The Buffyverse Character Countdown (#15)

#15.

Hero: Lorne (Angel Seasons 2-5)

Lorne is the Oz of Angel: a character whose ultimate weakness is his lack of overall development as compared with the other heroes on the series. He’s most assuredly a more fun character than Oz, explaining why he trumps his main series counterpart on this list, but he’s ultimately too limited a character to justify his being placed much higher. On concept alone, Lorne would normally be resigned to the role of comic relief: what more can one say about green-skinned, red-horned demon who is able to read people’s emotions and futures on the basis of their singing? Yet, for the small arc he has, Lorne manages to carry a lot of heft.

Lorne is a Deathwok (not to be confused with the fictional death metal band, Deathklok) demon originating from the dimension known as Pylea. Most other Deathwoks are aggressive warriors who treat human beings as slave labor and their fellow demons as creatures to be hunted for sport, but Lorne is the rare exception who actually has empathy for those around him; while his snide attitude towards his family is insensitive and prudish, it ultimately derives from his innate sense of good that they lack. Lorne isn’t just a demon with a soul, though; he’s a demon with soul. Upon being transported into Earth’s dimension, he decides to open up a morally neutral karaoke bar known as Caritas, equipped with its own anti-violence span to keep a safe environment for anyone who wants to sing and relax. Lorne also uses his innate Deathwokian abilities to sense others’ auras to provide psychological counselling and read others’ futures, an ability that is only enhanced when others sing for him. This, of course, leads to many hilarious scenes, including one featuring Angel singing Barry Manilow, a prospect as terrifying as it is funny.

Unlike most other pure comic relief characters, like Clem, Lorne actually does have a useful function in Angel. Not only is his particular ability useful for predicting the future for Angel and company, but his empathic abilities encourage the other characters of the show to express a degree of emotional honesty they are otherwise hesitant to display. As with Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Deanna Troi, there is no hiding one’s true emotions from Lorne. He’s thus the peacemaker for the group. While others’ good intentions often slide past one another and produce truly divisive arguments, Lorne is able to pierce through the ambiguity and properly articulate the flaws that are undermining the cohesion of the group. His own outsized emotional outbursts and flamboyant personality also make his interjections all the more entertaining.

Lorne’s individual arc, while short, is also very compelling. Lorne is so accustomed to understanding the auras of everyone – both good and evil – that he prefers neutrality to anything else. This is why he makes his club, Caritas, a morally neutral location where anyone can get a reading. It also explains why he ends up coming into his own in the Wolfram & Hart entertainment division in Season Five; he is able to work with moral and amoral figures with equal levels of treatment. The thing he dislikes more than anything else is being forced to take drastic personal action on the behalf of any individual side. While he does have a sense of justice, it’s not enough to make him like being an active person. He is more of a hindrance than a help during Angel Investigations’ excursion in Pylea, and he performs his final act in the series – killing Lindsey – only reluctantly. In fact, this morally ambiguous deed ultimately convinces Lorne to leave Angel Investigations entirely: Angel pushes him too far.

Lorne’s overall comic character thus departs from the series with a twinge of genuine tragedy that’s wholly satisfying from a dramatic perspective. He’s one of the reasons that “Not Fade Away” works quite as well as it does as a finale not only to Angel but to the entire Buffyverse himself. Unfortunately, prior to this point, he’s not given many episodes to develop in his own right. The two episodes devoted to him prior to “Not Fade Away” – namely, “The House Always Wins” and “Life of the Party” – are pretty much pure comedic romps that serve to highlight character developments for Angel, Fred, Gunn, and Wesley much more than Lorne himself. He’s just not complete enough a character to truly match up to the best villains in the series. It’s only because of his comedy that he beats out Oz. That said, there’s no one else I’d rather have to fill Lorne’s comic role in the series. It isn’t over until the green demon sings.

Villain: Ethan Rayne (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Seasons 2-4)

What if you took the quirky comedy of Harmony and combined it with the effectiveness of a truly devious Buffy monster-of-the-week like Ford? You’d get Ethan Rayne, one of the very best recurring villains of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s first four seasons. While he’s more of an antagonist towards Giles than he is an antagonist towards Buffy, Ethan is the dominant source of chaotic evil in the entire Buffyverse. He’s the Joker of the franchise, minus the penchant for murder and the clown fetish. His extremely abrupt departure from the series is a huge strike against him, keeping him at the very bottom of the top half of the list, but he’s a delightful villain for the time we do get to spend with him.

One of Giles’s schoolmates from when our beloved Watcher was a renegade known as “Ripper,” Ethan never quite learned how to grow up. Both he and Giles dabbled in dark magics far beyond their abilities, but Ethan got hooked on the thrill of doing bad and never looked back. The two ended up releasing a demon known as Eyghon, who proceeded to kill one of their friends. Giles took this experience and learned to grow up and be a responsible member of society. Ethan, on the other hand, took the misery that ensued and made light of it, prioritizing chaos above all else. Once he appears in Sunnydale, his goal is to cause as much disruption to the regular proceedings of Slaying as he can, from cursing Halloween costumes to turn kids into monsters in “Halloween” to selling candy that makes adults act like intoxicated toddlers in “Band Candy.” He even manages to get some revenge upon Giles by briefly turning him into a Fyarl demon in “A New Man.” His impish personality combined with his overall deviousness makes him a delightful villain whom we love to hate.

Nearly all of Ethan’s schemes serves to highlight crucial turning points in many of our characters. “Halloween” is a crucial step in the maturation of nearly all of the Scooby Gang, with Willow learning to embrace her sexuality, Xander learning just what the consequences of the macho man stereotype are, and Buffy learning how dangerous it is to become the object of someone’s affection rather than an equal partner in love. In “Band Candy,” Ethan’s drugging of the Sunnydale adults reveals just how important responsibility and honesty are to the fabric of society, not just to one’s personal integrity. In “A New Man,” Giles must essentially cope with a midlife crisis. These are all wonderful moments that, if not for Ethan, we wouldn’t get to experience.

By far the best element of Ethan’s character, though, is his relationship with Giles, for, as I’ll note when I discuss our favorite Watcher in full, Giles develops very little over the course of the series. The difficulty with Giles’s character is that nearly all of his growth occurred before the events of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and we thus have a very limited access into his world. Ethan is a constant reminder of his sin-filled past, wherein Giles was a vicious, unforgiving monster. Ethan’s prankster instincts pale in comparison to how frightening Giles can be when he truly wishes to unload upon someone. Unfortunately for Ethan’s health, his actions bring out the most frightening elements within his adversary, and we get to see Giles on the warpath. Their antagonism comes to a peak in “The Dark Age,” where the return of Eyghon pits the two adversaries as temporary rivals against a demon they failed to adequately defeat the first time. Yet, even here, Ethan finds a way to frustrate Giles’s efforts and strike a blow for the forces of chaos.

Every single appearance of Ethan in Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a sign of an exciting episode and a rewarding villain-mentor dynamic. Unfortunately, he disappears from the series at the end of Season Four. To some extent, this makes sense: with Giles’s character fully realized at the end of the season, there’s really no need for Ethan to be a foil for him anymore. That said, his disappearance does leave the audience wanting more, if it’s only a final appearance where the Ripper has to put down his old buddy for good. For what he is, Ethan is one of the most delightful villains in the series… he’s just not in it enough to warrant his getting a higher spot.