Maggie Walsh
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| Professor Maggie Walsh | ||||||||||||||
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 Lindsay Crouse as Professor Walsh |
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Professor Maggie Walsh is a fictional character in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The character is played by Lindsay Crouse.
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[edit] History
Maggie is introduced in Season Four, initially as an ally of Buffy, but becomes an enemy when she plots to kill Buffy and remove her as a threat to the Initiative. She first becomes involved with Buffy when the young Slayer is enrolled in her Psychology class, along with Willow Rosenberg and Daniel "Oz" Osbourne in their first year at UC Sunnydale. At the university, Maggie has a fearsome reputation as an academic and taskmaster. However, like Buffy, she also leads a secret double life as a chief member of the Initiative, a secret government agency located below the university. The Initiative employs a team of commandos, led by Riley Finn, tasked with capturing demons and vampires. The captured demons are taken back to the Initiative, where experiments are performed on them. Maggie is also involved in Project 314, a secret part of the Initiative which creates a hybrid demon-humanoid-mechanoid (demonoid) known as Adam. Demons captured by the Initiative are dissected to provide parts for Adam.
Maggie maintains a close relationship with Riley, who looks upon her as a mother figure through most of Season 4. As Riley develops a relationship with Buffy, the identity of the Slayer becomes known to Maggie. Though she initially thinks that Buffy is a useful ally, Maggie soon takes a dislike to her unpredictability and unwanted curiosity, especially as regards Project 314. She also grows jealous of Buffy's hold over Riley, and spies on them making love on the Initiative's monitors.
Eventually, Maggie tries to kill Buffy by sending her on a mission on which she is ambushed by two demons released from the Initiative's holding cells. However, Buffy defeats the demons and appears on the monitors when Maggie prematurely announces Buffy's death to Riley. An embittered Maggie retreats to the labs of Project 314, where she plots how to use Adam to defeat Buffy. However, Adam awakes and impales Maggie, killing her, and escapes from the Initiative.
Maggie appears in the penultimate episode of Season Four, "Primeval," as a walking corpse, employed by Adam to finish off Project 314. This project involves the creation of more beings like him, manufactured from the parts of demons and humans combined. It is also revealed that Maggie set Riley up to be part of 314, by planting a chip within his body that could be used to control him. Maggie's corpse attacks Buffy with a bone cutter when she comes to rescue Riley, but is easily knocked down and defeated.
[edit] Quotes
(introducing herself to her class) "Those of you who come under my good graces will come to call me 'Maggie.' The rest of you will come to know me by the name my T.A.s call me and think I don't know about...'The Evil Bitch-Monster of Death.'"
[edit] Writing and acting
- Crouse has explained how her character was initially explained to her, "Joss tried to explain to me who this character was.. He said that she was a scientist, and that she was going to be doing research and eventually, she might hatch an evil plot, but her front was being a psychology teacher."[1]
- Crouse gave some insight into her view on her character, "She's such an extremist. She has a vision of what she wants to do. She feels like she's testing the boundaries of something, and any human being always feels important no matter who they are. I'm sure she admires Dr. Frankenstein - or Einstein. She's probably a mix of those two. I like her caustic nature, because she's not a mean person. I have always imagined that Maggie treats people like grown-ups. That she doesn't want to live in a world of babies. She doesn't have the time for it. The Initiative is her baby.".[2]
- Crouse outlined her view of Maggie's relationships with Riley and Buffy, "Her teaching assistant Riley is really the child she never had, and there's probably confusion there that he's a potential something for her that's slightly out of her reach, but she's willing to prevent anyone else from being interested in him. I think she feels she's in direct competition with Buffy. The most complicated situation for her is having Riley fall in love with Buffy. Finding out that Buffy is the Slayer is a kind of a gas, and its nervous-making and exciting to have good people on her team; she's like a president - she wants a great cabinet underneath her. I think she'd like to fashion the world in her image, but Buffy puts a wrench in the works"[3]
- Like many characters, themes, or situations on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Maggie Walsh is inspired by other, earlier sources. Her origin and nature can be traced to the 1978 film "The Legacy" a.k.a. "The Legacy of Maggie Walsh", as the character who inherits the satanic power to bring forth demons from Hell. [4]
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ Stokes, Mike, "The Last Act", from Buffy the Vampire Slayer magazine #18 (UK, March 2001), page 20.
- ^ Stokes, Mike, "The Last Act", from Buffy the Vampire Slayer magazine #18 (UK, March 2001), page 22.
- ^ Stokes, Mike, "The Last Act", from Buffy the Vampire Slayer magazine #18 (UK, March 2001), page 23.
- ^ http://imdb.com/title/tt0079450/
