Billy Fordham

Billy Fordham is a fictional character in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He makes his only appearance in the episode "Lie to Me".

In the Lie to Me episode, the Billy "Ford" Fordham character poses ethical dilemmas. Ford and Buffy were once classmates in Los Angeles before Buffy moved to Sunnydale. He came to Sunnydale and enrolled in Sunnydale High School in an attempt to reunite with Buffy. Later, his true motive for coming to Sunnydale is revealed. He wants to become a vampire, because he is dying from cancer, and he believes that it is better to live forever as a vampire rather than to die riddled with tumors. This causes ethical dilemmas for Buffy. She struggles with the idea of staking an old friend who wants to escape his unfortunate situation. Is it right to kill someone who is willing to sacrifice innocent people so that he can be free from cancer? To complicate matters, he will later need to subsist on human blood, because he will lose his soul after being sired by a vampire.

Buffy decides that Ford has no right to sacrifice others, and she rescues Ford's intended victims from Spike, Drusilla, and the other vampires who have come to kill the naive teens. Returning later to the scene, Buffy buries Ford's lifeless body. As she and Giles keep a vigil at his grave, Ford rises, a vampire, and Buffy stakes him. Afterward, she asks Giles, "Does it get any easier?" He replies, "What do you want me to say?" Buffy answers, "Lie to Me," which echoes the whole situation she had faced with regard to Ford's duplicity.