Buffy for Beginners 3.14: Bad Girls

By Sabrina Boyer
Buffy and Faith are so BFFF; Best Fraking Friends Forever. At least in this episode they are.

Opening scene and they’re fighting and talking about how Buffy and Xander never ‘loved’ each other. Fighting some Knight looking dudes, Faith doesn’t wait for Buffy’s cues or plans on how to attack. She doesn’t think, she just does. Buffy’s the planner and Faith’s the doer. Doing without planning can be a character flaw. Cut to the Mayor, Mr. Trick, and the Mayor’s lackey, who inspect the swords the vamp Knights used; something about an Ascention and higher plane and of we know the Mayor is officially the big bad of the season, in case we hadn’t guessed. I just have to say, the Mayor is one of the creepiest and most effective Big Bads in all the seasons of Buffy. It’s easy when the bad guy looks like the bad guy; it’s a lot harder when they’re dressed up in suits and hold political office.

Meanwhile, Will got in to Harvard, Yale, Oxford, and they’re wooing her; they’re pitching woo. Xander, on the other hand, is waiting for slim slips of paper with the words “no way” written in big letters. He engages in witty banter with Cordy and comments on her possible new line of hooker wear while the gang talks about life after high school. And then there’s Wesley.

When we first met Wesley here as Faith’s new watcher, little did we know who he’d come to be as both a character and a rogue demon hunter when he joined Angel’s spinoff series. Quite British and eager to please, Wesley throws around watcher knowledge like “a good slayer is a cautious slayer.” “Is he evil?” Buffy asks. “Not in the strictest sense,” Giles responds. It’s obvious that Buffy and Giles are doing the in crowd thing while poor Wesley is definitely not going to be inaugurated into the Scooby gang any time soon. Wesley surmises these knight looking vamps work for a really fat, Jabba the Hutt looking dude named Balthazar who sits in a large vat of water and is looking for an amulet; needless to say, he’s an appetite killer. Wesley gives Buffy orders; “Whenever Giles gives me orders he always says please and afterwards I get a cookie!” Faith comes in and quickly ditches when she asks “new watcher? Screw that.” Visually, this episode tries to contrast between Buffy and Faith; Buffy is dressed in purple outfits reminiscent of 1950s feminine chic while Faith is much more Goth; dark eyeliner, red lipstick, tight black clothes. Faith is the exciting one, the dangerous one who looks at slaying like a perpetual rollercoaster she’s always on. As Faith suggests, “slaying’s what we’re built for; if you’re not enjoying it, you’re doing something wrong.”  “What about the assignment?” Buffy asks. “Tell you what; you do the homework, and I’ll copy yours,” Faith responds. That about sums it up.

That night Buffy and Faith take on six vamps together. “Wait, stop, think, two against six, not unlike one against six,” Buffy urges. Faith doesn’t listen, and she jumps into a manhole leaving Buffy with no choice but to follow. Wesley reads Giles’ notes on Buffy, which include “her abuse of the English language is such that I only understand every other word.”  Cut to the girls fighting and Faith has no plan; it’s fight and see if you die or not. Buffy almost gets drowned, again, and coming back with “I hate it when they drown me.” Buffy seems to be getting into the carnal pleasure of slaying evident in her rejection of Wesley and wearing dark makeup, leather jacket, black clothes. While taking a Chem test, she tries to relay what it’s like to be a slayer to Xander and Will and leaves during the test when Faith comes to get her. Oh, and every time Buffy says Faith’s name, Xander’s eye twitches. Good girl gone bad Buffy ditches her chem test to party with her fellow slayer. They break into a nest of vamps during the day and head out clubbing at night, caution thrown to the wind. I have to say, there is a certain appeal to this kind of lifestyle, but in the end, daylight will always find you.

Angel finds Buffy and Faith at the Bronze, and so does Wesley. They give Angel the amulet (which would restore Balthazar’s power) and the girls head out for more slayage and a little deviant behavior. We get to see a little more of Balthazar who looks like poop soup as he disses his boys about the amulet. Faith and Buffy find ‘ole Jabba and decide to fight the vamp in desperate need of a stairmaster with weapons they steal breaking into a sporting goods store. “When are you gonna get this B? The life of a slayer is very simple. Want. Take. Have.”  Definitely antithetical to having a planning and being cautious. The girls get arrested while stealing; “I like him. He’s butch,” Faith says coyly. They escape from the back of the cop car and Buffy wants to call an ambulance. Faith rejects that idea and they flee. The next morning Buffy checks the paper for news of their little tryst; the Mayor, in between supporting the Boy Scouts and being a germaphobe, he almost gets killed by a member of Balthazar’s army. Alan, his assistant, bumbles about how he must’ve gotten in. Apparently, the mayor and Balthazar have a little tiff about who’s the most powerful. I don’t really get their relationship; I’m more concerned with Buffy and Faith.

Will gets jealous over Buffy’s relationship with Faith as they head out to slay slay slay and Will isn’t invited. It’s no secret Will isn’t a fan of Faith. The gang should’ve listened to Will. Because as the girls head out to take on Balthazar and his army, Faith gets too into her slaying and instead of thinking and planning, which comes in handy, she accidentally kills the Mayor’s assistant, Alan, because she thought he was a vamp. We can only guess as to why Alan might’ve been out looking for or near the slayers, and sadly, I bet it was to warn them about the Mayor and he wanting to have them killed. “I didn’t know, I didn’t know,” Faith says. They flee, again. This time, slaying isn’t, and can’t be, about want, take, have. There are consequences to the work they do. There are always consequences. Faith goes back to look at Alan, and later we learn that she dumped his body in the river.

Balthazar kidnaps Wesley and Giles, and Wesley enters hilarious panic mode. Buffy and Angel jump in to save the day, and Balthazar gets electrocuted and turned into cooked Jabba soup.  Oh, and Giles, once again, proves he’s the hottest watcher ever. But we get a clue from Jabba; “When he rises, you’ll wish I killed you all.” He, of course, being the Mayor. He’s become invincible. He cannot be killed.

In the end, Buffy realizes the immense responsibility that comes with being a slayer, and also realizes that Faith doesn’t. “Faith, you don’t get it. You killed a man,” Buffy says. “No, you don’t get it. I don’t care.” And here we go.

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About Sabrina Boyer: As a kid my dad would sneak scary movies past my mom and let me indulge in his horror movie fetish. I grew up watching V, Alien Nation, The Thing, The Fog (all originals) and then, in 1992 when Buffy the movie came out, I became obsessed with vampires, girl power, and all things gothic. I once stayed home from school, faked sick, and watched BTVS: the movie 6 times in a row. I know the beginning cheerleading dance by heart (still). Currently, I’m obsessing over Laurell K. Hamilton novels, and dream about Anita Blake being my best friend.

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