Buffy The Vampire Slayer, "Bad Girls" Review (3x14)

Brief Synopsis: "While on a mission to retrieve an amulet before a powerful demon called Balthazar can use it to restore his strength, Faith introduces Buffy to her reckless method of slaying, which leaves Buffy wanting more of the wild life. Meanwhile, Giles is trying to keep his cool in front of the insufferably stuffy new Watcher, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce.”

"The Zeppo" (3x13) quick link here                                                                                                       "Consequences" (3x15) quick link here


Four quick notes before we get started...

1)    I will be reviewing the episodes in bullet point form. This is because it makes the reviews simple to read, and helps break up the text.
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With that being said, let’s get started, shall we?



•    This episode primarily focuses on Buffy and Faith’s relationship and what it means to be the Slayer. One of the reasons why this season works so well is because of Faith. Faith being in Sunnydale and being such a contrasting figure to Buffy, allows Buffy (and the viewers by extension) to assess what it truly means to be the Slayer. Buffy is forced to face her own life in a way that she hasn’t had to before. Faith enjoys slaying, Faith gets off on it and it’s the centre of her life. On the other hand, Buffy has always found being the Slayer a burden. Buffy has always wanted to escape being the Slayer and have a ‘normal life’. I think this is the season where Buffy’s stance goes from “I don’t want to be the Slayer” to “I have a responsibility and a calling, which I must respect.” After season three, Buffy is far more proud and comfortable being the Slayer and I think Faith is a big part as to why.

What “Bad Girls” represents is the notion of Buffy trying to be more like Faith. Buffy is trying to view slaying the way that Faith does – “Want. Take. Have.” That’s the way that Faith lives her entire life and Buffy starts to do the same thing. She’s enjoying her work in this episode; she’s getting off on it. It’s the most fun that we’ve ever seen Buffy have in relation to slaying! While this drastic change in character seems unrealistic of Buffy Summers, it makes sense in the context of the episode. Not only does Buffy have to watch Faith having more and more fun when slaying, but a new Watcher has arrived in Sunnydale, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, who starts barking orders at Buffy like she’s a semi-trained border collie. (I say ‘semi-trained’ because Buffy doesn’t exactly follow his orders). The combination of these two things makes Buffy act out. Is it irresponsible and irrational? Of course! But Buffy is an 18-year-old girl with the responsibility of protecting the entire world on her shoulders! I’m honestly surprised that Buffy hasn’t acted out before now. Faith is telling Buffy that she needs to enjoy life more and stop thinking so much, whereas Wesley is telling Buffy to follow his orders and to have less of a social life. Buffy chooses to follow Faith’s advice.

When Buffy starts to live vicariously through Faith, it’s initially a very exciting, rewarding experience for her. She loves living on the edge! She loves the dirty dancing at The Bronze. She bails on a test at school in order to go and fight vampires with Faith. Even after she gets arrested for breaking into a weapons store and stealing things, and she has to escape from a police car, she doesn’t seemly overly perturbed. She’s afraid she’ll get found out, but being arrested didn’t really show her the error of her ways. That in itself is a little disturbing. Buffy helps Faith in crashing the police car and injuring two innocent officers that did nothing but arrest two people who broke into a store and started stealing things. It was around this point that I started worrying about what Buffy was turning into.

Then, Faith accidentally kills Deputy Mayor Allan Finch (who, it is implied, was there looking for Buffy and Faith as he was afraid of The Mayor’s plan of becoming a ‘Pure Demon’ and wanted to stop him), a human, and everything falls apart. I also believe that Allan was the one who helped Vincent get into The Mayor’s cupboard and try to kill him. Allan sees The Mayor for what he truly is, he gets scared, and wants a way out. I don’t think Faith killing a human should be glossed over at all. Going back to season two’s “Ted”, Buffy thought she had killed a human and it was played as the most horrific thing that could ever happen. Faith actually has just killed a human. It’s a very bold move for the show to allow Faith to kill a human being. How can her character ever come back from this?

What I love about this episode is seeing the differences in the way that Buffy and Faith react to this. Buffy is terrified and goes into total meltdown mode. She has no idea what to do, what to think, or how to react. By the next episode, Buffy has told the Scoobies what happened. That’s the biggest difference. Buffy opens up and allows herself to start to heal. Faith, on the other hand, shuts down emotionally. She shows little remorse or sorrow for what she’s done. Whereas Buffy can’t take her eyes off of Allan, Faith just wants to run away. Faith has a habit of running away when the going gets tough. She ran away from Kakistos after he killed her Watcher, she runs away from Sunnydale after swapping bodies with Buffy and shagging Riley in season four’s “Who Are You?”, and she almost runs away from Los Angeles. Does all of this mean that Faith doesn’t care that she killed Allan, like she wants people to believe? Hell no! Faith definitely cares! I don’t believe her for a second when she tells Buffy at the end of the episode that she doesn’t care! Go and look at her face after she goes back to Allan’s body to move it! She definitely cares. But she can’t show weakness. She trusts nobody after Gwendolyn Post abused her trust and she won’t let the Scoobies or Buffy in to help her. Instead, she looks out for herself. She adds some weight to Allan’s body and dumps it into the ocean. That’s all about self-preservation. She wants to take care of the mess herself so that she feels she doesn’t owe anything to Buffy for helping her. This moment is where Faith turns to the ‘dark side’ altogether. She hates herself for what she’s done and she doesn’t know how to react to it. I also love (in a weird way) that Allan didn’t die instantly. Buffy and Faith had to watch him die slowly for about 20 seconds. It makes the death so much more brutal to watch for the Slayers and the audience. I swear, it’s the most disturbing, uncomfortable moment of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” thus far by some margin – and that includes Angelus’ leaving Jenny in Giles’ bed.

Even before accidentally killing Allan, Faith’s dark side was apparent. We’ve seen Faith enjoying killing vampires a little too much, rather than just staking them and moving on. She’s already on a slippery slope before this episode. Faith has a sense of self-entitlement because she’s the Slayer and she’s saving people’s lives. Buffy doesn’t have that sense of self-entitlement yet (sadly, she starts to develop this trait in the later seasons of the show). Faith killing Allan was an accident. However, Faith’s choice to descend into darkness was just that: a choice. She could have gone to Buffy for help, she could have gone to Giles for help, but instead she chooses to close herself off and eventually find solace in The Mayor. She chose to turn her back on the Scoobies.

All of these aspects of “Bad Girls” work perfectly! The dissection of what it means to be the Slayer and the similarities and differences between the two Slayers is masterfully handled. Another aspect of this episode that I love is the addition of Wesley to the Buffyverse. I’m not going to lie to you; Wesley, Angel, and Faith are probably my top 3 favourite characters of either show. So having this episode focus a great deal on one of them and debut another of them, means that I’m slightly biased towards this episode. To me, dorky Wesley is the funniest character in the history of the Buffyverse. Not Cordelia, not Anya, not Oz, not Harmony, not Giles, but Wesley. He makes me laugh harder than any other character. This episode is no exception. Wesley is a buffoon in this episode. He arrives in Sunnydale a pompous Watcher that thinks he has all the answers. To quote a famous wrestler, “Just when you think you have all the answers, I change the questions.” That is the embodiment of Wesley’s story in this episode. He realises that he knows a lot less than he thought he did. He is captured by Balthazar and quickly falls to pieces (in one of the funniest scenes ever). It’s also amazing to see Wesley in this episode and then see him in the “Angel” finale, “Not Fade Away”. His character growth and development is second to none in the Buffyverse.

Wesley’s arrival doesn’t just add comedic relief to the episode. He changes the dynamic of the Scoobies. Giles suddenly seems like the coolest man on the planet when you sit him next to the bumbling, pleading Wesley that loves his kneecaps. It’s funny. In season one I thought that Giles was so old and stuffy. Like when he gets grouchy with Buffy for wanting to be a cheerleader or date. Wesley arrives and you realise just how much Giles has grown since his arrival in Sunnydale. It took Wesley’s presence to really appreciate Giles’ character growth. Wesley also pushes Buffy towards Faith by treating her like a child and a Slayer that shouldn’t need to think for herself.

So what doesn’t work for me in this episode? Frankly, there isn’t a great deal. The only thing that springs to mind is Balthazar. While there’s nothing wrong with him and he’s certainly unique, I just don’t find him threatening in the least. Perhaps it’s because he’s stuck in a tub of fluid. Perhaps it’s because I’ve seen the outtake where the front of the tub opens and you see the actor’s tiny, flailing legs. Whatever the reason is, I found myself caring little about Balthazar’s scenes...except when Wesley is trying to negotiate with him and Giles is being all sassy. On a completely trivia note, he looks a lot like a character in the first “Blade” film.

Some other thoughts on “Bad Girls”....

•    Faith is a very sexual being, isn’t she? All that grunting and talking about sex.
•    Xander: “Is anyone else intimidated? ‘Cause I’m just expecting thin slips of paper with ‘no way’ written in crayon.”
Oz: “They’re typing those now.”
Xander: “Huh…”

Firstly, I can’t hear the word ‘crayon’ without getting teary-eyed (in a manly way) and thinking of Xander’s ‘Yellow Crayon’ speech in season six’s “Grave”. *pow*, right in the feels! Secondly, it’s so refreshing to see Xander and Oz getting along so well after all the drama and turmoil earlier on this season. They seem closer than they’ve ever been! It’s nice to see that Xander has a male friend. He never really has another one. The closest he comes to another one is Riley, but they don’t really become friends until just before Riley leaves. In season five (“I Was Made To Love You”), Xander even remarks that he misses Oz.

•    I find it interesting that Cordelia is bragging to Xander about her parents having a lot of money. Very soon they won’t and Cordelia will be living in absolute poverty in Los Angeles. Oh, how the mighty fall...I’ve got that Fall Out Boy song stuck in my head now.
•    You’ve confronted two whole vampires before, have you Wesley? Under controlled circumstances too? You’re completely prepared for Sunnydale then, my friend.
•    Alexis Denisof is the perfect Wesley. There is no other actor I can think of that could have done a better job or even as good of a job as Alexis did. I think the mark of a great actor is when you can’t picture anyone else playing the character because the actor is doing too good of a job already. Alexis completely embodies that. I also met Alexis in October 2013 at ‘Hallowhedon’ and spent a lot of that weekend talking to him and getting to know him. He’s an absolute class act and a family man through and through. I love that about him! For more details on ‘Hallowhedon’, what Alexis was like, and some rare trivia and facts about the Buffyverse, read my ‘Hallowhedon’ review here - http://shangelsreviews.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/hallowhedon-5-thefan-experience.html
•    I know I’m pretty much going on a Wesley/Alexis happy-rant by this point, but Alexis’ English accent is perfect. I genuinely thought he was English when I first saw this episode. Alexis lived in England for two years, so that probably helped.
•    Wesley: “I didn’t get this job because of my looks.”
      Buffy: “I really, really believe that.”

I never understood this response from Buffy. Alexis is a good-looking man! He does get more good looking as time rolls on (the stubble works for him), but he’s far from unattractive here.

•    Wesley: “Are you not used to being given orders?”
Buffy: “Whenever Giles sends me on a mission he says please, and afterwards I get a cookie.”

Just having Wesley around makes for entertaining television. Even when Wesley isn’t making the audience roar with laughter, someone else is making the audience laugh at Wesley’s expense. Case in point: Faith saying “screw that” and walking out as soon as she meets Wesley. I sometimes miss dorky Wesley after he becomes suave and cool in the later Angel seasons.

•    Giles and Wesley cleaned their glasses at the same time! Comedy gold.
•    The parallel in this episode between Buffy and Faith’s relationship and Giles and Wesley’s relationship is apparent. Buffy is the responsible, cautious Slayer who has years of experience, then Faith arrives and turns everything on its head because she’s polar opposite. The exact same thing happens to Giles with Wesley. I love parallels so much!
•    There is so much underlying (and sometimes not underlying) sexual tension between Faith and Buffy. I really love their dynamic together. It just plays into the whole “slaying makes you hungry and horny” theory that Faith has.
•    Buffy gets drowned for the second time in 35 episodes. She doesn’t die this time at least.
•    Watching Xander’s eye twitch whenever Buffy says Faith’s name is hilarious.
•    I wish the Faith/Buffy friendship lasted a little longer. They were good friends for about two episodes before Faith turned evil. If they were friends for slightly longer, Faith’s sudden but inevitable betrayal (Browncoats unite! ) would have been even more impactful.
•    The actor who plays Vincent (Alex Skuby) goes on to play Harlan in Angel season one’s “Sense & Sensitivity”. He’s also in “The King Of Queens” and a load of other shows.
•    Again, I love The Mayor. He genuinely loves the children that come to visit him and he genuinely wants to be a good Mayor for Sunnydale. His “I could just eat them up” line is very foreshadowing for his ascension that is coming later in the season.
•    I feel really sorry for Willow in this episode. She’s been replaced by Faith in Buffy’s life. It’s a huge part of the reason why Buffy going to Willow for help in the next episode is so lovely and heart-warming.
•    Balthazar: “You know what I want.”
      Giles: “If it’s for me to scrub those hard-to-reach areas, I request you kill me now.”

There is a time and a place for sassiness, Ripper!

•    Wesley calling Balthazar “sir” made me laugh so hard!
•    Electrocuting Balthazar was another great touch. What made it even better is the fact that Balthazar had enough time to warn the Scoobies about just how dangerous The Mayor is before he died. It was a great set-up for what’s to come. The Mayor is now invulnerable from harm until his ascension. Also, his to-do-list is amazing...

-    Plumber union reschedule
-    Call temp agency
-    Become invincible
-    Meeting with the PTA
-    Haircut

•    Buffy: “Faith, you don’t get it, you killed a man.”
     Faith: “No, you don’t get it, I don’t care.”

  What a powerful way to end a brilliant episode.


Quote Of The Episode

Wesley: “Stay calm, Mr. Giles. Just stay calm.”

Giles: “Thank God you’re here, I was planning to panic.”

Wesley: “What is that thing?”

Giles: “That would be your demon. You know, the dead one.”

Wesley: “There’s no need to get snippy.”


Giles and Wesley together is comedy gold! I wish there was more of it.


FINAL SCORE: 8/10

What are your thoughts on "Bad Girls"? Did you enjoy this episode? Dislike it? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments section below!

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