Enemies
Enemies
Season 3, Episode 17 (Episode 51 of entire series)
Things aren't always as they seem, but....How many times can Angel lose his soul before the Spinoff? A-one..a-two..two times. Buffy finally gets a taste of Faith's true nature; Cordy hits on Wesley, and Angel's soul is taken from him. Lots of good dialogue this time out, and a demon in a shirt and pants. You can't ask for much more than that, can you?
And now for something completely different...Show opens with Angel and Buffy exiting the movie theater. I can't really see being at a movie with Angel. Or like, any vampire....Anyhoo, apparently the flick was one of those sensual-erotica-occasionally-uses-food flicks, and Buffy tells Angel that she's sorry they saw it since that might work him up. Angel does the expected "...just being near you works me up" type of thing, and he smooches her to show that he's in control.
Faith happens by to catch them in their clinch, and she drags Buffy off for patrol duty. During patrol, they run into some demon (who by the way is dressed and talks like a normal guy). The demon wants to make a deal with them..for five thousand bones, he'll give them the Books of Ascension. He tells the chicks to meet him the next night and they'll do the trade. This sets Buffy to thinking about what the heck is the ascension. Faith already knows of course, but isn't sharing that info. It's here that Faith goes back to tell the Mayor about what's going on in the 'dale and how Buffy and the Slayerettes are getting in the way.
Love him or hate him, the Mayor gets the greatest lines. In between talking about killing the demon and getting the books, he tells Faith that she should wear her hair back, she's hiding her face. Then he gives her some milk to help calm her down. I'm a milk proponent myself.
Basically what ends up happening is Buffy goes to tell the gang about said demon and books; neither Giles nor Wesley knows anything about an Ascension, but Willow points them to the proper book...which is conveniently hidden in Giles's office. Good continuity from The Witch, when Xander asks if there are any engravings he should know about. Meanwhile, Cordy enters the library, asks Wesley for help writing a paper, and then says she studies best in restaurants around eight o'clock. Too funny.
Meanwhile, Faith goes to the demon's place to get the books from him, and basically ends up doing what she does best...she kills him. I really felt for this demon guy -- I mean, he just wanted out of the Hellmouth, and sure, he had a price, but so what? He wore a shirt and pants. That gave him, like, humanity. Sorta. Faith gets in a good Lady MacBeth moment as she stares at her bloodied hands, and then she pays a visit to Angel. She tries to convince him that she's scared about what she's becoming, and she tries to smooch him, but he's a one-Slayer kinda vamp. He rejects her advances, and as Faith leaves, she kisses him goodbye. Buffy happens by and sees the kiss, so she kinda slinks away.
Meanwhile, Faith goes and tells the Mayor that the "seduce Angel" plan that will rid him of his soul didn't work, but the Mayor has other ideas. He calls in this hooded-creature, think the Lord or Master guy who was over Darth Vader in Star Wars, and it turns out that this is the thing that will de-soul Angel by using magic. It's a plan.
At school, Giles and Wesley are doing research, and Buffy arrives. Next is Xander, who's gotten the residence of said demon from Willy. Okay, so he paid 28 bucks for it as a bribe, intimidation isn't always the way to go now, is it? Buffy says she'll go check it out, and she's miffed when Faith arrives on the scene to go with her. When they get to the place, they find it in a shambles, and with..one dead demon inside. Buffy realizes that it was more than just a kill, that it looked like whoever did it had a good time. All those thinking "Loco Faith"...
Basically what happens is..Faith goes by to see Angel to apologize for putting her skanky moves on him -- okay I took a liberty, she didn't say skanky -- and Angel seems to buy into it, saying he'd like to trust her. Then Ol' Magic Hood Guy shows up to put the whammy on him. It's fun to see that Angelus is back, and I kinda hoped he'd suck Faith dry but oh well, guess that didn't happen.
Faith and Angelus go to see the Mayor, who Faith proudly says is her boss -- you know, I've seen bumper stickers that say My boss is a Jewish carpenter. It probably amuses the folks who do have Jewish carpenter bosses. Unless they haven't seen the sticker. Um.. -- and Angelus learns that the Mayor wants him to kill Buffy, make it slow, torture her. Angelus concurs, he'd like nothing better. But it seems like he likes playing with the Mayor's letter opener better...he mentions that he might kill the Mayor and the Mayor's like, Okay, do it. It's then that Angelus sees that the guy in charge is kinda invincible.
Anyhoo, Angelus and Faith pay a house call to Buffy...on the way, they pass Xander in the street, who's fuming about the whole Cordy and Wesley thing. Fortunately he gets sidetracked from that thinking when Angelus punches him in the face.
Y'know, I didn't mention that while Buffy's been sent to retrieve the books, the rest of the gang, sans Xander, is researching the Mayor by using the town records. It was Oz's idea, y'know, since Willow came up with empty files during her computer hack. So Oz finds a really old book with a picture of the Mayor in it...they learn he's at least 100 years old. We also learn that he settled at the Hellmouth to make it a party central for the demons.
Okay, so Faith and Angel are at Buffy's house and they take her to the mansion, saying that that's where the ascension books are living. Buffy gets a shock when it turns out that Angel's soul is gone and that Faith is teaming with the big evil. They chain Buffy to a wall, show her instruments that look pretty torturous, and Faith begins to ramble about how she just wanted something to love when she was little, but her mom was too drunk and passed out to do anything about it. It's a sob story I guess if you're into sob stories.
Faith gets in Buffy's face, saying how she's tired of being compared to Buffy, that this town was supposed to be hers -- uh, excuse me, but why? Sunnydale had a perfectly good slayer already. But whatever. Anyhoo, Buffy tries to ask Faith why she's doing this, and Faith talks about how the Ascension is going to happen at graduation and everyone's going to be blown to bits -- I'm thinking that would include her, even though she said she'd be on the Mayor's right hand. Buffy and Faith yammer more, and Faith says that she was only acting "good" to get what she wanted. She claims that she's the best actor...but Angelus tells her that she's the second best. Turns out that Angel never really lost his soul..the hooded guy (HG, those are my initials too) was repaying a debt to Giles, so he only put on a convincing light show for Faith. The debt? Giles introduced him to his wife...
Anyhoo, when Faith finds out that she's been duped, she takes off. Especially after seeing Buffy pop herself free of the chains. Well hey, she's had some practice. Remember Reptile Boy?
So what do we make of all this? Well, Faith's probably going to be golfing with the Mayor for a while to get back into good spirits, and Buffy told Angel that she needed a break from him for a while. But she's still his chick. Aw. Meanwhile...I'd be looking to skip graduation..they're usually boring anyway....Okay that was long. Anything left out would appear on Character Pages when I get 'em updated.
1. Buffy broke free of her chains, and Faith learned that Angelus was really..Angel. So she fled.
1. Faith really is a bitch.
2. The Mayor's into low-calorie mints.
3. Oz is quite the idea man, but we already knew that.
4. Buffy knows when to say when, when it comes to Angel.
5. Xander's not afraid to say, "I told you so."
6. The Mayor's into golf, like in a large way.
7. The Mayor's not human.
8. That really explains the golf thing for me...
9. Cordy is unashamed to throw herself at men. Now there's a nice skill to have.
Coming Soon!
Willow: "Faith and Angel? Together?"
Xander: "Imagine the possibilities." -- Xander tells the gang that Angelus is back, and Faith's on his side.
1. Sunnydale High School
2. The Mayor's Office
3. The Garden Mansion
4. Sunnydale Movie Theater
5. Buffy's house
6. The Demon's apartment or living quarters.
7. Cemeteries
8. Random Streets
9. A room probably in Town Hall or City Hall..where the records live.
1. Buffy
2. Willow
3. Xander
4. Giles
5. Cordelia
6. Angel
7. Faith
8. The Mayor
9. Joyce Summers
10. Wesley Wyndam-Price
11. The Demon(name forthcoming possibly)
12. Oz
13. Hooded Guy
14. This space vacant
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