Richard Wilkins
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- For the Australian television/entertainment personality, see Richard Wilkins (TV presenter).
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 Harry Groener as Richard Wilkins. | ||||||||||||||
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Introduction
Richard Wilkins III was the fictional mayor of Sunnydale in the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The character was played by Harry Groener. Although disturbing allusions to the Mayor were made in Season 2, Mayor Wilkins only appeared in Season 3, becoming the Big Bad of the season. It turned out that he had ordered Principal Snyder to act harshly towards Buffy. He is seen in dreams and on tape the next season and as a manifestation of The First Evil in Season 7.Biography
Wilkins arrived in California in the 1800s, looking for gold. It is shown in Tales of the Slayers that he founded Sunnydale after the last slayer died there. He found a place infested with demons, with whom he made a pact to avoid being killed. He agreed to found a town atop the Hellmouth for "demons to feed on" on the promise of an Ascension ("Enemies"). It was revealed in the same episode that Richard Wilkins III was also Richard Wilkins I and II, pretending to be the son in each subsequent generation to conceal his lack of aging. This created a problem when Edna May, whom he married in 1903, began aging and probably contributed to his lack of romantic relationships later on ("Choices"). Mayor Wilkins seemed to have sold his soul early in his life ("Lover's Walk") as one of his "campaign promises." Throughout Season 3, Mayor Wilkins worked to ensure his transformation into an Old One, the pure-breed demon Olvikan.Unlike many Buffy villains, Mayor Wilkins had quite a pleasant demeanor. A family man with an aversion to swearing, he nearly always wore a smile on his face. He is obsessed with cleanliness. After sending his henchmen after the Slayers in "Consequences", Faith became a rogue Slayer and offered him her services. He soon became a father figure to Faith, their evil deeds notwithstanding. He even furnished her room, paid for with taxpayer money, with a PlayStation because he did not like to see her stay at a place with an "unsavory reputation, not to mention the screwing". This love for her even carried into his demonic form, although he did not have much to snack on to "sustain the change" as planned. It may be argued that he had not transformed completely.
After Mayor Wilkins achieved Ascension into the gigantic, snake-like pure-demon Olvikan during Sunnydale High's graduation ceremony in 1999, Buffy exploited his love for Faith by taunting him with the knife he had given to Faith and with which Buffy put Faith in a coma. Buffy lured him into the empty library, now filled with bags of dynamite. Rupert Giles then pressed the trigger that obliterated the Mayor and the school building.
In the Haunted comics series, Mayor Wilkins is shown to live on as a ghost for a while, possessing the bodies of dead animals and demons (As well as vampires). In the process, he is also responsible for the creation of Adam, when he possesses the corpse of a powerful demon (His earlier vampire body having been captured by the Initiative) and badly injured the then-human Adam. After a battle with Buffy in the clocktower, where Buffy finally learned of his ghostly nature after decapitating his current body to no effect, Willow, with the assistance of Xander and Buffy, sent him to the next realm. There is no evidence that they ever discovered it was the Mayor who had been attacking him, although Faith later told Angel in prison that she recalled the Mayor's ghost visiting her using the body of a dead bird while she was in her coma.
Mayor Wilkins was seen again in Season 4 on a videotape he had left for Faith in case she ever woke up from her coma. He was seen again in Season 7 as one of the many incarnations of The First Evil.
Romantic Relations
- Edna May
Trivia
- True to his avoidance of foul language, Mayor Wilkins's last words were "Well, gosh."
- Mayor Wilkins loves the Family Circus cartoon strip, amused that P.J. is such a handful ("Bad Girls"), but dislikes Marmaduke, who being always on the desk seem unsanitary to him. He does not like Cathy.
- In a deleted scene of the series premiere of Firefly, it is learned that the Alliance troops who advanced on the Independents in Serenity Valley were led by General Richard Wilkins. The characters are not related, as Firefly is not part of Whedon's Buffyverse.
Buffyverse appearances
In order of Buffyverse chronology. Canon appears in bold.
19th Century
Autumn 1996 - Summer 1997, Buffy Season 1
Autumn 1997 - Summer 1998, Buffy Season 2
Autumn 1998 - Summer 1999, Buffy Season 3
- Band Candy
- Lovers' Walk
- Gingerbread
- Bad Girls
- Consequences
- Doppelgängland
- Enemies
- Choices
- Graduation Day, Part One
- Graduation Day, Part Two
Autumn 1999 until Summer 2000, Buffy Season 4
- Haunted - Wilkins as a ghostly figure
- This Year's Girl - Wilkins appears in a video he recorded during the events of "Graduation Day, Part Two (Buffy episode)"
Autumn 2002 until Summer 2003, Buffy Season 7
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