#btvs 3x15

[whatisyourchildhoodtrauma]

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER | 3.15 & 6.03

[buffyedit]

Buffy, the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)

3x15, Consequences

[mycatismyfriend]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer | 3x15 "Consequences"

[absolutelyspockedtohearthat]

Yeah…you have the same taste in women.

[femmedefandom]

I have about negative zero idea why Buffy thought Angel would be the guy to go to in an effort to help Faith come to terms with killing someone. Setting aside the fact that he’s clearly still mired in his own angst that he has yet to come to terms with, or that one death is not equivalent to thousands of premeditated murders, there had to have been other, better options.

I mean, Giles is right there! A man who would help Buffy and be understanding of a young person making a mistake in the heat of the moment. A man who made his own share of heinous errors in his youth that he worked to grow from and atone for.

But no, instead we get Angel, who ties Faith in chains against the wall, and is openly combative and condescending with her from the start. Who clearly had already made up his mind about the other Slayer and was only doing this for Buffy (the one who actually cared about and genuinely wanted to help Faith). Who acts as if Faith’s descent is a forgone conclusion - which she could recognize and pushed her farther away tbh - and whose attempts to empathize with the “child” (his words) are such gems as:

•“She’s taken a life, she’s got a taste for it now.” •“To take a life, feel the future, the possibilities snuffed out by your own hand. I know the power in it. The exhilaration. It was like a drug for me.” •“I only felt bad about killing when I got my soul back. My human heart.” [A/N: you know, the thing Faith STILL HAS which means she’s capable of the guilt and pain you seem to doubt her having!] •“You’ve tasted something few ever do. To kill without remorse is to feel like a god.” •“Going down this path will ruin you. You can’t imagine the price for true evil.”

And then, la pièce de résistance of this shit show!

Angel: You and me, Faith, we’re a lot alike.

Me: my good sir, Faith is a 17/18 year old girl who has been over-sexualized and neglected from a young age, forced into battle as a Slayer, and accidentally killed a human while caught up in the fast paced adrenaline of fighting for her life against the supernatural element. she did not actively seek out an opportunity to murder a guy or revel in it at all. she is desperately trying to rationalize what happened and avoid reckoning with the trauma and associated guilt of that fact and what her actions mean for her relationships, her future, and her self as a worthy human being. she is a far cry from a centuries old vampire that reveled in torture, pain, blood, and death. so maybe back off a bit instead of condemning her to darkness and doom, okay? this grievous mistake is not her being irredeemable or “having a taste for it” like you seem to believe based on seconds in her presence. and your strategy is only serving to make her feel even more isolated, bad, and cut off from redemption, driving her straight into the Mayor’s arms.

And that is why, when Angel eventually gentles, talks about “other types of people” (so not Angel and Faith) who genuinely want to do right, make mistakes but keep caring etc. while clearly referencing Buffy, and urges her to trust them and not disappear into the darkness….it just falls flat. because it’s like he’s saying you can only be good if they accept you, not that you can be good by your own actions and choices and penance, separate from others.

[fictiongods]

Buffy: “Faith I think we need to talk about this accidental murder that we were both involved in.”

Faith: “Why??? I bet you didn’t make Angel talk about his murders. You love Angel more than me? Is that it?? ‘Cause that’s what I heard.”

[buffyangelscreens]

[restlesshush]

Faith, Angel and Giles in Consequences

While structurally Faith in Consequences is Angel(us) and this is delightful (she plays the role of Buffy’s love interest?! Hell yeah!), in terms of her actual actions the character she’s most equivalent to isn’t actually Angel(us), it’s Giles. Angel trying to get through to her via his own experiences is wildly off-base, and it’s ridiculous that the narrative frames this as a thing that might have worked had it not been for Wesley’s intervention.

Angel: But I know. What it's like, to take a life. To feel a future, a world of possibility - snuffed out by your own hand. I know the power in it. The exhilaration. It was like a drug for me.

Dude, she has accidentally killed one (1) person!! She is not comparable to you as a soulless vampire, she is a scared teenaged girl!

Faith: Sounds like you need some help. A professional, maybe.

Faith‘s retort is supposed to come across as indicative of her defensiveness and resistance to being reached but she’s absolutely right to deflect here! This has nothing to do with her: Angel is projecting to a frankly dangerous degree.

Giles, on the other hand, can relate. He has accidentally been complicit in the death of another human, and in fact this was explicitly referenced in Ted, where Buffy (temporarily) found herself in the position Faith does here (actually bearing more responsibility than Faith does, given she attacked Ted on purpose). You can arguably see Giles‘s experience coming across in the comparatively sympathetic and measured approach he takes towards Faith: determined not to involve the council, and clearly aware of how vulnerable Faith is right now.

Giles: No - Faith's too defensive to be confronted in that manner [=by the group]. I think the "one on one" approach is more likely to reach her.

What I would have loved to have seen, though, is a direct acknowledgment of this connection between them in the form of Giles trying to use his experience to get through to her. It probably wouldn’t have worked, given they don’t have the strongest relationship, but as well as being a really interesting character beat for him it would have helped counteract the show’s framing of, again, a scared teenaged girl as somehow morally meaningfully comparable to a soulless vampire. And by using the most viable way for Faith to be reached and having this fail too, it would underscore the tragedy of her turn and make it hit harder, which is really what I want out of season 3.