DIRTY GIRLS; Faith! Faith! Faith! Faith! FAITH!!!!

[joxerlives]

DIRTY GIRLS

The Good;
Faith back in Sunnydale, what could be wrong?

The Bad;
What a shame this is the ep they get Nic Brendon to comment upon, with all the other great Xander centric eps he's been in. Again, Caleb doesn't finish them, he just lets them run?

Best line;
Xander; "Everything has eyes" (Oh dear)

Women good/men bad;
I don't think I've ever felt such visceral hatred for any villain as I do for woman-hating Caleb. I want to crush his skull in my bare hands. At least the nerds were funny and the Mayor charming and polite (for the most part).

Jeez!;
Caleb torturing Shannon, Molly and Colleen killed, Xander maimed.

Kinky dinky; (I may just have to extend this subject now Faith's back)
Xander dreams of threesomes with nubile teenage potentials and the rest pillow-fighting in their skimpy underwear. Of course the reality of living in a house filled with teenage girls is not quite so sexy (to my shame I didn't get the leg-cramp gag first time around). Faith puts the moves on Spike. Scott Hope. Angel, Riley, flirting with Giles and now Spike, the girl just can't help it, she's always stealing Buffy's boyfriends. Faith talks of dressing up as a horny cheerleader (Bring it on?), naughty nurse and sexy schoolgirl for her past lovers. Mayor Wilkins? Wesley? She's also quite ok with the sight of Spike's chains "Each to their own". Her phrasing is quite ambiguous "I used to run with this guy who liked me to dress up as a schoolgirl then take this bullwhip...". Now does she mean she whipped him or he whipped her? Or maybe they took turns? To judge by her later comments about 'looking up the guy with the bullwhip', having had enough all female company for a while, having been the toughest girl in a woman's prison for the last 3 years it seems inevitable that she was the one being whipped. Remember we've seen her self-harming a couple of times and the naughty schoolgirl is invariably the one being punished in S&M scenarios (probably be the strict schoolmistress if she was doing the whipping?). "If you can't beat them..." Spike comments that the schoolgirl thing is old hat which may be a subtle dig at Britney Spears and Buffy's outfit when she seduces RJ in Him. One popular fan theory is that Faith is referring to Spanky who Angel meets in the first ep of Angel Season 5 and who likes to spank women and certainly has a bullwhip. Faith seems pleasantly suprised that Buffy has had a wild affair with Spike, maybe not so stuffy after all?

Captain Subtext;
Obvious tension between Dawn and Faith, one wonders if Dawn always resented this rival for Buffy's affections or liked her only to feel betrayed when she went evil? Faith notes of Dawn 'Brat's all woman sized'. Note when Xander and Kennedy are hurt it's Xander Willow goes to rather than her girlfriend. Xander's fantasy has the girls being with each other as well as him and loads of sapphic sex-play between them. Faith says she's "had her fill" of all female relationships in prison. The choir girl The First poses as for Caleb to stab is very reminiscent of Darla in 'Inside out'. Buffy seems jealous that Faith has been inside Angel's mind which she wasn't able to do in Earshot. Andrew cries at Xander's speech. Spike still very anti-Angel, getting a soul didn't change that!

Guantanamo Bay;
So, is Buffy's plan rash or sound? Hard to say, she's right that they just can't sit around waiting and now that they have Faith it might be the time to go on the offensive.

Scoobies to the ER;
Xander and Rhona very badly hurt

Missing scenes;

Apocalypses; 7,

Wheldon Cliches (with kind permission from Boo)

Scoobies in bondage:
Buffy: 9
Giles: 4
Cordy: 5
Will: 4
Jenny: 1
Angel: 4
Oz: 1
Faith: 3
Joyce: 1
Wes: 1
Xander; 3
Dawn; 4
Spike; 4

Scoobies knocked out: Buffy and Spike
Buffy: 22
Giles: 12
Cordy: 6
Xander: 16
Will: 10
Jenny: 2
Angel: 6
Oz: 3
Faith: 1
Joyce: 3
Wes: 1
Anya;7
Dawn; 6
Tara; 1
Spike; 3
Kennedy; 1

Kills: 1 vamp for Faith plus her kills from her appearances on Angel.
Buffy: 125 vamps, 62 demons, 6 monsters, 10 humans, 1 werewolf, 1 spirit warrior & a robot
Giles: 8 vamps, 2 demons, 2 humans/1 god.
Will: 6 vamps + 3 demons +1 fawn+1 human.
Oz: 3 vamps, 1 zombie
Faith: 19 vamps, 6 demons, 3 humans.
Xander: 6 vamps, 2 zombies, 1½ a demon, 2 humans
Anya: 1 vamp and 1½ a demon
Riley; 18 vamps + 7 demons
Spike; 11 vamps and 7 demons+1 human
Buffybot; 2 vamps
Tara; 1 demon
Dawn; 1 vamp + 1 demon
Kennedy; 1 human+1 vampire
Amanda; 1 vampire
Woods; 5 vamps and 2 demons

Scoobies go evil:
Giles: 1
Cordy: 1
Will: 4
Jenny: 1
Angel: 1
Oz: 1
Joyce: 1
Xander: 4
Anya; 1
Dawn; 1
Buffy; 1
Spike; 1
Wood; 1

Alternate scoobies:
Buffy: 8
Giles: 4
Cordy: 1
Will: 6
Jenny: 2
Angel: 3
Oz: 2
Joyce: 2
Xander: 4
Tara; 1
Dawn;1
Spike; 1
Anya; 2

Recurring characters killed: 16, goodbye Molly. Also Colleen who was one of the girls from Xander's threesome fantasy.
Jesse, Flutie, Jenny, Kendra, Larry, Snyder, Professor Walsh, Forrest, McNamara, Joyce, Katrina, Tara, Quentin Travers, Chloe, Molly, Jonathon.

Sunnydale deaths; Molly and Colleen
107

Total number of scoobies: 35 or so, there now seem to be about 20 Potentials plus Faith. However no Anya whatsoever and no one even comments upon it. No Vi either.
Xander, Buffy, Dawn, Willow, Anya, Spike, Giles, Kennedy, Vi, Rhona, Amanda, Chao-Anh, Wood, Andrew, Faith plus an indeterminate number of potentials.

Xander demon magnet: 6(7?)
Preying Mantis Lady, Inca Mummy Girl, Drusilla, VampWillow, Anya, Lissa (arguably Buffy & Faith with their demon essences?), Dracula?

Scoobies shot:
Giles: 2
Angel: 3
Oz: 4
Riley; 1
Buffy; 1
Tara; 1

Notches on Scooby bedpost: I think we can safely add Bullwhip guy to Faith's total?
Giles: 2; Joyce & Olivia, possibly Jenny and 3xDraccy babes?
Buffy: 4 confirmed; Angel, Parker, Riley, Spike. 3 possible, Dracula+RJ+Shadowmen's demon(?)
Joyce: 1;Giles, 2 possible, Ted and Dracula(?)
Oz: 3; Groupie, Willow & Verucca
Faith:3 ;Xander, Riley, Bullwhip guy
Xander: 2; Faith, Anya
Willow: 2;Oz and Tara
Riley; 3; Buffy, Sandy and unnamed vampwhore
Spike; 2 Buffy and Anya
Anya; 2 Spike and Xander

Dawn in peril; 14

Dawn the bashful virgin; 9

What the fanficcers thought;
Plenty of fic elaborating on Faith's stories of dressing up as a naughty nurse, horny cheerleader and sexy schoolgirl who gets whipped. Spaith also a pretty popular pairing. Willow and Faith's drive to Sunnydale also common, normally featuring them both apologising to each other for their evil deeds then stopping off at a motel for a night of lesbian sex. Fillow?

Questions and observations;
Spike says he reformed long before Faith did, no he didn't! He didn't truly reform until season 6 whilst she turned herself in by season 4. Caleb says that the Bringers DON'T serve Satan meaning the First isn't the Devil. But is he kidding himself? Amazed they let them use the Star Trek refs although I'd always thought Faith's dagger looked very Klingon. You feel sorry for Buffy losing her job, she obviously loved having something normal in her life. People are fleeing Sunnydale, a clear sign that this is the end for the town. Why not just shoot Caleb? I would suspect that the Potentials would be far too young to remember Falcon Crest.
Nic Bredon lists his favourite eps as OMWF, Hushed, The Body and Restless, all firm fan favourites

Marks out of 10; 8/10

[henzINNIT]

Only 8/10? Caleb was supposed to let them go so they would turn on eachother later on.

This is my favourite episode of the season by far. Very dark, action packed. It's one of the few episodes to really nail the tension the seaosn needed. Poor Xander, what a horrifying sight. It was an effective way to establish Caleb as a brutal threat and desimate the good guys at their core.

[Randi Giles]

Jan 4, 2010 12:07:03 GMT -5 henzINNIT said:

Poor Xander, what a horrifying sight. It was an effective way to establish Caleb as a brutal threat and desimate the good guys at their core.

Ditto to all of that. Joss knew what he was doing when he let that happen to a scooby. Showing just how ruthless Caleb is. And poor Molly.

[joxerlives]

I heard one possible storyline was that Xander would be vamped and he would then be The First's champion. It's a kicker of an episode but I think what follows is possible even more heartrending

[henzINNIT]

^ I never heard that one. I heard they were planning to kill him off and have Nick assume the main face of the first itself.

That would have been cool.