Comments | gabrielleabelle: Episode Poll: 4.16 Who Are You?

gabrielleabelle

Episode Poll: 4.16 Who Are You?

Oct 18, 2011 05:30

Hey, guys! We're gonna do that episode poll thing! For Who Are You? this time around!

Still no picture. My comp's all fixed, but I haven't gotten Photoshop set up yet. Alas.

( It's a good old-fashioned body swap! )

episode poll, faith, my happy season is s4, poll, btvs

Comments 90

angearia October 18 2011, 10:39:40 UTC

I think it's hard to judge Riley for not noticing something mystical was up, but I do think it was weird how he didn't notice how Buffy was acting so unlike herself. Which drives home to me how he really doesn't know her that well. Considering how strange she was acting, it seemed like a weird time to profess love for her when she was being unBuffylike ( ... )

gabrielleabelle October 18 2011, 10:44:48 UTC

Yeah, it is odd that Riley doesn't even seem to register that Buffy's acting strangely. On the other hand, he's seen Buffy act off-the-wall nutso before (Something Blue). Has he been let in on the fact that that was a spell?

And then Superstar hammers home how Riley doesn't know much about magic.

But actually I think the power is bound to her spirit and manifests in her body. And if her spirit were transferred to another body, that her previous body wouldn't have Slayer powers (no animating Slayer spirit, just like an animating vampire spirit), but that in her new body she might not be able to tap into her Slayer powers because of this disconnection of spirit and body.

Makes sense. I put that it's connected to the body on instinct. I have no real good explanation for my answer. It just makes sense to me. :)

angearia October 18 2011, 10:50:16 UTC

No, not a spell, but Buffy made out like she deliberately acted off-the-wall to unnerve him. So maybe he thinks that's what's happening here? He thinks she's trying to provoke him so she's being playful in a different way. I think he just doesn't know her well enough to tell either way.

gabrielleabelle October 18 2011, 10:52:13 UTC

Well, yeah, I meant if he ever got told that her SB behavior was a spell after the Slayer revelation. I doubt it.

Also, I just commented to lycoris about sexytimes and Buffy and Riley being relatively new partners in that area. That can bring some surprises sometimes.

Thread 10

lycoris October 18 2011, 10:44:24 UTC

I don't think it's really fair to think Riley should have realised Buffy wasn't Buffy, although I do rather think that he ought to have talked to her a little more - she was behaving very oddly, noticably so and I think he ought to have checked that out more.

I've always felt that Faith's turnaround worked. She always rather wanted to be Buffy and she got very involved in the role. And even her Faith side would probably have enjoyed taking on the church of vampires - it's the kind of wild odds that she'd always liked.

Despite voting "not sure", the more I think about it, the more I think Buffy's powers are body based rather than spirit.

Love this episode. Love it very, very much. :)

gabrielleabelle October 18 2011, 10:50:30 UTC

You know, on thinking about it more, I'm still okay with Riley not recognizing people's odd behavior. Buffy and Riley haven't been having sex long, and sometimes people's partners surprise them in the bedroom. For all Riley knew, Buffy had a bit of a kinky side that hadn't shown before. He expressed that he wasn't comfortable with it and went from there.

Riley's fault-free. Bad Faith!

I've always felt that Faith's turnaround worked.

Heh. I seem to be the odd duck out on that question. :)

It's a YMMV thing, I guess. Somehow, whenever watching the episode, I get a bit thrown by Faith ditching her flight to go save a church full of people.

angearia October 18 2011, 10:51:56 UTC

Yeah, I was just thinking that Riley might've thought it was a surprising kinky side she was revealing.

gabrielleabelle October 18 2011, 10:55:26 UTC

Oh, you beat me...

Thread 13

beer_good_foamy October 18 2011, 11:36:44 UTC

1. I can't really blame Riley. They've been dating for, what, a month? He has no clue about what's going on ("Who's Faith?"), he's already seen Buffy act by-his-standards weird more than once (here's a question - did Buffy ever tell him that her engagement to Spike in "Something Blue" was a spell?)... As reasonable conclusions go, at this point, "Woah! Kinky Buffy" is really a lot closer than "Woah! Magical mystery bodyswap!" Whether he should have asked her if she's on something is another matter, but ( ... )

mikeda October 18 2011, 11:52:34 UTC

can't really blame Riley

Especially since Willow, Xander, Giles, and Joyce also didn't notice that anything was wrong.

beer_good_foamy October 18 2011, 14:58:06 UTC

On the other hand, Faith didn't demand spankings and public sex from them, so they had a little less reason to suspect that something was wrong... Personally I think that if there's any point where Riley should have twigged that something's wrong, it's when Faith asks him if she's been a bad girl and if he wants to hurt her. That's a "hang on, are you OK?" moment, whether you suspect a bodyswap or not.

And on that subject, I have to say that I really like the "She's not your friend - literally" moment from Tara. Nice little subversion of a classic melodramatic trope.

mikeda October 20 2011, 11:50:19 UTC

It is interesting that the only person to realize on her own that "Buffy" isn't Buffy is one who had never met the real Buffy...

Thread 8

teragramm October 18 2011, 12:25:33 UTC

1. Should Riley have clued in to the fact that Buffy wasn't Buffy? It always amazes me that people excuse Riley and say he really had no way of knowing....... excuse me,,,, he had sex with Faith. I'm pretty sure Buffy and Faith are nothing alike in bed and besides sex, what about kissing? I really don't think they kiss alike. He absolutely should have known something was up.

gabrielleabelle October 18 2011, 14:57:29 UTC

But Faith was in Buffy's body. He presumably didn't know about magic. How could Riley have made the leap from "girlfriend acting weird" to "must be another girl in there"? I think that's expecting a bit much from him. Nobody else clued in, either, except Tara. Spike, Giles, Willow, Joyce.

frelling_tralk October 18 2011, 13:00:05 UTC

I think that Riley should have picked up on something. Superstar had Buffy making the point to Jonathon that it's not as though Riley could have known it was someone else in her body, but eh I think her behaviour was sigificantly altered enough that Riley should have sat down and talked to her/asked what's up, not just happily jumped into bed with her

If I tuned in to just that one scene without the knowledge of the bodyswitch, I would still think that there was some kind of spell going on, or that Buffy was on drugs or something. No they didn't know each other all *that* well at that point, but I'd have thought that Riley should have at least known enough about Buffy's hidden kinky side to know that she would never in her right mind have suggested having sex with the door open so that the iniative boys/frat boys might learn something from them

gabrielleabelle October 18 2011, 15:00:31 UTC

But Riley did ask what was up.

Riley: What are we playing at here? [She takes her arms off.]
Buffy: I'm Buffy.
Riley: Ok. then I'll be Riley.
Buffy: Well, if you don't wanna play--
[She starts to leave and Riley holds her.]
Riley: Right. I don't wanna play.
[Riley kisses her very gently and she responds.]

The first time they had sex was in The I in Team. Since then, they'd been separated seeing as Riley was in the hospital. So this might well be their second time (or would have been). I don't think you can reasonably expect a person to know all of their partner's sexual proclivities by the second bed-romp.

gillo October 18 2011, 23:33:57 UTC

The first time they had sex was in The I in Team. Since then, they'd been separated seeing as Riley was in the hospital. So this might well be their second time (or would have been). I don't think you can reasonably expect a person to know all of their partner's sexual proclivities by the second bed-romp.

Except that their first sex is only the third time in Buffy's life. Surely she would have been a little hesitant, possibly even unsure? The way she wakes up and looks for him shows how afraid she is of being dumped again. Yet this Buffy is sexually rapacious, exhibitionist and apparently into S&M. He should have noticed something and responded to the change rather than the kinks on offer.

gabrielleabelle October 18 2011, 23:43:23 UTC

But does Riley know about Buffy's previous sexual experience? He doesn't know about Angel yet. He knows she slept with Parker. He knows that Parker said she got clingy afterward, but I doubt Riley considers Parker a reliable source.

And even with all that, looking from Riley's viewpoint, none of that means that Buffy can't be "sexually rapacious, exhibitionist, and apparently in S&M". People can have kinks. Even sexually insecure or inexperienced people can have kinks. For all Riley knew, Buffy had such a fantastic time with him the first go-around, she was trying something new and cutting loose with some fantasies because he'd made her feel secure enough with the sex (we do know they work their way up to costumes eventually by S5, so it's not too hard to imagine).