What a pleasure to see Faith in the series. I enjoyed every second I spent with her. Since
"Who are you" Faith has become aware of what she has become and what she has seen displeases her strongly. She hates herself ! She has always been a bit extreme in her attitudes, but I do not know how to say it, but here she is even more insane, she overplayed, she wants to attract attention, she deliberately takes risks. Yet she always had this rebellious side in her but there I find it too excessive. At first, her actions give the impression that she embraces even more her darkness as if she wanted to convince that to do the evil was her new conviction, her reason for living but, in the end, we know that her actions were a desperate call for help !
The episode glorifies this character by presenting her on several aspects :
-Faith the lost sulphurous,
-Faith the provocative,
-Faith the psychopath,
-Faith the suicidal,
She is everywhere, she is the star and I fully appreciate the work of Eliza Dushku. The emotional states are very well transcribed by the actress :
-Faith, lost and sulphurous : When she arrives at L.A, we find a lost Faith and terribly intriguing at the same time. It feels there is something wrong with her, even more so than usual. She arrives in the night, in the shadows, and even when she appears under the light, her physical appearance and her charm reveal a darkness that has a certain appeal. I find that her make-up, the clothes she wears, her look, her pace, for me it brings out a lot of obscurity and not much light, not much joy.
She is new, a stranger in this town, almost inexpressive even if I detected a little aspect of a lost girl that makes her fragile, fragility that is also counterbalanced by the violence that ensues.
-Faith the provocative : I really like the moment in the nightclub, atmosphere is overflowing with conflicting emotions. Faith shows herself very seductive, she seeks trouble, she is in provocation, she starts a brawl and at the same time, in parallel of all the violence, there is a lot of sensuality, manifesting that she takes pleasure. Sometime the music even takes over the sound of the blows and Faith finds herself to be in the center of the dance floor and she continues to dance like nothing. For me it is representative of her inner discomfort, as of she remained deaf and visually impaired in front of the spectacle of violence she engenders around her. Even the meetings with Wolfram and Hart's lawyers (I noticed that the initials are the same for everyone :
Lilah
Morgan,
Lindsay
McDonald and
Lee
Mercer) the negotiations are in one-way, and she does not hesitate to hit Lee, the only one who dared to contradict her. She affirms herself, she faces the people who are in front of her and she isn't intimidated. She acts by not being afraid of the consequences, and I'm sure, she even hopes consequences !
- Faith the psychopath : When she tortures Wesley, this is where we are the most witness to her cruelty. The choice of Wesley as a victim is not insignificant, although she certainly wanted settle her business with him, she mostly wanted to force Angel to play her game. It was in these moments that I realized she was more extreme than usual. She can blame what she wants to Wesley, it's true, at the time of Sunnydale he wasn't an competent and understandable watcher. When she has killed this guy she needed to being helped, and Wesley had a reaction which was the right for him but the wrong for Faith. However I think that the greater part of responsibilities belongs to Faith. Part of me thinks everyone is responsible for what he/she becomes. For Faith, I think that taking the path of evil was an obligation, a fatality, I have the impression that she had to experience it in life in order to move forward in some way. Wesley, I have a lot of pain for him, he suffers a lot and I admired him at the beginning when he wanted to help Faith despite the mistakes of the past. He recognized his mistakes and was ready to give her a new chance, he was hopeful and convinced that everyone is entitled to a second chance. Somewhere, he also searches redemption. We can say that Faith radically changes his vision of things, he grabs the knife and wished to finish with her. I very much like the last scene where we see Wesley let go the knife as all the desire to get his revenge had suddenly deserted his body and his thoughts.
-Faith the suicidal : The fight against Angel was really well choreographed, so BADASS! I love this fight, one of my favorites of both series. Faith is unleashed like never before and Angel takes a lot. And frankly, I do not know if he lets himself be beaten or if he really fights with all his will, but in any case he understood the game of Faith and he doesn't play the game. Faith didn't want to kill him, if she had wanted to, I think she could have, but she wanted HE kills her. In fact, since
"Who Are You" she has developed a desire of death because she can no longer bear herself and all the actions she has undertaken in this episode resulted from that because every time she acted abusively and with the desire to assume the consequences. When she collapses in tears in Angel's arms, I must say that I was taken by emotion, she is so touching, she shows a lot of vulnerability. She bursts her shell and leaves someone being close to her. The Lost and Bad Girl falls the mask and reveals a tearful, self-destructive girl who searches death! I think she cracked at the right time and in front of the right person. At the point where Faith is, redemption seems to be clearly the way she must take and Angel is clearly the ideal person to accompany her along this long road. Oh and then super important detail : the rain during the fight, I love, it brings a dramatic side which amplifies emotions !
The flashbacks are here clearly present to do the link between Faith and Angel. The paths are similar and it is perfectly normal and understandable that Angel would like to help her, he knows what she is enduring. I would add that seeing Julie Benz is always a pleasure. Two relationships that fit perfectly :
- At the beginning, Liam and Faith were both normal people, with a lot of humanity in them. Following the misfortunes of life, they each yielded and sank.
- All of them are unable to see the anxiety and love they had from family/friends : Liam never understood that his father truly loved him and that all these criticisms were said in the one and only hope of pushing him to do his best. Faith always compared herself to Buffy, she was convinced she did not have the life she deserved and so she did not receive the love or gratitude she needed. This jealousy of Buffy has consumed her and it is one of the factors that pushed her on evil side. She was so jealous of what Buffy had, then she did not realize what she had.
- Unable to correspond to the model imposed on them, they sought approval elsewhere : Angel with Darla and Faith with Mayor Wilkins.
-Each one had a moment of revelation, an experience that opened their eyes and allowed them to realize what they become : Restoration of the soul for Angel and the exchange of bodies with Buffy for Faith.
- After that both persist, at first, to act as if nothing happen, continued to embrace their monstruosity : Angel trying to kill this Romanian woman and Faith playing with fire by challenging Angel in the the only objective to force him to put end to her life. They have failed and it is from that moment that redemption begins for them !
