Drusilla from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel
As soon as I decided that 2025
would be the Year of the Villainess, I knew that Drusilla would be my choice
for October. A Cockney Victorian psychic vampire who dresses like a Goth
princess and talks to her dolls? That’s a perfect Halloween aesthetic.
On consideration, there were
surprisingly few female villains in a show that was all about strong female
characters. Glory is the standout for being the only female Big Bad, and of
course we had Darla and Drusilla across the seasons… but that’s about it
really. The First could take on feminine form, but was essentially genderless. Amy
Madison eventually broke bad, but in a rather confusing way. There was Harmony as
well, I suppose, though she was never taken particularly seriously as a threat.
The likes of Faith and Dark Willow
always had redemption on the cards, while over on Angel there was
Lilah Morgan and Jasmine. Apart from all that, any other female villains were
just one-shot guest stars: Catherine Madison, Gwendolyn Post, Vanessa Brewer,
Sunday… do you even know who I’m talking about?
But I digress, let’s get back to
Drusilla. I’m happy to say on the record that Drusilla is the show’s most
tragic character, bar none. Born some time in the Victorian Era, she grows up a
pious Catholic girl who believes her psychic abilities are the work of the
devil. This is something her sire Angelus is all too happy to take advantage
of. To quote him: “It was over the moment I saw her. She was my opposite in
every way. Dutiful daughter. Devout Christian. Innocent and unspoiled. I took
one look at her and I knew. She’d be my masterpiece.”
After the murder of her entire
family, Drusilla flees to a convent for safety, though the church ultimately
offers her no safety: Angelus and Darla break in, kill all the nuns, and turn
her into a vampire. Just for good measure, they have sex on the altar in front
of her while she suffers a complete mental collapse.
Yeah, there are no happy endings here.
In a twisted sort of way, turning her into a vampire is almost a kindness after
the torture Angelus inflicted on her, as at least the loss of her soul frees
her from the burden of her religious guilt. Interestingly, her psychic abilities
pass with her into her new existence as a member of the undead, and between her
madness and her precognitive gift, she’s one of the most captivating, terrifying
and (like I said) heartbreaking characters of the entire franchise.
Although most of her history is
presented to the viewer via flashbacks (most notably how she came to sire
Spike), she first appears in Buffy
the Vampire Slayer in quite
a vulnerable state, having been badly injured in Prague. Spike has brought her
to Sunnydale for mystical treatment, and the viewer is initially presented with
a vampire who is certainly eerie, but not a huge physical threat – at first.
Once recovered, she’s a force to
be reckoned with, and as a player in the show’s mythos, is best remembered for
killing Kendra the Vampire Slayer and re-siring Darla over on Angel. Sadly, her last chronological appearance was in
season five of Buffy, trying and failing to bring Spike back into the fold,
after which she just disappears (though I’m led to believe she turns up again
in the comics).
What Juliet Landeau brought to the role is a vibe. She’s a Gothic lady and a Victorian child, a spooky seer and a deadly monster. She’s guileless, deranged, coquettish, driven, unpredictable – truly, a compelling performance from start to finish, and given the impact she had on the show, it’s rather astounding that she appeared in only seventeen Buffy episodes and seven Angel ones (and some of these were entirely in flashback, or as a guise the First took on). She was a force to be reckoned with...
