“ | This child, Angel... It's the one good thing we've ever done together. The only good thing. You make sure to tell him that. | „ |
~ Darla to Angel on their son. |
Darla is a major antagonist in the Buffyverse. She is introduced in Buffy the Vampire Slayer as the secondary antagonist of Season 1 before returning in Angel, as the main antagonist of Season 2 and a supporting character in Season 3.
She is the sire of Angelus and The Master's favourite minion who initially sought to wreak havoc with Angelus (and later Drusilla and Spike) until Angelus had his soul restored, at which point she flip flops between working under The Master again and attempting to turn Angelus back into the monster he once was.
She was portrayed by Julie Benz, who also portrayed Dawn Sterling in Law & Order.
Biography[]
Becoming a Vampire[]
Darla was born in late 16th century Britain. She emigrated to Virginia Colony in North America where she became a prostitute. She was dying of syphilis when The Master sired her into a vampire. Darla was rarely with him however, even though he viewed her as though she was his daughter. In her earlier life she was intrigued by a man named Liam. She sired him and he became the infamous Angelus. At her urging, Angelus murdered his family and everyone else in his village. Throughout the years, they killed many people in specific sections of the U.K. before separately immigrating to the U.S.
The two of became infamous together with Darla leaving The Master for now. Together they killed Daniel Holtz's family because he was the vampire hunter that was pursuing them. Darla and Angelus were joined by Spike and Drusilla becoming known as the Whirlwind. Darla brought Angelus a gypsy girl to feed on. This led them to curse Angelus with a soul. Darla noticed his odd behavior and realized what was happening, causing her to abandon him.
TV Series[]
She rejoined The Master and assisted with his plans in Sunnydale before running into the ensouled Angel who temporarily killed her after she attacked Buffy's mother. Wolfram and Hart resurrected her a few years later to transform Angel back to Angelus. Angel encounters her and she claimed to be someone else. It was later revealed that she was revived as a human and she now has a soul. The plan failed and they had Drusilla transformed her back into a vampire. Darla and Drusilla killed several people throughout Los Angeles and tried to attack Angel but failed. The two of them left with Darla returning and sleeping with him in an attempt to transform him into a vampire again.
Darla discovered that she was pregnant and sought out help for this to realize why. No one was able to tell her how it occurred so she returned to Los Angeles and told Angel what was going on. Darla shared a soul with her child prompting her to attack a young boy so she could share the blood with her unborn son. Darla appeared to be having difficulties giving birth and her son would most likely not survive. Plus, Daniel Holtz who had been put into suspended animation and awakened was seeking to take the child for himself. With this Darla staked herself in order to ensure that her son survived. Darla became a cloud of dust but her son survived.
Darla visited her son Connor when he was under the influence of Jasmine (who had possessed Cordelia) dissuading him not to help her kill a girl. Connor ignored his mother when Jasmine told her that she was lying to him. He then dragged the girl to Jasmine and killed her. Darla then vanished after that because she had been unable to stop her son from helping Jasmine.