Contributed by Mike McDermott
Kennedy was one of the first Potential Slayers who were gathered into Sunnydale by Giles when the servants of the First Evil started killing the Potentials before they could become Slayers. Kennedy was one of the few Potentials who had already received extensive training from her Watcher before coming to Sunnydale, so she quickly rose into a position of authority, acting as a drill instructor for the newer trainees.
Coming from a wealthy family, Kennedy can be rather spoiled and is used to getting her own way. Combined with her forceful personality, this has sometimes made her a bit obnoxious, and she has admitted that she can be “a bit of a brat”. Kennedy was one of the most outspoken voices questioning Buffy’s decisions and challenging her authority during the war against the First Evil.
Kennedy was immediately attracted to Willow, who was initially resistant to Kennedy’s advances since she was still grieving the recent death of her lover Tara. However the two women did eventually become a couple, once Willow was able to set aside her guilt over moving on with her life.
Kennedy became a full-fledged Vampire Slayer when Willow cast a spell to “activate” all Slayers worldwide. Kennedy was given a leadership role in the “Slayer army”, supervising the training of the newer recruits. At one point she was assigned to evaluate Satsu’s performance as a new squad leader.
Under unrevealed circumstances Kennedy was killed, but it was a “mystical death” and only lasted for a month. Still feeling guilty over Tara’s death, Willow tried to keep Kennedy away from Buffy for several months in order to protect her, but eventually Kennedy ended up reintegrated into the core of the Scooby Gang, and played an active part in the war against the villain Twilight.
During the final battle with Twilight, Buffy destroyed the source of magic on Earth. After losing her magical powers Willow broke up with Kennedy because she felt that Kennedy would lose interest in her once she was no longer a ‘superhero’. Willow had also developed feelings for someone else, although she did not admit that to Kennedy. Kennedy was extremely resentful towards Buffy after this, blaming her for destroying magic and ruining her relationship with Willow.
The Slayer Army also disbanded at this time, leaving Kennedy alone and without direction. She found new purpose by founding Deepscan, a private security company that employs Slayers as bodyguards for both demon-related and non-demon-related protection. Kennedy recruited several members of the former Slayer Army, looking to provide new direction and purpose for the girls, many of whom never finished high school and had no particular skills of education beyond Slaying. Deepscan quickly became very successful, with Kennedy and the other Slayers earning very impressive salaries.
Kennedy also let go of her resentment towards Buffy and offered her a job with Deepscan, since she valued Buffy’s skills and knew Buffy could use a high-paying job. Buffy agreed to try the job out, and her first assignment was assisting Kennedy in protecting a client from being assassinated by agents of Wolfram & Hart. Although the two did clash over methods and priorities during the mission Kennedy was impressed with Buffy’s performance and offered her a promotion. However Buffy decided that Deepscan wasn’t right for her and resigned. She and Kennedy parted on good terms though, and a few weeks later Kennedy loaned Buffy her private jet when Buffy needed to get to the other side of the world to save Dawn’s life.
Kennedy and Willow recently met again for the first time since their break-up when her Deepscan team fought alongside Buffy and her friends against a group of vampires. Although both women found the encounter somewhat awkward and uncomfortable, they were each genuinely happy to see that the other was doing well.
Read the profiles for Willow and Tara and Lake Stevens.
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