4.15 This Year's Girl

[Clare]

4.15 This Year's Girl - Episode #071
Adam is the last thing on Buffy's mind when Faith wakes from her coma and is determined to seek revenge.

Review (also post a score out of 10) and discuss this episode.

[cyclica]

Faith returns, and at the worst possible time for buffy. Faith is even lonelier and more messed up than ever, now that the only person she cared about, the mayor, is dead and her old nemesis buffy has forgotten about her. So there's only one thing she wants to do with her life-make buffy suffer.

Faith is as fun to watch as ever. I especially loved the scene where buffy and willow are walking toward the college talking about faith, and then faith turns around. Surprise! (I also loved her surprise entrance on 5 by 5, where she fired an arrow at angel who assumed she was still in a coma. She should have done that more often).

My only complaint is not seeing much of adam, who had only just been introduced, and I wanted to see more of him. But it was still a very enjoyable episode. I give it a high 7.

[partcynic]

4x15 “This Year’s Girl”

Episode Rating = 7

With the last two episodes being so bland and uninspired, it’s good to see something that plays to the show’s strengths, and “This Year’s Girl” is a welcome change of pace that puts the focus back on characters I care about. Although it still has too much Initiative/Riley, the principle plot with Faith is exciting and interesting, and the character brings a lot of energy to the screen. It’s telling to have the S4 two-parter play sequentially with a pair that focuses on arc characters from S3, if only because it shows just how superior Faith and the Mayor are to everything the Initiative has provided. That said, S4’s mid-point problems have been caused by Initiative’s over-prominence, but it’s more digestible when featured as a side-dish instead of the main meal – and I’m grateful that the remainder of the season followed the pattern here, progressing the arc in context of smaller stories/conflicts and avoiding a military overload.

What I Liked about “This Year’s Girl”:

- You can basically split this episode into two sections, depending on whether or not the scenes featured Faith. When she wasn’t about, the ep was passable fare, but when she appeared, it was engaging, emotionally charged and interesting. Considering the year’s theme of alienation amongst the Scoobs, it was a perfect decision to bring Faith (a character who was largely defined through her contrast with the Scooby family group), and to see how completely alone she is. There admittedly wasn’t much a constructive theme here, but her fear of loneliness having now become an inescapable reality was fascinating, and it was hard not to feel sorry for her at several points (such as when she was watching the awesome videotape the Mayor left for her, and heard his statement that there was no place for her anymore).

- I loved all of Faith’s dreams, which had a suitable tone without being corny or hard to follow. The opening bed-making scene was an intriguing glimpse into her mind (and kudos for the Dawn reference), and I liked how the pristine whiteness of the sheets was ruined by the dripping blood from her abdomen. The subsequent snapshots with the Mayor were also excellent – it’s a treat to have Harry Groener back, and their father/daughter dynamic remains a strong one (it was clever how Faith was specifically dressed in a feminine style, a la “Graduation Day, Part One”, in the picnic dream). I also found it interesting that the dreams always portrayed Buffy as an evildoer who ruined Faith’s happiness; and it was fitting that defeating her was what finally caused Faith to wake up.

- The episode has a nice, disturbing tone immediately after Faith’s awakening, and you can sense her disorientation as she wanders down the hall and quizzes the visitor. I liked how her visage instantly hardened once she learned that the Mayor had died, and her prompt exit wearing that visitor’s clothes was the right cue to show the audience that she’s still violent and dangerous.

- Is it me, or is Adam creepier when he’s off-screen? His demon murder was a little unsettling, and I like the idea that he’s meticulously gathering information for his schemes.

- The scene with Buffy consoling Riley was a cute one, and I liked the analogies drawn between her past with the Council and his with the Initiative, as well as the statement that his future was his to decide.

- The gang’s reaction to learning about Faith is good – the tone is ominous, but there’s still great humour courtesy of Willow and (especially) Xander. It was also amusing how the long discussion ended with a bewildered Riley asking who Faith was.

- Willow and Tara’s brief scene is sweet. The dialogue has some wit to it, and you get the impression that something more than friendship is stirring between them.

- I was surprised at my positive response to seeing the long-absent Joyce, and her retorts to Faith while being held hostage were excellent. In fact, all of the dialogue between the two was great – Faith’s truly conveyed her desperation and single-minded desire to hurt Buffy for perceived past wrongs, and I loved how Joyce’s belief in Buffy never wavered. Buffy’s eventual arrival was a funny and exciting moment, and the ensuing Slayer vs Slayer fight as epic as all the others the two have had. Closing with the body swap provided a gripping finale, and would certainly get your hopes up for part two (which would thankfully be fulfilled).

What I found to be a mixed bag about “This Year’s Girl”:

- It’s convenient that Faith is kept on her own in a dingy, bottom-floor hospital room instead of on an actual ward (though I understand why that contrivance was necessary). And since this is America, who’s been paying for her treatment?

- I wasn’t particularly interested by the early ‘let’s rescue Riley’ talk, but the little comedy moments (like Xander getting electrocuted) managed to make the scenes entertaining.

- This episode takes a lot of liberties with sense and realism. Faith magically positioning herself in front of the campus message board so she could turn and confront Buffy at the perfect moment was a typical example, as was Buffy bursting through her mother’s bedroom window when she could have just entered the house through the front door. They were certainly cool moments, but they don’t stand up to much critical thought.

- I wouldn’t have minded knowing the identity of the person who tipped Buffy off about Faith.

- Xander and Giles’ scene with Spike was funny (especially Spike saying that he’d find Faith and set her on them), but could easily have been cut out with no loss of story or development. In addition, why were Xander and Giles patrolling on their own? Even with a blaster (which they have no experience using), they’re hardly a physical match for Faith (or psychological ones, given her unstable mind).

What I Disliked about “This Year’s Girl”:

- The clothing in this episode is particularly bad. Willow, Xander and Tara have all been dressed in the ugliest, least flattering manner possible.

- When Faith tore off her drip/connection to the heart monitor, shouldn’t some kind of alarm gone off (or at least prompted an immediate doctor’s visit)? With the current set-up, she could flat-line and die without anyone knowing.

- As always, the Riley/Initiative stuff leaves me cold. Marc Blucas can’t sell cheesy macho lines like “stand down before I put you down”, and Forrest seems to be a Dawn prototype in his consistent attempts to be as irritating and one-dimensional as possible.

- When Buffy et al find the eviscerated demon corpse, you can see the boom mike operator standing on the right hand side of the screen. This should have been caught in editing.

- There are a number of questions regarding Faith’s movements. Firstly, why is Giles’ place her initial port of call, when going to the Summers house would be more logical when it comes to tracking Buffy? Plus, how does she know where Giles lives – it’s not like she’s ever been to his place before. Then, there’s the issue with the Mayor’s assistant demon. Had he been following her through the town – after all, he pops up rather abruptly in that alleyway. Finally, we have Faith’s eventual attack on Joyce. Was her plan to switch bodies with Buffy all along? Leaving the katra in the living room would indicate so, but that’s not the smartest thing to do if the device is your last option for ‘survival’.

- The mechanics of the Watcher’s team reveal are silly. Apparently, the elite squad of Council assassins decided it would be a good idea to break into Giles’ apartment, cut his electrical wires, then sit in the dark until he came back, so that they could flick the lamp on and make the most dramatic entrance possible.

Do I like this episode more or less than the last time I watched it?

A tad less (since I was more aware of the large number of well-timed coincidences the plot requires), but I still enjoyed this episode and appreciated the shot of adrenaline it delivered to S4 after the gruesome twosome of “The I In Team” and “Goodbye, Iowa”. It’s a big thrill to see Eliza Dushku and Faith again, and although everything that happens here is best classified as set-up for “Who Are You?”, it’s excellent set-up in ensuring that you wouldn’t miss the story’s climax. Although I’ll say that this score isn’t as high as the other eps in its category, I’m happy to give “This Year’s Girl” a seven out of ten, and I’m looking forward to seeing its conclusion again.