Angel 1x19 "Sanctuary" Full Reaction
Added 2020-05-09 09:42:58 +0000 UTCWas supposed to be posted last night but this took an eternity to process aha
Comments
It's funny, I used to hate her too. I didn't get it either. The first time I watched this show, that is. Probably not the first five times. But after hundreds of watches, I do, now. While it's true, neither Buffy nor Angel as a show ever sat the viewer down and let Faith tell her story flat out all at once, and it didn't give us the gorgeous flashbacks both shows have for Angel and Spike (I am not spoiling, here, since Liam is on season 5 of Buffy and two of Angel). there are explanations for why she is the way she is. It's just all done in very, very subtle subbtext. Speaking as someone who has been through at least some of what Faith has gone through in her life, she does make sense to me. I will try to explain, in the hopes that it will help you see what the show is doing with her. This is purely extracted from what I see of her from her first intro up to Sanctuary's conclusion, as seen through my own experiences. The simple answer is that the kind of self loathing and hatred that Faith feels toward herself is extremely common for victims of abuse, neglect, and abandonment. So is over-sexualization, extreme violence. and the sorts of PTSD reactions Faith has had throughout the aforementioned episodes of both shows. That said, allow me to try and point out where it was indicated that she went through all of this. The first indicator of abuse is in her line in Buffy's episode "Faith Hope and Trick." When wailing on the vampire in that scene with her and Buffy, she said, "My dead mother hits harder than that." This indicates that her mother beat her. If nothing else had ever gone wrong in her life, that would be enough. Having a parent beat you as a child commonly leads to self loathing, PTSD and violence. True, she was then supported and helped by her first watcher. There are indicators that she was fond of her (in the way she reacted to what the demon Kokistos did to her) but then said watcher was murdered by him. She said to Buffy, "There are no words for what he did to her." This suggests she saw the woman get killed. There are indicators that Kokistos may have raped her watcher as well, and Faith saw it. Seeing something like that often leads to conflating sex with violence and death. This explains why she choked and tried to rape Xander when he was trying to help her. There are also multiple allusions to Faith being used by more than one man, in a relationship, probably several. She says once to Buffy, "Scratch the surface of any granola type dude and every guy, from Manimal to Mr I Love The English Patient, and they're all just in it for the chase." On it's own, this doesn't necessarily indicate abuse, but it does indicate an unusual level of cynicism for someone her age, and it has to come from somewhere. Put that together with these lines, though. To Angel in Enemies: Buffy s3, "That's what they all say. First it's just let me stay the night, I won't try anything." And, to Riley in Who Are You: Buffy, S4, "Do you wanna play? Do you wanna hurt me? Am I a bad girl?" On the surface, this could just be her playing at kink. But put together with what happens in the same episode after she has sex with Riley, it indicates something more sinister. She expected him to want to hurt her. After, or rather, while, she is having sex with Riley, she stops him and says, "What do you want from her?" This indicates that she thought Riley said he loved her (in Buffy's body) because he wanted something from her or in effort to manipulate her. In that same scene, her voice, her body language, her very strong visceral reaction to having sex with him and hearing him say I love you indicates PTSD. Specifically the from that occurs after sexual trauma. Couple that with the hint that she expected Riley to want to hurt her, and it smacks of at least some form of ongoing and repeated sexual abuse or rape. She's used to having to get what she wants through sex, or in payment with it. It's what men expected of her. This, again, also explains why she tried to rape Xander, because she conflates sex with violence. She also told Buffy that story about how she wanted a dog, just something to love, and how her mother was always drunk and passed out. On an ongoing basis, this leads to feelings of abandonment, which can lead to feeling that you were abandoned because you aren't worthy of love. Even when the person is there, if they are often drink or passed out, they aren't present, and aren't taking care of you. Also in Who Are You? when she's holding Joyce hostage, she says something about Joyce having squirted out the kid and then Buffy just leaves her there to die. She suggests that Buffy doesn't care about her and abandoned her. But at one point, instead of you, she says we, or us. She was talking about herself, about those who abandoned her. In the same episode, near the end, when she's beating on her own face with Buffy still inside her body, she's screaming about how she's worthless, she's nothing, ect. She was telling herself those things. She was punishing herself. Those kinds of feelings of worthlessness and self hated usually come from severe abuse. Faith lashes out and hurts others because she's trying to pay her abusers for what they did to her. The trouble is, each time she hurts someone because out of revenge, she hates herself more for it. It becomes a cycle. Oh, and lets not forget the one rather icky line she said to the mayor in Graduation Day, about him being a suger daddy. He gave her a nice apartment, a playstation, a safe place to stay, and his own odd brand of fatherly affection. Her referring to him as a sugar daddy alone indicates an expectation that he'll expect sex. Again, she's equating affection and gifts with paying for it with sex, which in turn indicates that she's used to everything she's given being based on manipulation. That's part of what makes the relationship between Faith and the mayor so interesting. Because as evil as he was, he did genuinely care for her. There are other things she said and did in these episodes that indicate why Faith is the way she is, but there's too much of it to cover it all here, and this is already getting way too long. Keep in mind that some of the things Faith says and does, on their own are not necessarily indicators of abuse or tragic backstory, however, when seen as parts of a larger picture, they leave strong implications of a woman who is broken and damaged on a level that's almost too large to put into words. Faith's life has been so horrible that she tried to take Buffy's from her. Faith has some rather disturbing characteristics in common with the character Bethany, from Untouched: Angel s2. Bethany was sexually abused by her father. That episode shows this in a much more obvious way about Bethany, but a lot of Faith's language and reactions are similar to her, and that indicates she went through something similar, though not necessarily from her father. Her interaction with Riley while she's in Buffy's body strongly reminded me of that scene in Untouched when Bethany went into Angel's room and offered to let him have sex with her and use her. Her words were completely different, and it wasn't as disturbing on the same level, but the similarity jumped out at me once I watched Untouched after multiple watches of Faith's storyline. Faith set out expectations that Riley would hurt or mistreat her, indicating she'd allow it, just as Bethany indicated she'd let Angel use her sexually. It's important to understand here that I am not excusing her behavior. I am not saying that her trying to rape Xander, or her essentially raping Riley, or her torturing Wesley, holding Joyce captive in her own home, making fun of Tara's stutter, trying to kill Angel, or abusing Buffy and her friends is okay. It most certainly is not. I'm simply trying to shed light on why she did those things, and put her characterization into perspective in a way that I hope makes sense, The writers may not have sat us down and explained it all at once or through flashbacks, but it's all there on screen. It was just doled out in very small incriments, over a long period of time, and over two shows. In fact, it was so subtle that it's hard to even see it, especially when it's in pieces, over two years, on two shows. It's good writing, but it also makes it easy to miss unless you watch all the Faith episodes in said seasons at once, literally back to back. Which, I just did. :D Sorry this was so long. Hope it helps.
Raven Dark
2020-09-08 09:48:11 +0000 UTCNever liked Faith as a character... she makes no since to me. They make her broken, but never really explain why. This episode would have been a great one in my opinion to give us a reason to like her but giving us some details as to why she is the way she is.. Just because she cries and and basically calls herself things doesn't give us any real reason to feel bad and love her. She was a nut job BEFORE becoming a Slayer and killing that human... no way they thought that was enough...
Tammy L. Faulkner
2020-08-30 09:41:17 +0000 UTCI really need to be careful with my choice of words because I make a few statements where I’ll never forgive this character or can never see myself liking x character..... 😅
Liam Catterson
2020-05-22 10:59:39 +0000 UTCI’m following the watch order and I have other stuff to do in the meantime including other reactions, editing, writing etc.
Liam Catterson
2020-05-22 10:56:31 +0000 UTCWhy are you punishing us with the anticipation Haha. Been a while since your last Angel review
Bastion33
2020-05-22 04:42:50 +0000 UTCAbsolutely agree with your take on the Watchers’ Council! They don’t care about the individual. The Slayer is just the tool they use to fight demons.
Free Your Geek
2020-05-10 19:03:40 +0000 UTCHeya! Happy to see your reactions to this two-parter. Two things I wanted to say, one about my own observations, and one of my opinions about some of your remarks. The latter first, I don't think the Watchers were being 'incompetent' by trying to kill Buffy. I honestly don't think they care about the lives of Slayers. If one dies, there's always another. Kendra was everything the Watchers wanted. She obeyed her Watcher, read the handbook, she obeyed orders. She let them use her as a tool, and that is what the Watchers' Council wants in a Slayer: an obedient tool. One other thing I noticed... At the start of this episode, we see a glimpse of Faith's violent impulses lurking just beneath the surface, just like with Willow in Who Are You. My thoughts go back to the end of Buffy Season 3, Episode 7, Revelations, where Buffy is in Faith's motel room trying to convince her that she's on her side. Faith insists that she only needs herself. As Buffy is about to leave, Faith calls for her, Buffy turns back briefly, and then Faith says "Nothing" after a pause. It was eerily similar to what we saw with Angel here, only without getting inside Faith's head. I wonder....
Jonathan Bruser
2020-05-10 01:10:02 +0000 UTCpretty much. I think at this point, the writers had enough confidence in the show that he could shout at the lead character of it's original show and get away with it. From this episode on, the writers know they have a good show, and they don't need to rely on Buffy.
Salv Mancuso
2020-05-10 00:35:23 +0000 UTCMan, it’s so hard when you see both sides of the story! I see where Buffy comes from- It must have been so violating having someone take over your body and basically rape your boyfriend. I freaked out when someone broke into my house and I couldn’t touch anything without feeling creeped out- so imagine someone stealing your body- that’s gotta be a mind f*ck. I also see Angels point in that everyone deserves redemption. I think, ultimately, Faith did the right thing turning herself in, it’s the best way to show that she’s trying to change. Just my thoughts!
Meredith
2020-05-09 20:47:07 +0000 UTCI remember towards the end of Buffy Season 3 when you said you'd have a very hard time believing any kind of redemption arc for Faith. I've been bursting with anticipation for this reaction ever since.
Ryan Moore
2020-05-09 18:22:31 +0000 UTCThere is a lot to unpack in this episode! I think I’ve commented before, but Wesley is my favorite character on this show! You can really see how far his character has come since his introduction. Secondly, this episode really shows you how Buffy and Angel are living in different worlds now. To your point, Buffy is rightfully mad at Faith’s actions and because of that, she doesn’t think Faith deserves any humanity. Buffy and Angel have two very different missions now. Lastly, I think the last interaction between Buffy and Angel was heartbreaking. The last time she was in LA, Angel became human. We had our hearts ripped apart when she said “I won’t forget. I heard your heart beat.” To go from that scene to this one...
Free Your Geek
2020-05-09 14:01:01 +0000 UTC
