In the dream, Buffy and Faith put clean sheets on Buffy's bed at the house. Faith bleeds on the sheets from a gut wound, and she asks Buffy if she's "ever gonna take this thing out". Buffy looks down to see her own hand still holding the knife, impaling Faith. Cut to Faith, who is the one dreaming in her coma, in a private room at the hospital, all hooked up to monitors and an IV. In Xander's basement, Buffy asks Xander if he thinks he might be able to repair the blast gun she salvaged from her little ambush in the sewer in "The 'I' in Team". Xander doesn't think so, but he gives it a go after Buffy gets testy. Giles mentions that Buffy's been patrolling non-stop since finding out about Adam, and he says she needs some rest. Willow agrees and asks if Buffy still hasn't heard anything from Riley. Buffy says the Initiative still won't let her contact him. She worries that the Initiative is all about brain-washing / behaviour modification, and wonders what happens if they (the Initiative) start not liking Riley's behavior? Cut to Riley, in the med unit at the Initiative. He sits up in bed, grabbing Buffy's handkerchief thingy that she'd wrapped around his hand when it was injured, and puts a shirt on over his bandaged chest. He starts to leave the room, but a uniformed soldier at the door doesn't want to let him by, even after Riley orders him to stand down. Forrest comes by and reinforces the order, and Riley walks out. Forrest says he looks like he's looking better, but he hopes he's not going where he thinks he's going (to see Buffy). He and Riley quickly get into an argument over Buffy, and Forrest feels like Riley's abandoning them to go to her. Graham shows up and kind of sides with Forrest, but Riley just tells them to step aside. In the hospital room, Faith is still in her coma. This time she's dreaming of Mayor Wilkins and herself having a picnic in the park. Suddenly Buffy shows up and Faith shouts "No!" as Buffy kills the mayor. Out in the woods, Buffy, Willow and Xander are patrolling when Buffy finds the vivisected corpse of a demon, flayed and lain open like a biology dissection. Back in Xander's basement, Buffy says it's Adam's work; that he's trying to learn about the things around him, and himself. They decide they need to step up the plan, and they ask Buffy what's first. She says she's not gonna leave Riley down there with the people who created Adam, and starts to go into command mode, ordering Willow to hack into the Initiative, and Xander to round up all of his weapons for a full-on frontal assault. Riley shows up in the basement behind her, kinda pleased that he's "worth all that". Buffy's ecstatic to see him, and Riley apologizes for his behaviour earlier when he was suffering from his Initiative drugs withdrawal thing. More of Faith's dream; she's running from Buffy through the cemetery, and Buffy follows calmly behind with the knife, looking like a sadistic killer. Intercut with scenes of Faith lying in the bed in the hospital, her eyes twitching in R.E.M. sleep, Faith runs through the cemetery, looking back to see if Buffy's gaining on her. She falls into an open grave, and Buffy walks up to the grave and looks into it to see Faith looking up scared and helpless, before jumping down into it with her. There are some sounds of Battle, and then a grunt as someone's impaled. It starts to rain, and Faith crawls her way out of the grave, having slain the pursuing Buffy. In the hospital, Faith's eyes open. Faith looks around, not knowing where she is. She looks at the monitors and the IV, and realizes she's in a hospital. She gets up out of bed and rips the IV out of her hand, then wanders out into the hall. The hospital looks pretty dingy; I'm not sure what's up with that. Anyways, she walks out into the hallway and a young woman comes through some doors at the end, and asks Faith for directions. Faith is confused, and asks about Sunnydale High School Graduation. The girl realizes she's a patient and explains that she can't go to graduation; the school isn't even there anymore. Faith asks what the date is, and finds out it's been 7 months since graduation. The girl offers to go get some help for Faith, but Faith presses her for answers on what happened at graduation. The girl tells her that a lot of people died, including the principal and the mayor. She offers again to go get help, but the scene cuts to Faith walking out of the hospital wearing the girl's clothes. In Buffy's dorm room, Riley tells Buffy that all he had to hold on to when he was "in there" was her little handerchief thingy. He says he's kinda floundering now; doesn't know what to do now that his world's been upside down. Buffy says she knows how he feels, and compares his situation to her relationship to the Council; how she quit, but still does what she thinks is right anyway. Riley wonders what would be left of him if the soldier part was taken away. Buffy tells him "a good man". At the hospital, the nurse coming on duty has found Faith missing. A police officer is present and wants to know why there was no security on this floor, considering that Faith was wanted for questioning in a series of murders. The doctor tells him he doesn't understand; there was no way this patient was ever going to wake up. Just then an orderly comes in and reports finding the body of the girl from earlier, who's been beaten and locked in a closet, and her clothes are missing. The nurse makes a call and says only "It's happened, send a team". Cut to the burned-out high school. Faith gazes at it from across the street and realizes that she missed everything that went down. She walks along the street in front of the Sun Cinema (see, I told you; always the Sun Cinema ;) ), and sees that life is going on as usual in Sunnydale, so she knows that the Mayor didn't successfully ascend. She goes to Giles' apartment, and looks in the window to spy on the gang as they try to strategize about Adam. During the conversation, Riley picks up the blast rifle and turns it on; Xander's all "Hey!", 'cause he hadn't been able to get it to work. Faith watches as Buffy sits down next to Riley and touches him, and gleans that they're together. The phone rings; it's for Buffy. She takes the call and finds out that Faith is awake, and has escaped from the hospital. Everyone's stunned when Buffy tells them, except for Riley, who has no idea who Faith is. The next day on campus, Willow asks Buffy what she told Riley about Faith, and she says that she kinda glossed over the Angel-y parts, but that she told Riley the basic truth. She says every cop in Sunnydale is probably gunning for Faith right now, and if she were her she'd get the hell out of dodge. Just then, the girl in front of them at the Bulletin Board turns around; it's Faith. Buffy tries to be civil, not sure of what Faith's current mentality is, but Faith quickly makes it clear that she's basically wanting a re-match. She wants payback. She's especially bitter that Buffy tried to kill her to save Angel, but now it's 7 months later and this guy who was important enough to her to kill for is not even in her life any more. (We're all bitter about that, Faith! Not just you!) They have a short fight, but the cops show up almost immediately, and Faith runs off. Buffy gives chase, but Faith loses her. There's a short little scene with Willow and Tara, doing recon, keeping an eye out for Faith. I'm honestly not sure how to review the scene, because I don't understand it. I'm not sure why Tara is helping, or what they're hoping to find. It's highly doubtful that Faith would show up again so quickly in the dorm. Eh. Anyways. Giles and Xander are on patrol, when they come across Spike. They tell him about the "rogue slayer" on the loose. Spike plays all concerned to get the information, but once he has it he tells them he's gonna go find Faith and point her in their direction. Giles and Xander are stunned, and Spike's like "duh, try remembering I hate you guys!". Cut to a helicopter pad, where a team of Council people set down, and approach the nurse. She leads them inside. Out on the street again, Faith admires some knives in a storefront window, but sees an approaching squad car and mingles with a crowd of people leaving the theatre to blend in. Taking cover in a warehouse, she's approached by a demon who says a friend sent him. Without even speaking, she kills the demon and takes the package he was carrying off of his corpse. Another squad car approaches, and Faith takes off. Next scene, she's in an office, watching the tape that was in the package. Mayor Wilkins is on the tape, saying that if she's watching this, it means he failed. He recorded it when she was in her coma, before the graduation. As Faith realizes that her last real connection to the world she knew is gone for good, the Mayor says that he's left a little gift for her. Faith opens a box that was also in the package, and finds a little mechanical-looking device. The Mayor says that he can't protect her anymore, but "just because it's over for my Faith, doesn't mean she can't go out with a bang!" In Riley's room, Riley wants to know more about who Faith is, and what she did to Buffy. Buffy is evasive, and really doesn't tell him much at all, other than the fact that Faith is crazy, and will come after her and the people she loves. Cut to Buffy's house. Joyce answers the door, and Faith knocks her out. Up in Joyce's bedroom, Faith goes through her lipsticks as Joyce watches from the bed, where she's sitting quietly. Faith taunts her, saying that Buffy's too busy with her new beefstick boyfriend to remember to worry about her mother, and that Joyce's hopes of Buffy rescuing her are foundless. Joyce refuses to play her game, and Faith quickly works herself into a psychotic frenzy. Just as she goes to grab a knife to attack Joyce with, Buffy crashes through the window and tackles her. They trade blows, and the fight moves downstairs. Quick cut to Giles coming home to find the team from the Council in his apartment. Back to the fight, Buffy and Faith go at it in the living room, as sirens approach outside. Faith puts the mechanical doo-hickey device on her hand and grabs Buffy's hand. It glows briefly, and then suddenly Buffy punches Faith out. Faith goes down, unconscious. Joyce runs in and asks what happened, and Buffy smashes the mechanical device. The police are there, and Buffy says Faith is their problem now. Joyce asks if she's okay and Buffy tilts her head to the side and says all psychotic-like "Five by five". FLAWS: The police officer at the hospital says that Faith was wanted for questioning in "a series of murders". What series of murders? She killed the deputy-mayor Alan what's-his-name, and she killed a couple demons and vampires, and she killed that geologist guy toward the end of season 3. But the only one she was a suspect in was the murder of Alan. That's the only one she was questioned for, anyway. Also, we're supposed to believe that the nurse who reported Faith missing was working for the Council, 'cause she makes a call afterward and says "It's happened, send a team". Thing is, she only dials 4 numbers on the phone, which wouldn't even get her an outside line, much less connect her to the Watcher's Council in England. THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE: Eh. Didn't think too much about this episode. Though it does set us up for "Who Are You", and the events that happen there. We find out that the Council has been keeping an eye on Faith in case she ever came out of her coma, and that now a team has been dispatched to deal with her. Riley is tentatively "double agent guy", sharing information with both the Initiative and the Scooby Gang. Bringing Faith back was kind of interesting, if only because it harkened us back to the good old days of season 3. Oh wait, season 3 wasn't really that great. But still, it was better than this season ;) BEST LINE: Okay, for once it's not actually a line. This was, however, one of my funniest, favourite moments of Xander's. When he's trying to fix the blast rifle in his basement and Buffy and Willow and Giles discuss Riley's situation, the blaster goes off and Xander gets like, electrocuted. He turns around and looks at the gang with this shocked expression on his face, but nobody even notices. Without a word he pathetically turns back to the gun. lol. It's kinda sad, actually, but NB does a good job being pretty frickin' funny in this scene ;) |
"This Year's Girl" |
