I'm the one getting Single White Femaled here.

Episode 3.3: Faith, Hope & Trick. Original Airdate 10.13.98

"A charismatic Slayer visits Sunnydale and wins over many of Buffy's friends. Meanwhile, two powerful vampires plot an attack."

Daniel's Thoughts:

• The title of this episode is clever because it introduces three recurring characters – though it’s a little too 'in your face' cutesie.
• Wow, I actually like Willow’s outfit.  The pants are a bit bright…and orange…but they’re cool.  And I like her fuzzy blue sweater.
• I don’t think my HS had a rule about leaving for lunch.  I mean…who was going to stop us? They don't take attendance at lunch. And there were so many entrances, not all of them can be guarded. [Our Assistant Principal was rumored to hide under cars during lunch to catch students sneaking off campus. True story. - Z]
• Martha Stewart slays!!  I bet that’s true.
• Oh, Scott Hope.  (#2 in the episode title) You may not know you’re gay.  But we knew from the beginning.
• "You're supposed to stop me when you do that."//  "I like when you do that."  SO CUTE.
• Ugh. Mr. Trick. (#3 in the episode title). You’re a horrible addition to the recurring character pool and nothing good will every come from you.
• And another dream Angel…because….  Ya know what, you know by now why.
• Eww, gross dead make up.

Groossssss

• Snyder’s back to being funnily awesome.  I love: “get a written recommendation from anyone in the faculty who is not an English librarian.”  Hehe.
• Yay.  Joyce is being a good mom, standing by her daughter and acting like an immature child on her behalf.
• Willow is doing a lot of observational humor this episode.  She commented on the way Buffy does this half-moon smile and the way Giles does this click with his tongue when he’s annoyed.  Ya know who else does observational humor?  Ellen DeGeneres.  She’s like Ellen.  Umm…spoilers!
• I like the subplot of Giles helping Buffy under the guise of doing a spell for Acathla.
• Willow is going to grow a lot this season what with the witchery and stuff.  And I like that Giles is concerned from the beginning.
• Hey, who’s that slut on the dance floor?  It’s Faith! (#1 in the episode of the title)
• Buffy, don’t get flustered over Scott Hope.  He’s cute and all but he plays for my team.
• 70s vampire is an awesome dancer but he needs new moves.  I know he’s dead but he’s still been in this world for the last twenty-thirty years.
• Welcome Faith, the evil twin.  And I like that she calls Buffy, “B”.
• I’m going to try to count how many times the writers make Eliza Dushku say “Aboat”. (about.) This will be a new stat. I’m convinced they do it on purpose.  Her accent is so weird.
• Love the alligator story.
• I love the whole hungry & horny conversation.  “Sometimes I crave a non-fat yogurt afterwards".
• "It’s a long story."//" I got bit."//"Apparently not that long."
• Five by Five!  What the fuck does that mean? Oh.
• SHENANIGANS!  Giles is the watcher they chose to be the ONE SLAYER’S watcher.  Why on Earth would the council not respect him enough to invite him to the convention?  Sorry, but a lot of the council lore/history makes absolutely no sense to me.
• "Raise your hand if ew"
• Sarah is so good at finding the humor in things and making little gestures.  She throws in this offhanded gesture when everyone makes plans for her around her. It was one of the things I miss in other things she does – especially Ringer.  I’m sure half of it is the way she’s directed.
• Ok, now Willow is wearing an awful outfit.

Good                                       Bad

• I dunno if I believe Faith flirting with Scott Hope.  I think she’s the type of gal who has gay-dar.
• Kakistos isn’t that scary. 
• Buffy calls Joyce “best mom ever.”  Note the sarcasm in her voice.
• I like jealous Buffy.
• Joyce: “Well does anyone else think she’s creepy?” Yeah, because that reasoning worked with Ted.  Trust Buffy's instincts, Joyce.
• Oh…the realization on Joyce’s face when she finds out that Buffy died once…that’s heart-breaking.
• The slayer pride parade.  OY.  Enough with the gay metaphors.
• “He lived for kissing toast” HAHAHA. “Or maybe it was taquitos”.  HAHAHAH X2
• I like the continuity that extremely old vampires develop animal-like features.  I wonder if Angel will eventually get a donkey…  er…  tail.
• YOU’RE OVER-COMPENSATING SCOTT HOPE. (and I love you.)
• Nice revelation that Faith’s watcher was a woman.  I think it’s cool that being a watcher is an equal opportunity thing.  But…being a slayer is not.
• A lot of death in this episode!
• I think this is the only time we see Faith truly scared.  It feels out of character for her knowing how she’s written later.
• OK.  I think I get, now, why everyone wasn’t as understanding as they should have been when Buffy ran away.  The moment Buffy admits that Angel was cured when she killed him, they have an “oh shit” moment….and I think they finally get it.  And I loved this reveal that the whole binding spell was just a ruse to get Buffy to open up.
• Also, I think Xander wasn’t in this scene because he wouldn’t have cared either way. Stupid Xander.
• Nice sweater vest, Scott.  I wore those in High School, too.  And then I came out. (love me back, Scott!)

Get that hand off your hip, Scott.

• I don’t really understand Angel’s castle/house but I kinda like it.
• Angel’s back! And he’s naked! And we see his butt!  DAVID BOREAN-ASS!

Borean-ASS!

• Faith's "aboat" Count. 3

Zelda's Thoughts:

• Aw it's cute how they carry Willow off campus.
• "Prepare to uncouple. Uncouple." That was also cute.
• "Oh, I hear she can, but she doesn't like to." Oz, why are you the best? It hardly seems fair to anyone else.
• Willow has the cutest babbles. It's also nice how much she wants to help Buffy get back into stuff.
• Xander's laugh turning into "ow." This whole scenario I love. Everyone so bantery and cute and I love it.
• "All right, yes, date and shop and hang out and go to school and save the world from unspeakable demons. You know, I wanna do girly stuff."
• Happy Burger. Really?

Yes, really. At least it's not Doublemeat Palace.

• Mr. Trick has such swagger to him.
• Nice misdirect on the "Kill the Slayer" bit.
• I wonder who's driving the limo? And how did he know not to pull away til Mr. Trick got his human snack?
• Oho Angel's wearing white in this dream.
• Nice reminder of their claddagh rings.
• Stop trying to act, DB. "Go to hell! I DID." should be "I did."
• Buffy, stop playing with the letter opener blade. Also, Snyder, you really shouldn't have that in school. I guess Sunnydale High doesn't have a zero tolerance policy like my high school did.
• "That's like having your whole ability to do this job called into question" d'awwwww
• Ah yes. Giles's ploy to get Buffy to tell the truth about what happened when she killed Angel.
• Aramaic, eh? I just so happen to be fluent in Aramaic. [editor's note: Zelda is not fluent in Aramaic]
• "If I were [mad], I would be making a strange clucking sound with my tongue." Oh Giles.
• Cute, sneaking Faith's first appearance into a group dance shot.

We see what you did there, show.

• Scott actually is being charming and handling Buffy's skittishness very well. Too bad he pulls a pretty douche move two episodes down.(and then gets retconned into even douchier behavior later, as indicated by Holden Webster) 
• "Plus bonus points for use of the word mosey."
• "Check out Slut-O-Rama and her Disco Dave" Yay Cordy is pointing out a vamp to Buffy
• Hiya Faith. oh man you were so yoooooooooooooooung
• Did they decide in Season Three that Cordelia was the new Exposition Fairy instead of Giles? Taking advantage of her lack of tact? I'm not complaining, cuz it's funny, but ... was that a decision they made?
• And the birth of fucking Five By Five.
• Poor Giles and his inferiority complex about the Watchers' Retreat. Man, did the Council just not have any stake in Buffy (after her first Watcher was killed), that they send a Watcher who never even went on a Retreat to watch the One and Only Slayer?
• Though it helps with our not realizing that Faith is lying about where her Watcher is.
• Willow's and Xander's tour of Sunnydale High is adorbs. "Here's where we almost died! Here's where we almost died again!"
• Cordy to Xander: "What is it with you and Slayers?" Yep.
• "We're looking at what?" SMG is really funny this episode.
• What's with the random vamp waving that thurible?

Seriously, are all Incredibly Old Vampires obsessed with Catholicism?

• "Rumor has it that this town already has a Slayer, which makes two ... I'm not real sure how that happened." Trick is so awesome. 
• I love that all the vampires' "food" is fast food workers.
• "Well, sure, it beats that dead feeling you get when they win and you lose."
• I'm glad the Single White Female Buffy-is-paranoid-for-nothing thing doesn't last, and they all figure out that our Buffy is better than any Buffy who's not our Buffy. Even if SMG is funny. "Look, now she's getting along with my fries!"
• It is a very nice concept they entertain, though - what if Buffy didn't have to do it full time? (if only Faith didn't have a skewed sense of morality) What if she could explore what else she might want to do with her time? That's what's so satisfying about the final moment of Chosen. Now, finally, she gets to do that. (Except not, if you read the comics.)
• Faith's a lil bit ragey.
• "She doesn't need a life, she has mine."
• Kissing Toast, Taquitos. I love Buffy's complete inability/disinterest in the names of old vamps and demons.
• "There are two things that I don't believe in - coincidence and leprechauns." We believe, V!
• Scott Hope, trying again. "Keaton is key." It's sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.
• But then he gives a RING OF SAD TRAUMA FEELS
• ED is good as Faith. I'm not overly impressed with her range, especially on Dollhouse, but she's very good in this episode. Her brazen attitude, and now her childlike fear and grief, her panic, are all very honest.
• "If we don't do something, the Master could get killed. Well, our prayers are with him." Oh Trick, you've got the same modern blase that Spike had. No wonder you were popular. You're written remarkably similarly, at least on introduction.
• Willow's face when Buffy finally tells the truth about Angel's death. Buffy's face too. All the sad things. And they're even playing the Buffy/Angel theme underneath it all. You are MEAN, show.
• "There is no spell."
• Alyson Hannigan's eyes take up half her face.
• I still don't understand the mechanics of how/why Angel returns. Is it the ring? Is it luck? Deus ex machina? We never find out, do we? I kind of want to call a shenanigan ... Metaphorically I get it, because she finally was able to talk about what happened that night, to start to let go of him, to say goodbye, to stop dreaming of him. But like ... outside of the metaphor ... why? Is this a Powers That Be intervention (which, FUCK that concept, Angel the Show, fuck it right into the ground), which will appear again to save him in Amends?

Crossfire!

The moment in question.

Z: SHE. NAN. I. GANS. Kakistos was able to get his arm past the doorway into Faith's apartment. What the actual fuckage. I don't care how cloven his hooves are, he shouldn't be able to do that.

D: See, I can forgive this for a number of reasons.  I think a lot of the mystical properties of a vampire not being able to enter a home depends on what constitutes a home.  1) This seems like more of a motel than an apartment. I realize it's more of a long-term living area but Faith pays daily which means she could leave any day.  In that way, it's not really an established home. 2) Faith packed her bags to leave and was on her way out so even if at one point, it was considered her home - at that particular point, it was not.

Favorite Lines:

Daniel: "The girl's not playing with a full deck, Giles. She has almost no deck.  She has a three." - Buffy

Zelda: Buffy: It's a long story.

Oz: Got bit.

Buffy: Apparently not that long.

90s Factoid:

Willow's furry sweater

Arc/Continuity Stuff:

• Scott Hope is here and he likes Buffy.
• Mr. Trick is also here but he doesn't like Buffy.
• In this universe, very old vampires acquire inhuman physical attributes, in addition to always being in gameface - The Master was wrinkly and batlike; Kakistos (also called "the Master" by Trick) has cloven limbs.
• Willow has been investigating magicks and spell ingredients, including floating feather and fire out of ice. Giles is concerned.
• When Kendra was killed by Drusilla in Becoming: Part 1, Faith was called as the next Slayer.
• There's an annual Watcher's Retreat. Giles has never been invited.
• Giles used to love a good kayak.
• Angel is back! And nekkid!

Stats:

Oz's Hair - red

Dead Humans - 3

Dead Undeads - 6

Dead Flashbacks - 0

Giles Unconscious - 0

Giles Cleans His Glasses - 0

Buffy Breaks a Door - 0

Evil Reveal - 0

Unevil Reveal - 0

Shenanigans Called - 2

Apocalypse Called - 0