3/15: Consequences

[William the Bloody]

Written by Marti Noxon
Directed by Michael Gershman
Air Date: 2/16/99

As detectives investigate the death of hte Deputy Mayor Finch, Faith's continued denial of any wrong doing convinces Angel he must help her see the error of her ways.

[beccaelizabeth]

Consequences -

Faith being cynical: It doesn't matter what kind of vibe you get off a person. 'Cause nine times out of ten, the face they're showing you is not the real one.

Buffy replies with one of my least favourite lines of logic - "I know what you're feeling because I'm feeling it too." Doesn't actually work. People react different ways and feel different stuff, and not knowing that leads to troubles.

Actually both ways leads to troubles. Need to react to specific circumstances, not general rule.
But general rules are quicker, which can count in an emergency.
I'm not good at quick. too many variables in the world.

Buffy and Angel definitely both figure that Faith is reacting just like they did. Which makes me wonder about Giles, if he is figuring the same thing.


the lives saved, plus column logic, also dodgy sort of. I mean it is logic in one way, but... like, police are armed, and sometimes they kill innocent people. But they stay armed, because more lives are saved that way. BUT every single time someone gets shot there is a big review and police get asked a whole lot of questions and if they did wrong then that particular policeman gets in big trouble. Doesn't matter if they saved lots of lives before, the particular incident has to be examined.

"does not mean that we get to pass judgement"
later, Anya, different speech.

There's witnesses that put Faith and Buffy near the alley. Probably faked up by the mayor.
but there were policemen who saw them there and got beat up.
why did that just go away?

Willow jumping to the conclusion that Buffy is crying because of what Willow just said. Instant guilt. Bad bad bad person. Again, totally inappropriate response. Opposite of Faith, but still not smart. Applying one solution to all situations.

And now Faith does a thing that is definitely wrong.
Saying it was Buffy, making her be in trouble instead, that part wrong.

Faith wearing neck chain. I think she wore it before but I did not note for how long. Chain=trapped?

Now the interesting thing is Giles handles it by lies, cover ups, leaving out any authorities including those he considered the proper ones mere weeks ago - I love Giles, but I'm not sure he handled this very well.

Wesley did exactly what he was trained to do.

See, because the Council did the Cruciamentum thing, viewers are now primed to think of them as the Bad Guys. But they are the people with the information needed to understand the situation, and the resources to deal with it. Wesley contacted his bosses, who told him to arrest Faith. He has a little formula of words to say who is arresting her, not just Wes putting her in chains. If it was police or FBI, that would be the right move. Why is it wrong if it is Council? Well, Cruciamentum. Pretty big reason. But years of trusting them apart from that.

"She's unstable Buffy. She's utterly unable to accept responsibility."
How has Giles decided this?
And what part of his experience is he talking from?

Why do they meet in place that is not the library?
Think they're deliberately avoiding Wesley? Or hide from Faith I guess. If they expect her to be there at all.

What Faith does to Xander... the episode is called Consequences, but by making Faith do this new bad thing, that is exactly what the writers avoid. They avoid dealing with the whole Slayer friendly fire issue by making it the Faith Is A Bad Person issue, and that is rather cheap.

I'm not saying it is an implausible act. I mean Faith has to be feeling out of control right now, so to jump in to stuff she thinks she has total control of, fair enough. And taking it way the hell too far is plausible too. Faith doesn't do things by halfs. Its only the writers taking this out that irritates me on this viewing. Skip the hard issue by setting up a straw person, have her hurt someone in a way every viewer is going to hate. Cheap.

So now Faith is demonstrably completely nuts, so Angel knocks her out and chains her up. Because Angel decides to.

Wesley does the same thing because what he believes are the proper authorities tells him to.
I just saying, Wes did right, not the others. But Wes gets told off and eventually loses his job.

And how did Angel get the talking to crazy people job anyways? I mean, okay, reformed murderer himself, but only recently sane again.

Angel is all 'I know the power in it'
Faith had a choice of how to deal with the emotions, dwell on the bad, feel sick and dirty, or just go with the good, feel powerful. So, fair enough.

"You're not much more than a child."
yeah. big strong teenager.

"By the order of the Watchers' Council or Britain"
authority has spoken.

"The first priority of both myself and the Council is to help you."
at the time we don't know Wes, but looking back... I think he thinks he means that.

"They'll lock her away for a good long while."
you know, if the Council are all that bad, they'd kill a bad Slayer and hope to get a good one. But Giles at least thinks they wouldn't do that.

NOW Wesley asks for orders. Bit too late.
He hasn't been there long, he did everything he was trained to do, he screwed up a bit but he keeps trying.

Now Buffy has the spotty furry coat. Whtie and black. Hmmm.

"We are the law."
takes a while, but Buffy ends up agreeing with her. Selfless.

"you know it could be you" and Buffy responds with violence
yup, it could be Buffy, because that was totally inappropriate

And in the end Faith gets away with how she has been acting because she proves herself willing to kill the approved people. Which, er, isn't news at all. She gets off on killing vampires. So why is that a factor?

"She still has a lot to face before she can put this behind her."
like what?
honestly, I don't get it. what are their standards here?

So at the end of an episode where all her friends turn on her and call her evil and point out how evil feels pretty good Faith ends up deciding to be evil. Consequence.
I can buy that.

But again, I dont think the writers dealt with it square on. They made themselves an easy out. Bad thing happened because bad person.
Or possibly bad person happened because bad thing. Which is a tiny bit more subtle. But doesn't deal with the issue of what gives Slayers the right, what would be the right consequence for Slayers from that thing happening.