- “You're the reason I started with the formulas in the first place—to be the man you wanted. And you pay me back, how? You whore around with other guys.”
- ―Pete to Debbie[src]
Peter Clarner, commonly known as Pete, was a Sunnydale High student and boyfriend of Debbie Foley. Scott Hope was one of his closest friends since childhood.
Biography
- “You know you shouldn't make me mad. You know what happens.”
- ―Pete[src]
Pete's Formula
Pete created a special potion with the intent of it making himself stronger and more desirable to Debbie, afraid that she would leave him. However, while the formula to transform him made him superhumanly strong, it also partly disfigured him while its effects were active. Initially, Pete drank the formula to trigger the transformation, but constant exposure to its contents caused Pete to mutate whenever he was angered. Already overly paranoid about his relationship with Debbie, and jealous of both her friendship with Jeff Walken, a friend of Debbie's from Jazz club, and the trust she showed in Stephen Platt, Sunnydale High's guidance counselor, Pete attacked the two of them, beating and savagely mauling and mutilating them both.
Pete and Debbie's abuser-enabler relationship.
Encounter with the Scoobies
Such was the ferocity of Pete's attacks that the Scooby Gang initially assumed that Oz had escaped his cage while in werewolf form, and even Buffy Summers theorized that the currently-feral Angel, severely traumatized after his return from Hell, was responsible. Only the fact that Mr. Platt had been killed during the day made the Scoobies suspect someone else was responsible for the deaths.
Already angry at Debbie for getting rid of most of the formula, and having seen her talking to Oz, who knew both Debbie and Jeff from Jazz club, Pete went after Oz, finding him locked inside the library cage. However, Pete was unaware of Oz's being a werewolf. He transformed and ripped out the library cage's door proceeding to beat up Oz, the sun sets, Oz then transforms into a werewolf leveling the playing field. The Scoobies appeared in the library, and Buffy tried to stop Pete with a tranquilizer, though Debbie pushed her, causing Rupert Giles to be hit instead. Pete fled the library and met with Debbie inside Sunnydale High's garden shed, where the couple went when they wanted to be alone and where Pete kept the formula. Debbie told Pete to leave Sunnydale because Buffy knew what Pete had done. Instead, Pete killed Debbie for exposing him.
Death
Pete's formula
Minutes later, Buffy found Debbie's body and was caught by surprise by Pete, who quickly overpowered her. However, she was saved by Angel, who had broken free of the chains Buffy had used to contain him inside the Crawford Street Mansion. The two feral men fought, but Pete threw the crazed vampire aside and immediately turned his attention back to Buffy. At that moment, Angel caught him by surprise and, using the chains still binding his wrists, throttled him and snapped his neck, killing him. This act also appeared to restore Angel's sanity.
After the deaths of both Pete and Debbie, what had happened between the two became public knowledge in Sunnydale High, except for Pete's transformations. A freshman told Oz that Pete had drank eight iced café mochas and lost his mind, while Buffy had heard that he had taken his mother's birth control pills and suffered an overdose of estrogen. Their deaths, however, were particularly hard for Scott.
Personality and Traits
- “I'm all you've got, Debbie. You hear me!? I'm all you've got!”
- ―Pete Clarner[src]
Pete was an insecure young man, but also violent. His own flaws led him to become increasingly jealous, controlling and abusive with Debbie, whom he manipulated so as to make her feel responsible for Pete's actions, even the killings of Jeff and Mr. Platt.
Pete, transformed.
Powers and Abilities
- “He mixed this potion to get super mas macho.”
- ―Willow Rosenberg[src]
Pete's knowledge of science and biochemistry allowed him to concoct a formula to increase his strength and virility, though due to the Hellmouth's influence, the potion caused him to mutate. Initially after drinking the potion, and then simply when angered, Pete's body began to shake uncontrollably; his eyes turned black, while his veins and arteries bulged dramatically and his fingernails extended into claws.
The transformation also increased his strength to superhuman levels, being capable of ripping off the door of the library cage with his bare hands (something that has been used to store super-strong beings), putting up a fight against werewolf-Oz, and outmatching Buffy with pure brute force; Angel was only able to defeat Pete in a fight through use of a chain and his own insanity.
Had he survived, Pete would have become a werewolf since he had been bitten by Oz, although it is unknown what the effect of this combined with his already-mutated physiology would have been.
Behind the Scenes
- He was portrayed by John Patrick White.