The Master is a fictional character on the action-horror/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. The Master is the first season's Big Bad (overarching villain).
The Master has been entombed beneath Sunnydale for 60 years as the patriarch of a cult posed opposite Buffy. He is devoted to the vampire race's purpose to eradicate humanity and to fulfilling a prophecy that states he will kill the Slayer in the late 20th century.
Creation and casting
Buffy the Vampire Slayer was originally conceived from a 1992 feature film that pitched Buffy against a similar villain controlling vampires below Los Angeles. Disappointed by the final film, screenwriter and series creator Joss Whedon reworked his script into a television series more in line with his original vision. He and the staff writers employ horror elements in the series to represent real-life conflicts for the adolescent characters, while frequently undercutting the horror aspect of the show with comedy. Sunnydale High School is situated atop a portal to hell called a Hellmouth, which Whedon uses to symbolize the high-school-as-hell experience.Tracy, pp. 6–37. Pragmatically, Whedon admitted that placing the high school on a Hellmouth allows the writers to confront the main characters with an endless array of evil creatures.Whedon, Joss (2008). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete First Season; "Interview with Joss Whedon: Welcome to the Hellmouth" Featurette. [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
Veteran character actor Mark Metcalf appeared in heavy prosthetic make-up for the role of the Master, belying his iconic performance 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.Andrews, Tom (October 28, 2011). 'Animal House' Fan Favorite Metcalf Still Crafting Film and Stage Memories, FoxPoint-Bayside Patch. Retrieved on November 20, 2011. 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, Joss (2008). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete First Season; "DVD Commentary for "Welcome to the Hellmouth" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
Appearances
The Master is first seen in the series premiere "Welcome to the Hellmouth", which was aired immediately before the second episode "The Harvest", which reveals more of the Master's character and backstory. Although the Master's identity is never revealed on screen, Joss Whedon wrote in the pilot's script that his name was Heinrich Joseph Nest, roughly 600 years old. This contradicts information presented in the first season that indicates The Master predates written history, as is discussed below.
In "Welcome to the Hellmouth" the Master is presented as a vampire king with extraordinary physical and mental powers that grew as he ages but weakened through long isolation and needing to feed on people; he is raised from a pool of blood by his acolyte Luke (Brian Thompson). The head of a cult who worships the ancient pure demons "The Old Ones" called the Order of Aurelius, the Master attempted to open the Hellmouth in 1937, placing himself in a Catholic mission to do so. An earthquake swallowed the mission during the Master's attempt, and he has been living in the ruins for 60 years.Stafford, pp. 124–128. He is trapped between dimensions, unable to leave his underground lair, so he commands his minions to find people for him to feed off while planning his escape. In times, Sunnydale High School is built over where the mission was.
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 that weekly confrontations would leave no tension for the season finale when Buffy and the Master would finally meet and battle each other.Whedon, Joss (2008). Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete First Season; "DVD Commentary for "The Harvest" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
In "The Harvest", employing a ritualized dark ceremony which can be used only once in a century, the Master makes Luke his "vessel": every time Luke feeds, power will be transmitted to the Master.Golden and Holder, pp. 54–56. 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. Although Luke successfully feeds on a couple of victims, Buffy stakes him, thereby leaving the Master contained, robbed of his proxy, and with insufficient power to break the dimensional barrier that confines him underground.
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 computer-generated effects, giving them prominent brows and 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 — to highlight the element of surprise by illustrating that the characters often face friends and peers who appear normal, but have dark sides. Simultaneously, the vamp face shows that Buffy is killing monsters instead of people.
Whedon made a decision to have the Master in permanent vamp face to indicate that he is so ancient he predates humanity. The Master never shows a human face; the make-up specialist conceived him as bat-like, 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 and shows himself able to incorporate American technology into his plans.Pateman, pp. 104–105. He also (perhaps anachronistically) speaks with a modern American accent.
Religiosity
In "Never Kill a Boy on the First Date" the Master reads from a formally written Bible-like book of prophecy that foretells the arrival of a powerful warrior enigmatically named "The Anointed One" (Andrew J. Ferchland) who will become the Master's "greatest weapon against the Slayer". The Master sends other acolytes of the Order of Aurelius to bring The Anointed to him, instructing them to give their lives should it become necessary for them to succeed. When Buffy finally encounters him in the season finale, The Anointed One turns out to inhabit the body of a little boy.Tracy, pp. 149–152.Stafford, pp. 132–133. 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. With the exception of Angel (David Boreanaz), 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.Stevenon, pp. 66–68. 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.South, pp. 214–215. He foretells that when he is able to leave his mystical prison, "the stars themselves will hide", an aberration of a line from John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost, where Satan is musing on his own power.Dial-Driver, pp. 145–147. 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 which can be found in the Book of Enoch. (Stevenson p. 66–68.) The unChristian symbolism was intentional on Whedon's 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 is an empty symbol. Christian symbols and rituals traditionally play an integral role in many vampire stories, as in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Conversely, Buffy downplays their importance.Wilcox and Lavery, pp. 108–115
Demise
The Master sends minions to kill Buffy in "Angel", an episode featuring the origin story of Buffy's romantic interest, a vampire with a murderous past who was re-ensouled by a Gypsy tribe as the ultimate punishment; this "curse" has caused him to feel remorse and live the past century in misery and torment. His desire for redemption, as well as his attraction to Buffy, compels him to assist her. She discovers he is a vampire in "Angel" and it is revealed that one of the Master's most powerful followers, Darla (Julie Benz), was the vampire who transformed Angel and was his lover for several generations. After the Master allows Darla to destroy the minions who failed to kill Buffy, Darla tries to lure Angel to the Master's side, but Angel stakes and kills her, further thwarting the Master's plans.Stafford, pp. 135–137.Golden and Holder, pp. 64–65.
Buffy and the Master finally meet in the season finale "Prophecy Girl", in which Giles translates a prophecy that states that if she fights the Master, she will die. 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 five students are murdered by more of the Master's followers, however, Buffy decides she must fight the Master and is led to his underground lair by The Anointed One; she is wearing a long white dress, bought for a dance she was supposed to attend instead. He quickly hypnotizes her and tells her that "prophecies are tricky things" that don't reveal all: had she not come to fight him, he could not rise, as it is her blood which will free him. 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), who have disobeyed her wishes and followed her, arrive after the Master has risen. Xander is able to revive Buffy through CPR, thus the prophecy of her death at the Master's hands is fulfilled, but its intention thwarted. She becomes stronger as a result of their encounter.Golden and Holder, pp. 78–80.