Now, I call that episode as "The Uno Card Reverse", because had so many twists along the episode that I totally forget that I’ve watched it, I just relaxed and went with the flow.
So Season 3, is full of ups and downs. Some episodes are very good and others are just disposable. But, the 3x17 it's one of the good ones.
We got Faith going to the dark side of the force and getting some loyalty with the evil city Mayor - for almost 3 or 4 episode now.
Faith murders another being - this time a demon selling rare books about the Ascension Prophecy - and goes running to show some false vulnerability to Buffy's vampire boyfriend, Angel, trying seducing him through her false victimism. Just, because the evil mayor ordered.
But, then Buffy sees they both hugging outside Angel's house. That's enough to bring all her insecurities and later, she goes to talk with Willow about that.
And, in the meanwhile, Buffy & Company are apparently too busy worrying about the seller demon and the books about the Ascension. So, after their Watcher convincing Buffy, she goes with Faith to find the seller, but they just find his body.
On the next day, Faith goes through Angel's house again, to tell him she regrets doing a move on him, because she knew he was Buffy's boyfriend, and the other night, she just needed someone to fill the void. Short story short, she makes a move on him again, he refuses her, some shadow demon is summoned there and performs a ritual to remove Angel's soul and leave only Angelus.
Now, this is the scene where things got a little trick, y'all know. Faith and what should be Angelus are totally alone in there. Things get heated very fast, suddenly they're making out. Then, Angelus hits Faith, but she fight it back trying to dominate the Vampire Angelus and his hella of a temper, convincing him to listen to her and the new master of town. The scene ends up with Faith on top of Angelus, with very flirtation lines coming out of their mouths. Angelus agrees to listen to her, with the condition that she continue to ride him "doing what he wanted her to do and more...". She agrees, he relaxes his demon face and they surrender into a hot kiss.
After that, Buffy & Cia still are in that unsuccessful quest to find out everything about the Ascension. While Faith goes with Angelus to the cabinet of the Mayor. He finds out that the Mayor cannot be harmed until the Ascension happens.
Buffy goes to a hunt alone, while Faith and Angel are given as missing. Attracting her to his house, Angelus still pretends to be her loyal boyfriend. Obviously, a trap. They reveal their real intentions, knock out Buffy and lock her up with heavy chains on the wall.
When, Buffy starts to wake up, Faith starts a heated discussion full of bitterness and hate, where Buffy keep up with a solid "I am. I'm a better Slayer than you." and then Faith's plan falls apart and she is ambushed by Buffy and Angel, who were pretending the whole time, the soulless Angelus thing.
Buffy wins the crown as the queen of the Slayers, as she deserves it.
And, Buffy asks for a time on her relationship with Angel. After all, even though she asked him to do it for her, still their relationship was not ready at all to sustain that "double agent thing" and all that shit. Buffy says "Look, I know that you only did what I asked. And, we got what we wanted." to which Angel replies with a "I never wanted to go that far."
If, you add to the count.. the already there insecurities + the false pretend + the kisses and who know else with her slayer friend + the violence and trauma of reviving Angelus behaviors to keep the pretend going on.
I mean, If you asked me what the answer would be...
