Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Consequences

"We help people. That doesn't mean we can do anything we want!"

So, the consequences. This episode really, really, really walks a tightrope. Its task is incredibly difficult. On the one hand, it has to establish that, as Slayers, Buffy and Faith are not Nietzchean superwomen who can do whatever they like and the little people don't matter. On the other hand, we obviously can't just have the title character of the show thrown in jail as an accessory to murder. That would cause problems, to put it mildly.

In the end, I think, the episode works, although there's an inevitable bit of sleight of hand. The episode turns on the moment when Giles sides with Buffy and accepts this is just an unfortunate accident, the kind of collateral damage that happens in war. This just about works without sounding like a justification of Faith and Buffy's actions on the grounds of their "specialness", but only because of the sheer amount of angst Buffy goes through during the episode. Emotionally, at least, it works, although the other small matter of burglary, resisting arrest and vandalism of police property is neatly glossed over.

It's an intense and extraordinary episode, and essentially a character piece focusing on Faith. We've known she's had a dark side now, but here she may be slipping into real darkness, as Angel's commentary underlines: this is how evil starts. Again, it's all a little too psychologically neat, but a little sleight of hand makes it work emotionally. It helps that Sarah Michelle Gellar and Eliza Dushku are so brilliant here.

There's another side to all of this for Buffy, too. Earlier in the season she kept a secret, hiding Angel's return from everyone, causing a great deal of angst and almost losing Giles' trust. Here, she's grown up, and comes straight out with it as soon as she realises that Faith isn't going to confess. It's a shock to find that Faith has claimed that Buffy is the killer, of course, but I don't think anyone would have been fooled by Giles apparently believing Faith over Buffy. He's far too close to her for that.

Also interesting is how this episode sees the gradual and final rejection of Wesley as Watcher: he's completely lost the respect of everyone and suddenly no one (except Cordelia!) is listening to him. He's powerless, and the organisation he represents is shown once again to be hidebound, of questionable authority and, worst of all, incompetent. In fact, it's interesting to watch this episode now; extrajudicial "extraordinary rendition" has a resonance that it didn't in 1999. Still, Giles, to all intents and purposes, is Buffy's Watcher again. And this time round he doesn't have to answer to anyone.

There are so many other moments in this episode, though. Buffy's heart to heart with Willow, who unlike Faith is a true friend, the hilarious scene in which everyone suddenly realises that Xander is saying he's shagged Faith, and the simple, short, heartbreaking scene of Willow crying at this news. Most shocking, of course, is Faith's attempted rape of Xander. This show, at its core, is all about the reversal of gender roles, but this one's a biggie.

By the end of the episode, the Scoobies are well aware that the Mayor is this season's Big Bad. Mr Trick is dust. And the Mayor has a new employee…