S04.E16: Who Are You?

[Joe Hellandback]

The Good; One of SMG's great performances as Faith-as-Buffy, what a shame we don't get to see more of Buffy-as-Faith. Terrific in every way

The Bad; Even Adam can't spoil this one but then thankfully he's not in it for too long.

Best line; "Tiny, tiny babies" ASH overacts to great effect

Character death; 1 parishioner killed at the church, Buffy, Riley kill one vamp each and Faith kills two.

Shot; No, despite the Watcher's Council blazing away during Buffy-as-Faith's escape. Buffy-as-Faith actually uses a gun in her escape.

Tied up; Buffy-as-Faith in chainsx2. She later tells Giles that this isn't the time for 'bondage fun'. Implying she's open to it at other times?

Knocked out; Buffy-as-Faith doped to the eyeballs

Women good/men bad; Buffy-as-Faith effortlessly outsmarts the Watcher Council's goons.

Jeez!; Your heart freezes when you think Faith-as-Buffy has stabbed Will, thankfully it's only a daydream

Kinky dinky; Ah, Faith, how the kinky dinky column has missed you! Faith-as-Buffy wears the sluttiest outfit we'll ever see on SMG and then seduces Riley asking 'What nasty little desire have you been itching to try out. Am I a bad girl? Do you want to hurt me?' and 'Well if you don't want to play...'. Riley doesn't like the idea of a 'bunch of marines' watching him during sex but FaB might dig it? Buffy/Joyce wear a brand of lipstick subtly named 'Harlot'. What next, slut? Skank? Ho? I must confess that my favourite ever adult fanfic ('Thanks for lending me your body, B') is based on this story where Faith takes the opportunity to not only have sex with Riley but the rest of the Scoobies, Spike and just about everyone else as well, even Adam (but oddly not Giles?). Of course in the follow up story ('Thanks for taking care of my body, Faith') not only do Buffy and Faith kiss and make up (and a whole lot more!) but we find out that Buffy had her own sexy fun in Faith's body. Check them out IF you're over 18 and EXTREMELY open-minded. Xander refers to the 'Orgasmantor'. Xander and Anya are going to have sex near some candles. FaB says that'll last about 7 minutes (based on Xander's prior performance?) According to BaF Joyce thinks Giles is like a stevedore (docker) during sex which adds another colourful chapter to momma Summers sexual history. Plus Faith-as-Buffy teasing Spike at the Bronze.

Calling Captain Subtext; Faith-as-Buffy meets Tara and deducts that Willow is 'no longer driving stick' (what a wonderful euphemism!). Once again the villains show their insight. Faith also seems to take the opportunity to, ahem, 'explore' Buffy's body in the bath (finally able to get her hands on it?). Of course when Faith-as-Buffy is hitting Buffy-as-Faith in the end it's perfectly clear that this is actually Faith expressing her own self-loathing at her image, just as she tells Joyce to burn the lipstick because it was Faith's choice. The Watcher's team use the word 'ponce' as an insult. Faith-as-Buffy thinks there's some 'big old Bertha' waiting to shower Buffy-as-Faith with affection in prison. Plus more erotic spellcasting from Willow and Tara and Tara breaking a million hearts and ending a lot of argument by telling Willow that she's 'Yours'. Faith can't help her Slayer instincts, saving the girl at the Bronze. She wants Riley to punish her and Joyce to burn the lipstick because she hates herself. Check out the little look of triumph on FaB when BaF is being carried to the ambulance, holding Joyce's hand as if to say 'She's mine now'. When Joyce hugs her she obviously wants it but is uncomfortable with it (same expression when she saves the girl at the Bronze)

Spoiler

Where's Dawn? Does she have any inkling that Buffy is not as she appears to be?

Missing scenes; Apocalypses; 5,

What the fanficcers thought; A nice one called 'In your best friends shoes' where instead of Faith and Buffy switching bodies it's Xander and Willow. Willow enjoys not having to queue for the toilets at concerts, Xander pretty much stays in bed playing with Willow's breasts and poor Tara is VERY confused.

Questions and observations; Such a tour-de-force, brilliant at every level. The one gag I wonder they never did was for Faith-as-Buffy tries to reach for something but can't because Buffy's body is shorter than Faith's. But maybe SMG is sensitive about her height? Although they do joke about it in season 7. This marks Anya's indisputable entry into the Scoobies, she's at the briefing at Giles' house without any back story. This makes the Scoobies; Buffy, Xander, Willow, Giles and Anya. Shouldn't someone have shown Anya and Riley what Faith looks like? Nice that Riley actually goes to church. I always thought the line for Faith when the lead vamp is mouthing off about where god is should have been 'He couldn't make it but he sent me'. Note how hurt FaB is when Riley says he loves her asking 'What do you want from her?' Adams speech is pretty convincing, he again underlines why humans rule and demons don't. The Bronze loses another pool cue. The guy Spike pushes at the Bronze looks like Asian Joe. Collins says 'Gas', as a Brit he'd probably say 'Petrol'.

Marks out of 10; 10/10, competes with Hush and Restless for the best ep of the season.

[Halting Hex]

13 hours ago, Joe Hellandback said:

Xander pretty much stays in bed playing with Willow's breasts

Wow, gross.  That's even worse than Fuffy fingering herself in the bath; Buffy and Faith weren't lifelong friends.  What a violation it would be for Xander to do that to Willow.

Strongly acted, the "flaming O" spell is a key development for Willow/Tara, and the "Eliza Dushku as Buffy" credit never fails to make me smile.  But (as JonW81 pointed out on TWoP, way back when) it wastes too much of the episode having "Buffy" interact with people Faith has no interest in (Riley, Forrest, Tara, Spike) and shoves the actual Scoobies she has a grudge against off to the side.  (Xander doesn't even get to do his Season 4 "hey, turn on the TV!" shtick…he calls from off-screen to tell the gang to turn on the TV.  Sheesh.)  The bit where Fuffy is able to do a perfect Buffy-reassuring-Willow impression ("I'd never let her hurt you") while simultaneously fantasizing about stabbing Willow to death is great; the later bit at the Bronze where she's so blatantly out of character as "Buffy"…not so much.

13 hours ago, Joe Hellandback said:

Shouldn't someone have shown Anya and Riley what Faith looks like?

Yeah.  As cute as it is that when Riley tries to stop that "Miss" from going into the church, he not only doesn't know this is his katra-displaced girlfriend, but he also doesn't recognize the infamous "Faith" that everyone's been talking about, somebody really should have showed the big lug a picture.  I mean, he did ask about her last episode, after all.

Not as great as people tend to think it is, IMO.  Joss seems to have caught Marti's disease; he had the climax in mind (Faith beating up her own body) and wrote backwards from it.  Which, given that this is character development for a character who'd been in coma for all of the season before this and ends the episode on a boxcar out of town, makes the whole exercise rather pointless, IMO.

[Loandbehold]

7 hours ago, Halting Hex said:

somebody really should have showed the big lug a picture.

Did anyone have a picture of Faith? She didn't go to SHS. ("Go Razorbacks!") Maybe somewhere Giles has a Slayer Yearbook like he had a manual. Still, I admit that Willow's description of Faith as a "cleavegy slut bomb" (or something similar) while not inaccurate, could have at least included that she had long dark hair.

[Joe Hellandback]

23 hours ago, Halting Hex said:

Wow, gross.  That's even worse than Fuffy fingering herself in the bath; Buffy and Faith weren't lifelong friends.  What a violation it would be for Xander to do that to Willow.

Strongly acted, the "flaming O" spell is a key development for Willow/Tara, and the "Eliza Dushku as Buffy" credit never fails to make me smile.  But (as JonW81 pointed out on TWoP, way back when) it wastes too much of the episode having "Buffy" interact with people Faith has no interest in (Riley, Forrest, Tara, Spike) and shoves the actual Scoobies she has a grudge against off to the side.  (Xander doesn't even get to do his Season 4 "hey, turn on the TV!" shtick…he calls from off-screen to tell the gang to turn on the TV.  Sheesh.)  The bit where Fuffy is able to do a perfect Buffy-reassuring-Willow impression ("I'd never let her hurt you") while simultaneously fantasizing about stabbing Willow to death is great; the later bit at the Bronze where she's so blatantly out of character as "Buffy"…not so much.

Yeah.  As cute as it is that when Riley tries to stop that "Miss" from going into the church, he not only doesn't know this is his katra-displaced girlfriend, but he also doesn't recognize the infamous "Faith" that everyone's been talking about, somebody really should have showed the big lug a picture.  I mean, he did ask about her last episode, after all.

Not as great as people tend to think it is, IMO.  Joss seems to have caught Marti's disease; he had the climax in mind (Faith beating up her own body) and wrote backwards from it.  Which, given that this is character development for a character who'd been in coma for all of the season before this and ends the episode on a boxcar out of town, makes the whole exercise rather pointless, IMO.

So you've no problem with FaB having sex with Adam but you object to XaW 'exploring'? I'm sure Willow did the same. I like the fact that FaB gets to explore Buffy's world, makes it all the more interesting. It provides the reason for Faith's self-loathing at the end, it shows her what she could have been, 

15 hours ago, Loandbehold said:

Did anyone have a picture of Faith? She didn't go to SHS. ("Go Razorbacks!") Maybe somewhere Giles has a Slayer Yearbook like he had a manual. Still, I admit that Willow's description of Faith as a "cleavegy slut bomb" (or something similar) while not inaccurate, could have at least included that she had long dark hair.

Ah, the days before selfies! 

[Halting Hex]

8 minutes ago, Joe Hellandback said:

So you've no problem with FaB having sex with Adam but you object to XaW 'exploring'?

Sure, you can have Fuffy fuck somebody really gross to skew things.  (Like Spike, for example.  After all, at least Adam is still partly human.  Spike's a corpse and a demon and nothing more.)

But at the end of the day, Xander molesting Willow would be more of a violation that Faith raping Buffy.  Because Xander means more to Willow and is more deeply trusted by Willow than Faith was by Buffy.  You can't violate somebody's trust if the trust isn't there to begin with.  Thankfully, Xander's already shown that he won't cross those lines, in Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered. Which makes that sort of fanfic even sillier, IMO.

[lembergwatcher]

After watching this ep for the first time years ago I was one step away from admitting I wanted Buffy to remain in Faith's body for the rest of the series (therefore Eliza D. becoming the show's main lead). Something told me those intimate moments between Faith!Buffy would be 1000 times hotter if 19-years-old Eliza played the horny version of Buffy instead of 23-years-old SMG (Sarah was very hot in first two/three seasons of the show, but somehow I didn't like the way her heroine looked throughout season 4. Therefore Eliza will always have the first prize in my mini beauty contest when it comes to that particular season).

Spoiler

But then the eventual Faith's storyline wasn't that bad either IMO. Though I would like to see more of her prison scenes - especially the ones involving some showering, hehe.

Edited September 11, 2018 by lembergwatcher

[Halting Hex]

But Eliza wouldn't be playing a horny Buffy; she'd be playing an ultra-serious (and really pissed-off, on account of Faith stealing her body) version of Buffy.

"Giles, concentrate!  Faith has taken my body and, for all I know, she's taken it to Cuernavaca."

[Joe Hellandback]

6 hours ago, lembergwatcher said:

After watching this ep for the first time years ago I was one step away from admitting I wanted Buffy to remain in Faith's body for the rest of the series (therefore Eliza D. becoming the show's main lead). Something told me those intimate moments between Faith!Buffy would be 1000 times hotter if 19-years-old Eliza played the horny version of Buffy instead of 23-years-old SMG (Sarah was very hot in first two/three seasons of the show, but somehow I didn't like the way her heroine looked throughout season 4. Therefore Eliza will always have the first prize in my mini beauty contest when it comes to that particular season).

  Hide contents

But then the eventual Faith's storyline wasn't that bad either IMO. Though I would like to see more of her prison scenes - especially the ones involving some showering, hehe.

ED is actually the hottest of the Buffy girls in my opinion although SMG looks beautiful throughout (although a little too thin by season 5). 

6 hours ago, Halting Hex said:

But Eliza wouldn't be playing a horny Buffy; she'd be playing an ultra-serious (and really pissed-off, on account of Faith stealing her body) version of Buffy.

"Giles, concentrate!  Faith has taken my body and, for all I know, she's taken it to Cuernavaca."

That's what I liked so much about the fanfics I mentioned, FaB cutting loose as we always wanted Buffy to. But BaF also appreciating the freedom of being carefree in Faith's body. 

[Joe Hellandback]

6 hours ago, nosleepforme said:

WHAT ABOUT CHARISMA? YOU ARE FORGETTING CHARISMA. 

Hell no (and I've actually met her) but ED tops the bill for me. 

[Halting Hex]

Well, I'm pretty sure we can agree that Eliza is the hottest Albanian-American actor out there (unless you're really into Jim Belushi, for some reason), but I do think CC gives her a run for her money here.  Depends if you value some, er, assets over others.

And I'll never understand why Eliza got those cheek implants

Spoiler

before S7

; they threw the planes in her face all off.  Nix the knife, kids.

Edited September 12, 2018 by Halting Hex

[Joe Hellandback]

39 minutes ago, Halting Hex said:

Well, I'm pretty sure we can agree that Eliza is the hottest Albanian-American actor out there (unless you're really into Jim Belushi, for some reason), but I do think CC gives her a run for her money here.  Depends if you value some, er, assets over others.

And I'll never understand why Eliza got those cheek implants before S7; they threw the planes in her face all off.  Nix the knife, kids.

Must say I never noticed? I'd have placed her plastic surgery in other areas.