8/17/09 - 8/23/09 Episode Discussion: Sanctuary

Episode: Sanctuary
Season: one

Time to discuss this great Faith/Buffy episode. We all love how much drama there is whenever Faith and Buffy are butting heads, but you gotta love it when you throw in a hot vampire as well! 🙂

A big thank you to Queen Crabbit for leading this discussion this week.

So please help them out and get discussing!

This wee Faith arc in Buffy and Angel is so great. I prefer Five by Five as an episode though, with that scene at the end in the rain. But Sanctuary is definitely one of my favourites of the season too. It's funny to watch in a way - Buffy seems like a much more tough and unforgiving character, but then it's not her show so she doesn't have to be nice. 😉

This is one of my favorite "Angel" episodes. I loved that Angel wanted so badly to help Faith, and he was exactly the right person to do it. However, I totally understand the emotions of the other characters, especially Wesley and Buffy. Of COURSE they had every right to feel as if they should have thrown Faith's ass in jail where she belonged right off the bat, instead of harboring her there in Angel's apartment.
Love, love, love this ep. Eliza and David have some AWESOME chemistry.

This 4-episode crossover arc is definitely one of my favorites in the two series. I think that it is significant, even if it's somewhat played down in the episode, that, when Faith was really in danger from the Watchers, Buffy fought the Watchers to protect her. I think that what Wood told Faith in Season 7, "You care a lot more about her than you're willing to admit," goes both ways. I've always hoped that Buffy and Faith would become friends, they way that they were beginning to at the first of Season 3. And, no, I'm not pushing for any sort of sexual relationship (Well, maybe a Slayer sandwich with Spike in the middle could have possibilities...) Just a comrade in arms trust.

I understand that Angel wants to help everyone, redemption, blah blah blah. However, I feel really bad for Cordelia and Wesley, especially Wesley. He was tortured by Faith simply for her entertainment, and not 5 minutes later, Angel is hugging her. If you're Wes, how can you not feel betrayed? It appears that Angel cares more about this criminal than the person that has worked side by side with him on a daily basis.

This episode is my fav of those 4 Faith arc episodes. I'll never get bored watching it. We saw the new Faith for the first time. And Angel is the right person to help her. It's funny to see Buffy being b*tchy and not listening to anyone. My favorite scenes have to be when Wesley walked downstair with Faith and said "Faith's changed her plan" and then he told Angel he trusts him. Another scene is when Buffy saved Faith from that guy from the Counsil. Oh, and I felt like Angel is Faith's big brother for the first time and I still feel like that. 🙂

Giants Rule 04 said:

I understand that Angel wants to help everyone, redemption, blah blah blah. However, I feel really bad for Cordelia and Wesley, especially Wesley. He was tortured by Faith simply for her entertainment, and not 5 minutes later, Angel is hugging her. If you're Wes, how can you not feel betrayed? It appears that Angel cares more about this criminal than the person that has worked side by side with him on a daily basis.

Click to expand...

I 100% agree. I always thought it was weird that there was never really anything said later on in the ep (and really the series) about how Faith had tortured Wesley. I mean, how close do you think she was to killing him? Do you think she would have killed him?

Well she was pretty angry and crazy at the time, so she probably would have killed him. He did try to kill her, after all.
This was a pretty good episode, my favorite line was "If you apologize to me, I will beat you to death", and Faith saying "Go ahead." Well she knew Buffy would and Faith knew she deserved it.

I love this episode (and the last 5 mins of five by five) for the whole faith turnaround. I don't know many people that disliked Faith when she was evil, but seeing this gave me a reason to like her properly again. And I think that a lot of people can relate to the whole "you can't re-write your past but you can try to get over it"/"fight for what you believe in"/"not giving up on people" thing.

I like how we see for the first time that Wesley truly trusts Angel by not helping the Watcher's Council. Even though he doesn't like the thought of saving Faith, he knows that what Angel doing is right and trusts his judgement.

Some questions for y'all:

If you were Wesley, what would you do?
What did you think of Buffy's reaction to Faith?

I also like the neat little follow up they do a few episodes later when Angel goes to see Faith in prison at the end. :]

I agree on the whole Wesley thing. I was shocked at how easily Angel dismissed this fact. One of my favorite moments in the episode is where Wesley walks in, touches Cordelia's cheek and then says "BITCH. Not you, obviously." LOL
I LOVE the Wesley/Faith dynamic, though... And in S5 it gets EVEN better and awesome. 🙂

I think it really shows how Wesley has already started to grow as a person. From being the Watcher's Helper Monkey, to actually being able to think for himself 😉

I think it's right that

I don't really know what to say about this episode that hasn't already been said. It's fantastic.
It was always interesting to me the lengths Angel was willing to go to protect Faith and I think that's part of the reason he was so dismissive of what happened with Wesley. His connection to and understanding of Faith appeared to be far deeper than any connection he'd ever had before, eclipsing even his connection with Buffy. I'm not talking about love, just the fact that Faith was probably the only person who could have really ever understood him up until that point. He really went to the wire for her and not just because he saw it as the right thing to do.

And then you know, there's that whole part where I just love to see Buffy and Faith on screen together but that's neither here nor there.

I really liked Sanctuary!I believe that season 1 of Angel has some of the best episodes of the show!
I like the fact that Angel is the only one who understands Faith's behaviour and wants to help her...and i also like the fact that Faith is NEVER gonna forget what he did for her(yeah i mean season 4!).
Faith finally realises how much she has disappointed others especially Buffy.Of course i understand Wesley's and Buffy's reaction towards Faith after everything she's done!sure they are right...but it's hard for them to understand that psychological problems and issues are not easy to be dealt with...and the path to redemption is a rocky path like Faith herself said!
I didn't like Buffy fighting with Angel but the moment she saw Faith And Angel together it was like she was hit by lighting...if i were Buffy i would probably react the same way...but i wouldn't tell Angel those things about "finding someone new"...i am sure Angel was very hurt by this

Buffy was to angry in this episode. I liked how Faith did the right thing, but I didn't liked her behaviour to Angel.