Casting Call 09.10.08: Issue 71 - Faith

Posted by Jason Chamberlain on 09.10.2008

There's only one Slayer, except when there's two. From the day she arrived in Sunnydale, Faith did things differently. And sometimes, she was evil. But she was always "five by five"!

Buffy is the Slayer.

Well, one of them.

There was supposed to be "one girl in all the world". But then Buffy died. And then she came back. But since she died, a new one was called. So there were two slayers. Then the second one died, and another one was called.

Faith.

In a show called "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer", Faith was a character who often threatened to run away with the story. She was charismatic, care free and smoking hot. She had no rules, no inhibitions, no tragic romances or broken hearts. She was just a cool chick who loved to fight.

Or so it seemed when she arrived.

When Faith (played to the hilt by Eliza Dushku) first arrives in Sunnydale, she's everything the Buffster is not. Where Buffy is tormented by her calling, Faith revels in it. Where Buffy is unsure, Faith runs in with guns blazing. And where Buffy is well adjusted, Faith has... issues.

Throughout the third season of Buffy, quick references are made to a pretty rough childhood for the new Slayer. She didn't have the loving Mother Buffy does, though it appears she does share the absentee father trait. She also had no support system of friends, and her Watcher is brutally killed right before her eyes. Early on, it's easy to see that Faith will be a mirror, "what if" version of Buffy.

Though she comes to Sunnydale to run away from these events, they track her down in the form of the ancient, murderous vampire known as Kakistos. Buffy helps Faith rise to the challenge of eliminating him, but she'll still be haunted by fear and trust issues as the season progresses. When a phony Watcher, Gwendolyn Post, shows up in Sunnydale and cons Faith into helping her before trying to kill her, it only makes things worse.

In most ways, Buffy and Faith are opposites, and they come to blows more than once because of it. Buffy notices Faith's overzealous joy and zeal for the job right off the bat, but it's written off by everyone else, which proves to be a mistake. As the third year of the show progresses, we see Buffy is right; Faith does enjoy the job too much, and she indulges her darker impulses far too often. As her isolation and mistrust grows, she becomes more and more vulnerable to the machinations of...

The Mayor!

The best Buffy villain of all time, The Mayor of Sunnydale, Richard Wilkins, is a sly devil intent on becoming a pure demon. But until then, he reads books like Little Women, indulges in Moon Pies and treats his employees and minions.... pretty well actually. He's the nicest evil genius you're likely to meet. When he spins Faith into his evil web, the pair form a twisted father/daughter relationship. Though The Mayor's ends are evil, he truly cares for Faith, and in him, Faith finds the father figure she never had, making her easily coerced into doing his dirty work, like turning on her friends and murdering innocent people.

Yep, Faith goes to the dark side. She becomes a cold blooded killer working alongside vampires and demons as opposed to slaying them and she turns her back on her friends. Her turn is tragic, and it's never that hard to feel sorry for her even as she does terrible things. She's misled and used, not truly evil and not beyond redemption. Angel, the vampire who is searching so hard for redemption himself, sees this and takes an interest in helping her make the journey.

Though she initially comes to Los Angeles to kill Angel at the behest of evil law firm Wolfram and Hart, instead Angel reaches her and she finally breaks down with the weight of everything she has done. For my money, no Buffyverse moment is more powerful than when Angel holds a sobbing Faith in the rain of a drenched alleyway, as she pleads for him to end her suffering. Heavy stuff, and her redemption begins.

The path takes her to jail, as she has many crimes to pay for at this point, and she accepts her sentence even though she has the power to escape at any time. With frequent visits from Angel, she sets about repairing her soul and isn't seen again until season four of the show (corresponding to the final year of Buffy) when the machinations of the Beast in Los Angeles as well as the return of Angelus necessitate the return of a Slayer. So she busts out and sets about saving the day, which she does, not before taking a unique spin through Angel's past with Angelus himself. She learns some valuable lessons, one of which is that nobody is perfect and redemption is a never ending path.

After finishing up in LA, she returns to Sunnydale to help Buffy and the gang fight the First Evil. She returns an enlightened person ready to play her part for the greater Good, and when the First appears to her as the Mayor, she has the strength to stand up to it. She ends the show standing beside Buffy in front of an army of new Slayers, and as the Season Eight comics have revealed, she continues to get down and dirty in the fight for good.

She's far from perfect and she has terrible deeds in her past, but Faith is remarkable for the way she brings herself back from the brink of darkness. With a little help from her friends.

Cause (yes, I'm gonna say it) you gotta have Faith.