Buffy rewatch: 3.07. Revelations

[boot_the_grime]

The last episode was Jane Espenson’s debut, and this one is Doug Petrie’s - which rounds up the list of core writers that were on the staff until the finale (Whedon, Noxon, Fury, Espenson, Petrie), with the exception of David Greenwalt, who left at the end of season 3 to run the Angel spinoff. It’s an average but important episode - it moves the

Comments

[itsnotmymind]

Maybe it’s not just how she feels about vampires, but about men as well. Post hits another button with her when she tells Faith that Buffy is blinded by love - Faith is prone to not trusting men and seeing romantic feelings as a weakness.

I also think Faith is jealous of Buffy's feelings for Angel--not necessarily in a romantic way (although I am open to that interpretation), but just in this sense: Faith is on her own. Buffy is pretty much the most important person in her life at this time. But Faith isn't the most important person in Buffy's life. And now Buffy is keeping secrets from Faith to protect some mass-murderer whom she loves more than she will ever love Faith.

[selenak]

And now Buffy is keeping secrets from Faith to protect some mass-murderer whom she loves more than she will ever love Faith.

Arguably, this could have given Faith the idea, not immediately thought through but definitely verbalized later, that Buffy is turned on by ruthless killers, and this might also one day apply to her. Even without slashy subtext, when she says to Buffy in "Consequences" to admit that the whole Angelus situation got her hot seems to point directly back to Revelations, and Faith's interpretation of the Buffy/Angel situation. She's wrong there - Buffy never gave the impression of finding Angel sans soul sexier than with it (or sexy at all) - but it's very Faith and her insecurities, as well as hinted at backstory, to come to that conclusion. (After all, she never knew Buffy during s2.)

[boot_the_grime]

That scene in "Consequences" is so interesting to analyze - I'll probably write a lot about it when I get to that episode. From Faith's POV, Buffy thinks she's a "good girl" and Faith was in that scene trying to knock her off her pedestal and prove that Buffy is really a lot like her and that she should accept it. She sees Buffy's attraction to Angel as evidence of that (and judging by Enemies and Who Are You?, Faith isn't repressed about occasionally finding mass-murdering vampires sexy). Faith also thinks that Buffy enjoys violence just like she does, and she's triumphant when she manages to provoke Buffy to hit her in anger(which is in a way a mirror of Buffy provoking Kendra's anger to show her that emotions are assets to a Slayer), treating it as a proof that she's right and she and Buffy are one of a kind

[selenak]

I agree that Faith was completely wrong about Buffy finding soulless Angel sexy, but at the same time, I don't think that she is completely off the mark when it comes to Buffy's attraction to Angel being darker than Buffy would have wanted to think.

Oh certainly, though I think when remembering such Buffy lines like "when you kiss me, I want to die" from her pre-Innocence days, one has also to remember she was 16 then. Yes, a 16 years old forced to grow up very quickly, but still, 16. I also agree that one of Buffy's ways of coping with the s2 trauma after the fact is to go for the "I loved Angel despite him being a vampire" interpretation rather than to admit a connection between her feelings for Angel and the fact he's a vampire, and that this is one of the things which disturb her about her attraction to Spike. However, I would argue that in s3, she has the additional problem (which she doesn't have later, by the time she has her relationship with Spike, at least not to the same degree, because there's the Riley experience in

[seldonp38]

I have never been a fan of Angel's. Nor did I approve of Buffy keeping his resurrection a secret from the Scoobies. Yet . . . the library scene in "Revelations" disturbed me. I don't know what it is, but I kept getting the feeling that the Scoobies always expected Buffy to adhere to the role of vampire slayer while laced in a straitjacket. If there is one thing about Buffy's relationship with Giles and the Scoobies that has burned me for years was their penchant of putting Buffy on a pedestal and trying to dictate her behavior and moral compass. And yet, they had expected her to give them a pass for their transgressions . . . which she did a lot. Whenever Buffy found herself in conflict with her friends, a lot of hypocrisy - on their part seemed to go around.