Let girl fight commence
Writer: Doug Petrie
Director: James A. Contner
What's the sitch?
A new Watcher comes to town in order to take over duties for Faith. Gwendolyn Post is her name and she is one very stiff, proper and distinctly obnoxious lady. At first Faith can’t stand her though she soon develops a grudging respect and affection for the new hard-nosed Watcher lady. But Mrs Post is also in town on another mission: to find the fabled Glove of Midigon – a device that will give its wearer enormous power – before it falls in to the clawed hands of a bunch of nasty demon types. After a fairly brief search, Buffy finds the Glove and leaves it with Angel until they can figure out how best to destroy it. Afterwards, arriving back at the library, Buffy sees that her Angel secret is now out. The gang (minus Faith) has discovered that she’s been secretly harbouring the returned Angel and they confront her about her deceit. After said confrontation, Xander, still angry at Buffy and thinking Angel is still evil, goes and tells Faith what’s happened. Equally annoyed at Buffy’s actions, our badass slayer heads off to bag herself a certain resurrected broody vampire. Meanwhile, Mrs Post has gone and discovered that the Glove of Midigon is being kept at Angel’s and heads off to retrieve it…just as Buffy finds out that Faith is on her way to slay her one time undead paramour. Needless to say she rushes off to stop her. And so the stage is now set for a major confrontation at Angel’s place.
What's the sitch beneath the sitch?
Secrets, lies and betrayal are rife here. And those secrets come back to bite. Buffy has been keeping her secret about Angel, keeping vital information about his return from everyone including Giles, and they all feel mightily (and justifiably) annoyed. Meanwhile Mrs Post is keeping her own dark secrets, secrets that may also cause a great deal of harm. And Faith is starting to feel like an outsider to the scoobies in what will be the beginning of her descent in to darkness and villainy. This descent isn’t helped by the betrayal of Mrs Post who has been conning the tough yet vulnerable slayer by pretending to forge a close and meaningful relationship with her.
Who's giving us the wiggins this week?
Mrs Post and a bunch of vampire cultists.
Why it rocks
Giles’ reactions to being constantly belittled by Mrs Post.
Xander being Xander to Buffy about Angel – genuine anger and immature jealousy mixing together.
Giles’s quietly angry/distraught chastising of Buffy for her not telling him about Angel’s return. Tony Head is fab here.
The Buffy/Faith fight – the shape of things to come.
The main theme of secrets, lies and betrayal works quite well.
The twist/reveal works quite well.
Why it sucks
Serena Scott Thomas. She’s frankly rubbish as Mrs Post. The following year she had a small role in Bond film The World is not Enough and was rubbish in that too. Older sister Kristin definitely got all the acting talent.
The main story (the Glove of Midigon) is fairly run of the mill stuff with no real explanation given for Mrs Post’s behaviour or how come the Council would allow her to carry on doing the things she’s doing.
And how come the gang isn’t including Faith more? No wonder she’s getting a bit annoyed with them. She’s been MIA for a while now. What’s she been doing all by herself?
It's Buftastic
The brief but very cool Buffy/Faith fight.
Dialogue to die for
Giles (following his first meeting with Mrs. Post): "That was... bracing."
Buffy: "Interesting lady. Can I kill her?"
Giles: "The Council might frown upon that."
Giles (to Buffy): "I won't remind you that the fate of the world often lies with the Slayer. What would be the point? Nor shall I remind you that you've jeopardised the lives of all that you hold dear by harbouring a known murderer. But, sadly, I must remind you that Angel tortured me... for hours, for pleasure. You should have told me he was alive. You didn't. You have no respect for me or the job I perform."
Buffy: “Synchronised slaying.”
Faith: “New Olympic category?”
Cordelia: “So there's no more glove-thingy?”
Xander: “Nah, a little living fire, a little mesquite - gone for good.”
Oz: “Sounds like we missed a lot of fun.”
Xander: “Then we're telling it wrong.”
And another thing
Serena Scott Thomas is the sister of actress Kristin Scott Thomas.
This is the first episode written by then story editor Doug Petrie. He would go on to write some of the best Faith-centric episodes of Buffy.
How many stakes?
The truth hurts. 2 (out of 5)
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