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The Big Damn Buffy Rewatch S03E03, “Faith, Hope, and Trick”

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In every generation there is a chosen one. She alone puts her dry cleaning in the laundry by accident way too often. She will also recap every episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer with an eye to the following themes:

  1. Sex is the real villain of the Buffy The Vampire Slayer universe.
  2. Giles is totally in love with Buffy.
  3. Joyce is a fucking terrible parent.
  4. Willow’s magic is utterly useless (this one won’t be an issue until season 2, when she gets a chance to become a witch)
  5. Xander is a textbook Nice Guy.
  6. The show isn’t as feminist as people claim.
  7. All the monsters look like wieners.
  8. If ambivalence to possible danger were an Olympic sport, Team Sunnydale would take the gold.
  9. Angel is a dick.
  10. Harmony is the strongest female character on the show.
  11. Team sports are portrayed in an extremely negative light.
  12. Some of this shit is racist as fuck.
  13. Science and technology are not to be trusted.
  14. Mental illness is stigmatized.
  15. Only Willow can use a computer.
  16. Buffy’s strength is flexible at the plot’s convenience.
  17. Cheap laughs and desperate grabs at plot plausibility are made through Xenophobia.
  18. Oz is the Anti-Xander
  19. Spike is capable of love despite his lack of soul
  20. Don’t freaking tell me the vampires don’t need to breathe because they’re constantly out of frickin’ breath.
  21. The foreshadowing on this show is freaking amazing.
  22. Smoking is evil.
  23. Despite praise for its positive portrayal of non-straight sexualities, some of this shit is homophobic as fuck.
  24. How do these kids know all these outdated references, anyway?
  25. Technology is used inconsistently as per its convenience in the script.
  26. Sunnydale residents are no longer shocked by supernatural attacks.
  27. Casual rape dismissal/victim blaming a-go-go
  28. Snyder believes Buffy is a demon or other evil entity.
  29. The Scoobies kind of help turn Jonathan into a bad guy.
  30. This show caters to the straight female gaze like whoa.
  31. Sunnydale General is the worst hospital in the world.
  32. Faith is hyper-sexualized needlessly.

Have I missed any that were added in past recaps? Let me know in the comments.  Even though I might forget that you mentioned it.

WARNING: Some people have mentioned they’re watching along with me, and that’s awesome, but I’ve seen the entire series already and I’ll probably mention things that happen in later seasons. So… you know, take that under consideration, if you’re a person who can’t enjoy something if you know future details about it. 

I’m so excited about this episode! So excited! Because it’s femslash time on Buffy, my friends. Yet another of my ships glides into the harbor.

The episode starts with Willow coming to grips with the fact that, as seniors, they can leave school for lunch. Nobody seems to go too far, though. They just cross the road to go to the park and eat. Willow freaks out that maybe the permission they have been given is part of an elaborate trick, and someone will be waiting to bust her for cutting class, so Xander and Oz have to pretty much bodily carry her off campus, to where Buffy is waiting with a picnic. Since Buffy’s boyfriend is, you know, in a hell dimension, Willow and Oz and Xander and Cordelia decide not to be too couple-ish in front of her. Joking about the fact that she’s been expelled from school doesn’t seem to be off limits, though.

As far as boy trouble goes, Willow has the solution to Buffy’s wealth of it:

Willow: “Ooh, Scott Hope at eleven o’clock. He likes you. He wanted to ask you out last year, but you weren’t ready then. But I think you’re ready now. Or, at least in the state of pre-readiness to make conversation or to do that thing with your mouth that boys like. Oh! I didn’t mean that bad thing with your mouth, I meant that little half-smile thing…you’re supposed to stop me when I do that.”

Oz: “I like when you do that.”

Scott Hope walks by and says hi to Buffy, initiating the dance of teen longing that dictates all high school relationships. Willow is super excited, and asks if everyone thinks it went well.

Cordelia: “He didn’t try to slit our throats or anything. It’s progress.”

As always, Cordy has a point.

But Buffy doesn’t want to date, she wants to do normal stuff. Which, as Willow points out, could also be dating. Then Xander calls Buffy a slut in jest, and she hurts him. Good job, Buffy.

Buffy: “All right, yes. Date. And shop and hang out and go to school and save the world from unspeakable demons. You know. I wanna do Girly stuff.”

#GirlyStuff

Cut to Happy Burger, where a guy we will eventually know as Mr. Trick arrives in a limo orders a pop (I guess it’s a soda, if they’re in California) and monologues to an unseen passenger about how great Sunnydale is. And I’m going to reproduce that monologue here, because it’s fantastic characterization:

Mr. Trick: “Sunnydale. Town’s got quaint. And the people? They call me ‘sir.’ Don’t you just miss that? I mean, admittedly, it’s not a haven for the brothers. You know, strictly the caucasian persuasion here in the ‘dale, but, you know, you just gotta stand up and salute that death rate. I ran a statistical analysis and hello darkness. Makes D.C. look like Mayberry. And ain’t nobody saying boo about it. We could fit right in here. Have us some fun.”

Within seconds of introducing the character–and before we even know his name–we know what we need to know about Mr. Trick, just from a few lines of very well-characterized dialogue. He’s evil, he’s smart, he values things being done a certain way, and because of those, he’s dangerous. In fact, when the cloven-hoofed passenger he’s talking to corrects him and says they’re only in town to kill the Slayer, Mr. Trick agrees, but tacks on that they should also be looking at the big picture. Mr. Trick is Big Picture Evil, on a show where so far, there’s been a lot of characters who aren’t. If that’s not a trope already, it should be.

Another thing I like about this little speech is that he calls out the extreme racial homogeny of the town, as well as the fact that nobody either notices or gives a shit that their town is overrun with vampires. The show still fulfills #12 plenty of times over the course of its run (just having a black character slyly acknowledging the absence of people of color in the town doesn’t magically solve the problem of not casting people of color), but it’s nice that someone actually notices what most of us were already thinking.

In case we didn’t understand that Mr. Trick is a vampire, he pulls the drive thru guy out the window and eats him as they drive off, the poor dude’s kicking legs still hanging out of the car.

After the opening credits, Buffy is at the Bronze, dancing with Angel while Oz, Willow, Xander, and Cordelia watch blankly. Buffy’s claddagh ring falls to the floor, and Angel picks it up, giving her an angry glare. She tries to apologize for killing him, and blood spreads over his shirt before it’s revealed that his face is that of a rotting corpse.

Obviously, it’s a dream. The “it’s a dream” thing gets kind of overused in this season. Actually, in this show. I should have been keeping track, now that I think about it. I know Buffy has prophetic dreams and such, I’m just saying that dreams show up a lot. There are at least two whole episodes specifically about dreams.

Joyce and Buffy go to Snyder, who tells them that Buffy can come back to school if she passes tests for the classes she failed the year before, that she has to get a letter of recommendation from someone who isn’t Giles, and that she has to be evaluated by the school psychologist. Joyce points out that Buffy’s return really isn’t conditional, since he has to educate all minors by law. A point that Buffy can’t just let go:

Buffy: “So, let me get this straight. I’m really back in school because the school board overruled you. Wow, that’s like having your whole ability to do this job called into question, when you think about it.”

Joyce: “I think what my daughter is trying to say is, na-na-na-na-na.”

Then the secretary buzzes Snyder and tells him that the Mayor is on the phone, and Snyder looks freaked out.

Meanwhile, in the library–holy shit, is that weed?

Buffy and Willow are walking into the library, and on the counter there are various little bowls and jars of herbs. One of them looks like a glass stash jar full of nugs.

I mean, I don’t think it’s weed. But I do think Giles probably needs to take the edge off, occasionally.

Anyway, I think it’s probably pretty irresponsible to leave all sorts of witchy-looking herbs out where anyone can just see them. Or grab them and use them for evil. This is Sunnydale, after all.

Willow observes that Giles makes a weird clucking noise when he’s angry. Unfortunately, he overhears this, because he’s crouched behind the counter. Giles tells Buffy that they need to do a spell to make sure Acathla is contained, and in order to do the spell he has to know exactly what happened when she defeated Angel. He asks her a few questions, and she gives him only very basic answers before she runs off to take a makeup exam.

Willow wants to help Giles do whatever spell he’s going to do about the Acathla, but he warns her that you don’t mess with magic (“Don’t Mess With Magic” is a track from Anthony Head’s latest album. See what I did there?). She assures him that she hasn’t done anything major since she failed at the spell to restore Angel’s soul. She asks Giles if he’s mad at her, and he tells her that if he were, he’d be making a clucking noise.

At the Bronze, some people are on the dance floor. And guess what! GUESS YOU GUYS GUESS WHAT!

As the scene fades in from right to left, we see people dancing. The first face we see as the black wipe goes across the screen is Faith.

It’s Faith! It’s Faith! And here’s a super neat trick, you guys. The fade in here is a wipe from right to left. The first face we see, closest to the camera, is Faith. But she hasn’t been introduced as a character yet. At this moment, she’s basically an extra, bopping along in the crowd.  This episode was directed by James A. Contner, who also directed some other amazing episodes, like the season six finale “Grave” and season five’s “The Replacement”.  This is a pretty amazing intro to Faith, even if it’s pre-official intro. Viewers might not realize it when they watch this scene for the first time, but by having her show up as the first thing on the screen, she sticks in your memory subconsciously.

Buffy and Oz and Willow are hanging out in a part of the Bronze I don’t think we’ve seen before. It’s better lit and has couches. Scott Hope shows up, because Willow told him Buffy would be there. The fact that Scott admits he came there to see Buffy specifically, and isn’t super high pressure about it (when he asks her to dance and she’s reticent about it, he just says that he’ll be around, and if she wants to dance, she can come to him), makes me really like Scott. Unfortunately, I’ve seen some fans describe him as the weakest Buffy love interest. Considering the guys she actually hooks up with, Scott is a dream.

Cordelia points out Faith on the dance floor and refers to her as “Slut-o-rama.” (#6) This show is pretty unfair toward Faith in terms of painting her as the opposite of Buffy, in large part due to the fact that Faith is more sexually assertive and unashamed of her sexuality. Considering all the other ways Faith differs from Buffy, this wasn’t strictly necessary. Because of this, I’m going to make a new number for our list. #32: Faith is hyper-sexualized needlessly.

Cordelia also points out that the guy dancing with Faith has some really outdated moves. As the two of them leave the club, Buffy realizes that the guy is a vampire. As she tries to follow the couple, she runs into Scott, who mistakenly assumes she’s there to take him up on the dance. They share an awkward exchange before Buffy and the Scoobies head outside, expecting to find a dead girl and a vampire. Instead, they find the should-be-dead girl beating the ass-end of a vampire. She already knows who Buffy is, and introduces herself as Faith–all the while wiping the alley with the vampire.

Oz: “I’m gonna go out on a limb and say there’s a new Slayer in town.”

Faith dispatches the vampire with Buffy’s stake and saunters off.

Cut to the Bronze, where Faith is telling the group all about how she saved a bus full of Christians from some vampires while buck naked.

Xander: “Wow. They should film that story and show it every Christmas.”

Faith goes on to ask Buffy:

Faith: “Ain’t it crazy how Slaying just always makes you hungry and horny?”

Buffy responds timidly with something about low-fat yogurt, because Buffy is the pure good-girl now. In less than a minute, Faith’s sexuality has already been presented to the audience as over-the-top and “slutty”.

Cordelia figures out how Faith became a Slayer: When Buffy died, Kendra was called, and when Kendra died, Faith was called. There are now two lines of Slayers. Faith tells them that her Watcher went on a retreat, so Faith ran away to Sunnydale to meet Buffy. Though she asks Buffy to regale them with her tale of using a rocket launcher, Xander interrupts Buffy to ask Faith to regale them with more stories of her nudity. Oh, and he’s behaving this way while sitting right next to his girlfriend, who is demonstrably furious about it. (#5)

Cordelia: “Xander. Find a new theme.”

Faith asks Buffy what her toughest kill was, and of course Buffy immediately flashes back to Angel. Instead, she starts to tell a story about The Three, those demonic bounty hunters sent after her in season two. And she’s yet again interrupted, this time by Oz, who at least has a higher stakes reason for doing so: he’s worried about whether or not Faith will kill him for being a werewolf. She says as long as he doesn’t attack her, they’re “Five by five,” which is the first occurrence of what might be the single most obnoxious character catchphrase since Steve Urkel’s “Did I do that?”

Faith figures she and Buffy are going to have a great time Slaying vampires together while their Watchers are gone on this retreat. But Giles wasn’t invited to go on the retreat, and he’s pretty bitter about it.

Giles: “It’s a great honor to be invited. Or so I’m told.”

I continue to be baffled by the Watchers. I think I’ve mentioned before how odd I find it that there are so many Watchers when there’s only ever one Slayer. It sounds like the position is hereditary, since Giles said in a season one episode that he wanted to do something else, but this was his duty. So, let’s assume there are multiple Watchers because there are multiple family lines, and also so they have spares if something happens to Donald Sutherland. But that doesn’t explain why, if there’s one single Slayer, they would send a guy they clearly don’t think much of to train her. If Giles isn’t good enough to go on this retreat, why is he good enough to be the Watcher? Of all the members of the Watchers’ council, isn’t his position arguably the most important?

Faith says Giles would be bored by all the stuffy old Watchers, and Buffy wonders if Faith actually paid attention when she introduced them.

Faith: “I’ve seen him. If I’d know they came that young and cute, I’d have requested a transfer.”

Buffy: “Raise your hand if ‘ew’.”

Okay, this is adorable. Xander is disguising his hand raising, but look at Willow:

Xander, trying to make it look like his hand raising is just him trying to scratch his face, and Willow, not raising her hand and staring dreamily at Giles.

She is not raising her hand any time soon.

Now, I hated, and I mean fury-of-Hera, turn-people-into-animals-and-shit hated the comics, and never kept up on them. But did Giles and Faith ever hook up? It seemed like that might be the way the story was going when they were doing that whole My Fair Lady, George Bernard Shaw thing and she was wearing fancy dresses that made him clean his glasses.

Giles is flattered by Faith’s evaluation, but there’s Slayer stuff that’s more important. Buffy asks Willow for help studying for a make-up test, but Willow and Xander have moved on to the shiny, new Slayer, even pressuring Buffy into invited her to dinner. When they’ve gone, leaving Buffy and Giles alone in the library, he asks for more details on what happened with Acathla, but Buffy blows him off again, saying that she has tests and things that are more important.

Willow and Xander show Faith around the school, highlighting all the areas where they nearly died. Faith asks them why Buffy is so uptight, but before they can give her an answer, she goes to get a drink from the drinking fountain. Cordelia comes up and overhears Xander talking about Faith. Cordy asks Xander why he’s so into Slayers, and suggests she should dress up like one, a suggestion he wholeheartedly embraces. When she’s finished getting her drink, Faith bumps into Scott and introduces herself. Which is not great, because Buffy sees the two of them flirting. To make matters worse, Willow even suggests to Buffy that Faith and Scott should hook up.

Why are Buffy’s friends being such absolute dicks in this episode? Willow even tells Buffy that she needs to have more fun, even though she knows what happened to Buffy in the last season, and that she recently ran away almost twice because she thought her friends didn’t need or want her. Now they seem to be doing their best to make sure she knows that they’ve found an updated model. In fact, it feels like “The Gang Become Jerks” could be the title of the whole season.

In some shadowy lair (like vamps do), cloven-hoof vampire is talking with Mr. Trick, and still not seeing the big picture. Mr. Trick is trying to set up a global human-trafficking network for vampires to buy victims, but all cloven-hoof guy wants is to kill the Slayer. But he hasn’t come to town looking for Buffy; the fact that there’s already a Slayer in Sunnydale is news to Mr. Trick. Apparently, Faith fucked up cloven-hoof vampire’s face and eye, and he wants her to pay. And it’s like, chill, dude. You were ugly already.

At the Summers house, even Joyce is more interested in Faith than in Buffy. She asks Faith about being a Slayer (something she hasn’t really taken an interest in discussing with Buffy), and suggests to Buffy that Faith is more positive–and therefore a better Slayer–than she is. Buffy goes with Joyce to the kitchen, where Joyce continues to sing the praises of Faith:

Joyce: “I like this girl, Buffy.”

Buffy: “She’s very personable. She gets along with my friends, my Watcher, my mom…look, now she’s getting along with my fries.”

Joyce: “Now, Buffy…”

Buffy: “Plus, at school today she was making eyes at my not-boyfriend. This is creepy.”

Joyce: “Does anybody else think Faith is creepy?”

Whoa there, Joyce. Turn down those gaslights. Buffy’s feelings are not decided by committee, and if she’s feeling displaced in her own life because of Faith’s arrival, that’s her thing. You might not agree with it, but you don’t get to force her to feel something else. (#3)

One good point Joyce has, though, is that with two Slayers in town, Buffy doesn’t have to do all the Slaying on her own. Which is good, right? Because Buffy doesn’t actually want to be the Slayer, right?

This episode is one of the first indications we have that Buffy is starting to accept her role as Slayer and that she’s beginning to view it as her identity. When she’s not the only Slayer anymore, she begins to feel overshadowed. I think this is pretty healthy, though I’m not a mental health professional. I just think it shows growth on Buffy’s part.

One thing Buffy never mentioned to Joyce?

Buffy: “Mom, the only way you get a new Slayer is when the old Slayer dies.”

Joyce: “Then that means you…when did you die? You never told me you died.”

Buffy: “It was just for a few minutes.”

Joyce: “Oh, I hate this. I hate your life.

Buffy: “Mom, I–”

Joyce: “Look, I know you didn’t choose this, I know it chose you. I have tried to march in the Slayer pride parade, but…I don’t want you to die.”

I know we’ve hotly debated in the comments whether or not being a Slayer was equated to being gay in the series. I just want to file “Slayer pride parade” as another point on my side of the argument. Whether or not Slayer = Gay stands up as a good analogy doesn’t negate the fact that the writers were clearly pushing that narrative.

Because her mother is distraught, Buffy comforts her and then goes out patrolling. Faith points out that they’ve gone down the same street twice, to which Buffy snaps that vampires will rudely ignore that fact. Faith is pretty patient with Buffy’s attitude. Until she’s not.

Faith: “You’ve been doing this the longest.”

Buffy: “I have.”

Faith: “Yeah, maybe a little too long.”

In their argument, Faith brings up Angel, and Buffy loses her mind. She’s going to wipe the floor with Faith, until vampires show up. Instead of taking them on as a team, Buffy throws Faith into the dirt. While Faith pummels a vampire (rather than staking him to end the fight), another grabs Buffy and says something vampirish about living and dying. It’s clear that Faith and Buffy have vastly different slaying styles, with Faith preferring to be as violent as possible, while Buffy prefers the efficiency route. Buffy is complaining about this to Giles the next day at school. He tells her that he’ll try to contact Faith’s Watcher, and asks Buffy if she could tell him anything about the vampires who attacked them the night before.

Buffy: “The one that nearly bit me mentioned something about kissing toast. He lived for kissing toast.”

Giles: “Do you mean Kakistos?”

Buffy: “Maybe it was taquitos. Maybe he lived for taquitos.”

Giles tells Buffy that Kakistos is Greek for “worst of the worst”. Which I think is actually correct, as a Kakistocracy is a government run by the worst possible leaders. See also: The United States after January 2017. Giles also says that Kakistos has cloven feet and hands because he’s so old. I don’t quite get that logic, but whatever. Buffy points out that it’s weird how this ancient vampire and his vampire minions show up at the same time as Faith:

Buffy: “Giles, there are two things that I don’t believe in: coincidence, and leprechauns.”

Giles: “Buffy, it’s entirely possible that they arrived here by chance, simultaneously.”

Buffy: “Okay, but I was right about the leprechauns, right?”

Giles: “As far as I know.”

Buffy: “Good.”

Can I just say how much I love the fact that there are numerous spooky-wooky creatures in the reality of this show, but leprechauns don’t exist?

In the hallway, Buffy runs into Scott. He tells her he’s not going to keep bothering her, but invites her to a Buster Keaton film festival, because he’s just as pretentious as Angel Chase inviting Jordan Catalano to go see The Bicycle Thief. This time, though, Buffy accepts. Scott has, for some creepy reason, decided to get Buffy a present. It’s a ring he bought at a retro shop, which he believes to represent friendship. Yup, it’s a claddagh ring, identical to the one Angel gave her. Buffy drops the ring and rescinds her acceptance of the film festival date, and Scott tells her he understands. Giles, having viewed this exchange from afar, comes to see if Buffy is okay, but she won’t talk about what happened. Instead, she asks if he contacted the Watchers. Turns out, Faith’s is dead.

In a dirty motel room, Faith is arguing with the dirty front desk guy about the eighteen dollars she owes him for the night. She manages to flirt her way out of it, for the moment, just before Buffy shows up to ask her what’s up with this Kakistos guy. The second Faith hears that he’s back in town, she starts frantically packing. Buffy asks if Faith plans to leave and stick Buffy with the ancient vampire problem.

Faith: “You don’t know me, you don’t know what I’ve bene through. I’ll talk care of this, all right?”

Buffy: “Like you took care of your Watcher? He killed her, didn’t he?”

Faith: “They don’t have a word for what he did to her.”

Buffy tells her that if she runs, Kakistos will come after her. But he doesn’t need to, because he’s already standing outside the door. Faith has a total meltdown; this is finally something that cracks her tough-girl disguise. She and Buffy run to temporary safety, where Faith tells Buffy that she saw Kakistos kill her Watcher, got scared, and ran. Buffy tells her she did the right thing, since the job of the Slayer is mostly just not getting killed. Buffy figures they have good odds going two against one on the guy. But Kakistos has hearded the Slayers into his nest, where they have to take on other vampires, as well. As they fight–and multiple lower-level vamps get dusted–Mr. Trick looks on, commenting to another vampire:

Mr. Trick: “If we don’t do something, the master could get killed. Well, our prayers are with him.”

And then they leave. Because Mr. Trick sees the big picture, as he reminds us with his retreating dialogue.

When Buffy tries to stake Kakistos, it’s impossible. He’s too old, it’s like giving him a splinter. He jokes about needing a bigger stake, so Faith gets one. A big ass, pointy-ended beam that’s about as wide as he is. She jams it through him and poof. Buffy asks Faith if she’s hungry, and she responds that she’s starved. They walk off screen together, to have sex in one of my fanfics where they’re both eighteen.

The next day, in the library, Giles tells Buffy and Willow that the council approves of Faith staying in Sunnydale under his supervision until a new Watcher is found. Buffy admits that she was kind of wrong about Faith. Buffy gets that Faith went through a lot, and that dictated her behavior and attitude, but that she ultimately faced the bad thing that happened to her. Which prompts her to tell them:

Buffy: “Angel was cured.”

Giles: “I’m sorry?”

Buffy: “When I killed him. Angel was cured. Your spell worked at the last minute, Will. I was about to take him out, and, um, something went through him, and he was Angel again. He-he didn’t remember anything that he’d done. He just held me. Um, But it was, it was too late, and I, I had to. So I told him that I loved him, and I kissed him, and I killed him. I don’t know if helps with your spell or not, Giles.”

Giles tells her that it will, and a horrified Willow tells her she’s sorry, but Buffy tells them it felt good to get it out. She leaves the library, and Willow once again begs to let her help with the binding spell on the Acathla.

Giles: “There is no spell.”

His only goal was to get Buffy to face what had happened to her. So, he is a good Watcher, and the council can stuff it.

Buffy tries again with Scott, apologizing for why she reacted the way she did and asking if he would give her another chance. He says he’ll have to think about it, walks away a few steps, and comes back immediately to accept. They plan to go out that night, and Buffy is all bouncy, bubbly Buffy again.

Until we cut to the next scene, where Buffy returns to the mansion where she killed Angel. She goes to the spot where she killed him, whispers a good-bye, and places the Claddagh ring he gave her on the floor. She leaves to the sad Buffy/Angel music, and the scene fades out. We fade back in on the ring, which begins to vibrate. A portal opens up and Angel falls, nakedly, onto the floor.

Angel, naked and oily, posed like a renaissance painting of a generic dead saint or something. Translation: lots of ripply muscular back, partial view of his butt.
#30

Cut to end credits.

So, the uncritical Buffy fan in me loves this episode, because what makes this season great is the dual Slayer plot. Also, the femslash potential. The pop culture dissectionist in me can’t ignore the overarching antifeminist themes and illogical world building. In this case, the uncritical fan wins. I heart this episode, incredibly hard.

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36 Comments

  1. Laina
    Laina

    I also love this episode. It just works well, and it works well enough that you can ignore a lot of the things that normally bother you, you know?

    Also.

    NOBODY TELL JENNY ABOUT THE COMICS, OKAY?

    March 3, 2016
    |Reply
  2. Maril
    Maril

    I like the way Scott handles his crush on Buffy. That kind of behaviour is why I developed a massive crush on the guy I’m currently crushing on. ‘I will express interest and then respectfully back off until you decide what you want to do with that information’ is, in my opinion, the absolute best way to court someone. In theory I like the super passionate guy who really goes for what he wants, but in practice that tends to come off as really unpleasant and not at all sexy, where as the guy who expresses interest but makes sure you’re comfortable with everything is way hotter. To me anyway :p Respect is sexy >_> <_< Angel is physically really attractive, but in terms of personality, Scott is the much better option. Though the heart wants what the heart wants…

    March 3, 2016
    |Reply
  3. LCF
    LCF

    I think the Watchers have been around so long and grown so much that they’re more of a social/academic club than an organization that revolves around the slayer. The slayer has become so not interesting to them as a group that they send the lower-ranking members to do the dirty work.
    I imagine the higher-ups split their time between discussing the current state of demon activity and working to increase their wealth and social standing.

    March 3, 2016
    |Reply
  4. Frolik
    Frolik

    I don’t think Faith’s sexuality is cast as good or bad, it’s just an aspect of her. From this episode I understood her to be more bold and assertive than Buffy *in general*, and her sexuality was just a part of that.

    March 3, 2016
    |Reply
  5. FightingDreamer
    FightingDreamer

    Great review! Why do you hate the comics, out of curiosity?

    March 3, 2016
    |Reply
  6. Some Hussy
    Some Hussy

    I thought the reason there were so many watchers was because they had one for each potential slayer just in case they got called. But I could be making this up. Considering how fast they could theoretically go through potentials and depending on when they know a girl has the potential that could mean quite a few watchers. Especially if there was an age minimum on Watchers (since they all seem to be older) so you had to have the watcher of the right age by the time the potential could be called to slay.

    March 3, 2016
    |Reply
    • Janine
      Janine

      I think you’re right, because Kendra mentions that she was given to her Watcher by her parents at a young age, before she was ever called to be a Slayer. We may have just cracked this thing.

      March 5, 2016
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  7. “Buffy responds timidly with something about low-fat yogurt, because Buffy is the pure good-girl now. In less than a minute, Faith’s sexuality has already been presented to the audience as over-the-top and ‘slutty.'”

    I disagree with this assessment.

    Faith goes through a lot and in the end, she turns out to be a truly good person who does some terrible things and is redeemed. But even after the redemption, she retains her sexuality. I never felt that was presented as “bad,” just more assertive than Buffy. Faith IS more assertive than Buffy and that was never the part of her that was bad or wrong.

    And she also uses it as a defense mechanism to prove to people she’s tough and doesn’t care (when she really does care). It’s a pretty realistic portrayal of a teenage girl who’s been through the kinds of things Faith has been through, even without the Slayer crap thrown on top of it all. I always felt like it humanized her a lot.

    “Now, I hated, and I mean fury-of-Hera, turn-people-into-animals-and-shit hated the comics, and never kept up on them. But did Giles and Faith ever hook up?”

    I have no idea, but it really weirds me out that Willow and Wesley are married IRL.

    March 3, 2016
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  8. waffre
    waffre

    I kind of assumed that since Faith’s watcher turned out to not actually be on the retreat, that the retreat was not in fact happening and that’s why Giles wasn’t invited, but maybe I’m off base with that theory…

    March 3, 2016
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    • obl0mov
      obl0mov

      The way Giles commented on it suggested it was a regular thing and he got snubbed before. My theory would be that they’ve never really forgiven him for his Ripper youthful phase and while he’s too good not to keep around, they don’t particularly like him.

      March 6, 2016
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  9. sam
    sam

    I feel like Faith being hypersexualized is kinda an offshoot of the whole “sex is the real villain” trope.

    March 3, 2016
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  10. candy apple
    candy apple

    Great post! A couple of things — I think it was Kendra who was talking about her Watcher and how she had been reading all those books Giles thought Buffy would never read. So each potential Slayer has a Watcher as well. I think that’s also borne out in Season 7 when (if I’m remembering correctly) some of the Potentials mention their Watchers.

    “Five by five” is a legitimate assessment of…something. They used it on The Martian, I noticed, and I’ve heard it other places as well. I think it has to do with communications being within operating parameters? Not sure, exactly. Anyway, it’s probably annoying that Faith uses it so frequently, but she’s not using it incorrectly when she says it as a version of “everything’s okay.”

    March 3, 2016
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    • Aletheia
      Aletheia

      I dunno, I thought it meant that everything’s square (in the sense that everything’s all right) between someone, hah, but no, you’re right that it’s a real thing. There’s a lot of technical write-ups about it (including on Wikipedia, if you just search for “five by five”), but the most clear-cut explanation I could find was from Urban Dictionary: “Loud and clear. From military erminology. Old radios had two readings. Loudness and clarity rated from 0-5. Thus five by five means literally loud and clear.”*

      *(from: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=five+by+five&defid=246366 )

      March 4, 2016
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  11. anon
    anon

    Yes… Joyce’s reaction does seem very familiar to my mum’s when I came out as a lesbian to her. At first it was ‘don’t be silly of course you’re not one’ and these days it is “Of course I didn’t want you to be gay, no mother would wish such a fate to her daughter”
    And my response was “You do realize I’m not yet killed by some random homophobe, don’t act as if me being killed is given.”

    March 3, 2016
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  12. Kate
    Kate

    I have so much love for Faith and Faith and Buffy as a ship. There was so much potential for her after season 3 as well that they never explored. She just goes to prison and serves her redemption there. As much as I enjoy Spike as a character, I think Faith would have been much more interesting in that role. She and Buffy have a much more complicated dynamic, so there would be so much to explore. Make it so that she can’t hurt humans so she becomes the resident snarker. Make her non-subtextually hella bi, realises she’s in love with Buffy later in the show, struggling with her sexuality, her past, her inner demons – which would strengthen the whole “slayer is a metaphor for being gay” theme they hammer us with. Let us learn more about her past. Give us flashbacks. Buffy would probably come around to her faster than she did with Spike since Faith has a soul (unless Faith was made a vampire. Ohhh. That would be interesting). But yeah, the storyline doesn’t have to be copied exactly.
    Instead of the Institute, the villains of season 4 should have been the Watcher’s council who after ‘Helpless’ and Buffy’s rejection of them, try to regain control of the slayers.
    Not that I’m against Spike as a character or Spuffy as a ship. I don’t mind how things worked out, but still… what could have been…

    March 4, 2016
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    • seagull
      seagull

      I remember wondering why no vampire has ever attempted to turn a slayer into one of them. But then I figured they probably thought it was too much of a risk to hope that the SlayerVamp would still be more slayer than vamp and be even more of a supernatural threat with both slayer and vampire powers.

      March 4, 2016
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      • In the comics, that’s thoroughly addressed. They’re called Slaypires (ugh) and are exactly what you’d expect from a Slayer with no soul. A bit like facing the worst of both, indiscriminate killers, and so on. Supposedly, you don’t see them in the show because of the exact reason you listed, they’re way too much of a threat to both vamps and people, and they’re kind of a wild card.

        March 6, 2016
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  13. V
    V

    Love this episode so much, though I almost instantly hated Faith the first time around, so when she turned to the Dark Side, I was so so smug.

    You’re right about Kakistos being correct Greek (ancient Greek anyway, not sure if its the same in modern), it simply means “the worst.” Which is rather amusing if you think about all the characters talking about this ultimate vampire and they’re just like, “omg, he’s The Worst, amirite?!”

    On the philology of the word, it’s just the superlative form of the Greek for “bad,” which is “kakos” ( -istos at the end of any adjective generally means it’s a superlative). It’s nice to have some accuracy in Buffy for their semi-historicising of their demons and magic. It gets really excruciating later on, especially with the pyramid that appears in Sunnydale cemetary out of nowhere in the second to last episode.

    March 5, 2016
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  14. Quint&Jessel, Sea of Azof, Bly, UK
    Quint&Jessel, Sea of Azof, Bly, UK

    “Buffy responds timidly with something about low-fat yogurt, because Buffy is the pure good-girl now.” I read that as Buffy already getting a tad miffed that she’s not the only Slayer/special girl in town any more.

    March 5, 2016
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  15. Quint&Jessel, Sea of Azof, Bly, UK
    Quint&Jessel, Sea of Azof, Bly, UK

    After Angel ended, there was some talk about a Spike/Faith series. Oh, that would have been so fun….

    March 5, 2016
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  16. V
    V

    Another thing, and spoiler alert:

    I utterly agree with you about Mr. Trick and how perfect this episode, and particularly those first lines, are at establishing his particularly amazing character. Reading this actually reminded me how much fun he is with his time on the show, particularly in the Slayerfest episode. And how downright annoying it is that he got killed so soon after being introduced.

    It felt particularly odd to me because, as Jenny points out, he had been fantastically characterised from the off. He was witty, techsavvy, ambitious and a good foil for all the ancient, traditional vamps and demons and such who were all about indulging in ancient prophecies and grudges and harvesting souls etc. This was a capitalist interpretation of a vampire, who saw no reason why he should adhere to the embedded and dusty ways of feeding and wreaking havoc. They could have had a storyline about him actually trying to create a “human farm” as in what happened in The Wish, or any other mad, capitalist principles he’d try to apply to vampirism.

    Anyone else annoyed such an unusual and original potential Big Bad was removed so early?

    March 5, 2016
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    • H
      H

      YES. ME. And after he had been the one to point out Sunnydale’s melanin deficiency, it really just felt like, “Welp, we’ve lampshaded it. Problem solved, now we can get rid of the messenger.”

      March 6, 2016
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      • V
        V

        And he would have been a FANTASTIC Big Bad! He was a brilliant assistant for the Mayor, and if he would have been a great survivor from graduation to come back and wreak havoc. I think they got rid of him so they could have Faith go over to the Dark Side, and by killing him they had a way she could just fit right in, but I remember the first time I watched it, it felt completely out of nowhere and a really crap move to kill Trick. Just gutted that they could have had a story where he sets up a McVampire global empire from Sunnydale (as he suggests to Kakistos), and him being in the Mayor’s back pocket would have been a perfect background for him to lay the foundation for that. They had the perfect Big Bad for a future season all ready to go but they killed him off so Faith could have her whiny, nonsense redemption arc.

        March 6, 2016
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  17. Jemmy
    Jemmy

    I think the original purpose of the Watchers got lost over time to some extent, insitutionalised. They have assigned Watchers to each potential that they find, but they also have a role in preserving knowledge across the years, since the Slayers won’t live long enough to give their knowledge to the next one.

    They have come to view the Slayer as a tool of the Watchers Council, rather than viewing themselves as a support for the Slayer. Buffy fixes this to some extent of the course of the show. The episode where she deals with the head of the Watchers Council is one of my personal favourites.

    March 8, 2016
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  18. Anon123
    Anon123

    ” . . . just having a black character slyly acknowledging the absence of people of color in the town doesn’t magically solve the problem of not casting people of color . . . ”

    Especially not when he does it while speaking in a very stereotyped way? (Plus wearing “pimp”-ish clothes while being named Trick?) I was very conflicted about whether to consider this character’s presence progress or not.

    Also, I propose #33: The “it’s a dream” thing gets kind of overused in this show.

    I liked the note on the camerawork re: Faith’s introduction. I don’t pick up on that kind of thing a lot myself.

    I’m also glad you highlighted Joyce’s subtle gaslight on “Does anyone else think Faith is creepy?” That’s the kind of thing that I tend to take as normal human interaction because of my background, so I really appreciate it when people in the know call it out. 🙂

    As for “Slayer pride parade” and the possible gay analogy, I’m still in camp “It’s only Joyce who processes Slayer-ness this way, because she’s not capable of actually dealing with it, because #3.”

    Speaking of #3, you missed a chance to pin one on, “Because her mother is distraught, Buffy comforts her and then goes out patrolling.” This is backwards–the kid comforts mom, then has to leave to go to work? No. That’s not right. I know this now.

    Anyway, great analysis, looking forward to more as always!

    March 8, 2016
    |Reply
    • Kate
      Kate

      Joyce’s gaslighting is especially distasteful after Ted. Does she even remember that?

      March 8, 2016
      |Reply
  19. Sigyn Wisch
    Sigyn Wisch

    Okay so I’ve been watching Buffy lately too and there’s a point I think should be brought up re:Faith post-Bad Girls.

    Spoiler alert: she accidentally a human. Buffy & CO make this huuuge deal about it and, like… I get it. Killing humans isn’t what Slayers are about. But anyone with even a little bit of tactical analysis skill and field experience — a seasoned ex-Watcher, say — should understand that a) Accidents happen in the field and b) Making mistakes like that can cause someone to feel condemned enough without the people they thought were their friends coming at them. I feel like as much as the Scoobies pushed Jonathan to becoming a bad guy, they pushed Faith as well by constantly going, “hey, you fucked up, hey, feel bad, you’re a terrible person”. That condemnation coming at her from all sides probably gave her that push to Then Let Me Be Evil. I know for me, when I make a mistake, the worse anyone tries to make me feel, the less I care, so… Maybe it worked the same way with Faith. It would have been interesting if any part of the narrative acknowledged that, but as far as I can remember, no, they just treat her as a bad person from Bad Girls on out.

    I know it’s early and only vaguely on topic, sorry.

    March 13, 2016
    |Reply
    • Nathalie Greig
      Nathalie Greig

      Spoilers for Angel/s7 below.

      Yesssssss this!! I blame a lot of Faiths slide into “badness” (personally saw it more like lost and isolated) in the way Buffy and then later the rest of the scoobies treated her. She is my favourite character for sure and was so stoked when she was able to resolve things in Angel and come back for s7!!xx

      July 18, 2022
      |Reply
  20. Sarah
    Sarah

    One of the things that I love the most about this episode is that it reminds me that Wesley Wyndam-Pryce is coming!!

    I didn’t mind the “five by five” thing so much.

    I would have taken Trick as the new Big Bad over fucking Adam any day of the week.

    side note: Does anyone else want to start calling Trump “Kakistos”?

    March 14, 2016
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    • Sigyn Wisch
      Sigyn Wisch

      Yespls. Trumpkistos!

      March 15, 2016
      |Reply
  21. Jane
    Jane

    I really wish Joss had hired even a vaguely competent actress to play Faith. Eliza Dushku is the second worst actor in the Buffyverse, and makes enjoying any of Faith’s scenes very difficult. She’s a caricature of a sexualized bad girl with absolutely no depth or acting skill that would make her feel like a real person. This Year’s Girl/Who Are You shows the immense difference between Gellar’s and Dushku’s acting skills.

    Mr. Trick is fantastic, and I really wish they’d kept him around longer.

    March 28, 2016
    |Reply
  22. Hollykim
    Hollykim

    I’d agree that Scott is the weakest love interest technically, because I wouldn’t have remembered him without this recap. But this is someone who was interested in her, who she went on a few dates with, who bowed out once he realized wasn’t invested at all…so yeah, possibly the most decent guy she dated

    August 11, 2016
    |Reply
  23. Roxie
    Roxie

    I really like your outlook on this episode and the season 3. I really disliked Willow and Xander this series. They treated Buffy like shit. I loved Faith and I wish they wouldn’t of portrayed her as a slut. You can be confident in your sexuality and not be considered a slut. You can also wear tastefully revealing clothes and still not be viewed as slutty. IDK just my opinion. You also said you had a fanfic you wrote after Buffy and Faith walked off to get some… Quote on quote “ribs”. Where can I read that fic?

    September 24, 2018
    |Reply
    • Nathalie Greig
      Nathalie Greig

      My question exactly… I need said fic in my life… this blog is amazing as well thanks Jenny! Been obsessed since I found it 2 days ago (and yes I’m reading in order from s1)

      July 18, 2022
      |Reply
  24. Skylar
    Skylar

    I read “The Gang Becomes Jerks” and immediately the Always Sunny theme started playing in the back of my mind.

    I feel like they could have really nailed the phrase “Slay Pride Parade.”

    My mom watched these when they first came out, but I wasn’t quite old enough to watch or remember anything but the back half of Angel. Now that I’m watching it, she’s been letting me in on small things that happen later. She was very vocal about how I would like the new slayer.
    When she first showed up on screen, I had yelled “MOOOOOOM! YOU DIDN’T TELL ME SHE WAS HOTTTTT!”
    Don’t get me wrong – She’s an awesome character. Sometimes the lesbian brain just takes over the feminist brain.

    December 17, 2019
    |Reply

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