Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Bad Girls - S03E14 Review

 
BAD GIRLS 
SEASON 3 EPISODE 14

This is that "point of no return" episode that would become a staple in Buffy.   It's that midpoint in the season where things start to change for the worse and the odds are raised. Consider this and the next episode this season's Surprise and Innocence.  They don't work nearly as well as those episodes in season two, but really that's more due to the villains not being quite as well-done as Angelus (although pretty much no one is).

We start out with Buffy and Faith in the graveyard together fighting some vamps synergistically. Faith relays her passionate encounter with Xander from The Zeppo and is shocked to find that she's never hooked up with him before.  So... is he supposed to be attractive or not?  Because in the first couple of seasons he's treated like he's disgusting, although he isn't.  But now, suddenly Faith is all, "You have to getcha some of that, B!"  Just something I noticed.  Although I would have been more than fine with the Buffy/Xander pairing.

They stake the vamps, noticing that they have some odd swords.  Mr. Trick, however, swoops in and steals the swords while they aren't paying attention, and bring them to the Mayor.  The Mayor has weird little quirks, like he loves the comic strips in the newspaper.  Actually, all the villains do; it's weird.  We do get to see the Deputy Mayor Finch a little more though, as well as some insight into the Mayor's big plan involving something called an Ascension.

At school, the gang revels in Willow's acceptance into a zillion colleges, while Xander laments about being... less than smart.  Although all of them seem to have a pretty large vocabulary; none of them are anything approaching stupid.  Cordy shows up just to prove that she's still on the show, then leaves again immediately.  Buffy heads to the library to meet the new watcher.  The foppish Brit's name is Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, and you might think that he's an unimportant side character discarded after a few episodes.  But... nope, he later joins Angel and becomes one of the most complex and interesting characters in the whole Buffyverse.  Of course, you'd never know that by just watching him on Buffy; he's pretty much played up as a super incompetent version of Giles.  But hey, he just makes Giles look that much cooler in comparison, so it all works.

Wesley does happen to have info regarding the swordy vamps and says that they're Eliminati, under the rule of a demon called Balthazar.  And apparently they're looking for this powerful amulet that Balthazar used to give himself power.  Faith soon strolls in, sees the new watcher, and strolls back out. Buffy gives chase to convince her, but Faith is on a superiority kick, saying that the two of them can do whatever they want.

That night, Buffy goes to the crypt to find the amulet, but the Eliminati guys show up and she has to hide while they take it. Afterwards, Faith shows up and suggests that they go after the group and get the amulet back.  They follow them and take most of them out, retrieving the amulet.  There's a weird scene where Buffy almost drowns again, but it kind of comes out of nowhere and isn't really relevant to anything.

Buffy gives Wesley the amulet, but she's already to take after Faith and rebel against the council a little bit.  In class, Buffy won't stop gushing about Faith to Xand and Willow, who aren't nearly as enthused.   Soon Faith comes by and gets Buff to climb out the window to go hunting.  The two bust into a vamp nest and kill them all, then go clubbing at the Bronze that night.  Angel shows up at the Bronze and sees her slutting it up like Faith, and comes to talk shop, explaining that Balthazar is still alive and he might know where to find him.  Wesley shows up and Angel takes the amulet to put it somewhere safe.  Interesting to see these two interact for the first time, as they will have a very complicated relationship in the later seasons of Angel.

We then see Balthazar, an impossibly fat demon who must be bathed at all times by his men to keep from drying out or something.  Luckily he's played entirely for comedy, because there's no way to make him threatening.   He does have some kind of ill-defined telekinesis though, so I guess that's kind of cool. Buffy and Faith stumble on the warehouse that the demon is in, but decide that they need weapons.   So they break into a sporting goods store next door, but are soon caught by cops. I think Buff's transition is a little soon sudden, but her flirtation with the dark side is interesting.  In the squad car, they knock the cops out and make their escape... with no repercussions whatsoever.

At the Mayor's, we see him interact with some kids, and he seems to like them.   Then he gets jumped by the Vince Vaughn-looking Eliminati guy but Mr. Trick knocks him out and they lock him up rather than kill him. Later, Buffy blows Willow off in favor of going to kill Balthazar with Faith.  Great acting from Aly in this scene; you can always count on Willow to make you feel sympathetic.  Buffy and Faith head to kill Balthazar but get jumped by Eliminati guys, while Giles and Wesley get captured at the library as well.

The two fight through Eliminati, staking everything they see.  Then Deputy Mayor Finch comes to them and Faith stabs before she sees he's not a vamp, killing him.  They bolt, and Buffy runs into Angel, and the two go to the warehouse while Faith doubles back to Finch, seemingly remorseful for what she's done.   Before Balthazar can torture and kill Giles and Wesley, Angel and Buffy show up to save the day while Balthazar ineffectually screams from his tub.  Everyone lays waste to the Eliminati vamps and finally Balthazar remembers that he has telekinesis, so he drags Angel over to him, but Buffy electrocutes him in his tub before he gets a chance to do anything.  He does warn Buffy about something 'rising' soon though.  How kind of him.

Back at the Mayor's, he and Trick some kind of ritual and then let the last Eliminati out of his cage. Of course, he charges the Mayor and splits his head open with a sword, but it forms back together, proving that the Mayor is now invincible for the one hundred days until the Ascension.  Later, Buffy goes to Faith's apartment to visit her as she's washing the blood out of her clothes.  She wants to get Faith to open up, but she'll have none of it, even going as far to say that she doesn't care about killing Finch.  And we end on an ominous note that Faith may be going to the dark side.

Overall, this is a pretty good episode, but it's definitely not as strong as the turning point in Season 2. Honestly, Faith isn't explored well enough before this point to really care that much about the face-heel turn.  There are little flashes here and there of her vulnerability, but not enough to make her very sympathetic.   It's hard to care if she ever comes back to the good guys because she's not super well-defined before this point.  Still, not a bad episode though.

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