27 Years Ago, 'Buffy the Vampire' Unleashed an Impossibly Good Season, and Broke the Fandom
A story so good, it temporarily broke the fandom
Most great TV shows take a few episodes — even a few seasons — to really click into gear. Succession's first season was a slog, Parks and Rec's opening run was almost unwatchable when you know what comes later, and The Simpsons didn't get good until season 3.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer was no exception. The show's first season was mixed at best, as the cast and writers all struggled to find their footing. Yet Buffy season 2 easily has one of the finest batches of episodes in television history, largely thanks to the introduction of iconic vampire baddies Spike (James Marsters) and Druscilla (Juliet Landau), along with Angel's (David Boreanaz) transformation into the villainous bloodsucker Angelus.
So how did the writers follow that up? By making season 3 even better, of course.
October may be coming to a close, but there's still time for one more spooky binge. Here's why you should fire up Hulu (or bust out the DVDs if you got 'em) and spend the rest of spooky season watching Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and the rest of the Scooby Gang take down the most terrifying villain they ever faced: a small-town politician.
Mayor Wilkins was a perfect Buffy villain — and so was Faith
Buffy's third season is notable for introducing two formidable antagonists. One of them, Faith Lehane (Eliza Dushku), made it all the way through to the end of the series after finding redemption and becoming a hero. The other, Mayor Richard Wilkins (Harry Groener), wasn’t so lucky. And while they arguably couldn't be more different as characters, the way the two of them fit together speaks to the genius of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its problematic creator, Joss Whedon.
Faith shows up early in season 3, quickly revealing herself to be the new Slayer after the last one died in season 2. (Buffy's brief death in season 1 leads to the existence of two chosen ones throughout the rest of the show. Just roll with it.) Unlike our level-headed Buffy, Faith is pugnacious and unpredictable. She's not just killing vampires to save human lives; she seems to get some twisted thrill out of the hunt.
Meanwhile, Mayor Wilkins has been lurking in the background of Sunnydale since season 2 as other local leaders refer to him in hushed tones. Unsurprisingly for a town built on a literal portal to hell, the mayor is not exactly on the up and up. Wilkins is actually over a century old thanks to a pact he made with an evil demon. He's been quietly sowing chaos and death for years in the lead-up to a ritual that will transform him into a horrible, giant snake monster and wipe out the entire town.
Groener plays the role squeaky-clean, almost never removing his "mask" of smiling civility, even when he's threatening to kill anyone who gets in his way. It makes what could have felt like a pretty basic villain — Evil politician? We've never seen that before! — into a uniquely disturbing monster.
Initially, Faith and the mayor feel completely unrelated (one is a dark foil to Buffy, the other is season 3's big bad), but their plotlines collide when Faith breaks bad and starts working for Wilkins. Faith's first mission is to kill Buffy, which she decides to do by seducing Buffy's boyfriend Angel in an attempt to transform him back into an evil vampire. Buffy ultimately prevails, but it's extremely tough going for a few episodes. Even 27 years later, this entire arc is still brutal to watch.
In fact, it was such an effective plotline that Dushku started getting harassed on the street by Buffy fans.
“When I started being really naughty, some people were upset by my antics, and some fans started freaking me out. It was very real for them,” Dushku said in a 2018 interview. “People would call me by my character name like, ‘Yo Faith! Who do you think you are coming to Sunnydale and stealing Buffy’s boyfriend!’ They’d want to fight me on Santa Monica Boulevard, and I was just trying to get groceries.”
Honestly, I get it. If I saw Dushku on the street today, my first response might be to publicly scold her for treating Buffy so terribly. And if I ran into Groener, I'm pretty sure I'd just turn around and sprint in the opposite direction.
That's the power of Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 3.