Charlie Weber as Ben Wilkinson
Ben Wilkinson is a fictional character in the cult television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He is portrayed by Charlie Weber.
Biography[]
A handsome junior physician, he meets and befriends Buffy at the Sunnydale Hospital during her mother's illness, and unsuccessfully attempts to romance her. Unknown to Buffy, Ben is merely the mortal prison for deposed hell-goddess Glorificus, who has learned to free herself from Ben for periods of time, in order to search for the Key, before transforming back into Ben (a spell prevents any human witnessing or hearing of this transformation from remembering it). Until his personality begins to merge with Glory's in the season's final episodes, he is presented as an essentially decent and compassionate person, protecting Dawn Summers from Glory when he learns that Dawn is the "Key". In early episodes, Ben appears as a new potential love interest for Buffy, but in a show of personal resolve, and in accord with the writers' decision that her sister Dawn would be her main "love interest" in Season Five, Buffy decides to focus on her family issues and not pursue him. As Glory spends more time in control of their shared body, Ben's life starts to fall apart; he is dismissed from his job at Sunnydale Hospital because of increased time (as Glory) spent away from work. In the season's climax, as their personalities begin to merge, Ben agrees, out of self-preservation, to help Glory kill Dawn. When Glory is beaten, she transforms to Ben one final time, only to be smothered to death by Giles, who considers Ben an innocent for the most part, but is determined to prevent Glory from ever returning to exact revenge on Buffy.
.jpg){kind=link}
Ben is smothered to death by Giles
Ben served as Glory's Achilles' Heel by which the gang was able to defeat her, and also portrays that even kind, decent men can do evil deeds in the name of self-preservation.
Trivia[]
Giles was originally supposed to reveal to Buffy that he had killed Ben in "Lies My Parents Told Me", but his on-screen confession was cut due to time constraints.