Buffy Summers: I liked that the Prof questioned the cruciamentum. Would have been better if she’d told her, but still.
Yes, totally agree. Very glad that once Faith finds out it just gets canceled, although it seems convenient that they don't replace it with anything else.
I had to look up who Dana was, sorry haven't read the comics. But yeah it seems like Faith in canon TV is doing pretty well, considering everything that has happened to her so far in this book.
DAD JAIL VISIT
Ooooof, Faith visits her father in jail. I like the five by five origin story, that it comes from him and his Vietnam radio talk. I feel like when he says this:
June 18 entry, p. 88: "It was a hell a young lady like you could never imagine..."
it shows how little he knows her. Calling her a young lady is weird, and funny for a dad to call his daughter. And then of course her life, he doesn't know how tough it was and he doesn't know about the vampires.
So Faith gets what she wants out of the visit, some sort of closure with her dad. She doesn't want to build any kind of relationship (not that she should at all), but it's still weird to me that she forgives him. She tells him "It's not your fault" which is the same thing "Alex" says in the last week at the cemetery with the coins, and even further back, post-Kenny-at-Phoenix-Landing. It confuses me a bit but overall I think she just wants to be done with him and his admission that he wronged her is enough, fills her with hate and that's what she wants right now.
When he says "I'm bad, I'm evil, I'm bad" I felt like the author was trying to weave in Faith's rainy alley speech to Angel in Five by Five. But - unlike the other times with the weaving - it didn't hit for me, it felt a little off.
WATCHER DIANA
Faith and her communication issues! Here Watcher Diana and Faith have multiple conversations about Faith "finding her Father" with Father meaning either sad prison Dad or Kakistos. I thought Faith and Buffy had their miscommunications and this is similar!
Faith is just trying to take her mind off the upcoming ritual and during small talk with Watcher Diana we get two nuggets:
June 19 entry, p. 204: "...the whole world is before you, ripe for the plucking"
Maybe I'm projecting too much here but I always hated hearing this shit when I was younger. I feel like the Mayor said something similar to Faith. And also this is Faith's attitude when she talks to Buffy. "[we can do] whatever we want. We're slayers!"
Diana's ex (she almost married him) who is a watcher- ended up having a kid who grows up to be Giles! And that's how Faith learns about the existence and whereabouts of Buffy! I feel like this makes Diana a bit too old to be a dusting vampires watcher, or maybe it's a goof and canon TV Giles is supposed to be younger to make this plot match up. (How is Giles 43 in S1?? Wow he looks good for 43.)
THE RITUAL
Yeah I was digging this part too. Glad they didn't make the dad abuse (whatever it was) explicit. The stairway with the hateful mirror men talking to Faith - that felt like The First in S7. Alex looking like little Faith, yes!! The explanation of the tattoo, how it was actually the other Slayer putting the mark of Kakistos on Faith. Damn, that's cold.
