Maggie Walsh
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Professor Margaret Walsh, known as Professor Walsh or, more informally, Maggie Walsh, is a fictional character in the U.S. television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The character is played by Lindsay Crouse.
Maggie Walsh is introduced to the series in season four of Buffy, initially as an ally of the Slayer, becoming an enemy when she plots to kill Buffy Summers and remove her as a threat.
Maggie Walsh first becomes involved with Buffy when Buffy is enrolled in the professor's Psychology class along with Willow and Oz in their first term at UC Sunnydale. At the university, Maggie has a fearsome reputation as an academic and taskmaster. However, like Buffy, Maggie also leads a secret double life as a chief member of The Initiative, a secret government agency located below the university. The Initiative employs a team of commandos, led by Riley Finn, tasked with capturing demons and vampires. The captured demons are taken back to the Initiative, where experiments are performed on them. Maggie is also involved in Project 314, a secret part of the Inititaive which creates a hybrid demon-humanoid-mechanoid known as Adam. Demons captured by the Initative are dissected to provide parts for Adam.
Maggie maintains a close relationship with Riley Finn, who looks upon her as a mother figure through most of Season 4. As Riley develops a relationship with Buffy, the identity of the slayer becomes known to Maggie. Though she initially thinks that Buffy is a useful ally, Maggie soon takes a dislike to the slayer's constant questions and unpredictable nature, especially as regards Project 314. Maggie also grows jealous of Buffy's hold over Riley, and spies on them making love on the Initiative's monitors.
Eventually Maggie decides to kill Buffy by sending her on a mission on which she is ambushed by two demons released from the Initative's holding cells. However, Buffy defeats the demons and appears on the monitors when Maggie prematurely announces Buffy's death to Riley. An embittered Maggie retreats to the labs of Project 314, where she plots how to use Adam to defeat Buffy. However Adam awakes and impales Maggie, killing her, and escapes from the Initiative.
Maggie appears in the penultimate episode of season four, "Primeval", as a walking corpse, employed by Adam to finish off Project 314. This project involves the creation of more like him, manufactured from the parts of demons and humans combined. It is also revealed that Maggie set Riley up to be part of 314, by planting a chip within his body that could be used to control him. Maggie's corpse attacks Buffy when she tries to rescue Riley, but is destroyed.