Caleb (Buffyverse)
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 Nathan Fillion as Caleb |
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Caleb (played by Nathan Fillion) is a fictional character in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer universe created by Joss Whedon.
Caleb is an arrogant, misogynistic defrocked priest who is allied with The First Evil and serves as one of the "big bads" of Season 7. Prior to becoming a servant of the First Evil, Caleb was a killer responsible for the deaths of at least two girls, whom he lured sometimes with his sermons and his priest's collar. Among his victims was a showgirl in Nashville and a girl named Betty.
He tries to help The First Evil destroy the Slayer lineage by killing the Potentials one by one. He is given extraordinary strength by the First when they "merge". According to the First, Caleb is the only human strong enough to be its vessel.
Caleb likes to reenact his killings by asking the First to take on the form of the girls he killed, so that he may "kill them again."
Caleb was the one who organized the attack of the Bringers on the Potential Slayers around the world and the man responsible for setting up the bomb that destroyed the Watcher's Council Headquarters in London and caused the deaths of Quentin Travers and all Watchers and Council Operatives present.
In "Dirty Girls", Caleb murders potential slayers Dianne, whose neck is snapped, and Molly, who Caleb stabs in the stomach, beats down Faith, Buffy, and Spike effortlessly, breaks Rona's arm, before violently blinding Xander in one eye by forcing his thumb into Xander's left eye-socket, during an aborted initial attack on Caleb's vineyard.
Despite a dramatic arrival in Sunnydale when he bested Buffy and her army of potential slayers on several occasions, he is eventually killed at Buffy's hands by being sliced in two with a scythe from the crotch up within the opening minutes of the series finale, "Chosen".
Caleb provided Buffy and her allies with a villain who was both a physical threat (in contrast to the non-corporeal First Evil) and a recognizable individual (as opposed to the nameless Bringers and Turok-Han, who were formidable but also more or less interchangeable).
Caleb's view of theology is also quite a mystery, mainly, his views of God and Satan. Caleb delivers quasi-Biblical like quotes, frequently, even making allusions to his belief that The First is actually "God". When the First, in the guise of Buffy asks him if he thinks the First Evil is God, Caleb believes the First to be beyond such definition. Caleb states plainly in his début episode, "And I don't truck with Satan, that was just me havin' fun back there. Satan's a little man". Caleb also comments further on his admiration of the First, when it (under the guise of Buffy) vocalizes its envy of humans' ability to feel lust and engage in primal, sexual acts, whilst several of the Scoobies engage in such activity elsewhere. Caleb dismisses them all as "sinners", commenting enthusiastically that the First is miles beyond that, for it is "sin" itself.
[edit] As a Manifestation of the First
The First later appears to Buffy, manifesting under the guise of Caleb. The First lectures Buffy on the futility of her campaign against it, and it's this meeting that encourages Buffy to come up with her plan to activate the remaining potentials to full slayer status using the essence of the scythe taken from the vineyard two episodes previously.
[edit] Trivia
- Nathan Fillion is one of three actors who had appeared on Whedon's Firefly series who later played a villain on one of Whedon's other shows.
