“I’ve made certain deals to get where I am today. This demon requires his tribute. You see, that’s what separates me from other politicians, Mr. Trick… I keep my campaign promises“

Also known as Olvikan
Played by Harry Groener

First Appearance: Homecoming

Richard Wilkins III was well over a century old by the time Buffy Summers encountered him, having founded Sunnydale in 1909 after planning it for a decade. Immortal, meticulous and unfailingly polite, he designed the town as a feeding ground to support his lifelong ambition: to ascend into the form of a pure demon. By 1998 he was preparing to transform into Olvikan, a colossal serpent demon whose ascension required a solar eclipse and a substantial amount of fresh prey. His inner circle consisted of Deputy Mayor Allan Finch and the vampire Mr Trick — both of whom were killed by Faith, the Slayer he would come to regard as a daughter.

Faith’s loyalty became the Mayor’s greatest strength and his deepest vulnerability. He nurtured her, protected her and offered her the unconditional affection she had never known. When Buffy stabbed Faith and left her in a coma, Wilkins was devastated. He channelled his grief into the final stages of his ascension plan, determined to complete the transformation even as his emotional stability frayed. At the 1999 Sunnydale High graduation ceremony, he became Olvikan — only for Buffy to taunt him with Faith’s condition and lure him into the school.

Inside the library, Wilkins realised too late that he had been manoeuvred into a trap. Giles detonated the explosives planted throughout the school, destroying the building and killing the ascended Mayor. His century‑long plan ended in fire, rubble and the loss of the one person he had truly cared for. Yet even in death, Wilkins’ influence lingered, particularly in the life of the Slayer he had tried to mould through Faith.

Immediately after Faith fell into her coma, Wilkins had anticipated the possibility of failure. He recorded a videotaped message for her, entrusting it to a demon courier to deliver when she awoke. In it, he expressed paternal concern and left her a Draconian Katra — a magical device capable of switching bodies. Faith used it to steal Buffy’s life temporarily, but the deception was uncovered and reversed. With no one left to anchor her, Faith fled Sunnydale for Los Angeles, carrying the Mayor’s final gift like a ghost of the father figure she had lost.

Years later, when Buffy, Willow, Xander and Spike returned to the ruins of Sunnydale High to prevent the Hellmouth from reopening, they found the Mayor’s charred remains scattered through the collapsed halls. Even in death, he remained tied to the place he had built, the town that had been both his masterpiece and his undoing.

Richard Wilkins III endures in the Buffyverse as one of its most chilling villains — a man whose immaculate manners and paternal warmth masked a century of calculated evil. His legacy is written not only in Sunnydale’s foundations but in the scars he left on Faith, the Slayer he loved, shaped and ultimately doomed.

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