Season 3 Episode 03
(This isn't so much a standalone review as it is the first in a long series of posts on the character Faith. I'll try to keep long-term spoilers to a minimum.)
At the end of Season 1, Buffy the Vampire Slayer died. It didn't stick, but it did result in Kendra being called. At the end of Season 2, Kendra the Vampire Slayer died. That one did stick, and now Faith is the "true" Slayer. Also at the end of Season 2, Angel died. That, predictably, didn't stick, and this is the episode where it is proven not to have sticked. Stuck. Whatever.
"Faith, Hope & Trick" introduces three characters to the show. Mr. Trick is a vampire who will be talkin' jive and doing the Mayor's dirty work until... well, let's just say there's a job opening. Scott Hope is Buffy's rebound, who gets his own little mini-arc and can almost be completely ignored for the sake of this episode. But Faith...
As she puts it to Wesley in Angel's "Five by Five," would things have been different? If Giles had been her Watcher, or if X happened instead of Y... or was she always fated to end up the way she was by the time she disappears from the show(s) for a while at the end of "Sanctuary?" And is the character who returns in "Salvage" really the same character?
Right off the bat, we know that she's a "darker" character than Buffy is. She's carrying around no more emotional baggage than Buffy is, but hers boils so much more closely to the surface. And she is far more sexualized than any other human character on either show; she's introduced dancing provocatively, and immediately after introducing herself as a Slayer, she regales the Scoobies with a story that involves nudity, much to Xander's delight (post-"Consequences" Xander was unavailable for comment, alas). Oh, and according to her, slaying makes you both hungry and horny; Buffy will only admit to the first one (blah blah Season Six blah blah).
Okay, the plot: There's a nasty vamp in town named Kakistos, who's apparently even older than the game-face-locked Master, because this guy has hooves in addition to a permanent game-face. He's after "the Slayer," and because he's introduced before Faith is, we're led to initially believe he's after Buffy. But no; he killed Faith's old Watcher (tore her in half, according to the Expanded Universe), and left Faith with some serious emotional scars.
Speaking of emotional scars, a running subplot of this episode concerns Giles's ultimately successful attempt to get Buffy to confess that Angel had been re-ensouled when she killed him. Both Slayers are carrying around emotional baggage, both are told they need to put it behind them, both appear to do so at the end of the episode... and neither actually does.
Anyway, the episode proper begins with yet another Angel dream. See, Angel's off in a hell dimension, and both of the last two episodes had him only appear in Buffy's dreams, where she's all guilt-trippy about having kebabed him. So we get the Angel dream out of the way first thing here... we know full well that these things only exist to keep David Boreanaz in the credits, so he's going to come back sooner or later. But by having a dream in the episode, we kind of figure it won't be during this episode.
Buffy is readmitted to school, where Giles asks Buffy for help making sure that Acathla (the demon Angelus was trying to unleash) remains dormant. To do this, he needs to know all the details of Buffy's fight with Angel. As I said above, he's really just trying to get Buffy to get that big weight off her chest - no, I mean get her to tell him that she was forced to kill Angel, not Angelus, you pervert. Buffy dodges, mentioning that Angel got the pointy end, and that was that. Arya Stark would be so proud. Immediately after Buffy leaves, Willow conveniently reminds us that she was trying to re-ensoul Angel right around the time Buffy killed him. Y'know, that'll be important.
Evening. The Bronze. Willow and Oz are making out, Buffy gets hit on by Scott but it goes nowhere because her real love interest for the season shows up. She notices "slut-o-rama and her disco date" out on the dance floor, and her attention is immediately drawn... to the fact that disco-boy is a vampire, obviously. It turns out that "slut-o-rama" is Faith, the Vampire Slayer. And the first thing that she does after staking the vampire is give Buffy a nickname. Aaaaaaw.
After the commercial break, we come back to the naked story I mentioned earlier. Then she casually drops the fact that slaying makes her hungry and horny. Then Cordelia does her job of explaining the backstory to people who are slow on the uptake. Faith asks what Buffy's toughest kill was, and she dodges before coming up with The Three (who were killed by the Master). The conversation takes a few more twists and non-sequiturs before Faith mentions that her Watcher is on a retreat in England.
Giles is not so lucky, but he's on hand to mention that two people have gone missing. Faith starts stealing all of Buffy's friends, including her not-boyfriend Scott. Worst of all, Willow starts using the "B" nickname for Buffy. Intolerable!
Over at Buffy's house, Faith is talking about how she's always so sure that she'll win and the vampires will lose. Faith, dear, Spike would like a word with you, but you'll be out of the picture by the time Season Five and his "one good day" speech comes along. (Also need to contrast this with Wish!Buffy's outlook in "The Wish," so it's not like Wish!Buffy's an exact clone of Faith.) She also eats Buffy's food because, well, "taking everything of Buffy's" is kinda Faith's schtick. Meanwhile, Buffy's mom wants her to quit and let Faith take over. Buffy randomly lets slip that the only way you get a new Slayer is if the old one dies. Which means she died at some point. Joyce has the line "I have tried to march in the Slayer Pride Parade..." which is basically the last time that she treats Buffy like she just came out of the closet (and good thing too, because "Gingerbread" is just around the corner, and that episode is messed up enough already without additional subtext).
Faith and Buffy start snipping at each other while out on patrol. B's friends went and told Faith about Angel, and how she should be moving on but she's not. Vampires attack before we can get too deep too early in the episode, and that's my word choice and I'm sticking with it. Buffy takes out most of them on her own, because Faith has gone bonkers and is just wailing on one.
Buffy tells Giles; Giles promises to get in touch with Faith's Watcher at the retreat. (It turns out that she was killed by Kakistos. You would think that the Council would tell the only other Slayer's Watcher about that sort of thing. But no, the Watcher's Council is even more incompetent than... okay, it's in an incompetence class by itself.)
Buffy runs into Scott again, who gives her a claddagh ring, which freaks her out. Giles notices and drops the bombshell about Faith's watcher.
Faith is living in a dingy motel and apparently having trouble making rent. Buffy drops by and starts pumping her. For information. Anyway, Faith starts packing to run away. Like Buffy did at the end of Season 2. Buffy plays Ms. Moral High Ground and calls her on it. Then vampires attack.
I'd like to point out that the vampires do in fact manage to reach inside Faith's motel room (and punch through the door) here. Contrast that with the invisible barrier that keeps Angel out of Buffy's house in "Lover's Walk." I mention this because the rule about invitations has been in flux since "Passion" and will remain contested in "Consequences." In "Passion," Angelus claimed that he was able to enter the school because of the Latin inscription, which he (mis!)translated as "Enter all who seek knowledge." (And earlier, Spike needed no such justification for doing exactly the same thing in "School Hard.") But as far as I'm concerned, the "public accommodation rule" - that is to say, unless it's a house, or an apartment, a vampire needs no invitation, and motels are no different from ice cream shops - is in effect by now.
Buffy and Faith flee to the firehouse from Ghostbusters (yes, really!) where Kakistos springs his trap. Trick bails on his boss, and Faith becomes a gibbering ball of angst, but when Buffy can't finish Kakistos with a normal stake, Faith takes a crossbeam and skewers him on it. Now, look, there's no easy way to say this, but, uh... Buffy/Faith is practically canon, and Faith's is bigger.
"Was it good for you too?"
Buffy returns to the library, and realizes that she too must deal with her emotional baggage, so she tells Giles and Willow that the soul-spell worked. Then she goes back to Angel's creepy mansion and drops her ring and walks away.
Boom, Angel does his best impersonation of Kyle Reese from the beginning of The Terminator.
Is this episode good? Boy howdy. Faith is a cannonball, destined to go careening through the show leaving havoc in her wake. Great introduction.
6 out of 10.
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