“Chaos. I remain, as ever, thy faithful, degenerate son.“

Played by Robin Sachs

First Appearance: Halloween

Ethan Rayne began as part of a university occult circle with Rupert Giles, a group whose reckless experimentation summoned the demon Eyghon. While Giles rejected the chaos they had unleashed, Ethan embraced it, becoming a worshipper of disorder and a dedicated servant of Janus. Years later he resurfaced in Sunnydale, bringing the spirit of Janus to town and transforming citizens into their Halloween costumes. Giles warned him to flee, but Ethan continued to drift in and out of Buffy’s world, aiding the Mayor on one occasion and nearly killing Buffy on another when he branded her with the Mark of Eyghon.

His mischief escalated when he transformed Giles into a Fyarl demon, prompting Buffy to hunt him down. This time Ethan’s luck ran out: the Initiative captured him and transported him to a secret holding facility in the Nevada desert. For years he vanished from sight, his fate unknown, until he reappeared unexpectedly in Buffy’s dream space, offering cryptic warnings about the coming of Twilight. When Buffy later infiltrated a Drextalcorp military installation to free him, she instead found Ethan dead — executed with a gunshot to the head by General Voll of the Twilight Group.

Death did not end Ethan’s story. Eyghon reanimated him in a state eerily similar to life, save for the hole in his skull. Wearing a hat to conceal the wound — and with no official record of his death — Ethan attended Giles’s funeral, where he recovered his old friend’s body and transformed Giles into another vessel for Eyghon. He became part of the demon’s growing army of undead hosts, serving as both puppet and priest to the entity he had once helped unleash.

As Eyghon’s influence spread, Ethan’s undead form moved through the chaos with unsettling purpose. He remained a key figure in the demon’s campaign, directing other possessed hosts and furthering Eyghon’s attempt to reclaim dominion over the living. His presence was a grim echo of the man he had been — still cunning, still theatrical, but hollowed out by the demon animating him.

Ethan’s final end came when Angel confronted Eyghon’s forces. In the battle that followed, Angel beheaded Eyghon, severing the demon’s hold over its vessels. With Eyghon destroyed, Ethan’s reanimated body finally collapsed, granting him a rest he had long evaded in life. His death marked the close of a career defined by mischief, betrayal and a devotion to chaos that ultimately consumed him.

Even in death, Ethan Rayne remained a figure woven into the fabric of the Slayer’s world — a reminder of the dangers of unchecked magic, the thin line between rebellion and ruin, and the shadowed legacy of Giles’s past.

APPEARANCES

Buffy SEASON 2