This Year's Girl

Extensive previouslys: Faith, the second Slayer, comes to Sunnydale; she turns evil and the Mayor, last season's Big Bad, gives her a big knife; Buffy stabs her with the big knife and Faith falls off a building; Faith's injuries put her in a coma from which she will never awake (but we all knew better, huh?); Riley gets off on Buffy's strength; Walsh chatters with Adam and sets Buffy up to die; Adam kills Walsh (that's for calling Buffy a bitch!); Riley wonders why Forrest doesn't like Buffy and Forrest says Buffy's a spy; Riley goes off his meds, gets shaky and gets skewered by Adam; the Initiative guys take Riley away from Buffy.

Buffy is making the bed in her old room at the Summers house. She says to her companion that clean sheets smell good, and her companion, Faith, replies that she wouldn't know. They continue making the bed and Buffy says she wishes she could stay and Faith replies, "Little sis coming, I know. So much to do before she gets here." They continue to tuck in the sheet and Buffy repeats that she has to leave and Faith is telling her to leave, when she starts to drip blood onto the bed. She mutters, "Damn. Just when we made it so nice." She and Buffy look at each other, the music begins to get dissonant and creepy and Faith accusingly asks, "Are you ever going to take this thing out?" They both look down at Faith's torso, from which protrudes her big knife. Buffy's face gets hard, she grabs the knife hilt and pushes it further in. You might think that the dialog in this scene was a little surreal but for me Faith's shirt is the weirdest thing. It looks like she stole it from Willow's closet.

We see a hospital monitor and pan across a dingy, depressing room to where Faith lies, comatose. She's dressed in a hospital gown and her face is pale and drawn.

The fact that Reindeer Games didn't come out at Christmas is enough to prove to me that this must be the worst movie ever. Also if Rudolph was half as annoying as Ben Affleck I'm going to have to side with the other reindeer.

Xander, Buffy, Willow and Giles are hanging in Xander's basement as Xander attempts to repair the faulty taser gun that Professor Walsh gave Buffy on her make-Buffy-dead mission. Buffy asks Xander if he can fix it and he snipes, "Sure, just as soon as I get my Master's degree in advanced starship technology" and loudly drops the gun. Willow suggests they experiment by pressing a few buttons but Giles vetoes the idea as too dangerous. Oh geez, Giles is folding Xander's laundry! Someone get this guy a job. Xander says he'd be all for pressing random buttons if the gun was called "the orgasminator" but since it's called a blaster, he'd rather not. Buffy, looking tense, again asks if he can fix the gun and Xander says he's trying. I wish Xander would try to find normal clothes in his closet. But if he insists on wearing sweater vests I really wish he would pair them with long-sleeved shirts. The less said about Willow's outfit the better. I've come to the conclusion that she's just doing it for attention, negative or otherwise and I refuse to be her fashion victim enabler. ["Mmumblmmm": that's the sound of me trying to go along with Sep's resolve and NOT comment on Willow's outfit." -- Ace] Buffy sits on the couch and puts her head in her hand. Giles mentions that she's been patrolling for three days and could perhaps use, but Buffy interrupts him and says she can't get any rest since she needs to catch Adam. Giles replies that he was going to suggest that Buffy could use some help tracking Adam. Buffy says all she needs is the blaster and when Willow replies, "Are you sure?" Buffy says that she will indeed use the blaster even though it isn't standard Slayer issue. Willow clarifies that she actually meant, "No word about Riley?" Huh? Anyway, Buffy tells her that the Initiative repeatedly states that Riley is fine but won't say anything else. Buffy doubts the Initiative's version of "fine" and they could have him back on meds or be torturing him. Giles soothingly says he doubts the Initiative want to hurt Riley, but Buffy frets that she isn't helping Riley. Xander is still fiddling with the gun and elicits some sort of electric blast that shocks him, but despite his plaintive look at the others, they ignore him and go on with their conversation. I guess that was comedy or something. Willow reassures Buffy that Giles is right, the Initiative won't hurt Riley, but Buffy suggests they could be brain-washing him because of his recent non-military behavior.

Riley's bandaged hand reaches out and gather up Buffy's head scarf, which is lying on a table nearby. Riley is in a sterile-looking hospital room, and gets up off the bed, clutching his bandaged ribcage. He pulls on a shirt, grimacing with pain, and goes to the door of his room where a uniformed soldier is standing. The soldier blocks Riley's exit and Riley tells him to, "Stand down before I put you down." Forrest comes along and tells the soldier to obey Riley's command and Riley begins to walk away down the hall. Forrest follows him and calls him, "The shish-kebob that walks like a man." Riley doesn't reply and just continues to button up his shirt. Riley finally says he has "places to be" and Forrest demands to know where. When Riley implies that he's going to see Buffy, Forrest makes a disgusted noise and blocks his path. They bicker about Riley seeing Buffy and the giant cleft chin that walks like a man, Graham, sidles up and says, "We all friends here, fellas?" Forrest says they are but continues to block Riley's path and fixes him with a glare and says Riley is going to explain why he's leaving. Riley asserts, "I don't explain because I don't have to. I'm the one in charge." Forrest says that could change and adds that there are big problems at the Initiative and they should "band together." Graham agrees, and Forrest continues that they need to keep the problem (Adam) "within the family." Riley questions whether they are a family and dourly tells Forrest to "step aside." I just realized that Forrest is a dead ringer for my figure skating coach except that my coach is already out of the closet.

Faith lies comatose in her depressing hospital room. We see a flash of cloudy sky and the camera pans down to a wooded area. In her bed, Faith's eyes move rapidly under her closed eyelids. It's nice to see that even though her room looks drab and neglected that someone has taken the time to apply eyeshadow for her. "You think it's gonna rain?" asks Faith, and we see her reclining on a picnic blanket with Mayor Wilkins. He replies that it won't and she doubtfully says, "It always seems like it starts raining right about now." Faith is wearing light make-up, a blue blouse and a pink skirt and the Mayor tells her that she's "too young and too pretty" to worry so much. He spots a little snake on the blanket and lifts it, cooing that it doesn't "belong here with us." He puts the snake back down and cheerfully asks if Faith wants cheesecake. She smiles as he turns towards the picnic basket but suddenly screams, "No!" as she sees Buffy, clad in black pants and top with an olive overcoat approaching. Buffy cuts the Mayor's throat with Faith's knife and then stabs him in the gut. Buffy menacingly says that she told Faith she had things to do and starts advancing towards her. Faith crawls across the grass slowly with Buffy behind her. In her hospital bed, Faith's eyes continue to move as she dreams. It's interesting to note that Faith dresses the Buffy in her dreams much better than Buffy dresses herself in real life, whereas Faith dresses herself wicked awful. It must have something to do with her subconscious lack of self-esteem or something.

Buffy, Willow and Xander patrol the woods with flashlights. They decide to spread out and as Buffy walks she unknowingly passes some demon legs, spread-eagled and tied to two different trees. She does a double-take and turns back to see the whole demon's corpse, suspended between two trees and completely flayed open. The body is still steaming and when Buffy shines her flashlight on it, we can see right through the open ribcage.

At Xander's, Buffy says she's never seen anything like the demon's corpse. Willow says it was Adam but asks why he did it, and Buffy suggests that he's studying the biology of demons and humans. She goes on to say that the Initiative can't stop Adam but the Scooby gang will. Xander is sad that the plan to catch Adam won't entail "hiding in a cabin with stockpiled chocolate goods." Willow asks what they have to do first and Buffy replies that she needs to rescue Riley. She lays out a plan wherein Willow somehow disables the Initiative's security computer and Xander gives her any military gear that he still has. She's not going to sneak in, but will instead blast her way in to find the infirmary. Behind her Riley asks, "Am I really worth all that?" and smiles. Buffy is overjoyed (and for the first time her expression of it is believable) and leaps up to hug him, bumping his wound in the process. She asks how he got out of the Initiative and he replies, "I walked." Willow is surprised that they let him go and Riley says he threatened a "major ass-kicking" if they didn't let him leave. Xander jumps up, saying it's great that Riley's there and then asks, "Did they put a chip on your brain?" Riley doesn't seem to know what Xander is talking about and Buffy tells him they are happy to have him back. Riley apologizes for his behavior, which gains some points with me and Willow says, "You two crazy kids take down an unstoppable, killer, cyber, demon-hybrid thingy and we'll call it even." Buffy says they can handle anything now that Riley is with her. I have a confession to make. I don't want y'all to think I'm going soft on you, but Riley did not annoy me for most of this episode.

Faith, dressed in a tank top and leather pants, runs frantically through a graveyard at night. Behind her, Buffy follows, walking deliberately and holding Faith's knife. Faith continues to run, constantly checking behind her to see how close Buffy is. The moonlight glints off the knife in Buffy's hand. Buffy walks, slowly, slowly, with a dire look on her face. Faith runs and then falls face-first into an open grave. Ethereal singing starts up as Faith looks up at Buffy from the bottom of the grave. Buffy jumps in after her and its starts to pour down rain. We hear noises of a struggle in the grave, and a hand grabs the upper edge. Faith slowly pulls herself out and stands in the rain, letting it wash over her. She starts to yell and in the hospital bed, the sleeping Faith's eyes open wide. Thank god Faith is back to her leather pants because watching her run in them is one of the best reasons to have her character around.