Dalton (Buffyverse)

Infobox Buffyverse Character


Eric Saiet as Dalton
Title=Dalton
First="What's My Line, Part One"
Last="Surprise"
Creator=Joss Whedon
Name=Dalton
Status=Deceased
Kind=Vampire
Affiliation=Minion of Spike & Drusilla
Powers=Dalton possesses the usual strengths and weaknesses of a vampire.
Actor=Eric Saiet

Dalton is a fictional character appearing in season two of the television show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and portrayed by Eric Saiet. A scholarly, bespectacled vampire, Dalton's character is quite similar to that of Absalom, the Anointed One's right-hand vampire in "When She Was Bad".

Spike and Drusilla commandeer Dalton's relative expertise to research a mystical cure for Dru. He must translate an old volume stolen a couple of weeks earlier ("Lie to Me") from Giles' personal book collection by one of Spike's vampires. Dalton tries repeatedly to decipher the ancient Du Lac manuscript but, much to Spike's frustration, struggles with the translation without success. Spike prepares to dust the unassuming vamp for his failure to discover the ritual to heal Drusilla, but Dru stops Spike short of such violence, explaining that the book is in code and requires a key. Dalton and another of Spike's vamps undertake to steal the key (later revealed to be the "Du Lac cross") from the Du Lac family crypt. Evading the Slayer, Buffy Summers, in the process, Dalton returns to Spike and Dru and cracks the code, translating the ritual that will cure Drusilla ("What's My Line, Part One").

Several weeks later ("Surprise"), Dalton brings a mysterious package to Spike (now wheelchair-bound) and Dru (now cured and returned to her full power). The intriguingly shaped box contains a dismembered piece of the Judge, a powerful demon who cannot be killed and who instantly reassembles when all his pieces are brought together. Unfortunately for Dalton, Buffy spots him retrieving another piece of the Judge the following night. Dalton slips away while Buffy battles his two companions, and the box containing the Judge's arm is quietly intercepted by Jenny Calendar. Drusilla, furious that the Scoobies now know her plan and can prevent her from achieving it, is just about to poke out Dalton's eyes, when Spike suggests the hapless vamp might fetch the arm back. Taking a trio of cohorts, Dalton goes to the docks and steals the remaining piece of the Judge back from Buffy and Angel as they share a tearful goodbye.

When the Judge (who kills living things by absorbing the humanity within them) is finally re-formed, he points to Dalton and says, "This one -- is full of feeling. He "reads"!" Apparently, this is enough to constitute a "taint" of humanity, and the Judge burns Dalton to ash.

Trivia

*He appears only in Season 2; "What's My Line, Part One", and "Surprise"
*The shooting script of "What's My Line, Part One" describes him as "sort of an anti-Giles".
*At various points Spike refers to him as "big brains", "smart guy", and "a wanker"