To begin, I've just got to say how disappointed I find myself with the primary villain in this arc: Gigi. Here in "Pt. 3," I find her to be increasingly simplistic and at times overly silly (see last frame). Fortunately even though she's turned into a relatively throw-away villain, her purpose in being here continues to shine through Faith. I just wish Gigi had a bit more going on in the brain department. There's quite a lot to like in this one, though, including one very enjoyable 'scene' between Buffy and Willow along with some overall sharper art.

This issue has two primary goals. The first is to continue building the relationship between Faith and Gigi so that there's some kind of payoff when the arc ends. The second is to have Gigi and Buffy duke it out while Faith's sitting in a corner wondering what to do. I like the approach, but while the execution of it is decent, it is also a bit flawed. I like the attempt to have Faith continue to bond with Gigi, and vice versa, but it just doesn't feel nearly as natural as their interaction in "Pt. 2." Although, I did enjoy Faith's repeated attempts to talk Gigi out of her desire to kill Buffy and, even more so, her attempts to enlighten Gigi to the fact that Roden's most likely using her, not the other way around like she thinks. Faith is clearly putting her experiences with the Mayor in S3 to excellent use.

When it comes to the Gigi/Buffy fight, I find myself mostly entertained... at least until Buffy gets the upper hand and spouts off some dialogue I honestly could not see Buffy ever wording like that. Fortunately this moment is interrupted by a Faith with interestingly unclear motives. One could make the argument that Faith charged Buffy simply to stop her from killing Gigi, an avenue which I can just barely buy based on their existing connection. Another possibility is that Faith saw Roden working his mojo from right behind Buffy and pushed her out of the way from being hit. A final thought is that maybe, and more likely, it's a little bit of both. I found this moment inspired.

While on the surface, it doesn't appear like the ensuing Buffy/Faith quarrel adds anything new to their complex relationship, it turns out it does and becomes a lot more obvious when "" (8x09) wraps up with Giles and Faith teaming up on a more permanent basis. Lines like Buffy telling Faith that "Giles never trusted you any more than I did" end up being deliciously turned upside down in "Pt. 4." Buffy makes a lot of wrong assumptions here, which I can largely forgive her for given the circumstances. How'd you feel if you were teleported in the middle of a nice conversation in the middle of your home into a fight to the death? Then you see an old friend/enemy/sorta-friend is there and she knocks you out of a window right when you're about to defend yourself? I think I'd also have come to some hasty conclusions.

When Faith has an opportunity to try to kill Buffy we get to read some of her thoughts. While we don't hear anything we couldn't already extrapolate ourselves, it's still nice to actually see Faith think it. Faith thinks, "Do it. Whenever she's around, you're the villain. But as soon as she's gone, you're the hero. That's right. Never forget how deep she cut you. Never forgot how deep." Eventually Faith's personality supercedes her buried frustration with Buffy and she pulls her back out of water yelling "shut up" to no one but her own thoughts. In reality, Faith doesn't really want to kill Buffy, she just wants to stay clear of her... "I wish you'd just go away." This line is very amusingly timed to Willow immediately helping Buffy "go away" via teleportation. It also looks like Buffy was actually listening to Faith when she, in anger, tells Willow: "Get me Giles." Things are definately starting to get wacky.

One particular scene had me in Buffy heaven for a (unfortunately for these comics) short while, and that was the Buffy/Willow interaction in the castle. Not only was their entire conversation together witty, loaded with quotables, and fun, but it was also very revealing in terms of how Buffy continues to evolve from where she left off in S7. Here we see her consider killing human beings to accomplish her mission. I'm beginning to see "Lies My Parents Told Me" (7x17) emerging as one of the most important episodes for seeing where Buffy's character is currently at. There, Giles questions some of her leadership decisions -- mainly pertaining to Spike -- which ends up somewhat damaging their relationship. Additionally, we see a changed Buffy admitting that now, she would let Dawn die to save the world. Both of these points are clearly being expanded on and excellently run with here in S8. This is fascinating to see and represents excellent continuity. I'll have plenty more to say about this in the coming issues.

To wrap this one up I'll say that, while it's definately got a few problems, I found myself very intrigued by all the character issues being dug up and twisted around. The actions in this issue set a lot of things in motion that will likely have a long-lasting effect on Faith, Buffy, and Giles. I also see some beautiful little nuggets of things to come subtly embedded in the writing. All in all, I find myself a pretty big fan of this issue.