Janna of the Kalderash

"I was raised by the people Angel hurt the most. My duty to them was the first thing I was ever taught. I didn't come here to hurt anyone. I lied to you because I thought it was the right thing to do. I didn't know what would happen. I didn't know I was going to fall in love with you."

―Jenny Calendar^[src]

Janna of the Kalderash, alias Jennifer "Jenny" Calendar, was a computer science teacher at Sunnydale High School. She was also an ally of the Scooby Gang and the love of Rupert Giles.

She hid from the Scooby Gang that she was a member of Clan Kalderash sent to watch over Angel.

Biography

Helping the Scoobies

Jenny was a computer science teacher at Sunnydale High whose modern approach did not sit well with the technophobic Rupert Giles. She called herself a Technopagan and was a member of a cyber-coven. Jenny assisted the Scooby Gang and as they worked together against evil, Jenny and Giles gradually fell in love.

Jenny's teaching methods and interests were at odds with, and seemed to infuriate, Giles.^[1] Her abilities with computers enabled her and Giles to complete a ritual within the internet to get rid of a demon called Moloch that had infected computers. She later approached

Giles after she becomes anxious over several signs of an impending apocalypse she's become aware of.^[2] Giles soon told her the truth about the Master's plan and Buffy Summers's true identity. Jenny was present when the Hellmouth was briefly opened during Buffy's battle with the Master. Because she was of close distance to the Master at the time of his death, Jenny was kidnapped by the remaining members of the Order of Aurelius and almost had her throat slit as part of a ritual to revive their leader before Buffy intervened and destroyed them all.^[3]

Relationship with Giles

Jenny's flirtation with Giles gradually became a slow-burning romance. However, the romance was hindered when Giles' past came back to haunt him and Jenny was possessed by a demon Giles had summoned in his youth.^[4] In the aftermath, Jenny avoided Giles for some time, but she was eventually ready to forgive Giles and the two of them rekindled their romance.^[5]

Death

After Buffy lost her virginity to Angel,^[6] Jenny disclosed that she was part of the Clan Kalderash, who had cursed Angel with his soul and years later sent Jenny to watch over him. Jenny was not told that Angel would lose his soul, but the Scooby Gang were still angry that she had concealed her identity. She decided to make it up to Buffy by attempting another restoration and translated the spell using a computer. However, Drusilla sensed Jenny's plan and warned Angelus, who tracked down Jenny, destroyed her computer and printer, and snapped her neck, killing her. Angelus left Jenny's dead body in Giles's bed with a trail of romantic symbols leading to the scene.^[7] Giles was devastated and sought revenge by trying to kill Angelus as he felt that he could not live without her. Xander Harris viewed Jenny's murder as evidence that Angel was beyond redemption.

Legacy

After Buffy rescued Giles from his ill-conceived act of revenge and visited the grave of the ill-fated Jenny, Buffy revealed that due to the loss, she was finally ready to slay Angel. However, Angelus missed Jenny's disc version of the ritual and Buffy and Willow found it again accidentally months later, surprising them as Jenny had told them there was no way to restore Angel's soul. The gang ultimately decide to try it, noting that it seems to have been Jenny's last wish. While the first attempt fails,^[8] Willow is ultimately able to complete Jenny's work and restore Angel's soul.^[9]

Later, Drusilla manipulated a badly tortured Giles into seeing her as Jenny and revealing what was needed to awaken the demon Acathla.^[10]

When the Scoobies later discovered that Angel had been resurrected, Xander spitefully reminded Buffy of her failure to stop Angelus from killing Jenny when she had the chance; however, both Buffy and Angel won back some good faith and acceptance among the gang during the subsequent scuffle over the Glove of Myhnegon.^[11] On Christmas Eve 1998, the First Evil assumed Jenny's form to torment Angel into killing Buffy or himself.^[12]

At some point, Giles sacrificed his memory of the day that they fell in love in order to bind a demon that was possessing a little girl.^[13]

Proceeding the destruction of Sunnydale, former Watcher Duncan Fillworthe began feeding the newly activated Slayers to a demon; when confronted by Giles, Duncan insisted that the Slayers, especially Buffy, deserved to die for betraying the Watchers Council, reminding Giles that Buffy's relationship with Angel resulted in Jenny's death.^[14]

Skills and Abilities

Jenny was extremely good with technology, to the point that she ran a computer class at Sunnydale High School and was able to write a program that was able to translate a lost language, something that no one had been able to do for a long time, not even her own clan.

Though she wasn't a practicing witch, Jenny had some proficiency in the dark arts, considering herself a "techno-pagan" rather than a witch, saying she didn't have the power of a witch. Willow noted Jenny as a "dabbler" in witchcraft when explaining to Buffy about what appeared to be a spell of hers they found. As a result, Jenny displayed great knowledge of the occult and was able to cast the Circle of Kayless online with Giles' help. She also seemed to believe herself capable of the Ritual of Restoration, something that was beyond Giles despite his years of study of the occult and his misspent youth. While Willow managed to cast it as her first spell, she only succeeded because the Ritual took control of her and she was able to study Jenny's things on witchcraft for some time beforehand. Jenny also was able to cast bones and recognize portents of an Apocalypse. Apparently she had several spells she could and would cast as when she and Buffy found the Ritual of Restoration, Willow called it "one of" Jenny's spells.

Behind the Scenes

• She was portrayed by Robia LaMorte.

• Despite playing Cordelia Chase's teacher, Robia LaMorte is about the same age as Charisma Carpenter, only older by a few weeks.

• The character was originally intended to be named "Nikki Calendar", but this was changed to avoid on-set confusion with actor Nicholas Brendon who was commonly called "Nicky".

• The death of Jenny was never originally meant to occur. The original plan had been for Oz to be the character who met his end at the hands of Angelus, but that plan was changed after the fan reaction to Oz had been so positive. The grisly demise was then dealt to the character of Jenny.

• Her death was later mirrored in the death of her lover Giles, whose neck was also snapped by Angel. However, whereas Angel killed Jenny while in vamp face because Joss Whedon didn't want the audience to truly hate Angel's face, Angel killed Giles in human face.

• When approached with returning to play Jenny as a disguise of the First Evil, Robia LaMorte, who is very religious, was very skeptical about the role, erroneously considering it basically the Buffyverse equivalent of Satan.

Appearances

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Season One:
Welcome to the Hellmouth	The Harvest	Witch	Teacher's Pet	Never Kill a Boy on the First Date	The Pack	Angel	I Robot, You Jane Appears	The Puppet Show	Nightmares	Out of Mind, Out of Sight	Prophecy Girl Appears

Season Two:
When She Was Bad Appears	Some Assembly Required Appears	School Hard Appears	Inca Mummy Girl	Reptile Boy	Halloween (mentioned)	Lie to Me Appears	The Dark Age Appears	What's My Line, Part One	What's My Line, Part Two	Ted Appears
Bad Eggs	Surprise Appears	Innocence Appears	Phases	Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered Appears	Passion Appears (killed)	Killed by Death (mentioned)	I Only Have Eyes for You (mentioned)	Go Fish	Becoming, Part One (mentioned)	Becoming, Part Two Appears (in vision)

Season Three:
Anne	Dead Man's Party	Faith, Hope & Trick	Beauty and the Beasts (mentioned)	Homecoming	Band Candy	Revelations (mentioned)	Lovers Walk	The Wish	Amends Appears (only the First Evil)	Gingerbread
Helpless	The Zeppo	Bad Girls	Consequences	Doppelgangland	Enemies	Earshot	Choices	The Prom	Graduation Day, Part One	Graduation Day, Part Two

Season Seven:
Lessons	Beneath You	Same Time, Same Place	Help	Selfless	Him (only in archive footage)	Conversations with Dead People	Sleeper	Never Leave Me	Bring on the Night	Showtime
Potential	The Killer in Me	First Date	Get It Done	Storyteller	Lies My Parents Told Me	Dirty Girls	Empty Places	Touched	End of Days	Chosen

Buffy Season Eight

• Safe (Only mentioned)

Buffy Season Nine

• Live Through This, Part One (Only in flashbacks)
• Death and Consequences, Part Four (Only in flashbacks)
• Spike and Faith (Only mentioned)

Buffy Season Ten

• Freaky Giles Day (Only mentioned)

See also

• Clan Kalderash
• Enyos Kalderash
• Magda Kalderash

References