From: owner-stillpt-digest@smoe.org (stillpt-digest) To: stillpt-digest@smoe.org Subject: stillpt-digest V2 #59 Reply-To: stillpt@smoe.org Sender: owner-stillpt-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-stillpt-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk stillpt-digest Sunday, March 12 2000 Volume 02 : Number 059 Today's Subjects: ----------------- b/comments 3/11 ["Donald G. Keller" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2000 20:22:28 -0500 (EST) From: "Donald G. Keller" Subject: b/comments 3/11 Let's take yet another bash at this very vexing most recent new episode, "Who Are You?" (Another scan through, another swatch of notes...) To begin with, rather than write out some formula every time, I've decided to use the abbreviations B/F (for Buffy-as-Faith) and F/B (for Faith-as-Buffy). (Note to music analysts: B and F of course define an interval of a tritone, the =diabolus in musica=, the most dissonant interval.) I had another look at the climactic confrontation in the church. Starting from the point where B/F has killed the vampire threatening F/B and they're staring at one another: F/B then attacks B/F, getting into that double-time punching mode we're familiar with when Buffy is really upset and channeling it into aggression (cf. the fight against Angel at the end of "Innocence" and the fight against Spike in "The Harsh Light of Day"). B/F manages to knock F/B away for a moment (and could have run away at that point, just to note again that they're evenly matched and either is able to gain a momentary advantage). This dialogue follows (Fair Use Only as usual): B/F: [tightly] You can't win this. F/B: [wildly] SHUT UP! Do you think I'm afraid of you? [grabs B/F, throws her on the floor, pummels her] You're nothing!...disgusting!...murderous...bitch! You're nothing!...disgusting!... [B/F grabs her hand; the switching-device takes effect; both fall back, dazed; FAITH scrambles up and runs away. BUFFY checks herself somewhat wonderingly. END SCENE] Before I go any further, let me jump back to the confrontation between Buffy and Faith on campus in "This Year's Girl." Not the whole scene, just a short list of phrases uttered by Faith in the course of this one short conversation: "You tried to gut me, Blondie." "...better-than-thou..." "...this self-righteous blonde chick stabs me..." "...the chick [Faith] she [Buffy] nearly killed for him..." "You took my life, B--payback's a bitch!" What this says to me (combined with the evidence from the dreams) is that Faith is consumed with, obsessed by, two facts: 1) Buffy tried to murder her 2) Buffy still thinks she's better than Faith. So when B/F says "You can't win this [because I'm going to beat you]," F/B just snaps. And the whole "you're nothing, murderous bitch" is exactly in line with what Faith said to Buffy on campus. So I'm still inclined to use Occam's Razor in this case and say Faith was talking about Buffy, not herself. About the title of the episode. Important item left out of the F/B and Riley scene: when she scrambles off the bed, just before she says "What do you want from...her?" she says "Who are you?" which is another curious question. F/B doesn't know Riley at all of course, and apparently is wondering about his motives. (I =think= the other instance of the title line is B/F talking to the Council guys.) By the way, two significant lines during the Buffy/Faith battle at the end of "This Year's Girl" BUFFY: "[Riley]'s not big on sleaze." FAITH: [re going after Riley]"...something to remember me by after I move on." Both true, and as it turns out, not contradictory. Good point from Meredith about Faith's sexual experience being mostly as a user (and possibly being used), and that's why Riley's straightforward gentlemanly kindness (as Hilary pointed out) really threw her for a loop. Not at all the experience she expected. Which brings me to David's point that what Faith learned in this episode was that Buffy's life was different than Faith thought it was, and maybe it was worth sticking with rather than sabotaging. This is plausible to me. Is Faith capable of change? Accepting responsibility? Taking on Buffy's life? That's not how I originally "read" the episode; and if she =had= started to feel that way, why did she go to the airport? However...she =did= leave the airport to go to the church, and for that matter she stayed the rest of the night with Riley. I suppose we'll find out as things develop how this experience has affected Faith (I'm =sure= we'll find out how it's affected Buffy), and to my mind it could go either way. An interesting parallel: what does F/B say when 1) Joyce hopes she and Buffy can spend some time together 2) Spike foresees a confrontation between him and Buffy? In both cases, "Count on it." Which, at those times, before the thanks from the girl she saves (which I'm willing to consider the turning-point if it turns out Faith "reforms"), was a baldfaced lie. Another interesting parallel. I was noticing that the episode being rerun Tuesday is "Something Blue" (definitely the funniest, and one of the best, episodes this season), and I suddenly realized that Buffy's little "Look at my neck..." speech to Spike was very much in the same vein as F/B's speech to Spike. Two Slayers with but a single thought? And I was thinking back again to the =Entertainment Weekly= thing where SMG said that Buffy's dream date would be Spike, but Joss Whedon said "no more vampires." Note that the boss has now come up with =two different= ways for Buffy to "playact" a liaison with Spike. Re Faith's acting like an experienced Slayer enough to cow Buffy a little: Faith isn't =all= bluster, but she's a lot bluster; and has absolutely no =outward= self-doubt. If she had killed, say, half a dozen or a dozen vampires, she'd feel like she was just as good as Buffy, despite Buffy's =much= greater experience. (Note the difference with Riley's feeling his 17 kills/captures was dwarfed by Buffy.) Allen: So if you =can= understand F/B's phone conversation, what =is= the text of the short phrase she mumbles in between the card's expiration date and "I'll take it"? I still can't parse it. One more thing for this go-round. I've been thinking what an achievement it is that the writers have taken these two young women (SMG and Eliza Dushku), not so different in "type" from dozens of their peers in other teen shows and movies (though obviously in the upper talent bracket) and created for them (in collaboration with the abilities of the actors embodying them) two characters who are not only strong, independent women, but who are =scary=, downright menacing, whose sudden appearance on the scene (see Faith turning around in the campus scene, for example) can be absolutely chilling. A pair of really great characters. ------------------------------ End of stillpt-digest V2 #59 ****************************