This Year's Girl

This Year's Girl
Written by Dan Veber
Directed by

Original Airdate: February 22, 2000

Plot: After eight months, Faith awakens from her coma and finds things have changed in Sunnydale and vows revenge upon the one person who has tormented her--Buffy...

Review

Warning: If you've been out of it for the past couple of months and want to avoid SPOILERS for the latest episode of Buffy, "This Year's Girl," please turn back now....

In short: To steal a line from a song, "You've got to have Faith."

It's amazing what certain characters can do for a certain show. Buffy has always had a strong, central cast, but one of the major strengths the show has shown over the years is that it's been able to establish and build-up one of the stronger supporting casts on television.

And "This Year's Girl" really showed that off.

Not only did it bring back two of the more interesting supporting cast members from last year with the Mayor and Faith, but it also brought Joyce back into the fold for the first time in a long, long time. And the episode chose a nice way of bringing these characters back and showing how they impact life for the Buffy gang.

I really liked a lot of the choices that were made in the episode.

One of them that I really liked was getting Faith's persepctive on how the progress of time impacted her. Seeing her wandering the streets on Sunnydale in disarray, finding the school gone and the Mayor dead as well as her reaction to his video and his present were nicely done. It's nice to see that a show like Buffy can actually conjure up some minor shades of gray to see one of the villians in. Yes, I'm one of those who loves to hate Faith, but she's painted in such of gray that she does come across as sympathetic at times. I still stand by an assertation that I made last year that Faith might still be able to be redeemed by Buffy and the gang.

Not that I think it's likely to happen. But Angel did prove worthy of redemption despite his sins. I think Faith may as well.

I also really enjoyed seeing Faith's dreams while she was in a coma. Her feeling that Buffy was the one responsible for all of her downfalls was a nice carry over from a lot of plotlines last year. Seeing that Faith has now manifested that into a deeper, more abiding hatred of Buffy, for basically being everything that Buffy isn't, was a great move. And one that I really appreciated. Her dreams of being haunted by Buffy pursuing and killing her were nicely done and well directed.

And Faith is still Faith. She still has the ability to hit a nerve and striek too deep with her barbs. Her whole conversation with Joyce about Buffy not ever coming home and not being a good daughter really, really hit home. And to see the look on Joyce's face as Faith said these things really worked. Despite the apparent, surface rejection of Faith's assertations, you can tell they cut deep. I can only hope that these issues will be brought up again between Buffy and Joyce in a future episode and not summarily dropped like last year's comments from Joyce to Giles about his being responsible for Buffy running away.

I loved just about everything that came from the Faith plotline.

The only niggling point that bugged me was there was little or no explanation from the Mayor of what the magic device was or how it would work. Certainly if there had been a line of dialogue or two from him saying that he'd left instructions on how to work it and what it did, that would have worked better. I'm not saying tell us what it is on-screen, but at least clue us in that Faith knows what it is and what to do with it.

Another point I found a bit odd was the lack of reaction from Anya to Faith's being back. Of course, we got no Anya at all last night. But since it's a two-parter, I can only hope that this will come up next week. After seeing how crazy Anya got last year on the mere idea that Buffy might want Xander, it will be interesting to see how she reacts to news Faith is in town and of her history with Xander.

I hope they bring this up next week.

As for the rest of the plotlines, they were pretty well done, but not nearly as strong.

I did enjoy Adam's presence being felt without actually having to see him on screen. To see how upset Buffy is by his presense and his use of psychological warfare is nicely done. My biggest fear with Adams comes from the fact that he may have been made to be too unstoppable.

If you've watched Star Trek, you know what I'm talking about. When the Borg were first introduced they were made to be virtually unstoppable, causing the writers to have to stretch to find ways to stop them. In the end, the Borg have been weakened over time to make them easier to stop for the sake of having them on the show. I hope that Buffy hasn't painted itself into a similar corner with Adam.

But there were some basic, overall weaknesses to the story. One of them was Spike. I understand that by having James Marsters in the credits, he has to be in every episode. But surely not if it's just moments like this. Spike added virtually nothing to the episode last night and that's a shame. Most times he livens up the episode. But in a story that is so packed for time, to see him get his minute of screen time in such a way is a waste.

Also, the Buffy-Riley worked on some levels but not others.

I liked seeing Buffy edit the story about Faith and Angel for Riley. And to see her rationalization to Willow about it worked pretty well as well. I liked seeing that both of them are hiding information now--Willow with info on Tara and Buffy with info on Angel (which should make it that much more interesting when and if Angel shows back up in Sunnydale).

The parts of this plotline I didn't like was when Riley was supposed to all sentimental. His speech about having only Buffy's scarf to hold on left me cold. Marc Blucas showed last week he has some range acting wise, but it was not on display this week. Instead, Riley was dull and tedious. And his idea of being a mole seems a bit late. I can't believe the Initiative won't suspect he's helping Buffy. They seem far too paranoid for this NOT to happen.

I must admit that it's hard to really make too many judgements about this episode. Namely because it's only the opening act for what's to come. But most of it worked so well, that I'm honestly anxious for next week's conclusion. There's a lot of balls in play and I only hope that most of them continue to be tossed into the air next week.

Well, that's about it except a few small things...

--It looks like the Council has finally come calling on Giles. I've got wonder if Faith is something more to them. After all, they've had all this time to come after Giles but just arrive when Faith wakes up.

--Xander's trying to fix the gun provided some good laughs. I wonder if he might be headed toward joining the Initiative?

--A niggling point...Faith work up on Friday and took two days to find Buffy. Making it Sunday. So, why was there class?

--I will go ahead and admit I skeptical about the body-switching plotline. It has to be done superbly to be done well. Having been burned by a bad plotline of this type of Lois and Clark, I am taking the wait and see approach for next week...

Well, that's it for now. All-in-all, it's a good start. I only hope that Joss and company deliver on the promise here...

My rating: 8.0 (out of 10.0)

Next up: Wednesday night sees a repeat of "Earshot" and then Tuesday night, Buffy is suffering from a Freaky Friday...

"What'd you think B? I was going to wake up and we'd go for tea?"

--Faith .