Who Are You (Buffy episode)
Encyclopedia
"Who Are You" is the 16th episode of season 4 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Written and directed by series creator Joss Whedon
, it originally aired February 29, 2000 on the WB Television Network
.
Buffy
, in Faith's body, is abducted by the Watchers Council's team. Meanwhile Faith, in Buffy's body, gives herself a makeover and heads to the Bronze
, where she has ruthless fun at the expense of Spike and Tara
. Tara recognizes that something is wrong, and she and Willow
perform a spell to find the real Buffy. Faith visits Riley
and has sex with him while Buffy escapes the Council's team and heads back to Sunnydale
in search of Giles
and her friends. Faith and Buffy independently go to rescue a group of people in a church that has been attacked by vampires. They fight, and Buffy (with the help of Willow and Tara's magic) restores herself and Faith to their rightful bodies. Faith subsequently escapes, and Buffy discovers that Riley had sex with Faith during the body swap
.
In their book discussing existentialism
in Buffy, Richardson and Rabb argue that this episode and the previous (intended or not) explore the impact of Sartre's Look - the outside view that causes a person to redefine themselves from the perspective of the Other. Faith can now literally see herself as Buffy sees her. When the real Buffy escapes from the Watchers’ Council and challenges Faith, the two fight, and Faith (in Buffy’s body) repeatedly punches her own face in a fit of self-loathing, shouting, "You’re nothing! Disgusting, murderous bitch! You're nothing! You're disgusting!" According to Richardson and Rabb, "Faith is finally seeing herself as Buffy sees her and is even harder on herself than Buffy has ever been."
position ... for the viewer, even as the show disavows this position".
Eliza Dushku is credited "as Buffy" in guest starring credits, not as Faith, to reflect the plot of the episode.
Joss Whedon
Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon is an American screenwriter, executive producer, director, comic book writer, occasional composer and actor, founder of Mutant Enemy Productions and co-creator of Bellwether Pictures...
, it originally aired February 29, 2000 on the WB Television Network
The WB Television Network
The WB Television Network is a former television network in the United States that was launched on January 11, 1995 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Tribune Broadcasting. On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros...
.
Plot
- Note: Buffy and Faith will be referred to by the character they are, rather than the body they're in.
Buffy
Buffy Summers
Buffy Summers is a fictional character from Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise. She first appeared in the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer before going on to appear in the television series and subsequent comic book of the same name...
, in Faith's body, is abducted by the Watchers Council's team. Meanwhile Faith, in Buffy's body, gives herself a makeover and heads to the Bronze
The Bronze
The Bronze is a fictional nightclub in Sunnydale, the fictional setting for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Of 144 episodes of the series, 66 have at least one scene at the Bronze, not including its appearance in the unaired pilot....
, where she has ruthless fun at the expense of Spike and Tara
Tara Maclay
Tara Maclay is a fictional character created for the fantasy television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer . She was developed by Joss Whedon and portrayed by Amber Benson from the fourth to the sixth season until the character's death. Tara is a shy young woman with magical talents who falls in love...
. Tara recognizes that something is wrong, and she and Willow
Willow Rosenberg
Willow Rosenberg is a fictional character created for the fantasy television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer . She was developed by Joss Whedon and portrayed throughout the TV series by Alyson Hannigan...
perform a spell to find the real Buffy. Faith visits Riley
Riley Finn
Riley Finn is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Portrayed by Marc Blucas, Riley was introduced in the 1999 season four premiere episode, "The Freshman", and Blucas was part of the series credited cast for the second part of season four...
and has sex with him while Buffy escapes the Council's team and heads back to Sunnydale
Sunnydale
Sunnydale, California is the fictional setting for the U.S. television drama Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Series creator Joss Whedon conceived the town as a representation of a generic California city, as well as a narrative parody of the all-too-serene towns typical in traditional horror...
in search of Giles
Rupert Giles
Rupert Giles is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The character is portrayed by Anthony Stewart Head. He serves as Buffy Summers' mentor and surrogate father figure...
and her friends. Faith and Buffy independently go to rescue a group of people in a church that has been attacked by vampires. They fight, and Buffy (with the help of Willow and Tara's magic) restores herself and Faith to their rightful bodies. Faith subsequently escapes, and Buffy discovers that Riley had sex with Faith during the body swap
Body swap
A body swap is a storytelling device seen in a variety of fiction, most often in television shows and movies, in which two people exchange minds and end up in each other's bodies. Alternatively, their minds may stay where they are as their bodies adjust...
.
Writing
Gregory Stevenson, in Televised Morality: The Case of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, finds it significant that Faith's moment where she "confesses the truth about herself and begins to experience the weight of moral responsibility" occurs in a church.In their book discussing existentialism
Existentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
in Buffy, Richardson and Rabb argue that this episode and the previous (intended or not) explore the impact of Sartre's Look - the outside view that causes a person to redefine themselves from the perspective of the Other. Faith can now literally see herself as Buffy sees her. When the real Buffy escapes from the Watchers’ Council and challenges Faith, the two fight, and Faith (in Buffy’s body) repeatedly punches her own face in a fit of self-loathing, shouting, "You’re nothing! Disgusting, murderous bitch! You're nothing! You're disgusting!" According to Richardson and Rabb, "Faith is finally seeing herself as Buffy sees her and is even harder on herself than Buffy has ever been."
Production
In a scene where Faith in Buffy's body tries to seduce Riley, the camera "cut[s] to a medium close-up shot of her leather-clad backside", ostensibly Riley's point-of-view shot. Jason Middleton notes that this is a rare case where the audience's gaze is "positioned in a highly fetishistic relation towards Buffy's body". However, Middleton notes, the show disavows this viewing position by reminding the audience that it is Faith's positioning the body, connoting its "look-at-me-ness"; Buffy herself is disconnected from this image of her body. Riley, with whom the viewer is identified, disavows the shot by appearing confused and taken aback rather than sexually predatory. Middleton concludes this covertly allows "a scopophilicScopophilia
Scopophilia or scoptophilia, from Greek "love of looking", is deriving pleasure from looking. As an expression of sexuality, it refers to sexual pleasure derived from looking at erotic objects: erotic photographs, pornography, naked bodies, etc....
position ... for the viewer, even as the show disavows this position".
Eliza Dushku is credited "as Buffy" in guest starring credits, not as Faith, to reflect the plot of the episode.
Arc significance
- Faith literally takes over Buffy's life, realizing an earlier sense of anxiety that Buffy experienced in "Faith, Hope & Trick" when Faith first arrives in Sunnydale. This theme is explored further in Season 7, particularly the episodes "Empty Places", and "Touched".
- Crossover with Angel: Faith ends up escaping to Los Angeles in "Five by Five".
- While in Buffy's body and thus in the Scoobies' company, Faith vividly imagines killing Willow; in "SanctuarySanctuary (Angel episode)"Sanctuary" is episode 19 of season 1 in the television show Angel. Co-written by Tim Minear and series creator Joss Whedon and directed by Michael Lange, it was originally broadcast on May 2, 2000 on the WB network....
," she has a similar fantasy of killing Angel. As Buffy, Faith acknowledges Willow's hatred of Faith, first expressed in "ChoicesChoices (Buffy episode)"Choices" is the 19th episode of season 3 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.-Plot synopsis:A box - the Box of Gavrok - is due to arrive by courier at the airport. The Mayor offers Faith a knife in return for intercepting it. In between fighting vampires, Buffy complains that Angel...
," where Willow mocked Faith's troubled past and told her that, unlike Buffy and Angel, Willow did not think Faith could ever redeem herself. - When Faith flirts and teases with Spike in Buffy's body, Spike clearly reveals some of the repressed lust he harbors for Buffy, foreshadowing their later relationship.
- Spike and Faith do not meet again until three years later, when the Slayer returns to Sunnydale as an ally against the First EvilFirst EvilThe First Evil is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The First Evil first appeared in the third season episode "Amends", and became the main antagonist of the 7th and final season.A being manifested from all evil in existence, the First is an...
. Faith reminds him of this conversation, and he clearly remembers it, noting that it is "not the kind of thing a man forgets." - Both slayers come to understand each other a bit better. As Buffy (in Faith's body) feels how lonely, helpless Faith really is and understands how people actually treat her. Faith (in Buffy's body) starts to feel remorse and feels the power of how good it feels to help, as she helped the girl in The Bronze and was actually thanked.
- Faith (in Buffy's body) becomes the first person to recognize Willow and Tara's romantic relationship when she comments that Willow "isn't driving stick anymore." She, along with Spike in "The Yoko Factor", are the only characters to recognize it without being told. Tara herself references it when she states that she is Willow's.
- This episode also contains the first explicit references stating that Tara and Willow are having a romantic relationship (previously all that had been given were "hints").
- Tara demonstrates her power, as she is the only one who recognizes that Buffy is not acting herself: the first of many times Tara sees more than meets the eye when it comes to the Scooby Gang's problems. She shows her magical knowledge, as she knows how to find out what is wrong.
- Tara and Willow's spell to find Buffy in the nether realm is used as a metaphor for their first sexual experience.
- Buffy (in Faith's body) convinces Giles of her identity by describing people and events from past episodes, including Ethan Rayne's transformation of Giles into a demon ("A New ManA New Man (Buffy episode)"A New Man" is the 12th episode of season 4 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.-Plot synopsis:Buffy and Riley are making out on her bed, but before it gets too serious, Willow barges into the room and tells them of a demon that attacked the rec room. Armed with weapons, they go to the...
"), Giles' girlfriend Olivia (first seen in "The FreshmanThe Freshman (Buffy episode)"The Freshman" is the first episode of season 4 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode was written and directed by series creator Joss Whedon. The narrative follows Buffy Summers as she attempts to fit into her new college environment at UC Sunnydale...
"), and Buffy's telepathic discovery that Giles had sex with her mother Joyce ("EarshotEarshot (Buffy episode)"Earshot" is the 18th episode of season three of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.-Plot synopsis:On patrol, Buffy runs into two demons that she fights, and succeeds in killing one of them. While the other escapes, the blood from the demon she killed gets absorbed into the back of her...
"). - Faith (in Buffy's body) states that "Faith's" arrest was "poetic justice". This references Faith and Buffy's earlier confrontation in "Graduation DayGraduation Day (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)"Graduation Day" is the season finale of the WB Television Network's third season of the drama television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, consisting of the twenty-first and twenty-second episodes. They are also the fifty-fifth and fifty-sixth episodes of the show overall...
" in which Buffy states that sacrificing Faith's blood as a cure for Angel would be "poetic justice", as Faith was the one who poisoned him. - While Faith (in Buffy's body) is being punched by the vampire in the church, Buffy (in Faith's body) stakes the vampire from behind in the same way as Faith had done in Season 3's "Bad Girls".
- Willow references "The Pack" when she refers to possession by hyena.
- When Buffy is "not herself" for some reason, she often appears with crimped hair, as she does in this episode while Faith is possessing her body. This also occurs noticeably in "Beer Bad", when Buffy becomes a prehistoric version of herself, and in "Something Blue", when Willow's spell causes her to become engaged to Spike.
- When Faith (in Buffy's body) is talking to Tara in the Bronze she says "I guess you never really know someone 'til you've been inside their skin". She is referencing the book To Kill a MockingbirdTo Kill a MockingbirdTo Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. It was instantly successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and has become a classic of modern American literature...
: "You don't really know a person until you climb into their skin and walk around in it." - Faith (in Buffy's body) sleeps with Riley, further complicating Buffy's relationship with him.
- The episode reveals Riley is a regular churchgoer. Unlike many openly Christian TV characters, he is clearly open-minded about sex, not only in accepting his fellow soldiers' premarital sexual activities (and engaging in premarital sex himself in this episode) but in assisting the UC Sunnydale Lesbian Alliance in "Something Blue".
- Adam begins rallying vampires to aid him in his plans.
External links
- "Who Are You" at BuffyGuide.com