Reviewed By: Adam Bardwell
Rating: 9/10
I see this episode as the start of the season proper. It introduces three new characters which have varying importance for the season. Of course the most important character who is introduced here is Faith, a new slayer. She is arguably the most important character of the whole season and in my opinion the most interesting the series has ever produced. The other new characters, Scott Hope and Mr. Trick, have far less impact on the season or series although Mr. Trick does last for a good few episodes. Along with these new characters Buffy finally seems to accept what happen with Angel and seems about ready to move on.
The basic plot can be summarised as a ancient vampire (even older than The Master), named Kakistos, comes to Sunnydale with his henchvamp, Mr. Trick, looking for the Slayer. They are actually after Faith for she gave him a large scar across his eye and unlike a watcher she escaped him. When Faith learns that he is in Sunnydale she wants to run, unable to deal with her fear of him after what he did to her. Ultimately she seems to deal with all her pain (we also find out her mother is dead here) and kills Kakistos leaving Mr. Trick and his modern technology to seemingly be the villain of the season(that would have been too simply!).
Faith as a character is zesty. She seems to have chosen to treat her Slayer gig as a bit of fun. This may well be her way to repress all the pain she is feeling with a bad childhood and her Watcher being killed. However, the way she beats up that vampire while Buffy almost dies suggests that she likes fun a bit too much. It is clear that the writers had a good idea where they were going with her though the season.
It seems very likely that Mr. Trick was intended to be more important in the scheme of things than he actually was. He is something quite new for the series. For a start he is black. As he says Sunnydale's inhabitants are strictly of the Caucasian persuasion. This has always seemed a bit strange to me as America is ment to be the race melting pot. The other thing different about Mr. Trick is that he is a modern Vampire into modern technology. It looked like he was going to use this technology against the Slayers. Really we only saw this in "Homecoming" before he became the Mayor's sidekick.
Scott Hope is set up here as being Buffy's potential new boyfriend a status he gains for the next one and a half episodes. He is kind of her rebound guy from Angel however, by the end of this episode she really seems to have started to move on. What really helped was revealing what really happen with Angel to Willow and Giles after Giles had made up an excuse why he needed to know. Getting this off her chest really helped her to deal like killing Kakistos helped Faith.
Along with introducing new characters (particularly Faith) this episode is VERY important for it sees Angels return from hell right at the end. His return was predictable (especially as he has been in the title credits since the start of the season) and still hasn't satisfactorily been explain. He may have been brought back by the First Evil as suggested in "Amends" but I don't personally buy that. It seems more likely that the Powers that Be brought him back so he could gain redemption and Shanshu but it would be nice to know for definite - hopefully we will be given the answer before Angel finishes its run.
This episode has some good touches of humour which are mainly supplied by Willow. I enjoyed her babbling to Buffy about the fact she should; "Do that thing with you mouth that guys like", when talking about Scott! Her observation that Giles makes a clucking noise when he gets annoyed was funny especially as he overheard and though it back at her later in the scene. I also love Xander's observation - "They say young people don't learn anything at High School nowadays, but I'm learning to be afraid!". He is obviously attracted to Faith (he has eyes) and of course this will come to a head in "The Zeppo"! Here its just funny especially Cordy's reaction to his obvious attraction and Xander's response to Faith's naked slayage story ("They should make that into a film and show it every Christmas"!).
Buffy's relationship with Faith already looks interesting here. Faith is a sister figure to Buffy competing for Giles' attention not to mention her friends. As an only child Buffy has difficulty dealing with this. However, though this season she tries her hardest to accept Faith and help her when she starts to go astray. This spoilt only child side to Buffy should prove interesting in season 5 when a new sister figure in the shape of Dawn arrives.
To be honest I didn't write anything down in my negative column when rewatching and making notes on this episode. Its all very good. It perhaps a little something to be in the same league as the truly classic episodes such as "Becoming" or "Hush" but it is still very, very good.
Great Buffy Moment: Has to be Angel's return from hell which was a great way to end the episode and I'm sure made many a female viewer very happy (if only it had been Faith!!).
In a Nutshell: In introducing Faith this is the start of the series most creative story arc and it is a very entertaining episode to boot.