Ben “Benjamin” Wilkinson was one of the antagonists in season five of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Ben was a medical student that lived in Sunnydale. He was the human prison and host body for Glorificus, who was also known as Glory. Ben would later go on to form an alliance with Glory, so he could regain back control of his own body.
Ben was played by actor Charlie Weber, throughout season 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Ben was the mortal prison for the hell goddess Glorificus/Glory. He has been the prison for Glory since he was a child. Glory was from a hell dimension, who she ruled alongside two other gods. She was extremely powerful and her strength and power continued to grow. As she got stronger, her desire for destruction and misery grew.
Glory became the most powerful out of the three gods. However the other two gods became concerned that Glory might take over the entire dimension to rule by herself. Hence the other two gods went to war with Glory.
The other two gods only just managed to defeat her, but Glory was far too powerful for them to destroy completely. Therefore, the two gods banished Glory to the earthly dimension, where her essence was to be imprisoned in a human child.
Ben had been created for the sole purpose of containing Glory, and when he did die as a mortal, then Glory would be sealed away forever.
However, as time passed Glory learnt how to free herself from Ben for short periods of time. During her time away from Ben, Glory would go in search of the Key. The Key contained ancient mystical energy, which granted the owner the power to unlock the gates between all dimensions.
Due to a spell, if any human witnessed or heard this transformation, they wouldn’t remember it happening. However, if a demon or vampire witnesses Ben changing into Glory, they remember the event.
This led to an on running joke near the end of season 5, as Spike would try to tell the Scooby Gang what he saw and that Glory and Ben are the same person. However, they didn’t understand and would instantly forget what he said, due to the spell.
Meeting Buffy
Ben was a junior physician at Sunnydale Memorial. This is where he met and made friends with Buffy Summers, after her mother, Joyce fainted. Ben tried his best to woo Buffy, but nothing really worked for him.
However, Ben was a good guy and even let Dawn play with his stethoscope. He tried to reassure the Summer sisters that their mother was going to be fine.
However, Joyce kept coming back to Sunnydale Memorial and her illness and condition was beginning to get a lot worse.
As Joyce was in the hospital so often, that then led to Ben and Buffy to keep bumping into one another. Eventually Joyce was diagnosed with a tumor, and it was Ben who advised Buffy to give herself a break, so she could get her head around what was happening with her mother.
In Sunnydale Memorial, the number of mental patients started to grow rapidly. This then led to Ben summoning a Queller demon to kill the mental patients. As the demon needs to clean up Glory’s mess.
In the end the Queller demon killed six of Glory’s victims and tried to attack Buffy’s mother, Joyce. This is due to her tumor starting to affect her mental health. Yet, luckily Buffy was able to slay the demon before they killed Joyce.
After this Ben bumps into Dawn in the hospital, who is alone. Ben tries to make her feel better and cheer her up by getting her a hot chocolate.
While this is happening, the pair begin talking and Dawn admits to Ben about her true identity. She tells him that she is the Key, the same thing that Glory has been looking for. Ben is taken aback by this revelation and warns Dawn to leave the hospital before Glory finds out and before he transforms into Glory.
At the time, Glory was unable to discover this information about Dawn being the Key, because she didn’t share Ben’s memories. They still had separate minds at this point.
Once Buffy and Riley Finn broke up, Buffy was trying to get over Riley and so began to pursue Ben. Buffy and Ben happen to bump into each other at a college party.
However, this party was ruined by the presence of a robot called April. Buffy saw the lengths April went to keep her creator and boyfriend Warren Mears happy.
After this encounter, Buffy decided that she wanted to focus on her family and the issues they were dealing with. Therefore, she stopped trying to pursue him and also didn’t want to constantly define herself whether she was in or out of a relationship.
Ben ended up getting harassed by Glory’s minion, Jinx. Jinx was the leader of Glory’s minions and he was part of an unnamed demon race. Through this harassment Ben lets it slip that he knows where the Key is and who it is. He tells Jinx that the Key is an innocent human.
Realizing his mistake, Ben tries to beat and stab Jinx to death. Jinx was almost killed by the Knights of Byzantium, but luckily he was saved last minute by Glory. Therefore, by escaping death, Jinx can tell Glory what he learnt about the Key by Ben.
Glory Takes Control
After this, Glory begins to take more control over Ben’s body. Glory begins seizing control for longer periods of time and after taking control for two weeks, Ben loses his job. In essence, Ben’s life begins to fall apart.
The more time that Glory has control over Ben’s body, the more that their personalities begin to merge together. As a result of this, Ben and Glory could now communicate with each other.
Glory eventually discovers that Dawn is the Key that she has been looking for. Ben agrees to help Glory kill Dawn. Later on, Buffy calls Ben as she asks for him to treat Rupert Giles that has been injured. However, Ben quickly turns into Glory and she takes Dawn.
As Ben and Glory merge closer into one another, the magic spell wears off and isn’t as strong. Therefore, when Spike tries again to tell Buffy and the Scooby Gang that Ben and Glory are the same person, the gang slowly learns the truth.
Death
The Big Day is the term that Glory used. It was the day that she was going to use Dawn’s blood as she is the Key. Her blood is the thing that will allow Glory to go home and back to her own dimension. Ben has begun to take on some of Glory’s characteristics and has been ruthless, so agrees to help out with the ritual.
As the ritual is taking place, the Scooby Gang and Buffy come along to stop it and save Dawn’s life. Buffy manages to beat Glory repeatedly with Olaf the troll’s God Enchanted Hammer.
This beating greatly injuries Glory, who then decides to turn back into Ben. Therefore, Buffy spares Ben’s life, but she warns him to not let Glory near her or her family ever again. Ben agrees to Buffy’s terms.
Buffy then goes off to save Dawn. While Ben, who can still communicate with Glory, makes it clear that it will just be the two of them from now on. Giles comes to Ben and Ben tells him that it will take him some time to recover from his injuries.
Giles knew that Glory wouldn’t stay quiet forever and at some point she would become strong again to try and get Dawn/the Key again. As a result, Gile smothers Ben to death with his bare hands.
Giles considers Ben to be quite innocent with everything that has happened, but he is determined to prevent Glory from returning who would want to enact revenge on Buffy and her family. This action not only killed Ben but also killed Glory. Thus Ben died when he was only 25 years old.
Personality/Traits
Ben was a host body for Glory, the hell dimension god that gained too much power in her dimension and was placed in a human vessel to keep her contained. Ben was created for this sole purpose to contain and imprison Glory.
When he had control of his own body and mind, Ben was a caring person who enjoyed helping people. He was a smart guy, who was training to become a doctor at Sunnydale Memorial.
Ben is always shown as a very decent guy, who is very compassionate and is seen as protective. He tries his best to protect Dawn from Glory, once he discovers that she is the Key the Glory seeks.
To begin with Ben was seen as the potential love interest for Buffy for season 5, yet this doesn’t work out as Buffy instead focuses on her family. Buffy and Ben have great chemistry together, and it could be argued that Ben was a bit of a ladies man. Yet the girl who he wanted, didn’t want him this time round.
As Glory begins to take more control over Ben’s body, they start to become one person, with a shared personality. Ben started to become more ruthless and less caring. He was willing to help Glory capture and kill Dawn so that she could be set free from his body and go home.
All Ben wanted was to free himself from Glory and gain back control of his own body. However, this led to him becoming selfish as he put his own needs first and willing to risk other people’s lives.
Near the end, he was afraid because Glory was so powerful and he couldn’t control what she was doing. Glory always had much more control over Ben than he did of her.
Appearance
Ben was seen as a handsome young man and a potential love interest for Buffy Summers. He had thick brown hair and a slim physique. He was seen a lot in a medical uniform, in light blue scrubs. When he wasn’t in his medical uniform, Ben wore quite dark clothing, such as black or navy blue sweater and jeans.
Powers/Abilities
Ben was a normal human, who didn’t possess any real supernatural abilities. When Glory took over, Ben was taken away and a female character took his place instead. However, Ben did have some abilities to make up for having zero supernatural abilities.
Intelligence
Ben was a smart guy, who was training in the medical profession. If Glory hadn’t made him miss two weeks of work by taking over his body for such a long time, then he would have become a trained doctor.
Ben was also smart enough to realize that he needed to keep the information about Dawn Summer being the Key away from Glory, and he did a good job until Jinx started harassing him.
Annesia Spell
A spell was placed on both Ben and Glory, so if any human witnessed Ben and Glory changing into one another, then the human would forget what they saw.
This spell only worked on humans, therefore when supernatural beings like demons and vampires saw the transition they would remember what they saw.
Yet, if they tried to tell a human about it they would forget what they said. This happened with Spike who tried to explain to Buffy and the Scooby Gang several times that Ben and Glory were the same person.
Relationships
Glorificus (Also Known As Glory)
Ben and Glory had a very complicated relationship. For a long time, Ben didn’t know that Glory existed. It wasn’t until he was in his 20s that Ben was aware of her presence.
Ben was created for the purpose of containing Glory, but Glory worked out how to take over Ben’s body for short periods of time. However, the time she had control over Ben’s body started to grow and grow.
For a long time, the two were separate entities, however once Glory started gaining more control over Ben, their minds and personalities started to blend into one another. This then meant that they could finally communicate with each other.
As long as Ben was alive then Glory had the chance to find a way to escape her human prison and go back to her hell dimension. Ben was willing to do anything to gain control back over his own body.
Finally, Buffy managed to beat Glory who quickly changed back into Ben. She threatens Ben to keep Glory away from her and her family. In the end Giles feels bad for Ben as he is innocent in all this, but he must kill Ben so Glory can never resurface and take her revenge. Once Ben dies, so does Glory forever.
Buffy Summers
Ben and Buffy’s relationship is up and down throughout the season. Ben and Buffy have great chemistry together and there are moments throughout the season where something could happen between the characters.
Ben would have been Buffy’s love interest for that season but instead she decides to focus on her family. Even though the romance never really takes off between the pair, there is still a friendship between them.
Especially as Ben comforted Buffy while her mother was ill and he happens to be the doctor who looked after her.
In the end, the friendship died out between the pair, because Buffy learns that Ben and Glory are the same person. In the end, Buffy feels bad for Ben as he isn’t in control but she never wants to see him again. She spares his life, as long as she never sees Glory again.
Dawn Summers
Ben would comfort Dawn as she was concerned about her mothers condition. Dawn is reassured by Ben and she reveals to him that she is the Key. Ben realizes the significance of this and protects this secret as much as he can. He doesn’t want Glory to find out and hurt her.
However, as the season progresses Ben starts to think more about himself and after he reveals who the Key is, he is willing to help Glory get Dawn. Alongside this, Ben is happy to participate in the ritual, because if the ritual is successful he can have control of his body once again.
Ben was played by Charlies Weber in the fifth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. You can see Ben in the following episodes:
Season 5, Episode 4 – Out of My Mind
Season 5, Episode 5 – No Place Like Home
Season 5, Episode 6 – Family
Season 5, Episode 8 – Shadow
Season 5, Episode 9 – Listening to Fear
Season 5, Episode 12 – Checkpoint
Season 5, Episode 13 – Blood Ties
Season 5, Episode 14 – Crush
Season 5, Episode 15 – I Was Made To Love You
Season 5, Episode 17 – Forever
Season 5, Episode 18 – Intervention (Mentioned)
Season 5, Episode 19 – Tough Love
Season 5, Episode 20 – Spiral
Season 5, Episode 21 – The Weight of the World
Season 5, Episode 22 – The Gift
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