S3E3: Faith, Hope & Trick – Slick Vampires, Shadow Selves, and the Naked Angel Who Fell from the Sky

A limo rolls up to a Sunnydale burger joint, the window slides down, and Mr. Trick steps in as one of the slickest vampire intros the show has ever pulled off. Alan and Jarrod take on "Faith, Hope and Trick" — the episode that drops the bad-girl Slayer into town and quietly sets up half of season three. They dig into the on-the-nose naming of Scott Hope (and why his apologetic, impatient energy lands so awkwardly), the deep-cut Johnny-Depp-as-Buster-Keaton-obsessive theory from Benny and Joon that might explain that strange pop-culture hook, and Trick playing political aide to a cloven-hoofed Kakistos while joking that Sunnydale makes DC look like Mayberry. From there it's into the meat of it: Buffy's prophetic Angel dreams turning from grief to almost-Freddy menace, the painful idea that even her most intimate moments play out performatively in front of passive friends, Joyce flexing some surprisingly sharp parenting against a cornered Principal Snyder, and Faith arriving as the shadow-self mirror — where Kendra was discipline and shame, Faith is the bad girl who gets under Buffy's skin. The guys puzzle over why the Watchers Council keeps Giles off the Cotswolds guest list, riff on Eliza Dushku carrying her own show (Dollhouse and that Oxford theology paper included), unpack the Single White Female and Martha Stewart references, and land on the freedom-versus-constraint theme before that final tag — a naked, sweaty Angel falling from the sky — pulls Buffy right back in.#WhoWatchesTheRewatchers #BuffyRewatch #FaithHopeAndTrick #BuffyS3E3 #BtVSSeason3 #BuffyPodcast #FaithTheSlayer #MrTrick #Kakistos #ScottHope #ShadowSelf #FiveByFive #AngelReturns #WatchersCouncil #ElizaDushku #Dollhouse #SingleWhiteFemale #PropheticDreams #SunnydaleHigh #JoyceSummers #PrincipalSnyder #JossWhedon #ScoobyGang #BuffyAndAngel