Harmony Kendall

Harmony Kendall (born presumably in 1981 in Sunnydale, California) is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the cult television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off Angel. The character is portrayed by Mercedes McNab. Originally cast as a minor character, Mercedes McNab's credited status elevated to guest star, "special guest star" and ultimately series cast over the course of her tenure in Buffy and Angel. Harmony holds the distinction of being the only character to appear in both the Buffy unaired pilot and the Angel series finale.

Appearances

Television

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Harmony appeared in the unaired pilot as a member of Cordelia Chase's clique, the "Cordettes." She subsequently appears in the second episode of Season One, "The Harvest," and makes minor appearances throughout the first three seasons, and then a slightly larger role in another two. When Cordelia begins dating Xander Harris, Harmony shuns her from their clique and usurps her position as leader of the group. After Cordelia and Xander's breakup, Harmony cruelly tricks Cordelia into thinking that she has been re-admitted into the clique, only to humiliate and reject her. After a vengeance demon grants Cordelia's wish that Buffy had never arrived in Sunnydale in the episode "The Wish," Harmony appears in the alternate, hellish reality as a more subdued version of herself, again a follower of Cordelia's "Cordettes."

In the final showdown with Mayor Wilkins during his Ascension in the episode "Graduation Day," Harmony is killed/sired by a vampire. She reappears in the episode "The Harsh Light of Day" as a vampire, having retained her characteristic pettiness, susceptibility to stronger-willed people, and an affection for unicorn figurines (which, in Angel's fifth season, is undiminished). Harmony begins a sexual relationship with Spike, her "blondie bear." Neither Spike nor Harmony are satisfied with their relationship; Spike is frustrated by Harmony's ignorance and clinginess while she is exasperated with his endless broken promises and repeated attempts to kill Buffy. They separate, although she agrees to rekindle their relationship after Spike escapes from the Initiative. Harmony quickly regrets this decision after recognizing Spike's renewed campaign against the Slayer, and even chases him out of her lair with a stake when he desperately seeks her help in the episode "Pangs."

Spike's ambition to kill the Slayer apparently rubs off. After separating from Spike, Harmony wants to be an independent, strong vampire who can get by on her own; accordingly, in the episode "Real Me," she gathers her own gang and makes her own attempt to kill Buffy, which ends in disaster. Her minions destroyed, Harmony returns to Spike for protection until it becomes clear that Spike's infatuation with Buffy has become an obsession (cf. "Crush").

Angel

Having departed Sunnydale, Harmony is next seen in the Buffy spin-off Angel, in the episode "Disharmony." She visits her old friend Cordelia in Los Angeles, not telling Cordelia that she has become a vampire. Harmony tries to connect with Cordelia, but has difficulty controlling her demon side. She enters Cordelia's bedroom at night, driven by bloodlust, but apologizes for her actions and intentions when Cordelia wakes up. Cordelia misunderstands her explanation, believing her to be a lesbian until the matter is cleared up by Willow in a phone call. Despite this, Cordelia insists on giving Harmony a chance, while rest of the team grows increasingly frustrated with her habits such as popping gum or tearing pages out of old, irreplaceable books. She accompanies the Angel Investigations team on a mission to investigate a new vampire cult, but soon betrays them to their enemies. Cordelia nearly kills Harmony, but, out of some respect for the friendship they once shared, allows her to leave.

Several years later, Harmony tries to make a life for herself in L.A. She gains employment at the L.A. branch of Wolfram & Hart, as a member of the secretarial pool. Harmony is attracted by the building's necro-tempered glass windows (designed to protect vampires from sunlight which would otherwise cause them to burst into flames), as well as the firm's non-judgmental workplace culture and dental plan. A few weeks into her employment with the firm, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce hires her out of the blue to be Angel's new personal secretary, after Angel and his staff are given control of that branch of Wolfram & Hart; Wesley apparently thought that a familiar face would be good for Angel. Angel reluctantly agrees, on the strict condition that Harmony refrains from drinking human blood (she notes at that time that she has already been off human blood for several months).

Harmony is reunited with Spike when he returns, first as a ghost and then in corporeal form. She tries to connect with him, and initially hopes to renew their relationship now that he has a soul. Spike shows no interest for Harmony until he regains his corporeal form and proceeds to seduce her into a brief, disastrous fling, after which neither of them puts any effort into rekindling their tumultuous relationship.

At this point in her un-life, Harmony feels isolated and alone. She knows that she is incompetent as an evil vampire, but her struggle to lead a more normal life is hindered because she lacks a soul. Angel often treats her with distrust and barely-masked hostility, and her input, ideas, and presence are generally ignored by his team. Harmony also experiences an inability to connect with her co-workers, who resent her quick rise to the position of the CEO's secretary. In the episode "Harm's Way," she is framed for murder by Tamika, another vampire secretary who wants her job; Tamika also substitutes human blood for her supply of otter blood, to make it appear as though Harmony drank from the victim. She clears her name and ironically saves a demon summit by staking her scheming rival on a conference table with a pair of chopsticks. Despite her incompetence, Harmony manages to prove a 'sort of' asset to the team, 'torturing' Eve (i.e. hitting Eve in the face a few times) to get information, helping Wesley search for information about Knox's plans, and aiding Lorne in protecting Eve from her replacement as their liaison to the Senior Partners. She strikes up a brief friendship with Fred Burkle, though her relationship with Illyria, the demon who later inhabits Fred's body, is quite frosty.

Harmony becomes a member of the regular cast starting with the episode "Underneath". In the series finale, "Not Fade Away," she betrays Angel, revealing his plans to go after Archduke Sebassis to Marcus Hamilton, the Senior Partners' new liaison, with whom she has a sexual relationship. Angel, however, always expected her to betray him at some point, so he had only confided information that he wanted her to reveal. After her betrayal (which Angel blames on her lack of a soul, and she blames on his lack of confidence in her), he fires her, but not before providing her with a letter of recommendation (which he had already written and signed, in anticipation of her disloyalty). As Angel and Hamilton prepare to fight each other, she runs off, wishing them both luck: "May the best man win!" Her current whereabouts are unknown, but it is clear that somehow before the final battle Harmony managed to escape Los Angeles, as she manages to make an appearance in Buffy the Vampire Slayer season eight.

Literature

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight

Harmony will be a key player in Season Eight's issue #21, Harmonic Divergence.

Powers & abilities

Harmony has the standard powers and vulnerabilities of a vampire: superhuman strength, speed, reflexes, and durability, along with virtual immortality. Several episodes make comedy of the fact that her fighting skills are quite lame, though she is later able to hold her own in fights against Riley and Spike due to a period of training. She is vulnerable to holy items and sunlight, and must regularly feed on mammal blood to maintain her vitality. Harmony cannot enter the home of a living human without being invited by someone who lives there first. Also, in the episode "Conviction", she claimed that she could "type like a superhero." A similar ability was shown by Buffy in season six episode "Gone".

Romantic interests

• Brad Konig — A popular boy who stood Harmony up in the tenth grade. Harmony later repays him by turning him into a vampire (cf. "Real Me").
• Xander Harris — Harmony, under the influence of a love spell (cf. "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"), relentlessly pursues Xander and berates Cordelia for breaking up with him.
• Devon MacLeish (of the band Dingoes Ate My Baby) — According to Oz, "Devon dated her for a while, but she was too flaky for him, which, stop and marvel at the concept" (cf. "The Harsh Light of Day").
• Spike — Harmony and Spike are introduced as an unlikely couple in Season Four of Buffy. Spike is irritated by Harmony's immaturity and treats her as a sexual plaything, although he returns her affection at convenient times. Harmony soon becomes weary of Spike's obsession with killing Buffy and his numerous unfulfilled promises to her. Their highly sexual but rocky relationship continues on and off into Season Five, where they finally break up for good and Harmony moves to Los Angeles. Harmony and Spike are reunited in Angel's fifth and final season, but do not rekindle their relationship (except for a brief, ill-fated fling in the episode "Destiny").
• Tobias "Toby" Dupree — Harmony and Toby meet at a bar and strike sparks. However, she awakes the next morning to find him dead, having been bitten by a vampire. Harmony initially fears that she is the killer, but soon discovers the sinister plot of another vampire secretary (cf. "Harm's Way").
• Marcus Hamilton — Harmony and Hamilton have a secret relationship, and she deliberately betrays Angel by leaking his secrets to Hamilton, who also allows her to drink his blood.

Appearances

Canonical Appearances

Harmony has appeared in 33 canonical Buffyverse episodes: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV series) : Harmony appeared as a guest in 16 episodes:

Season 1 (1997) - "Unaired pilot"; "The Harvest"; "Out of Mind, Out of Sight"

Season 2 (1997–1998) - "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"

Season 3 (1998–1999) - "The Wish"; "Graduation Day, Part One" and "Part Two"

Season 4 (1999–2000) - "The Harsh Light of Day"; "The Initiative"; "Pangs"; "Restless"

Season 5 (2000–2001) - "Real Me"; "Out of My Mind"; "Family"; "Fool for Love"; "Crush" Angel: Harmony joined the cast of Angel as a recurring character at the start of the show's fifth season. Harmony became a series regular in the seventeenth episode, "Underneath," until the series finale, "Not Fade Away." She made appearances in 17 episodes in all with guest appearances in:

Season 2 (2000–2001) - "Disharmony"

Season 5 (2003–2004) - "Conviction"; "Just Rewards"; "Life of the Party"; "Destiny"; "Harm's Way"; "Soul Purpose"; "Damage"; "You're Welcome"; "Smile Time"; "Shells"

References

Bibliography

• Abbott, Stacey. Reading Angel: The TV Spin-off With a Soul. I.B.Tauris, 2005. p. xvii. ISBN 1850438390
• Topping, Keith. The Complete Slayer: An Unofficial and Unauthorized Guide to Every Episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Virgin Books, 2004. ISBN 0753509318
• Tracy, Kathleen. The Girl's Got Bite: The Original Unauthorized Guide to Buffy's World. St. Martin's Press, 2003. pp. 33-34. ISBN 031231258X

Further reading

• Gallagher, Diana G. Prime Evil. Simon and Schuster, 2001. p. 66. ISBN 0743431545
• Jowett, Lorna. Sex and the Slayer: A Gender Studies Primer for the Buffy Fan. Wesleyan University Press, 2005. p. 83. ISBN 0819567582
• Kaveney, Roz. Reading the Vampire Slayer: The Complete, Unofficial Guide to Buffy And Angel. Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2004. p. ix. ISBN 186064984X
• South, James B. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: fear and trembling in Sunnydale. Open Court Publishing, 2003. p.70. ISBN 0812695313
• Stevenson, Gregory. Televised Morality: The Case of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. University Press of America, 2004. p. 233. ISBN 0761828338
• Wilcox, Rhonda V. Why Buffy Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I.B. Tauris, 2005. p. 81. ISBN 1845110293