From:  "macha" <macha@ntl.sympatico.ca>  [ Save address ]
 To:  <Spoiler_Virgins@yahoogroups.com>, <Spikes_Soul@yahoogroups.com>,
         <Bloody_Awful@yahoogroups.com>, <BA_Gutter@yahoogroups.com>,
         <JossBtVS@yahoogroups.com>
 Subject:  [BA_Gutter] snake, in the garden too?: faith in the crucible
 Date:  Fri, 18 Apr 2003 13:24:37 -0400
 

 snake, in the garden too?: faith in the crucible


 [Unspoiled exegesis and eschatology, on Faith and faith in BtVS 7.18 Dirty
 Girls, written by Drew Goddard, directed by Michael Gershman. Episode #140 of
 BtVS, and #224 in the buffyverse. Just four to go, just four to know. My own
 transcription of this ep, mostly Buffy dataBase for other eps. I have read no
 commentary yet. There are two parts to my study of this episode, something i've
 never tried before: Part 1, an underview, centred around Caleb and called "snake
 in the garden: words, gods, eyes", is already posted, and this is Part 2, an
 overview, centred around Faith. I've done some porting of bits from the 'Caleb'
 to the 'Faith', but that's in the interest of making completely different
 points, so please bear with me if something looks familiar. The last word of
 this piece is 'girls', and if you don't see it you haven't got the whole thing,
 probably because your provider has an arbitrary limit, but if you go to the
 website for your list you will find this message intact. Full disclosure: just
 like Joss Whedon, I have no religion.]


 Buffy (as Faith): You can't win this.
 Faith (as Buffy): (enraged, with tears in her eyes) SHUT UP! Do you think I'm
 afraid of you!? (screaming at Buffy in her own body) You're nothing! Disgusting!
 Murderous bitch! You're nothing! You're disgusting!
 (BtVS 4.16 Who Are You?, written by Joss Whedon)

 Angel: I know what you want. (she punches him, he drops her to the ground) And
 I'm not going to do it! I'm not going to make it easy for you.
 Faith: (flailing, screaming) I'M EVIL! I'M BAD! I'M EVIL! DO YOU HEAR ME?! I'M
 BAD! ANGEL, I'M BAD!! (screaming/sobbing) I'M BAD! YOU HEAR ME?! (beating at his
 chest) I'M BAD! I'M BAD! I'm bad! Please! (sobbing) Angel, please, just do it!
 Angel . . . just do it! Please, just do it! (sobbing, loosing steam) Just kill
 me. Just kill me.(Angel grabs her arms and she struggles. He pulls her close and
 wraps his arms around her keeping her still. Faith is sobbing loudly. She
 collapses to her knees and Angel falls with her as she cries into his chest.)
 Angel: (soothingly) Shhh. It's okay. I'm right here. Shhh.
 (Ats 1.18 Five by Five, written by Jim Kouf)

 So here we are at last then. Come to the ending, back to the beginning. And
 darkness *was* upon the face of the deep, before the world was made. Is it
 there, then, or here in the now: that the girls still run, and the Bringers
 follow? So into the long dark of the One Story, the preacher Caleb comes down
 like a wolf on the fold, rough beast, with his serial killer's truck and his
 subtle words of power, slouching towards Sunnydale. And the Red Witch, and the
 Dark Slayer, follow all unknowing here behind him.

 Faith: For real now, I'm scared. Scared of what I am, what I'm turning into.
 Cold-blooded straight-up killer. Like you.
 Angel: Not like me. I didn't have a choice. But you do.
 (Faith & Angel, BtVS 3.17 Enemies, written by Douglas Petrie)

 Of all the characters in this work of art, there are four who fight for Light
 but know the Dark (intimately, indelibly): Willow and Faith, Angel and Spike.
 Both women ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and their eyes
 were opened, and they lived for awhile as gods inside that red knowledge. Both
 men, of course, were dragons in the garden: symbols of power, immortal, and
 quite Other. They all of them put their demons away, as much as they could, and
 chose to live as humankind, as flies to wanton boys, in light. Now they are
 headed for Sunnydale, the City of Sun and the Women of Sumer, bound for the
 garden, gathering for the Last Battle against the Long Dark.  They choose to
 come, to help, to stand, to guard, beside the Chosen One, to lend her power they
 own, on the side of light.

 But all power is a two-edged sword, and they know that too. The women drive in
 now just behind that truck of Caleb's, into the eclipse that is his coming,
 Caleb the Baptist, propheteering, spreading the word of Messiah or gods to come,
 the truth of swords they know themselves. And when he tells them truths they
 know, about the darkness where they live alone, what will they choose to follow
 then, these Darkside Champions of Light?

 Angel (to Faith:) Where are you gonna go? Back out in that darkness? I once told
 you that you didn't have to go out in that darkness. Remember? That it was your
 choice. Well, you chose. - You thought that you could just touch it. That you'd
 be okay. - 5x5, right, Faith? - But it swallowed you whole. - So tell me -- how
 did you like it?
 (AtS 1.19 Sanctuary, written by Tim Minear and Joss Whedon)

 Eve was the mother of the race of men, but are any of these Dark Warriors
 Reclaimed descended from that lineage, or is it Lilith, mother of the race of
 demons, from whom their line (and Buffy's too) comes down? Willow with her
 spells out of the Key of Solomon, necromancer, floater of pencils, mistress of
 unskinning, red in a land of light. And Faith, the cuckoo bird, the Slayer Dark,
 who tends to build her house inside of Buffy's garden, in the DreamTime loving
 but in the RealTime lost so long and damaged, and her link to Buffy, Slayer in
 light, broken by the weight of all their history together.

 Buffy: I gave you every chance! I tried so hard to help you, and you spat on me.
 My life was just something for you to play with. Angel - Riley - anything that
 you could take from me - you took. I've lost battles before - but nobody else
 has -ever- made me a victim.
 Faith: And you can't stand that. You're all about control. You have no idea what
 it's like on the other side! Where nothing's in control, nothing makes sense!
 There is just pain and hate and nothing you do means anything. You can't even..
 Buffy: Shut up!
 Faith: Just tell me how to make it better.
 (Ats 1.19 Sanctuary, written by Tim Minear and Joss Whedon)

 So what are we watching, as we see the Red Witch and the Dark Slayer now come
 down that highway from the City of Angels to the City of Sun? How deep do their
 victories over the dark inside really run this time, when it will surely matter?
 How much of the power they own can they access without themselves falling back
 into the dark? Inanna's garden, in the story, was invaded by a dragon, and a
 Zu-bird, and the dark maid Lilith had built her house in the middle. "A serpent
 who could not be charmed made its nest in the roots of the tree."

 And at the beginnings of literature then, in the epic of Gilgamesh four thousand
 years back, it is the hero who slays the dragon for the goddess, in order to
 keep her garden pure. And purity, now there's a word that interests Caleb. None
 of the four, after all, are purer than the yellow driven snow. And following,
 now there's another word he likes to wield. None of the four born followers, and
 that's the truth, but still the imagery of it is: that the Witch and the Second
 Slayer follow Caleb into Sunnydale, and stop the car in the dark to receive his
 message written on the innocent, in Caleb's eye just one more Dirty Girl.

 Okay, are you ready? Now it's time to start. Into the finish. Into the fire.

 what binds us here
 what binds us all
 but chains

 so, naturally, we come to Revelations, Caleb's forkedTongue version coming
 clean, to give us some infernal guide as we work our way through the Valley of
 Death with which every Slayer born comes Gifted. And in Revelations 17 an angel
 (yep) guides us to the whore, who sits as a city (the Rastafarian Baby-lon) on
 the peoples of the world, "with whom the kings of the earth have committed
 fornication", being punished, sitting on a beast, holding a golden cup "full of
 abominations and filthiness of her fornication". And on her forehead *was* a
 name written "Mystery, Babylon the Great, The Mother of Harlots and Abominations
 of the Earth", and she is "drunken with the blood of the saints". And there is
 the Lamb, really another aspect of the Whore and both together the Goddess of
 ... the Garden, telling truth now as a story in the night. Shall we typecast
 them separately as Faith and Buffy? I think we shouldn't, because they are the
 same, the two in one, The Chosen Two, and the Lamb the Maiden, and the Whore the
 Mother, and the Slayer the Crone, they all three sit in them both, those sharers
 of dreams who both hold power, and wait for resolution.

 Faith (as Buffy): Yeah. I got some time to kill. I'll go see the gang. All my
 friends. (snatches up a lipstick) You don't mind if I steal this, right?
 Joyce: Is that the Harlot?
 Faith (as Buffy): Yeah.
 Joyce: That's the same one Faith picked.
 Faith (as Buffy): (tossing her the lipstick) Burn it.
 (BtVS 4.16 Who Are You?, written by Joss Whedon)

 And in the story the angel tells, two sets of kings are promised, and in the
 first set one is king "and the other is not yet come". It is the tanist and the
 True King, rising. From dragons into kings, a nice progression for two vampire
 Masters linked to the Chosen now by blood and by desire. In the second set of
 petty kings we find the Men, who ally with the Beast, and make war with the
 Lamb, and those who stand with the Lamb are called "chosen, and faithful". And
 the chosen will be all those little girls who live to see that day in
 armageddon. And the faithful will include we hope both the Witch and the Boy who
 Sees.

 Spike (to Buffy dressed as a Lady): Look at you. Shaking. Terrified. Alone. Lost
 little lamb. I love it. (closes in for the kill)
 Angel: Buffy!
 Willow: (to Xander) Now that guy you *can* shoot.
 (at Ethan's, Giles smashes the statue, breaking the spell)
 Xander: What the...
 Kid: I'm scared! I want my mommy!
 Buffy: (smiling at Spike) Hi, honey. I'm home. (attacks him) You know what? It's
 good to be me.
 (BtVS 2.06 Halloween, written by Carl Ellsworth)

 So here they come at last from the beginning of the world to, now, the end, and
 in the end, just like in Revelations, we see new beginnings also. There, that
 wasn't so hard, was it? Though I've left out the middle, of course, which is
 Armageddon. <g>

 Here's the bad thing: I've got 25 pages of transcription, and I'm still on page
 2, and its my second run at exegesis on this ep. Do you know, little-known fact
 here, there are people still out there claiming that this show is shallow? If it
 gets any denser, I swear by the gods I'll need a shovel. Okay, going back in,
 wish me well. Shouldn't I be holding string?

 Caleb (to Shannon): Now, now, now. There's no blame here. You were born dirty,
 born without a soul, birthed with that gaping maw that wants to open up, suck
 out a man's marrow. Makes me puke to think too hard on it.
 (She tries to get out. There's no handle on the inside of the passenger door. In
 fact there's blood around where the handle should be.)
 Caleb: Yeah, that there door is problematical.

 It is, indeed. More words of truth. Today I'm gonna open it, air out the room.
 It's hard to come to any discussion of Faith without coming to her sexuality,
 and it's too important to the imagery and to her Self to leave it out.
 Especially because Faith herself in a dark moment might well don paint as the
 Whore, her version of Spike's costume, and go out to exercise that right of
 power, to take her pleasures always where and when she pleases, and to call
 herself a dirty girl.

 And Faith has bound up sex and power together, just as Caleb did. And sometimes
 uses men, like a Siren calling, spending her pheromones, usually in the wake of
 slaughter, to call men to her body, as Xander once had cause to know. And
 sometimes plays Fata Morgana, using their sex to draw them to their doom. It is
 a weapon in her arsenal, a warrior born, bearing scars and fighting battles she
 never chooses to let anyone in to see.

 And she knows unclean, scrubbing the blood away after she killed the deputy
 mayor, kicking down Wesley's shower. "Born dirty", Caleb says, "born without a
 soul, birthed with that gaping maw that wants to open up, suck out a man's
 marrow." It might be kinder if he was exactly right. Make no mistake, power is
 at issue in it, acts of mutual unkindness even, establishments of pecking
 orders. Faith is a girl who knows all that and uses it against the world,
 against herself, as often as she uses it to get herself off "hungry and horny".
 For Faith has always lived in a world where you are either predator or you are
 prey. And she has always been alone, except inside those shared dreams with
 Buffy, where she is safe and free to love.

 Faith: Oh god. B - how am I ever going to make things right with her?
 Angel: Faith, this isn't about Buffy.
 Faith: All my life there was only one person that tried to be my friend, - went
 out of her way when I had no right or reason to expect her to - and I screwed
 her. Not to mention her boyfriend, only - him literally.
 (AtS 1.19 Sanctuary, written by Tim Minear and Joss Whedon)

 But this time round Faith's having a pretty good night. Willow isn't spitting on
 her, always a plus with those you've threatened to kill too often in the
 past.Things are going so well, in the hospital, where she once spent a year in a
 coma and woke to find the whole world changed, she even decides to trust enough
 to share a little anger and some pain:

 F: Something's killing girls all over the world, trying to end the Slayer line.
 Thing like that, figure I might get a heads-up.
 W (shocked:) Faith.
 F: Guess it doesn't really matter, long as you got the true Slayer intact.

 Bit shaky on the dismount, but a big deal for Faith to admit to feelings. "The
 true Slayer", hard not to wince at that one. She's still conflicted about Buffy,
 she who is loved, and honoured, with family and friends, and Faith left outside
 the window looking in, second-best, unloved, alone, and disregarded. Spike's
 dilemma in 6.07 Once More, With Feeling: first I'll kill her, then I'll save
 her/first I'll save her, then i'll kill her. But Willow actually rises to an
 apology for giving no heads-up on the Slayer death squads:

 W: You were in prison. We figured you were safe there.
 F: Yeah, that's prison. Safe as a kitten.
 W: Sorry. I don't know much about the big house. Was it, I mean, did something
 happen in there?
 F: Someone came at me with a nasty looking knife. Didn't know why. Until now.
 W: Oh, Faith, we didn't...
 F: Forget it. It's cool. I get by. (gesturing to ICU window:) What are we going
 to do about her?

 Willow should probably keep in mind that she could have cause to know as much
 about the Big House as Faith does. Still, Willow displays no hostility. She
 doesn't even get defensive in her usual Willowy way. Looks like they've both
 grown up in the time intervening. It's all connected. Willow even tries to help
 a bit with the meeting-Buffy problem. Faith in turn lets Willow lead. It's a
 good start.

 The grey world of the Angelverse, though, is demonstrably now way more black and
 white than the full color Sunnydale night, and this makes it a way more
 confusing landscape for Faith in particular to enter, in terms of figuring out
 alignments. It's at least partly because Faith is way more action-oriented than
 Buffy, and this highlights the fact that Buffy is way more cerebral (and how
 amusing is that), very cautious these days about getting the lay of the land
 before she decides who to stake. Giles in the cemetery scene in Lies My Parents
 Told Me takes this as a weakness. Buffy's instincts have always been better than
 Faith's, but Faith's reflexes seem faster, and that could be a bad combination
 (why the deputy mayor got killed, for instance).

 There's a big collision of destinies going on, with alliances changing, and
 Faith's been out of the loop. How to tell good from evil in a world that lacks
 all access to the Garden. A hilarious conversation ensues between Spike and
 Faith in the cemetery, as Faith tries to figure which end is up:

 Spike (trying to get her to stop punching): Bloody hell. What're you doing? I'm
 on your side.
 Faith: Yeah. Maybe you haven't heard. I've reformed.
 Spike: So have I. (Fight continues, but it's one-sided.) I reformed way before
 you did. Stop. Hitting. Me. We're on the same side.
 Faith: Please, you think I'm stupid?
 Spike: Well, yeah.
 Faith: You were attacking that girl. (Knocks him down again.)

 Shouldn't Willow have briefed her on the Spike thing in the car? Of course it's
 true she's missed the murder attempt by Robin and Giles. Still, even so, if only
 as friend-to-Buffy? The interesting thing to me though, is the evident pride
 Spike takes in fighting as a good guy. Never quite seen that before, though he's
 always proud of fighting in itself of course. And the huge clue to how he dates
 it: "I reformed way before you did." Well, let's see, Faith turned herself in
 and went to prison just before 4.20 The Yoko Factor: but Spike actually
 slithered across that line at last by my count sometime after his alliance with
 Adam up to and including 4.21 Primeval, and the last time he ever sets out to
 kill Buffy is 5.07 Fool for Love, so where exactly is he getting his "way
 before"? One can only assume that he dates it back to shortly after the
 insertion of the chip in Hostile 17. But he considers that something that was
 done to him, not something he chose. Unless he's picking an even earlier date,
 like his alliance with Buffy in 2.22 Becoming 2. I really wish Faith had
 challenged him on that point. Cause it's an important point: the date at which
 Spike really fell to the Slayer. Okay, end of aside, and the scene continues:

 (Buffy appears, and knocks Faith down.)
 Buffy (casual smartass tone:) Sorry, Faith, I didn't realize that was you.
 Faith (getting up:) S'all right, B. Luckily, you still punch like you used to.
 (Buffy gives her a supercilious look.)

 Dark Slayer takes that round.

 Buffy (turning to Spike:) You okay?
 Spike: Yeah. Terrific.
 Faith: You're protecting vampires? What, you're the bad Slayer now? (Beat.
 Finding the good:) Am I the good Slayer now?

 And there they are. The Chosen Two. Two separated halves of a single whole, yin
 and yang spooning, two sets of power, one set of dreams. Are they supposed to be
 two, or one? They could not integrate, but both at this point in time, in this
 cemetery at night, stand together in the light. Can they both hold these
 positions, or are they born to be matter/antimatter, doomed never to inhabit the
 same universe at the same time?

 Easy to think what Buffy can give Faith, but what can Faith give Buffy this time
 round? What can they learn to share beyond their scars, these two who know one
 another so badly and so well. Can they integrate even yet? Into one whole, or
 into wholeness in themselves?

 Faith is a symbol, broken, mending. Faith is a sign, that change is possible,
 that strength endures, and is better than power to hold. Faith is a mirror, into
 Buffy, into Spike.
 Alignments. The Good Guys, negotiating space with one another. Can all of them
 find their bearings now in time? Buffy's clear about Spike: "He fights on my
 side. Which is more than I can say about some of us." Faith has an idea:
 "(disgusted:) You should make 'em wear signs." Spike's more than willing to
 throw some light on his Issues: "(indignantly:) Angel's dull as a table lamp.
 And we have very different coloring." And they all need to be clear with one
 another, the Chosen Two and the whiteVampire. Because, with the redWitch, these
 are the four main players now on this side of the game.

 Faith (holding stake:) Okay. Catching up. Anything else I gotta know?
 Buffy (edgy smile:) Nice to have you back.

 Tsk. That girl. She's leaving stuff out again. Big whopping stuff. Hey, she
 won't admit to herself, or to him, that vampire's taken, but it's a hell of an
 omission with Faith In the House.

 They enter the Revello Drive house together. But do they all enter the same
 house? It's nicely framed:

 Faith: Whoa. Memory lane. Same old house.
 Buffy: Yeah, well, every piece of furniture's been destroyed and replaced since
 you left, so actually, new house.

 You can't go home again. The rules have changed. The world has changed. You
 can't step twice into the same river. And that's made abundantly clear:

 Buffy (evenly:) We have a new houseguest.
 Faith (smiling widely at Dawn and Giles:) Hey. Got a spare bed for a wanted
 fugitive?
 Giles (chilly:) Hello, Faith.
 Faith (to Buffy:) Huh. Guess wanted wasn't really accurate. (Buffy and Faith
 exchange wry looks.)
 Dawn: Does she have to stay here? Because there's some nice hotels that welcome
 Tried to Kill your Sister types.
 Faith (grinning, to Buffy:) Check it out. Brat's all woman-sized.

 Buffy has an exchange with Dawn and Giles. Buffy is obviously still extremely
 angry at Giles. They leave, and Spike and Faith are left standing at the bottom
 of the stairs.
 Spike chooses to be kind, tell her it wasn't her fault:

 Spike: Not all that tension was about you. Giles was part of a plan to kill me.
 For Buffy's own good.
 Faith: Well. That makes me feel better about me. Worse about Giles. Kinda shaky
 about you.

 Admirably bluntly stated. Gotta love her locutions. Think the girl may be in
 touch with her feelings at last. Never quite seen such an off-vibe at Revello
 Drive. It's like Buffy and Spike and Faith are the outsiders. Trust isn't
 exactly rampant. Undercurrents of not just discomfort, but possible pockets of
 seething hatred. Guardianship, shattered. Way too much second-guessing going on.
 These are the kind of troops that melt away in the night.

 Now check out Andrew in the kitchen, shorted, it seems, on the fruit of the tree
 of knowledge, still trying to figure out how to tell good from evil:

 Andrew voiceover to clipShow: Faith. Her name alone invokes awe. Faith: a set of
 principles or beliefs upon which you're willing to devote your life. The Dark
 Slayer, a lethal combination of beauty, power, and death. For years and years,
 or to be more accurate, months, Faith fought on the side of good, terrorizing
 the evil community. But like so many tragic heroes, Faith was seduced by the
 lure of the dark side. She wrapped evil around her like a large evil Mexican
 sarape. She became a cold-blooded killer.

 It's pathetic, as usual. He doesn't even have the right clips attached to each
 remark. He doesn't appear to recognize any personal lesson in Faith's trip to
 the dark side to get a few things. His fascination with Faith is probably
 reflective of his usual virgin's equation between sex and power, and that
 suggests that he hasn't learned a thing:

 (cont:) Nobody was immune to her trail of destruction, not friends, not family,
 not even the most pacifist and logical of races.

 Come again? Suddenly Faith is fighting a Star Trek Vulcan. At the climatic
 moment instead of Faith with her knife to the Vulcan, it's Andrew with a wooden
 spoon to Rona, in front of the kitchen sink. Talk about your unreliable
 narrators. All the Potentials are crowded around. It's too much for Amanda. She
 calls him on the Vulcan. Andrew tries to patronize her (he is the only male in
 the room, after all) but she pins him down: he thought the vulcanologist Faith
 killed was a person who studied Vulcans rather than volcanoes. He concedes
 ungraciously. What's in a word, after all? But words have power, the power to
 marginalize Faith and undercut Buffy's authority within the group, for example.

 Molly: I thought you weren't supposed to be doing this any more. Making up
 stories?
 Andrew: I'm not. This is true. Except for that possible word misunderstanding.
 There are things you need to know about. Faith has a history not to be taken
 lightly. (Out the window behind Andrew we see Faith training alone.) She's a
 killer. Never forget that. You must stay on guard around Faith at all times. Our
 very lives may depend on it.
 Chao-Ahn (subtitled): There is a girl in the backyard doing gymnastics. (Andrew
 nods, very importantly.)

 What is the lesson? Chao-Ahn is the only one who has it right. Andrew, after
 all, is a killer too. And Andrew wishes to be treated as someone who can change.
 Still he stands there warning them all that Faith stands for "a set of
 principles or beliefs upon which you're willing to devote your life", but
 notwithstanding he's recommending, on the basis of faulty evidence, that she
 can't be trusted. And if they go into battle with her in that frame of mind, can
 Faith trust them? But Andrew and all the rest of them, they've never been in
 battle. It's just the stuff of stories. It's not real.

 And Faith, she's real. Faith comes clumping down the stairs to the dark
 basement, away from the laughter outside, and sits at the bottom of the stairs
 to light a cigarette. Thinking herself alone, her face has forgotten to do
 anything vibrant and she looks exhausted, haunted. But she isn't alone. There's
 Spike on the cot, sitting up, evidently naked under the sheet.

 S: You craving a moment alone in the dank? Or can I bum one?
 F: Well, I guess you can smoke all you want. Big C not really an issue.
 S: Teeth get yellow, after an eternity. Gotta watch that.
 F: Huh. (Hands hers over. Sits opposite, goes to light another, sees the chains
 behind him.)
 S: Right. It's not what it looks like.
 F: Hey, to each his own, man. This one guy I ran with, he liked me to dress up
 like a schoolgirl and take this frigging bullwhip, and I'd be like -
 S (interrupts:) Been a bit dangerous, for a while.
 F: This before the soul or after?
 S: After. But I got over it. Case you're feeling a bit dusthappy again after
 your long incarceration.
 F: Not if you're all repenty. Takes the fun out of it. (They half-grin at one
 another. Comfortable.)

 Gotta tell you I like this conversation almost too much to stop and comment on
 it. Chemistry, whew. In any possible direction they cared to take it. Comrades.
 Former baddies. Redemption candidates. Vampire sponsors. More.

 F (crash upstairs:) No more Starbucks for the wannabes, man. They've been
 spazzing for like hours.
 S: Yeah. Does get a bit much up there.
 F: They're good girls. Just green is all.
 S: So why aren't you up there, imparting?

 Good question. The answer being, of course, that nobody's asked her. And
 Andrew's speech has probably ruled out volunteers. She's surprisingly tactful
 about it, though.

 F: That's Buffy's thing. Anyway, I just spent a good stretch of time locked away
 with a mess of female types. Kinda had my fill.
 S: Hmm. But you waited till Angel needed your help to bust your way out of jail.
 F: Three squares, nice weight room, movie every third sunday, coulda been worse.
 S: What movie?
 F: Last one was Glitter. (off Spike's raised eyebrow:) I guess it couldn'ta been
 worse.
 S: You had the power to walk away, anytime. Nothing stopping you.
 F: I stopped me. I got dangerous for awhile.
 S (long assessing look:) You over it?
 F: More or less. I pull for the good guys now.

 Still good at going for the jugular, Spike is. A student of human nature in a
 predator's world. Don't they have everything in common, those two? "More or
 less". Okay, so not complacent. But not real confident yet about the upshot
 either.

 S: What's the less?
 F: Usual stuff.
 S: Such as?
 F: I was thinking about looking up the guy with the bullwhip.
 S: You could do better. Schoolgirl thing's old hat.
 F: It's all old hat, man. Every guy's got some wack fantasy. Scratch the surface
 of any granola-type dude, it's all naughty nurses and horny cheerleaders. I
 figure if you can't beat 'em -
 S: Join 'em.
 F: Just don't forget who's on top.
 S: That, I suspect, would be you.
 F: You got that right. (Faith moves from crosslegged in front of him, to sitting
 beside him on the cot.)

 Oopsie, I think maybe she took the "You could do better" as an invitation. Not
 that she's, like, humping his leg or anything, but oh, aren't they both
 dangerous, even with (as here) the best of intentions. Also, getting a flash on
 Harmony, playing the role of the Slayer coming to get Spike (BtVS 5.06 Family,
 written by Joss Whedon). Guess even vampires have their granola moments. And
 that's also the exchange in which Harmony calls Spike her little lamb.

 F: I've met you before, you know.
 S: Yeah, you made a great impression on my chin.
 F: Not in the graveyard. Before that. I was kinda wearing a different body.
 S: Pity.
 F: You seemed okay with it.
 S (realizes:) The body shop. With Buffy. (Shakes his head.)
 F: She fill you in on that whole deal?
 S: She told me it went down. Failed to mention who was driving the skin around.

 Imagine. Buffy talking to him. Talking fourth-season shop, no less. I'm thinking
 how very much we didn't see, in the sixth season.

 F: I may have said a few things.
 S: Like you could drive me at a gallop till my knees buckled, squeeze me till I
 popped like warm champagne. It's not the kind of thing a man forgets.
 F:Shoulda known it wasn't Blondie behind the wheel. She'd never throw down like
 that.
 S: Oh, you have been away.
 F: Don't even tell me little miss TightlyWound's been getting her naughty on!
 (She touches his arm, sharing the joke of it.)
 S: Not of late.
 F: Wow. Everybody's just full of surprises.

 Buffy enters to find them both relaxed and goodmoody on the cot. Spike's still
 dressed only in his sheet. It's a small cot. Faith says "Hey, B", all innocent
 in truth. Nobody's told her a thing. Cause Buffy's pretending it's over. And
 Spike thinks he knows it's over, and he's supposed to move along.

 B (unsmiling, arms folded:) Well, it's nice to see you two getting along so
 well. (They both look kinda abashed, though not guilty, on the strength of her
 look.)
 F: Yeah. You just know all the cool vampires.
 B: Yeah. (decidedly uncomfortable in her vicinity)
 S: Say, aren't you usually at work about now?
 B: I kinda decided to cut back on my hours.
 Dawn (from top of stairs:) Buffy. Is that you?
 B: (to Dawn:) Down here. (to Spike and Faith:) Figured I'd be better off
 focussing on what's going on around here.

 But Shannon's awake in ICU and she goes off to the hospital. She probably came
 downstairs to talk to Spike about being fired. But she wouldn't do that with
 Faith there, and it leads her into a less-than-honest moment with him. She's
 still uneasy with Faith on any level. Faith's taken on every guy that ever got
 within six feet of Buffy, after all - except for Parker, but you gotta give her
 a pass for that one, because of the coma. So who's gonna be more surprised, if
 Buffy has to spit it out that the vamp is taken, Faith or Spike?

 But Faith backs Buffy up in the warroom ("point me where you want me") and on
 the reconnaissance trip. She's trying to be a good Second, not much sign of all
 her issues anywhere:

 B: I am through waiting around for people to attack us.
 F: Hey, I'm with you. Drop me in the hornet's nest, what the hell.
 F: You've got a rough sitch here. Trying to turn a bunch of little girls into an
 army.
 B: They're potential slayers. Just like we were.
 F: Right. Maybe they'll do as good as us.

 Two points to the second Slayer, and the first has yet to score. Not a
 competition, though, and that's a good.

 B: They're getting better.
 F: I'll work with them. Some of them seem real eager.

 Wow. A real concrete offer to help in an area Buffy really needs some. Every
 time I get to look at them making it work, that Chosen Two thing, I want to cry
 for both of them and all those wasted lonely years. For the Slayer is always
 alone. To have each other should have been a gift, for both of them. Instead it
 broke. Now all their scars still show:

 B: Why did you come back?
 F: Willow said you needed me. Didn't give it a whole lot of thought. Do you - am
 I getting you want me to be not here?
 B: No. That's not what I meant. I'm glad that you're here. It's good. Thank you.

 Not clear to me what else Buffy could have meant. And she remains wary. But wow,
 that "thank you" is a bloody miracle, a deed of gift, and Faith is already good
 at laying off the enormity of it she understands with her wicked deadpan:

 F: No problem. You know me. All about the good deeds.
 B: Willow says you helped out Angel.
 F: Yeah. He says hi.
 B: Really.
 F: Sure.

 You know, there's real affection in the way both Willow and Faith cover for
 Angel's well-known angst about reaching out. Willow did it in Orpheus (she even
 gave him a hug!), and now Faith (who explicitly spared him the hug) does it
 here, doing the needful, both of them making things a little bit easier for both
 Angel and Buffy in this afterlife they cannot share.

 B: How is he?
 F: Better. Had to do this whole magical mind-walk with him.
 B: You were in Angel's mind?

 They find their hornet's nest, and return for the cavalry. Too bad. How long has
 it been since Buffy talked about Angel at all, to anyone? I'm thinking at least
 three years, and more likely four. And considering the situation the last time
 she saw Faith, in Sanctuary, I think the trust between them here is
 extraordinary. And hasn't Buffy wanted, since always, to know what on earth goes
 on in Angel's mind? Think Earshot. I find this scene amazingly intimate between
 them. Buffy never opens up anymore. But can you ever really will away a
 connection so powerful it includes the sharing of dreams?

 By the time they get back to the house, Xander's into his Buffy speech, and they
 both stop to listen. And Faith spans that awkward moment when it's done by
 laying it off with a smart remark at least three-quarters compliment, and Buffy
 actually responds to this with a zinger of her own:

 F (2B:) Damn. I never knew you were that cool.
 B (2F:) Well, you always were a little slow.
 F (2B:) I get that now.

 One point each Slayer that time. They are mutually engaged in making it a little
 easier for one another to live in the world. They are being gratuitously kind.
 It's a lovely thing to see at this End of Days, after so much pain.

 So off they go to battle, Faith in charge of the second wave, guarding the
 perimeter while Spike takes Buffy's back. And Faith meets up with Caleb, and he
 knows her too:

 Caleb: Well, you're the other one, aren't you? The Cain to her Abel. No offence
 meant to Cain, of course.

 Let me tell that story. Abel had a sheepfold, and Cain tilled the ground. And
 they made offerings to the Lord, for the harvest. And Abel sacrificed the
 "firstlings of his flock", the lambs, and his offering was accepted. But Cain
 brought the fruit of the ground, and that offering was refused. And the Lord
 told him that "if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door." And then, in the
 field, the brothers talked, and Cain killed Abel. And God asked him where Abel
 was, and he replied "Am I my brother's keeper?". And God said to him, "the voice
 of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground." And as punishment, God
 decreed that "when thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto
 thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth." And
 the Lord set a mark upon him, "lest any finding him should kill him".

 So, exegesis rising, here we are, come at last in our reading of the text to
 harvest. And the sacrifice of lambs deemed in the biblical acceptable. And the
 sacrifice of crops, not enough. And the issue, clearly, one of blood: because
 it's always about the blood. So herein blood is what returns to the earth, and
 calls to the God. Blood is what makes the harvest fruitful. So there should be
 no Gardeners here, outside the Garden of Eden. And the gift of crops, of seed,
 is not enough. And so, again, two kings, brothers, and one must kill the other,
 to provide the sacrifice, "the firstlings of his crop, and the fat thereof".
 Because without this sacrifice, there can be no harvest.

 Faith: Never was much for the good book.

 But that's the good book version; Faith's up for another model. Cain was up for
 another model too, refused the sacrificial. These older mystery cults, with the
 Whore presiding, all work to another model. Buffy with her sheepfold on Revello
 Drive, all those little girls, firstlings of the flock, and Buffy herself the
 Lamb, she who has already twice gone down, gone up, to die in order to save the
 world. And Faith, already cursed and knowing murder, wearing the mark of Cain,
 but fighting her nature this time, her sins lying at the door, laid down, and
 come to help, thinking of taking up Gardening with all those little girls.

 Caleb: Oh, it has its moments. Paul has some good stuff, for instance. But
 overall I find it a tad complicated. I like to keep things simple. (He flings
 Faith into the wine barrels.) Good folk, bad folk, plain folk (breaks girl's
 neck), dirty folk (Molly cries "no', looking at the dead girl). Yes.

 Bad girls, dirty girls. The Chosen Two. And here comes Caleb, full of his
 uncomplicated version of the truth of that once Chosen Two. It's always been
 there between the two of them, Faith and Buffy, standing in the field, that need
 to kill the Other they cannot seem to integrate except in dreams. Buffy once set
 out to kill Faith, and almost did. Will it be Faith's turn, now, to try, as
 Caleb suggests? How stable is she now (still leaving herself in prison for a
 reason)? A murder of crows, of Crones. "More or less", she tells Spike. "What's
 the less?" is his question.

 Faith: When are you gonna learn, B? 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: I guess you know a lot about that.
 Faith: What is that supposed to mean?
 Buffy: It's just, look at you, Faith. Less than twenty-four hours ago, you
 killed a man. A-and now it's all zip-a-dee-doo-dah? It's not *your* real face,
 and I know it. Look, I know what you're feeling because I'm feeling it, too.
 Faith: Do you? So fill me in 'cause I'd like to hear this.
 Buffy: Dirty. Like something sick creeped inside you and you can't get it out.
 And you keep hoping that it was just some nightmare, but it wasn't. And we are
 gonna have to figure out...
 Faith: Is there gonna be an intermission in this?
 BtVS 33.15 Consequences, written by Marti Noxon)

 And the answer's waiting behind that door, in a place between them Caleb can
 never enter. Sisters under the skin. They're more than dirty girls, with all
 that power between them, blood on their hands, and roles to play they can't
 deny. Still time has taken them both into their maturity, where they probably
 weren't meant to go, and blood's what it's about, for girls, that power they
 haven't hardly tapped yet to love and give, comes from that very place inside
 themselves that Caleb fears the most, that cup the Whore is holding, "birthed
 with that gaping maw that wants to open up", we're there, their sexuality is
 what he fears and tries to kill, and all these virgin girls, good folk, are only
 prey to him. So what they need to do is open up. Well, isn't it?

 Tector (to Lyle, on Sunnydale): I just don't like it here. Ain't a decent whore
 in the whole city limits.
 (BtVS 2.12 Bad Eggs, written by Marti Noxon)

 Because the power that they all need is there, if they can choose not to deny
 it. They need to move, to jump, that leap of faith, of Faith, to bring them past
 the sacrificial model together and altogether. The demon essence that the Slayer
 needs is there, sprawled on a cot in the basement, not at the Well of the Slayer
 where the Men wait to tell them both their duty locked in a box, but in their
 hearts their womb that cup the Grail. The key that unlocks all the secrets of
 their bodies, there, only for dirty girls by Caleb's lexicon, because that's
 what he fears, just what they are, their sexuality now opens up, and there is
 power in that, he's right there, that's the truth he'll never know. "Never was
 nobody's daddy".

 And the Whore of Babylon is and is not the lamb, for only one of them lies down
 for slaughter, chained, to be sacrificed to save the world again, where the
 Whore claims herself and spreads herself, not cursed to mate but choosing, and
 so gains herself and wins against a multitude of petty kings, against the Men,
 and all the Calebs preying on this world, and so they fear her as they fear
 nothing else. So Faith and Buffy each must play out now the combination of the
 Lamb and the Whore and the Slayer, two in one gone three in one for six.

 Buffy: You know, I just... I woke up, and I looked in the mirror, and I thought,
 hey, what's with all the sin? I need to change. I'm... I'm dirty. I'm, I'm bad
 with the... sex and the envy and that, that loud music us kids listen to
 nowadays. W... Oh, I just suck at undercover. Where's Ken?
 (BtVS 3.01 Anne, written by Joss Whedon)

 Am I my sister's keeper? This is the Mystery. It's gonna come down to trust,
 isn't it, now? They're out of time, and in that house when there is none, we
 move toward that one last moment when it's going to matter.

 Robin (re Willow): And you trust her?
 Buffy: Yes, why wouldn't I trust her?
 Robin: I don't know why any of you should trust each other. You've all been evil
 at some point, right?
 Buffy: No, that's not true. Yeah, Willow had a bad patch, but I've never been.
 Robin: (in a deep voice) Evil is what evil does, and I know what you're doing.
 (stands, looks at Buffy-his eyes are white) You're with that vampire, screwing
 that vampire. You filthy whore! (charges at Buffy)
 (BtVS 7.16 Storyteller, written by Jane Espenson)

 Yeah, time to choose, the redWitch and the Chosen and the Chosen Too. Who are
 they all now, this time, here in the dark? Who can they trust? How can they
 help? What do they each own, in themselves? What do they own together? "In the
 end, we all are who we are." Now just be Willow, and make all those connections,
 and hold on tight. Now just be Buffy, giving her Gift of love. Now just be
 Faith, and learn to trust and share. Three women rising against an unknown power
 that fears the power inside them. Reaching for one another, and for a better
 model. "Just tell me how to make it better." (Faith to Buffy, in Sanctuary) Who
 are they meant to be, inside the crucible, this Mystery, at the pure center of
 all these dirty girls?


 macha
 macha@ntl.sympatico.ca