Good Slayer/Bad Slayer
“Bad Girls” is the first episode where we meet Faith, the second slayer. She is the opposite of Buffy; she loves to slay, she dresses in dark and bold clothing, she lives on her own, and she focuses only on her job as a slayer. I think the fact that they are opposites is important because it shows two extremes of super heroines. They fight incredibly well as a team and help each other when in need. Throughout the episode we see Faith corrupt Buffy and turn her into a “bad girl” (hence the title of the episode). She skips her chemistry test, hurts Willow’s feelings, dances provocatively with men at Bronze, steals weapons, and ultimately crashes a police car after having been arrested.
It is in this episode that we see Buffy, the strong, good-willed slayer, turn into a risqué bad ass. However, the ending scene really showed the true difference between Buffy and Faith: their morals. When Faith accidentally kills a man, mistaking him for a vampire, she feels no remorse and tells Buffy she does not care that she killed a human. Buffy on the other hand, feels terribly and continues to confront Faith about the killing.
We see Buffy transform throughout this episode, but she shows her true colors in the end when she feels guilt for the death of a human.
I was definitely surprised to see Buffy do such "bad" things (like break into a store to steal weapons), but I suppose that curiosity and a taste for thrill also played a role there. It was also clear that she was growing increasingly uncomfortable and exasperated with Faith's attitude as the episode went on. At the same time, I don't think that Faith felt no remorse for killing that guy--she seemed pretty shocked, but quickly covered her feelings up by pretending she didn't care...to the point where it seemed like she was trying to make herself not care.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Yvonne said about how Buffy had a curiosity for the dark side, which is why Faith was able to convince her to do those bad things with her. I think this is the same thing that happens with Willow when she starts turning bad with the magicks. But both have a realization that what they are doing is very wrong and do a 180, which is what makes them stand out as characters.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Buffy was curious. She is constantly tempted with being bad and giving into her emotions. Her job is so physical and about being a good person, it would be hard for her not to once in a while consider the alternatives. Faith seemed like she felt remorse, she just didn't know what to do about it. Instead of giving into it and trying to make up for what she did, she makes it her excuse to go even badder. Faith even says that she tried to be like Buffy, but Buffy was too perfect and she couldn't stand the constant comparison.
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