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All Shows > Buffy the Vampire Slayer > Season 3

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - 3x17 - Enemies

Synopsis: You and I already knew it, but now it is time for the Scooby Gang with a little help from Angel to discover that Faith is evil.

Review: Every season so far has had an overarching story that culminates in the last few episodes. This season the Mayor's ascension is the big story. We have seen hints of it all season, but with this episode, the ball really starts rolling. Shows that have an overarching storyline have a major obstacle to overcome: keeping each episode about the same storyline fresh and creative.

We have already beaten the Faith-turns-evil storyline to death, but this episode manages to keep it from smelling too stale. In an Ocean's Eleven-like misdirection, this episode truly had me believing Angel had turned evil again. I was surprised to discover the entire thing was an elaborate hoax hatched by Buffy, Giles, and Angel.

The Angel hoax proves to the Scooby Gang that Faith is evil. As viewers, we have already known that for several episodes. I guess it was necessary to have an episode devoted to the Scoobies finding out. The B-plot here involved a skiddish demon attempting to sell Buffy and Faith a set of old books about ascension for a pretty high price. He was actually a very interesting character. Too bad he was killed before this episode was over. The surprise ending pushed this otherwise stale episode to a 6 out of 10.

Rating: 6 out of 10 (Reviewed by: Matthew Miller)

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Comments

I think the purpose of this episode was to show just how far gone Faith is. Up until this espisode, she hadn't done anything too unforgivable, really. Removing Angel's soul and wanting to torture Buffy definitely put her on the side of evil, though.

--Matt Pickle (Agrees: yes)

I'm still completely unclear as to how the entirie buffy/angel/giles hoax was set up. It's rather clear how Buffy got clued into faith's disloyalty, and would have had a talk with angel abou it behind the scenes. But how on earth did Giles intercept the shrouded guy and get him to fake the taking of angel's soul by putting on 'quite the light show'? It doesn't make sense that Angel clued Giles and buffy in on it after having met with the mayor for the first time, since he met with the mayor after having "turned evil". So did buffy let Giles know that something was up with faith way in the beginning, after which giles did some quick reasearch and happened to come across the shrouded guy and make that deal with him before the shrouded guy met with the mayor? Or was the shrouded guy tight with giles in the first place? Or...? I wish we had a little more BG info in this episode. Otherwise... It'd give it a 10/10.

--bird (Agrees: )