This Year's Girl

... that being Faith, who has been in a coma since last May after her almost-fight-to-the-death with Buffy. In this episode, Faith awakens from her coma, not in the best of moods. She beats up someone, steals their clothes, and sets out to get revenge - for lots of things. First off, since there aren't tributes to the Mayor in demon form everywhere, she can pretty much tell that he must be dead.

A demon gives her a "gift" from the mayor. She kills the demon and takes the box. There's a video inside and she plays the tape. It's the mayor, and his logic is kind of impressive. When he realized he failed to give Faith what she "deserved," and Buffy got the loving family, the mayor thought of a way to reverse that, get Faith the loving family, and condemn Buffy to the life she had created for Faith. How did he do that? Watch and find out.

It was good to see the mayor once again. He's just so cheery and fatherly that I pretty much don't even care that he's evil.

Faith wakes up from a long and deep coma having nightmares with Buffy. She goes to Sunnydale looking for revenge. Meanwhile, Riley leaves the facility and meets Buffy. While trying to find Adam, Buffy, Xander and Willow find a demon dissected by him in the woods. Faith arrests Joyce, and Buffy fights with Faith to save her mother. In the end, Faith uses a charm in her hand and they switch bodies.

I like the character Faith a lot, but this episode is very weak and limited to the nightmares of Faith. The stunts make a good job in the battle between the strong slayers, destroying Joyce's house. The sequel seems to be interesting. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "A Garota Deste Ano" ("This Year's Girl")

As the Scoobies continue to look for the cyborg guy, Faith recovers from her coma. Of course, the only thing on her mind is revenge. She sets out to kill Buffy. But before she sets out she observes a video where the Mayor, who is now dead, leaves her some sort of device. Faye is on her way and heads for Buffy's house. She is as evil and arrogant as before. It ends with a major battle and a surprise. Spike has regressed (or become what he is again) and would like to see all the kids and Giles dead. There is also a force of some kind that heads for the hospital where Faith was held. A nurse has notified them. I'm looking forward to the next episode. Which continues the story.

While Buffy and her friends are worrying about how they might deal with Adam and how to get Riley out of The Initiative a threat emerges from an unexpected direction... Faith wakes from her coma. Eight months have passed since Buffy put Faith into a coma and she is now out for revenge. Once awake she leaves hospital and receives a package from her late mentor, Mayor Wilkins. It contains a message and a device which appears to be some sort of weapon.

This episode is very much setting things up for future events but that doesn't mean it lacks action. We get a couple of impressive fights between Buffy and Faith as well as Faith dispatching a demon. Faith's reintroduction to the show is handled well; we see how during her coma she is haunted by dreams of being stabbed by Buffy before waking and showing that her time in a coma hasn't noticeably weakened her. As the episode approached its end I feared we might get a rushed conclusion... instead we get a very interesting 'to be continued', which I won't describe to avoid spoilers. As one would expect there is some humour; Spike's reaction to learning about Faith is priceless as is the gang's total lack of reaction to Xander getting shocked by an Initiative weapon he is trying to fix. The cast are on fine form; Eliza Dushku's return as Faith obviously being the most welcome. Overall a great episode which left me keen to learn what happens next.

Faith is the worst part of the show! Oh no I'm an EMO murderer but that's ok cause I had a rough childhood. Almost ruined the show.