4.16 Who Are You?

[Clare]

4.16 Who Are You? - Episode #072
It's Slayer versus Slayer and while Buffy tries to escape from Watcher's Council assassins, Faith assumes her identity - only to have an image crisis of her own.

Review (also post a score out of 10) and discuss this episode.

[cyclica]

This ep is choc full of character development for faith. She becomes buffy for a day, and by the end she's choosing to rescue people, and beating her old body, calling her old self 'nothing'. Wow. (She does revert a little bit when she appears on angel though). Seeing everything faith goes through is what makes this episode so great. I give this one a high 7.

The reason I'm not rating it higher is because found it a bit of a stretch that tara, who'd never met the real buffy, would be the one to realise what's going on. And those watchers were all arseholes. I thought they were all meant to be the good guys. So why is giles the only good watcher? And none of the scoobies thought it weird when 'buffy' caller her mother joyce instead of mom. You'd think one of them would have noticed.

[partcynic]

4x16 “Who Are You?”

Episode Rating = 8

Whenever I watch the show, it’s always comforting to see “written and directed by Joss Whedon” in the credits, as it’s almost always a sign that everything’s going to be great in the Buffyverse. “Who Are You?” is no exception, being my third-favourite ep of S4 (after “Hush” and “Restless”, which are also Joss double-headers), and one of the year’s densest and best-executed in terms of character progression. While wrapping the ‘return of Faith’ plot up succinctly, it also gives us the deepest insight into her character the show ever provided, wisely focusing on development rather than the limited ‘when will the others realise the Slayers have switched bodies?’ tension a lesser writer would have pursued. Taking a stock genre device and putting a new spin on it is a time-honoured “Buffy” technique, and the skill and success with which “Who Are You?” appropriates body-swaps and the ‘doing good feels good’ concept is enough to make it a minor classic.

What I Liked about “Who Are You?”:

- Sarah Michelle Gellar was given a tricky acting task here, and she handled it like a pro. Right from the first scene, she feels like another character (not quite Faith, but that’s fitting, since Faith is trying not to be herself), and she nails all of her mannerisms by the end of the first act. From a titillation standpoint, it’s fun to see her be an outwardly sexy ‘bad girl’, and it seems as though she’s enjoying portraying a provocative and comparatively carefree character (such as in her seducing Spike, which would have actually been the perfect point for him to start having a sexual interest in ‘Buffy’).

- Eliza Dushku doesn’t fare as well as SMG (in my opinion, she doesn’t feel like Buffy until the final act), but she still does a respectable job, especially in her wide-eyed innocence when chatting with Giles (“what’s a stevedore?”)

- Faith’s character development is superb throughout. At the start, she’s appropriately odd in dealing with her new body, and the way she recoils from Joyce’s hug is a telltale sign of things to come. The bathroom scene was excellent, possessing humour (pulling faces at the mirror) and important thematic set-up (her open mocking of Buffy and everything she supposedly stands for, with the crucial “because it’s wrong’ line).

- As the story progresses, Faith does, as living Buffy’s life starts to have an effect on her. As we know from “Enemies”, a big part of her resentment for Buffy comes from feeling as though Buffy unfairly got everything while she received nothing, but being exposed to reality lets her realise that Buffy has friends, a loving partner and general respect because of the person she is. Hearing sincere gratitude from the girl she saved was a nice initial step in blurring the situation, and having her subsequent flirtation with Riley rebuked in favour of something more substantial was a key moment. It’s genuinely sad to see how distressed and confused she was at the prospect of being offered love without conditions attached, and her morning-after reaction to being labelled a killer by Forrest was interesting. Her subsequent decision to save the endangered churchgoers instead of fleeing the country was indicative of she’d begun to almost believe she was Buffy, and the furious beating she gave her own body (and the dialogue that accompanied it) was a sad indicator of how much self-hatred she harbours. It was both a powerful and highly important moment, and I really felt for her in the final shot, where it seemed she had no idea what to believe anymore (and was brilliant set-up for her two “Angel” episodes).

- This is a huge episode for Willow/Tara, and in hindsight, it’s surprising that people didn’t twig about them as soon as it aired. Although most of their relationship is shrouded in subtext and metaphor, there were numerous, blatant allusions as to what’s really going on (“I am, you know. Yours.”; Faith’s comments about how Willow’s no longer ‘driving stick’; Tara’s obvious jealousy when Willow points out the vampire and Faith assumes she’s indicating romantic interest in him; and the super-obvious orgasmic writhing as she and Tara perform the nether-world spell), and it’s funny to think that so many viewers were so clueless.

- Going beyond the audience commentary on W/T, I enjoyed how their relationship was presented – it had the right mixture of sweetness and subtle sexuality, and the limitations the network placed on their portrayal have had an unexpected benefit. In banning physical affection, the writers have ended up emphasising the characters’ emotional connection and psychological intimacy, making their relationship feel honest and legitimate rather than a ploy for shock value or ratings. I also like the little differences that are emerging between them in terms of magic – back in “Hush”, it was Tara’s power that enabled them to move the vending machine, and it made sense that she was able to detect that something was wrong with ‘Buffy’, while Willow wasn’t. I wish they’d kept up the concept of Tara being more learned and more powerful magically, as it would have kept both she and Willow viable during later seasons (and prevented that stupid addiction plot from blighting our screens).

- Riley is recovering nicely after his less-than-stellar appearances in the big Initiative eps, and he was even a little funny here (such as his reason for turning up at the hostage scene being “I was late for church”). I couldn’t help but feel sympathetic that the first time he told Buffy he loved her, it wasn’t actually her, and I’m glad that the show didn’t choose to demonise him for inadvertently cheating.

- The Adam sub-plot was decent, and I’ve warmed to him as a clinical, detached monster messiah. It’s a unique take on evil for the series, and his combination of philosophy and murderousness is intriguing. It also makes his big plan appear more mysterious (and thus more interesting).

- All of the less-used characters are in good form. Xander, Anya and Giles are all funny (especially the latter), and served their purposes without feeling tacked on.

- The fight scenes in the church are good ones, and I liked the special effects as Faith staked the first vamp and it dusted as it spun in midair.

What I Disliked about “Who Are You?”:

- It would be good if there was a uniform measure applied to vampire staking/combustion. It’s annoying to have minor vamps instantly incinerating upon second-long exposure to sunlight, when the likes of Spike have endured longer with no such effect.

- The Watcher’s Council wetworks team are thankfully smarter than Wesley, but why did they neglect to restrain ‘Faith’’s legs? For these guys to be believable and intimidating, they need to be skilled and intelligent, and we’re not shown enough of that.

- It’s too fortunate that Faith sees the news report and decides to turn back, with Buffy having escaped the Council cronies, heard the announcement at Giles’ and decided to head there too. It was obviously vital to the plot, but could have been handled with more finesse.

Do I like this episode more or less than the last time I watched it?

I really enjoyed watching this again, as it was just as thoughtful and entertaining as I remembered it being. “Who Are You?” may not quite be Joss at the top of his game, but it’s a wonderfully in-depth piece of character analysis that does more for Faith than any “Buffy” ep before or after (thus making it amusing that it’s the one where Eliza Dushku doesn’t actually get to portray her). In addition to that strength, it also has excellent developments for both Willow/Tara and Buffy/Riley, as well as some strong humour moments courtesy of Giles. Overall, “Who Are You?” is definitely a highlight of S4, and one I’m happy to award a top-tier score of eight out of ten.