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Master (Buffyverse)
Encyclopedia
The Master is a fictional character on the fantasy television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003). He is a centuries-old vampire portrayed by Mark Metcalf
, determined to open the portal to hell below Sunnydale High School in the fictional town of Sunnydale
where the main character Buffy Summers
lives. The premise of the series is that Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar
) is a teenager endowed with superhuman strength and other powers which she uses to kill vampires and other evil beings. Each season of the series Buffy and the small group of family and friends who work with her, named the Scooby Gang, must defeat an evil force trying to bring on an apocalypse, which on the series is termed the Big Bad
. The Master is the first season's main villain.
The Master is the head of an ancient order of vampires, a classic villain devoted to ritual and total belief in prophecy. He has been entombed beneath Sunnydale for 60 years as the patriarch of a cult posed opposite Buffy, a character who was created to subvert media tropes about frail women falling victim to evil characters. Her youth and insistence on asserting her free will makes her unique in the Master's experience, but he is devoted to a prophecy that states he will kill a Slayer and initiate the extermination of all humanity.
that posited Buffy against a similar villain controlling vampires below Los Angeles. Series creator Joss Whedon
reworked the film script to a television series to be more like what he had originally envisioned. He and the staff writers employ the fantasy and horror elements in the series to represent real-life conflicts for the adolescent characters. Sunnydale High School is situated atop a portal to hell called a Hellmouth
, which Whedon uses to symbolize the high school experience. Pragmatically, Whedon admitted that placing the high school on a hellmouth allows the writers to confront the main characters with an array of evil creatures.
Veteran character actor Mark Metcalf appeared in heavy prosthetic make-up for the role of the Master, belying his iconic experience in the film National Lampoon's Animal House
(1978) as Douglas C. Neidermeyer, a strident rule-following ROTC officer (and the associated role in Twisted Sister
's "We're Not Going to Take It" music video). In 2011, Metcalf acknowledged that his Animal House role would probably live much longer than he, but also recognized his roles on Seinfeld
—where he plays a similarly named character called "Maestro"—and Buffy the Vampire Slayer as his favorites. Many actors auditioned for the part, but Metcalf, according to Whedon, played it with more complexity, bringing a "sly and kind of urbane" sensitivity and a charm to the villainy of the character. Whedon frequently set out to undercut the horror aspect of the show with comedy.
(Kristine Sutherland
) is unaware of her daughter's vocation and stresses that Buffy's time in Sunnydale should be as peaceful as possible. When Buffy arrives in the school library, however, she finds Giles
(Anthony Head
), the librarian, and his familiarity with vampires and Buffy's past makes her uncomfortable. Giles is in fact Buffy's new Watcher, a mentor who will teach her about the demons and evil that she must face. Although she desperately desires to be a mere high school student, she is unsuccessful in avoiding her destiny to fight vampires.
The first season of Buffy has only 12 episodes as opposed to the standard 22 in further seasons, because it debuted midway through the 1997 television season. The Master is first seen in the series premiere "Welcome to the Hellmouth
", which was aired immediately before the second episode "The Harvest", showing more of the Master's character and backstory. In "Welcome to the Hellmouth" the Master is raised from a pool of blood by his assistant Luke (Brian Thompson
), presented as one of the "old ones" a vampire with extraordinary physical and mental powers, but weakened and needing to feed on people. The Master is the head of a cult called the Order of Aurelius
; he attempted to open the Hellmouth in 1937, placing himself in a church to do so. In the process, an earthquake swallowed the church and the Master, where he has been living for 60 years. He is imprisoned by a mystical force, unable to leave his underground lair, so he bids his minions to find people for him to feed from. The Master's incarceration underground was a device used by the writers to avoid having Buffy meet him and then thwart his attempts to kill her each week. Whedon was concerned that audiences would consider this implausible and it would leave no tension for the season finale when Buffy and the Master have their final confrontation. In "The Harvest", in an ornately dark ceremony the Master makes Luke is his "vessel"; whatever Luke eats will be transmitted to the Master. Luke goes to The Bronze
, the local nightclub frequented by Buffy and her friends and begins to feed on the patrons before Buffy—following a delay caused by getting grounded by her mother—can kill him.
The majority of vampires on the series have a human face that can turn into what Whedon and the characters call "vamp face". When shown immediately before feeding, the vampire characters transform with prosthetic make-up and CGI effects, giving them more prominent brows, cheekbones, sharpened yellow teeth, and yellow eyes. Whedon intended to use the vamp face to be able to place vampires around Buffy in different locations — especially at school — highlighting the element of surprise by illustrating that the characters often face friends and peers who have dark sides. Simultaneously, the vamp face shows that Buffy is killing monsters, as opposed to normal-looking high school students. Whedon made a decision to have the Master in permanent vamp face to indicate that he is so ancient that he precedes humanity. The Master never shows a human face; the make-up specialist conceived of the Master as a bat, intentionally making him look more like an animal. His facial make-up, bald head, extremely long fingernails, and black costume all refer directly to the 1922 German Expressionist
film Nosferatu, directed by F. W. Murnau. Like the vampire of that film, Count Orlok
, the Master lives in a state of furious isolation from which he is desperate to escape. According to author Matthew Pateman, the Master's presentation underscores both his great age and his European-ness — he is emphatically Old World. Even so, as a result of his entrapment in the New World he adapts, he shows himself able to incorporate American technology into his plans.
" the Master creates a powerful vampire enigmatically named "The Anointed One
" (Andrew J. Ferchland
) who will destroy Buffy. Giles simultaneously learns of the prophecy foretelling the arrival of The Anointed One and what this means for Buffy and then tries to find out who The Anointed One will be, allowing Buffy to go on a date but nearly getting himself killed in her absence. The episode crystallizes Buffy's reality that she will never have a normal life. The vampire, to the Scoobies' surprise, turns out to inhabit the body of a little boy. The Master instructs the boy in the influence of fear ("Nightmares") and power ("Angel
").
Buffy studies
scholars have noted the role religion plays in the series, and have commented on the Master's sense of religiosity
in particular. None of the main characters exhibit any prominent religious views although they observe some religious holidays. Several of the villains in the series, however, are nearly fanatical about religious ritual and custom, the first of which is the Master. The rituals the Master performs to make Luke his vessel are, according to Wendy Love Anderson, an "inversion of Christianity". The Master attempts to restore the "old ones" and aligns himself with a child while setting up Buffy to be a Christ-like figure. He foretells that when he is able to leave his mystical prison, "the stars themselves will hide", an aberration of a quote from John Milton
's epic poem Paradise Lost
, where Satan is musing on his own power. The Master's entombment in a house of worship is a convenient vehicle to introduce the character's religiosity, but it also represents the way evil is at times allowed to thrive in churches.The Master's entombment also recalls Jewish apocalypse stories as what can be found in the Book of Enoch
. (Stevenson p. 66–68.) The unChristian symbolism was clear to Whedon—and intentional on his part, as he was cautious about including such subversive imagery in "The Harvest"; Buffy producer David Greenwalt
was certain Christian groups would protest the ceremonial aspects of the plot. Gregory Erickson notes that the Master's denigration of a Christian cross, what he calls the "two pieces of wood" even while being burned by it, reflects the series' treatment of Christianity overall and in turn, the American simplification of religion. On Buffy, a cross is a weapon, but beyond that an empty symbol. Christian symbols and rituals traditionally play an integral role in many vampire stories. However, in contrast to Bram Stoker
's Dracula
, which relies heavily on Christian symbols and rituals, Buffy downplays their importance.
), a vampire with a murderous past who was cursed by a Gypsy tribe to be re-ensouled, causing him guilt and a century of misery and torment. His desire for restitution and attraction to Buffy impels him to assist her. She discovers he is a vampire in the episode and he reveals that one of the Master's most powerful assistants, Darla (Julie Benz
), was the vampire who transformed him and his lover for many years. After killing the minions unsuccessful in their attempt to kill Buffy, Darla attempts to lure Angel to the Master's side, but Angel stakes and kills her, further thwarting the Master's plans.
Buffy and the Master finally meet in the series finale "Prophecy Girl
", in which Giles translates a prophecy that states the Master will arise when the Slayer dies. Buffy overhears Giles discussing it with Angel and tells Giles she refuses to be the Slayer if it means she will die, then begs her mother to go away with her for the weekend. After three students are murdered by more of the Master's followers, however, Buffy decides to meet the Master and arrives in his underground lair dressed for a dance she was supposed to attend instead. He tells her that her blood will free him and he bites and drinks from her, then tosses her to the ground face-down in a shallow pool where she drowns. Angel and Buffy's friend Xander
(Nicholas Brendon
) arrive and Xander is able to revive Buffy through CPR.
An extension of the Master's religiosity is his preoccupation with prophecies. The themes of the first season are destiny and forming an identity separate from childhood: breaking the illusions that the world is safe and actions have no real consequences. Destiny is repeatedly a theme between Buffy and the Master. The entire first season is underscored with prophecies—a narrative device used less frequently in later seasons of the series—that Buffy neglects to fulfill in various ways. Buffy often has prophetic dreams and the Master is nearly obsessed with recounting and confirming written prophecies. Buffy's superhuman powers are her birthright. Despite her desire to live a normal life, she feels that she must fulfill her destiny as a Slayer, which is often reinforced by Giles. Buffy, however, subverts these elements to assert her own free will, which is illustrated in the season finale. According to Buffy studies scholar Gregory Stevenson, the Master is so sure of the the prophecy that the Slayer will die that he is unable to reconcile her resurrection by Xander.
As the hellmouth opens in the school library with Giles, Buffy's friends Willow
(Alyson Hannigan
), Cordelia
(Charisma Carpenter
), and a teacher, Jenny Calendar
(Robia LaMorte
) inside fighting off monsters, Buffy finds the Master on the roof of the library watching through windows in the ceiling. Incredulous, the Master tells Buffy she was destined to die in a written prophecy; she replies "What can I say? I flunked the written." She resists his attempts to hypnotize her and pushes him through the window into the library below, impaling him on a broken wooden table and killing him.
), and fourth season's Adam (George Hertzberg
). In contrast, other Buffy characters are more morally ambiguous. The Master is a grand patriarch consumed with hierarchy, order, and defined by what is old. Buffy's opposition to the Master addresses media tropes found in many horror films where a young, petite blonde woman, up against a male monster, is killed off halfway through the film partly due to her own weakness. The series itself was intended to be subversive against these tropes by frequently highlighting the generational divide between the younger characters and the older ones. In particular, the series uses dialogue, termed "Buffyspeak" by some media outlets, that frequently makes the younger characters indecipherable to the older ones and vice versa. The Master speaks with a stylistic formality found in Bible verses. According to Wilcox, Buffy can hardly understand Giles' language, much less the Master's "pompous, quasi-religious remarks". The entire first season posits the younger characters with facing impending adulthood, which they are unable to comprehend until the last episodes of the season.
Each season finale signifies a turning point for the main characters—usually Buffy—and her confronting the Master, according to Stevenson, represents "the end of her childhood illusions of immortality". The scene is fraught with romantic imagery, with Buffy in a white gown, initially intended to be her party dress. When the Master bites her it is, according to Elisabeth Kirmmer and Shilpa Raval, her sexual initiation: a different take on the young girl dying at the hands of a monster. Kirmmer and Raval write that the "paradigm of Death and the Maiden is replaced by that of the hero who faces death and emerges stronger". When he tries to hypnotize her, she is able to resist him and kills him. Buffy's willful behavior and tendency to buck tradition is underscored again in contrast with another Slayer. In the mythos of the series, when one Slayer dies, another takes her place somewhere in the world. Buffy's short death introduced the Slayer Kendra (Bianca Lawson
) in the second season. She is a committed, rule-abiding young woman who does everything authority figures tell her to do. She is killed because she is unable to resist being hypnotized by Drusilla (Juliet Landau
), an insane vampire with extraordinary mental abilities.
Following his death, the Master makes several appearances in the series. The second season premiere, "When She Was Bad
" shows Buffy trying to hide her anxiety about her mortality and role as the Slayer as it played out in her confrontation with the Master, until she destroys his bones by smashing them with a hammer. In the third season, "The Wish" presents audiences with an alternate take on Sunnydale: after dating Xander and breaking up, Cordelia makes a wish to Anyanka
(Emma Caufield), a vengeance demon, to live in a Sunnydale where Buffy never arrived. Anyanka creates an alternate reality where the town is overrun with vampires loyal to the Master, who in a capitalistic turn, has devised a machine to make an assembly line to bleed humans to feed his followers, among whom are Xander and Willow. Buffy arrives toward the end, friendless and fighting alone, where she falls under the Master's hypnotic powers and he kills her by snapping her neck. In the seventh season premiere "Lessons", the Master appears once more as a face of the First Evil
, a shape-shifting villain and the Big Bad of the final season.
Mark Metcalf
Mark Howes Metcalf is an American actor in both television and film.-Early life:Metcalf attended Westfield High School in Westfield, New Jersey.-Film and television work:...
, determined to open the portal to hell below Sunnydale High School in the fictional town of Sunnydale
Sunnydale
Sunnydale, California is the fictional setting for the U.S. television drama Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Series creator Joss Whedon conceived the town as a representation of a generic California city, as well as a narrative parody of the all-too-serene towns typical in traditional horror...
where the main character Buffy Summers
Buffy Summers
Buffy Summers is a fictional character from Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise. She first appeared in the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer before going on to appear in the television series and subsequent comic book of the same name...
lives. The premise of the series is that Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Sarah Michelle Prinze , known professionally by her birth name of Sarah Michelle Gellar , is an American actress, singer and executive producer...
) is a teenager endowed with superhuman strength and other powers which she uses to kill vampires and other evil beings. Each season of the series Buffy and the small group of family and friends who work with her, named the Scooby Gang, must defeat an evil force trying to bring on an apocalypse, which on the series is termed the Big Bad
Big Bad
Big Bad is a term originally used by the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series to describe a major recurring adversary, usually the chief villain or antagonist in a particular broadcast season...
. The Master is the first season's main villain.
The Master is the head of an ancient order of vampires, a classic villain devoted to ritual and total belief in prophecy. He has been entombed beneath Sunnydale for 60 years as the patriarch of a cult posed opposite Buffy, a character who was created to subvert media tropes about frail women falling victim to evil characters. Her youth and insistence on asserting her free will makes her unique in the Master's experience, but he is devoted to a prophecy that states he will kill a Slayer and initiate the extermination of all humanity.
Creation and casting
Buffy the Vampire Slayer was originally conceived for a 1992 feature filmBuffy the Vampire Slayer (film)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a 1992 American action/comedy/horror film about a Valley girl cheerleader named Buffy who learns that it is her fate to hunt vampires. The original script for the film was written by Joss Whedon, who later created the darker and more acclaimed TV series of the same name...
that posited Buffy against a similar villain controlling vampires below Los Angeles. Series creator Joss Whedon
Joss Whedon
Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon is an American screenwriter, executive producer, director, comic book writer, occasional composer and actor, founder of Mutant Enemy Productions and co-creator of Bellwether Pictures...
reworked the film script to a television series to be more like what he had originally envisioned. He and the staff writers employ the fantasy and horror elements in the series to represent real-life conflicts for the adolescent characters. Sunnydale High School is situated atop a portal to hell called a Hellmouth
Hellmouth
Hellmouth is the entrance to Hell envisaged as the gaping mouth of a huge monster, an image which first appears in Anglo-Saxon art, and then spread all over Europe, remaining very common in depictions of the Last Judgment and Harrowing of Hell until the end of the Middle Ages, and still sometimes...
, which Whedon uses to symbolize the high school experience. Pragmatically, Whedon admitted that placing the high school on a hellmouth allows the writers to confront the main characters with an array of evil creatures.
Veteran character actor Mark Metcalf appeared in heavy prosthetic make-up for the role of the Master, belying his iconic experience in the film National Lampoon's Animal House
National Lampoon's Animal House
National Lampoon's Animal House is a 1978 American comedy film directed by John Landis. The film was a direct spin-off of National Lampoon magazine...
(1978) as Douglas C. Neidermeyer, a strident rule-following ROTC officer (and the associated role in Twisted Sister
Twisted Sister
Twisted Sister is an American heavy metal band from Long Island. Musically, the band implements elements of traditional heavy metal bands such as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, along with a style that is similar to early glam metal bands...
's "We're Not Going to Take It" music video). In 2011, Metcalf acknowledged that his Animal House role would probably live much longer than he, but also recognized his roles on Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
—where he plays a similarly named character called "Maestro"—and Buffy the Vampire Slayer as his favorites. Many actors auditioned for the part, but Metcalf, according to Whedon, played it with more complexity, bringing a "sly and kind of urbane" sensitivity and a charm to the villainy of the character. Whedon frequently set out to undercut the horror aspect of the show with comedy.
Establishment
At the beginning of the series, Buffy has left behind a destructive past that has labeled her as a trouble-maker at school and instilled in her the fear that the actions she has had to take to be a successful Slayer are responsible for breaking apart her parents' marriage. She arrives at Sunnydale High School believing that she has made a fresh start. Her mother JoyceJoyce Summers
Joyce Summers is a fictional character in the fantasy television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer . Played by Kristine Sutherland, Joyce is the mother of the main character, Buffy Summers . Joyce appears regularly from the first episode until the character's death in the fifth season episode "The...
(Kristine Sutherland
Kristine Sutherland
Kristine Sutherland is an actress best known for her role as Buffy Summers' mother Joyce Summers on the television show Buffy The Vampire Slayer.-Early life:...
) is unaware of her daughter's vocation and stresses that Buffy's time in Sunnydale should be as peaceful as possible. When Buffy arrives in the school library, however, she finds Giles
Rupert Giles
Rupert Giles is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The character is portrayed by Anthony Stewart Head. He serves as Buffy Summers' mentor and surrogate father figure...
(Anthony Head
Anthony Head
Anthony Stewart Head , usually credited as Anthony Head, is an English actor and musician. He rose to fame in the UK following his role in television advertisements for Nescafé Gold Blend , and is known for his roles as Rupert Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and as Uther Pendragon in...
), the librarian, and his familiarity with vampires and Buffy's past makes her uncomfortable. Giles is in fact Buffy's new Watcher, a mentor who will teach her about the demons and evil that she must face. Although she desperately desires to be a mere high school student, she is unsuccessful in avoiding her destiny to fight vampires.
The first season of Buffy has only 12 episodes as opposed to the standard 22 in further seasons, because it debuted midway through the 1997 television season. The Master is first seen in the series premiere "Welcome to the Hellmouth
Welcome to the Hellmouth
"Welcome to the Hellmouth" is the series premiere of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This episode and "The Harvest" were originally aired as a two-part series premiere on The WB Television Network...
", which was aired immediately before the second episode "The Harvest", showing more of the Master's character and backstory. In "Welcome to the Hellmouth" the Master is raised from a pool of blood by his assistant Luke (Brian Thompson
Brian Thompson
Brian Thompson is an American actor.Brian Thompson may also refer to:*Brian Thompson , reporter and anchorman for WNBC-TV*Brian Thomson , senior correspondent for SBS World News *Brian B. Thompson, British writer...
), presented as one of the "old ones" a vampire with extraordinary physical and mental powers, but weakened and needing to feed on people. The Master is the head of a cult called the Order of Aurelius
Order of Aurelius
The Order of Aurelius is a fictional cult of vampires, seen primarily in the first season of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the first episodes of the show's second season.-The select, the elite:...
; he attempted to open the Hellmouth in 1937, placing himself in a church to do so. In the process, an earthquake swallowed the church and the Master, where he has been living for 60 years. He is imprisoned by a mystical force, unable to leave his underground lair, so he bids his minions to find people for him to feed from. The Master's incarceration underground was a device used by the writers to avoid having Buffy meet him and then thwart his attempts to kill her each week. Whedon was concerned that audiences would consider this implausible and it would leave no tension for the season finale when Buffy and the Master have their final confrontation. In "The Harvest", in an ornately dark ceremony the Master makes Luke is his "vessel"; whatever Luke eats will be transmitted to the Master. Luke goes to The Bronze
The Bronze
The Bronze is a fictional nightclub in Sunnydale, the fictional setting for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Of 144 episodes of the series, 66 have at least one scene at the Bronze, not including its appearance in the unaired pilot....
, the local nightclub frequented by Buffy and her friends and begins to feed on the patrons before Buffy—following a delay caused by getting grounded by her mother—can kill him.
The majority of vampires on the series have a human face that can turn into what Whedon and the characters call "vamp face". When shown immediately before feeding, the vampire characters transform with prosthetic make-up and CGI effects, giving them more prominent brows, cheekbones, sharpened yellow teeth, and yellow eyes. Whedon intended to use the vamp face to be able to place vampires around Buffy in different locations — especially at school — highlighting the element of surprise by illustrating that the characters often face friends and peers who have dark sides. Simultaneously, the vamp face shows that Buffy is killing monsters, as opposed to normal-looking high school students. Whedon made a decision to have the Master in permanent vamp face to indicate that he is so ancient that he precedes humanity. The Master never shows a human face; the make-up specialist conceived of the Master as a bat, intentionally making him look more like an animal. His facial make-up, bald head, extremely long fingernails, and black costume all refer directly to the 1922 German Expressionist
German Expressionism
German Expressionism refers to a number of related creative movements beginning in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin, during the 1920s...
film Nosferatu, directed by F. W. Murnau. Like the vampire of that film, Count Orlok
Count Orlok
Count Orlok is a fictional character portrayed by Max Schreck in the silent movie Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens...
, the Master lives in a state of furious isolation from which he is desperate to escape. According to author Matthew Pateman, the Master's presentation underscores both his great age and his European-ness — he is emphatically Old World. Even so, as a result of his entrapment in the New World he adapts, he shows himself able to incorporate American technology into his plans.
Religiosity
In "Never Kill a Boy on the First DateNever Kill a Boy on the First Date
"Never Kill a Boy on the First Date" is the fifth episode of season 1 of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode was written by story editors Rob Des Hotel and Dean Batali, and directed by David Semel...
" the Master creates a powerful vampire enigmatically named "The Anointed One
Anointed One (Buffyverse)
The Anointed One is a fictional character in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The character is played by Andrew J. Ferchland.-Character history:...
" (Andrew J. Ferchland
Andrew J. Ferchland
Andrew Ferchland is an American actor. He began his career as a child actor in 1992-93. He is known for his 1997 role of Collin, the Anointed One, in the popular television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer....
) who will destroy Buffy. Giles simultaneously learns of the prophecy foretelling the arrival of The Anointed One and what this means for Buffy and then tries to find out who The Anointed One will be, allowing Buffy to go on a date but nearly getting himself killed in her absence. The episode crystallizes Buffy's reality that she will never have a normal life. The vampire, to the Scoobies' surprise, turns out to inhabit the body of a little boy. The Master instructs the boy in the influence of fear ("Nightmares") and power ("Angel
Angel (Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode)
"Angel" is the seventh episode of season 1 of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was written by co-executive producer David Greenwalt and directed by Scott Brazil. The narrative follows Buffy Summers , vampire slayer, coming to terms with her feelings for Angel , who is revealed to...
").
Buffy studies
Buffy studies
Buffy Studies is a term applied to the collection of written works about, and the university courses that discuss aspects of, the television program Buffy the Vampire Slayer and, to a lesser extent, its spin-off program Angel. It explores issues related to gender and other philosophical issues as...
scholars have noted the role religion plays in the series, and have commented on the Master's sense of religiosity
Religiosity
Religiosity, in its broadest sense, is a comprehensive sociological term used to refer to the numerous aspects of religious activity, dedication, and belief . Another term that would work equally well, though is less often used, is religiousness...
in particular. None of the main characters exhibit any prominent religious views although they observe some religious holidays. Several of the villains in the series, however, are nearly fanatical about religious ritual and custom, the first of which is the Master. The rituals the Master performs to make Luke his vessel are, according to Wendy Love Anderson, an "inversion of Christianity". The Master attempts to restore the "old ones" and aligns himself with a child while setting up Buffy to be a Christ-like figure. He foretells that when he is able to leave his mystical prison, "the stars themselves will hide", an aberration of a quote from John Milton
John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
's epic poem Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse...
, where Satan is musing on his own power. The Master's entombment in a house of worship is a convenient vehicle to introduce the character's religiosity, but it also represents the way evil is at times allowed to thrive in churches.The Master's entombment also recalls Jewish apocalypse stories as what can be found in the Book of Enoch
Book of Enoch
The Book of Enoch is an ancient Jewish religious work, traditionally ascribed to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah. It is not part of the biblical canon as used by Jews, apart from Beta Israel...
. (Stevenson p. 66–68.) The unChristian symbolism was clear to Whedon—and intentional on his part, as he was cautious about including such subversive imagery in "The Harvest"; Buffy producer David Greenwalt
David Greenwalt
David Greenwalt is an American screenwriter, director and producer.He was the co-executive producer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and co-creator of its spinoff, Angel. He is also co-creator of the short-lived cult television show Profit...
was certain Christian groups would protest the ceremonial aspects of the plot. Gregory Erickson notes that the Master's denigration of a Christian cross, what he calls the "two pieces of wood" even while being burned by it, reflects the series' treatment of Christianity overall and in turn, the American simplification of religion. On Buffy, a cross is a weapon, but beyond that an empty symbol. Christian symbols and rituals traditionally play an integral role in many vampire stories. However, in contrast to Bram Stoker
Bram Stoker
Abraham "Bram" Stoker was an Irish novelist and short story writer, best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel Dracula...
's Dracula
Dracula
Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor...
, which relies heavily on Christian symbols and rituals, Buffy downplays their importance.
Demise
The Master sends minions to kill Buffy in "Angel", an episode featuring the origin story of Buffy's romantic interest (David BoreanazDavid Boreanaz
David Boreanaz is an American actor, television producer, and director, known for his role as Angel on the supernatural drama series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, and as Special Agent Seeley Booth on the television crime drama Bones....
), a vampire with a murderous past who was cursed by a Gypsy tribe to be re-ensouled, causing him guilt and a century of misery and torment. His desire for restitution and attraction to Buffy impels him to assist her. She discovers he is a vampire in the episode and he reveals that one of the Master's most powerful assistants, Darla (Julie Benz
Julie Benz
Julie M. Benz is an American actress, best known for her roles as Darla on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel and as Rita Bennett on Dexter, for which she won the 2006 Satellite Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television...
), was the vampire who transformed him and his lover for many years. After killing the minions unsuccessful in their attempt to kill Buffy, Darla attempts to lure Angel to the Master's side, but Angel stakes and kills her, further thwarting the Master's plans.
Buffy and the Master finally meet in the series finale "Prophecy Girl
Prophecy Girl
"Prophecy Girl" is the season finale of the WB Television Network's first season of the drama television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the 12th episode of the series. The episode first aired on June 2, 1997 with the series acting as a midseason replacement for Savannah...
", in which Giles translates a prophecy that states the Master will arise when the Slayer dies. Buffy overhears Giles discussing it with Angel and tells Giles she refuses to be the Slayer if it means she will die, then begs her mother to go away with her for the weekend. After three students are murdered by more of the Master's followers, however, Buffy decides to meet the Master and arrives in his underground lair dressed for a dance she was supposed to attend instead. He tells her that her blood will free him and he bites and drinks from her, then tosses her to the ground face-down in a shallow pool where she drowns. Angel and Buffy's friend Xander
Xander Harris
Alexander LaVelle "Xander" Harris is a fictional character in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as well as in numerous items in the series Expanded Universe, such as comic books, tie-in novels and video games...
(Nicholas Brendon
Nicholas Brendon
Nicholas Brendon , is an actor best known for his character Xander Harris in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer .-Early life:...
) arrive and Xander is able to revive Buffy through CPR.
An extension of the Master's religiosity is his preoccupation with prophecies. The themes of the first season are destiny and forming an identity separate from childhood: breaking the illusions that the world is safe and actions have no real consequences. Destiny is repeatedly a theme between Buffy and the Master. The entire first season is underscored with prophecies—a narrative device used less frequently in later seasons of the series—that Buffy neglects to fulfill in various ways. Buffy often has prophetic dreams and the Master is nearly obsessed with recounting and confirming written prophecies. Buffy's superhuman powers are her birthright. Despite her desire to live a normal life, she feels that she must fulfill her destiny as a Slayer, which is often reinforced by Giles. Buffy, however, subverts these elements to assert her own free will, which is illustrated in the season finale. According to Buffy studies scholar Gregory Stevenson, the Master is so sure of the the prophecy that the Slayer will die that he is unable to reconcile her resurrection by Xander.
As the hellmouth opens in the school library with Giles, Buffy's friends Willow
Willow Rosenberg
Willow Rosenberg is a fictional character created for the fantasy television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer . She was developed by Joss Whedon and portrayed throughout the TV series by Alyson Hannigan...
(Alyson Hannigan
Alyson Hannigan
Alyson Lee Hannigan is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Willow Rosenberg in the cult classic television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Michelle Flaherty in three American Pie films, and Lily Aldrin on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother.-Early life:Hannigan was born in...
), Cordelia
Cordelia Chase
Cordelia Chase is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer; she also appeared on Buffy's spin-off series Angel...
(Charisma Carpenter
Charisma Carpenter
Charisma Lee Carpenter is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Cordelia Chase in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off Angel, for which she was nominated for four Saturn Awards. In her most recent film she starred opposite Sylvester Stallone and Jason...
), and a teacher, Jenny Calendar
Jenny Calendar
Jenny Calendar is a fictional character in the fantasy television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer . Played by Robia LaMorte, Jenny is the computer teacher at Sunnydale High School...
(Robia LaMorte
Robia LaMorte
Robia Brett LaMorte, sometimes credited as Robia La Morte, is an American actress and former dancer. She is best known as a dancer and spokesperson for the musician Prince, and for her role as Jenny Calendar in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.-Early life:LaMorte was born in the New...
) inside fighting off monsters, Buffy finds the Master on the roof of the library watching through windows in the ceiling. Incredulous, the Master tells Buffy she was destined to die in a written prophecy; she replies "What can I say? I flunked the written." She resists his attempts to hypnotize her and pushes him through the window into the library below, impaling him on a broken wooden table and killing him.
Influence
Joss Whedon created Buffy Summers to subvert the dual ideas of female subordination and authority steeped in tradition, both of which are found in the Master. According to Buffy scholars, the Master is a classic villain. Rhonda Wilcox writes, "There could hardly be a nastier incarnation of the patriarchy than the ancient, ugly vampire Master", and Gregory Stevenson places him in the category of "absolute evil" with the second season's Judge (also Brian Thompson), third season's Mayor (Harry GroenerHarry Groener
Harry Groener is a German-born American actor and dancer, perhaps best known for playing Mayor Wilkins in Buffy the Vampire Slayer .-Early life:...
), and fourth season's Adam (George Hertzberg
George Hertzberg
George Hertzberg is an American actor best known for his portrayal of the cyber-demonic soldier Adam in the fourth season of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer...
). In contrast, other Buffy characters are more morally ambiguous. The Master is a grand patriarch consumed with hierarchy, order, and defined by what is old. Buffy's opposition to the Master addresses media tropes found in many horror films where a young, petite blonde woman, up against a male monster, is killed off halfway through the film partly due to her own weakness. The series itself was intended to be subversive against these tropes by frequently highlighting the generational divide between the younger characters and the older ones. In particular, the series uses dialogue, termed "Buffyspeak" by some media outlets, that frequently makes the younger characters indecipherable to the older ones and vice versa. The Master speaks with a stylistic formality found in Bible verses. According to Wilcox, Buffy can hardly understand Giles' language, much less the Master's "pompous, quasi-religious remarks". The entire first season posits the younger characters with facing impending adulthood, which they are unable to comprehend until the last episodes of the season.
Each season finale signifies a turning point for the main characters—usually Buffy—and her confronting the Master, according to Stevenson, represents "the end of her childhood illusions of immortality". The scene is fraught with romantic imagery, with Buffy in a white gown, initially intended to be her party dress. When the Master bites her it is, according to Elisabeth Kirmmer and Shilpa Raval, her sexual initiation: a different take on the young girl dying at the hands of a monster. Kirmmer and Raval write that the "paradigm of Death and the Maiden is replaced by that of the hero who faces death and emerges stronger". When he tries to hypnotize her, she is able to resist him and kills him. Buffy's willful behavior and tendency to buck tradition is underscored again in contrast with another Slayer. In the mythos of the series, when one Slayer dies, another takes her place somewhere in the world. Buffy's short death introduced the Slayer Kendra (Bianca Lawson
Bianca Lawson
Bianca Jasmine Lawson is an American film and television actress.-Early life:Lawson was born in Los Angeles, California. She is the daughter of Denise and actor Richard Lawson. Bianca is also the great niece of Motown founder Berry Gordy...
) in the second season. She is a committed, rule-abiding young woman who does everything authority figures tell her to do. She is killed because she is unable to resist being hypnotized by Drusilla (Juliet Landau
Juliet Landau
Juliet Rose Landau is an American actress best known for her role as Drusilla on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff show Angel, the latter appearance earning her a Saturn Award nomination. She is also known for co-starring as Loretta King Hadler in Tim Burton's Ed Wood.She has appeared in a...
), an insane vampire with extraordinary mental abilities.
Following his death, the Master makes several appearances in the series. The second season premiere, "When She Was Bad
When She Was Bad
"When She Was Bad" is the first episode in the second season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode was written and directed by series creator and executive producer Joss Whedon...
" shows Buffy trying to hide her anxiety about her mortality and role as the Slayer as it played out in her confrontation with the Master, until she destroys his bones by smashing them with a hammer. In the third season, "The Wish" presents audiences with an alternate take on Sunnydale: after dating Xander and breaking up, Cordelia makes a wish to Anyanka
Anya Jenkins
Anya is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She also appears in the comic book series based on the television show. Portrayed by Emma Caulfield, the character appears as a guest star in the third and fourth seasons of the show before...
(Emma Caufield), a vengeance demon, to live in a Sunnydale where Buffy never arrived. Anyanka creates an alternate reality where the town is overrun with vampires loyal to the Master, who in a capitalistic turn, has devised a machine to make an assembly line to bleed humans to feed his followers, among whom are Xander and Willow. Buffy arrives toward the end, friendless and fighting alone, where she falls under the Master's hypnotic powers and he kills her by snapping her neck. In the seventh season premiere "Lessons", the Master appears once more as a face of the First Evil
First Evil
The First Evil is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The First Evil first appeared in the third season episode "Amends", and became the main antagonist of the 7th and final season.A being manifested from all evil in existence, the First is an...
, a shape-shifting villain and the Big Bad of the final season.