Darla

This article is about the vampire Darla, for the episode see Darla (episode).

"Life's boring, you're full of surprises."

- Angelus to Darla

Darla was a vampire and a former member of the Order of Aurelius. She was portrayed by Julie Benz.

Early History
"My soul is well past saving. Let the devil take me if he'll have me. It doesn't matter. Either way, I die."

- The prostitute that would become Darla

Darla was born under a different name in the late 16th century in the British Isles. As a young prostitute, she immigrated to the Virginia Colony in North America and became independently wealthy, but also contracted a fatal case of syphilis. By 1609, Darla was dying in her luxurious house. She scoffed at a priest who came to her deathbed until he revealed his true identity: The Master, leader of the elite cult of vampires known as the Order of Aurelius. Darla despised the clergy and religion – a trait that would follow her as a vampire. The Master sired her and at some point gave her the name "Darla," Gaelic for "dear one". She eventually forgot her original name. As a vampire, Darla developed a taste for luring male victims by appearing as a seductive and mysterious yet innocuous woman.



By 1753, Darla was out exploring the world and wreaking havoc during which time she entered a village in Galway, Ireland. There she found a handsome young man named Liam, who was drinking and whoring his way through a rather uneventful life. Admiring him from afar, Darla lured Liam into an alley where she seduced him by offering to show him things he never imagined. She sired Liam and waited for him atop his grave and gave him his first lessons in being a vampire. As he slaughtered his entire village and killed his family Darla explained that this was a way to react to his father's disapproval.

In 1760, after cutting a bloody swath across Wales and England, Darla brought her new consort back to The Master in London. However, Angelus had no interest in the the Order of Aurelius and its tenets of underground dwelling and tribute to the Old Ones. Being told to choose between her sire and the pleasures Angelus offered her, Darla chose her lover and left with him.

In 1764, Angelus and Darla were back in York, where they were hunted down by Daniel Holtz, a vampire hunter. The lovers decided to punish Holtz by luring him to an empty cottage, leaving behind the message "How do you hope to save others, when you can't save your own?." While Angelus raped and killed Holtz' wife Caroline, Darla sired their daughter Sarah. Holtz' infant son, Daniel was killed as well. After being forced to slay his own daughter, Holtz swore revenge, and began a crusade to eliminate the two vampires that would last for nearly an entire decade.

By 1765, Darla and Angelus fled from Italy to France, to where they were followed by Holtz. Holtz managed to trap the pair within a burning barn, though Darla hit Angelus with a shovel and escaped on the only horse left. Angelus followed Darla all the way to Vienna, where he made her "pay for [her] sins. Again and again.

By 1767, Darla and Angelus were present in Marseilles, where they joined a couple of young vampire lovers: James and Lisbeth. The couple burned the village of Count DeLeon to the ground, which attracted the attention of Holtz. While Darla and Lisbeth escaped to the ship that would take the four vampires to Morocco, James and Angelus stayed behind to face the vampire hunter. However, Angelus, resentful from Darla's previous betrayal, revealed his lover's whereabouts to save his own life.

Despite Angelus' betrayal, Darla remained with Angelus as the two traveled through North Africa in their attempt to escape Holtz. By 1771, the pair were present in Rome, where the relentless Holtz followed them. Holtz managed to capture Angelus with the aid of a traditionalist Catholic sect known as Inquisitore. With the aid of a group of local vampires, Darla saved her lover from Holtz' torture. Angelus wondered if they should kill Holtz, but Darla answered that it was much more fun to further ruin his life.

Back in London, Darla and Angelus' "family" grew in 1860, when Darla showed him a young, pious girl blessed with visions named Drusilla, whom Angelus stalked and tortured into insanity before siring her. The trio remained unchanged until 1880, the year in which Darla suggested to Drusilla to turn the "first drooling idiot that comes along." Drusilla would turn William, a romantic, heart-broken poet. Around the same days after William was turned, Darla had a fight with Angelus and returned to the side of the Master. However, the couple reconciled shortly after that, only to be forced to leave London, as William's attacks were drawing unnecessary attention. The foursome fled all the way to Yorkshire, where they were forced to hide in abandoned mines, much to Darla's dismay.

By 1894, the foursome traveled to Rome, where they crossed paths with The Immortal, a mysterious being who had already met the vampires in Frankfurt, where he saved a group of nuns from Angelus. While Angelus and Spike were kidnapped on the Immortal's orders. Darla and Drusilla were seduced by him, who "violated" the two women concurrently, something Darla had refused to Angelus. A few years later, they traveled to Budapest to have their way in the aftermath of an earthquake.

In 1898, the foursome traveled to Borsa, Romania. There, Darla gave Angelus a gift that would alter their unlives forever. The gift in question was the favorite daughter of Clan Kalderash, a tribe of Roma people, with whom Angelus had his way for a night, while Darla watched. However, this action incurred the wrath of the Kalderash Elders, one of which performed a curse to restore Angelus' human soul. The ensouled Angelus sought Darla's help, only to be rejected for having a "filthy soul."

"They gave you a soul... a filthy soul.[...]You're disgusting.[...]Get away from me.[...]Get away from me!"

- Darla



Nevertheless, Darla quickly changed her mind, and took Spike and Drusilla to massacre the Kalderash. As the two lovers slaughtered everyone they found, Darla tried to reason with the father of the Kalderash girl and convince him to have Angelus' soul removed. The vampire convinced the old man when she offered to spare the lives of his wive and remaining daughters, who hoped to survive the carnage by hiding in a carriage. However, Darla's leverage was lost when Spike killed the Elder's family. Without anymore hope, Darla snapped the Elder's neck and ordered the lovers to wipe out the entire tribe.

In November 1898, Darla and Drusilla almost end up being Bride's of Dracula but really he escorts them to Whitby, Yorkshire to have them stake each other. Spike leads a mob to Dracula's castle and flee during the assault with Darla and Drusilla.

In 1900, Darla, who had developed a taste for religious wars, took Spike and Drusilla to China. The trio found themselves in the midst of the Boxer Rebellion; Angelus would follow them all the way. Angelus begged Darla to accept him back, hoping to prove to himself and to his former lover that he could still be part of "The Whirlwind." However, Angelus limited himself to killing thieves, murderers and rapists, and even tried to save a missionary family. Darla discovered the family - father, mother, daughter and infant child - and killed all of them except for the baby, whom she kept as a test for Angelus. Incapable of killing an innocent, Angelus fled with the baby, forever renouncing Darla.

In 1901, Darla and Angelus cross paths for the last time in Budapest.

By October 1934, Darla is living in Berlin, Germany.

In September 1943 she moves to England.

By 1959, Darla is now living in Sunnydale, with The Master.

Sunnydale


After so many centuries, Darla still lured her victims by pretending to be a innocuous young woman, adding a schoolgirl uniform to her act. One of her killings, a young male which she drained on the grounds of Sunnydale High was the warning sign for Buffy Summers that vampires were active in Sunnydale.

Darla came face to face with the Slayer the night prior to the Harvest, when she seduced Sunnydale High student Jesse McNally. Even though Jesse was intended to be an offering to the Master, Darla bit Jesse, for which she would be reprimended. Despite facing Buffy, however, Darla managed to take Jesse underground thanks to the intervention of Luke, the Master's leading acolyte. The following night, Darla joined Luke, the newly sired Jesse and other vampires in their attack against The Bronze, where Luke intended to perform the Harvest in order to release the Master from his mystical prison. While Luke and other vampires were dusted by Buffy, Darla was able to escape when Willow Rosenberg threw holy water at her.

For various weeks, Darla laid low while several members of the Order fell to Buffy's stake. She offered to kill the Slayer as an offering for her sire, but he sent The Three, a trio of ancient vampire warriors, instead. However, the Three failed due to Angel's intervention. As penance, the Three offered their lives to the Master, who allowed Darla to dust them, a task she gladly completed.

Understanding that brute force wouldn't be enough to kill Buffy, Darla devised a plan to turn her against Angel, and force one to kill the other, though she hoped Angel would kill Buffy in self-defense and, having experienced killing once again, then return to her side. Darla pretended to be classmate of Buffy's in order to be invited to the Summers residence. Once inside, she attacked Joyce Summers, biting her and leaving her in Angel's arms. Like Darla had expected, Buffy arrived to see her injured mother held by Angel in vampire face. The vampire and the Slayer faced each other in the Bronze, though Buffy eventually realized that Angel was not responsible. Darla, carrying a pair of pistols with her, appeared to make sure Buffy died. However, Darla's plan turned against her, as Angel staked her in order to protect the woman he loved.

Los Angeles
Nearly three years later, Darla was resurrected, in human form, by Wolfram &amp; Hart as a way to torture Angel. During her short time as a human, Darla found it increasingly difficult to live with a soul and desperately wanted to be a vampire again. She also seemed to become close to Wolfram &amp; Hart lawyer Lindsey McDonald. Angel, through acts of bravery and nobility, finally convinced Darla to live out her remaining days as human (she was dying from syphilis as she would have if she weren't sired the first time) and reassured her that he will help. In a cruel twist of fate, Wolfram &amp; Hart bring in Drusilla to sire Darla.

Darla and Drusilla began fighting, with Darla initially being upset over becoming a vampire again. However, she embraced it once more. In a cruel and ironic twist, Darla and Drusilla gave Wolfram &amp; Hart what they wanted, "a massacre", by slaughtering most of their staff who was attending a party. The only two survivors were Lindsey McDonald and Lilah Morgan.

Afterwards, Darla went on another killing rampage with Drusilla that nearly ended when Angel, after descending into a dark state, set her and Drusilla on fire, but this failed to kill them. Abandoned by Drusilla, Darla hid in Lindsey's apartment to recover and hide from Wolfram &amp; Hart. It is possible she was also exploiting Lindsey's romantic interest in her.

Angel's life perspective grew darker when he was told that nothing he does apparently matters. He went to Darla to help him "not care." Angel and Darla had sex, the expectation on Darla's part being that he will lose his soul as a result of "a moment of perfect happiness," but the next morning, Angel still had his soul; sex with Darla was perfect despair, rather than perfect happiness. Apologising to Darla for his 'failure' to save her, Angel admitted that a part of him had seen it as part of his efforts to save himself- as she had created him, he had hoped that redeeming her would prove him worthy of redemption-, but he now recognised that she was nothing to him, unable to even hate her. Surprised, angry and upset, Darla attempted to stake Angel after he rejected her offer of a 'repeat performance' to 'get it right', only for Angel to grab the stake, informing Darla that he would allow her to live for now in gratitude for what she had done for him, but vowing that he would stake her next time he met her. As a result, Darla left Los Angeles, supposedly forever.

However, the unthinkable has happened: Angel had impregnated Darla. Darla visited every shaman in the Western Hemisphere, all of whom told her that her pregnancy was inherently impossible, but also impossible to abort. With nowhere else to turn, Darla went to Angel. Various theories emerged about the child; from a cult of vampires who worshiped it as a miracle, to the fear that it is the evil spoken of in the Tro-Clon prophesies. It turns out the child is simply a healthy human baby boy, with whom Darla is sharing a soul, allowing her to feel genuine love for the child and prompting her to seek innocent blood to feed it. This does not matter to Daniel Holtz, who had been brought through time by the demon Sahjhan to kill Angel and Darla. Darla realized that she would lose her soul after giving birth and thusly be unable to love her child. Additionally, her undead body was becoming increasingly unable to sustain the life of her unborn child in time for it to be born. After telling Angel to make sure that their son knows that he was the one good thing the two vampires ever did together, Darla stakes herself in the alley behind Caritas, leaving behind a pile of dust and a crying, but healthy, infant. In a final moment of redemption, Darla ended her 400+ year life in exchange for the life of her son, whom Angel named Connor.

"This child, Angel... it's the one good thing we've ever done together. The only good thing. You make sure to tell him that." Later, Darla's spirit appears to a now-teenaged Connor when he is being tempted by the Jasmine-possessed Cordelia Chase to murder an innocent teenage girl. Claiming to have been sent by the Powers That Be, Darla pleads with her son not to commit murder. Seemingly moved by his mother's words, Connor begins to untie the girl, but Cordelia chastises him for allowing himself to be swayed by Darla's spirit, whose presence she can sense. Cordelia and Darla (the former clad completely in black, the latter in white) compete for Connor's soul, with Darla telling Connor to listen to his heart, and Cordelia telling him that Darla is just an illusion created by Angel's team using magic in order to trick Connor. Cordelia ultimately wins: Connor tells Darla, "You are not my mother!" and drags the terrified girl to Cordelia, who promptly kills her. Connor saw the girl take on Darla's form for a moment. After the sacrifice, the girl's corpse remained as Darla for a brief moment. Connor never mentions what he saw to anybody.

Powers and abilities
Darla has the standard powers and vulnerabilities of a vampire, though, with a greater lust for blood and destruction than most. Additionally, she is stronger than most vampires (Although she may have suffered a reduction in strength after her 'resurrection' due to her once again being a newborn). Darla is vulnerable to holy items and sunlight, and can be killed by decapitation and a stake to the heart. She cannot enter the home of a living human without first being invited by someone who lives there.

Psychologically, Darla acted in a self-responsible and conscious way. She generally did not blame others for who or what she was or for her actions; most evidence suggests that she was who she was entirely due to her own choice.

In the Angel episode "Disharmony", it is shown that some vampires have the ability to sense a soul in others. Whether Darla sensed the soul in Angelus by possessing this ability is unclear, for it could be incidental with the fact that she sired him and was extremely close to him.

Darla often used her beauty and sexuality to lure unsuspecting prey. Unlike her more aggressive male counterparts (Angelus and Spike), she is rarely seen hunting; her prey willingly approaches her, never suspecting their fate until it is too late.

Also, even as a human, Darla displayed the psychic connection vampires have to those they sire: she was able to sense Angel's presence when he was close and could even tell that he was in the city. Somehow she retained this connection even as a human.

Appearances
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Buffy Season 1

 * Welcome to the Hellmouth
 * The Harvest
 * Angel

Buffy Season 2

 * Becoming, Part One

Angel Season 1

 * The Prodigal
 * Five by Five
 * To Shanshu in L.A.

Buffy Season 5/Angel Season 2

 * Judgment
 * First Impressions
 * Untouched
 * Dear Boy
 * Fool for Love
 * Darla
 * The Trial
 * Reunion
 * Redefinition
 * Reprise
 * Epiphany

Angel Season 3

 * Heartthrob
 * That Vision Thing
 * Offspring
 * Quickening
 * Lullaby

Angel Season 4

 * Inside Out

Angel Season 5
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 * The Girl in Question