It is not easy being Buffy Summers. While Sunnydale has never been a normal town, Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) faces a unique challenge as the chosen Slayer, gifted with incredible powers and a terrible responsibility she never asked for. Despite having a strong support system, Buffy struggles with her impulses over seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, always desperate to keep her own internal darkness at bay when giving in would be so much easier.
These contrasting motivations are often conveyed through characters that are foils to our heroine. Take Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), who initially represents the blissful ignorance of adolescence until she matures into a more complex member of the Scooby Gang, or Kendra (Bianca Lawson), a fellow Slayer who is too rigid and by-the-book for her own good.
But the ultimate foil to Buffy is, without question, Faith Lehane (Eliza Dushku), first introduced in the season 3 episode, “Faith, Hope & Trick,” which originally aired 28 years ago today. Faith’s moral complexity makes her compelling — she is a Slayer more inclined to embrace the ruthless aspects of the job, which ultimately leads her down a destructive path. Faith would eventually be cemented as one of Buffy‘s most beloved characters, but back in 1998, her introduction expertly set the stage for a much darker plot line.
Faith makes a splashy introduction
While hanging with the gang at the Bronze one night, Buffy notices a vampire luring a young girl outside. Usually, this would be where Buffy steps in, but in this case, the unnamed woman effortlessly kills the beast herself. Faith then introduces herself as a new Slayer. Everyone takes a liking to Faith, but Buffy isn’t too happy about the prospect of working with her.
During a joint patrol later, Buffy and Faith are attacked by vampires. Instead of helping Buffy when she’s swarmed by multiple vampires, Faith focuses on beating down a single vamp — and seems to take pleasure in it. That’s just the first bad sign of many as it becomes clear that Faith isn’t exactly a team player. She’s got her own secret motivations, along with a tendency to fly off the handle and act without considering the consequences.
Faith is a dark mirror to Buffy
Faith and Buffy eventually track down the ancient vampire Kakistos (Jeremy Roberts), who recently showed up in Sunnydale after killing Faith’s old Watcher. The new Slayer gets her revenge, but Kakistos’s vampire henchman, Mr. Trick (K. Todd Freeman), gets away and will later serve as a key supporter of season 3’s primary villain.
Although this episode has lots of moving parts (Buffy is still hiding the truth about what happened with Angel at the end of season 2), Faith hogs the spotlight, in the best of ways. Her first appearance outside the Bronze gives us the impression that she’s here to fill the void that Kendra leaves behind after her unfortunate death in season 2. This assumption is quickly proven false. Instead, Faith’s assertive nature challenges Buffy’s true status as the Slayer. Buffy’s initial skepticism might read as a metaphor for teenage insecurity, but she’s clearly onto something. Faith might be a gifted Slayer, but she’s also extremely unpredictable. This ultimately leads to her turn into villainy later in season 3, setting up one of the darkest conflicts in Buffy history.
Although Faith’s first episode only gives us a glimpse into her motivations, it instantly establishes her as a foil to Buffy. Faith doesn’t perceive her duties as a moral responsibility. Instead, she relishes the thrill of the hunt, along with the rush of power she enjoys while killing supernatural creatures. We see Buffy wrestle with these emotions throughout the show, but she never comes as close to Faith’s unfettered hedonism. From a psychological standpoint, Faith is Buffy’s Jungian shadow. She is everything Buffy isn’t because she was never anchored by people who cared or stuck around long enough.
If we look at Faith’s role in this episode alone, she serves as an impetus for Buffy to move on. “I’ve been holding on to that for so long, it felt good to get it out,” she tells Giles after recounting that fateful final night with Angel. Unfortunately, fate has other plans for Angel’s return, forcing our beloved Slayer to face yet another trial in a game that has always felt rigged against her.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is streaming on Hulu.