Riley Finn

Played by Marc Blucas

INFORMATION

The country farm boy turned teaching assistant was a psychology major at U.C. Sunnydale, but there was more to Riley Finn than it initially appeared. His interest in Buffy was a romantic one, and he pursued the Slayer for weeks. Buffy returned his affection and when the Gentlemen came to town and stole the voices of the townsfolk, both Buffy and Riley took to the streets to discover how and to restore the voices. In the battle that followed, Riley’s secret was revealed: he was part of the Initiative, an underground Governmental program that captured and detained ‘subhumans’ and experimented on them with behaviour modification techniques. It was all a front, however, for the secret creation of Adam, the ultimate weapon, and Riley, disillusioned and outlawed by his comrades, joined forces with his girlfriend and her allies.

After Adam was defeated, Riley felt isolated by Buffy and turned to vampires for comfort. He felt pleasure from their bite and their draining of his blood and when Buffy found out, she was disgusted. Riley, fearing his relationship was over, gave Buffy a choice: to come after him, or to leave him go. That night, Riley left with the government troops to travel to Belize to stop demons, believing Buffy had let him go. In fact, she had missed him by seconds. A year later, Riley returned, married, and discovered Buffy’s affair with Spike. Despite all this, they departed on friendly terms.

APPEARANCES: BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER SEASON FOUR