Giles: "Maybe I could be the Steed to your Peel?"
Faith: "God, I hope that's not as gross as it sounds."
Synopsis:
We start with the Mayor and Faith and a scene where Faith is wearing that pink dress that he got for her. (Which episode was that?) Faith tells herself that it wasn't her fault that the Mayor led her astray; he made her feel loved. As Roden has with Gigi.
Faith fights Gigi to the death. (Again with echoes of her fight with Buffy in "Graduation Day".) Faith tries to get Gigi to understand that Roden will be the death of her, but Gigi won't listen. Faith tells Gigi that she feels that she doesn't deserve to be loved. She's also talking about herself.
Meanwhile, out in the woods, Trafalgar is unable to breach Roden's mystical perimeter. Giles, who is ready to ask Willow for help, gets a call from Buffy. Buffy is furious that Giles is working with Faith and feels betrayed. In turn, Giles is angry that Buffy and Willow left Faith in danger, and he tells Buffy that she can't be a part of this. Buffy is crushed.
Faith kicks Gigi into the axe, which is stuck blade out in a tree trunk, and Gigi dies. Faith tells her, "I'm so sorry." Roden finally shows up and refuses to raise or heal Gigi. Roden tells Faith that he has been promised "clemency from the coming purge" from the Twilight people if he eliminates Buffy, and he shows Faith his Twilight guidebook and tries and fails to recruit her. He surrounds her with mystical fire and rock and is winning, when Giles (whom we assume got through the perimeter with Willow's help) comes up behind him with pruning shears and stabs him in the back, releasing Faith. Roden attacks Giles with mystical energy; Faith tosses Giles the Twilight "guidebook." Giles uses it to create a containment field inside Roden and Roden's head rather grossly explodes.
The next morning, in what I can only assume is Giles' home (because of all the books), Giles offers Faith what he promised her: an honorable discharge, a passport, etc. Faith says no. She wants to find other Gigis and help them find their way back, as she did. Giles agrees and asks if he can be her partner.
Meanwhile, near what looks like the mountain in Close Encounters of the Third Kind -- (was it Devil's Peak?), a young black woman in uniform named Lieutenant Molter talks with the guy whose shoes we saw floating in the air in the first issue of season eight. He tells her that his plan all along was to eliminate Gigi and Roden. He confirms that his ultimate goal is to eliminate Buffy and bring an end to the age of magic; if slayers and sorcerers take each other out, fine with him. One can only assume that Unnamed Floating Guy is the Big Bad.
Review:
What a feel-good, satisfying end to this arc. Faith finally became the good slayer we always wanted her to be. She transitioned from the Mayor at the beginning of the issue, her darkest point, to choosing in the end to partner with Giles to do good. She completed her journey back from darkness. I'm oddly happy for her, as if Faith were a real person who finally found her way to the light.
Faith really wanted to save Gigi, but she couldn't. And now she wants to save other slayers like Gigi -- in other words, other slayers like Faith herself. This issue was full of references to Faith's relationship with the Mayor, and Gigi's with Roden. Both Faith and Gigi just wanted love and acceptance, and were led astray by older, powerful guys that they thought truly loved them. Roden certainly didn't care about Gigi. I've always thought that the Mayor truly cared about Faith, though. Not that he was good for her or anything.
Giles will be good for her. The two of them could make an awesome team. I'm sad that Giles has lost his closeness with Buffy, but in truth, Faith needs him much, much more.
Bits and pieces:
-- Gorgeous, gorgeous cover, with Faith nude in Roden's ring of magical fire.
-- Lieutenant Molter. Sideways reference to Mulder? Is she a believer, not a skeptic, but also anti-magic?
-- Nameless Floating Guy is wearing something skintight over his face, armor on his chest with the Twilight symbol on it, and lots of black, as becomes a villain on BtVS.
-- The typeface for words spoken by our Unnamed Floating Guy was different from the rest of the comic. It's a rather fussy, old fashioned font. I wonder why?
-- For those of you who never saw The Avengers, it was about two good-guy British spies named John Steed and Emma Peel. It was an innovative British television series in the sixties, I think, that was poorly translated to the screen a few years ago.
Quotes:
Mayor: "Now why don't you change into your play clothes? The blood of innocents is a real pain in the neck to wash out of cotton blends."
Faith: "For the record, I'm a Boston girl. Like the tea party?"
Buffy: "Your Femme Nikita just tried to stuff me down a pool drain."
Xander: "Maybe the boss just needs some alone time."
Buffy: "What other kind is there?"
Giles: "Morning. How are you holding up?"
Faith: "Not my first rodeo. How about you, Conan the Librarian?"
Wonderful. Four out of four stakes,
Billie
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Billie Doux reviewed all of Buffy and Angel, so she knows the plural of apocalypse.
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