It Would Help If Faith Were More Sure Of Herself

The more I think about, the more convinced I am Angel has no intention of stopping in his plan to resurrect Giles, no matter what he told Faith about needing her there to stop him from going too far.

This isn't terribly surprising since Angel, like Willow, has a tendency to put the blinders on when he's sure he's right. He's more than willing to justify actions that are brutal, uncaring, or reckless because he's sure he's right. Still, he told Faith he wanted her with him on this because she wouldn't let him go off the rails. But that's just it, he told Faith.

Not that Faith is shy about expressing her opinions, but it's usually in a loud, sarcastic fashion. Which means it may annoy people, may even embarrass them, but they won't really listen. Which is part of why Faith does it. I don't think anyone has ever asked for her thoughts on something, and actually meant it. She's rarely been entrusted with much decision-making responsibility.

To be fair, she's made some royal screw-ups just in her own life, so putting her in charge of anyone else could be legitimately questionable. Though that's true of basically everyone in the Buffyverse (they've all made hash of their lives at one point or another), I think Faith takes it more to seriously than some of the others, and so I wonder how much she trusts her judgment. I mean, she's asking Willow, who is not exactly an unbiased observer, having made a similarly dubious decision, and who needs to stay on Angel's good side to get what she wants. But Faith needs the input, because she isn't used to be in this position.

Can she recognize when Angel's gone too far? Can she make him listen if she does? Does she really want to? Because Faith would like to have Giles back, too, in spite of what he told her. Angel knows that, and he's clever enough to use it. Let Faith think she's his leash when she doesn't have any control at all.  It gives him the appearance of having thought this through, of having considered the possibility of failure, when he's ignored it entirely.

I expect to see more tension between them as Angel gets closer to achieving his goal. It'll get harder, they'll have to do more to get each piece, and Faith will try and get him to slow down, to give her more time to think. But he's not gonna want to slow down.