Hank Summers

Hank Summers
Name	Hank Summers
Status	Alive
Classif.	Human
Affiliation	Summers family
Relatives	Buffy Summers (daughter) Dawn Summers (daughter) Joyce Summers (ex-wife) Celia (niece)
Appearances
Debut	Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film) (non-canon) "Nightmares"
Last seen	"Normal Again"
Portrayed by	James Paradise (non-canon) Dean Butler B1-B2-B5-B6-B10

Hank Summers was the father of Buffy and Dawn Summers and the ex-husband of Joyce Summers.

Biography

Hank often had father/daughter weekends with Buffy and Dawn immediately following his divorce from Joyce. Hank eventually turned into the archetype of the upper-class deadbeat dad. Despite relative wealth and prosperity, Buffy and Dawn could not rely on him to keep his promises, nor would he play the role of the father. This led to both siblings accepting Rupert Giles as a father figure.

Hank spent the summer of 1997 with Buffy. Hank was supposed to take Buffy to an ice show for her eighteenth birthday, but canceled at the last minute.

Buffy said her parents' divorce was mostly Hank's fault, because he was unfaithful. When Buffy last heard from Hank, he had moved to Spain with his secretary, but she was unable to contact him when her mother died. Dawn indicated that she had spoken with her father at some point over the summer of 2001, but she and the others were hiding Buffy's death from him, stating that if he knew Buffy was dead he would take Dawn away.

In the episode Normal Again Buffy was stabbed with a demon skewer which gave her visions of being a patient in a mental asylum with being the Slayer merely her delusion. In Asylum Buffy's world Hank was still married to Joyce and deeply caring for his sole daughter. The episode's ending left it deliberately ambiguous as to whether this was simply a hallucination or in fact Buffy being the Slayer was simply a 7 year long delusion beginning when she 'met' Merrick and ending with her regaining her sanity at the conclusion of Chosen.

Five years later, while etablished at San Franscisco, the sisters have a visit where he explain working for Silicon Valley, to have left his secretary Francesca and prepare his future wedding with Paige, mother of two teenagers. However, because of her Slayer statut attracting danger, she and Hank don't want to invite Buffy. This decision pushes also Dawn to cut her links with Hank.

Behind the Scenes

• He was portrayed by Dean Butler.
• His profession is not precised. According to Buffy, in Freaky Giles Day, he works for Silicon Valley, probably like an informatician.

Appearances

• "Witch" (Only mentioned)
• "Nightmares"
• "Prophecy Girl" (Only mentioned)
• "When She Was Bad"
• "What's My Line, Part One" (Only mentioned)
• "Ted" (Only mentioned)
• "Becoming, Part One" (Only voice during flashback)
• "Lovers Walk" (Only mentioned)
• "Helpless" (Only mentioned)
• "Choices" (Only mentioned)
• "Fear, Itself" (Only mentioned)
• "I Will Remember You" (Only mentioned)
• "Something Blue" (Only mentioned)
• "Family"(Only mentioned)
• "Blood Ties" (Only mentioned)
• "Forever" (Only mentioned)
• "Tough Love" (Only mentioned)
• "The Weight of the World" (Only in dreams)
• "Bargaining, Part One" (Only mentioned)
• "Life Serial" (Only mentioned)
• "Normal Again" (Only in hallucinations)
• "Help" (Only mentioned)
• "Conversations with Dead People" (Only mentioned)
• New Rules, Part Four (Only mentioned)
• I Wish, Part One (in visions)
• Freaky Giles Day

• The Origin
• Viva Las Buffy
• Slayer, Interrupted
• A Stake to the Heart
• Power of Persuasion
• How I Survived My Summer Vacation