The Watcher Diaries: Bad Girls - Buffy Episode 3.12

Posted by Jason Chamberlain on 12.04.2008

Is a slayer a good girl or a bad girl? This week in Sunnydale there are two of the latter as Buffy and Faith go on a tear that ends in tragedy; meanwhile, The Mayor becomes invincible and there's a new Watcher on the scene! 411's Scooby Gang has the full review of "Bad Girls"!

3.14 Bad Girls
Written By: Douglas Petrie
Directed By: Michael Lange

Slayer Speak

Wesley: I have, in fact, faced two vampires myself. Under controlled circumstances, of course.
Giles: Well, no danger of finding those here.
Wesley: Vampires?
Giles: Controlled circumstances.

Wesley: Oh God (in a panicky tone).
Giles: Doesn’t seem too promising is it? (says calmly)
Wesley: (Quivering) Stay calm, Mr. Giles. We have to stay calm.
Giles: Thank God, you’re here. I was about to panic.

Balthazar: You know what I want.
Giles: If it’s for me to scrub those hard to reach areas, I’d like to request that you
just kill me now.

Watcher’s Notes: Oz has blue hair, which means Seth Green is now off shooting his role as Scott Evil in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me... The happiest person about Alexis Denisof (Wesley) joining the cast had to be Alyson Hannigan. According to wikipedia.com, she was “immediately attracted to Alexis and asked him out. However, he declined saying that he didn't date co-workers. The two remained friends for over a year before they started dating. They married in September 2003.”

Ronny Sarnecky has the full review.

“Bad Girls” was probably THE turning point of Season Three. This episode featured many key components that will lead to the major plotlines yet to come during the Season. First, the viewer was about to see more of Faith’s wild and unpredictable side. Her recklessness rubbed off on Buffy, as Miss Summers decided to go against the norm and join Faith in her careless, wild ride.

While an unpredictable Buffy isn’t the real Buffy, I enjoyed seeing Buffy in that light. We all want to let our hair down every once in awhile and be something that we aren’t. Every so often, we will find ourselves in a predicament where we can either do what has been expected of us, or we can go down that darker path that can lead us to a world that can lead us to trouble. Sometimes, we choose that darker path, but there is that little voice inside of us that leads us back to the right road. That’s what Buffy faced here. She was envious of Faith’s carefree attitude, and decided that she wanted to live life on the wild side. However, once something went wrong, Buffy fell back in line to wanting to do things the right way.

Another interesting aspect of this episode was Faith’s attitude regarding accidentally killing the mayor’s assistant. On the outside, Faith is putting on a “who cares” attitude. This was magnified in a conversation with Buffy.

Buffy: Faith, you don't get it. You killed a man.
Faith: No, you don't get it. [smiles] I don't care!

Yet her actions when nobody was around proved that she did care. When Buffy went to the warehouse, Faith went back to the scene of the crime, with a look of concern, and carefully tried to touch his wound. The next time Faith was shown, she was carefully washing the blood out of her shirt, like she was trying to remove the guilt and pain she was feeling, but needed to hide.

This episode also helped further the storyline of the Mayor. After being defeated by Buffy the dying Balthazar warns her, “Slayer, when he rises, you’ll wish I killed you.” After the mayor performs a ritual, the viewer learns the Mayor is invincible until the Ascension. The Mayor’s scenes are great. The writers leave us curious to find out what exactly the Ascension is. However, Harry Groener plays his role in such a way that you aren’t scared. Instead, you laugh thinking, “who is this cheerful, yet wacky man.” When he asked, “Who’s up for a root beer?” you want to join him instead of running away. The Mayor is my favourite main “Big Baddie” because of his happy demeanour. His innocent charm makes him the scariest kind of evil. When you watch the news and hear stories about some guy who killed someone, or went on a murdering spree, many times the news will interview his neighbours and friends. These people usually say how shocked they are because the accused is such a nice and thoughtful person. That’s the Mayor. When you first saw the Master, you knew he was evil. However, if you saw the Mayor walking down the street, you wouldn’t be the wiser.

This episode introduced the viewer to Wesley Wyndam-Pryce as Buffy’s new watcher. The Buffy/Wesley relationship brought back memories of the Buffy/Giles relationship circa Season One. The interaction between Giles and Wesley was also very entertaining. Even though Giles was definitely a bad ass compared to the wimpy Wesley, you could see similarities between the two. An example would be when Buffy left the library, both men tilted their head, took off their glasses, and wiped them the same way. The Wesley character brought more comedy to the show, and served as a “getting to know you” kind of set-up for the following TV season when he joins the “Buffy” spinoff “Angel.”

Once again, this episode provided the fans with continuity of stories from previous episodes. In this episode, Willow gave Buffy a pouch, which contained a protection spell. Willow started to work on this protection spell earlier in the season during the episode entitled “Gingerbread.” During a fight scene, a vampire tried to drown Buffy. After escaping, Buffy cracked “I hate it when they drown me,” This is in homage to the Season One finale, “Prophecy Girl,” in which the Master drowned Buffy.

Jeremy Thomas

"Bad Girls" is another one of those important episodes in Buffy lore, for several reasons. For one, we get introduced to the wonderful Wesley Wyndham Pryce as the new watcher. With Giles having loosened the collar just a bit over the last two and a half seasons, it was nice to see a stodgy Watcher back in place to show the contrast. Wesley would of course go on to be a very integral part of the entire Buffyverse, but here he's an adversary that neither Buffy nor Faith take to particularly well. He also helps fuel the arc of this episode by inadvertently pushing Buffy into joining Faith in enjoying the kill. The two start misbehaving, and it winds up going terribly wrong.

Poor, poor Deputy Mayor Finch. He had some potential early on as the nervous sort of henchman, and the way Joss planned his shows you knew something big was gonna happen. That he was the catalyst for Faith's push to the dark side was fairly unexpected, though. We also get to see the beginning of Mayor Wilkins's plan, and he becomes invincible. Ouch. Things are really ratcheting up, and this was a great episode that continued that trend. Episode Rating: 8.5

Ron Martin

"Bad Girls" never really stands out to me as a single episode, but when I think back to season three, it all pretty much leads back to this. Any episode where we get The Mayor is a good one in my book. A carefree kind of skanky Buffy is just a bonus. We get the catalyst for Faith's turn for the worst in this episode, which is the beginning to what I believe to be one of, if not the best character arcs in the entire series. Unlike some of the main cast's actions in the last two seasons, Faith's arc always makes sense; it’s always as intense as she is. Eliza Dushku gets bonus points for pulling off the ‘inner turmoil while trying to remain calm’ role perfectly.

I could have done without Balthazar, but that's offset by the introduction of Wesley, who gives us a measuring tool for how far Giles has come since season one as well as being entertaining in his own clutzy way. Hey, it also gives Cordelia something to do. Since "The Wish," she has pretty much been standing around waiting for Angel to start.

Lots of good stuff here and worth a watch for no other reason than to see how differently Buffy and Faith react to the same situation. I love the rogue slayer storyline. Not only is it written extremely well, but we get to see Dushku in tight pants. What's not to love? MY RATING: 9

Jason Chamberlain

Ah, and Faith begins her path to the dark side of the Force. Kudos to Dushku for playing the hilt out of this character arc, as we’ll see throughout the rest of the season.

We also get the addition of my second favourite Buffyverse characters; Wesley! For my money, Wesley may just go on the most incredible character path of any of Whedon’s creations. He’s so weak and snivelling her, it’s almost impossible to believe he’ll one day be the badass who goes toe to toe with The Beast, matches wits with Angelus, and keeps a woman chained in his closet.

Balthazar may be the most disgusting demon the show will ever produce. The less you look at him, the better off you are! My Rating: 9

GRR!!! ARGH!!!

The 411: I really liked this episode. This show gave us a new character that would become an integral part of the Buffy-verse for years to come. The writers also let us in on the Ascension that will be coming. The Ascension will turn out to be the main focal point of Season Three. Finally, with Faith accidentally killing the Mayor’s assistant, both Slayers will have to deal with the aftermath during next week’s episode, “Consequences.” If there was one week where you should NOT miss an episode, this was definitely one of those weeks.

Final Score:  9.0   [  Amazing ]