By Chris Snellgrove
| Revealed
Buffy the Vampire Slayer was full of loads of scary monsters, however one was infinitely extra scary than any vampire: the Choose, an historical demon who’s reassembled by Spike to wreak absolute havoc in Sunnydale. Due to the present’s killer make-up staff, the Choose seemed even scarier than his centuries-old fame, and he stays some of the iconic monsters the collection has ever identified. That make-up was so good, actually, that the majority Buffy followers by no means realized that the Choose was performed by Brian Thompson, the actor who performed the present’s forgotten predominant villain from its very first episode!
Within the Buffy collection premiere, “Welcome To the Hellmouth,” Thompson performed a vampire character named Luke. He’s a member of the Order of Aurelius and is over 150 years previous by the point he first tangles with the Slayer and her Scooby Gang. He additionally served because the de facto predominant villain of this primary episode as a result of he served the Grasp, an historical vampire who has been trapped beneath Sunnydale due to an historical spell.
The Authentic Huge Unhealthy
Luke featured closely within the Grasp’s plans to flee his magical jail: particularly, this youthful vampire is designated because the Grasp’s vessel, and when he feeds on people, it transfers energy again to his demonic boss. As soon as he and his undead posse take over the Bronze, it initially looks like he may have no bother feeding on sufficient of Sunnydale’s younger residents to lastly free the Grasp. However Buffy outwits Luke, distracting him by mentioning a non-existent dawn earlier than she stakes him by the guts, dusting the vamp and briefly foiling the Grasp’s escape.
Whereas Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff have introduced a number of vampires again from the useless (together with Angel and Darla), Luke was by no means resurrected, however he left an enduring impression on followers. In spite of everything, for the reason that Grasp was trapped, Luke served because the de facto predominant villain within the first episode of what would develop into a serious tv phenomenon. Finally, nonetheless, Luke returned otherwise, when actor Brian Thompson performed the Choose within the episodes “Shock” and “Innocence.”
Right here Comes The Choose
Below all that make-up, it may be onerous to inform that the Choose is performed by the identical actor who first menaced Buffy in “Welcome to the Hellmouth.” On the very least, this new character is a serious improve over the previous one. Whereas Luke might need been a superpowered vampire, the Choose was an historical demon whose physique was hacked to items ages in the past by a vengeful military; nonetheless, his physique components remained alive, and within the Season 2 episode “Shock,” Spike reassembles this historical monster to impress Drusilla, the vampire girlfriend who first remodeled him right into a creature of the evening.
Moreover, the Choose has a a lot extra memorable loss of life than Brian Thompson’s earlier villain. As a vampire, Luke was killed by a easy stake, however the Choose boasts that he can’t be killed by any weapon solid by man. Reasoning that this was solely true of old-timey weapons, Buffy makes use of an exceedingly trendy resolution and blows the Choose up with a rocket launcher!
Two Icons, One Actor
It’s a crowd-pleasing second, one that will stay a spotlight of your complete collection. However each the life and the loss of life of the Choose are that a lot cooler when you understand that he’s performed by the primary main villain the Slayer ever needed to tangle with. On this method, Brian Thompson left his mark on this iconic TV collection by taking part in two of the best villains in Buffy the Vampire Slayer historical past!