...the beginning of the end
--Written by Faith Bowie
Never see Faith in action? Don't remember what went wrong? Can't figure out what drove her over the edge? Here's a quick overview of how and why our favorite slayer went bad.
Vitals:
Name: Faith
Date of Birth: ?
Place of Birth: ?
We don't know much about Faith (Joss hasn't even provided us with a last name), only that she's a slayer, her mother is dead along with her watcher, she's a little too free-spirited and her need to be loved consumes her.
At only seventeen (17) years old when she first donned the dark slayer's leather, Eliza Dushku was the baby of Buffy The Vampire Slayer's cast, Faith, on the other hand, was clearly the most grown up.
If hiding your feelings were a sport, Faith would have a good chance at landing her picture on the front of a Wheaties box. She's so good at it, in fact, that it's been taken for granted that Faith has no feelings at all. Even a lot of Buffy fans are still fooled into thinking that Faith didn't care at all about her accidental murdering of the Mayor's right hand man, Alan (we'll get to that later).
From the very beginning, Faith was undoubtably Sunnydale's bad girl. She was and is outwardly comfortable with her sexuality and has made it purposely obvious to everyone she came in contact with. She even used it to try and make friend, shamelessly flirting with Giles and the other men in Buffy's life. She even ended up in bed with Xander.
At first we don't see a whole lot of Faith. After her arrival in the episode "Faith, Hope and Trick" and the later "Beauty and the Beasts", Faith almost disappears from our view. It becomes obvious by "The Wish" that the Scoobies are neglecting to include her almost at all.
Feeling unwanted by the group, by "Revelations" Faith had retreated into bitterness. Enter: Gwendolyn Post. Post wedged her way into Faith's life under the guise of her replacement watcher. Once she had gained Faith's trust, she poked around for her emotional sore spots. Playing on Faith's feeling of not belonging, Post fed the slayer lies about the Scooby Gang having secret meetings and purposeful exclusion of Faith in order to gain the manpower she would need to take a sacred glove from Angel.
Hurt and betrayed, Faith went to Angel's mansion with the intent to kill him and deliver the glove to Post. Buffy got there in time to stop her, and the slayers ended up in a kick-face fight. Things were never the same between the two, even after it was found out that Gwen was a demon just using Faith to get what she wanted.
As mentioned earlier, Faith jumped in the sack with Xander in the third (3rd) season's "The Zeppo", after Xander saved her from a she-beast by hitting it with his car. Xander's close encounter with Faith left him believing that there is something more between them, but Faith had other plans, throwing him out of her apartment half-dressed afterward. (She did obsess about him to Buffy asking if she had ever "Did it with Xander", which kind of intrigued me since Faith has never gone on and on like that about her other conquests.)
In a desperate attempt to win Buffy's friendship and a sense of belonging, Faith showed Buffy the dark side of living. The wildness and utter freedom appealed to Buffy, and soon Faith had her looking the part, cutting class and even stealing. Their joyride went awry when, during a slay-fest, Faith mistook Alan (mentioned earlier) for a vampire and staked him. Faith was sacred stupid and Buffy's constant whining wasn't helping. This was the beginning of the end.
