Buffy: "Consequences"

"I missed the mark last night and I'm sorry about the guy, I really am. But it happens. But how many guys do you think we've saved by now, thousands? And didn't you stop the world from ending? Because in my book, that puts us in the plus column."
-Faith

The episode begins with Buffy dreaming. She's drowning, being dragged down by the deputy mayor. She makes it to the surface, but is shoved back under by Faith. (They keep doing this drowning-as-baptism allegory; first in 1.12, "Prophecy Girl," then in the last episode, now here.) The news breaks that the deputy mayor has been murdered. Wes wants the Slayers to look into it. Buffy says there's no point because there's no hint of a supernatural element, and Faith, extremely uncharacteristically, agrees with Wes. 

Wesley mistakes Cordelia for a teacher. I'm just gonna leave a link here and move on.

Buffy and Faith go to an empty classroom to discuss their little dilemma. When Buffy says she can't lie for Faith, Faith points out that she lied to protect Angel. Jealous, Faith? Jokes aside,

We next discover that, just as Buffy is moving closer to Faith, Willow is moving closer to her witchcraft buddies.

Crime scene. Angel looks on as detectives find a bloody smear on the dumpster where Faith staked the deputy mayor. Man, she was really sloppy with that whole body-disposal thing. We, along with the Mayor, learn what the coroner's report says: there were wooden splinters in the wound. The Mayor muses that "a Slayer up for murder one" is "interesting." Unbeknownst to him, the Slayers are both sneaking around City Hall, investigating the deputy mayor, and they see Wilkins and Trick leave together, thick as thieves.

Buffy and Faith have another talk about what happened. Buffy keeps pushing the girl-scout angle, while Faith drops the plot-relevant point that there's a freighter leaving the docks twice a day, just in case she needs to bail. Faith does the Slayer-as-Ubermensch thing again, including the quote at the top.  "People need us to survive. In the balance, nobody's going to cry over some random bystander who got caught in the crossfire." Yet Faith is clearly uncomfortable with all this; in addition to the line about skipping town if necessary, her body language says she really doesn't wanna talk about it. Oh, she loves talking Slayer-as-Ubermensch. She doesn't want to talk about the consequences of that.

Detective Useless (2.11, "Ted;" 2.22, "Bargaining, Part 2") shows up to hound Buffy and Faith about the killing, but leaves empty handed. Angel notices.

Buffy finally flips out and confesses to Willow. Friendship repaired! Meanwhile, Faith has also gone and confessed to Giles... that Buffy was the murderer. Friendship ruined!

Sidebar: Faith can't look Buffy in the eye.

And here's where things get interesting.

Giles reveals that he knows Faith's a bad liar (which is why he treats her as one of the good guys until 3.18, "Enemies"), and also that this is not the first time this has happened. "It's tragic, but accidents happen." Normally the Council investigates, but Giles plans to keep them out of this. He handwaves the whole "hey, Your Britishness, why didn't you just tell Faith that?" issue by telling her that Faith is in denial and there's no helping her until she faces what happened. Unfortunately for the whole "keeping the Council out of this" thing, Wesley is eavesdropping.

When the Scoobies discuss what to do, Xander volunteers to talk to Faith because he had sex with her. Naturally Willow figured it out first. (Immediately after this scene she goes to the bathroom for a good cry, so "Amends" notwithstanding, she's obviously not over him.) Buffy points out that Faith is a "use 'em and lose 'em" kinda girl, and she's not going to take Xander seriously.  Despite the fact that he is a) a former lay and b) mortal, Xander doesn't listen and goes off to try to talk to Faith. Faith insists that the important thing isn't that it was an accident, but that it was Buffy who did it. Xander might be starting to get through to her with the whole "accidents happen" line before he goes off trying to play the knight in shining armor. Faith has no time for that. It ends with the first attempted rape in the series, before Angel bashes Faith over the head, drags her back to the mansion, and, because this is a Marti Noxon episode, chains her up. (By the way, Faith can't break out on her own. Nor could she break the handcuffs in the last episode. Compare with the handcuffs she breaks in 3.21, "Graduation Day, Part 1.")

Everyone so far has gone about this all wrong. Buffy keeps pushing the "it's wrong and I'm a saint" thing, which is never going to work with Faith. Giles knows Faith is lying but doesn't bother to say something like "Well, I can understand why Buffy would be upset and want to hide this from us. These things happen. The important thing is she feels remorse for it." Xander has the right idea as far as the approach goes, but he's completely the wrong person for the job.

Angel, on the other hand, knows exactly what it's like to be a murderer.  While Buffy goes back to Faith's place to "get some of her things" to prove she's on her side (um, as far as poor excuses go, this takes the cake), Angel starts lecturing Faith.  Given that she doesn't attack him, he might be getting through to her. Of course, then the Watcher's Council's goons show up. (Giles seems to think the Council will lock her up, but surely that can't be standard operating procedure? Give the vampires free run while you rehabilitate the Slayer, rather than off that Slayer and keep a tighter leash on the next one?) Faith breaks out after heavily implying that she's ready to take another life - so Angel was right about that whole "she's got a taste for it" thing. 

When Buffy finds out Faith's gone, she remembers that line earlier about the freighter and makes a logical conclusion. Buffy insists that it's not too late, but Faith has no interest in being "miss goody-two shoes." Faith continues doing the Corrupter thing. "You need me to toe the line because you're afraid you'll go over it." Clearly she strikes a nerve, but they're ambushed by vampires; the Mayor knows that the Slayers know he's dealing with them, so he sent Mr. Trick to eliminate them. Faith saves Buffy from Trick and stakes him.

Giles thinks Faith has a chance since Buffy won't give up on her, but Faith shows up at the Mayor's office, informs him Trick is dust, and decides that means he has a job opening.


7 out of 10. This is a bit of a letdown from the first part. Faith and Buffy essentially have the same conversation three times, and Faith's decision to ally with the Mayor at the end is confusing. She continues acting like she's part of the Scoobies while she works for the Mayor, so it's not like she's trying to get away from them. How does she know that Angel's not just going to knock her out and chain her up again?  (The original plan was for Faith to commit suicide, and while the end result is much better, it does mean the writers are scrambling right now.)