When Buffy the Vampire Slayer first hit the airwaves in 1997, it quickly carved out a place in pop culture, proving time and time again that it wasn’t afraid to push the boundaries. In addition to having a female main character who defied most stereotypes, it portrayed the first lesbian relationship on network television. Another thing it was never afraid to do — for better or worse — was kill off characters, with everyone from Jenny Calendar (Robia Scott), to Buffy’s mom, Joyce (Kristine Sutherland), and even Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) herself. But one of the earliest character deaths happened in just the second episode, with the character of Jesse (Eric Balfour). To make matters worse, series creator Joss Whedon had plans to pull a Drew Barrymore in Scream kind of situation with the character, and trick fans into thinking he would be a bigger character than he was.
‘Scream’ Makes You Think That Drew Barrymore Is a Main Character
Pulling a Drew Barrymore is in reference to Barrymore’s role in Scream, which came out a year before Buffy’s premiere. Barrymore was a huge star, and was thus put front and center in every promotion for the horror movie. It was no surprise that when the movie begins, she’s the first character we meet. But things quickly go awry when it becomes clear she’s being targeted by Ghostface, and she dies not even fifteen minutes into the film, despite fans believing she was going to be the main character. It was a huge risk the creators of the film made, but it was a choice that became iconic, and it only boosted the film. Whedon had a similar plan for Balfour’s character, Jesse, in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and he spoke about it during a commentary track on the Season 1 DVD.
When we first meet Jesse, he’s shown to be best friends with Xander (Nicholas Brendon) and Willow (Alyson Hannigan), so we as the audience are led to believe that he is going to play a big part in the show. However, this expectation is thwarted when he gets kidnapped at the end of the pilot episode. In Episode 2, “The Harvest,” we learn that he has been turned into a vampire, who will inevitably be slayed by Buffy. This is already shocking since he was shown to be super close to Willow, and especially Xander, so it seemed he was safe.
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Whedon initially had plans to put Balfour in the credits for the first two episodes so that fans would really not expect his fate, and be caught completely off guard by it, similar to how Scream used Drew Barrymore to subvert audience expectations of whom the Final Girl would be. Ultimately, this didn’t pan out due to budgetary reasons. The show was just starting out, and it just wasn’t feasible at the time to create two sets of credits for what was essentially a gimmick. The show did eventually get to pull off a similar stunt later in the series with the character of Tara (Amber Benson).
‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ Tricked Fans With Tara’s Death
When Buffy the Vampire Slayer entered its fourth season, fans were welcomed into one of the most wholesome and beautiful stories in the entire show: Willow and Tara’s love story. It was so important to see Willow come into her own and discover her sexuality, especially since, at the time, LGBTQ+ relationships were not often portrayed on television. It was devastating when Tara met her tragic and untimely demise in Season 6, and it was made even worse because Whedon tricked fans into believing Benson was becoming a series regular in that very same episode.
After a season full of ups and downs, Willow and Tara finally made up in Season 6, Episode 18, and Episode 19, “Seeing Red,” begins with them cuddling in bed together, basking in the afterglow of their love. It was a joyous moment to see them back together and happy again. It was made better when the credits came along and Amber Benson was notably added to them, suggesting that she was now a series regular. When the end of the episode comes along, all of those endgame dreams are crushed when Tara is accidentally shot through the window and dies in Willow’s arms.
It was a horrific moment. Not only did it set off the storyline of Dark Willow, but it tore apart arguably the best and healthiest relationship in the show, and played into the tired “Bury Your Gays” trope. It was the exact plan that was in store for Jesse’s character in Season 1, but now they actually had the means to pull it off. It’s just a shame it was done with such a well-loved and important character.
Tara Was Actually Supposed To Return in ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’
Interestingly, both Jesse and Tara were intended to come back for the Season 7 episode “Conversations With Dead People,” in which the First Evil visits the characters and taunts them by posing as deceased people from their past. Jesse was supposed to come back and talk to Xander, but it was said that the actor was unavailable, so the idea was scrapped and Xander doesn’t appear in the episode. Similarly, Tara was supposed to come back to talk to Willow, but Benson turned down the idea, saying:
“I really didn’t want Tara to be bad, and that would have been a component of me coming back… I just felt like people really loved that character and for her to be bad would just destroy people. So that was one of the reasons I didn’t go back.”
It’s for the best that Benson didn’t return since, as she says, it’s better that fans remember Tara as the sweet character she is. But it would have been a cool throwback to see Jesse again — even if we only knew him for a couple of episodes to begin with.