Bad Girls (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Plot

Buffy and Faith are on patrol when they dust a vampire carrying a short sword and a long sword. The next day in the school library, Buffy's new Watcher, the smug Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, identifies the weapons as belonging to a cult of sword-wielding vampires once led by a demon named Balthazar. Wesley, believing Balthazar dead, sends Buffy to fetch an amulet that belonged to him. That night, Buffy locates the amulet, but Balthazar's vampires show up.

Faith dives into the nest without thinking, and Buffy joins the fight, grabbing the amulet. She hands it to Wesley, then heads off for a test. She tries to tell Willow and Xander about the night before and notices Xander flinch whenever Faith's name comes up. Faith appears at the classroom window, and the two slayers go destroy another vampire nest.

Feeling pumped, they hit the Bronze to dance. There, Buffy meets Angel, who reveals Balthazar is alive and wants his amulet back. Buffy takes the amulet from Wesley and gives it to Angel for safekeeping. Buffy and Faith track down Balthazar, a bloated demon living in a water vat, surrounded by his vampires.

They break into a sports equipment store to steal weapons, get arrested by police, but bust out of the squad car, causing a crash that hurts the officers. The next morning, one of Balthazar's vampires attacks the Mayor but is stopped by Mr. Trick. Balthazar orders his minions to capture the watchers, kill the slayers, and bring him his amulet. Willow offers Buffy a protection spell, but Buffy says it's too risky and goes with Faith instead.

They stake several vampires, then the mayor's human deputy, Allan, grabs Buffy, and Faith stakes him. He dies, and the slayers split up. Buffy learns from Angel that Balthazar has taken Giles, while Faith heads back to Allan's body.

Production

Wesley Wyndam-Pryce's casting on Buffy led to Alexis Denisof meeting Alyson Hannigan; they married on October 11, 2003. Denisof also became a regular on the spin-off Angel. In the episode, after Faith kills Allan, Buffy finds her scrubbing blood from her shirt.

This mirrors Lady Macbeth's futile attempt to cleanse guilt by removing its physical traces. Buffy tells Faith she can shut off emotions, but they will eventually find a body. The line's double meaning points both to the authorities discovering Allan's corpse and to Faith's suppressed guilt manifesting physically.

Did You Know?

• Vox rated the episode at #26 in a list of all 144 episodes.
• A BBC review said the scene where Allan is killed signals a fundamental change to a more mature series.
• The review also noted that without the death, Buffy might easily have become like Faith.