Gigi: "The mighty slayer who's the very fount of all our power is called Buffy. Can you even believe it?"Faith: "No."
Synopsis:
Gigi shows Faith her surveillance footage of Buffy, and confides that she plans to assassinate her in order to set all of the slayers free of servitude to humanity. Roden has told Gigi that her horrendous nightmares will cease when she takes Buffy out, and Gigi believes it. Faith tries unsuccessfully to talk her out of it.
Cut to Giles in the woods, who waited all night to hear from Faith, and didn't. Giles has hired a "freelancer" named Trafalgar, who looks a lot like a troll and thinks Faith has changed sides.
At the castle, Willow is putting the finishing touches on mystical and expensive electronic upgrades to the castle defense system, which isn't powerful enough to keep Roden from suddenly transporting Buffy to Gigi's estate.
Gigi comes after Buffy with a sword, and they fight. Buffy is unarmed and in pigtails and a tank top. And nauseous. (Mystical transportation makes Buffy lose her lunch when she arrives.) Faith enters the picture (there's a three-way thing where Faith says, "Buffy!" Buffy says, "Faith!" and Gigi says, "Faith?") and in an attempt to save Buffy from Gigi and her sharp sword, Faith tackles Buffy and takes her through a window and way, way down into the shallow end of the moat.
Buffy believes that Faith has allied with Gigi, and they recreate their monster chick fight from "Graduation Day" right there in the moat. Faith, understandably upset, tries desperately to get Buffy to understand that she's undercover, but Buffy won't listen to her. Faith gets the upper hand (maybe it was the nausea) and starts to drown Buffy in the moat. Or does she? Is she just trying to get Buffy under control long enough to listen to her?
Faith brings Buffy back up and out of the water and as Buffy is recovering, Faith says, "I wish you'd just go away" and Buffy vanishes. Buffy arrives back at the castle (via Willow magic) and throws up again before telling someone to contact Giles. Leaving poor, discouraged Faith, whose undercover identity was just revealed, dripping and alone in the moat. Except she's not alone. Gigi, angry and betrayed, is standing behind Faith, holding a battle axe.
Review:
On the "will Faith turn to the dark side" front, they didn't leave us in suspense long; she didn't even come close. And she immediately did what she could to save Buffy from Gigi. I'm glad. I didn't like the idea of Faith going bad again, after all she went through to make things right again. I found it touching that Faith immediately felt like a bad guy again when she was with Buffy. Maybe Buffy and Faith need to stay a continent apart on a permanent basis.
The Gigi/Faith scenes had strong gay vibes, especially bathing together in that huge tub. (When you add in all the moat stuff, there was a lot of water in this episode.) Gigi is oddly unworldly for someone so vicious. She confided in Faith that she was home-schooled. It was obvious that Gigi was desperate for a real friend (and possibly a lover?) and that having Faith to confide in meant a lot to her. She won't take Faith's betrayal lightly. Hence the axe.
More developments in what I'm assuming is the major season eight plot arc. The fact that all the slayers are having pretty wicked nightmares might have something to do with Twilight. Or is it something else? Willow asked Buffy if she was ready to kill the Twilight guys, who are human beings. The two of them also talked briefly about how the Slayers and the castle were funded; there is apparently a mysterious, anonymous donor with deep pockets.
This episode made me laugh out loud twice: When Buffy disappeared, and Willow said, "Did I do that?" And then again, when Buffy came back and Willow told her about the Norwegian truck driver and the marmosets.
Bits and pieces:
-- The cover shows Faith drowning Buffy. Shades of the Master.
-- Roden called Buffy the "first of the last."
-- I thought it was interesting that both the Slayer castle and Gigi's estate have moats. It gives the story a medieval flavor.
-- Mystical transportation made Buffy lose her lunch. Twice. Obviously not a fun way to travel. It's probably faster than the Vomit Comet.
-- Just got it. Faith and Hope. I can miss the obvious at times.
Quotes:
Gigi: "It cost me what some might consider a fortune to buy up every second of grainy surveillance ever shot of this girl and her increasingly awful hair."
Gigi: "I haven't had a decent evening's sleep since my first tampon."
Buffy: "But we've got a moat! Maybe we need something that can tell us if it's crawling with Navy frogmen, or an army of man-frogs."
Faith: (to herself) "Whenever she's around, you're the villain. But as soon as she's gone, you're the hero."
Willow: "Oh, thank Goddess. I've been trying to get a lock on your astral signature, but I accidentally transported a Norwegian truck driver and two marmosets before I finally found you."
I really liked this one, and I'm looking forward to cliffhanger resolution in part four,
Billie
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Billie Doux reviewed all of Buffy and Angel, so she knows the plural of apocalypse.
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