Season 3, Episode 14

Wait… we’re on Episode 14 already? Holy crap we are getting towards the end of Season 3! I needed to point that out because I feel like this season has gone by incredibly fast. Moving on…

“Bad Girls”

We open on Buffy and Faith breathing heavy and getting sweaty… they’re fighting vampires guys, minds out of the gutter. During this big battle scene, they are having a mundane discussion about their love lives, particularly about AX. Faith treats sex and relationships in a very casual manner, whereas Buffy only had sex with Angel after she told him she loved him and would never have sex with AX because deeper feelings aren’t there.

After killing a couple of vampires, Buffy notices tracks so she goes looking for more. Faith is about as patient as I am after drinking 5 cups of coffee and immediately jumps into a fight with the vampire they find. The swords that the vampire was using go missing after they stake him, but they turn up in the Mayor’s office. Man, I love the Mayor. While he’s plotting evil things, he interjects conversation about Sunday newspaper comics. I’m a Garfield gal myself. Here’s my cat doing a Garfield impression.

Fat cat is fat.

Back at school with the Scoobies, they are gathered around discussing their plans for the future. Willow has been accepted into every college known to man, Buffy doesn’t mention much about her future because she doesn’t have one, AX knows he’ll be in the line of appliance repair, and Oz knows he will be paid just to be awesome. If these characters were real, couldn’t you totally see Oz as a famous YouTuber? Anyways, Cordelia comes by to make several bitchy comments to AX and just walk away.

Xander:  I'm not gonna waste the perfect comeback on you now… But don't think I don't have it…Oh, yes! Its time will come!

And HOORAY IT’S WESLEY!!! Well, actually it’s not really hooray because while he’s on Buffy he’s a stuck-up prat. It’s not until Angel that he becomes a sexy, rogue demon hunter. Wesley is an even more formal British version of Giles. He has that “fresh out of the academy” feel to him, so Giles of course hates him immensely. Then we have Buffy’s reaction:

Buffy: New Watcher?

Giles: New Watcher.

Buffy: Is he evil?

Giles: Not in the strictest sense…

And Faith’s wonderful reaction:

Faith: New Watcher?

Giles and Buffy: New Watcher.

Faith: Screw that.

Now we see that because Buffy is rebelling against her new even stricter Watcher, she is more easily influenced by Faith. She is relying less on Giles since he’s not technically in charge of her and the idea of being her own boss is a little too good for her to turn away from.

Sent out on assignment, Buffy looks for an amulet, but ends up following Faith down the rabbit hole after some vampires called El Eliminati. They are a sect that follows the demon Balthazar whom is supposedly dead. While fighting this group, Buffy is almost drowned again and like last time she gets a little bit cocky from surviving it.

Wesley and Giles have some more Ex-Watcher/ New Watcher bonding time. Love Wesley quoting Giles journal. “Her [Buffy] abuse of the English language is such that I understand only every other sentence.” Lolz.



Aww look, it’s like Giles and Giles Jr.

After the fight, Buffy delivers the amulet to Wesley, where my favorite dialogue of this episode occurs:

Wesley: Remember the 3 key words for any Slayer: Preparation, preparation, preparation.

Buffy: That’s one word 3 times.

Man, this episode is very well written. And laughter was had by all.

In class, everyone is trying to take a test, but Buffy is back to being a “bad-girl” and wants to talk about her bad-assery. Luckily Faith shows up to take Buffy away from all this boredom.

Yes, she’s drawing staking vampires in the heart, but it’s not a big leap to point out the heavy lesbian sub-text here. Faith tells Buffy how they are Slayers so they can do whatever they want and Buffy begins to believe her.

After they go “kill vampires” *wink wink*, they go to the Bronze for some sexy dancing. Again, just like in When She Was Bad only this time Buffy has changed her preference in dance partners.

All this dancing with Faith has got Buffy a little … um… you know… hot and bothered… so when she sees Angel, she jumps his bones… literally. Angel is sexually repressed here for business so him and Buffy discuss the amulet. Wesley shows up and is just so… not cool. Maybe that’s why I like him. Anyway, Buffy takes the amulet away from Wesley to give to Angel.

And now for the least threatening bad guy we’ve seen.

Hey look, it’s Robarb.

Buffy and Faith go to get weapons in order to take on Robarb and his minions. Faith’s first choice of places is to rob a sporting goods store. Buffy gets her first taste of criminal life and the idea of Slayers being above the law. “Want, take, have”. Except as most people that break into stores can tell you, the cops show up and arrest them. Good thing they are hot chicks with super powers because they are able to break out of the back seat of the cop car.

A little more Mayor action. He again seems very sincere about caring about the Boy Scouts along with anything else that will better the city. Yet right after he’s talking about killing El Eluminati and hopefully the Slayer too. What a strange man. A little bit later in the episode, we find out his focus this episode is on becoming invulnerable, which he succeeds at. Check that off the list.

Willow gives Buffy a protection sachet. Aww. It’s sad how Willow feels threatened by Faith taking over her spot as Buffy’s girlfriend bestfriend. While Faith and Buffy are very different personalities, they still bond over slaying. Willow and Faith on the other hand have absolutely nothing in common other than Buffy. In fact, they had opposite personalities, especially for high schoolers. While Willow is the quiet, shy straight-A nerd; Faith is the tough, rebel that ends up failing or dropping out.

Here is where things get tense. Giles and Wesley get kidnapped. Faith and Buffy go out to take on El Eluminati. While battling these vampires, things get hectic, and with Faith’s “stake first, ask questions later” attitude, she ends up accidentally staking a human.

OH NOES. Guess the Mayor will need a new assistant now…

At the warehouse, Giles is the cool one while Wesley is the whiny scaredy-pants now. Giles back talks Robarb and Wesley pees his pants. Expecting Buffy to be the one to come in and save them, Angel actually gets the BAMF moment but Buffy does do her part to help. Buffy electrocutes Robarb, and his final warning is about how “he will rise”.

Buffy no longer is enjoying being the “bad girl”. While she played around with the idea of being above the law, once someone was killed she realized how she was right to take slaying seriously. As the old adage goes, “It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt.” I would say loses an eye, but we’ll get to that down the road…

While visiting Faith, Buffy tries to talk to Faith about what happened with her killing a man. Buffy is feeling all sorts of guilt over it, but Faith appears to be very nonchalant. We end the episode with Faith saying, “No you don’t get it, I don’t care.” I really love Faith as a character because she is so complex. I don’t believe for a second that she doesn’t care, but she is trying to convince herself as well as Buffy that this is true. We’ll dig deeper into Faith and her reaction in tomorrow’s episode, which is very appropriately named “Consequences”.

-Kali!

Sarah's Notes
Kali went over most of what I wrote down pretty awesomely, so my notes will be brief:
-Xander: "[...] with 'no way' written in crayon" Oz: "They're typing those now" Who doesn't love Oz?
-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" (Favorite Line; I just love how Buffy says cookie, she sounds like Angelica Pickles)
-Giles: (to Wesley) "Knock yourself out....please"
-I love Wesley at the Bronze after talking with Buffy and Angel, he just looks so lost and says "what's going on?" Poor guy...
-Fun Fact: At the Joss con I went to, Eliza Dushku said "want, take, have" was one of her favorite scenes
-Just a thought, weapons are probably the worst thing to be caught robbing. I literally can't think of anything that could be worse. Maybe children.
-Joyce: (after Buffy offers to help her make waffles) "No, they only don't have calories if I make them for you. Mom logic" I like mom logic a lot more than Xander logic
-"since my enemy has crippled me" What, did he give you free passes to about 50 buffets and force you to eat everything? The first step to fixing your problem is admitting you have one, buddy.
-My notes literally say "I'll hang out with you, Willow <3" from after Buffy tells her she can't go slaying. Is anyone surprised that I wrote this?