(Season 3, Episodes 15-18)
It looks like the fallout of Faith’s murder of Finch is going to be dire indeed. I’m loving the complexity of her character, especially as we hold her up for comparison to Buffy. Despite her bravado, you can’t help but feel there has to be a confused young girl in there, somewhere … right?
They still don’t quite seem to know what to do with Oz. He never goes on the adventures with the gang, and he mostly sits and stares. I do enjoy that they get into the fact that he rarely talks or shows expression. It’s an interesting facet to his character, but he’s still majorly underutilized.
3.15 – “Consequences”
(Original Air Date: February 16, 1999) Faith’s arc finally takes center stage as her descent into darkness really and truly begins. Lines are drawn, and she casts her lot in with the Mayor.
But before that she nearly kills Xander. My jury is out on whether or not she would have done it. If so, then she’s more far gone than I’d like to believe. After all, that’s a killing for almost no reason at all.
New Watcher Wesley Wyndam-Pryce continues to make a right ass of himself. He was so inattentive a Watcher over Faith that she went all Dark Side on him, and then when he tried to take her to England to face the Council for the murder, he let her escape, twisting her further.
I was glad the Scoobies saw the Mayor with Mr. Trick, though, because it’s about time we got that particular confrontation going. He’s been hovering as a threat over Sunnydale since sometime last season. At least now the gang knows.
By the time Trick died I realized that I no longer cared about his character. They’d taken a dynamic and interesting personality and relegated him to lackey. He just wasn’t fun anymore.
3.16 – “Doppelgangland”
(Original Air Date: February 23, 1999) Every once in awhile, it’s nice to have fun. Like “Band Candy,” this is one of those times. And you can bet Alyson Hannigan had fun.
In a callback to “The Wish,” vampire Willow is accidentally brought into this world when Anya attempts to get her wishing necklace back. And she doesn’t like it because there aren’t people in chains that she can ride like ponies. Yeah, she said it.
I love how evil Willow still has some of the traits of our Willow, while at the same time being completely different. She’s a cold-blooded killer, and yet she has weird moments of compassion.
Surprisingly, her aggression toward Percy helps Willow. The boy Principal Snyder forced her to tutor was bullying her into doing his homework, but after his encounter with vamp-Willow, he was much more compliant. Willow, thus learns that assertiveness can be helpful.
A definite highlight was when our Willow had to pretend to be vamp-Willow at The Bronze. But the best bit was when vamp-Willow finally got home, only to arrive moments before her death, as seen in “The Wish.” Would’ve been easier to just kill her.
Big question, though. Why is Anya stuck at Sunnydale? If she’s 1120 years old then she doesn’t have parents. Who’s making her go to school? Who’s not checking her math?
3.17 – “Enemies”
(Original Air Date: March 16, 1999) This episode did a good job of keeping the viewer guessing. I wasn’t sure if Faith was sincere in her seeking consolation from Angel when she was trying to seduce him.
Later, I completely bought into Angel’s acting when it seemed he’d lost his soul again. Thank god the cloaked man who was to perform the spell that would remove Angel’s soul “owed one” to Giles. A bit coincidental, but lucky for everyone he did.
Once again, Buffy shows her youthful lack of emotional control or reason by getting all wigged out that Angel had to fake interest in Faith to get the information about the Mayor’s upcoming ascension from her. In her defense, he did do a great job, as Xander’s bruised face will attest.
3.18 – “Earshot”
(Original Air Date: September 21, 1999*) .
* – Due to the content of this episode, it was delayed until the following fall in the wake of the Columbine High School massacre. This season’s finale was also delayed in response to sensitivity about school violence, though only until July 13, 1999.
I’m not one for cowing to fear and overreaction, but considering the gang cracks jokes about how trendy it is to shoot ‘em up in your high school these days, I can understand why this episode was pre-empted when it was. Some things are just too raw to take on so directly.
But, and perhaps due to the Columbine connection, it was nice that the villain wasn’t sad and lonely Jonathan up in the tower with a gun way too complicated for suicide, but the lunch lady dumping a giant box of rat poison into the kid’s food.
And yes, that was blatantly funny that it was a box four times the size of her head so clearly labeled. In the public cafeteria. She wasn’t even careful about hiding her disdain for the kids.
The rest of the episode tackled the double-edged sword of telepathy. Seemingly great at first, it never works out in the end. I remember when I was able to hear people’s thoughts. Now I just have to wait for your comments after these articles.
Clacked by Jason Hughes 
on Aug 25, 2009 @ 18:00 EST5EDT
“By the time Trick died I realized that I no longer cared about his character. They’d taken a dynamic and interesting personality and relegated him to lackey.”
I absolutely agree. I was initially more excited for the Mr. Trick character over the mayor who just seemed too smarmy, but the producers seemed to cast their hat with the mayor. I think the mayor brought out an interesting side to Faith, but I would’ve preferred if Trick had served as the big bad of the first half of S3 and then disappeared, etc. as opposed to serving as a character with untapped potential -