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| | Guest Starring: | |
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| | Eliza Dushku: | |
| | (Faith) | |
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| | Kristine Sutherland: | |
| | (Joyce Summers) | |
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| | Alexis Denisof: | |
| | (Wesley Wyndham-Price) | |
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| | Harry Groener: | |
| | (Mayor Richard Wilkins) | |
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| | Michel Manassen: | |
| | (Book-owning Demon) | |
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| | Gary Bullock: | |
| | (Dark Sorcerer) | |
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17. Enemies. |
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Faith and the Mayor enlist the help of a powerful demon to remove Angel's soul. |
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Great quotes: |
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 | | Faith betrays Buffy. |
- Mayor Wilkins gets a stack of great lines: "There's more than one way to skin a cat and I know that to be factually true.", "Kill the heck out of him!" and "I've got two words to make all the pain go away; miniature, golf."
- Willow: "Does Angel come up to Faith's standards? Well let's see; is he breathing?", Buffy: "Actually no."
- Faith: "I'm not good at apologies, most because I think the world's out to screw me..."
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Fantastic moments: |
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- Faith: "What can I say, I'm the world's best actor.", Angel: "Second best." Did anyone see that coming?
 | | Good SFX for Angel's 'conversion'. |
- Some rather beautiful SFX in the fake 'make Angel evil' scene give it a real credibility.
- The development of the Faith / Mayor relationship into something that the audience actually feels for is a real achievement, something that one would struggle to find in any other comparable TV series or film. She acts like the dutiful daughter to his caring Father; when they're together there's never a hint of the evil that underpins their motives, only a loving respect.
- The entire 'interrogation' of Buffy by Faith and Angel is wonderfully performed by Dushku and Gellar. They really seem to get under each other's skin and bring out the motives behind each character. A great scene.
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Duff Bits: |
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- The plot has a number of holes and requires a bit of creative thinking to get it to hold together under scrutiny (see below).
- It's never exactly clear when the Scoobies actually suspected Faith to have turned to the Mayor's side. Was it in 'Consequences'? More likely they had no idea until the sorcerer guy told them she was in Mayor Wilkins' office.
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Dean's comments: |
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| |  | | A dramatic face-off. |
Okay, the plot makes sense if you assume the following 'behind the scenes' events: Firstly, Faith and Mayor Wilkins decide to change Angel to their side (or alternately she does genuinely go to Angel for help but then comes up with a plan to turn him after he rejects her), first by giving him true happiness, then by using magic. Secondly, the Dark Sorcerer guy comes to Giles after the Mayor has summoned him; he does this because he's a clever guy and he owes Giles a favour (I'm aware that this contradicts what he says to Giles but see the next point). Thirdly, based on this knowledge, Angel, Buffy and Giles make a quick decision to perform a charade to get Faith to reveal her true colours (can we assume that this what the sorcerer refers to when he says he was glad Giles came to him). After last year's events, everyone is fully willing to believe that the writers will make Angel evil for the purposes of the plot, and so we are all carried along by the deception. Buffy's 'interrogation' by Faith and Angel is an electric scene, with the point where Faith describes Buffy as her nemesis in the town being the thematic climax. It's a good way to get a lot of exposition out to the audience without resorting to Giles standing in the library (although there's still far too much of that, roll on season 4). The final fight between Faith and Buffy is yet another stoking of the fire that will eventually build up to the big showdown in 'Graduation Day'. | |
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| | 9/10 | |
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