Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: When Kendra was killed by Drusilla, Faith was called, a Slayer from Boston with some mental health issues and a passion for turning to the dark side. Buffy put her in a coma before the big fight with the Mayor and there she's remained. The Initiative is crumbling with Adam on the loose and Riley's hospitalised.
Buffy is still reeling from Riley being taken away from her and Adam running loose around Sunnydale, dissecting demons and generally being a bit horrible. However, a more immediate problem is on the way. Faith, in a hospital since her scrap with Buffy before Graduation Day, has woken up and has escaped. The rogue Slayer is on the move and after Buffy, reeling from finding out that not only has she been in a coma for eight months, but Graduation Day has failed and Buffy succeeded in killing the Mayor. She goes after our little Buffster with a neat weapon the Mayor managed to leave her.
After the considerable awfulness that has been the last two episodes, I've been so looking forward to getting to the Faith episodes because a) they have a real classic Buffy feel about them and b) Eliza Dushku is awesome in this role. She slips back into it fast, a riot of pent-up energy and rage that's directed in the Scoobies' direction. Her first scene with Sarah Michelle Gellar also snaps back into the antagonistic relationship their characters' share with their quips and begrudging respect for each other. It's amazing how quickly the Initiative stuff falls away once she arrives and the quality of the season once again soars. Plus, Joyce comes back!
Kristine Sutherland's absence has been notable from this season, a voice of reason to counter Giles and the others with wit and style. Donald Petrie's script acknowledges this by having Faith use it to get to Joyce, mocking her with hypotheses that Buffy has forgotten them both because she's so damn selfish. Of course, Joyce gives as good as she gets and takes the piss out of Faith with glee. Glorious. I do feel a little sorry for the 1630 Revello Drive though; it's been months since it had to have any repairs done to it. It must have been so peaceful. Poor house.
An interesting element of the episode, amongst others, is seeing into Faith's dreams. Buffy's prophetic dreaming crops up as needed, but This Year's Girl allows us to see into another Slayer's psyche and it's Faith's so it's twisted. Obviously. It positions Buffy as the bad guy, a Terminator-like presence determined to ruin her life. It's a swift way of reacquainting us with their antagonistic relationship, as well as clueing us in to the eventual topsy-turvy nature of the follow-up episode, Who Are You.
Christophe Beck's ethereal score in the sequences are truly amazing, especially the horror-esque vocal refrain that haunt Faith as she's being chased by Buffy. It gives the dreams an even more wacky quality, removed from the rest of the episode but highly important for what's to come. Hello, Dawn foreshadowing; it's the second reference we get from Faith about her after the Little Miss Muffet line in Graduation Day Part 2. He's a canny bugger, is that Whedon.
Most of all though, and it's something the worst episodes of the fourth season are missing, is that it's so damn entertaining. Dushku seizes her return with gusto and reminds everyone why we all love to hate Faith in these pre-redemption and her fights with Buffy are scrappy and dramatic. Those fights are also ones for the longterm fans; we know how good both of them are so there's no pauses, no need for orchestrated dynamic shifting. It's just two skilled fighters going at it and you're never quite sure which one is going to come out on top in each one.
This Year's Girl is the first of a two-parter and ends on one heck of a cliffhanger. I remember watching that for the first time, hearing "five by five," realising what happened and then being ridiculously angry that I need to wait another week for the resolution. Fortunately, the power is in my hands to watch it right now. You guys have to wait another week for what I think of it, but I'm sure not many of you are particularly angry about that.
Five by five.
Quote of the Week:
Giles: Well, we have to find [Faith].
Willow: What about Adam?
Xander: I'd hate to see the pursuit of a homicidal lunatic get in the way of pursuing a homicidal lunatic.
Inventive Kill: Adam, unseen for the episode, dissects a demon and leaves it hanging between trees for the Scoobs to find. Lovely.
Let's Get Trivial: The shop where Faith stops to admire the knives in the window is the same shop that she and Buffy broke into back in Bad Girls.
- Becky
You can read Becky's look at previous episode, Goodbye Iowa, here.
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Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Mayor plans his Ascension with Faith as his right-hand Slayer. Angel has told Buffy that he plans to leave Sunnydale after the Mayor is stopped and head to LA whilst Xander appears to have a burgeoning, if confrontational, relationship with Anya.
Hello! We are back in business. I know it has been a long time and for anyone who has been waiting around for this next post (waves to all two of you), I do apologise for the gap between S3E20 and S3E21/22. Life stuff got in the way and we all know how that sucks when it gets in the way of Buffy watching (pun very much intended). However, I'm ready and raring to go once more and for those of you who are unaware, I shall also be watching Angel alongside Buffy as the God Whedon intended. These will begin after next week's The Freshman so as to line up the various crossover episodes on the way. So, without much more ado, let's pick up where we left off.
"Congratulations to the class of 1999. You all proved more or less adequate..."
As the gang prepare to graduate from Sunnydale High and move just down the road to UC Sunnydale, the Mayor ramps up his endgame, building towards the Ascension. He starts to tie up loose ends, inadvertently revealing to the Scoobies that he will turn into a whacking great demon which they can actually kill, as well as using Faith to distract Buffy by poisoning Angel. It leads the two Slayers to finally battle it out, but Buffy soon works out ways of saving both Angel and defeating the Mayor. Calling on the students of Sunnydale High, Graduation Day brings the fight to the Mayor.
First of all, praise must go to Harry Groener as Mayor Richard Wilkins III, the perfect kind of mundane evil and still one of the series' most memorable villains: "we don't knock during dark rituals?" He spends much of the first parter lurking in the background, mostly focusing on his relationship with Faith and his almost personable threat to the Scoobies. The second part moves him straight to the forefront, his grief for Faith moving him to try and suffocate Buffy. In that moment, he becomes a physical threat to the Scoobies, no longer a distant foe, but someone who can be stopped and killed. There's also his commencement speech is littered with the kind of macabre puns that play into his genteel humour whilst his final words, "oh, gosh" are just perfect.
The build-up to this climax is also pitch perfect as several characters are forced into life-changing decisions. Buffy turns her back on the Watcher's Council and because they are in England, they can't tell which way her back is turned. Xander is confident that he's going to die, but nevertheless refuses to run away with Anya, knowing that his place is to fight alongside Buffy until the very end. Oz and Willow take the next step in their relationship when they sleep together on the eve of Graduation, another step in the journey that is Willow becoming awesome, then evil, then awesome again (it also disproves that whole weird thread that has cropped up about sex being bad for women in Buffy, which it is if you cherrypick examples and ignore everything else).
There is also the fight that everyone has been waiting for since the gang realised Faith was a few apples short of a bushel and let's face it, she does a really stupid thing in targeting Angel. The Buffy-Faith clash is one of the most brutally choreographed fights the show produced in its run, an emotional, violent battle to the death/coma. The outcome of Faith escaping and lapsing into a coma also means that Buffy doesn't cross that line into killing a human, despite Faith's supernatural status and the whole stabbing thing. She still remains unequivocally on the side of good.
The episodes also make it clear that Buffy and Faith's connection isn't over. Their weird collaborative dream brings back the idea that dreams are a big deal as a Slayer; Faith's cryptic dialogue is actually referencing Dawn's arrival in the fifth season with 'Little Miss Muffet' - she's later called 'curds and whey' by a crazy man who sees her true status as The Key. It's a neat little scene that not only forecasts Dawn, but the trippy, prophetic dreamstate that would return in the pattern-breaking fourth season finale, Restless.
Way back in my look at The Prom, I mentioned that I happen to think Graduation Day (both parts) is the best finale that Buffy came up with during its seven season run. It's a tough one to call because each finale finishes off their respective season perfectly, no matter the quality that has gone before. However, Graduation Day aligns not only with a season finale, but also with a kind of life finale, that of finishing high school. 'High School is Hell' has often been the mantra of the first three seasons and the finale forms the apotheosis of that idea as Sunnydale High becomes a literal battleground.
The montage that flows between the good and evil planning session is so well-edited as the two generals, Buffy and the Mayor, rally their respective forces. In the school scenes, everything is tinged with a bittersweetness as Buffy capitalises on the gratitude and faith in her that was demonstrated at The Prom, calling on the Scoobies' connections across campus to rally the students into an ad hoc army in which social boundaries cease to exist. That moment when they reveal their weaponry and start to fight is still emotional. Seeing Harmony, Larry and Jonathan fight alongside the Scoobies for the first and, in some cases, last time is one of the most joyous moments in the series as a whole; the traditionally canon fodder students get to fight their own battles and beat the bad guys. And seriously, how badass does Percy look fighting alongside Angel?
The final scene as the gang sit amongst the wreckage of the now-exploded Sunnydale High is the perfect encapsulation of that bittersweet feeling; the relief of having survived high school with your friends, as well as having defeated a hokey SFX great, big snake. It's a quiet scene, nothing but a brief reflection, but the Scoobies win and get to fight another day.
Picking this was absolutely the most difficult decision I've had so far because it's a finale packed full of great lines. However, I couldn't not go with a classic Ozism. Quote of the Week:
Cordelia: I personally don't think it's possible to come up with a crazier plan.
Oz: We attack the Mayor with hummus.
Cordelia: I stand corrected.
Oz: Just keeping things in perspective.
Let's Get Trivial: Cordelia bags her first vampire in the final battle.
Demonology 101: Harmony's bite proves to be more than fatal and she returns as the world's most hilarious vampire later in the fourth season.
- Becky
You can read Becky's look at The Prom here.
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Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Faith's on the dark side, Buffy and Angel's relationship is now very serious and the Mayor is hurtling towards his ascension as the gang look on without knowing what to do.
Another aptly titled episode finds the gang with offers from colleges on their respective doorsteps. Buffy has been accepted to Northwestern, Willow's got into just about every university going (including Giles Factory, Oxford) and Xander's decided to go full Kerouac. The Mayor is also a step closer to ascending, having to digest an entire box of weird demonic spiders. With Buffy wanting to take the fight to his door, the gang put a plan into action. This being an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it doesn't go entirely to plan.
It's the episode in which Buffy and the Mayor finally meet, a union that crackles with all the tension that has gone before it. Unable to attack her directly, he plants the seed of doubt in Angel's mind about his relationship with Buffy. It's an insidious technique and one which forecasts Angel's departure loud and clear. Of course, Buffy is trying to leave herself but realises before the end that she is unable to. The threat of their looming future is reflected in the threat of the Ascension itself and it's that darkness that hangs heavy over the episode.
That threat doesn't carry quite so well in the earlier scenes because the episode goes into a full-on thriller homage, beginning with Buffy's desire to steal the Box of Gavrok. The heist itself is a nice little Mission Impossible style spoof, from Wesley's plan to synchonrise watches foiled by Buffy and Willow not wearing one to Buffy's harness jamming in her Tom Cruise moment. The jovial attitude to it doesn't always quite work, particularly when Willow gets captured (though her interaction with the vampire is great and clearly an early prototype for Agents of SHIELD's Simmons' attempts at remaining cool under pressure).
There are many little moments in this episode that I love. It's in the emphasis on the character quirks; Willow drawing diagrams for Xander and Oz's magic prep, Giles bringing a flask of tea on the Box heist and Snyder's war on drugs. The episode may not work entirely as a whole, but the character stuff is so good that the sudden shift in tone from jovial heist to hostage situations doesn't jar. Especially when Snyder barges in and begins accusing of everyone of being on a drug deal. For a man clued into the Sunnydale situation, he's remarkably silly. But that is why we love to hate him.
In fact, this is such a great Willow episode, despite it not being entirely about her. Given her growth over the course of the season, it's hardly surprising that she will readily stand up to Faith. Her speech about how Faith threw away pretty much any advantage she had is such a kickass character moment as well as going on to be the saviour of the day by stealing pages from the Books of Ascension. The episode is also the point at which Willow's future as a badass Wicca is cemented, deciding to stay in Sunnydale and help Buffy fight the good fight. That squeal and hug when she tells Buffy she's staying? Adorable.
Quote of the Week:
Mayor: Where's the courier? I'm supposed to pay him.
Faith: I made him an offer he couldn't survive.
Let's Get Trivial: The death of the security guard marks the 8th death of a Sunnydale High employee since the series began.
- Becky
You can read Becky's look at Earshot here.
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Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Giles' replacement from the Watcher's Council, Wesley Wyndham-Price, has arrived in town and immediately rubbed everyone up the wrong way. During an alleyway confrontation, Faith accidentally kills the Deputy Mayor, Alan Finch, dumping the body and telling Buffy she doesn't care about what happened.
The sombre mood that closed the last episode continues here as Buffy and Faith must deal with the consequences of their actions (apt title alert!). At first attempting to keep it a secret, Buffy and Faith are forced to investigate Finch's murder by Wesley; naturally Buffy isn't so comfortable with it. She also has to deal with the strain that has been put on her relationship with Willow, given the time she's spent with the other Slayer recently. Soon, she feels compelled to spill her secret and the core Scoobies unite to try and get Faith back on the straight and narrow. Unfortunately, Wesley isn't on the same page and makes the situation considerably worse.
Unlike a lot of other Buffy episodes, Consequences has lost some of its impact since it first aired. The tension arose out of wondering whether Buffy and Faith were going to get away with it and the shock of finding out how far Faith had fallen was definitely in the extreme. Like the earlier and much better episode, Innocence, the Consequences of the title don't just apply to Buffy and are instead felt and caused by many of the characters. Part of the reason it doesn't quite work as well as Innocence is that it feels a little repetitive; one of the gang turns evil, Willow discovers something about Xander's lovelife that doesn't involve her, Giles discovers something about Buffy who in turn is feeling guilty about something she feels she's to blame for.
All that really changes is the addition of a meddling watcher and Faith in the bad guy role instead of Angel. Innocence worked far better because it struck right to the core of a relationship we'd been rooting for since the beginning of the series. Faith is too recent an arrival for her betrayal to cut as keenly. It still carries a reasonable amount of emotional heft, largely thanks to the excellent performances of Sarah Michelle Gellar and Alyson Hannigan. Anthony Head too does some sterling work in the scene in which he comforts Buffy, their trust having been repaired more since Helpless.
That being said, it's still an extremely important episode for ongoing character arcs, most obviously the relationship between Faith and Angel. As someone who's been to the dark side and back again twice, Angel knows the slippery slope that Faith is on and feels he is the one to be able to bring her back. It's largely working too until the Watcher's Council shows up to drag her away. That one scene sets up a key partnership that's essential to Faith's redemption, also setting up a minor arc within the third season (to be continued in Enemies) between the two characters.
There are a few moments of levity in what is otherwise a dark episode. Cordelia's introduction to Wesley is a particular highlight, first of all because of his reaction to finding out she's a student is brilliant and secondly, knowing their eventual collaboration and friendship makes it that bit sweeter. The other is the Mayor trying to cheer himself up by using the shredder and concluding that 'it's going to take more than this to turn [his] frown upside down.' The trivial nature of the Mayor's concerns is one of the things that make him so scary; he's incredibly human and one of those obsequious humans that just get right on your nerves.
None of this stops Consequences feeling a mythology-arc based filler episode, designed to put the pieces in place for the latter half of the season. Faith is now with the Mayor, leaving both good and evil with one Slayer each and varying levels of awareness about what the other's up to.
Quote of the Week:
Wesley: Does everyone know you?
Buffy: She's a friend.
Cordelia: Let's not get carried away.
Let's Get Trivial: Although credited, Seth Green doesn't appear in the episode as he was away filming Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.
Inventive Kill: Not particularly inventive, but this is the episode in which we say goodbye to Mr Trick after Faith dusts him
- Becky
You can read Becky's look at previous episode Bad Girls here.
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Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: After the death of Kendra, Faith is called to Sunnydale and brings a unique brand of insanity to the proceedings. Giles is fired from the Watcher's Council for caring too much about Buffy and the last representative of the Council turned out to be evil.
Buffy and Faith face off against a vampire with jewelled swords and a natty uniform in one of Sunnydale's many graveyards. The Mayor takes an interest because the arrival of these uniformed vampires happens to coincide with his Dedication, a key ritual in the run up to his Ascension (something the gang aren't quite aware of just yet). Meanwhile, the Watcher's Council have sent a new Watcher to look after Buffy and Faith, the oh-so-terribly repressed and uncool Wesley Wyndham-Price. The three events conspire together to bring about a big confrontation with flabby, weakened demon Balthazar and his cult, The Eliminati. However, it all goes a bit wrong when Finch, the Mayor's assistant, tries to find Buffy to warn her about the Mayor.
I have a real soft spot for this episode. In the days before Netflix, owning the lightly mocking Twilight edition of the Buffy boxset or even completing my hard-won VHS collection, I used to have to tape Buffy episodes off the TV (usually the lengthier unedited versions that aired late on a Friday night). Bad Girls is one of those episodes and one (along with Enemies) that I watched religiously as a result, so keen was I to get a Buffy fix. As a result, I know the ins and outs of this episode rather well and it contains some of my favourite lines and moments (Giles and Wesley cleaning their glasses at the same time. Perfect - Does anyone else have a problem when Alexis Denisof speaks in his natural American accent now?). Also, this is the episode that also inspired my brief dark lipstick thing. I so wanted to be Faith. Well, right up until she stabbed a guy.
It's always been clear that Faith was a couple of cherry tomatoes short of a garden salad since her arrival on the show, but it's this episode that finally confirms just how unhinged the latest Slayer is. The concept of a rogue Slayer is one of the best that the show introduces, a thread that carries on throughout Buffy and into Angel too. With Buffy such a shining example of a white knight, there was always a question of 'but what happens if it goes wrong?'. It's something we got a glimpse of in The Wish with Buffy's more militaristic state, but Faith offers a window into how bad it can get if a person with superpowers goes to the dark side in this universe. In this episode, it's framed as Faith acting as the friend that tempts the good teen into taking a walk on the wild side which goes badly, badly wrong when Faith stakes a human, the Mayor's aid to be precise.
And in that one moment, the whole tone of the third season shifts into something that feels a lot darker than what had gone before. The rest of the episode is a much lighter affair; the arrival of Wesley leads to some big laughs, particularly in Giles and Buffy's attempts to undermine him ("You're not helping." "I know. I feel just sick about it..."). The broad comedy of the script means that when the stabbing occurs, the shift feels ultra-extreme, jolting you out of your comfort zone as the alleys of Sunnydale get that bit more threatening. When the final quiet of the scene between Buffy and Faith at the end, it's almost as if a chill has set in.
That combination of light and dark builds into the doubling going on elsewhere in the episode; the Mayor has his two aides, the cautious Mr Finch and the more gung-ho Mr Trick (who is more underused in the season than I remember him being). Wesley and Giles are both paralleled and opposed to each other. They share some of the same tics, but largely, Wesley's arrival serves to show how much Giles has developed since his first meeting with Buffy. He's the one facing down his would-be torturers with a pithy one liner and not getting knocked out. Faith and Buffy have been set in opposition during pretty much every scene they've had together up until now, but soon find their paths diverging once more in the wake of Finch's murder. It's a nifty way of showing their respective character developments, highlighting further the character traits that make us love these people in the first place.
In other areas, Angel gets a properly badass entrance to the big battle, all vamped out and leather-jacketed and the make-up effects team knock it out of the park once again with Balthazar's design. He's so disgusting. When he dies, he gives the warning 'when he rises, you'll wish I'd killed you all', referring, of course, to the Mayor. The gang don't know about it yet, but it's clear that we're into the home stretch of the season now as the over-arching Big Bad begins to come to the fore. It's cemented in his last appearance in this episode during which the Dedication takes place. Said Dedication? A ritual rendering him impervious to harm. R'uh r'oh Shaggy.
Bad Girls is the third episode in what is possibly Buffy's best and most consistent run of episodes, but is perhaps the most important now in terms of the developing narrative. With Faith on the downward slope to homicidal maniac and Buffy left in disbelief at the turn of events, the Mayor is about to gain a foothold in Sunnydale that looks strong enough to defeat the gang entirely. We may now know he doesn't, but that final scene of Bad Girls has lost none of its power in making us think everything is about to go badly wrong indeed.
Quote of the Week (this was a tough one!):
Wesley: Are you not used to being given orders?
Buffy: Whenever Giles sends me on a mission, he always says please. And then afterwards, I get a cookie.
Let's Get Trivial: The original plan for that final scene was to have Buffy visit the motel room only to find that Faith had committed suicide. Thankfully, the potential of the character was realised and Faith stayed standing.
Inventive Kill: Buffy uses an electric cable to electrocute Balthazar in his own personal hot tub.
- Becky
You can find Becky's review of previous episode The Zeppo here.
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Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: An old friend of Giles, Ethan Rayne, had previously used Sunnydale as his own chaotic playing ground, scarpering after a demon came after them. Mr Trick is now working with Mayor Wilkins on the Slayer problem after Slayerfest '98 and Buffy is still dealing with the consequences of running away.
There are some episodes of Buffy I can watch over and over again and never get bored with. Band Candy is one such episode. It's just a whirligig of fun from start to finish, one that picks up the magic as metaphor theme and runs the finest sprint you will ever see with it. The third season has a few such episodes, along with season four (yep, I'm a season four defender, sorry guys) and Band Candy shifts the focus on to the responsible adults being anything but, whilst the younger Sunnydale population are forced to deal with the consequences. Plus, there's a fairly gratuitous Angel topless shot. And he's sweaty. You're welcome Angel fans.
The gang are forced to sell candy on behalf of the Sunnydale Marching Band who are in need of new uniforms. Reluctantly, Buffy touts chocolate to Joyce and Giles whilst also playing them off against each other in order to have a bit of time with Angel. They soon discover her ruse and decide to meet to discuss a way in which Buffy can be supervised. However, that's no ordinary candy. The addictive bars start regressing those consuming them until the adults being acting like their teenage selves. As it's Ethan's plan, naturally chaos ensues as it's really just a cover so the Mayor can offer a load of babies as tribute to an underground demon snake thing called Lurconis.
The central concept of this episode already means that the potential for success is considerably high, but what is brilliant about Band Candy is how much fun everyone, from writers to actors, have fun with it. It's a classic 'be careful what you wish for' situation as Buffy, in the middle of revising for her SATs, begs to be given more responsibility from the authority figures in her life. It also provides endless comedy moments for the older actors in the Buffy troupe, particularly Kristine Sutherland and Anthony Head who look like they're having an absolute blast, both of them allowed to stop being the authority figures for a while.
Although much of Giles' past has been hinted at before, it's our first chance to get to see what Ripper was really like and it doesn't disappoint. The RP accent disappears, he opts for a grungy jeans and t-shirt combo, starts smoking and threatens policemen. His animosity towards Ethan is a particular highlight as well as any scene he shares with Joyce. They play well off each other, making the most of their simmering chemistry that has gone on through much of the series so far. Kristine Sutherland is great as a younger version of Joyce who in turn feels like a dorkier version of Buffy; they share some of the same vocal patterns and humour. It's a keen observation from Sutherland, just one of many smaller aspects that make up to a more satisfying whole.
The masterstroke of the episode is how deftly it shades in the backgrounds of each of the older characters without resorting to any exposition-based monologues, as well as building the older versions themselves. Snyder is easier to understand as the commandant of Sunnydale High when you realise he was a completely insecure dweeb with little to no social skills, now relishing the opportunity that authority affords him. Joyce's insecurities as a parent are founded in her insecurities as a teenager, desperate for Ripper's approval and hiding her true likes and dislikes to be more impressive.
Jane Espenson is on first-time writing duty and the script characteristically sparkles. In fact, picking a quote of the week proved to be very difficult because it's witty from start to finish and references abound (including a great Death of a Salesman nod, which will appear later in Restless). There's always a better atmosphere when the show's dialogue is at its tip-top best and whilst it might not be as quotable as others we could mention, it's consistently hilarious.
Certainly one of the best standalone Buffy episodes, particularly of the third season, Band Candy is one that has never diminished in my eyes. It's damn near perfect.
Quote of the Week:
Cordelia: At first it was fun, you know? They seemed like they were in this really good mood--not like parents--and then...
Willow: Badness?
Cordelia: Mom started borrowing my clothes. There should be an age limit on lycra pants. And Dad, he just locked himself in the bathroom with old copies of Esquire.
Inventive Kill: Buffy fashions a makeshift blowtorch and sets fire to dodgy-effects Lurconis.
Let's Get Trivial: This episode is referred back to multiple times; Giles and Joyce now avoid each other for a few episodes, Buffy discovers they actually did have sex in Earshot and Giles plays the Cream song Tales of Brave Ulysses after Joyce's funeral in Forever. Sob.
- Becky
You can catch Becky's look at Homecoming here.
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