a closer character look: the mayor

The mayor is a bit of an enigma. On one hand he is clearly evil, self-centered, doesn't care who he kills, and is determined to become a demon but on the the other hand he cares about family values, stayed loyal to his wife as he remained young and she aged, and clearly feels for Faith as if she were his daughter. The mayor is our first real glimpse that even though someone is evil, they can feel.

Oh, we see Angel's family care for one another - but we also see them placing themselves first with everyone else second. And more importantly, they don't care if they hurt each other. They happily let others in and fall in love with them, but they also don't care if their actions hurt those they claim to love. But not the mayor. He is completely different. He cares very deeply about Faith. He wouldn't dream of hurting her and instead goes out of his way to care for her. His relationship with her mirrors Buffy's relationship with Giles. Both of them find a father figure who cares for them and guides them. But while Buffy's encourages her to think for herself and do the right thing, Faith's encourages her to obey completely and murder. And when the mayor spoke of his wife, he said that in the end she hated him because she was old and withered while he was still young. Yet despite this he stayed by her. He never left her for another.

For some back story, the mayor was a sorcerer who who pursued becoming a full blooded demon. The demons that Buffy normally fights are a bastardized version of demons - they are a mixture of human and demon. Vampires are actually a perfect example of this as they are humans turned demon. When they are turned they die and lose their soul but come back as a demon of sorts. We actually will see this expanded upon in season 7 with the release of the uber vampires, but for now all of Buffy's enemies are not pure-blooded demons. The mayor seeks to become a full-blooded demon, completely expunging any humanness in him. This plot has been hundreds of years in the making and culminates in his Ascension. Anya has actually witnessed an Ascension and the complete destruction and devastation it wrought hundreds of years earlier.

The mayor's plan is thwarted in the end in the first use of an army by Buffy. While what goes on in Sunnydale is never spoken of, everyone is aware of it. Buffy is even given an award by her classmates for going out of her way to protect them. When facing the mayor's Ascension she turns to her classmates for help and they become a makeshift army with the sole purpose of taking the mayor down and surviving graduation.

I will say that while the Mayor is very good at looking at all possible contingencies, he banked too much on everyone choosing to be oblivious. While he went out of his way to cover up any demonic activity people still knew what was going on. They might not have talked about it openly but it would always be hinted at. He banked on everyone choosing to look the other way and that was his undoing. Instead, everyone stepped up to fight him and his minions and put an end to his Ascension.