The episode began with the conclusion of the Evelyn/Luke vs. Landon/Carley exile. Ev and Luke had finished the course but Evelyn decided to just skip the third puzzle and risk a five minute penalty. She tried to get any advantage she could over Landon and Carley. Of course Carley was suffering from exhaustion and could barely function. Landon kept encouraging her and continued to be the anti-Wes in regards to treating your female teammate respectfully. They won the Exile, sending Evelyn home and into the behavior of a four year old. Luke didn't really care.
Here's the thing: Evelyn ran one of the worst alliances I've ever seen. She and Wes were the masterminds but they mostly turned on their own team members just so that they could save themselves from Exile. As they continued to demolish their alliance themselves, Kenny sat back and watched. He slowly lured others away from Wes/Ev and is now the favorite to win Fresh Meat II. I know the goal was to get rid of Kenny from the house because he dominates every challenge he's in and even more so when his buddy Evan is around. Once Kenny and Laurel continued to win challenges, two people have to run an alliance a bit more smoothly. Evelyn is extremely cocky and confident as she should be because she's a beast of an athlete; however, she feared the Exile for some reason. Why not volunteer to go in to take out some of Kenny's pals? Or why not just be cool with Kenny since she won The Island with him? I don't know. I'm not a challenge expert. Her and Wes' strategy was awful and Evelyn blamed everybody but herself until the very end. I used to like Evelyn but she was awful this season. She threw a challenge and it backfired. She was just very bizarre this season and off-putting. Following her elimination from the game, she cried and blamed Luke. TJ Lavin called her out for how she was acting. Luke was not comforting.
But it's prediction time. The final is next week. The Exile looks insane. Here are predictions for the final:
The 4th team will be...Ryan and Theresa. There was a part in the latest episode that focused on Noor's asthma so I have a feeling that'll come into play during the Exile.
4th place will go to Ryan and Theresa.
3rd place will go to Pete and Jill
2nd place will go to Landon and Carley
The winners will be Kenny and Laurel.
I literally have nothing else to write about Fresh Meat II.
THE LIFE AFTER JACOB'S FOOT EPISODE OF THE DAY
[caption id="attachment_1570" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Xander, Willow and Buffy look at Faith and Scott Hope"]
[/caption]The Television Series: Buffy, The Vampire Slayer
The Episode: Faith, Hope and Tric
Original Airdate: October 13, 1998
Written By: David Greenwalt
Directed By: James A. Contner
Season three of Buffy is its best season in my opinion. The dialogue is extremely witty and sharp throughout the season. The actors really know their characters at this point and there's a supreme confidence that's evident in each episode.
This episode is the introduction of Faith, the vampire slayer and it's an outstanding introduction. In season two, we met Kendra because Buffy had died for a few minutes in the season one finale. Kendra was a nice girl, a nice slayer. She and Buffy got along. Drusilla killed Kendra in the season two finale so Faith was called and she ends up in a Sunnydale because she knows of Buffy and because she is fleeing from a vampire named Kakistos who killed her watcher.
This episode is about letting go and moving on. Buffy is concerned about how violent Faith gets in a vampire fight but Buffy's also teenage girl jealous that Faith is moving in on her life. Faith bonds immediately with Xander, Willow and Oz. Not Cordelia though because, as it says in the script, she's Cordelia. Joyce also loves Faith. I digress. The heart of this episode is Buffy trying to move on from Angel as well as let go of him because she was forced to kill him even after he was cured. Joss and his writers rarely ever told the viewers because they were so good at showing these emotional journeys. There's a guy named Scott Hope who is interested in Buffy and Buffy is interested in him. He's normal and alive. She craves normalcy but, for most of the episode, she resists going on a date with Hope because of the Angel factor. There's some terrific scenes where Scott is waiting for her, Buffy comes near him but only because she has Slayer stuff to do.
Giles is the one trying to get Buffy to tell him what really happened. He makes up a lie about a binding spell and claims he needs to know the details of what happened so that the binding spell does its job. There is no spell though. After the fun Buffy has with Faith in Kakistos lair and the appreciation of how Faith handled the hard stuff she's been through, Buffy tells Giles and Willow the truth about what happened. She waits for Scott outside of class and they agree to go on a date. Buffy has one last thing to do: return the Claddagh ring to Angel's mansion. It is where she says goodbye for the final time. Of course he returns from hell right after she leaves but that's a whole other episode.
Buffy is still having trouble adjusting to her life in Sunnydale in this episode after running away following the Angel stuff. The dead man's party in "Dead Man's Party" brought her closer again to her friends and forgiveness abounded in it but the arrival of Faith brings back Buffy's insecurity. Faith is so natural and animated with everyone. She tells awesome stories. She's werewolf friendly and Oz is a fan of that. The scene in The Bronze after Faith dusts the vamp is outstanding. I love the banter between the characters and the pacing of the scene. The episode also plants the seeds for what's to come later in the season with Faith and the Mayor. We even get one Mayor reference. Also, Buffy and Faith were never friends really. Buffy accepts Faith but they never bond and this dynamic exists until the series ends.
Mr. Trick is also introduced in this episode. He was one cool vampire and one of the rare African-American characters on the show. He didn't even make it to the season three finale though.
"Faith, Hope and Trick" is not the best episode of season three but it's up there. David Greenwalt would go on to co-create ANGEL so I'm a big fan of his. James A. Contner was a veteran director of the Buffyverse.
If you have Netflix, you can watch this episode on Instantly Watch and all others can watch it on hulu.com.
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