This Years Girl

Yay, we're back! And it's a post we wrote together! Sarah will be in standard font and Kali will be in bold (since we quote the script in italics a lot this episode).

Guess who else is back this episode?

Faith!!

Faith: Oh, you have to go.
Buffy: That's just what...
Faith: Little sis coming. I know.
Buffy: So much to do before she gets here.

Whenever they have these dreams with Faith, they make references to Buffy's "little sister" coming. Now that I've seen the whole series dozens of times, I finally get it and laugh at these comments. I remember when I first heard it I just was confused and let it slide by. More on this once it becomes relevant. This dream is also a throwback to the Season 3 finale where Buffy and Faith were talking inside Faith's apartment. I feel repetitive saying this again, but HOLY CRAP I love when Joss does dreams. They are always interesting and entertaining, plus dripping with symbolism that you can analyze until the cows come home.

After Faith's coma dream, we go back to the Scooby gang discussing Adam, the Initiative and Riley. For those of you playing the Buffy drinking game at home, another shot for Xander's "military training". In order to make him feel useful, they put Xander in charge of discovering how to fix the blaster gun that Buffy got from the Initiative. He proceeds to electrocute himself and no one cares. Tee-hee. Cut to Riley trying to leave the Initiative where Forest stops hims because he is tired of his boyfriend always leaving him for Buffy.
Faith's dreams are all awesome, but my favorite is the one with the Mayor.
Faith: Think it's gonna rain?
Cut to Faith and Mayor having a picnic in the park.
Mayor: Nonsense. It's a beautiful day. Now eat your sandwich.
Faith: I dunno. It just always seems like it starts raining about now.
Mayor: You're too young and too pretty a girl to start wearing worry
lines on your face. (Picks garden snake off blanket) Hey there, little
fella. I dunno where you belong, but it's not here with us. (Chuckles)
There you go. (Puts the garden snake back in the soil. Talks to Faith again)
Y'see, there's nothing gonna spoil our time together. Who wants cheese
cake? (Chuckles)
Faith looks down and smiles, then suddenly looks up behind the Mayor.
Faith: NO!
Buffy comes up behind the Mayor. Runs him through with Faith's knife.
Buffy: (To Faith) I told you I had things to do.
What I take this scene to mean is that Faith sees a nice situation where she's happy and expects it to end soon. The Mayor tries to assure her that nothing can separate them only to have Buffy come in and kill him, with Faith's own knife no less. Then Buffy yells at Faith saying she had "things to do" basically illustrating how Buffy and others, such as the scoobies, put Buffy's needs and wants ahead of Faith's. If this doesn't make you feel bad for Faith, you aren't made out of human parts *points if you got the Buffy reference.*

Buffy, Willow, and Xander go patrolling to look for signs of Adam where they discover this.

EW.

The trio head back to Xander's basement to discuss rescuing Riley when he walks through the door. Well that was anti-climatic now wasn't it? As the Scoobies tend to do, Willow jinxes everything by saying that all they need to do is worry about Adam. Ha. You had this one coming now...

We go back to Faith's third and final dream. In this one she is running through a graveyard from Buffy who is stalking her with Faith's own knife once again. She falls in an open grave, Buffy jumps in with her, and while we don't see what happens we can assume that Faith kills Buffy. In a scene very reminiscent of The Shawshank Redemption Faith crawls out of the grave in the rain. If you've studied any literature then you know that rain tends to represent the cleansing of the body and soul. Here, Faith crawls out of her own "death" and is trying to be cleansed of her past sins by the rain to awake as a new and different person.

Faith wakes up and asks to get to the graduation only to learn that it's long past.

Buffy and Riley have a discussion about what he's going to do with his life and what to do about the Initiative. Poor Riley just wants Buffy to tell him what to do because he doesn't know. He's lived his whole life following orders and now that he's discovering his freedom he's really confused about what to do.

It seems like Faith relates to Riley here because we then see her wandering the streets with nowhere to go. She visits the burnt down Sunnydale High School and proceeds to Giles to spy on the Scooby Gang. They are discussing how to take down Adam when Buffy kisses Riley. Faith will say this later, but we can see how furious this makes her. I totally understand when Buffy went through so much trouble with Faith surrounding Angel and apparently Angel is just a thing of the past now. Bitch.

Buffy's notified about Faith and shit gets real. My favorite part of this is Riley asking who Faith is after about 3 hours of conversation about her.

Buffy: It doesn't have to be like this, y'know.
Faith: Actually, I think it has to be exactly like this.
Buffy: Faith, these are innocent people.
Faith: No such animal.
Buffy: I guess it was too much to hope that you'd use your downtime to
reflect and grow.
Faith: I could say the same about you. I mean, you're still the same
better-than-thou Buffy. I mean, I knew it somehow. I kept having this
dream, I'm not sure what it means, but in the dream the self-righteous
blond chick stabs me, and you wanna know why?
Shot of Willow taking her backpack off her shoulders.
Buffy: You had it coming.
Faith: That's one interpretation, but in my dream, she does it for a
guy. [...] I wake up to find the blond chick isn't even dating the guy she was so
nuts about before. I mean, she's moved on to the first college
beefstick she meets. Not only has she forgotten about the love of her
life, but she's forgotten about the chick she nearly killed for
him. So that's my dream. That and some stuff about cigars and a
tunnel. But tell me, college girl, what does it mean?

This is when I feel really bad for Faith. She lost everything and, in her eyes, Buffy had everything and let it go. Obviously Faith is a bit of an idiot but let's see how any of us would act if we were in her shoes before we judge her too harshly. Imagine you have a crappy home life and then are told that you're destined for greatness and to have that ripped away. It'd be as if Cinderella lost her glass slipper and one of her evil step-sisters had the same size feet as her and ended up with the Prince. You're so very close, but then you have to watch it all slip away from you while someone else takes the glory. Faith truly is a tragic character and, as we'll soon see on Angel, she does still feel and care about being a good person. It's just hard for her because people expect her to be an insane murderer. For another parallel how easy do you think it would be for a drug addicted teen to go back to his old group of friends and not do drugs. Faith being crazy and second best is just how she is known within this crowd. I love this scene too because Faith doesn't wake up and run, or try to sneak up on and kill Buffy or her friends- no, she goes right up to Buffy in public and tells her exactly what's on her mind. You go girl! I also need to note that I find it funny how everyone in this episode is talking about how bad and crazy Faith is, while Sarah and I are defending her.

Who doesn't love Willow/Tara right now?! If you don't, then get the hell out of this blog! (only please don't leave, I'm sure Kali will still love you.) No, actually I won't. You can stay, but I won't love you... well maybe if you like Spike... But actually I myself am a little annoyed with Willow. I understand that she is still harboring some resentment towards Faith, but usually Willow is a lot more compassionate of a person. Here again she chooses to put Faith down and call her a psychopath. Oh Willow, you'll understand better one day...
And now we get to see how dumb Xander and Giles are. They go to Spike and describe what Faith looks like and ask if he's seen her. Hilarity ensues:

Spike: Is this bird after you?
Xander: In a bad way, yeah.
Spike: Tell you what I'll do then. I'll head out, find this girl, tell
her exactly where you are and then watch as she kills you. (Sees their
looks of surprise and irritation.) Can't any one of your damn little
Scooby club at least try to remember that I hate you all? Just because
I can't do the damage myself doesn't stop me from aiming a loose
cannon your way. And here I thought the evening be dull.
Xander: Go ahead. You wouldn't even recognise her.
Spike: Dark hair, this tall (Indicates), name of Faith, criminally
insane. Like this girl already.
I think Xander sums this experience up perfectly...

"We're dumb"

I have to add from this statement of Spike's, it makes me ship Faith/Spike a little bit. Just saying, that would be the craziest sex ever... ok, I'm done now.

 

Next some demon delivers a package to Faith. Instead of signing for it, Faith just decides to kill him. She then goes and watches a tape that was in the package and it's the Mayor.

Mayor: Hello Faith. If you're watching this tape, it can only mean one
thing. I'm dead. And our noble campaign to bring order to the town of
Sunnydale has failed. Utterly and completely. But on the other hand,
heck, maybe we won. And right now, I'm on some jumbo monitor in the
Richard Wilkins surrounded by a bunch of kids sitting Indian style and
looking up at my face filled with fear and wonder. (Laughs) "Hi kids!"
(Faith smiles) But the realist in me tends to doubt it. Now, Faith, as
I record this message you're sleeping. And the doctors tell me you
might never wake up. I don't believe that. Sooner or later you will
wake up, and when you do, you'll find the world has gone and changed
on you. I wish I could make the world a better place for you to wake
up in. But, tough as it is to accept, we both have to understand that
even my power to protect and watch over you has it's limits. See, the
hard pill to swallow is that once I'm gone, your days are just plain
numbered. Now, I know, you're a smart and capable young woman in
charge of her own life, but the problem, Faith, is that there won't be
a place in the world for you anymore. By now I bet you're feeling very
much alone. But you're never alone. You'll always have me. (Picks up
box) And you'll always have this. Go ahead. Open the box. (Faith takes
box from the case and looks at it.) Don't worry. It's not gonna
bite. That's my job. (Laughs) Go ahead. Open it. (She does so)
Surprise! You won't find these in any gumball machine! See, when
you've been around as long as I have, you make friends. And some of
them forge neat little gizmos. Just like the one you're holding right
now. (She looks at it) And here's the good news. Just because it's
over for my Faith, doesn't mean she can't go out with a bang. (He
looks down and laughs sadly. Faith looks sadly at the device.)
Leave to good 'ole Mr. Mayor to be his awesomely creepy self one last time. He obviously really cares for her and he even got her a cool new toy! I wonder what this thingy could do...

And now, once again, shit gets real. Faith shows up at Joyce's house!

Faith: You're thinking "You'll never get away with this!" Moi?
Joyce: Actually I was thinking "My daughter is going to kill you
soon."
Faith: That a fact?
Joyce: More like a bet.
Faith: Whoa. You got a pair on you, Joyce, I like seeing that in a
woman your age. Guess you can afford to talk that way. I mean, in the
world according to Joyce, Buffy is gonna come crashing through that
door any minute. But, look what I found. (Goes over and picks up some
letters, comes over to Joyce. Reads addresses.) Buffy Summers, Buffy
Summers, Buffy Summers, Buffy, Buffy, Buffy. Lotta letters. She hasn't
been by in a while, huh? And you'd think, with a crazy chick like me
on the loose, crazy chick with a wicked grudge against her no less,
she'd call, give you a heads up. But Buffy's too into her own deal to
remember dear old mom.
Joyce: You don't know the first thing about Buffy. Or me.
Faith: Don't I? I know what it's like. You think you matter, you think
you're a part of something and you get dumped. It's like the whole
world is moving and you're stuck. It's like those animals in the tar
pits. It's like you just keep sinking a little deeper everyday and
no-one even sees.
Joyce: Were you planning to slit my throat any time soon?
Faith: Don't tell me you don't see it Joyce. You've served you
purpose, squirted out the kids, raised her up, and now you might as
well be dead. Nobody cares, nobody remembers, especially not Buffy
fabulous superhero. Sooner or later you're going to have to face
it. She was over us a long time ago Joyce. Too busy climbing onto her
new boytoy to give a single though to the people that matter. I mean,
you're her mother, and she just leaves you here to die. (Grabs knife)
Buffy crashes in through the window and punches Faith.
Words can't even describe how bad I feel for Faith right now. She may have killed someone, but she did nothing to deserve this. Her person is the result of a series of flawed systems. First, she obviously should have been taken from her biological family. Second, the council should have known about her Watcher being killed and someone should have helped her! It wasn't Buffy's job to teach her about slaying and take her under her wing. And third, they should have dealt with her delicately. I know no one approved of Wesley's behaviors but, once again, the council messed up by wanting this to happen. Faith was fragile and instead of treating her with care they just threw her around and tossed her onto a pile of sharp objects. It's hard to put yourself in another person's shoes obviously. I think by looking at the situation from the outside we feel for Faith more than someone who has been personally hurt by her (like Buffy, Willow, etc). Same thing for them. They can't look outside of their situation to see why Faith is the way she is and to do what needs to be done to help her. Well, there is someone that can and will, but we'll get to that...
And now Buffy's here and the two of them have it out. At the last minute before the cops come in, Faith takes out her new toy and uses it. Sarah, that statement sounds kinda dirty... At first nothing appears to have happened but then we understand exactly what went down.

Joyce: (nods) You're sure you're okay?
Buffy considers the question as she looks down at Faith.
Buffy: Five by five.

Dun Dun DUN

TO BE CONTINUED!