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About the Ted incident
Dec. 16th, 2025 06:11 amI keep running across this Buffy take on Tumblr, which is that Buffy should have brought up the Ted incident with Faith. And if it was brought up at the round table with the Scoobies, sure, excellent continuity. But bringing it up with Faith? Like that was going to help reach her? Honestly, not mentioning it was one of the smartest things Buffy did during 'Consequences.'
Faith was already bitter about golden girl Buffy, forgiven for everything Faith could ever do wrong. How would Buffy saying "I've been there. In fact, I did worse! I killed a man because I was angry and went at him with slayer strength and wouldn't stop hitting him until he was dead because I never liked him anyway. Oh, and then he turned out to be a robot! Whew! Lucky for me! But I totally get how these things happen."
Obviously, Buffy wouldn't have said it that way - but that is what Faith would have heard. It would not have helped, not even a little. Buffy, the girl with all the luck, didn't kill a man even when she tried.
Not bringing it up was the smartest thing Buffy did in that messy situation.
The argument I haven't seen is for what Giles should have said. Lots of people blame him for Faith's living situation, but I've never seen anyone point out he had the golden opportunity to deescalate Faith's panic at the outset. She went to him first (to sell out Buffy, but still). Why didn't he give her the same spiel he later gave Buffy? "It's tragic, but accidents have happened."
Faith would attempt to counter. "You're only saying that because it's Buffy who killed him. If it was the other way around..."
And Giles would say, in his most soothing voice, that if their positions were reversed and Buffy had come in telling him that Faith had accidentally killed a man, Giles would tell her the same thing (because he does, in canon). And he won't be involving the council, and he doesn't care which slayer killed the man. This is exactly the point where Giles letting his mask slip and being a bit of a cold bastard would help Faith.
"Nightly war" is a philosophy Faith could get behind. Sure, it's morally gray (like Giles himself) but it might have kept her from running to the Mayor. She was right there. Wesley wasn't in position to eavesdrop yet. The whole thing could have been avoided.
I love Giles. I will defend him in most things, including many choices that fans smack him around for, but this oversight was really bad on his part. Of course, her accusing Buffy probably put his hackles up and things rapidly snowballed afterward. Perhaps his British reserve simply needed another cup of tea to thaw, and he'd planned to approach Faith with that very line of reasoning after she had a few hours to calm down and he'd had equal time to gear up for the conversation.
(There I go, defending him, because he was never the most skilled at understanding teen girls, and because of his own deep shame about what happened to Randall, and because he was not at his best emotionally after the earlier events of the season, to say nothing of the previous one).
Anyway, Giles had the potentially winning argument here. Buffy, with regards to Ted, absolutely did not. That is all.
Faith was already bitter about golden girl Buffy, forgiven for everything Faith could ever do wrong. How would Buffy saying "I've been there. In fact, I did worse! I killed a man because I was angry and went at him with slayer strength and wouldn't stop hitting him until he was dead because I never liked him anyway. Oh, and then he turned out to be a robot! Whew! Lucky for me! But I totally get how these things happen."
Obviously, Buffy wouldn't have said it that way - but that is what Faith would have heard. It would not have helped, not even a little. Buffy, the girl with all the luck, didn't kill a man even when she tried.
Not bringing it up was the smartest thing Buffy did in that messy situation.
The argument I haven't seen is for what Giles should have said. Lots of people blame him for Faith's living situation, but I've never seen anyone point out he had the golden opportunity to deescalate Faith's panic at the outset. She went to him first (to sell out Buffy, but still). Why didn't he give her the same spiel he later gave Buffy? "It's tragic, but accidents have happened."
Faith would attempt to counter. "You're only saying that because it's Buffy who killed him. If it was the other way around..."
And Giles would say, in his most soothing voice, that if their positions were reversed and Buffy had come in telling him that Faith had accidentally killed a man, Giles would tell her the same thing (because he does, in canon). And he won't be involving the council, and he doesn't care which slayer killed the man. This is exactly the point where Giles letting his mask slip and being a bit of a cold bastard would help Faith.
"Nightly war" is a philosophy Faith could get behind. Sure, it's morally gray (like Giles himself) but it might have kept her from running to the Mayor. She was right there. Wesley wasn't in position to eavesdrop yet. The whole thing could have been avoided.
I love Giles. I will defend him in most things, including many choices that fans smack him around for, but this oversight was really bad on his part. Of course, her accusing Buffy probably put his hackles up and things rapidly snowballed afterward. Perhaps his British reserve simply needed another cup of tea to thaw, and he'd planned to approach Faith with that very line of reasoning after she had a few hours to calm down and he'd had equal time to gear up for the conversation.
(There I go, defending him, because he was never the most skilled at understanding teen girls, and because of his own deep shame about what happened to Randall, and because he was not at his best emotionally after the earlier events of the season, to say nothing of the previous one).
Anyway, Giles had the potentially winning argument here. Buffy, with regards to Ted, absolutely did not. That is all.
