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Episode 3.14: Bad Girls | Episode 3.16: Doppelgangland
Characters:
| Buffy | Angel | Xander |
| Willow | Giles | Cordelia |
| Oz |
Overall (8/10)
Buffy:
Buffy's dream tells it all. The knowledge of what she and Faith did is pulling her down, and Faith is, quite literally, the one keeping her under by her refusal to tell anyone.
What we have in this episode is the conflict of two opposing views of the Slayer.
The view as represented by our Buffster is that the Slayer deals with the demon world but is still held accountable for her actions in terms of the human world. Just because she kills demons doesn't give her free rein to do what she wishes.
On the other side of the coin, we have Faith's viewpoint. All the good that a Slayer does negates any small mistakes that might result in loss of life. Ironically, this is a view espoused by Spike in S6's Dead Things. In Faith's view, the very fact that a Slayer is Chosen and fights for people gives them a status above the rest; above the law.
It's interesting to note that Buffy's viewpoint will shift throughout the series. She never fully embraces Faith's view, but she does allow for more shades of gray than she does at this point. She actually gets to the point where she embraces the superiority complex of the Slayer as touted by Faith in this episode (See her conversation with Holden in S7's Conversations With Dead People)
And, at this point, the Watcher's Council takes a decidedly middle-of-the-road approach in that they recognize that accidents happen.
Buffy, however, cannot stand that she played a part in someone's death, as it goes against everything she believes in herself. However, true to character, she goes along with Faith because she's afraid for Faith. As we saw with Angel, Buffy is very determined to give people the benefit of the doubt and give them a chance for change (This is also something that will waver in the future, but for the time being, it's par for the Buffy course).
She believes in the end that Faith is going to be making a change for the better.
Why did Faith save her at the end? There are a couple theories. One is that she just couldn't let Buffy die as they share a sort of sisterly bond. Another is that she knew in killing Trick that she would be able to join with the Mayor and get away from the Scoobies.
Or maybe a combination of both.
Angel:
In this episode, we see something very unusual: Angel interacting with someone who's not Buffy. It's a nice change of pace. It's also another sign of how much S3 Angel is different from S2 Angel.
Angel in this episode is proactive-guy. He detectives out what's going on, and his lurking actually comes in handy (And saves Xander's life).
He has a wonderful scene with Faith in which he tries to relate to her. And, really, out of all the Scoobies, Angel is the one who has the most in common with her.
This is also obviously set up for Faith's appearance on AtS in the next year, but it's still a very effective scene. Angel needs more scenes away from Buffy where he can do something besides be the love interest. It makes him slightly more interesting.
Xander:
Xander tries to play the sensitive guy to talk to Faith. We see an odd gender role reversal between the two. Whereas Xander is under the impression that he now has a connection with Faith, Faith hasn't given him a second's thought since the sex.
Xander, unfortunately, tries to take advantage of the connection that never was and almost gets killed. As Angel points out, Faith has a taste for killing. By ending a person's life, she feels a power that she hadn't before, and she very nearly tries out that power on Xander. It's only thanks to Angel and his baseball bat that Xander's still among the living. Now let's stop and ponder as to why Angel has a baseball bat lying around. Think he plays shortstop?
assertive!Willow shows her head again when she confronts Buffy about what she's feeling. Then she gets to play the supportive!Willow part when Buffy breaks down and tells her what has happened.
Willow surely is going to have some major Faith resentment. For the one, Faith led her best friend (Buffy) astray. And then Faith slept with Xander, Willow's former crush. While the lusty wrong feelings for Xander may not be as prominent anymore, the devastation of knowing that Faith had him remains.
I also see this as something of a lead-up to Doppelgangland. Willow knows that Buffy's had sex. She now finds out that Xander had sex. Her friends are distanced from her because of the Faith fiasco. Willow's feeling behind in that she hasn't had sex (and she has a steady boyfriend). Odds are, this helps contribute to her rebellious!Willow behavior of the next episode.
Giles gets to play the father again in this episode. Kudos to him for knowing immediately that Faith wasn't being truthful. He handles Buffy's concerns quite well, showing her the voice of reason.
It's actually a little interesting in that his opinion isn't incredibly different from Faith's. While he doesn't feel that Slayers are superior, he does understand that accidents happen when they're fighting demons. So, while his viewpoint leans towards Faith's radical view, he takes a more moderate approach.
Cordelia gets to mack on the new British guy. Well, at least they gave her something to do.
Which is more than we can say for Oz, who didn't even appear in this episode. What's up with that?
The plot isn't important. This episode deals with the aftermath of Buffy and Faith's accidental murder of Finch in the previous episode.
One slight issue I have is that Wesley asked for Buffy and Faith to investigate the murder. This makes no sense, no matter how you spin it, and it was obviously put in there to give Buffy and Faith a reason to go to City Hall and find out about the Mayor being bad.
Oh, and we still don't know why the hell Finch was out and about in the alley last episode. Guess we never will.
Faith is the baddie. And, yes, she's an ambiguous baddie, as BtVS seems to specialize in.
Our Scoobies find out that the Mayor's not quite on the up-and-up. Additionally, at the end, Faith teams up with the Mayor to take over the world.
Much, much better than its lead-in, this episode effectively deals with the question of what would happen if a civilian got caught in the Slaying crossfire. Wonderful performances with plenty to do for almost the entire cast. I really have no complaints.
Special performance award goes to Nicholas Brendon for having Eliza Dushku writhing on top of him in leather pants. Lucky bloke.
8 out of 10. Didn't make me cry, so it can't be higher.
The Buffy/Faith confrontation on the street. This scene wonderfully lays out the different Slaying philosophies of the two, and it does so without really endorsing one viewpoint over the other. These conflicting views will be played with throughout the run of the series.
Episode 3.14: Bad Girls | Episode 3.16: Doppelgangland
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