The Beast (Buffyverse)

The Beast
Vladimir Kulich as The Beast
First appearance Apocalypse Nowish Last appearance Salvage Created by Joss Whedon
Statistics Affiliation Jasmine Notable powers Superhuman strength and durability Armored hide Ability to traverse dimensions Portrayed by  Vladimir Kulich

The Beast is a fictional demon on the television series Angel. He first appears in the Season Four episode "Apocalypse, Nowish", when he tears his way out of the earth from the Hell dimension to which he was previously banished. He is portrayed by Vladimir Kulich. Note that this Beast is a separate entity from the Big Bad of Buffy Season 5, the hell goddess Glory, who is sometimes called "The Beast." The first people to encounter the Beast are Cordelia Chase and Connor, who find the Beast arriving on Earth at the exact spot at which Connor had been born. A fight ensues, during which Cordelia is injured. Believing that he has something to do with the coming apocalypse, Connor distances himself from his teammates, who do not trust him. Angel, Gunn, and Lorne decide to take on The Beast. Wesley rejoins them to help in the battle, but they fail nonetheless, and are all badly injured. The Beast then conjures a rain of fire over Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Connor and a Jasmine-possessed Cordelia have sex, conceiving Jasmine's mortal form. The Beast, seeking to reach Mesektet (The Little Girl of the White Room), kills everyone working at Wolfram and Hart as he tries to reach the White Room. The only survivors of the massacre are Lilah Morgan, Wesley and Connor, who battles The Beast inside. During their escape, the corpses of the dead Wolfram and Hart employees are reanimated as zombies as a part of Wolfram & Hart's automated defenses in case of an attack. The Beast kills Mesektet and drains her of her dark energy. Following the death of Mesektet, the Beast hunts down the rest of her "family", an order of mystical beings known as the Ra-Tet. Ma'at, Ashet and Semkhet are killed by the Beast. The final Ra-Tet, Manjet, is killed by Jasmine/Cordelia in secret. Using the metal wings in Ashet and Semkhet and the heart of Ma'at, the Beast makes a ritual to eclipse the sun, which is completed when the dark energy of Mesektet is imbued in the orb which was extracted from Manjet's head. The eclipse begins as a sunlight-blocking spot that spreads covering Los Angeles and is supposed to eventually cover the totality of earth. Believing that their only hope is in Angel's evil alter ego Angelus, who apparently knew The Beast in the past even though Angel does not remember the encounter. This is revealed to be because all references to the Beast in this dimension were magically erased, however Angelus was unaffected as he did not, technically, exist at the time when the spell was cast. This is accomplished by a shaman, who gives Angel the illusion of a perfect day in which he and his son are reunited and defeats the Beast with a sacred weapon, and he and Cordelia are allowed to be together. Once freed, Angelus is eventually convinced to reveal the details of his encounter with the Beast; the Beast had attempted to recruit Angelus in 1767 to stop some priestesses who were attempting to banish the Beast, but Angelus declined and was knocked out before the Beast was banished. After Angel's soul is stolen and a ritual to restore his soul via dark magic is faked, Angelus breaks free and seeks out the Beast. Wesley breaks Faith out of jail to assist the heroes. She is beaten badly in battle with the Beast. In the end it is Angelus who, in an act of betrayal, stabs the Beast with a knife made from its own bones, as he had correctly surmised that the only thing that could kill the Beast was the Beast itself. The death of the Beast also undoes the spell to eclipse the sun, leaving Faith in the sunlight and Angelus confined to the shadows.

Powers and abilities

The Beast possesses great superhuman strength and durability. The degree of the Beast's superhuman strength is demonstrated in several instances. The Beast hits both Connor and Faith on separate occasions with a reverse punch which sends both characters flying back approximately twenty to thirty feet with no apparent downward arc in their trajectory, and in both cases their momentum is only stopped by impacting a large, solid object (in Connor's case, a metal dumpster, and in Faith's case, a large storage crate which is shattered by the force with which she impacts). The Beast is also durable enough to withstand handgun fire, shotgun blasts, and a grenade at point-blank range with no apparent injury. His exceptional strength also allows him to leap great heights. He also resisted banishment to another dimension. Unlike Jasmine, Illyria, and Marcus Hamilton, who all possess a level of strength comparable to that of the Beast, the Beast's additional mass and bulk - possibly due to his rock-like hide - renders him rather slow. In fact, Angelus demonstrated the ability to dodge the Beast's attacks with ease during their only encounter, even finding the time and energy to taunt the Beast.

Concept and creation

Co-executive producer Jeffrey Jackson Bell employed the effects shop Almost Human to design Vladimir Kulich's costuming and make-up. According to Almost Human makeup designer Chris Burdett, it took 2-3 days for four people to sculpt the costume and another 7 hours to fill and shape the huge fiberglass mold. Burdett explains that a life cast was made of Vladimir so that the suit would fit him exactly. The night before shooting was to begin, the crew finally established the costume's paint scheme.^[1] Vladimir went through the daily eight hour make-up process to transform him into the character of The Beast, including prosthetics and fiberglass body suit, but "The worst part was the contact lenses...[that] cover the entire eyeball," the actor said. However, the isolating nature of the 50lb costume^[2] meant that "I was able to search a little deeper for material while I was in the character because I was cocooned off...It was liberating."^[3]

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