Faith:
Faith:
Debut -- Faith, Hope & Trick (Season 3)
Other 3rd season appearances: Beauty & The Beasts (AMAB); Homecoming; Revelations; Amends; The Zeppo; Bad Girls; Consequences; Doppelgangland; Enemies; Choices; Graduation part I, Graduation part II
Last Seen -- This Year's Girl (Season 4)
Faith's first seen dancing all slutty-like -- according to Cordelia, anyway -- with some badly-dressed guy at The Bronze. The girl's identity as Slayer is made clear when the gang follows up on Buffy's vamp sense and sees Faith pummeling the guy to pieces. Faith recognizes Buffy, takes her stake, and introduces herself as Faith. Oz is the first one to say that there's a new slayer in town.
In FHT, Faith appears to be a kick-ass, crude-type, laid-back gal who's looking for fun and for vamps to kill. She remarks about how slaying makes her "hungry and horny." She also captures Xander's attention when she goes on about wrasslin' alligators and being stark naked in another sitch. The only Slayerette not totally into her is Cordelia.
It's in this episode that we learn that Faith's watcher was offed (and probably even worse stuff was done to her) by Kakistos. Faith lives in a motel room and doesn't attend high school...she's also staying in Sunnydale until the Watchers Council can get her a new Watcher, etc. This is the first episode where Faith meets Joyce and Scott Hope, too.
In AMAB, Faith's telling Buffy about her take on guys while they're on patrol. Guys are a big topic with her. It would appear that she kinda uses 'em. Must be that whole..I don't need anyone, can't trust anyone thing she has. Maybe. Anyhoo, Faith's into her tunes big-time. So much so that when Buffy comes to relieve her from her Ozwolf Watch, she whirls around and smacks Buffy a good one. Later, Faith tries to help Willow capture Ozwolf, who's running through the school hallways. She's a straight-shooter, she gets him with the tranquilizer gun.
In Homecoming, Faith escapes SlayerFest '98 by sheer...sheer...well, she's not in it, okay? In an effort to reconcile the Cordy/Buffy competition/jealousy thing, the gang and Faith decide not to ride to the dance with them in the limo. So anyway, Faith is at the homecoming dance and when she sees Scott dancing with another chick, she busts in and talks about rashes. So, while she and B may not always be 5 by 5, she's got some loyalty thing going. Either that or it's a guy thing she has. Heh.
In Revelations, Faith's got a new watcher. Supposedly. At first, she doesn't want to go with Gwendolyn Post, but we see Post getting to her somewhat. So Faith starts to trust her or something. Faith also finds out in this episode that Angel is alive, so she goes to kill him. Buffy and Faith fight like nobody's business and everyone finds out that Post was a big liar jerk of a Watcher Gone Bad. So Faith feels hurt and terrible and upset about it and about everything else, too. She like, seemingly has nothing, and sort of has nowhere to go. Unless you count that motel room. Yuck. Which sort of begs the question, has Joyce asked her to move in with them? That would be heinous for Buffy I think, but I just wondered. Anyway, Buffy can sort of relate to what Faith is going through, and she stops by the motel to see if everything's okay, if they're okay. And Faith says yeah. Sure. Whatever.
In Amends, Faith's gone all-out to decorate her digs. Little lights all over the place, it's quite the celebratory thing to do. Anyhoo, when Buffy asks her over for Xmas eve, Faith declines, saying she's invited to some big party. Did I mention Faith is the worst liar ever? She is. Anyway, she ends up going over to Buffy's house after all, and she even brought gifts. Just like in that X-Files episode recently, we have no idea what the gifts are. I'd like to see what Buffy got Faith, too. Anyhoo, Faith stays with Joyce while Buffy leaves to take care of the latest Angel business, and then she and Joyce go outside to check out the snowfall over the 'dale. So..happy new year to ye, Faith.
In The Zeppo, Faith's back doing her thing wailing on monsters. When Xander spots her fighting with one of those sisterhood demons, he saves Faith and they make it back to her motel room. No, I really do mean that they "make it!" The vixen gives Xander a taste of what has heretofore for him been the great unknown. I just felt like writing that. True to form as to what Faith's been telling Buffy from the beginning, Faith is a strict believer in the "get some and get gone" thing. Heh. She kicks Xander out right after they're done. Heh.
Bad Girls, Bad Girls..whatcha gonna do when they come for you? Well, if you're Faith, you'll make a wiseass comment, then bust out of the cop car and flee the scene. Okay..who else has noticed that Faith hasn't said she's "five by five" in a while? She gets all hyper about the thrill of the kills and is very much a -- well I was going to say "throw caution to the wind" kind of person, but that would imply that Faith knew the meaning of the word.
This episode had me wondering a lot about Faith's loyalties. We all know she's a bad-ass, kick-'em-out-of-bed kind of person, but it almost never seems like she's big on helping Buffy out. This should probably go on the 611 page but I'm here now, so bear with me. Like, in FHT, Faith is too busy pummeling a vamp to help Buffy out. And in this particular episode, she also doesn't help Buffy out in the cemetery. Anyway, this gal is just wacked. It's one thing to resist the rules; it's another thing to completely disregard them. Like, what's up with stealing the weapons like that from the store? Well..whatever.
Anyway it's in this episode that Faith's exerting her influence over Buffy, and it's here that at least in part, she's successful. And all of it made me wonder about her home life or whatever, 'cause I don't feel like I've gotten backstory on it. Like, what happened to her folks? Did I just blank out when they mentioned it? Whatever.
So Faith is responsible for killing Allan, and she seems fairly unrepentant. (Is that a word?) So like, I've had misgivings about this chick for a while...her disposing of Allan's body pretty much was the last nail in the coffin as far as I'm concerned. Although it is kind of cool to see her as the complete opposite of Kendra. So...does this mean that Buffy is the middle ground between those two slayers?
Consequences is quite the episode for Faith. Here, she still tells Buffy that she doesn't care that she's responsible for someone's death. She tries to explain that that sort of thing is going to happen when you're trying to save the world.
It's in this episode that Faith tries to pin the killing on Buffy. She goes to Giles to do this, which is sort of mistake number one. She couldn't have really thought that he'd believe her? So it's here that she's kind of like a backstabber-type person. Later, she turns on Xander, overpowering him and choking him pretty much, when all he's done is try to help her out. She really must think she can't trust anyone.
Faith wakes up in Angel's place, shackled to the wall, and she's forced to sort of listen to a lecture a la Angel. But that's put on hold when Wesley and friends come to nab her. They've got her cuffed to her seat in the back of this van while they're about to take her to England to stand before the Watchers Council. But she breaks loose and goes to the docks, where Buffy finds her. The two chicks do the scuffle, and later Faith saves Buffy from Mr. Trick. She still needs rehabilitation, big time.
Shockingly..she goes to the Mayor's office, to offer her services up as evil henchgirl slayer. Um, I know I probably said all this on the episode page, but remember I'm sick as of this writing.
Faith would at first seem to have a minor role in Doppelgangland. She appears in the library after completing some of her physical tests that the Watchers Council has ordered. She also tells Buffy good luck, doing the friendly thing. But then she takes more than a casual interest in what Willow's doing on the computer. Basically she learns that Willow's trying to hack into the Mayor's personal files, and she reports this to the Mayor.
She gets new digs, calls the Mayor her sugardaddy, and looks a little upset when the Mayor says he'll have to have Willow killed. I don't know if the look was because she really doesn't want Willow to be killed or if she just didn't want to be the one to have to do it. I try not to speculate much anymore 'cause it ruins my fun of being surprised and all, but wouldn't it be nifty if Faith died by trying to protect someone, maybe Willow? Like at the season's end. I don't know. I don't wanna know.
Anyhoo, when the gang goes to the Bronze to take care of the Vamp Willow sitch, Buffy asks if they should call Faith and Giles pretty much says no, doesn't really think she should be around civilians or something. Actually I will need to watch that again, don't really recall what he said. That's about all we saw of Faith in this ep, though.
In Enemies, Faith makes it clear which team she's playing on..for those of you who had any doubts. In this episode, she kills a demon in order to get some books that have to do with The Mayor's ascension, and she tries to seduce Angel. She also refers to the Slayerettes as The Superfriends. Now that's just not nice.
Anyhoo, when Angel refuses to give in to her seduction, she and the Hooded Guy cast a spell to make Angel lose his soul. She smooches Angel, and introduces him to The Mayor.
Probably the most heinous stuff regarding Faith comes out when she's about to torture Buffy. She's got all these instruments that she plans to use on Buffy and she says something about Buffy's maybe being a screamer. Yow. She yammers about how her mom was always drunk and passed out and didn't give Faith anything to love or..have faith in. And she says that she's always being compared to Buffy, the Good Slayer. What I didn't get was when she says that Sunnydale was supposed to be her town. Why, exactly? There's already a slayer there, and she probably knew it. So what drew her to the Hellmouth exactly? More stuff to fight with?
Anyhoo, Faith gets a shock when she realizes that she's been scammed by both Angel and Buffy, and she and Buffy end up holding each other at knife-point. (Hyphenated? Maybe not.) She flees, and it seems as though she's looking forward to the Mayor's ascension. In the meantime, she'll probably be seen on the miniature golf course a lot.
In Choices, Faith's still the Mayor's dutiful henchgirl. Here she gets a present from the Mayor, a dagger-thing, and when she gives him a little lip, he threatens to take it away. Check out her grasp on the box when it looks like he might take her present away! Man! Anyhoo, Faith kills a guy to get the Box of Gavrok to the Mayor. When the Mayor tries to compliment her by saying he'd turn down Buffy Summers if she sought a place on the dark side with them, Faith is visibly upset. She like has a major complex about this whole thing. And it probably doesn't help any when Willow throws in her face that she made her choice, and she's a worthless selfish nothing that has no one. Yow.
Later in the episode, Faith gets to hold Willow at daggerpoint. And she gets to check out the evil that is inside the Box of G. I know this chick has done some evil stuff and that she supposedly enjoys it, but she looks pretty freaked after she sees these spidery things. When she nails one to the wall with her dagger and keeps looking back at it, you kind of have to wonder...is she thinking about how she can't get her nifty present back? Or how she really screwed up when it came time to choosing sides? Or how if Wesley hadn't ducked (just kidding)...Or what the hell is she doing, helping the Mayor unleash this evil come graduation day..? Who knows?
Faith does much damage in Graduation part I. If she were a vampire, I could say she put the bite -- no, she didn't ask for money, heh -- on Prof. Lester Worth for the mayor. She guts him a good one. You have to kind of laugh at her treatment of the whole sitch. When Worth tells her, "I'll scream," she answers, "Who wouldn't?" Heh. But that's not all the evil she does in this 'sode..far from it, though some might say her shooting of Angel with a poison arrow dart is a good thing...
So, she's killed a man, seriously endangered a vamp's life, but..what else? Well along with that whole wacky relationship she's got going with the Mayor, she wonders about what her role might be after the Mayor's ascended...will she still be needed, still get to fight, what's her place? Yee, if only her approval could have been sought elsewhere, right?
Faith's later surprised by a very pissed-off Buffy. She learns that her blood could cure Angel, and the two have a really cool -- don't try this at home, folks -- kind of fight. With handcuffs, even. This is the ep. where Faith gets gutted with her own dagger. Even after that, though, she won't help Buffy et al. out...she jumps off of the balcony onto the back of a truck and is carted off into the night...on the road to nowhere?
Graduation part II finds Faith with severe injuries, including way bad head trauma. She's lost a lot of blood, and none of it has gone to Angel. Prognosis? Very slight chance she'll wake up, and if she does, there'd probably be some kind of brain damage. I think. Anyhoo, what's interesting about this Faith/hospital set-up is we get to see just how the Mayor really does feel about her. Sure, he kept her in his pocket, showered wacky gifts and cookies on her and stuff..when he wanted her to buy into his plan. And yeah, he gave her dresses and told her how she should wear her hair -- A Doll's House, anyone? But here, when she's unconscious and stuff, he keeps going on, telling her how it was supposed to be her day, etc. Aw.
Anyhoo, Faith appears in one of Buffy's dreams -- B is in the hosp., too -- and sort of lets Buffy know, cryptically, how she can use the Mayor's weakness against him to bring him down. It's quite the touching, wacked-out moment. It also goes to show that on some level, maybe Faith did know that she was The Mayor's weakness. Okay I have to stop yammering about this now. Let's just say that Faith's in the hospital. Who knows what they'll end up doing with her next season, if anything.
This Year's Girl
Talk about your wake-up calls! Apparently, Faith's gotten well rested during that 8-month coma of hers. Wacky dreams with her favorite father figure, the Mayor...violent scenes with Buffy-as-evil-out-to-kill-her bitch, Faith triumphant in the rain. Well...Faith's back. She beats a woman for her clothes, spies on the gang at Giles's place, and waits for Buffy on campus to let her know that vengeance will be hers. O-kay...
Basically, Faith finds out that the ascension was a bust, Sunnydale High is a shambles, and the Mayor left her a little present (see, he loves to give gifts to his favorite homicidal slayer) which'll help her "go out with a bang."
Anyhoo, suffice it to say that Faith pays Joyce a visit, steals some of her fine-lookin' Harlot lipstick, and is probably about to do her some bodily harm. But alas, she's foiled when Buffy comes crashing in through the window. The two make a total mess out of the Summers' home, and Faith grabs Buffy's hand in order to use the gizmo present from the Mayor. Body swapping, anyone? Tune in next week to see who's five-by-five and who's..well, not.
No, wait. First I gotta say that it's kinda interesting to have Faith make an appearance this season. She's hardly been mentioned, but it's kind of cool to know that a) Slayer Strength helps if you're way seriously injured; b)It's no problem regaining the speech thing after you've been in a coma for close to a year; and c) Riley has Adam...so why not give Buffy a little taste of her other half? Er..well you know what I mean. I never much liked Faith but was kinda glad to see her back to shake things up.
The ABCs of Sunnydale
