Sunday from ‘The Freshman’ – Katharine Towne was just so great as this character and with her delivery of Sunday’s sarcastic one-liners. She was so delightfully bitchy. I know the surfer dude vamp member of Sunday’s gang said at one point, “Uhh...are we gonna fight? Or is there just gonna be a monster sarcasm rally?”, but I wouldn’t have minded Buffy and Sunday snarking at each other for a while longer. Also, it was good to see a female character taking on Buffy (which we hadn’t seen much of, other than with Faith, previously – and didn’t really get to see again until Season 5 with Glory, from what I can recall) and actually winning. It played well into the theme of the episode, with Buffy starting ‘anew’ in a way, with a new setting, new characters introduced, etc. She had to readjust. I also thought Sunday looked quite fetching (I found one of her hairstyles in particular quite interesting). Shame she was only a one-shot villain, but I think part of what made her so great was Joss Whedon’s dialogue he’d written for her, and I think she might’ve lost some of her awesomeness in subsequent episodes without him writing for her.
Holden from ‘Conversations with Dead People’ – Apparently Joss wrote the scenes between him and Buffy in ‘Conversations with Dead People’...which you could kind of tell, as they seemed so very ‘Joss’: The dialogue, the switching from them fighting one second to them chatting the next, the analyzing Buffy’s personality, etc. It was nice to see a villain who Buffy could talk with (though kind of sad at the same time, considering she couldn’t talk like this with any of her friends). I’m sure Buffy had those feelings pent up for quite some time, so it was good that she was able to let them out. And although her ‘superiority complex’ and 'inferiority complex about that’ might’ve made her seem a bit unlikeable to some, I thought it was a very neat way of addressing how Buffy acted. It addressed her character flaws, but in such a way that it explained them so that she didn’t come across as ‘bitchy’ (although I’m sure there were those who still thought she was).
Gwendolyn Post from ‘Revelations’ – I’m sure there’s plenty who hated her, though to be fair I don’t think we were ever *supposed* to like her. She just kind of appeared out of nowhere, was hard on Faith, bitchy to Giles and was probably the thing that kick-started the distrust and later animosity between Buffy and Faith. However, I kind of liked her personality clashes with Buffy, Faith and Giles. Until the reveal of how evil she was, I thought she was a refreshing sort of ‘different’ Watcher, and kind of kicked Faith in the butt in a way that she needed (unlike Wesley). Some really good moments we got thanks to her character: Xander, FOR ONCE, not jumping to the conclusion that Angel was the bad guy behind something bad happening (ie. Giles being hurt) and Gwendolyn’s malicious, “Faith! A word of advice: you're an idiot.” line once she dropped her innocent act. Faith was one of my favourite characters, and I kind of hated Gwendolyn for betraying her trust/belittling her that way, but even I had to admit that line was kind of amusing (in a mean-spirited way, of course).
Sweet from ‘Once More, With Feeling’ – He was stylish, could sing, and had a wicked sense of fashion. I thought he brought a very different ‘flavour’ of villainy to the show we hadn’t seen before (then again, the episode as a whole was a very different type of ep, so it may just have been that he fitted in that particular one, but may not have fit so well in any other ‘regular’-type episode). The stuff with the door slamming down out of nowhere and him ripping off his lips seemed very Jim Carrey in The Mask. He had many memorable moments, but I think one of my favourites was his “It's tempting...but I think we'll waive that clause just this once.” reaction to Xander asking, ”Does this mean that I have to...be your queen?”. I also saw theories of Sweet possibly being the closest we’d ever get to seeing the devil in BTVS. I’m not sure whether that was the case or not (I’d always thought The First was supposed to be), but he was pretty memorable nevertheless.
Speaking of, would The-First-as-Miss-Calendar in ‘Amends’ count as a ‘one time villain’? I realise The First reappeared in Season 7 and was heavily featured there, but I personally thought Robia LaMorte gave us the best performance as The First out of everyone who portrayed him/her/it. She was so good at conveying this ancient evil’s menace and power (despite the fact that, as Buffy pointed out in the series final, The First was “incorporeal and basically powerless”). I did like, though, that The First’s speechifying about how evil it was got undercut by Buffy’s “Alright, I get it. You're evil. Do we have to chat about it all day?” line. I also liked the image of Miss Calendar dropping to reveal the huge horned and clawed beast with red eyes and its departing words of “Dead by sunrise!”.
Honourable mentions:
Ford from ‘Lie to Me’ - Because he started out as an old friend of Buffy’s, seemed likeable enough, but had more going on with him which made for a great reveal of his true intentions. Plus his motivation, whilst not justifying his actions, at least made what he wanted somewhat ‘understandable’ in a way. I thought this was Jason Behr’s best performance out of the few things I’ve seen him in (Roswell, The Grudge and Breakout Kings). I also liked his insisting Spike say the “You’ve got thirty seconds to convince me not to kill you.” line.
Ted from the episode with the same name. Initially upon watching this episode, I didn’t find him that creepy, but upon rewatch I came to appreciate John Ritter’s performance more. The episode as whole wasn’t great, but Ted was sort of like The Mayor in a way, in that he seemed so polite and ‘proper’ on the one hand, but then switched to nasty and threatening. I think he was more effective than some of the ‘supernatural’ villains precisely because he, like The Mayor, appeared human (funny that it was another human, Warren, who caused so much damage to the gang – killed Tara and thereby had a hand in Willow turning evil, seriously wounded Buffy, killed his ex-girlfriend, etc).
For the sheer creepiness/gross factor alone, the Gentlemen, Gnarl and Der Kindestod deserve mentions. I also didn’t mind Jack O’Toole (he was at times amusing with his reactions to Xander - though it was more Xander's reactions to Jack that amused me - but also somewhat creepy/crazy-seeming for a ‘human’...until we later learned what his deal was). I’m probably forgetting some, but those^ were all the ones who immediately sprang to mind.
Jack Sparrow: "Look." [shoots the monkey] "An undead monkey! Top that!"
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macpro75
8 years ago
Holden from ‘Conversations with Dead People’
Gwendolyn Post from ‘Revelations’
Sweet from ‘Once More, With Feeling’
I agree with all of these! I think that I would order them:
1. Holden
2. Sweet
3. Gwendolyn Post
Speaking of, would The-First-as-Miss-Calendar in ‘Amends’ count as a ‘one time villain’
Personally, I would say, yes. And I would put her on this list, too!!! (above Gwendolyn Post.
"It's a real burden being right so often." Captain Malcolm Reynolds, Firefly
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