Zackary Kralik:
Zackary Kralik:
Debut -- Helpless (Season 3)
Died Same Episode
Zackary Kralik -- a "vampire foe" -- is first seen standing up in a big crate thing. He's also sporting the straitjacket look, which I hear is going to be big this fall. Anyhoo, he's going to be used in the Cruciamentum test, as Buffy's adversary. Make that, "weakened Buffy's" adversary.
Probably the most outstanding thing about this vamp is that the first time we meet him, he's howling in pain. Just like, that's got to be a roaring headache or something. This is a vamp who probably knows the difference between "prescription strength" medicine and that over-the-counter crap they like to sell. Um, anyway, Kralik begins to rip himself free of the straitjacket a little, and he kind of lures Blair over to him by complaining that he can't see the spoon -- which is like, very long and all, just to show that the guy has the strength of 10,000 maniacs, I bet, and that no one can get near him -- and where are his pills. He reminds me of that character that Marvin Kaplan (or, is it Henry Kaplan?) played in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. I know I said this on the episode page, but hey... Anyway, Kralik grabs Blair and sort of chokes him...next thing we know, he's humming a tune as he waits for Blair to wake up in his new vamp form. Blair sets Kralik free, and the fun begins.
Here comes a sort of non-sequitur.
I'd love to see Spike and this guy have a conversation. Can you imagine the possibilities? I mean, sure, Spike's been dealing with daffy Dru for quite some time, but this guy...I think they'd get along. And not just because Kralik tells Buffy: "My mind just isn't what it used to be.."
Anyhoo, Kralik runs into Buffy on the street, and in her haste to get away from him, he rips her jacket off of her, sort of. It reminded me of this one time when I made the mistake of going down to Bourbon Street on Mardi Gras day. Can you say wall-to-wall people, your feet don't touch the ground? Anyway, this kid latched onto me and wouldn't let go, and I was ready to shake loose of my jacket if he wouldn't let go..but fortunately I finally shook him off. Um, anyway, Kralik takes the jacket, curls up in it, and manages to surprise Joyce. He takes Joyce, leaves Buffy the classic Polaroid of "mom in trouble," and tells Buffy to come to the house to find him.
It occurs to me that I don't need to recap the plot of this episode. What can I say, Kralik inspires me. In Kralik we have a totally insane vamp who's also got a mother complex. And I don't mean in the Oedipal sense. Or would that be Oedipus sense? Hm. We learn from Giles that Kralik murdered and tortured over a dozen women before he was committed to an asylum for the criminally insane. What I want to know is, when did he become a vamp? Huh? Huh? When? By whom?
If we believe Kralik, then we know that he's a product of bad mothering...I don't even want to know what she did with that pair of scissors. Suffice it to say that her tendons probably didn't cramp up from a rousing game of Paper, Scissors, Rock. Kralik tells Joyce that he wants to turn Buffy into a vamp, and that Joyce will be the first thing that Buffy eats.
Know Thyself?:Kralik also brought back memories of my own childhood when he kept saying "Hide and seek. Hide and seek." Do you know, the kids in my 'hood used to rig those games sometimes? It's entirely possible. I know. Believe me. I guess I should stop using Kralik like this, though. Anyway, he was an amusing guy, he had some problems, but hey, I think they gave him a personality. So he was a hummer, his mind's shot, he's into fairy tales, and he does a good Elvis impersonation. "Thank you very much."
Kralik's pill addiction (okay, okay, so he's in pain and he needs them. Whatever.) is his undoing...he unwittingly washes his pills down with a nice glass of holy water, courtesy of Buffy. Maybe that's what happened to Marilyn Monroe? Only without the Kennedy scandals, perhaps.
She Ain't Heavy, She's My Mother?:
"May I call you 'Mother'?" -- to Joyce.
The ABCs of Sunnydale
