The Seal of Danthazar is a circular metal object which covers a portal over the Hellmouth, located under Sunnydale High. It is activated by a ritual involving blood letting and a knife inscribed with Tuaric: “The blood which I spill, I consecrate to the oldest evil.” Andrew stabbed and killed Jonathan over the Seal in Conversations with Dead People, though his blood had no effect on it, because he was anaemic.
In Never Leave Me, Spike was tied to a wooden wheel, mystical symbols were cut into his chest, and his blood opened the Seal. When the Seal is opened, Turok-Han (ancient vampires) are able to enter the world.
Lyssa attempted to open the seal using Xander’s blood in First Date, but Buffy saved him. The Seal was closed using Andrew’s tears in Storyteller, but in Chosen, Buffy and the potential Slayers opened the wheel using their blood, and entered the Hellmouth below.
September 5th, 2005 at 11:21 pm
Can this Seal thing be made consistent with the previous seasons’ conception of the Hellmouth?
December 14th, 2005 at 6:36 am
Ah. That’s usually my mistake.
February 10th, 2006 at 2:24 pm
Did anyone else think that cutting their hands of all things was stupid? You kinda need your hands most while fighting, they could have cut somewhere less useful.
February 10th, 2006 at 10:36 pm
Yes, blinkey! I was thinking the same thing. It bothered me less when Buffy did it because she’s a slayer and she heals fast, but what were the others thinking? I guess they would have fought with painful cuts on their hands until Willow did the spell to make them all slayers. And even then, slayers don’t heal quite THAT fast.
February 11th, 2006 at 2:56 am
That bothered me too. But where else would they cut themselves?
February 11th, 2006 at 3:24 am
They could have cut the outter part of the forearm.
February 11th, 2006 at 5:07 am
That would have been awkward to hold over the seal …. hee hee. All twisty and everything.
April 22nd, 2006 at 3:19 am
So what happened to the giant squiggly tentacled demon monster thingy that always tried to come out of the Hellmouth whenever it was opened? In Chosen there wasn’t a sign of it!
April 22nd, 2006 at 8:13 am
Tentacled-demon-monster got all killed for good in ‘The Zeppo,’ I think.
April 22nd, 2006 at 8:42 am
Similar hellmouth pondering: in ‘Doomed’, Buffy jumps after a Vahrall demon into the hellmouth. So how did she not notice legions of Turok Han?
April 22nd, 2006 at 1:43 pm
I suppose that the difference comes in that the seal is another way into the Hellmouth. I could be wrong, but that has long been the assumption that I was working with.
June 2nd, 2006 at 3:51 pm
There wasnt much source of light through the crack that Buffy caught the Vahrall demon. I may need to watch it again, but she didn’t fall that far, either. I also would like to say that the seal is the inverted pentagram, usually used in satanism. I’m sure half of you know that, but just telling you non-pagan informed people out there.