best episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and garnered the show an Emmy nomination for “Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series.” This is due to its clever monster of the week, the Gentlemen, whose appearance and abilities are not only fuel for nightmares but also drive the plot forward to such an extent that the characters’ lives are changed forever.
The entire population of Sunnydale loses their voice after the Gentlemen come to town. Panic strikes, and not only because people have lost the ability to speak but because a string of horribly calculated murders have happened – a few students and a teenage girl have all had their hearts surgically removed. It’s up to Buffy and the gang to figure out what is happening and how to stop it, but their inability to verbalize their thoughts means the process is slow-going. Thankfully, Rupert Giles and his trusty books come to the rescue, and it turns out the Gentlemen are creatures from a fairy tale, and the only way to kill them is a scream from a real human voice.
Though the Gentlemen’s methods are clear, their motives are less so. According to the fairy tale, they only steal seven hearts at a time. The fact that their motivations are never fully explained only makes their presence that much more ominous. They’ve rendered an entire town speechless. Any town without a Slayer wouldn’t stand a chance, so they would likely be able to steal as many hearts as they wanted. This mystery only adds to what makes the Gentlemen so compelling. Their appearance, their abilities, their methods, and their effect on the overall plot, even in just one episode, make them a more memorable villain than any of the vampires Buffy faced during her tenure as the Slayer.
The most striking thing about the Gentlemen is undoubtedly their appearance. They float a few feet above the ground, gliding gracefully through the town they are about to wreak havoc on. Their faces are incredibly pale, and their eyes are dark and sunken. Yet, they are always grinning wickedly, metallic teeth shining through, providing a striking contrast to their well-tailored suits. Their appearance is haunting, to be sure, but it is their manners, more than anything else, that leave a lasting impression. Nodding politely to one another, lightly applauding when another of the Gentlemen has cut out a heart. The whole picture is incredibly unsettling, especially so when compared to the rather predictable and bloody exploits of the vampires that Buffy faces daily. Vampires are messy and violent. It’s in their nature, and so it’s expected of them. However, monsters who act politely and move so gracefully feel new, unexpected, and terrifying.
The Gentlemen’s abilities remove a staple of the horror genre entirely. Screaming when terrified is one of the most natural reactions in the world. Taking the ability to signal that something is wrong away like that, especially for those who know no other means of communication, renders them nearly helpless. It also forces the heroes to communicate in other ways. Riley’s and Buffy’s relationship has stalled because neither of them will tell the other the truth. The Gentlemen’s threat means they are unable to avoid one another while both doing their jobs, and Riley learns about Buffy being the Vampire Slayer before she was ready to tell him, forever changing their dynamic.
The Gentlemen’s ability to take away people’s voices forces the characters to act and communicate in different ways, and their lives are changed forever as a result, without a word being spoken. This is more than most demons or vampires ever could have hoped to accomplish. Despite being defeated within that one episode, the Gentlemen have left a more lasting impression than most of the vampires or demons that Buffy faced over seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer ever did.