Halfrek was portrayed by Kali Rocha, who can be seen in the later seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Halfrek who was nicknamed Hallie, who is a vengeance demon. She sought justice for abused or neglected children.
Halfrek wasn’t always a demon, she was once known as Cecily Addams from 1880. A lot of people have asked Kali Rocha if Halfrek and Cecily Addams were the same person. To which Rocha has responded that to her they both feel like the same person.
Bibliography
Beginnings
Halfrek is known as a longtime associate and the occasional friend of Anya Jenkins. She knew Anya from her days as a vengeance demon known as Anyanka. These two characters worked together in the past, but most noticeably in the Russian Revolution and Crimean War.
Anyanka is known as the avenger of scorned women, whereas Halfrek’s mission was to seek vengeance for children who had been neglected, wronged and abused by their parents and guardians. Halfrek would call this mission as finding justice instead of vengeance, to which Anya said that this was due to her ‘daddy issues’.
In 1880 in Victorian England, Halfrek took the alias of Cecily Addam. She was sought after by William Pratt, who had great feelings for her. Halfrek/Cecily rejected all of William Pratt’s advances, as she told him that he was beneath her. This upset William Pratt, which then sparked a certain set of events.
William Pratt, after being heartbroken by Cecily, turns to Drusilla for comfort. Which then leads to William Pratt becoming a vampire, who we eventually get to know as Spike.
Halfrek’s Time In Sunnydale
Even when Anya is no longer a vengeance demon, she continues her friendship with Halfrek. When using their human digues both characters use their human names. Hence Anyanka becomes Anya and Halfrek becomes Hallie.
In 2002, Halfrek is summoned to Sunnydale by the human Anya. Halfrek is ready to perform vengeance on Alexander Harris, but is stopped by Anya. She explains that she called Halfrek here, because she wanted to invite her to her upcoming wedding with Xander. Halfrek ends up as a bridesmaid at the failed wedding of Anya and Xander.
As Halfrek is in Sunnydale and waiting for the wedding of Anya and Xander, she poses as a guidance counselor. As a guidance counselor, Halrek persuades Dawn Summer to make a wish.
Dawn felt like no one wanted to spend time with her or be around her, so Dawn wished that people never leave. As a result, Halfrek performed the spell, which made sure that no one would leave the Summer’s house.
The issue then became that no one could get out. This then led to Halfrek also getting caught in her own spell. She too became stuck in the Summer’s house, so she had to break her own spell, so she and everyone else could leave. As her teleportation skills wouldn’t work due to the spell she had cast.
At an event, Halfrek recognizes Spoken and calls him by his human name, which is William. Spike also recognizes Halfrek. Yet when the pair are asked to explain how they know or recognize each other, they both deny knowing one another.
Halfrek at one point casts another curse on a father for his 11 year old daughter. The curse was that any paper the father touched would give him a paper cut, unless the paper he touched was a child support cheque.
Halfrek’s Death
Halfrek did try to temp Anya back into becoming a vengeance demon once again. However, Anya had spent far too long as a mortal. Therefore, even though she was successful in becoming a demon once, she now regretted all the deaths that were caused by her.
As a result, Anya felt so bad about the deaths that she caused that she went to the demon lord D’Hoffryn. She asked him if he could restore the lives of the group of men that had been slaughtered due to one of her wishes.
Anya offered her own life in return for this task, but instead D’Hoffryn decided he’d rather take the life of her friend, Halfrek, in a way to scorn her for what she is asking of him. D’Hoffryn killed Halfrek right in front of Anya and she had to watch, in order for her request to be granted. Halfrek’s last words were ‘Anya’, and then she disintegrated into flames.
Personality/Traits
Halfrek was a vengeance demon who enjoyed what she did. She was an immortal being who traveled all over the world performing curses and spells on behalf of their victims, if they made a wish. Thus Halfrek was a good listener as she would listen to the victims and let them vent out all their frustrations and grievances about those who have hurt them.
Halfrek didn’t see herself as evil, as she believed that she was a justice demon instead of a vengeance demon. By calling herself a justice demon has less of a stigma. She was proud of who she was and what she did. She worked hard and enjoyed placing curses on men who had hurt or neglected their child.
She had huge amounts of empathy and could sense other people’s pain, which she found unbearable. She understood what people were going through and wanted to help to make things better.
Halfrek was caring and understanding, alongside extremely empathetic and sympathetic. She has a very caring nature and is a good friend to Anya. She tries to help her friend and comes across as a loyal friend to Anya. Even though it is due to Anya that she must die because D’Hoffryn wants to punish Anya for her weakness.
Appearance
When human form, Halfrek went by as Hallie or Cecily (depending on the time). As a human, Halfrek had a young looking face. She has shoulder length dark down curly hair and a pale complexion. She always had some form of red lipstick on.
When it comes to what she wore, Halfrek can always be seen wearing a penchant, which holds all of her powers. Halfrek always wears this pendant, when she is a human and when she is in her demon form.
When Halfrek is in her demon form, what is most noticeable is her face. Halfrek’s face and hand age quite quickly. It looks like a layer of skin has been taken from her face and hands, and we are looking at the muscles and tissue on her face and hands.
You can see wrinkles and scars from the long life she has lived. Human Hallie and demon Halfrek look quite different, so it is a surprise when she changes form.
For a while Halfrek took the name of Cecily Addams. Many fans of the show and even the actor Kali Rocha believe that Halfrek and Cecily are the same person. Therefore, when Halfrek is portraying Cecily, she is dressed in traditional Victorian clothes.
You will notice that Cecily doesn’t wear the pendant that we know Helfrke normally wears but this could just have been an oversight. Yet, Cecily always looks elegant, her hair is always perfect. It is seen in an updo bun, with a few pieces of her hair left down to show off her curls but also helps frame her face.
Her outfit is complemented with tiny pearls on her well fitted dress and in her hair. As a result, she looks beautiful and it is no surprise that William/Spike falls madly in love with her.
Powers/Abilities
Like all vengeance demons, all of Halfrek’s powers are contained in the pendant that she constantly wears around her neck. She has multiple powers including strength, wish granting ability and shape shifting between her human and demon form.
Durability
Halfrek was able to pull a sword out of her chest, without showing any sign of injury. She even says ‘Like I would be stopped by a sword. Flesh wound.’
Empathy
Halfrek is a vengeance demon that specializes in neglected and abused children. Therefore, Halfrek could feel and sense Dawn’s pain. She heard her crying in every corner of Sunnydale. This was unbearable for her to listen to, so she had to help her.
Telekinesis
While Halfrek was unconscious, Anya tried to take her pendant, which would have meant that she would lose all her powers. Yet with a small gesture of her hand, Halfrek managed to push Anya away so she couldn’t take the pendant, and all of this was done while she was unconscious.
Teleportation
Halfrek could normally teleport anywhere whenever she wanted. When she teleported, she would flourish her hands and wave them around for an effect. It made her feel special. However, other times she would just click her fingers, when the moment didn’t allow her to add some spectacle.
There was only one time when she was unable to teleport and that was when she placed a curse on the Summer’s house. She placed the curse that no one could leave the Summer’s house which included herself. Therefore, she got caught in her own spell and had to break it. Otherwise she would be stuck in the house with everyone else who was stuck forever.
Immortality
Halfrek has been around for hundreds of years. We know we existed before the Crimean War and the Russian Revolution, this is how she knows Spike, because she is the person who made him by regretting William Pratt’s advances. However, she might be a hundred years old, yet she hasn’t aged a single day.
Voice Manipulation
When she is in her demon form, her voice can change. When Halfrek thought that Xander was going to become one of her next victims her voice changed and she spoke to him with a deep and loud voice. Yet, when she sees Anya her voice changes back to her normal volume and tone.
Shape Shifting
Halfrek had two forms, her human form and demon form. Helfek was able to switch between the two forms really easily. She was normally seen in her human form, as it was welcoming and made people want to talk to her to ask for wishes. Yet when she needed to she could switch to her demon form.
Wish Granting
As a vengeance demon, Halfrek could grant the wishes of those who have been wronged. These normally tended to be children who had been abused or neglected. When these children made a wish, she could perform it and cast/curse the people who have hurt the child.
She granted Dawn Summer’s wish who felt as if no one wanted to spend any time with her or be around her. So she granted her wish to make people stay in the Summer’s house, which would then mean that no one could leave Dawn.
Also, we see Halfrek grant the wish of an 11 year old girl, who is hurt and neglected by her father. Halfrek then curses the child’s father to always obtain paper cuts if he touches any piece of paper that isn’t a child support cheque.
Wishes are complicated things and vengeance demons must follow the words that are spoken carefully. Which then can lead to spells/curses going wrong, if the victim isn’t’ fully clear with their wish.
Relationships
William Pratt/Spike
Not a real relationship, but Spike and Halfrek recognize one another from 1880. During this time, Halfrek had taken on the alias of Cecily Addams and she had this alias for long enough that she caught the attention of William Pratt.
As Cecily wasn’t really a human or a mortal, she rejected all of William’s advances. Yet he was completely and utterly in love with her. However, her reflection hurt him so much that he sought comfort with Drusilla.
Halfrek was never going to love William back, as she was a vengeance demon and was in Vicotrian England for business. However, thanks to this William was then turned into a vampire by Drusilla and took on the name of Spike.
Both Halfrek and Spike recognize one another when Halfrek is in Sunnydale for Anya and Xnader’s wedding. They may have recognized one another, even with Halfrek calling Spike by his human name. However, they both refused to really acknowledge one another and how they recognized each other.
Anya Jenkins/Anyanka
Anya was Halfrek’s true friend. They both cared for one another and didn’t forget about each other. There was a rivalry between Halfrek and Anyanka, because Anyanka was D’Hoffryn’s favorite. Thus she was a bit jealous of her. Over time this rivalry calmed down and this pair helped one another.
Halfrek and Anyanka have known each other for a long time, at least a few hundred years. As we don’t know the ages of these characters it’s hard to say, but both characters were present during the Russian Revolution and Crimean War. We also saw both characters in Victorian England.
Halfrek was flattered that Anya remembered her and wanted her to come to her wedding. She was delighted to be a bridesmaid. Yet this wedding didn’t go through, but Halfrek stayed around to help her friend. She became her mentor and encouraged Anya to to perform vengeance on Xander as he left her at the altar, by using Spike.
These two were the best of friends and had known each other for the longest time. Unfortunately, thai friendship came to an end when Halfrek was killed as a sacrifice by D’Hoffryn in a way to hurt Anya for her weaknesses.
D’Hoffryn
Halfrek wanted to impress D’Hoffryn as he was essentially her boss. She was jealous that she couldn’t be his favorite as she liked her role as a vengeance demon and performed many curses. She wanted to be his favorite, however over time she let this feeling go.
In the end her relationship with D’Hoffryn was destroyed as he is a person who could kill her and he did, in a way to hurt Anya.
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Appearances
Halfrek makes many appearances during Buffy the Vampire Slayer, she is also mentioned a few times too. There is also a mention of Halfrek during the fifth season of Angel, which is the spin off show of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which focuses on Angel as he leaves Buffy and Sunnydale and goes to Los Angeles.
These are the following episodes that Halfrek can be seen in or is mentioned in:
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 5, Episode 7 – Fool for Love (Flashback).
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 6, Episode 12 – Doublemeat Palace.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 6, Episode 14 – Older and Far Away.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 6, Episode 16 – Hell’s Bells.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 6, Episode 18 – Entropy.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 7, Episode 1 – Lessons.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 7, Episode 2 – Beneath You (Mentioned).
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 7, Episode 5 – Selfless.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 7, Episode 17 – Lies My Parents Told Me (Mentioned).
- Angel: Season 5, Episode 22 – Not Fade Away (Mentioned).
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