The Buffyverse Character Countdown (#13)

13.

Hero: Faith Lehane (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 7, Angel Season 4)

By virtue of the complexity of her character, Faith necessarily cracks into a list of the top ten Buffyverse characters; she’s too complex to receive any lesser accolade. And yet, Faith is somewhat of a lackluster hero. As I’ll discuss when I address Faith on the villain list (yes, as with Anya and two other characters we’ll see coming up, Faith made both lists), she’s far more interesting as a villain than she is as a hero. Her transitional period is undoubtedly the point at which she’s the most interesting, but she’s not that engaging a hero once she comes into her own.

“Five By Five” is one of the very best episodes of Angel and is arguably the climax of Faith’s villainous arc, but her disintegration at the episode’s finale sets up an entirely new character arc for the dark Slayer. Since her attempt to commit “suicide by cop” fails, she thus finds herself in an entirely new situation: on the run from the law, the Watchers’ Council, Wolfram & Hart, and a vengeful Buffy, with only a recovering vampire as her protector. Moreover, taking up arms against any of them could quickly lead into a relapse of her villainous habits that she seeks to swear off. Thus, throughout the events of “Sanctuary,” Faith has to hold back her frustrations before, eventually, turning herself into the police – the least bad of the many forces she could have turned to. This decision also shows an embrace of responsibility and culpability that few other characters in the series, including Buffy herself, have never truly rivaled. Remember: Buffy fought back against the police in “Becoming Part 2.” Faith’s willingness to accept the societal punishment for her actions mirrors her personal embrace of her wrongdoing, and her continued choice to not break out of jail – something we see she could do quite easily – is a meaningful one.

Unfortunately for Faith’s character, she returns to the series at the worst possible time: Angel Season Four’s Beast arc. The less I describe this series of terribly paced, tediously plotted, error-ridden, tone deaf, and character-destroying episodes the better, but let’s go ahead and say that Faith’s presence isn’t enough to save them. In fact, Faith’s initial purpose in these episodes is not to bring this charade to an end, but to instead keep a newly unleashed Angelus from going too far. Throughout these episodes, Faith serves as a leader of sorts for Angel Investigations – now currently lacking a frontman – and delivers a most cathartic of beatdowns upon Connor when he tries to challenge her authority and act like the uppity brat he is. That said, in actual fights against the Beast and Angelus, Faith gets her butt handed to her on nearly every occasion. She earns points for using her ingenuity to drug Angelus, but her heroism is undermined by Willow’s being the one to save Angel instead of her. The series could have had some lovely parallels by having Faith be the one to save the vampire who saved her but… it doesn’t. Faith is a more enjoyable presence than Connor, to be sure, but she’s not enough to stop Season Four from sucking as hard as it does.

The far more interesting set of heroic elements of Faith’s character emerge in Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s seventh season. With the Potentials at odd with each other and Buffy severely under-resourced, Faith arrives to serve as the cavalry. Faith’s heightened charisma and more affable nature lead the Potentials to elect her leader over Buffy once Caleb wrecks their forces in “Dirty Girls.” To Faith’s credit, her confidence and to-the-point diplomatic style offers a leadership quality Buffy severely lacks. Unfortunately, what Faith has in charisma, she lacks in experience and strategy; though a capable tactician, she does not have the vision to anticipate her enemies’ third and fourth moves. Faith thus ends up leading the Potentials into a death trap, only getting saved from becoming Turok-Han chow because Buffy steps in. That said, Buffy doesn’t castigate Faith for her leadership role; if anything, she praises Faith for taking on the Potentials when they lose faith in her as well. Both develop a genuine respect for one another that’s rather touching. Faith also forges a brief sexual relationship with Robin Wood. It honestly doesn’t go anywhere and is completely extraneous to the plot; it’s honestly only included in order to create a trio of sexual relationships in the lead up to the final fight against the First and its minions.

Faith’s shift from villain to hero is one of the biggest factors in her favor as one of the most important characters in the series: she must continually make the choice to not slip back into the dark side, from staying in prison to avoiding the First’s temptations when it takes on the form of the Mayor – her villainous mentor and the only character in the entire series aside from Angel who shows Faith any genuine love. These are painful choices for her, and we’re able to see her stress. That said, unlike the heroes rounding out the top twelve, Faith becomes less interesting once she takes up her heroic mantle. As compared to Spike, whose newfound heroism throws his entire character into beautiful narrative chaos, Faith pretty much adopts her mantle with minimal growing pains after the events of “Sanctuary.” Thus, she only gets this high on the list. She’s one of the few characters on the show who is better when she was bad.

    

Villain: The Gentlemen (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 4 - "Hush")

Was there ever any doubt that these unsettling monsters would make the list? Heck, most critical publications tend to put the Gentlemen at the very top of the entire Buffyverse rogues gallery, if only for how terrifying they are in “Hush.” If ever a group of villains in all of televised fiction showcased how to do the monster-of-the-week trope correctly, it’s the Gentlemen. They’re deliciously menacing and terrifying in a way few villains in all of fiction are. I don’t want to inflate their reputation too much, as I do think Big Bads and more complex villains should take up the list’s highest echelon, but I will give the Gentlemen this accolade: excepting the top four, they are the least flawed villains on this entire list.

Every several years, a group of monsters known as the Gentlemen arise to prey upon the hearts of the innocents. Should they gather seven, then the unthinkable happens. Absolutely impervious to all weaponry but their one weakness – the sound of a woman’s scream – the Gentlemen are able to destroy absolutely anyone who comes in their path. Worse still is the fact that these nightmarish baddies have learned to compensate for their weaknesses. In “Hush,” the Gentlemen develop a magical box capable of stealing all of the voices in Sunnydale, preventing anyone from uttering that fatal scream that could bring their torment to an end. It’s up to the Scooby gang to stop these debonair demons and their cadre of flailing, straitjacket clad minions from destroying the world… all without saying a word.

Let’s start with their aesthetic. The Gentlemen are pretty much the only monster-of-the-week villains outside of the best Big Bads of the series to have costume and make-up design that complements their devious actions. Dressed in suits and floating above the ground, the Gentlemen exude a suave, graceful character. Their faces, by contrast, are truly horrifying: their eyes are pallid, their skin is pale and clammy, and their eyes are alien. Worst of all are their smiles, twisted grimaces that communicate everything from pleasure, to conniving, to murderousness.

Unlike nearly every other one-off in the series, the Gentlemen have a distinct villainous personality that puts them in complete contrast with the Big Bads. While Adam and the Initiative are lumbering lummoxes who won’t shut up, the Gentlemen never need to speak in order to communicate their villainous intent. They show tremendous courtesy towards one another, showcasing a bizarre sort of etiquette as they callously murder innocent civilians. Unlike their swaggering, chaotic henchmen, the Gentlemen never lose control of their movements, even when their prey is on the run and fleeing from them. They ooze charisma and confidence, yet they’re more than able to back up their considerable ego with their invincible bodies and brutish henchmen. Speaking of which, these monsters have some of the very best goons in the entire Buffyverse, as their minions' chaotic flailing wickedly contrasts the Gentlemen’s elegant evil.

The Gentlemen also produce more character development for the heroes than pretty much any other monster-of-the-week in the series. Buffy and Riley are forced to communicate their secret identities to one another without saying a word, and it surprisingly draws them closer together than had they just beaten around the bush. Tara builds up the confidence to demonstrate that she, too, cares about genuine Wiccan experiences like Willow. Most hilarious and touching of all, Xander reveals that he truly does love Anya when he punches Spike in the face after he thinks the neutered vampire has killed Anya. Plus, he does this while under the assumption that Spike’s chip has deactivated and that he could very well die trying to fight him. It’s an adorable scene that we wouldn’t have gotten without the Gentlemen’s intervention.

Most important of all, though, is the allegory that the Gentlemen present. Nearly all of the Buffy one-offs are, in one way or another, very obvious metaphors for trauma and conflicts young adults face as they mature. The Gentlemen’s analogy isn’t exactly clear; silence appears to be their only gimmick. Yet consider two factors. First, Season Four is about Buffy going to college. Second, the Gentlemen make their first kill in the series by tracking down a young boy, strapping him down to his bed, and removing his heart all while he is unable to scream… Stories of on-campus sexual assault might not have been that prevalent when Joss Whedon and company were writing “Hush,” but it’s an alarming prescient episode for modern times. Whedon makes it very clear, though, that there’s only one weapon that actually works against these monsters: speaking out.

Honestly, the only area in which the Gentlemen don’t excel as villains is their status as monsters-of-the-week. Their impact on the series is limited to one incredible episode… and that’s about it. It’s such a shame, too, as they are so much better villains as the main villains of the arc. I would happily have taken multiple episodes of these creatures wreaking havoc upon Sunnydale, with each individual member having a unique weakness that the Scooby Gang had to exploit. They certainly would have been better villains than big dumb Adam and the boring as heck Initiative. I guess I'll take what I can get: villains that strike me dumb with just how good they are.