Riley Finn

Riley Finn
Twilight Group US Army
Classification	Human
Notable powers	Military training grants him knowledge of strategy, combat techniques, tracking, and handling of weapons.

Riley Finn is a fictional character created by

).

Whedon intended Riley to be the antithesis of Buffy's boyfriend of the past three seasons, Angel (David Boreanaz), who now headed his own spin-off show. In stark contrast to broody, often pensive Angel, Riley is optimistic, trustworthy and reliable, and in theory presents Buffy with her first opportunity for a "normal" romantic relationship. However, Riley also leads a double life: he is both teaching assistant at UC Sunnydale and a member of The Initiative, a government-sponsored special operations team which both researches and combats the demons which roam Sunnydale. This allows him to interact with Buffy both in her civilian life and assist her with her duties as a Slayer; while Buffy has supernatural powers associated with her role, Riley must rely instead on his extensive military training.

In the show's fifth season, writers experimented with making Riley a more complex character, and so depicted Riley beginning to "fray around the edges". This storyline

, however, wrote a Riley one-shot comic book focusing on Riley and his wife.

Character history

A native of

".

Buffy and Riley fight demons together and continue saving each other's lives and the world, although Riley is never quite let into Buffy's inner circle. Initially, Riley automatically assumes that all demons are evil, but discovers that demons are capable of both good and evil just as humans are after assisting in saving

Sunnydale High

.

The Initiative was destroyed at the end of Season Four, and Riley is relieved of his military standing. He is left at loose ends, and his behavior becomes reckless. Over time, Riley begins to see himself as below Buffy in strength, and begins to push his body well past its limits. In "

, though Buffy eventually convinces him to do so. Rendered a normal human by the procedure, Riley's insecurities and feelings of weakness only increase, and he becomes increasingly frustrated with Buffy's seeming inability to open up to and be honest with him.

Seeking thrills, and wondering what Buffy seems to find so appealing about vampires – Buffy having allowed both

to join another black ops army unit fighting demons elsewhere.

Riley returns in the season six episode "As You Were", in which he shows up unexpectedly with his new wife, fellow demon hunter Sam (Ivana Miličević), tracking a demon about to hatch eggs that could wipe out Sunnydale. When Riley learns that Buffy has been sleeping with Spike, he consoles her on her struggles with her life, and forgives her after she apologizes for what happened between them. The battle done, Riley leaves Sunnydale, never to return again. He is, however, mentioned in the season seven episode "The Killer in Me" where Buffy attempts to contact him for advice on the malfunctioning chip in Spike's head. Riley then contacts soldiers from the Initiative, who help diagnose Spike's condition and then discuss with Buffy that per Riley's instruction, it is her decision to remove or repair the chip in order to save Spike's life. Buffy has them remove the chip.

In

, Riley is with Twilight and his other followers as they try and track the Scooby Gang through their use of magic; Riley tries to convince Twilight that the results could be a mistake of the scanning technology. He is also intrigued by Twilight's remark that he "knows" Buffy. During a large battle between the Slayers and Twilight's forces, Buffy recovers an injured Riley, revealing to the other characters that Riley was a double agent for her in an attempt to figure out Twilight's plans and identity.

Riley also appears in the first issue of the follow-up series Season Nine (2011–2013); the structure of "Freefall, Part I" suggests that Riley—like Spike, Xander, Willow and others—could have been Buffy's possible one-night stand after the party she hosts at her apartment in San Francisco. Riley remains married to Sam. With the end of magic, Riley now uses his military resources to watch for ordinary terrorists. It is later revealed in "Apart (of Me)" that Buffy did not have sex with anyone. Riley does not appear for the rest of the season. Concurrent with Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Ten, in Angel & Faith #4 (2014), Faith attempts to leave San Francisco but is contacted by her boss, the Slayer Kennedy, with a mission to find Riley, who has been reported missing in a South American jungle. In the next arc "Lost & Found" Faith finds both Sam and Riley. Riley is willing to forgive her after she saved his life from the tribal vampires in the jungle and says she should stop focusing on seeking forgiveness to make herself feel better and just be the kind of person who would not do those things anymore. He also suggests she talk over the past with Buffy.

Writing and acting

Marc Blucas was asked how the character was described to him during the audition process, he replied that "They said that Riley is a nice, charming guy, and there's going to be some kind of dichotomy, some kind of double role going on. But that was never really specified."^[1] In contrast to both Angel and Spike, Riley held out the possibility of normality in Buffy's life. He is also notable in that he is the only boyfriend of Buffy who was accepted by and developed a friendship with Xander Harris, who usually displayed jealousy of the males in her life.

Whedon defended the character of Riley Finn, "The important thing for us was to find a character that was the anti-Angel and to have Buffy go through something very different, part of which was the question, 'How do I get over Angel?' That was the same thing the audience was going through. We knew it wasn't going to be easy and it was very hard trying to find somebody. But Marc [Blucas] has a quality that I love very much: he has sort of an un-David-like, firm, strong, trustworthy quality. I always think of him as Gary Cooper."^[2] During Season Five, writer/co-executive producer, Marti Noxon, noted that they were making Riley a more tortured complex character, "He's starting to fray around the edges. That's very compelling to me – that this straight guy is starting to get a little strange."^[3]

Actor

Appearances

Canonical appearances

Riley has appeared in:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Riley was introduced in the show's fourth season as a recurring character and became a regular in the episode "

Into the Woods

", and appeared once afterward. He appeared in 31 episodes. His guest appearances include:

• Season 4: "
  The Initiative", "Pangs", "Something Blue", "Hush
  "
• Season 6: "As You Were"

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight

Riley has also appeared in the canonical comic book continuation. He has appeared in the issues:

• "
  Retreat, Part II
  ", "Turbulence", "Riley: Commitment through Distance, Virtue through Sin"

Notes and references