The Buffyverse Character Countdown (#18)

#18.

Hero: Jenny Calendar (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Seasons 1-2)

All factors considered, I think this is just about where most people would want to see Jenny land on the list. She is one of the most beloved characters in the entire series, not so much for her impact on the diegesis of the series but for its meta-narrative. Jenny’s death in “Passion” is quite possibly the single most important moment in the entire show: it illustrated that death in Buffy the Vampire Slayer didn’t merely have consequences for the plot, something that had been proven with the death of Principal Flutie in “The Pack,” but that it also had a profound impact on the philosophy of the series and the emotional development of the characters. Subsequent deaths in the show might have hit more personally for individual heroes, but Jenny’s was the first that struck everyone with an inescapable feeling of loss. It’s a tragedy from which no one in the series ever fully recovers.

And it’s not as if Jenny is just a “woman in a refrigerator” whose sole narrative function is dying in order to give other characters more development. Over the course of two seasons, we get to know Jenny quite well. Much like Giles, Jenny serves as a mentor figure for Buffy and her friends, especially Willow. Unlike other intelligent characters we’d seen in the series up to this point, Jenny wears her intelligence on her chest as a badge of character; she’s never ashamed to tell someone he’s wrong. She respects the past and the present in equal measure, having a formidable knowledge of modern technology and of demonic lore. She is also in full possession of her sexuality without expressing the depravity of the vampires in the series. More than any other character in Buffy’s first two seasons, Jenny is an adult: she knows who she is, fully embodies herself, and doesn’t suffer from any particularly crippling insecurities. It’s for this reason that she functions so well as a guest star on the show. She provides both comfort and encouragement for Giles, a character who desperately needed someone to ground him in his Watcher duties and remind him of the good in life outside of vampire slaying. She helps Willow become a more fully realized student and young woman through serving both as her computer teacher and as her spiritual mentor. She even gives Buffy a model of a fully functioning adult not reliant on any one person to keep herself going, unlike Giles and her mother.

Yet herein lies Jenny’s arc – a subtle yet integral part of her character. Jenny might be the most adult character in the cast, but, as such, she suffers from the main issues most adults face in fiction: an inability and unwillingness to connect. As sexually and morally confident as Jenny is, she very rarely exposes herself or her genuine difficulties to others, to the point where she even endangers others’ lives by withholding information. Jenny’s choice to conceal Angel’s curse from Buffy is a key plot point during “Innocence,” and that decision ultimately throws a wedge between her and Buffy that never quite heals. It also significantly chills her and Giles’ relationship: though both characters violate the other’s trust at some point in the series, Jenny’s choice goes the next step by traumatizing Giles’s foster daughter, an act that he struggles to forgive. It’s only by revealing that she does in fact feel guilt and genuine compassion that they’re able to reconcile at the beginning of “Passion.” Speaking of which…

I’ve commented before that “Passion” is the best episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer – a somewhat controversial claim but definitely an arguable one. One of the crucial reasons that it is my favorite episode in the series is the completion of Jenny’s character arc. In admitting her love for Giles out in the open, Jenny, in effect, becomes a fully realized human being: she has no remaining cognizable flaws to speak of. She thus enters full hero mode and does whatever she can to re-earn Buffy’s trust and save more lives. And this choice ultimately Jenny her life: hunted down by Angelus in one of the most terrifying scenes in the entire series, but not before providing the Scoobies with the data they need to restore Angel’s soul.

When it comes to these lists, Jenny is definitely a personal favorite, and I do wish she could rank higher. The subtle yet satisfying arc, heroic virtues, and remarkable realism as compared to other characters makes Jenny one of the most complete characters in the entire series. Unfortunately, it’s a character that comes and goes just too soon. Taken together, Jenny only features in twelve episodes of the entire show, and she’s rarely mentioned outside of the first three seasons. Even her death is somewhat forgotten in the wake of even more traumatizing deaths in the fifth and sixth seasons. Her impact on the plot simply isn’t large enough to warrant her getting any higher than this. That said, she’s perfect, just the way she is.

Villain(s): Daniel Holtz and Justine Cooper (Angel Season 3)

Here’s where ranking these villains gets tricky. In many respects, Holtz and Justine – especially given the fact that I’ve consolidated their characters into one spot – probably deserve a higher spot on the list. There are a number of one-off villains and even gag villains ranked above them; given these vampire hunters’ significant impact on the diegesis of Angel, my decision may come across as unfair or even downright preposterous. After all, these are the Big Bads of Angel Season 3, and they do spark more character development for Angel and Wesley than almost any other villainous group. They’re truly some of the most nefarious villains in the series. However, both Holtz and Justine are completely lacking in one crucial factor: likeability. As opposed to other Big Bads, Holtz and Justine are the antithesis of fun. Even less effective Big Bads like Adam, Jasmine, the First Evil, and the Master at least tried to be fun on their own merits: Holtz and Jstine are essentially humorless. Granted, this decision fits with their characters, but it’s not sufficient to earn them my sympathy, much less my empathy.

In 1764, Holtz was the most proficient vampire hunter alive, relentlessly dedicated to purging the world of demons and out for Angelus’s head. Unfortunately for him, Angelus slaughters Holtz’s family and turns his youngest daughter into a vampire just to spite him. Distraught, Holtz dedicates the rest of his life to putting down a single vampire – the one who just so recently picked up a soul. Unfortunately for him, Angel manages to evade capture to the point where Holtz would die before snatching him. Holtz thus decides to make a deal with the demon Sahjahn to be frozen and reborn in order to kill Angel at a later time. Though Sahjahn does contract Holtz to destroy Angel and his newborn son, Holtz decides to take matters into his own hands. He kills the demons Sahjahn wishes for him to use to take out Angel and instead recruits a group of mercenaries, including a new right-hand woman, Justine Cooper. Holtz then decides to further double-cross Sahjahn, desiring not to kill Angel outright but instead to torture him.

Holtz’s particular method of revenge is one of the nastiest in the entire Buffyverse. He manipulates Wesley, who, in the false belief that Angel is destined to kill his own son, kidnaps Connor and hand-delivers him to Justine… who then proceeds to slit his throat. He then escapes with Connor into a Hell dimension before either Angel or Wolfram & Hart can take Connor from him, living out most of his life in Hell whilst raising Connor as his own. When the two return, Holtz ensures that Connor will try to kill Angel by having Justine secretly kill him with an ice pick, making it seem as if Angel drained Connor’s foster father of blood. Justine then ensures that Connor’s schemes for revenge work, ultimately leading to Angel getting trapped in a box and sunk in the middle of a lake. Their schemes are ultimately thwarted by Wesley’s timely intervention and even overshadowed by Jasmine’s bid for global conquest, but they’re one heck of a wild ride.

Holtz and Justine do a fairly decent job of representing two different breeds of revenge-lust. Justine is fiery, murderous, and all-around deranged; she’s a renegade who is only able to effectively fight demons once she is under Holtz’s tutelage. Holtz, by contrast, is rather rigid and unfeeling; he’s capable of tremendous bursts of rage, but, like a Klingon, he believes revenge is a dish best served cold. The two complement each other extremely well, executing their plans with lethal precision. They outmaneuver Angel Investigations, Sahjahn’s demons, and even the special forces of Wolfram & Hart by pitting sides against each other and slipping out of one crisis to the next. They’re also some of the very smartest villains in the Buffyverse, developing workarounds for anti-violence spells in order to blow up the Caritas club and managing to manipulate Wesley, arguably the smartest member of Angel Investigations. Best of all, the pitiful defeats of both characters – Holtz by assisted suicide, and Justine by kidnapping by a vengeful, hardened Wesley – appropriately illustrate revenge’s futile, inherently destructive nature.

Unfortunately, for all of Holtz and Jasmine’s genuinely great qualities, their presence is severely hampered by their dramatic presentation and oppressively bleak worldviews. Angel is a much more adult series than Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but it often errs on the side of dour melodrama as opposed to Buffy’s more complex blend of satire and black comedy. Holtz is the epitome of Angel’s dramatic form, and it doesn’t work to the benefit of his character. Most of the very best villains in the Buffyverse excel because of their charm, cunning, and latent menace; they make evil likable. Holtz is so laser-guided in his focus on revenge that he never takes time to be fun in the fashion of other villains. After the deliciously nasty highs of Lindsey and Darla in the last season, Holtz definitely feels like a downgrade. Plus, it’s frustrating to think that all of Connor’s awfulness comes from Holtz. Justine’s wrath does a nice job to counterbalance Hotlz’s icy, somewhat boring demeanor, but her lackey status isn’t enough to fully redeem the villainy of the arc. A plot that should have been thrilling ultimately feels tiresome and cliché.

All that said, if Holtz and Justine’s execution falls short, their impact on the plot and other characters’ development cannot be understated whatsoever. Holtz and Justine’s actions shape both Angel and Wesley’s arcs for the rest of the entire series; both spend the next two seasons trying to recompense for their sins in Season Three. They made Connor who he is… for better or worse. They provide opportunities for Lilah to show off her own villainous attributes. Their destruction of Caritas integrates Lorne into the main cast. They have many flaws, but these vampire hunters show that not all slayers are necessarily good people.