Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles, and whoever each of them happen to be dating at the time, affectionately call themselves “The Scoobies” referencing the beloved children’s cartoon, Scooby-Doo, in which a team of friendos solve mysteries and unmask villains. In each episode of Scooby-Doo, it seems like the villain is some kind of supernatural entity, but in the end, the Scooby gang unmasks the entity to reveal the human being who turned out to be the real monster all along. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the supernatural beings they encounter are actually supernatural beings… or are they? In the tried and true tradition of monster-of-the-week, every evil thing represents a real-life problem faced by middle class American teens and young adults. There’s the Hansel and Gretel demons who represent mob moral panics, the warlock Ethan Rayne who represents the past misdeeds you’d like to distance yourself from, and Moloch the catfishing demon, just to name a few. This month we’re going to take a look at each of the Big Bads from each season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and determine who the real monster was all along.
In season one the big bad is The Master. He’s the oldest living vampire. I mean, the oldest undead vampire. Vampires get more powerful as they get older, making him the biggest baddest vampire a slayer could slay. Season one is all about Buffy accepting her role as The one and only Slayer. To slay is her duty, her responsibility, and her calling. Though she wants to have a normal life, spend time with her friends, be a cheerleader, and even do homework, slaying must always come first. It’s eventually revealed to Buffy that The Master has been prophesied to kill her. This becomes her most harrowing obstacle in fulfilling her duty; an imminent threat to her life. It takes some time to process, but Buffy ultimately decides her calling to save the world is worth sacrificing her life for. This is a decision she will make several times throughout the course of the series. The Master was just a mask. Responsibility was the real monster all along.
In season two the big bad is Angelus, the demon Angel becomes when he loses his soul. It’s been argued that Spike and Drusilla should be included as fellow bigs bad, but I disagree. For all his tough talk, Spike is beaten to a pulp every time he faces Buffy. Sure he’s bad, but he’s not challenging enough to be big bad. Drusilla’s vaguely diagnosed “madness” keeps her out of the action for the most part. When she regains her strength she becomes extremely powerful, but bafflingly only uses her power to kill Kendra and hit on Xander. The true challenge to Buffy’s power is Angelus. He uses their past romance, and his intimate knowledge of her friends and family against her. Buffy must fight her own love for Angel, in order to defeat Angelus. Angelus was just a mask. Toxic romance was the real monster all along.
In season three the big bad is the Mayor of Sunnydale, Richard Wilkins. He was originally a human man who founded Sunnydale in 1899. When he discovered the Hellmouth, he struck a deal with the demons to let him live. He became immortal, and concocted a plan to become a giant snake and… actually I’m not sure what the endgame was there. Something about ascension? Ascension to… something? The snake bit was visually interesting, but even more interestingly villainous was the way Mayor Wilkins delicately dealt with his human and demon constituents. Through just a few quick scenes between him and Principal Snyder, and between him and Mother’s Opposed to the Occult, we gather that he sees his role as sweeping the demon-ness of Sunnydale under the rug, and keeping the human population blind to the very real and very present supernatural evil forces that plague the town. He’s not the first politician who would rather cover up problems than solve them, and he won’t be the last. Mayor Wilkins was just a mask. The United States Government was the real monster all along.
For now I’m skipping season four (we’ll get back to that later) and moving onto season five’s big bad: Glory. Glory is a goddess from Hell intent on opening a portal to go home, which will consequently let all kinds of hairy things from Hell come to Sunnydale. In an attempt to protect Sunnydale, a cult has transformed the key to this portal into Dawn, and made her Buffy’s little sister. Since their father is absent and their mother has died, Dawn becomes like a daughter to Buffy. While Glory is forced to share a body with Ben (like how mothers do), Glory is nothing but frustrated with the ways Ben keeps her back. Meanwhile, Buffy has immense frustrations with Dawn, but they also grow together and share a very meaningful bond. At the end of the season, Buffy sacrifices herself (again) to save the world, and to save Dawn. Glory was just a mask. Motherhood was the real monster all along.
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Like season two, season six arguably has several bigs bad. There’s the trio: three obnoxious nerds who embody toxic masculinity, something, ahem, Joss Whedon must be intimately familiar with, ahem, ahem. It’s a little on the nose to say that these three misogynists represent misogyny, but it gets complicated when the trio’s leader, Warren, murders Tara, and Willow takes revenge. When revenge doesn’t scratch the itch she thought it would, she tries to destroy the world. This comes after Willow has spent the season struggling with addiction to magic, which made her feel (and actually be) powerful, after an adolescence of powerlessness in the face of bullying, disinterested parents, and being best friends with the enormously powerful one and only Slayer. Taken together, the members of the trio as well as Willow are all overcompensating for feelings of inadequacy. They were just masks. Human inadequacy was the real monster all along.
And now back to season five. Officially, Adam is the big bad. He’s part human, part monster, part robot, and entirely boring. I’ve always thought his creator, Professor Maggie Walsh, would’ve made a more interesting big bad, since her mentor relationship with Riley would’ve seriously complicated things, but no one asked me. Adam remains uninteresting to me, but the way the Scoobies defeat him makes up for it. In Spike’s most effective act of villainy, he turns the Scoobies against each other, until they figure it out and magically unify to defeat Adam. Similarly, in season seven, the big bad is the First Evil, another boring big bad who can’t take corporeal form, but is effective at manipulating and bullying people to death. The scoobies are able to defeat the First’s army of uber vamps and permanently close the Hellmouth by giving all potential slayers the powers of the slayer. Once again, the path to victory is through fellowship. That this metaphor is used twice underlines it’s importance. Adam and The First were just masks. Disunity was the real monster all along.
Do you have different ideas about what each of the bigs bad represent? How about the smaller bads? Let me know in the comments, and continue, as always, to slay.
