Buffy The Vampire Slayer

From the horrifying Gentlemen to the vengeful Chumash spirit Hus, season 4 was full of unique monsters that stood out from the average vampire that Buffy and the Scoobies slay. Season 4 created a challenge between the old, magic way of dealing with demons and the new, technology driven government run Initiative. The monsters, demons and downright evil beings came in many forms this season, below is a list of those that stood out the most.

The Gentlemen

"Can’t even shout. Can’t even cry. The Gentlemen are coming by."

In the season 4 episode Hush, the pale, bald demons called "The Gentlemen" and their straight jacketed demonic footmen descend on Sunnydale to steal the seven hearts that they require to stay alive. The Gentlemen float above the ground, with perfect posture, and seal the voices of all of the citizens of Sunnydale in their box as the sound of any human voice is fatal to them. To make them even more horrifying, the stealing of the voices makes it all the more easier for them to cut out the hearts from the still alive victims as no one will notice the victims screams. With the help of Riley Finn, Buffy Summer’s scream defeated The Gentlemen and restored Sunnydale to its not-so-normal sense of normality.

Adam

"I could barely fight him. It was like Maggie designed him to be the ultimate warrior."

The Buffyverse cross between Frankenstein’s monster and the T-101 from the Terminator series comes in the form of Adam, the “Big Bad” of season 4. Created to be the next stage in evolution with the intelligence and adaptability of humanity, the strength of demons and the emotional detachment of a robot, Adam was the ultimate creation of the Initiative’s Maggie Walsh. Throughout the season, Adam upgrades himself to allow him to add a mini-gun and a grenade launcher to his arsenal which already included a Polgara demon’s skewer (now as part of his body, courtesy of Maggie Walsh). Adam also convinced the various demons of Sunnydale to come together to take down the Initiative, while all of this being part of his plan to create his race of human-demon-robot hybrids like him. However, it was through the combined essences of Willow, Giles and Xander in Buffy’s body are able to defeat him by ripping out his Uranium power source putting an end to his.

Gachnar

"Who’s a little fear demon? Come on. Who’s a little fear demon?"

Only at a Halloween frat party on the Sunnydale campus could a demon bring all of the party-goers inner fears to life due to a demonic symbol used as a decoration and a drop of blood. Gachnar feeds on everyone’s fear which would ultimately lead to him being fully summoned into our realm. Gachnar’s powers affected the Scoobies in different ways; Xander finds himself being invisible to all his friends in this University situation, Oz begins to change into his werewolf form despite it not being a full moon, Willow loses control of her spell when it begins to swarm around her and Buffy finds herself in the basement with the undead. In the end, Buffy (interrupting Giles’ reading of his description) destroyed the Mark Of Gachnar, which brought forth Gachnar in all his inches tall glory. All that demonic power, in one of the smallest demons in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. With a final attempt to strike fear in Buffy with his line “They’re all going to abandon you, y’know", Gachnar comes to an end, squashed under Buffy’s foot.

Hus

"I am vengeance. I am my people’s cry. They call for Hus, for the avenging spirit, to carve out justice."

The vengeful spirit of a Native American warrior returned of the Chumash tribe returned to exact vengeance against the people that killed his people. Hus was able to turn to change into mist and return back to his human form. Hus can also assume the forms of animals such as a crows, a coyote and a black bear. Hus first attacked Buffy as he saw her as the greatest warrior of her people and so was a figure of authority, which led to his downfall; his spirit was destroyed when she stabbed him in the neck with his own knife.

Sunday

"Oh I’m—I’m Sunday. I’ll be killing you here in a minute or so."

An 80s New Wave style vampire that uses her group of vampire minions to target new and lost freshmen at UC Sunnydale. Sunday was one of the only vampires to ever better Buffy in a fight, seemingly breaking her arm, while also commenting on her fashion choices. Arguably, Sunday was able to beat Buffy due to her own feelings of being overwhelmed due to her new surroundings at college although the chance that the critique of her fashion choices may have thrown her off. During the second fight between them, Buffy bested Sunday while the rest of the Scoobies tackled her gang which ended in Buffy revealing that her arm was hurt, not broken and staking Sunday with a flick of the wrist.

Veruca

"You’re the wolf all the time, and your human face is just your disguise. Ever think of that?"

Lead singer of the local band Shy, Veruca was also a werewolf that embraced the werewolf part of who she is, unlike Oz who whenever the werewolf came out locked himself in a cage. When he first noticed her, Oz knew that there was something there but couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was until they woke up next to each other, naked, after a werewolf night. Veruca set out to kill Willow so that Oz and herself could be together with their werewolf instincts, however it is Werewolf Oz that kills her. It was this incident that drove the wedge that forced Oz to find a way to leave Willow and cure the werewolf within him.

Parker Abrams

"You’re right. He’s manipulative and shallow. And why doesn’t he want me."

While not of a demonic nature per se, Parker Abrams may be the one “monster” that hurt Buffy the most in season four. Parker used the psychology he learned in the Psych 101 class to manipulate and seduce Buffy into what she thought was an emotional experience, but was actually, for him, just a one night stand. Yes, I know what you’re thinking, Willow was right. He does deserve a slow and torturous death by spider bites."

Buffy Season 4 continues every weeknight at 7pm on Syfy.