Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 3 gave us one of the show’s darkest Slayer stories – and one of its best character arcs. The series was no stranger to exploring the darker side of Slayerdom, from Buffy Summers’ multiple deaths to her being pulled out of heaven, and even down to her being locked in a mental facility (though that was all a dream… or was it?). For the most part, however, no matter what happened, Buffy was the hero, the person who did what was right, even if it meant a huge struggle or cost.
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So, to contrast that, Buffy the Vampire Slayer introduced Faith Lehane, the very point of whom is to serve as a dark mirror to the title character. And in Season 3, Episode 16, “Consequences,” it pushed this further than before by answering the question: “What if a Slayer goes bad?” The build-up to this came in the preceding episode, in which Faith accidentally killed a human (the Deputy Mayor, no less). This installment, as the title suggests, explores the consequences of that, and it offers an even bigger twist: not just that she killed a man, but that she embraces it.
Faith Was A Perfect Dark Mirror To Buffy – And Had A Great Redemption Arc
“Consequences” sees Faith lean into the murder, deciding that she doesn’t care and, by the end, siding with the Mayor (who effectively becomes the Giles to Faith’s Buffy in a twisted father-figure role). She is what Buffy could have been without the Scooby Gang and such a strong support system around her: the isolated Faith is led to the dark side by fear, anger, and hate. This episode is a great reckoning with that, ultimately coming down on her choosing “evil,” but really she’s looking for acceptance of who she is, and what she thinks she wants.
It’s a fascinating look at what a dark Slayer could be – she not only joins the Mayor, but comes pretty close to killing Xander – and just how easy it is to get there. The line between good and evil for the Slayers is very thin, because they’re people who are given a role that puts them outside the law and greater power than anybody else.
Buffy’s struggle, in some ways, is about “with great power comes great responsibility.” Being the Slayer is ultimately a moral burden, one where she must always fight to stay on the right side of that line. For her, it’s about duty; for Faith, it’s about desire – she relishes her power and wants to use it, no matter the, well, consequences, because it’s the one thing that can make her feel in control, and stop those negative feelings.
It underscores just how truly heroic Buffy is, and how tragic Faith is, too. While she’d spend the rest of Season 3 fighting for the Mayor, her return in Season 4 eventually put her on the path to redemption. In the episode “Who Are You?” she and Buffy swap bodies, which leads to Faith’s realization of her own self-hatred, and how much she has longed for the kind of love and support that Buffy receives. Angel further fleshes this out, more fully turning her into one of the Buffyverse’s most complex and interesting characters, and one who was just on the wrong side of a line Buffy could’ve easily crossed.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is available to stream on Disney+.
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