Andrew Wells is a fictional character in the television series ''

Buffy the Vampire Slayer ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' is an American supernatural fiction, supernatural drama television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon. The concept is based on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film), 1992 film, also written by Whedon, a ...

'' and ''

Angel An angel is a spiritual (without a physical body), heavenly, or supernatural being, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in variou ...

'', played by Tom Lenk. The character also appears in ''

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight'' is a comic book series published by Dark Horse Comics from 2007 to 2011. It serves as a canonical continuation of the television series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'', and follows the events of that show's ...

'', the canonical continuation of the series.

Character history

Andrew Wells is the younger brother of Tucker Wells, who summoned hellhounds to attack the Prom in the season 3 episode "The Prom". Andrew himself has skills in demon-summoning and animal control, although these were never used after season 6; in the Buffy finale " Chosen" he credits his brother with having given him the courage to develop this talent. At some point during Buffy's senior year in high school, he summoned "flying demon monkeys" to attack Sunnydale High's production of ''

Romeo and Juliet ''The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet'', often shortened to ''Romeo and Juliet'', is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare about the romance between two young Italians from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's ...

'', apparently for no other reason than to amuse himself. Years after the fact, both Jonathan (

Danny Strong Danny Strong (born ) is an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. As an actor, Strong is best known for his roles as Jonathan Levinson in ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'', Doyle McMaster in ''Gilmore Girls'' and Danny Siegel in '' Mad ...

) and Warren (

Adam Busch Adam Busch is an American actor best known for starring as Warren Mears on the television series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer''. Career Busch was born in East Meadow, New York. He had his first film role in the movie ''Léon: The Professional'' ...

) recall the incident with amusement. The Scooby Gang have no memory of this whatsoever; viewers are left with the impression that the attack ranks among any number of less-memorable supernatural incidents which plagued

Sunnydale Sunnydale is the fictional setting for the American television drama ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1997–2003). The series creator Joss Whedon conceived the town as a representation of a generic California, Californian city, as well as a narr ...

. They also have no recollection of who Andrew is, until he informs them of his relation to Tucker. This becomes a

running joke A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling. Though they are similar, catchphrases are not ...

, as from then on, he is often referred to as "the other guy," "Tucker's brother," and so on.

The Trio

Andrew is introduced in season 6 as part of The Trio, a group of nerds who thought of themselves as supervillains. This group includes Jonathan, an acquaintance of Buffy and her friends, and Warren, a misogynist with delusions of grandeur. The Trio attempts a number of crimes that are usually thwarted by Buffy. These crimes are mostly harmless until Warren kills his ex-girlfriend Katrina. Buffy defeats them one more time during a robbery attempt; Warren escapes but Andrew and Jonathan get caught. Warren takes his revenge on Buffy by shooting her, accidentally killing

Willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, of the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 350 species (plus numerous hybrids) of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions. Most species are known ...

's girlfriend, Tara, in the process. In her grief, Willow kills Warren and attempts kill Andrew and Jonathan. Buffy breaks Andrew and Jonathan out of jail to keep them out of Willow's grasp. The duo escapes to Mexico before they can be brought back to jail.

Andrew's Return

While in Mexico, Andrew is visited by what he believes to be Warren's ghost but is actually an ancient entity called the First Evil. Andrew kills Jonathan under the influence of the First Evil and is eventually captured by Buffy and her friends. He is initially resentful of them but eventually shows remorse for his actions, especially for killing Jonathan, and joins them in their fight against the First Evil. He survives the final battle.

Sexuality

Andrew is occasionally hinted to be gay in the series. However, in the ''Angel'' episode " The Girl in Question", Andrew is shown leaving for the opera with two attractive women, commenting that "people change". In January 2008, gay men's website AfterElton.com awarded Andrew the status as the tenth best gay or bisexual character in modern science fiction, despite commenting upon the textual ambiguity of Andrew's sexual orientation. This prompted creator

Joss Whedon Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon ( ; born June 23, 1964) is an American screenwriter, director, producer, comic book writer, and composer. He is best known as the creator of several television series: the supernatural drama ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer' ...

to more formally comment on Andrew's sexuality, on Whedonesque.com.

"It has to be said: the Andrew scene in 'The Girl in Question' was a victim of me dropping the ball. I specifically said there should be a party of men AND women, all glamorous and Italian, waiting for Andrew. I wasn't there when it was shot, and didn't have the time/money/energy to change it after the fact, though it made me crazy. Andrew's sexuality is always on the cusp of self-awareness because Andrew is stunted emotionally and because it's hilarious." .."The 'people change' thing is a hold-over from the fact that the scene was originally written for
Dawn Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the diffuse sky radiation, appearance of indirect sunlight being Rayleigh scattering, scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc ha ...
(but Michelle turned us down). The idea was, there's little Dawn, then in the last scene there's hot grown-up Dawn going out on the town, a heavy visual support of people changing (since Spike and
Angel An angel is a spiritual (without a physical body), heavenly, or supernatural being, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in variou ...
always see her as older brothers do)."

In November 2008, Tom Lenk came out as gay in ''

The Advocate An advocate is a professional in the field of law. The Advocate, The Advocates or Advocate may also refer to: Magazines * The Advocate (magazine), ''The Advocate'' (magazine), an LGBT magazine based in the United States * ''The Harvard Advocate' ...

'' magazine. Joss Whedon was interviewed for the article, and revealed that it was decided that the character of Andrew was to be gay when they decided to cast Lenk in the role.

"Tom has a bit of a fey thing going on in his persona that, you know, you can't really deny. When I first looked at his audition tape, I said 'OK, he, uh, he seems kinda gay. Do we want to make that decision bout the character There's no reason why he couldn't be, so, great, let's pick the funniest actor.' ..The character became very charming in his complete lack of awareness about, among other things, his own sexuality."

Appearances

Andrew has been in 86 canonical Buffyverse appearances. ; ''

'' : Andrew appeared in 26 episodes: *Season 6 (2001–02): "

Flooded A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant concern in agriculture, civ ...

", " Life Serial", " Smashed", " Gone", " Dead Things", " Normal Again", "

Entropy Entropy is a scientific concept, most commonly associated with states of disorder, randomness, or uncertainty. The term and the concept are used in diverse fields, from classical thermodynamics, where it was first recognized, to the micros ...

", " Seeing Red", "

Villains A villain (also known as a " black hat", "bad guy" or "baddy"; The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.126 "baddy (also baddie) noun (pl. -ies) ''informal'' a villain or criminal in a book, film, etc.". the feminine form is villai ...

", " Two to Go", "

Grave A grave is a location where a cadaver, dead body (typically that of a human, although sometimes that of an animal) is burial, buried or interred after a funeral. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of buria ...

" *Season 7 (2002–03): " Conversations with Dead People", " Never Leave Me", " Bring on the Night", " Showtime", "

Potential Potential generally refers to a currently unrealized ability. The term is used in a wide variety of fields, from physics to the social sciences to indicate things that are in a state where they are able to change in ways ranging from the simple r ...

", " The Killer in Me", " First Date", " Get It Done", " Storyteller", " Lies My Parents Told Me", "

Dirty Girls "Dirty Girls" is the 18th episode of the seventh and final season of the television series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer''. The episode aired on April 15, 2003, on UPN. Plot A young Potential Slayer, Shannon, is chased through the woods by Bring ...

", " Empty Places", " Touched", " End of Days", " Chosen" Andrew appeared in 58 issues of the canonical comic series: *Season 8 (2007–11): " The Long Way Home, Parts 2 & 3", "

The Chain "The Chain" is a song by British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac, released on their 1977 album '' Rumours''. It is the only song from the album with writing credits for all five members (Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie, John ...

", " Wolves at the Gate, Parts 1-4", " Harmonic Divergence", "Predators and Prey", "Living Doll", " Retreat, Parts 1-5", "Turbulence", " Twilight, Parts 1-4", " Last Gleaming, Part 1" *Season 9 (2011–13): "Freefall, Parts 1 & 3", "Apart (of Me), Parts 1-3", "Welcome to the Team, Parts 2-4", "The Watcher", "The Core, Parts 1-5" *Season 10 (2014–16): "New Rules, Parts 1-5", "I Wish, Part 1", "Return to Sunnydale, Parts 1 & 2", "Love Dares You, Parts 1-3", "Old Demons, Parts 2 & 3", "In Pieces on the Ground, Parts 1, 3 & 4", "Own It, Parts 2-5" *Season 11 (2016): "In Time of Crisis" *Season 12 (2018): "The Reckoning", "The Finale" ; ''

'' : Andrew appeared as a guest in 2 episodes: *Season 5 (2003–04): "

Damage Damage is any change in a thing, often a physical object, that degrades it away from its initial state. It can broadly be defined as "changes introduced into a system that adversely affect its current or future performance".Farrar, C.R., Sohn, H., ...

", " The Girl in Question"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wells, Andrew Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters Angel (1999 TV series) characters Fictional characters from California Fictional characters from the 20th century Fictional gay men Fictional geneticists Fictional LGBTQ characters in television Fictional members of secret societies Fictional murderers Television characters introduced in 2001 LGBTQ characters in comics American male characters in television sv:Buffy och vampyrerna#Andrew Wells