One of the reasons Buffy The Vampire Slayer has made it to 100 episodes is its ability to create magic 'moments' * stand-out scenes and happenings that stick in the memories of anyone who sees them, whether casual viewer or die-hard fan. Some of them are significant for the effect they have on the characters; others are spectacular or shocking in themselves; still more are just plain funny. In the spirit of Channel Four and Graham Norton, then, we thought we'd celebrate 100 episodes of Buffy with a run-down of the top 100 moments.

The format that we've chosen to adopt instead lumps moments together according to either the general feel of the scene * comedy moments, shocking moments, dramatic moments, and so on * or the characters they involve. Obviously there's some overlap between the concepts, and several entries could have been included in more than one section, but hopefully you'll agree that it all makes some kind of sense.

68: Faith's Defection
* A Top Shocking Moment from Consequences

A pivotal point in the 'Faith arc' of the third season, as the rogue Slayer goes to the Mayor for a job. Having unsuccessfully tried to cover up the killing of the Deputy Mayor, and responding badly to the bungling attempts of Wesley and the Watcher's Council to calm her down by incarceration, Faith had already gone off the rails.

What we weren't quite expecting at this point, though, was that she'd actually go to the lengths of joining forces with the third season's major villain. Especially as he'd just sent one of his lackeys around to kill her.

Reprinted from Cult Times - July 2001