How Michelle Trachtenberg’s Dawn Became The Heart Of Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Contains major spoilers for Buffy The Vampire Slayer

“Mom!” With a single word, the arrival of Dawn changed everything about Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Michelle Trachtenberg’s younger teen sister to Sarah Michelle Gellar’s college-aged Slayer arrived five seasons into the fantastical coming-of-age saga, to true double-take effect. Because Buffy didn’t have a sister, at least not in Buffy’s first four seasons. Suddenly, in the closing moments of the Season 5 premiere, Buffy’s mum Joyce tells her daughter to “take your sister” when she goes out. Cue a reaction shot of Gellar and Trachtenberg whining in unison, causing audiences to leap off their chairs. It remains one of the all-time-great TV character introductions for its brilliant abruptness.

From that moment on, Dawn’s presence changed the trajectory of the show. And Trachtenberg played her perfectly, elevating Dawn above what she, in essence, was: a plot device. Her role in Season 5 is functional to an extent – Dawn is actually ‘The Key’, a being of mystical energy shaped into human form, imbued with false memories, and placed in close proximity to the super-powered Slayer to keep her out of reach of vengeful goddess Glory. She’s a walking, talking, sulking MacGuffin. And the genius of Dawn’s initial arc is, she’s annoying. She’s a thorn in Buffy’s side, the kid sister desperate to tag along, never truly fitting in, often blundering into outright danger. (“Dawn’s in trouble, must be Tuesday,” Buffy would later go on to deadpan.) The question Dawn’s arc in Season 5 asks ­– and, by extension, the task placed upon Trachtenberg’s young shoulders, just 14 when she got the role – is, can Buffy learn to care about this annoying kid? And can the audience, too?

In matters of life and death, Dawn and Buffy have each other.

Eventually, the answer became yes. But at the time, unkind portions of the fandom took the intentional irritation of Dawn too literally. She was often maligned, remarked upon for her bratty behaviour and propensity for running head-first into danger. On a rewatch, though, it’s clearer than ever that Dawn is a vital and fiercely human addition to the Scooby gang. Despite her mystical origins, she is extraordinarily ordinary – as frustrating as a little sister should be, making mistakes, reacting impulsively, brimming with emotional volatility, always a little bit on the outside. It’s no wonder she identifies so much with Buffy’s similarly flawed friend Xander – in the Slayer’s circle of vampires, wiccans and vengeance demons, they’re the two who are just… normal. Or, at least Dawn thinks she is. Her reaction upon discovering her true origin, midway through Season 5, is heartbreaking – dissolving into tears, probing at her own flesh, asking, “Am I real? Am I anything?” It is, ironically, the most human reaction she could possibly have.

It wasn’t the only time Dawn became the emotional lynchpin of Buffy. ‘The Body’, widely regarded as the most gut-wrenching episode of the entire show – a stark exploration of death, as Buffy and Dawn’s mum Joyce dies suddenly from an aneurysm – is perhaps most devastating in the scene where Dawn, caught up in a normal day at school, is informed by Buffy that their mother is gone. The scene plays out at a remove, from inside the art class Dawn was enjoying just moments previously. Behind glass, Dawn sobs and pleads and falls to the floor, her cries audible but muffled. Trachtenberg’s performance is haunting, her instant grief palpable.

The death of Joyce only makes Dawn and Buffy more important to each other – ‘Key’ or not, they’re the only family one another has left. Buffy has to step in as a protector, not just as the Slayer protecting the Key, but a big sister protecting her younger sibling. And that all comes to a head in the Season 5 finale, ‘The Gift’, in which Buffy makes the ultimate sacrifice – dying to save Dawn, who was prepared to fulfil her ‘Key’ destiny at the expense of her own life. Buffy chooses her sister’s survival before her own, taking Dawn’s place and perishing in the process – but not before imparting some wisdom that stings all the more in the wake of Trachtenberg’s untimely death: “The hardest thing in this world is to live in it.” It’s a line that Dawn later gets to speak back to Buffy in Season 6’s ‘Once More, With Feeling’ (at a time when the resurrected Slayer is battling in the pits of depression, having been brought back from a peaceful afterlife by her friends). The two have a shared understanding of the greatest agonies living can bring. But in matters of life and death, Dawn and Buffy have each other – flaws and all.

In the final two seasons of Buffy, Dawn is no longer the Key. She is just Dawn, Buffy’s sister. Still reckless and impetuous, but full of life and energy, always deeply empathetic, even in her most tear-your-hair-out moments. Her status as a ‘normal’ girl makes her everything Buffy never has the luxury to be. And yet, being the sister of the Slayer, ever beset by demons and dark forces, means she’ll never truly live a normal life. Her addition to the Buffy canon now stands as an integral part of the tapestry of the show – not just in the ways she forces Buffy to grow, but as a character in her own right. Trachtenberg imbued Dawn’s every moment – her highs and her lows – with authenticity and vivacity. She’s annoying at times, yes. But loveable. And you’d go to the ends of the Earth to save her. That’s everything a kid sister should be.