Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Recap/S7/E18 Dirty Girls

Faith returns to Sunnydale and a new agent of the First sends Buffy a message.

"(Subtitled) "There is a girl in the backyard doing gymnastics"
 * Analogy Backfire: For Caleb, the whole water-into-wine thing. What if someone ordered white wine?
 * Attack Hello: Buffy greets Faith by punching her in the face and making a not very convincing excuse the she didn't know it was her.
 * Bait and Switch: Lampshaded by Spike.
 * Bigger Bad: Satan is a little man.
 * Birds of a Feather: Spike and Faith. Over a cigarette they have a rather deep conversation, as they had both gone evil and are trying to reform, and trying to figure out just where they're at with Buffy. Between Faith talking about dressing as a schoolgirl using a bullwhip on a guy (Spike says she can do better than that, and Faith scoffs at the whole dressing up gig) and a really vivid comment Faith made to Spike (as Buffy) it leads into Will They or Won't They? territory. Long incarceration.
 * Averted with Spike and Angel, whom Spike vigorously denies being anything like.
 * Buffy-Speak: Spike is all repenty.
 * Call Back: Faith borrowing Buffy's stake to dust a vampire happened when they first met in "Faith, Hope and Trick".
 * Casual Kink / Whip It Good: Faith has a frank discussion of her kinky sex life with Spike.
 * Catholic School Girls Rule / Sexy Whatever Outfit: Lampshaded by Faith and Spike. Dawn wears a rather cute pleated skirt too.
 * Comically Missing the Point: Andrew's exposition on Faith's Face Heel Turn is overly dramatized but mostly correct... until he mistakes "volcanologist" for "Vulcan" and we see a flashback of Faith fighting Spock.
 * Faith attacking Spike for attacking a female vampire who looks like a typical Victim of the Week.
 * Chao Ahn, as usual. After Andrew delivers a scary spiel about Faith, who's doing martial arts training on the lawn...

[Andrew nods seriously as if he understands]"

"Faith: Please. Do you think I'm stupid?
 * Continuity Nod
 * Caleb reveals that he's the one who blew up the Watcher's Council.
 * Faith mentions taking a trip inside Angel's head ("Orpheus")
 * The Scoobies say that Caleb could be trying to lure Buffy away from the others so they can be killed, a reference to Angelus using the same trick in "Beginning, Part I".
 * Faith brings up her Grand Theft Me in "Who Are You?" where she sexually-taunted Spike in Buffy's body.
 * "Oh you HAVE been away." One suspects even Ensouled!Spike has fond memories of his kinky games with Buffy in Season 6.
 * Conveniently Timed Attack From Behind: A Bringer is about to stab a Potential when Xander puts an arrow through his arm.
 * Curb Stomp Battle
 * Daydream Surprise: Played for Laughs in Xander's fantasy, Played for Drama with Caleb's fantasy where with a little help from the First he recreates one of his murders of women.
 * Dies Wide Open
 * Dominatrix: Faith has tendencies in this direction. She doesn't mind playing games with the boys "as long as they know who's on top."
 * Downer Ending: Though for Caleb, it's a happy one.
 * The Dragon: Caleb -- Sinister Minister, Serial Killer and a Straw Misogynist that makes Warren look tame.
 * Emerging From the Shadows: Faith, and Buffy!First.
 * Exact Words:
 * Eye Scream:  / Ironic Echo
 * Flashback Echo / Montage: Andrew as Mr. Exposition.
 * Foreshadowing: "Everyone has some whack fantasy. Scratch the surface of the most crunchy granola dude? Naughty nurses and horny cheerleaders." Cue the comics where Buffy fantasizes of a bondage threesome with Angel and Spike while dressed in a Naughty Nurse Outfit.
 * Xander tells the Potentials how to attack demons, and if all else fails, "Everything's got eyes."
 * Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Curiously in a show that portrays smoking as bad or evil the reformed Faith had taken the habit up. Probably has something to do with heading into the maelstrom with a group of people that hate her.
 * Hell-Bent for Leather: Spike recognises Faith from her famous leather pants. Plus the hot looks and the good right hook. Love At First Punch?
 * History Repeats / Green-Eyed Monster: Buffy fears this is happening with Faith trying to steal Spike from her like she tried when she went evil and went after Angel. Faith's comment that she took a trip into Angel's head doesn't make her feel better either.
 * Ironic Echo: "The mission is what matters."
 * Killed Off for Real:
 * Leeroy Jenkins
 * Let's You and Him Fight: A quite amusing variation, where Spike and Faith fight because she's unaware of the other's Heel Face Turn.
 * Male Gaze: According to the DVD Commentary this was used deliberately to show the various ways men objectify women.
 * Not What It Looks Like: Spike's chains catch Faith's attention.
 * Obligatory Joke: Spike tells Faith he's not evil any more.

Spike: Well, yeah."

"STOP-HITTING-ME!"
 * Offhand Backhand / Neck Snap: Caleb blocks a sword swung at his neck, then snaps the neck of the Potential wielding it.
 * Paint It Black: It's slimming.
 * Pillow Fight: Xander is wakened from a dream of scantily-clad Potential Slayers having a Slow Motion pillow fight, to the reality of the girls in frumpy pyjamas and bathrobes, complaining about a clogged toilet.
 * Poor Communication Kills: Lampshaded by Faith, who points out that it would have been nice if someone had bothered to inform her that the Big Bad was trying to wipe out the Slayer line before someone tried to murder her in prison.
 * Punched Across the Room: Caleb to Buffy. Oh Crap.
 * Punctuated for Emphasis: Spike slogging it out with Faith.

"Andrew: [Faith] wrapped evil around her like a large, evil Mexican serape."
 * Reformed but Rejected: Buffy still holds a grudge after the things Faith had done. Subverted with Dawn giving Faith a chilly welcome, because in truth they've never actually met -- her resentment is based on False Memories.
 * Rousing Speech / Right Behind Me
 * Sacrificial Lamb: poor
 * Schmuck Bait: Everyone tells Buffy she's walking into a trap, but she still goes in thinking her enemy won't be expecting her to bring a large force.
 * Shaped Like Itself

"Girl 1: I've never been with a man. I could die tomorrow, and I've never been with a man.
 * Ship Tease: Faith/Shirtless!Spike, meant as Foreshadowing for a possible Faith spin-off series.
 * Something Else Also Rises: After being woken from his Erotic Dream, Xander says he'll be along in a moment as he "has a cramp."
 * Stealth Insult: Buffy tells Giles to "help the girls who still need a teacher".
 * This Is the Part Where / Please, I Will Do Anything!
 * Verbal Backspace
 * Faith saying that prison could be worse, then admitting that the last movie she saw was Glitter.
 * Andrew's "year, rather months"
 * What Could Have Been: Joss Whedon originally planned to kill Xander.
 * The Worf Effect: Caleb takes down Buffy in one punch. Faith and Spike don't fare much better.
 * You Don't Want to Die A Virgin Do You: Parodied in Xander's Erotic Dream.

Xander: Well, uh?

Girl 2: I've never been with a man before either.

Xander: Colleen.

Girl 2: I've never been with her in front of a man before.

Girl 1: I've never been with her in front of a man, either.

Xander: Um...

Girl 1: Xander...

Girl 2: We're so scared.

Rona: Xander! Xander! Goddamnit!

Xander: (wakes up) What's going on? I was sleeping.

Rona: Dominique has the stomach flu, and the toilet bowl is backed up."


 * You Fight Like a Cow: "Luckily you still punch like you used to."