“Into every generation, a Slayer is born.” Most fans ofBuffy the Vampire Slayercan quote this line. They could also probably recall most things about the main character’s backstory as well as things that happen to her throughout the course of the show. However, they may not all be able to remember all the important details of the backstories of the show’s most notable adversaries, the Whirlwind: Darla, Angelus, Drusilla, and Spike.
Since the title “Whirlwind” was more of a one-off comment made by Darla in a flashback scene, some fans may not even be aware that this is a title attributed to the group as a whole. More details of the group’s backstory are revealed inthe spin-off seriesAngel.Even though they were not together that long as a full unit, they caused quite a deal of damage. They were also intrinsically linked together through their shared experiences.
Darla
As a human, Darla was a sex worker in colonial America that unfortunately contracted syphilis. She was on her deathbed when she was discovered by the Master of the Order of Aurelius,an elite order of ancient vampires. He sired her and immediately placed her in his court. It is unclear within the show’s flashback sequences if Darla was her given name in her human life or if the Master gave it to her after turning her, as he was called her “Dear One” just before turning her into a vampire. She then spent the rest of her vampire existence boomeranging between following the Master and the other members of the Whirlwind.
Angelus
One night in Galway, Ireland, Darla stumbles upon the same type of man that would have attracted her in her mortal life. Liam was a drunken, good-for-nothing who was a disappointment to his father and his entire village. However, Darla saw something in him, along with his “face of an angel.” After turning Liam into the vampire, Angelus, she brought her creation to the Master to show him off.
Unfortunately, the two did not get along very well. Angelus convinced Darla that theydid not need the Masterto have fun night lives and they left to branch off on their own. They spent over 100 years causing chaos in their wake, even incurring the wrath of a vampire hunter named Holtz who defies time to continue to hunt them in the 21st century during the course ofAngelseason 3.
Drusilla
While in London in 1860, Darla and Angelus came upon a young woman, Drusilla, who appeared to haveprecognitive abilities. Darla noticed the girl and her gifts first and drew Angelus’ attention to her. He immediately became obsessed and decided she would be his new favorite project. Angelus decided that he could have the most fun with her by using her abilities against her. He taunted her instincts that they were dangerous by murdering her whole family right in front of her. He allowed her to escape, however.
As she had been told that her gifts were sinful, she ran straight to a convent to attempt to find solace in a religious life. Unfortuantely for Drusilla, that gave Angelus the perfect opportunity to finish his task of driving her completely insane. On the night that she was to take her holy vows, he infiltrated the convent and killed every nun in the building, leaving only Drusilla. Angelus decided that this was not enough torture and decided, against Darla’s wishes, that the best way to ensure Drusilla’s eternal suffering would be toturn her into a vampire as well.
Spike
The final member to the Whirlwind came in the form of one William Pratt, a poet that Drusilla stumbled upon one night after 20 years of being a vampire herself. She had grown bored with being a third wheel to Darla and Angelus and wished to have a companion of her own.
William was a traditional Victorian gentleman living in his mother’s house and writing poetry as his passion. One night he went to a party where he had intended to propose to a woman whom he had been smitten with for a considerable amount of time. Much to his dismay, before he had the chance to ask the focus of his attention, he overheard her and a group of other peers making fun of him. They called him “William the Bloody Awful Poet,” and said that they would rather have a railroad spike to the head than to hear another one of his poems.
While he was outside crying over having learned people’s true opinions of him, Drusilla approached William and he was instantly enthralled. He practically begged her to sire him, without truly understanding what it was that she was asking of him. He immediately brought her home to his mother. She was slowly dying of tuberculosis, so he thought that the solution would be to turn her into avampire so that she would no longer sufferwith her sickness. She became instantly cruel, however, and he almost immediately staked her.
He eventually made a name for himself with his especially gruesome killing method. Working off of the insults that his peers had disparaged him with, he became known as “William the Bloody” in a more menacing manner. Eventually, he started calling himself “Spike” after he began actually using railroad spikes to impale the skulls of his victims. He even developed a special affinity for hunting VampireSlayers, killing twoin less than 80 years from each other.
The Whirlwind
With all four members of the group brought together, they wreaked havoc all over Europe. Whether they were called the Whirlwind or the Scourge of Europe, the fact of the matter was that their mere presence was enough to strike fear instantly. While there were minor disagreements among them, they were a formidable team up until their run-in with the Kalderash tribe of gypsies in Romania. It was there that Angelus killed the wrong girl and was cursed with a soul. This was the beginning of the end for the Whirlwind. Angelus’s soul made it impossible for the vampire to kill innocents.
The group slowly disbanded withonly Spike and Drusilla remaining togetheruntil the events ofBuffy the Vampire Slayer.Darla leaves the couple to go back to the Master once and for all, where she is in the pilot episode.
Buffy the Vampire SlayerandAngelare both available to stream on Hulu.
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