10 Most Badass Buffy The Vampire Slayer Baddies

10. Caleb

The last season of Buffy was good, but you'd be hard pressed to call it one of the best. Its finale hit the right notes and the sense of scale was there, but The First Evil (basically a nasty old ghost) wasn't exactly the most imposing of baddies. Luckily, season seven did create one all timer, in the form of preacher of hate Caleb.

Played with real swaggering malevolence by Firefly star Nathan Fillion, Caleb is an acolyte of the non-corporeal original evil, and is essentially the right hand man to malevolence itself. Misogynistic and cruel, Caleb brands girls with his creepy ring, and seems to relish his role as the muscle of the operation.

Better known for his Han Solo-esque role in Joss Whedon's space western Firefly (and accompanying film Serenity), Fillion attacks a rare villainous role with aplomb. He seeks no empathy in his performance as one of Buffy's most evil human characters, and receives none – indeed, it is quite the relief when he is finally bested in the series' last episode.

Fillion's laconic southern drawl and mannered performance makes the character a truly eerie and threatening one, akin to Robert Mitchum in Night Of The Hunter. Caleb is a truly creepy piece of work, and it's a testament to Whedon's ability to pick actors that he found someone so versatile as the soon-to-be space captain.