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Relationships between women are often tricky and complex. This is especially due to patriarchal structures encouraging competition between women. This complexity is heightened when the women in question are vampire hunters with opposing moral codes.
In Buffy The Vampire Slayer, the relationships between the female characters are central to its feminist themes. While the character of Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) herself is a feminist icon, the show is also important in its discussion of female friendships and the competition that can arise therein. This theme of competition in the show comes with the introduction of Faith Lehane, portrayed by Eliza Dushku. Faith’s relationship with Buffy shifts between kinship and rivalry, challenging competitive relationships between women and crafting one of the most compelling character arcs in Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
Faith’s Introduction + Buffy’s Reaction
When Faith is introduced into the show, Buffy is still grappling with the emotional trauma of killing Angel (David Boreanaz) in the season two finale and is reintegrating into high school after running away from Sunnydale1. This trauma already creates some hesitation from Buffy about her duties as a slayer and her greater place in the world.
Faith is introduced in Season 3, Episode 3: “Faith, Hope & Trick” as a foil to Buffy’s ‘good girl’ persona and her methodical approach to slaying. Faith appears to be lured out to the back of a club by a vampire. When the gang goes outside to investigate and save her, they find she is already taking care of the vampire and kills him by herself.
Buffy is astonished by Faith’s actions. She is already trying to fit back into Sunnydale and continue being a slayer, but the introduction of Faith shakes her and her entire social circle. She believes Faith’s methods are excessive and that she takes too much pleasure in slaying. In general, Buffy feels that Faith is cooler and more interesting than she is.
As the rest of Faith’s introductory episode plays out, Buffy feels the need to compete with Faith both as a Slayer and as a teenage girl in high school.
The “Cool” Slayer Vs. Buffy’s Straight-Laced Approach
Faith and Buffy differ greatly in their slaying tactics, which is largely informed by their backgrounds. In the essay “‘My Emotions Give Me Power’ — The Containment of Girls’ Anger in Buffy” by Elyce Rae Halford, the class disparity between the two is noted to understand their differences in approach to slaying2. Halford specifically mentions how:
“Buffy may be a child of divorce, but she lives quite comfortably with her mother in a nice home with a closet full of clothes and always enough money to pay the bills and for any little extras she might need. Faith, by contrast, escapes what she describes […] as a highly dysfunctional home and the control of her first Watcher to live in a run-down motel room in Sunnydale”
(19).
Buffy’s careful, methodical approach to slaying reflects her class background. She is seen as a “good girl” despite her troubles with school and tries to maintain a socially acceptable image. In contrast, Faith has little to lose, so her approach to slaying is far more chaotic and evident of her lower social status. Buffy’s response to Faith’s techniques is also shaped by her class, as she worries about Faith’s recklessness and how much she relishes her role as a Slayer.
Faith’s approach to slaying is central to her character, defining much of her personality. Faith loves telling stories about her vampire kills; she states in her first episode that the act makes her “hungry and horny.”
The two butt heads before a group of vampires ambush them, with Faith thinking Buffy is too tightly wound to be effective as a slayer and Buffy thinking Faith is too careless. Buffy also feels envious of how easily Faith integrates into her main circle. Faith’s arrival introduces not only social competition for Buffy but also a professional rivalry over who is the superior Slayer.
Faith serves as an essential foil to Buffy, shaping their relationship throughout the series. Her introduction at such a vulnerable point in Buffy’s journey creates conflict for Buffy as she tries to continue her life in Sunnydale after skipping town herself. This relationship changes and evolves into something dangerous for Buffy as Faith’s priorities and alliances change.
The Evolution Of Faith & Buffy’s Relationship
Faith and Buffy’s relationship begins rocky enough as it is, but they begin to understand each other’s point of view as the show moves forward. Faith eventually takes a much darker path and becomes an antagonist later in season three, but there is much more to her character than meets the eye.
The evolution of their friendship swings from friend to enemy and somewhere in between. Understanding their evolving relationship sheds light on how they react to each other’s personalities and actions.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 3: How “Bad Girls” (03×14) Highlights How Faith & Buffy Inform Each Other
“Bad Girls” opens with Faith trying to have a conversation about Buffy’s sex life while the two kill vampires in the cemetery3. This conversation establishes their rapport and juxtaposes their desire to have “normal” teenage conversations while killing vampires, which is their higher calling.
Faith asks whether or not Buffy and Xander (Nicholas Brendon) have slept together, asserting Faith’s pressuring nature immediately. Buffy’s relationship to Faith also causes her to question authority more than she already would. She even continues comparing herself to Faith after Faith has a far more direct opposition to a new Watcher than Buffy does.
The episode asserts Buffy as order and Faith as chaos, which reinforces the push and pull between the two. Buffy believes they should think of a plan before fighting a group of vampires; Faith disregards her and jumps right in. Despite their moral and strategic differences, they have to work together as Slayers, bound by a greater purpose.
Faith sees fun in slaying and asserts that their status as slayers means they are above humanity and can do whatever they want with no consequences. This mindset, which Buffy briefly adopts in the episode, ultimately lands them in more trouble than expected.
Faith’s philosophy with slaying justifies criminal activity as necessary for a slayer when it is really her unhinged personality coming out. A scene in which they ambush a vampire nest offensively is immediately juxtaposed with a sequence of the two clubbing, exhibiting that Faith is not just influencing Buffy in terms of slaying, but in terms of her general personality as well.
Faith’s influence on Buffy affects her social life as much as it affects her slaying. Buffy does not know anyone else that understands being a slayer, so she looks to Faith for companionship. Despite that, Xander and Willow are the people that genuinely care about her wellbeing and want her to succeed outside of slaying; Faith cares about the rush of killing vampires. As Faith begins to drive Buffy away from her true friends, Faith’s unhinged nature comes back to bite them.
Near the end of “Bad Girls,” Faith accidentally murders a human in the heat of battle. Faith reacts to the man’s death with cowardice, running away and shutting Buffy out instead of taking responsibility for her actions. Buffy tries to understand her perspective, saying that she can still do the right thing. Faith asserts that she does not care about killing a human and that it is simply “part of the job.”
Her lack of remorse is the most prominent example of her reckless nature while also exhibiting her tendency to push down her emotions. This characterization would begin Faith’s turn toward antagonist for the rest of the season and the following seasons of the show.
“Bad Girls” is the point in the show where Faith goes from taunting Buffy’s insecurities to a greater antagonist. Her rebellious nature and unrelenting fury as a slayer gets her into more trouble than expected. After taking a turn for the worst and joining the Mayor’s plan to take over the world, Faith gets put into a coma by Buffy at the end of the season and is believed to never awaken4. Faith would return in the second half of season four, desperate to get her revenge on Buffy in the most unlikely way possible.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 4: “This Year’s Girl” (04×15) And The Chip On Faith’s Shoulder
In season four, Faith would return with a vengeance against Buffy for taking away her chance at a comfortable life. “This Year’s Girl” is the first of a two-part arc that chronicles Faith and her feelings towards Buffy.
The episode opens with the first of several dream sequences from Faith’s point of view as she grapples with the fact that Buffy defeated her5. One of these sequences sees the two making a bed together, putting clean white sheets on as the sun shines through the room. The dream turns into a nightmare when Faith looks down and sees the stab wound she suffered from Buffy that put her into a coma. Faith feels betrayal in this moment, asking Buffy if she will ever “take [the knife] out.”
These dream sequences are meant to portray Faith’s feelings towards Buffy, a heartless villain that stole her chance at a safe, comfortable life. Faith is powerless to stop Buffy until a dream in which Buffy forces her into an open grave. After a beat, Faith emerges from the grave by herself, having seemingly killed Buffy. Faith has to be the one in power; she cannot be weak or appear emotional to her enemies. This ties back into “Bad Girls” where her instinct upon accidentally killing someone is to simply act like nothing happened. This sequence results in Faith awakening from her coma and escaping the hospital.
Faith’s jealousy towards Buffy in this episode stems from the fact that Buffy got to continue her life while Faith was put in a coma for months. Her jealousy towards Buffy and general need for revenge on her drives her entire character during these episodes. Faith believes Buffy’s privilege and willingness to ignore her is disrespectful because the two share a supernatural connection as slayers.
Faith ends up receiving a gift from the Mayor but does not understand what it does. Faith saw this man as a father figure, siding with his plan in order to seemingly maintain a comfortable lifestyle with a parental figure. After receiving this magical device, she decides to hit Buffy close to home.
The end of the first part of this arc sees Buffy’s mother taken hostage by Faith in her own home. This is a significant depiction of Faith’s jealousy towards Buffy. She monologues, ridiculing Buffy’s personality and comfortable home life as well as the fact that she is pretending like she lives in this home. Shortly after Buffy comes to save her mother, Faith uses the mystery device that is revealed to switch the bodies of the two people connected by it. Faith and Buffy have switched bodies, with “Faith” being arrested by the police while “Buffy” gets to continue her quiet life.
“This Year’s Girl” explores themes of revenge and emotional trauma through Faith’s feelings of jealousy and rage towards Buffy. Rather than focusing on Buffy finding Faith and stopping her, the episode focuses on how the events of season 3 affected Faith and inform her actions against Buffy. These themes would come to a head as the two switch bodies and are forced to live in each other’s shoes.
How “Who Are You?” (04×16) Forces Buffy And Faith To Understand Each Other Fully
The second part of this arc focuses on the aftermath of the two switching bodies and Faith’s hijack of Buffy’s life. While in Buffy’s body, Faith steals her money and makes attempts to defend her actions to Buffy’s friends6. While Buffy is in police custody and eventually custody of the Watcher’s Council, Faith tries to understand Buffy’s personality but comes off too good and sweet to be believable.
Faith styles Buffy’s body to Faith’s liking, waving her hair and dressing similarly to how she would in her own body. It appears as if Faith’s goal is to tank Buffy’s reputation and then skip town, as she is seen purchasing a plane ticket with Buffy’s credit card. Faith’s takeover of Buffy’s body is a form of personal revenge, but also indicates the difference in privilege between the two. This notion also ties into the themes of self-hatred and loneliness with Faith in this episode.
At a church, a group of vampires have taken over, Faith makes a mockery of Buffy and exclaims that killing people “is wrong,” clearly trying to dismiss her own actions in the previous season. Right after Faith declares herself as “the one and only” slayer, Buffy bursts in, having broken out of confinement and found her friends again. The fight between these two turns into a crescendo of Faith’s self hatred, beating up her own body while shouting that she is a “disgusting, murderous bitch[…]nothing.”
Halford expresses that this 2-episode arc is a manifestation of Faith’s self-hatred and blind need for revenge. She says that at the end of the episode, “[Faith] has made plain to herself, to Buffy, and to viewers that she hates herself far more than she hates Buffy. Despite what may seem an ‘uptight’ and rigid life for Buffy, it is Faith who is truly joyless” (32).
This arc concludes Faith and Buffy’s opposition, as she would return in season seven to help the gang fight the First Evil. Their rocky relationship is one that shifts from friend to enemy rather quickly, but these two sides are important in discussing what their friendship means in a show centered around powerful women.
Themes Of Rivalry & Kinship
Faith’s opposition to Buffy stems from Buffy’s moral compass, as she is unable to understand such a privileged girl compared to herself. As seen in episodes like “Who Are You?” Faith seems to hate herself far more when being compared to Buffy and strives to make fun of her any chance she gets. Her turn to villain exhibits her need to oppose someone she believes never has anything to worry about.
Faith’s descent into antagonism throughout the show stems from her dysfunctional home life and deep-seated jealousy of Buffy’s privilege and stability. Faith came from the wrong side of the tracks to a dingy motel room in Sunnydale and sought to make nice with Buffy due to them being two slayers at the same time.
In episodes like “Bad Girls,” Faith tries to get Buffy to see her own perspective on life and how she views slaying. Due to her position in society and personal morals, she has the ability to steal and commit acts of violence without thinking and justifies this as part of being a slayer. This culminating in the murder of an innocent shows Faith that she does not need to care about what happens; that’s Buffy’s job. Her connection with the Mayor as a father figure further reinforces this, understanding that he will do all of the cleanup and she just has to be his muscle.
After the Mayor’s death and Faith’s emergence from her coma, she immediately seeks Buffy out to kill her and make her suffer for what she took from Faith: a permanent, comfortable life. She consistently feels as though Buffy tossed her aside and took everything from Faith in order to serve Buffy’s own interests. Faith’s vengeful nature and stalking of Buffy in “This Year’s Girl” exhibits these traits.
Faith’s morals are indicative of her psychological issues, such as suppressing her emotions in favor of being seen as a strong force to be reckoned with. Despite this, her relationship with Buffy seems to exhibit themes that women are constantly in competition with each other due to factors like class and misogynistic ideals.
Why Are Women Being Pit Against Each Other?
Joss Whedon, creator and executive producer of Buffy, has been heavily criticized for his treatment of women despite being hailed as a feminist at the height of his career7. These criticisms also come from the cast of Buffy themselves8. Buffy is no different, having controversies of its own for its depictions of women. It appears as though Faith and Buffy’s relationship falls into this controversy as well, as it considers the idea of a sultry bad girl versus a comparably demure good girl.
Faith and Buffy are polar opposites that are linked by their call to save the world from demons. Joss Whedon’s depiction of Faith as a bad girl from the wrong side of the tracks intentionally cements Buffy as less attractive and less interesting. In this case, Whedon is putting women against each other by displaying one as more desirable while the other is the main character trying to navigate this stark contrast to her own personality.
Faith, Buffy, & Queer Subtext In Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)
Contrary to their relationship as frenemies, there are many that find Buffy and Faith’s interactions to be romantic in nature, often shipping them in fan communities as an alternative way to understand their relationship. This interpretation of their relationship calls to attention the impact of fan communities in comparison to what is “canon” or confirmed as a part of the show’s universe.
Fan Interpretation & Cultural Impact
There are currently over 1,300 works on Archive of our Own featuring Faith and Buffy in romantic settings9. The volume of these works offers a romantic interpretation to their rapport that is heavily based on what is given to fans in the show. The importance of this ship in comparison to canon queer relationships in the show (such as Willow and Tara) call to attention the need for interesting and meaningful representation in mainstream television.
An article from Vice discusses Faith’s impact on young queer women and the importance of compelling queer relationships to enhance a show’s characters. Writer Sophie Wilkinson talks about Faith’s impact on her as a queer woman in comparison to characters like Willow, who she refers to as, “Winsome, warbling10.” Offering different types of queer characters with time instead of one archetype that is introduced rather hastily enhances representation and reception by fans. In the case of Faith, she is introduced as a manifestation of the sexuality Buffy cannot engage with due to the apparent death of Angel in season 2.
How Buffy The Vampire Slayer Balances Subtlety & Suggestion
Faith, according to many fan communities11, is a physical representation of Buffy’s repressed sexuality. Introducing a character that finds both general and sexual thrills in slaying vampires offers an outlet to Buffy that she did not have before. This outlet for Buffy can be interpreted as an attraction to Faith, which is evident immediately upon her introduction.
As Buffy and Faith’s relationship changes over time and they grow farther apart, it offers a doomed love story for fans that entices because of the complex nature of it. The two are enemies, but they are inextricably connected due to both being slayers; they are the only two people in the world that understand each other.
In “This Year’s Girl,” Buffy empathizes with Faith and understands she must be scared and alone upon waking from her coma. She knows Faith has done horrible things but still feels a connection with her that exhibits a need to find her and take care of her instead of blindly seeking revenge against her. This type of empathy can appear romantic and echoes how she felt when she discovered Angel was alive12.
The reading of Buffy and Faith as queer recognizes the drive fans have to see positive representations of queerness in genre television. The analysis of Buffy and Faith as frenemies-to-lovers exhibits how, while important in their own right, squeaky clean representations of queerness can come off as pandering and how complexity in character writing is vital in creating a compelling narrative to bring to the silver screen.
Why Faith & Buffy’s Relationship In Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) Still Matters Today
Buffy The Vampire Slayer has a rocky relationship with its representations of queerness and women in general, but Faith is an important highlight because of how she affects Buffy and vice versa.
The episodes that focus on the two of them as slayers and as people are important for the show because it exhibits the complexity of female relationships in a world where women are expected to compete against each other instead of working to understand and empathize with each other. Buffy The Vampire Slayer as a whole is an important milestone in feminist media that explores the ways in which women are necessary to change the world for the better. Buffy and Faith’s relationship in particular remains so compelling today because it explores how, despite being similar in their position as “the Chosen Ones”, they can still be morally opposed and grow apart over time.
Footnotes
- “Faith, Hope & Trick.” Buffy The Vampire Slayer, season 3, episode 3, The WB, 13 Oct. 1998. Hulu. ↩︎
- Halford, Elyce Rae. “My Emotions Give Me Power: The Containment of Girls’ Anger in Buffy” Fighting The Forces: What’s At Stake In ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’, edited by David Lavery and Rhonda V. Wilcox, Rowman & Littlefield, 2002, pp. 18-34. ↩︎
- “Bad Girls.” Buffy The Vampire Slayer, season 3, episode 14, The WB, 9 Feb. 1999. Hulu. ↩︎
- “Graduation Day: Part One.” Buffy The Vampire Slayer, season 3, episode 21, The WB, 18 May 1999. Hulu. ↩︎
- “This Year’s Girl.” Buffy The Vampire Slayer, season 4, episode 15, The WB, 22 Feb. 2000. Hulu. ↩︎
- “Who Are You?” Buffy The Vampire Slayer, season 4, episode 16, The WB, 29 Feb. 2000. Hulu. ↩︎
- S. Val. “Joss Whedon Was Never A Feminist.” Medium, 12 Feb. 2021. Accessed 13 Feb. 2025. ↩︎
- Bergessen, Samantha. “Joss Whedon Had ‘No Excuse’ to ‘Lash Out’ at ‘Buffy’ Female Stars, Cast Details in New Book.” IndieWire, 16 Mar. 2022. Accessed 6 Mar. 2025. ↩︎
- “Fuffy.” Shipping Wiki, Fandom, Inc. Accessed 13 Feb. 2025. ↩︎
- Wilkinson, Sophie. “Buffy and Faith’s Relationship Taught Me About Queer Thirst.” Vice, 5 July 2018. Accessed 14 Feb. 2025. ↩︎
- herinsectreflection. “The hilarious part about Faith…”. Tumblr, 21 June. 2021. ↩︎
- “Beauty and the Beasts.” Buffy The Vampire Slayer, season 3, episode 4, The WB, 20 Oct. 1998. Hulu. ↩︎