10 Worst Buffy The Vampire Slayer Villains

‘Nightmares’ is a standout episode in the first season. With some assistance from the Hellmouth, a boy called Billy Palmer causes nightmares to come true, and our heroes are forced to live out their night-time fears in the real world.

Watching these twisted scenarios is great entertainment, but the episode is let down by one thing: the Ugly Man. This guy is meant to be a creepy incarnation of Billy’s coach, who beat up Billy after his team lost a baseball game.

Most of the other nightmares tap into common fears, such as spiders, clowns, public humiliation, and family estrangement, but the Ugly Man just feels out of place. If Billy was frightened of his coach, you’d think his nightmares would feature a realistic version of this fear, not a supernatural one.

Buffy’s first conflict with the Ugly Man is also a low point. Just when she’s having a heartfelt conversation with Billy, this big brute roars onto the scene, shattering the emotional atmosphere at once, and he continues to roar like a maniac throughout this sequence.

Whilst Buffy’s final fight with the Ugly Man has its moments, the episode would have been much better if he wasn’t in it.