Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Bad Girls

Bad Girls
Season 3, Episode 14
Airdate	February 9, 1999
Production Number	3ABB14
Written by	Douglas Petrie
Directed by	Michael Lange
← 3x13 The Zeppo	3x15 → Consequences
Buffy the Vampire Slayer — Season Three

Bad Girls is the fourteenth episode of the third season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the forty-eighth episode overall.

Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers), Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris), Alyson Hannigan (Willow Rosenberg), Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia Chase), David Boreanaz (Angel), Seth Green (Oz)

and Anthony Stewart Head (Giles)

Guest Starring: Kristine Sutherland (Joyce Summers), Harry Groener (The Mayor), K. Todd Freeman (Mr. Trick), Jack Plotnick (Allan Finch), Alexis Denisof (Wesley Wyndam-Pryce), Christian Clemenson (Balthazar), Eliza Dushku (Faith)

Co-Starring: Alex Skuby (Vincent), Wendy Clifford (Mrs. Taggert), Ron Rogge (Cop)

Plot Overview

Wesley Wyndam-Pryce arrives to take over as Watcher for Buffy and Faith just as a vampire sect surface looking for an amulet to restore power to their demon leader. The two Slayers blow off the stuffier and much more bossy Watcher to spend quality slaying time together where Faith's bad behaviour begins to rub off on Buffy.

Notes

Monster of the Week

Balthazar is an obese demon who was robbed of his powers and thought killed 100 years ago. Now in the present, he leads a vampire cult known as El Eliminati who are desperate to regain his amulet and, in turn, his powers. Wesley explains their entire history until Buffy is too bored to listen anymore:

"Fifteenth Century duelist cult, deadly in their day. Their numbers dwindled in later centuries due to an increase in anti-vampire activity and a lot of pointless dueling. They eventually became the acolytes of a demon called Balthazar, who brought them to the New World, specifically here. They were driven out a hundred years ago. Happily, Balthazar was killed. I don't know by whom."

It is heavily implied that Mayor Wilkins was the one who crippled Balthazar, although he never comes out and says it.

Body Count

#	Whom	By Whom	How	Where
1	Vampire	Buffy	Staked	Cemetery
2–3	Vampires	Faith	Staked	Cemetery
4	Vampire	Buffy	Staked	Sewer
5	Vampire	Balthazar	Neck Snapped	Warehouse
6	Vampire	Faith	Staked	Alley
7–8	Vampires	Buffy	Staked	Alley
9	Allan Finch	Faith	Stabbed	Alley
10	Vampire	Giles	Decapitated	Warehouse
11	Balthazar	Buffy	Electrocuted	Warehouse
12	Vampire	Mr. Trick	Staked	City Hall

Music

• Curve - "Chinese Burn"

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Big Bad: The Mayor's plot remains vague, but he talks about "ascension" to a "higher plane." He also says that the vampire with the swords does not concern him because his ascension is imminent and those details will become trivial. After some time, the Mayor casts a spell which makes him invulnerable for 100 days, until his ascension.

• Watcher: Giles' replacement, Wesley Wyndham-Pryce, finally arrives in Sunnydale to take Buffy and Faith under his wing. However, his by-the-book style and general lack of street smarts does not endear him to either and the atmosphere recalls Buffy's first meeting with Giles.

Characters

• Faith: Faith mistakenly murders Allan Finch, the deputy mayor, believing that he was a vampire. The killing strains her relationship with Buffy and ostracizes her from the group as a whole. Although she refuses to admit it, the murder weighs heavily on her mind too, made clear by the Macbeth nod where Faith was desperately cleaning her hands believing them stained with blood.

Referbacks

• 3x07 - Revelations: Gwendolyn Post posed as Faith's new watcher briefly in order to get at the Glove of Myneghon, which allowed her to wield massive power. After she was stopped, they later discovered that she was a watcher but was dismissed for her dark ways.

Wesley: Oh yes. Gwendolyn Post. We all heard.

• 1x13 - Prophecy Girl: Buffy was drowned by The Master in order to fulfill the prophecy concerning them both, but she was revived when Xander performed CPR on her.

Buffy: I hate it when they drown me.

Trivia

The Show

• First Appearance: Alexis Denisof makes his first appearance as Wesley Wyndham-Pryce, Buffy's new tightly-wound Watcher. He spends the rest of the season in Sunnydale, but more popularly appeared in the Angel spin-off.

Behind the Scenes

• Alyson Hannigan first met future-husband Alexis Denisof on the set of this episode.

• International: Buffy the Vampire Slayer has been dubbed into many different languages and the title translated for each different international version. Some international translations of this episode's title are:
  • French: "El Eliminati"
  • Italian: "Balthzar"
  • German: "Der neue Wächter" ("The New Watcher")
  • Japanese: "バッドガールズ" ("Baddo Gāruzu" - "Bad Girls")
  • Spanish: "Chicas malas" ("Bad Girls")

Quotes

• Wesley: Ah. This is perhaps Faith.

Faith: New Watcher?

Buffy and Giles: New Watcher.

Faith: Screw that.

(Faith turns around and leaves)

Buffy: (to Giles) Now, why didn't I just say that?

• Wesley: These are all the diaries, then, yours included.

Giles: That's everything. Knock yourself out. Please.

Wesley: Oh, yes. Here's your first entry. "Slayer is wilful and insolent." That would be our girl, wouldn't it?

Giles: You have to get to know her.

Wesley: Hmm. "Her abuse of the English language is such that I understand only every other sentence."

• Wesley: Remember the three key words for any Slayer: preparation... preparation... preparation.

Buffy: That's one word three times.

• Buffy: Okay, we got ten, maybe twelve bad guys, and one big demon in desperate need of a StairMaster.

• Wesley: Oh, God! Oh, God!

Giles: It doesn't seem too promising, does it?

Wesley: Stay calm, Mr Giles. We have to stay calm.

Giles: Well, thank God you're here. I was planning to panic.

Wesley: What is that thing?

Giles: That would be your demon. You know, the dead one?

Wesley: There's no need to get snippy!

• Balthazar: You know what I want.

Giles: If it's for me to scrub those hard-to-reach areas, I'd like to request you kill me now. (one of the vampires hits Giles) Ow.

Wesley: Are you out of your mind? This is hardly the time for games!

Giles: Why not? They're going to torture us to death anyway.

Balthazar: You're not wrong about that.

• Balthazar: The man who has my amulet! What is his name?!

Angel: His name is Angel.

• Buffy: Faith, you don't get it. You killed a man.

Faith: No, you don't get it. I don't care.