry Groener is a German-born American actor and dancer, perhaps best known for playing Mayor Wilkins in Buffy the Vampire Slayer .-Early life:...
, he is the mayor of Sunnydale
Sunnydale
Sunnydale, California is the fictional setting for the U.S. television drama Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Series creator Joss Whedon conceived the town as a representation of a generic California city, as well as a narrative parody of the all-too-serene towns typical in traditional horror...
, a fictional town rife with vampires and demons in which the main character, Buffy Summers
Buffy Summers
Buffy Summers is a fictional character from Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise. She first appeared in the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer before going on to appear in the television series and subsequent comic book of the same name...
(Sarah Michelle Gellar
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Sarah Michelle Prinze , known professionally by her birth name of Sarah Michelle Gellar , is an American actress, singer and executive producer...
) lives. The premise of the series is that Buffy is a Slayer, a young girl endowed with superhuman powers to fight evil, which she accomplishes with the help of a small group of friends and family, called the Scooby Gang. During the second season it becomes apparent that local authorities are aware of the endemic evil in the town, and either ignore it or are complicit in making it worse. The series regularly employs monsters and elements of horror to symbolize real problems, and the abuse of power in relation to the forces of darkness is a repeated theme throughout the series, as well as in its spinoff Angel
Angel (TV series)
Angel is an American television series, a spin-off of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The series was created by Buffys creator, Joss Whedon, in collaboration with David Greenwalt, and first aired on October 5, 1999...
. The third season reveals that the Mayor is involved in many of the evil occurrences and he becomes the primary villain, or Big Bad
Big Bad
Big Bad is a term originally used by the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series to describe a major recurring adversary, usually the chief villain or antagonist in a particular broadcast season...
. His genial demeanor, promotion of family values, casual phobia of germs, and dislike of swearing belie his evil nature.
This season also marks Buffy's and her friends' last year in high school, and introduces a long-running character named Faith (Eliza Dushku
Eliza Dushku
Eliza Patricia Dushku is an American actress known for her television roles, including recurring appearances as Faith on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff series Angel. She starred in two Fox series, Tru Calling and Dollhouse...
), who is also a Slayer. Faith's disrupted and painful family life has left her without a stable moral center, and unlike Buffy, she is particularly vulnerable to the dark impulses associated with being a Slayer. After many months of fighting alongside Buffy and being under the authority of Buffy's Watcher, Giles
Rupert Giles
Rupert Giles is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The character is portrayed by Anthony Stewart Head. He serves as Buffy Summers' mentor and surrogate father figure...
, Faith becomes estranged from Buffy and aligns herself with the Mayor, who both employs her as an assassin and becomes a father figure to her while preparing to become a powerful demon that will destroy the town.
Creation and casting
In planning for the third season, series creator Joss WhedonJoss Whedon
Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon is an American screenwriter, executive producer, director, comic book writer, occasional composer and actor, founder of Mutant Enemy Productions and co-creator of Bellwether Pictures...
and the team of writers for the show sought to explore the issues of the abuse of power, and the choices people in or with power make. Veteran stage actor Harry Groener
Harry Groener
Harry Groener is a German-born American actor and dancer, perhaps best known for playing Mayor Wilkins in Buffy the Vampire Slayer .-Early life:...
was cast in the role of the Mayor of Sunnydale, the embodiment of a quintessential American politician. In the second season, it becomes clear that the authorities at Sunnydale High School — under which a portal to hell called a Hellmouth
Hellmouth
Hellmouth is the entrance to Hell envisaged as the gaping mouth of a huge monster, an image which first appears in Anglo-Saxon art, and then spread all over Europe, remaining very common in depictions of the Last Judgment and Harrowing of Hell until the end of the Middle Ages, and still sometimes...
is situated — are aware of the perpetual influence of evil at the school and have been reporting events to the Mayor's office. While there are scenes in season two which indicate that the Mayor is a fear-inspiring figure, he is not seen until the third season.
Series writer Jane Espenson
Jane Espenson
Jane Espenson is an American script writer and television producer who has worked on both situation comedies and serial dramas. She had a five-year stint as a writer and producer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and shared a Hugo Award for her writing on the episode "Conversations with Dead People"...
credited Groener's performance and his chemistry with co-star Eliza Dushku with propelling his character to greater importance and making their relationship a central focus of the season. The writers created the blue collar Slayer Faith (Eliza Dushku
Eliza Dushku
Eliza Patricia Dushku is an American actress known for her television roles, including recurring appearances as Faith on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff series Angel. She starred in two Fox series, Tru Calling and Dollhouse...
) as an anti-Buffy: a young woman given extraordinary physical powers with no moral foundation. Whereas Buffy has had a stable family life up until her parents' divorce two years earlier, Faith does not know her father, and it is revealed that her mother was an alcoholic before her death. She has been surviving on her own since her original Watcher, someone who teacher her about the demons and monsters she will face, was tortured and killed soon before Faith's arrival in Sunnydale.
Groener loved the part and was impressed with the writing for it. As a stage actor used to having rehearsal time to prepare for a role, he found himself often with little time for rehearsal in the environment of television production; actors sometimes get their lines the night before and must memorize them, then spend time on set learning how to block shots for cameras. Consequently, Groener said he did not have much time to rehearse and prepare for the role of the Mayor. He was surprised to see how involved Joss Whedon was at preparing scripts: sometimes Whedon would rewrite lines on set. Groener said, "Poor Joss. Here is a man who I think never sleeps. He never, ever sleeps and of course he was writing and directing the last two episodes, and there were times when we would simply get a synopsis the night before...and while they're setting everything up and getting everything ready to shoot the next scene, Joss is over in a corner writing the scene that's going to happen after that. It can be kind of nuts! But it all gets done. That's the magic of it."
Establishment
The Mayor's backstory is revealed throughout the season. Richard Wilkins III is also Richard Wilkins I and II; he has been in office for a century, maintaining his long life and political power by paying tribute to an array of demons who live in or under Sunnydale. He has been aware of Buffy's presence in the town and has kept tabs on her through Sunnydale High School's Principal SnyderPrincipal Snyder
Principal R. Snyder is a fictional character in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, played by Armin Shimerman. Shimerman originally auditioned for the role of Flutie, but lost that role to Ken Lerner...
(Armin Shimerman
Armin Shimerman
Armin Shimerman is an American actor. Shimerman is best known for playing the Ferengi bartender Quark in the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Principal Snyder in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Kramer's caddy Stan on Seinfeld, voicing Dr. Nefarious in the Ratchet & Clank series, and Andrew...
). Except for a small group of his aides, Buffy and the rest of the town are unaware of the Mayor's dark nature.
The script for the fifth episode "Homecoming", where audiences are introduced to the Mayor, describes him as a man who "couldn't be more unassuming ... one feels that this man has not raised his voice in years, and although he is mild enough in demeanor, one hopes he won't". In the previous episode, Faith arrives in Sunnydale, as does a vampire named Mr. Trick (K. Todd Freeman), who tries to kill both Faith and Buffy. When this is unsuccessful, he attempts to kill both Slayers again—for fun—in "Homecoming", charging a fee to those who have come to hunt the two. Impressed with his initiative, the Mayor invites Mr. Trick to work for him. Mr. Trick's first assignment is to distract the entire town so five infants can be taken from the hospital to serve as sacrifice to a demon in "Band Candy". Buffy and the Scooby Gang thwart the Mayor's plans; their successful interference signals to the Mayor that Buffy's efficiency as a fighter of evil will have long-range consequences for him. He tells Mr. Trick to keep an eye on her.
The Mayor carries out his evil schemes while exhibiting a paradoxical "fifties sitcom-dad demeanor". He dislikes swearing and disallows its use in his presence. He asserts that he is a family man; a specifically conservative politician who espouses family values. Inside his office cabinet he keeps a variety of skulls, shrunken heads, weapons, and other evil objects alongside a box of hand wipes, which he uses frequently in between dispensing "goofily prudish advice" tainted with dark threats. The phobia of germs peculiarity was based on Buffy producer David Greenwalt
David Greenwalt
David Greenwalt is an American screenwriter, director and producer.He was the co-executive producer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and co-creator of its spinoff, Angel. He is also co-creator of the short-lived cult television show Profit...
, who exhibited similar positive enthusiasm while often wiping his hands with wet towelettes. Groener's acting was praised by author Nikki Stafford, who writes that he "is consistently wonderful in this role, one that would have been very difficult for many actors to maintain". Likewise, Jane Espenson remarked that Groener played the part exhibiting a "wonderful innocent glee" towards evil that she thought was "delightful". Groener stated that when he tried to play the Mayor too dark or evil, Joss Whedon or other directors would ask him to tone it down, take it easy and make the part "real nice". In contrast to the series' previous villains and monsters, the Mayor's evil hides behind a mask of humanity. Groener enjoyed this, saying "You don't have to be Snidely Whiplash
Snidely Whiplash
Snidely Whiplash is the cartoon arch-villain to Dudley Do-Right in the tongue-in-cheek Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties segments of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show by American animation pioneer Jay Ward....
to be evil. Look at Ted Bundy
Ted Bundy
Theodore Robert "Ted" Bundy was an American serial killer, rapist, kidnapper, and necrophile who assaulted and murdered numerous young women during the 1970s, and possibly earlier...
." The Mayor's unassuming appearance, pleasure in such harmless activities as miniature golf and reading The Family Circus
The Family Circus
The Family Circus is a syndicated comic strip created by cartoonist Bil Keane and currently written, inked, and colored by his son, Jeff Keane. The strip generally uses a single captioned panel with a round border, hence the original name of the series, which was changed following objections from...
, and his quirky mysophobia
Mysophobia
Mysophobia is a term used to describe a pathological fear of contamination and germs. Someone who has such a fear is referred to as a mysophobe. The term was introduced by Dr. William Alexander Hammond in 1879 when describing a case of obsessive-compulsive disorder exhibited in repeatedly washing...
are a part of the season's exploration of moral ambiguity.
Conflict with Buffy and relationship with Faith
During the episodes which reveal the Mayor's true nature, Faith's darker nature also begins to appear. She shows herself to be purely motivated by pleasure, even enjoying to excess her fighting as a Slayer, but unreliable regarding the duties associated with that role. Her character tests ethics more than any other on the series, highlighting the repeated theme of the role of free will in the struggle between good and evil. Her reaction to killing demons and vampires is "positively joyful" contrasting with Buffy's frequent admissions that she considers her responsibilities an imposition on her life—although she is committed to her duty. In the early part of the season, Faith's actions aid the cause of good, but her motivations are ambiguous. She never reveals, other than the pleasure she receives, why she fights evil.Faith, Buffy, and the Mayor come into conflict during "Bad Girls
Bad Girls
Bad Girls may refer to:In film, television, and theater:* Bad Girls , a 1994 film by Jonathan Kaplan* Bad Girls , a pornographic film in the XRCO Hall of Fame* Bad Girls , a British television series...
", an episode in which Buffy allows herself to break rules and ignore responsibility. Needing to distract the Slayers so that he can be assured of the privacy required to complete an important ritual, the Mayor ensures they learn of a cult of vampires loyal to a demon named Balthazar, knowing they will be fully engaged in defeating him, giving the Mayor time to enact a ritual required as part of his preparation to become a demon (referred to as his Ascension). Its outcome is his invulnerability for the next 100 days, illustrated when he allows one of Balthazar's minions to slice his head in two so it can mend itself.
In their efforts to track and defeat Balthazar and his cohorts, Buffy and Faith flirt with lawlessness, breaking into a store and stealing weapons, then escaping police custody to complete their mission. The Deputy Mayor, who has begun to show a reluctance to participate in the Mayor's plans and is keeping track of the Slayers, follows them to warn them of Mr. Trick and the Mayor's intention to have them killed. In the heat of fighting, Faith accidentally stakes and kills the Deputy Mayor, believing him to be a vampire. While Buffy feels terrible guilt for being a part of the Deputy Mayor's death, Faith claims not to, and resents Buffy for continuing to speak of it in "Consequences". Faith tells Buffy's Watcher Giles
Rupert Giles
Rupert Giles is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The character is portrayed by Anthony Stewart Head. He serves as Buffy Summers' mentor and surrogate father figure...
(Anthony Head
Anthony Head
Anthony Stewart Head , usually credited as Anthony Head, is an English actor and musician. He rose to fame in the UK following his role in television advertisements for Nescafé Gold Blend , and is known for his roles as Rupert Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and as Uther Pendragon in...
) that it was Buffy who killed the Deputy Mayor; he does not believe her and she is taken into custody to be dealt with by the Watchers' Council. She escapes and tries to leave town, only to be stopped by Buffy. Mr. Trick appears on the scene to try to kill them both, and Faith saves Buffy by killing Mr. Trick. She then goes to the Mayor's office and offers him her services, but continues to pretend to be fighting on Buffy's side. Eventually her alliance with the Mayor is exposed and she is revealed as Buffy's enemy.
The Mayor puts Faith up in a large, fully furnished apartment, buys her clothes, a video game system, and an expensive knife. He nurtures her, giving her a sense of belonging after her rift with the Scoobies, asking only in return she kill people when required. Faith has no problem with this arrangement and enjoys the lifestyle. Buffy writer Marti Noxon
Marti Noxon
Martha Mills "Marti" Noxon is an American television and film writer first known for writing and producing Buffy the Vampire Slayer.- Production :...
states that villains who seek out love and social connections to counter their loneliness are complex and interesting to write. The Mayor shows absolute confidence in Faith's abilities and she in turn is validated by him. Among the characters who know them both, the Mayor is the only one who never compares Faith to Buffy. When Faith calls him her "sugar daddy", he gently scolds her, reminding her that he is a "family man". According to author Lorna Jowett, his rejection of any sexual element in their relationship makes their bond stronger. Faith's experience with sex has left her apathetic about her partners, but when the Mayor demands loyalty, she is able to give it. His affection for Faith is genuine; like Faith, he has no living family, his wife having died of old age. The Mayor, according to Harry Groener, is a lonely father figure who "loves unconditionally". In series writer Doug Petrie
Doug Petrie
Doug Petrie is an American screenwriter, director, and producer. Best known as a writer, director, and co-executive producer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He co-wrote the screenplays for the Fantastic Four film and Harriet the Spy. He has also written for the television shows Angel, The 4400 and Tru...
's opinion, the Mayor is well-matched to Faith, who Petrie sees as "the loneliest person in Sunnydale" who "desperately needs a father". Eliza Dushku states that one of Faith's major life battles is constructing a viable self-esteem, which the Mayor never challenges, but his evil amplifies the "crazy" aspect of her nature. Whedon declared Faith the writing team's first "really human monster". The Mayor intends Faith to inherit his evil empire, and shows unabashed pride in her achievements. Their tenderness with each other, according to Whedon, is a "beautiful counterpoint" to the violence and evil they wreak on the town.
Demise
The Mayor plans his Ascension to demon form to coincide with Sunnydale High School's graduation day. In "Choices", the Mayor must complete another ritual involving a box full of grotesquely large insects which will, after he ingests them, imbue him with greater power. Faith retrieves the box for him, which Buffy then steals in order to prevent this important ritual from occurring. In the process, Buffy's best friend Willow RosenbergWillow Rosenberg
Willow Rosenberg is a fictional character created for the fantasy television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer . She was developed by Joss Whedon and portrayed throughout the TV series by Alyson Hannigan...
(Alyson Hannigan
Alyson Hannigan
Alyson Lee Hannigan is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Willow Rosenberg in the cult classic television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Michelle Flaherty in three American Pie films, and Lily Aldrin on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother.-Early life:Hannigan was born in...
) is captured by Faith, and the Mayor meets Buffy for the first time when they exchange Willow for the box. During the confrontation, the Mayor pointedly asks questions about the viability of Buffy's relationship with Angel (David Boreanaz
David Boreanaz
David Boreanaz is an American actor, television producer, and director, known for his role as Angel on the supernatural drama series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, and as Special Agent Seeley Booth on the television crime drama Bones....
), a vampire who has been re-ensouled and who fights alongside Buffy. Although Buffy and Angel have been trying to avoid acknowledging the difficulties involved with continuing a relationship that can make neither of them happy, the Mayor's fatherly questions about their future and his comparison to his own experience of watching his wife Edna Mae die at an old age while he remained youthful, becomes a factor which forces them to admit that the relationship should end.
Buffy and Angel mutually but sadly concede they cannot be happy together in the next episode but they continue to work toward the goal of defeating the Mayor's plan. The two-part season finale "Graduation Day
Graduation Day (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
"Graduation Day" is the season finale of the WB Television Network's third season of the drama television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, consisting of the twenty-first and twenty-second episodes. They are also the fifty-fifth and fifty-sixth episodes of the show overall...
" reveals that the Mayor will be the keynote speaker at Sunnydale High's commencement ceremony, where he will be able to feed on the students after his transformation. On orders from the Mayor, Faith murders a geologist who has uncovered evidence of a previously ascended demon, then shoots Angel with a poisoned arrow to distract Buffy and the Scoobies, who have to care for, and try to save, Angel. When they learn that the only antidote to the poison is the blood of a Slayer, Buffy tries to capture Faith in order to use her blood to cure Angel. During the fight to do so, Buffy stabs Faith with the knife given to her by the Mayor; Faith escapes, but her injuries put her into the hospital, comatose. Buffy then offers her own blood to Angel, who feeds on her, then takes her to the hospital after he recovers. There, the Mayor is poignantly grieving for Faith. He discovers Buffy in the next room and tries to smother her, but is stopped by Angel.
In a redemptive turn, Faith comes to Buffy in a dream to tell her how to defeat the Mayor, saying "Want to know the deal? Human weakness. It never goes away. Even his." The knife the Mayor gave to Faith then flashes in the palm of Buffy's hand. A fully recovered Buffy and the Scoobies enlist the graduating students of Sunnydale High, outfitting them with weapons to attack immediately after the Mayor's transformation, after learning his invulnerability will end once he is in demon form. The Mayor gives a speech about changes, growing up and moving on, mirroring the loose ends created by the series and the season. A solar eclipse
Solar eclipse
As seen from the Earth, a solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, and the Moon fully or partially blocks the Sun as viewed from a location on Earth. This can happen only during a new moon, when the Sun and the Moon are in conjunction as seen from Earth. At least...
occurs during his speech, signaling the start of the Ascension. He transforms into an enormous snake, and immediately eats the universally loathed Principal Snyder. While Angel and the Scoobies fight the Mayor's force of vampires, Buffy taunts the now-transformed Mayor with Faith's knife and runs into the school. The Mayor follows her to the library, which is rigged with explosives, killing him and destroying the school with a series of explosions.
Influence
Author Lorna Jowett considers the Mayor a classic villain, similar to the first season's vampire Master. Although the Mayor's appearance is not as frightening as the Master's, both are heads of hierarchies and symbols of patriarchyPatriarchy
Patriarchy is a social system in which the role of the male as the primary authority figure is central to social organization, and where fathers hold authority over women, children, and property. It implies the institutions of male rule and privilege, and entails female subordination...
whose names are their titles. Buffy Studies
Buffy studies
Buffy Studies is a term applied to the collection of written works about, and the university courses that discuss aspects of, the television program Buffy the Vampire Slayer and, to a lesser extent, its spin-off program Angel. It explores issues related to gender and other philosophical issues as...
scholar Rhonda Wilcox calls the Mayor — particularly after his transformation — "Mr. Patriarchal Phallus of 1999". Faith's relationship to the Mayor in many ways mirrors Buffy's relationship to her Watcher, Giles, who is Buffy's father figure. Doug Petrie characterizes Faith as "Buffy's evil twin", who gets to do what Buffy would like to do, but cannot because Buffy is moral and not as "free-spirited" as Faith, according to Whedon. Through the Mayor's effort to nurture his relationship with Faith she becomes his subordinate, despite her assertions to Buffy that she is independent. Her motivation to kill the geologist is never more complicated than, "The boss wants you dead", which she tells him just before stabbing him to death. Unlike Giles' mentoring of Buffy, in which he encourages her to make her own decisions despite what she is ordered to do by the similarly patriarchal Watcher's Council, Faith complies with everything the Mayor wants, creating "unquestioning service of the power structure for the sake of approval, comfort, and support of the father". In contrast, Buffy soon stops taking orders from the Watchers' Council. Jowett writes, "The Mayor is ultimately a 'bad' father because he holds the status quo: like the Master before him, he is a powerful patriarch who wants to maintain his position at the top, and the children of such parents will never be able to grow up."
Faith does not die from her injuries, but returns in the fourth season in "This Year's Girl". While still in her coma, she dreams of a pleasant picnic with the Mayor, who picks up a small snake that has slithered onto the blanket and tells it that it does not belong there. The dream-picnic is interrupted by Buffy who stabs him to death. Faith awakens in the hospital to discover that the Mayor has in fact died and left her a video and a device that will allow her to switch bodies with Buffy. After Buffy recovers her own body, Faith goes to Angel in Los Angeles, turns herself into the police and goes to prison, later emerging to begin her redemption on Angel. She returns to Sunnydale in season seven, not only to help Buffy and the Scoobies, but to perform in a position of leadership. In season seven the Mayor also returns as one of the faces of the First Evil
First Evil
The First Evil is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The First Evil first appeared in the third season episode "Amends", and became the main antagonist of the 7th and final season.A being manifested from all evil in existence, the First is an...
in "Lessons" and "Touched".