Mayor (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

For the Australian television/entertainment personality, see Richard Wilkins (TV presenter).

The Mayor
Buffy the Vampire Slayer character
First appearance	"Homecoming"
Created by	Joss Whedon, David Greenwalt
Portrayed by	Harry Groener
Information
Classification	Mayor of Sunnydale
Notable powers	Sorcery, immortality. Superhuman attributes in demon form.

Richard Wilkins III (commonly referred to as The Mayor) 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 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. Throughout the series, it becomes apparent that the local authorities are aware of the endemic evil in the town, and either ignore it or are complicit in making it worse.

Despite his genial demeanor, casual mysophobia, and general dislike of swearing, Mayor Wilkins becomes the third season's primary villain, or Big Bad. The season marks Buffy's and her friends' last year in high school. It also introduces a long-running character named Faith (Eliza Dushku), who is also a Slayer like Buffy, but whose neglectful upbringing makes her morals much less strict than Buffy's. Faith is estranged from Buffy's side and aligns herself with the Mayor, who becomes a dark father figure to her while he attempts to become a powerful demon that will destroy the town.

Creation and casting

In planning for the third season, series creator Joss Whedon and the team of writers for Buffy the Vampire Slayer sought to explore the issues surrounding power, its abuse, and the choices people in or with power can make.^[1] The series regularly employs monsters and elements of horror to symbolize real problems,^[2] and the abuse of power as it is related to the forces of darkness is a repeated topic on Buffy as well as its spinoff Angel.^[3] 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 pattern of evil surrounding the school and have reported it to the Mayor's office.^[4] The Mayor is not seen until the third season, however.

Series writer Jane Espenson credited Groener's performance and his chemistry with co-star Eliza Dushku in propelling his character to greater importance and making their relationship a central focus of the season.^[5] The mythos behind the Slayer is that a 15-year-old girl is chosen by mystical powers to be endowed with superhuman strength to fight demons and vampires. She is assigned a Watcher, someone who is trained and knowledgeable about evil forces, to mentor her. When one Slayer dies, another is activated somewhere else in the world. Buffy briefly died at the end of season one. The Slayer who replaced her, Kendra (Bianca Lawson), was killed at the end of the second season. The writers created the blue collar Faith (Eliza Dushku) to be the next Slayer, intending her to be the anti-Buffy: a young woman given extraordinary physical powers with no moral foundation. Where Buffy has had a stable family life up to her parents' divorce two years before, Faith does not know her father, it is revealed that her mother was an alcoholic before her death, and she has lived alone since her Watcher was tortured and killed soon before her arrival in Sunnydale.^[6]

Groener loved the part and was impressed with the writing for it. He spoke of his familiarity with the time allowed actors to rehearse for the stage that is often not available for television. 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 at 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."^[7]

Establishment

The Mayor's backstory is revealed throughout the season. Richard Wilkins III is also Richard Wilkins I and II. He was present when Sunnydale was created and has been in office for 100 years, earning 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 Snyder (Armin Shimerman). Except for a small group of his aides, Buffy and the rest of the town are unaware of the Mayor's dark motives.^[8]

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".^[8] 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". The Mayor becomes impressed with his initiative and invites Mr. Trick to work for him.^[9][10] 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, signifying their interference that will have long-range consequences for him.

Simultaneously, Faith shows herself to be simple-minded and purely motivated by pleasure. Her character tests ethics more than any other on the series, highlighting the repeated theme of free will in the struggle between good and evil. Faith always pursues pleasure first. 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. In the early part of the season, Faith's actions work toward good, but her motivations are ambiguous. She never reveals, other than the pleasure she receives, why she fights evil.^[11]

The Mayor plans 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. He keeps a cabinet in his office full of skulls, shrunken heads, weapons, and other evil objects, with a box of hand wipes, which he uses frequently in between dispensing "goofily prudish advice" tainted with dark threats.^[12] The germ phobia peculiarity was based on Buffy producer David Greenwalt, who exhibited similar positive enthusiasm while often wiping his hands with wet towels.^[13] 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".^[10] Likewise, Jane Espenson remarked that Groener played the part exhibiting a "wonderful innocent glee" towards evil that she thought was "delightful".^[5] 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, Groener's evil hides behind a mask of humanity in his genial appearance. Groener enjoyed this prospect, saying "You don't have to be Snidely Whiplash to be evil. Look at Ted Bundy."^[7] 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.^[14]

Conflict with Buffy and relationship with Faith

Faith, Buffy, and the Mayor come into conflict during "Bad Girls". The Mayor assigns his deputy to watch the Slayers as they track a cult of vampires loyal to a demon named Balthazar. In their efforts, they flirt with lawlessness, breaking into a store and stealing weapons, then escaping police custody to complete their mission. In their zeal, Faith accidentally kills the deputy mayor, believing him to be a vampire, but who in actuality was on his way to warn them of Mr. Trick and the Mayor's orchestrations to have them killed. Distracting them allows the Mayor to complete a ritual required for his Ascension to become a demon. 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.^[15] While Buffy feels poignant guilt for being a part of the deputy mayor's death, Faith does not and resents Buffy for continuing to speak of it in "Consequences". Faith blames the murder on Buffy, but Faith is taken into custody to be punished by the Watchers' Council. She escapes and tries to leave town, to be stopped by Buffy. Mr. Trick arrives to try to kill them both, and Faith saves Buffy by killing Mr. Trick. She then arrives at the Mayor's office and offers him her services.^[16]

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 that she kill people. Faith has no problem with this arrangement and enjoys the lifestyle.^[11] Buffy writer Marti Noxon states that villains who seek out love and social connections to counter their loneliness are much more complex and interesting. 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". His rejection of any sexual element in their relationship, according to author Lorna Jowett, is what makes their bond stronger. Faith's experience with sex has left her apathetic about her partners, but the Mayor demands loyalty.^[14] His affection for Faith is genuine. Like Faith, he has no living family. 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 her "crazy".^[5] 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.^[13]

Demise

The Mayor plans his Ascension to become a demon on Sunnydale High School's graduation day. Leading up to this, Buffy and Faith establish themselves as mortal enemies. In "Choices", the Mayor must complete another ritual involving a box that Faith retrieves for him, which Buffy steals. In the process, Buffy's best friend Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan) is captured by Faith and the Mayor meets Buffy for the first time to exchange Willow for the box, which contains thousands of grotesquely large insects the Mayor must consume in preparation for his Ascension. During the confrontation, the Mayor pointedly asks questions about the viability of Buffy's relationship with Angel (David Boreanaz), a vampire who has been cursed with a soul. Although Buffy and Angel have been trying to avoid the practicalities involved with continuing a romance that could make neither of them happy, the Mayor's fatherly questions about their future and his comparison to him watching his wife Edna Mae die at an old age when he was still youthful, is a factor in forcing them to admit that the relationship should end.^[8][17]

Buffy and Angel mutually but sadly concede they cannot be happy together in the next episode but they continue to work toward the same goals. 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 he transforms. 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 weaken the Scooby Gang. The antidote to the poison is to drain the blood of a Slayer. Buffy tries to capture Faith to cure Angel, but in the fight to do so stabs her with the knife given to her by the Mayor, putting her in a coma. Buffy then offers her own blood to Angel, who takes her to the hospital after he recovers, where the Mayor is poignantly grieving Faith. He finds Buffy and tries to smother her, but is stopped by Angel.^[18][19]

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.^[20] A fully recovered Buffy and the Scoobies then prepare the graduating students of Sunnydale High by outfitting them with weapons to attack at the right moment. The Mayor gives a speech about changes, growing up, and moving on, mirroring the loose ends created by the series and the season.^[21] A solar eclipse occurs during his speech, signaling the start of the Ascension. He transforms into an enormous snake, and immediately eats the communally loathed Principal Snyder. As Angel and the Scoobies are fighting 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.^[18][19]

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 patriarchy whose names are their titles.^[14] Buffy Studies scholar Rhonda Wilcox calls the Mayor — particularly after his transition — "Mr. Patriarchal Phallus of 1999".^[22] Faith's relationship to the Mayor in many ways rivals Buffy's relationship to her Watcher, Giles (Anthony Head), who is Buffy's father figure.^[23] Doug Petrie characterizes Faith as "Buffy's evil twin", who gets to do what Buffy wants but cannot because Buffy is more moral and not as "free-spirited" as Faith, according to Whedon.^[1] In 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 "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.^[24] 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."^[14]

Faith does not die in the third season, but returns in the fourth in "This Year's Girl". 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 doesn't belong there. The dream-picnic is interrupted by Buffy who stabs him to death, and Faith awakens in the hospital to discover later that the Mayor has in fact died and left her a video and a device that will allow her to switch bodies with Buffy.^[25][26][27] Faith continues her redemption on Angel, and returns to Sunnydale not only to help Buffy and the Scoobies, but perform in a position of leadership in the seventh season. There, the Mayor also returns as one of the faces of the First Evil in "Lessons" and "Touched".^[28]

Citations

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1. ^ ^{a b} Whedon, Joss (2008). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete Third Season; "Interview with Joss Whedon 'Bad Girls' and 'Consequences'" Featurette. [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
2. ^ Wilcox, p. 18.
3. ^ South, p. 66.
4. ^ Kaveny, p. 22–23.
5. ^ ^{a b c} Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete Third Season; "Third Season Overview" Featurette (2008). [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
6. ^ Holder, et al, pp. 86–88.
7. ^ ^{a b} Holder, et al, pp. 299–305.
8. ^ ^{a b c} Holder, et al, pp. 100–102.
9. ^ Holder, et al, pp. 98–99.
10. ^ ^{a b} Stafford, pp. 190–192.
11. ^ ^{a b} South, pp. 13–19.
12. ^ South, pp. 256–257.
13. ^ ^{a b} Whedon, Joss (2008). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete Third Season; "Interview with Joss Whedon 'Enemies' and 'Earshot'" Featurette. [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
14. ^ ^{a b c d} Jowett, pp. 168–171.
15. ^ Holder, et al, pp. 172–174.
16. ^ Holder, et al, pp. 175–176.
17. ^ Stafford, pp. 210–212.
18. ^ ^{a b} Holder, et al, pp. 187–191.
19. ^ ^{a b} Stafford, pp. 212–215.
20. ^ Wilcox and Lavery, pp. 167–168.
21. ^ Whedon, Joss (2008). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete Third Season; "Interview with Joss Whedon 'Graduation Day'" Featurette. [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
22. ^ Wilcox, pp. 41–42.
23. ^ Jowett, pp. 83–90.
24. ^ Wilcox and Lavery, pp. 13–14.
25. ^ Holden, et al pp. 233–235.
26. ^ Stafford, pp. 233–235.
27. ^ Wilcox and Lavery, pp. 173–174.
28. ^ Ruditis, pp. 167–170, 227–229.

Bibliography

• Holder, Nancy; Mariotte, Jeff; Hart, Maryelizabeth (2000). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher's Guide, Volume 2, Pocket Books. ISBN 0671042602
• Jowett, Lorna (2005). Sex and the Slayer: A Gender Studies Primer for the Buffy Fan, Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 9780819567581
• Kaveney, Roz (ed.) (2004). Reading the Vampire Slayer: The New, Updated, Unofficial Guide to Buffy and Angel, Tauris Parke Paperbacks. ISBN 186064984X
• Ruditis, Paul (2004). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Watcher's Guide, Volume 3, Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0689869843
• South, James (ed.) (2003). Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale, Open Court Books. ISBN 0812695313
• Stafford, Nikki (2007). Bite Me! The Unofficial Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, ECW Press. ISBN 9781550228076
• Wilcox, Rhonda (2005). Why Buffy Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I. B. Tauris. ISBN 1845110293
• Wilcox, Rhonda and Lavery, David (eds.) (2002). Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 0742516814