S4. Ep15. This Year's Girl

S4. Ep15. This Year's Girl
Becoming Buffy
S4. Ep15. This Year's Girl

Feb 23 2023 | 01:45:11

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Episode • February 23, 2023 • 01:45:11

Hosted By

Tabby Gibson Leah Gibson Sarah Watson

Show Notes

Faith awakens from her coma, full of revenge, and armed with a mysterious present from the Mayor. Join Sarah, Tabby, and Leah as they discuss themes of existentialism, accepting accountability, and the impact of Sartre's Look. 

 

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Episode Transcript

00:00:00 Leah Hi friends join us as we dive into the themes, metaphors, and foreshadowing of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 00:00:06 Leah We are your hosts, Leah, Sarah, Tabby, and whether you're a new viewer or a longtime fan. 00:00:12 Leah Welcome to becoming Buffy. 00:00:28 Sarah Hey, guys. 00:00:29 Sarah Welcome back to becoming Buffy. 00:00:31 Sarah Today we are talking about season four, Episode 15, this year's girl and I got to say, I have been looking forward to this arc for pretty much. 00:00:42 Sarah Since season three, I love that this episode brings back faith, but I also love that I mean slight spoilers, but I mean, you're going to figure it out anyway. 00:00:51 Sarah This starts a really cool crossover series between Buffy and Angel. 00:00:57 Sarah This starts about like a four to five episode arc that is just phenomenal, and it's one of my favorites. 00:01:04 Sarah Yeah, there's just a lot to talk about and we always really struggle with like the first part of a two-part episode. 00:01:10 Sarah But I feel like there's so much in this episode, and it really keeps moving, even though it's setting up so many other things. 00:01:16 Sarah There's just so much to talk about. 00:01:17 Sarah So what? 00:01:17 Sarah Did you guys think of it? 00:01:20 Leah This is an episode that like. 00:01:22 Leah The first time I watched through. 00:01:24 Leah The show I didn't make it to season four because Angel left and I went through my. 00:01:29 Leah And then the second time I watched it through, yeah, for all the second time I watched it through, I was like, Oh my gosh, bro, I was. 00:01:31 Sarah Your episode of grief. 00:01:37 Leah Like this sex? 00:01:39 Leah Like I hate Season 4 Riley sex. 00:01:43 Leah And then I got to this episode and I was like, this is the show. 00:01:47 Leah That I remember like this is the show I liked and it's not because buff our faith is back like which I mean, yes, I love having faith back. 00:01:55 Leah It actually felt like it was about Buffy and so much of this season hasn't been about Buffy, and so I just remember being like, dude like, that is, this is what I've been missing. 00:02:10 Leah And also like, I think everyone here knows, like, I'm not the the absolute. 00:02:15 Leah Biggest Angel, the show fan. 00:02:20 Leah I absolutely recommend to anyone who hasn't seen the show Angel who doesn't plan on seeing the show Angel. 00:02:28 Leah Please watch the crossover faith episodes if nothing else. 00:02:33 Leah In Angel, you need to watch the the cost of the faith episodes. 00:02:37 Leah They are some of the best, like Buffy universe episodes in general, but they're so pivotal for so many characters from the Buffy universe. 00:02:48 Leah That I absolutely recommend them. They're so, so, so good. And obviously, check out Sarah's other podcasts, because I'm sure they're going to do a great job talking about them. But yeah, we'll plug for you, Sarah. 00:02:58 Sarah Mostly because you know you guys are coming. 00:03:00 Sarah You guys are coming on for one of those episodes. 00:03:02 Sarah That's probably why it's gonna be so good. 00:03:03 Leah I completely forgot about that. 00:03:04 But that is. 00:03:05 Leah A good point. 00:03:07 Leah I was saying, like in general, they're they're just top notch episodes. 00:03:11 Leah They really, really are. 00:03:13 Tabby All those two, and I will remember you are must watches. 00:03:15 Leah Yes. Oh my gosh, yes. 00:03:17 Leah But I feel like I will remember you. 00:03:19 Leah A lot of people do already end up watching it, cause like Buffy and an Angel. 00:03:22 Leah Felt like. 00:03:23 Leah And I think. 00:03:23 Leah That these episodes with faith kind of get put on the back burner. 00:03:28 Leah I'm telling you, freaking checking out. 00:03:30 Leah They're so good. 00:03:32 Leah Oh my gosh. 00:03:33 Sarah I will say so. 00:03:34 Sarah While I was like looking through and reading reviews, remember how we talked about in the last episode. 00:03:39 Sarah It was goodbye Iowa, one of our biggest critiques. 00:03:43 Sarah One of my biggest critiques of this season and of that episode in particular. 00:03:47 Sarah That making Riley the emotional crux, the emotional center of this season was one of the worst mistakes that they could have done, and they did that through killing off Maggie Walsh and through kind of centering Riley as the the person who now is going to be the emotional core of. 00:04:07 Sarah The big bad, like we talked about every big bad is related with Buffy up until this season. 00:04:11 Sarah Now it's like Riley and that's a huge problem. 00:04:14 Sarah This episode right here and the next one is. 00:04:17 Sarah Death bringing faith back allows the show to once again center Buffy as Leah just said, Buffy is now a little bit more the emotional center. 00:04:27 Sarah Maybe not with Adam, but we're able to still kind of see how Buffy is at the core of all of this. 00:04:32 Sarah And so I'm a huge fan of this, if for nothing else, you know. 00:04:36 Leah Not to mention I feel like a lot of times when shows bring back like an old character from like previous seasons, like a cameo or whatever. 00:04:47 Leah Sometimes it really feels like to me like, OK, you were struggling this season like. 00:04:52 Tabby Sure. Right. 00:04:52 Leah You needed. You needed. 00:04:54 Leah To views and you brought back a fan favorite. 00:04:57 Leah And you wrote them in and all this stuff. 00:05:01 Leah Sometimes it doesn't feel like that's me, but a lot of times it does. 00:05:03 Leah And do I eat it up? 00:05:05 Leah Yes, because obviously they're fan favorite for a reason. 00:05:08 Leah But this this one actually feels like. 00:05:13 Leah Earned, but also reasonable like fake waking up from her coma. 00:05:18 Leah It's like, duh. 00:05:19 Leah She's a Slayer. 00:05:20 Leah Like like I remember in season three when they're like, no, it doesn't feel like a stretch. 00:05:23 Tabby It doesn't feel stretched. 00:05:26 Leah It doesn't feel like, oh, we need, we need to figure something else, something out. Because, you know, this season sucks and no one's watching. It really felt like a logical. 00:05:35 Leah Thing that would happen. 00:05:36 Leah The only thing that I I don't like and it's not the episodes fault, it's the placement of the episode. 00:05:43 Leah I don't like that it comes after goodbye Iowa, because that's the only thing that makes it feel a little bit like. 00:05:46 Sarah I agree. 00:05:52 Sarah It derails the trajectory of the season. 00:05:54 Leah And it makes it feel a little bit. 00:05:58 Leah Honestly, it's hard to come back from these episodes back into a storyline centered around Riley again, but also, just like it's weird to go from a place where it's like we just met Adam. 00:06:09 Leah We're supposed to be like at. 00:06:10 Leah The climax of like. 00:06:12 Leah You know, interest in this story and then it's like then you throw faith in there. 00:06:16 Leah It's like how the Frick am I supposed to care about the other story? 00:06:19 Leah What when this is going on? 00:06:21 Sarah Yeah, no, I agree. 00:06:22 Sarah I think it's also hard too because. 00:06:25 Sarah Seeing faith come back, I mean the seasons about identity. 00:06:28 Sarah It's about finding out who you are. 00:06:30 Sarah And with faith, we're like. 00:06:31 Sarah Yes, I see that so clearly and it reminds us what the show is doing so poorly with Riley. 00:06:39 Sarah We genuinely care about faith. 00:06:41 Sarah We care about whether or not she can find herself and find her place in this world. 00:06:45 Sarah Riley, we don't really care as much. 00:06:47 Sarah Why is that? 00:06:48 Sarah We've spent more time with faith possibly than Riley at this point, but. 00:06:52 Sarah Riley is considered a main character. 00:06:54 Sarah He's in. 00:06:55 Sarah Credits Eliza Dushku never was, and yet somehow the show. 00:06:59 Sarah I mean, season three was tight, was able to incorporate faith enough that we understood her desires, her fears, her hopes like a little enough of her back story with Riley. 00:07:09 Sarah We just didn't get that. 00:07:11 Sarah And so we're really struggling and having faith brought in here. 00:07:14 Sarah We're going man. 00:07:15 Sarah That's what we're kind of missing is like this. 00:07:16 Sarah Pull towards this character. 00:07:19 Sarah Yeah, and it's just it's glaringly obvious in these episodes, but we'll take what we can get at this point. 00:07:24 Sarah A little break from Riley. 00:07:25 Sarah It's it's never a bad thing, in my opinion. 00:07:29 Sarah All right, so this year's girl, written by Douglas Petrie, which is really fun because Douglas Petrie has written its seems a majority of the faith centric seasons or episodes. 00:07:40 Sarah And that's kind of addressed here in, in. 00:07:42 Sarah A minute with a couple quotes. 00:07:44 Sarah Directed by Michael Gershman, again, Michael Gershman. 00:07:47 Sarah Passion consequences. 00:07:50 Sarah He's the guy that directed those episodes, but also he's the cinematographer for the show. 00:07:55 Sarah I mean, all his episodes are just beautiful and there's something extra special about them. 00:07:59 Tabby Well, this is gonna. 00:07:59 Leah Be maybe a controversial take, but can they please bring him on instead of the? 00:08:04 Leah Freaking girl, who always has. 00:08:06 Leah The weird sex story. 00:08:07 Leah Friends like please. 00:08:09 Leah I'm so sick of seeing weird sexual like storylines instead of like ones that are like deep and hard hitting. 00:08:17 Leah Not that she doesn't have good episodes. 00:08:19 Leah I know she does, especially a bit later on in the show. 00:08:22 Leah But like. 00:08:24 Leah They give her a little bit too much creativity. 00:08:28 Sarah Marty noxon. 00:08:29 Sarah OK, so Michael Gershman is the he does like the lighting and stuff. 00:08:35 Sarah Marty Knoxes, a writer and I am so sorry. 00:08:37 Leah Oh, thought he was a writer. 00:08:39 Sarah No, you. 00:08:40 Sarah I was talking about Douglas Petrie as a writer, I I like Douglas Petrie. 00:08:41 Leah My bad. 00:08:43 Sarah As a writer, Michael Gershman's, the lighting guy. Yeah, not to burst your bubble. Yeah, but Marty Noxon, the lady who, like, writes all those weird sex stories? She is the showrunner for season six and seven, which is why it is what it is. 00:08:56 Leah That's why I'm saying, like, some of the episode. 00:08:58 Leah And the later ones are good. 00:09:00 Leah I'm just saying I think they give her a little bit too much creativity, freedom, free reign, and it shows a bit. 00:09:10 Sarah Well, I'm excited to see your thoughts in the later episodes. 00:09:12 Sarah Once you watched it again, because I don't necessarily agree that she got better with time, but, you know, she has her moments. 00:09:17 Leah I don't think she got. 00:09:18 Leah I'm not saying. 00:09:18 Leah She got better. 00:09:19 Leah I'm saying that. 00:09:20 Leah Like she did. 00:09:21 Leah Create some good episodes and some good storyline. 00:09:24 Leah I'm saying that there should have been someone else in check, maybe being like maybe let's not have so many sexual storylines. 00:09:31 Leah You don't need. 00:09:32 Sarah All right, so this episode, aired February 22nd, 2000, writer Douglas Petrie revealed he almost titled this episode Rise and Shine. 00:09:41 Sarah So IMDb says rise and shine, and then Buffy verse Wiki says rise and shatter. Apparently Douglas Petrie says the correct answer on the DVD commentary. I haven't seen it. I don't have my D's. 00:09:52 Sarah With me, unfortunately. 00:09:54 Sarah UM, so if anybody has seen them, let me know if it's rise and shine or white rise and shatter. 00:09:59 Sarah Either way, it's one of those and I much. 00:10:02 Sarah Prefer this year's girl because. 00:10:03 Sarah I think that there's. 00:10:04 Sarah A lot more to it, which we will go into. 00:10:06 Sarah So this year's girl, the title of the episode, is a reference to the 1978 song by Elvis Costello of the same name. 00:10:14 Sarah He wrote this year's girl about the way Men project their fantasies and expectations onto famous women. 00:10:20 Sarah He sees celebrity as a trap whereby a girl gets pressured into trying to be as intelligent, glamorous and sexy as possible. 00:10:27 Sarah He says everything in the song is about how the way men see women and what they desire from. 00:10:32 Sarah Him. He wrote that in his autobiography, Unfaithful music and Disappearing Ink. If there's a lie being told, then it is the one that a girl might be prepared to live or tell in order to live up to some false idea of attraction, he wrote the song of this year's girl as an answer song to The Rolling Stones 1966 Track, Stupid Girl, which he felt was misogynistic. 00:10:52 Sarah And painted women in a less than flattering light. 00:10:55 Sarah And I think like looking at the lyrics and kind of having that context behind the title, I think Petri is hinting at the fact that faithe overly sexualized persona is a front. 00:11:05 Sarah It's actually hiding a scared and vulnerable girl behind it, and she's being who she thinks size society wants her to be and who she's been, in a sense, groomed to be in order to survive. 00:11:15 Sarah Because we know faith as a survivor, she does what she can to project a strong front. 00:11:20 Sarah But we know deep. 00:11:21 Sarah Down that she's. 00:11:22 Sarah Very much hurting Douglas, Petrie wrote. 00:11:25 Sarah Bad girls and other pivotal faith episodes like that, he says. 00:11:28 Sarah If we bring her back, I hope to continue to be trusted in that way, meaning we bring her back past season four, he says. 00:11:34 Sarah I love writing for the character. 00:11:35 Sarah She's my personal favorite character in the Buffy universe. 00:11:38 Sarah She's bad. 00:11:39 Sarah Buffy, if you will, and for whatever reasons that I care. 00:11:42 Sarah Not to explore. 00:11:42 Sarah I have empathy with faith. 00:11:44 Sarah We were once interviewed by an American magazine. 00:11:46 Sarah They said, what character do you relate to the most? 00:11:48 Sarah I immediately said faith and everyone in the room took a healthy step back away from me. She is psychotic, but it is a confluence of things with faith. You can't underestimate Elijah Dushku's performance. And Michael Gershwin did an amazing job of directing that. 00:12:00 Sarah Episode Ray Stellar was a cinematographer of that episode, and he really went to town, throwing Eliza into the mix makes Sarah respond in a certain way, and Sarah is an extraordinary actress. 00:12:10 Sarah I think that this two parter gave her an opportunity to do some stuff that she's been itching to do for a while. 00:12:15 Sarah It's very much a team effort and I'm always delighted to have a crack at faith because I love writing her dialogue and I just love writing. 00:12:22 Sarah Her take on her place in this world. 00:12:25 Sarah In their book discussing existentialism in Buffy, Richardson and Rab argued that this episode and the next intended or not, explore the impact of Sarts or Sartre. 00:12:36 Sarah I don't remember which it is. 00:12:37 Sarah Look the outside view that causes a person to redefine themselves from from the perspective of the other. 00:12:44 Sarah They interpret faiths defection to the mayor and relentless dreams of Buffy stalking her as faiths attempt to escape buffys judgmental look and the accompanying guilt it brings. 00:12:54 Sarah So, like we talked in season 3, all about how faith very much feels like she's buffys she's in Buffy's shadow. 00:13:01 Sarah And it's funny because she was written to be Buffy, shadow Self, so on a metaphorical sense. 00:13:06 Sarah Yes, she's Buffy shadow, but in a literal sense, faith should have been the only Slayer she should have been the one and only, but. 00:13:14 Sarah Buffy came back to life, and now there's two of them. 00:13:17 Sarah And so faith kind of has to share that with Buffy. 00:13:19 Sarah And there's this idea that, like, you know, she tells Buffy, you know, you took my life in this episode, and she gets angry with Buffy for the fact that she has the Watcher. 00:13:28 Sarah She has the friends, she has the mom, she has the lover, and we saw faith repeatedly in season three trying to steal parts of Buffy. 00:13:36 Sarah Life to try to find a place for herself, which is why she goes to the mayor. 00:13:40 Sarah She goes to the mayor and in an effort to try and find her own identity, her own way and her own life, and Buffy ends up putting her in a coma. 00:13:48 Sarah And so. 00:13:49 Sarah Faith is now awake and we talked a lot about, like how Buffy has incorporated and meshed with her shadow side. 00:13:57 Sarah That was graduation day, so she no longer has a need for faith. 00:14:01 Sarah So if faith is no longer Buffy shadow, who is she? 00:14:05 Sarah And I love that. 00:14:06 Sarah Now we kind of get to. 00:14:08 Sarah Who explore who faith is apart from Buffy, there's no longer a need for faith to reflect Buffy now. 00:14:16 Sarah Who is she as a character, as a human being, as a person all by herself, and that makes it so exciting moving forward. 00:14:22 Sarah Richardson and Rob also can they continue their quote? 00:14:25 Sarah They say when the two slayers meet again, faith immediately denies her possession. 00:14:29 Sarah By Buffy against this autonomy, saying I'm my own person. 00:14:32 Sarah Saying you're not me. 00:14:33 Sarah However, she's beginning to acknowledge the guilt brought on by Buffys. 00:14:36 Sarah Look, when Buffy expresses concern for the innocent people surrounding them, faith claims that there is no such thing as an innocent person. 00:14:44 Sarah Richardson and Rob Point out that therefore, faith herself must realize that some level she is not innocent, but she is in fact guilty of horrendous. 00:14:52 Sarah And I think if you're paying really close attention, you can kind of see where this episode is going to take us. 00:14:58 Sarah This episode is setting us up for faith, having to face the horrible things that she did in the past. 00:15:07 Leah I was going. 00:15:07 Leah To say kind of going off what you said, Sarah, this episode really forces faith to take accountability, which is what you guys said, but also it takes away the excuse of. 00:15:21 Leah Being able to blame. 00:15:23 Leah Like because at this point it's like dude like. 00:15:28 Leah You have been out of Buffy. 00:15:29 Leah Shadow you you can't like you're free now. 00:15:32 Leah You don't have the master, you don't have. 00:15:34 Leah Like this is pretty much like a free chance for you to like go run away, escape and become your own Slayer. 00:15:42 Leah If you really if that's what you truly desire. 00:15:44 Leah But this episode really shows that like it was never. 00:15:49 Leah But these fault not that I think a lot of people were thinking that, but just in case they were like this episode really shows like, dude like, it was always faith who had these issues and these kind of like jealousy and bitterness. 00:16:06 Leah And this episode really shows like. 00:16:08 Leah Faith had every chance to run away, to get away, to go be a hero or a villain in any right or whatever she wanted to do, but she chose to stay and to torture Buffy because. 00:16:21 Leah She was bitter. 00:16:23 Sarah Totally well. 00:16:24 Sarah And I think it's so interesting because we again talking about Shadow selves, shadow sides, faith is Buffy shadow. 00:16:30 Sarah But shadows aren't inherently bad and wrong. It's just the other side of yourself that you're suppressing. So if you look at it from that perspective, Buffy is Faith's shadow Self, so Buffy is everything that faith is suppressing in her. 00:16:44 Sarah Self. So watching this episode, Bobby's already integrated with her Shadow Self faith. She's already taken what she needs from faith. 00:16:50 Sarah Faith now needs to integrate with her shadow self, which is Buffy. 00:16:53 Sarah She needs to accept responsibility. 00:16:55 Sarah She needs to accept accountability, as Leah said, and she needs to recognize what she did wrong and how to move forward. 00:17:02 Sarah And I I. 00:17:03 Sarah Think that is such. 00:17:04 Sarah A cool thing. 00:17:05 Sarah Now we're seeing the. 00:17:06 Sarah There the other character go through it and so in. 00:17:09 Tabby Well, we start out with a dream and it's funny that you say that because I was like, oh, Sarah, like, you're the expert on the metaphorical dream. 00:17:16 Tabby So I was going to ask if you wanted to analyze this opening dream sequence. 00:17:21 Sarah Yeah, gladly. 00:17:23 Sarah I mean, we all know or we should know at this point that Joss Whedon is heavy on foreshadowing. 00:17:31 Sarah And so there's been a couple of dream sequences, especially between Buffy and Faith in season three, that we haven't been able to talk about fully, simply because there's some big stuff coming up that this foreshadows and that would be all. 00:17:42 Sarah Spoilers and stuff, but. 00:17:43 Sarah Uh, once again, we see Buffy and faith in a bedroom. 00:17:46 Sarah Do you guys remember the last dream sequence we had with Buffy and Faith? 00:17:49 Sarah We were in faiths, bedroom. 00:17:51 Sarah We are now in Buffys bedroom, so this is symbolizing that faith has to work out things with her shadow side with Buffy. 00:17:58 Sarah Now she's inside of, like, we're in faiths dream this is not buffys dream. 00:18:03 Sarah Nowhere is it indicated to us. 00:18:05 Sarah In the episode that Buffy is experiencing these dreams and knows about what's happening, I'm. 00:18:11 Sarah I'm not sure if she, like, is aware of it because you know the foreshadowing and all the other stuff like that. 00:18:16 Sarah It would seem like that's going to be. 00:18:17 Sarah Implying something to Buffy but this. 00:18:19 Sarah Is faith stream for all intents and purposes? 00:18:22 Sarah We have the same music that played during the dream sequence in graduation day Part 2. 00:18:26 Sarah It's a variation of the Buffy theme, just with more dissonance and a non resolution. 00:18:31 Sarah So Buffy says smell good, don't they? 00:18:34 Sarah They're making this bed versus, you know, the bed was already made before faith was in the bed last time. 00:18:40 Sarah Now she's out. 00:18:41 Sarah They say something really like important Buffy looks over at a clock and says I wish I could stay, but Faith says you have to go a little sis is coming. 00:18:51 Sarah I know, and we're merely like, wait a minute. 00:18:54 Sarah What do you mean by that? 00:18:56 Sarah Faith says so much to do before she gets here. 00:18:58 Sarah So that implies that it's somebody else, not faith. 00:19:01 Sarah So does a lot of confusion. 00:19:03 Sarah I wish I could say more, but I can't, but because it looks at the clock again says now I really have to go. 00:19:08 Sarah If we remember, in graduation day, Faith says Little Miss Muffet counting down from 7 three O, so again. 00:19:16 Sarah Wondering and then in the prom, Buffy also said to Giles, I know I know miles to go before we sleep. 00:19:25 Sarah When Giles was saying, hey, like, I don't know if you should go up to the hell. 00:19:30 Sarah So again, a lot of symbolism with the bed, with resting, with sleeping, with time, with a countdown, something about a little sister. 00:19:39 Sarah Then we see faith has the knife still inside of her, and it's Buffy still holding the knife. 00:19:44 Sarah Buffy has a look of the knife. 00:19:45 Sarah It's bleeding out on top of the bed. 00:19:48 Sarah The blood starts to flow. 00:19:50 Sarah And she says, Faith says, are you ever going to take this thing out? 00:19:55 Sarah And then buffys expression goes really hard and cold blooded as the script says, and then out of frame she rips the knife up and then it kills. 00:20:03 Sarah It's supposed to kill faith, and then we cut to a hospital room and we see that faith is still in a coma. 00:20:12 Sarah But we can tell that she's having this dream. 00:20:14 Sarah She's in the coma, so I mentioned before J Michael Richardson and J Douglas Rabbs essay, Buffy, Faith, and Bad Faith, choosing to be the Chosen 1. 00:20:25 Sarah They talked about how smart and his ideas impact the show, and we actually talked about start before in lovers. 00:20:31 Sarah Walk Angel was reading nausea and Joss Whedon has talked about how that's like the most the book that has impacted him the most ever in his life. 00:20:39 Sarah And so it would make sense that this show is based a lot upon sarpe's ideas. 00:20:44 Sarah We talked a lot about, you know, existential crises and all that stuff. 00:20:48 Sarah But they said something really interesting about faiths. 00:20:51 Sarah Knife in this scene and in all the dream sequences here. 00:20:55 Sarah Because if wall were called, the mayor gifted this to faith and then we had that moment and I think. 00:21:01 Sarah It was. 00:21:02 Sarah Consequences or no choices where faith throws the knife at a spider to save Wesley. 00:21:09 Sarah And you could tell she wants to go after it when she leaves the room, but Buffy grabs the knife and that's the knife that Buffy ultimately stabs faith with, and it's also the knife that Buffy uses to goad the mayor into chasing after her in a snake forms. 00:21:22 Sarah This knife has a lot of significance and they said something that I never thought about. 00:21:26 Sarah They say from a sartrean perspective. 00:21:29 Sarah The dagger and Buffy stabbing faith with it turn out to be even more important. 00:21:33 Sarah The dagger is faithe possession, as we have seen upon receiving it. 00:21:37 Sarah She admires it almost erotically. 00:21:39 Sarah Sarte would say that she possesses it in the sense of putting her spirit into it. 00:21:43 Sarah It is as though the dagger thus becomes a part of her, or rather, that she has become the dagger. 00:21:48 Sarah It is the symbol of her warrior nature, but also a mere physical object with no freedom to choose projects and plans for the future as humans do. 00:21:56 Sarah This is one way in which faith can deny her freedom and thus responsibility for what she has done. 00:22:01 Sarah Because remember, this episode is the beginning of the arc of faith. 00:22:04 Sarah Trying to gain responsibility. 00:22:07 Leah Would be so niche and I know that most people are not going to understand this, but do you guys remember this story? 00:22:13 Leah Mine in Mullen, where Morgana is starting to turn bad and only Mullin is getting like the visions of it, and one of the visions is her getting this brand new dagger that's all like jewel from from Arthur and in the vision she like opens it and she like looks at it. 00:22:33 Leah The same way that faith looks at the dagger that she gets, and it's just interesting to me that. 00:22:41 Leah It's a bit. 00:22:41 Leah Of a pattern in certain TV shows where it's like what a girl is turning bad. 00:22:46 Leah It's like this stagger. 00:22:48 Leah This knife is a way of like symbolizing like oh, like they're fast. 00:22:51 Tabby Hidden Weapon which is the. 00:22:52 Leah They're it's like they're fascination with like, death or their fascination with, like, darkness that was supernation. 00:22:59 Leah But that's always what comes to mind. 00:23:00 Leah Whenever I think of. 00:23:01 Leah Like that is just like the like. 00:23:05 Leah Faith kind of obsession with the dagger was always so interesting to me because. 00:23:12 Leah Like a knife or a dagger is very hands on bloody way to kill someone like. 00:23:19 Leah Buffy, we've talked about this before, but buffys weapon of choice is across, though, because she doesn't desire to be in the thick of battle. 00:23:26 Leah She wants to be far removed, protected, and be able to kill without. 00:23:32 Sarah She doesn't glory in killing someone she kills because she has to. 00:23:34 Leah Yeah, it's, it's quick, it's fast and it's safe, like, and she's far removed from it because she desires to be as far away from death. 00:23:43 Leah And being a Slayer as possible. 00:23:46 Leah Where is faith, enjoys the thrill, the hunt, the action. 00:23:51 Leah And she she gets off on it. 00:23:54 Leah And so I always thought that faith, their weapons of choice greatly kind of exemplified who they were as slayers and as people. 00:24:06 Leah I also kind of view a knife as like control. 00:24:07 Sarah Very well said. 00:24:10 Leah So I think it's more than just. 00:24:14 Tabby You know the thrill of like, killing or like being that close up to the battle. 00:24:18 Tabby I just kind of. 00:24:19 Tabby View it as. 00:24:19 Tabby Like faith is in control of killing somebody in an intimate way with a knife. 00:24:25 Tabby So it's like she's the one, like throwing the forces and digging in deeper. 00:24:30 Tabby You know what? 00:24:31 Tabby Trying to be so graphic. 00:24:32 Tabby But it's like whereas like Buffy from afar. 00:24:34 Tabby Doesn't have to do much. 00:24:35 Tabby Rather than just pull. 00:24:36 Tabby Bigger and I think faith it's more of like if I'm going to choose this, I'm going to really choose this and this is who I'm going to be because she has a lack of control in her life. 00:24:45 Tabby And so like she it, it's just like it's a classic, like coping mechanism of just like you not knowing yourself and not knowing like. 00:24:53 Tabby What it is? 00:24:53 Tabby That you believe in and who you are. 00:24:56 Tabby And so, like, I'm just gonna gear towards something that I know I I'm good at and I can control. 00:25:01 Tabby And I'm gonna really like I always steer into this kit. 00:25:04 Tabby I always want to say ski into this the skin. 00:25:07 ***** to the skid. 00:25:07 Tabby That's not it. 00:25:09 Tabby Beaten to the skid. 00:25:12 Tabby But I mean, OK. 00:25:14 Tabby There are a lot of things to dissect in this first dream sequence, but the way that I like to view this, I mean there's a there's three dreams that through Faith's perspective in this episode. But I feel like the first one really tells a lot about. 00:25:33 Tabby How faith has felt in buffys and hers relations. 00:25:37 Tabby Yep, and. 00:25:39 Tabby And I really do. 00:25:39 Tabby Feel like it's very sad. 00:25:42 Tabby So like you see both of them making the bed together in white sheets, which I mean, this is not all confirmed. 00:25:49 Tabby This is just my head Canon, so if you disagree with my analysis, that's totally fine, but it's like both of them making the shoot together, which is just. 00:25:57 Tabby Reminiscent of like. 00:25:58 Tabby Early season three, where both of them were just. 00:26:00 Tabby Like pals, we would like work together as I like. 00:26:00 Tabby Working together. 00:26:04 Tabby I just like. 00:26:05 Tabby What's that? 00:26:06 Tabby I think, ah, I forget what episode it is, but when they're both playing like, together and then they both high five after they post. 00:26:11 Sarah Revelations it's right before Gwendolyne post comes in. 00:26:15 Sarah Yes, and tabs. 00:26:16 Sarah You're actually. 00:26:17 Sarah You're right. 00:26:17 Sarah The script says that they are. 00:26:19 Sarah They're moving In Sync. 00:26:20 Sarah They're making the bed at the same like they're both supposed to be. 00:26:23 Sarah Like working together. 00:26:24 Tabby But then it's also just like, juxtaposed by the fact that the we don't see they do this on purpose, they we don't see white sheets. 00:26:32 Tabby A lot in the show. 00:26:33 Tabby It's usually red. 00:26:35 Tabby It's usually patterned, like we don't see white a ton. 00:26:38 Tabby And so the fact that it's a white sheet that both of them are pulling over, it's like just these two people that are, in essence killers that don't faith probably more so than Buffy. 00:26:49 Tabby But both of them doing that together, it's supposed to be this. 00:26:51 Tabby Like pure like bond. 00:26:52 Tabby The only both of them. 00:26:53 Tabby And feel through the Slayer bond. 00:26:56 Tabby Uhm. And then like? 00:26:58 Tabby It's like faith you could. 00:26:59 Tabby Tell that faith, really cherished that in the beginning of season 3. 00:27:02 Tabby Having that like sisterhood with Buffy and then Buffy saying I have to go for faith. 00:27:08 Tabby This is really important to her. 00:27:10 Tabby It's like having someone to do this with to understand her in this sense, like this darkness in her. 00:27:16 Tabby But then also. 00:27:17 Tabby Seeing it as something that's like beautiful and everything because it's a white sheet, you know what I mean? 00:27:23 Tabby And then Buffy is like, oh, I have to go. 00:27:25 Tabby And you can tell she's like, oh, like, oh, I understand. 00:27:27 Tabby Like, you have, like, other things you need to do. 00:27:30 Tabby And so when she starts bleeding out, we don't see the Buffy stabbing her. 00:27:34 Tabby It's faith being like, oh, shoot, I messed it up. 00:27:38 Tabby Like, Dang. 00:27:38 Tabby We just made this together. 00:27:40 Tabby I'm bleeding out all over this. 00:27:42 Tabby And then we see that it's Buffy who's stabbing her and she's like, are you ever going to take this out? 00:27:48 Tabby Like it's very sad, like and I think it's very interesting that we're seeing this through faith perspective because we all watch season 3. 00:27:56 Tabby Buffy's not all to blame for everything that happened. You know, like, like when. 00:28:00 Leah You would look back like. 00:28:01 Tabby Buffy really tried to make friends with faith, like she really like, put herself out. 00:28:05 Tabby There was really sweet to fail. 00:28:07 Tabby Like even when Faith had killed people and denied it like her, an Angel really just kind of had their makeshift rehab for faith and really tried to, like, bring her soul back and and and later in the episode, we'll talk about it too. 00:28:21 Tabby But it's like. 00:28:22 Tabby Like faith is not over the fact that she like, quote UN quote portrayed her, that she stabbed her. 00:28:28 Tabby Buffy is like you had it coming, but it's like seeing it from Faith's perspective. We saw how lonely, how depressed, how like, how it's self hatred. 00:28:38 Tabby Faith had for herself. 00:28:41 Tabby So when she says like, are you ever going to take this out? 00:28:43 Tabby We know where faith is coming from. 00:28:45 Tabby So seeing it from her perspective is a bit jarring. 00:28:49 Sarah Yeah, that's really well said tabs and it speaks to the nuance at the scene because you have you simultaneously have pity for faith, but you're also like you still need to accept responsibility for what you've done. 00:29:00 Sarah And I mean there's. 00:29:01 Sarah That famous thing, the famous saying. 00:29:03 Sarah You know, you made your bed now lie in it. 00:29:06 Sarah Faith has made her bed now. 00:29:08 Sarah She needs to like. 00:29:09 Sarah Own up and accept responsibility and the consequences, and she keeps. 00:29:13 Sarah She keeps running. 00:29:14 Sarah Away from it and. 00:29:15 Sarah And that's ultimately what? 00:29:16 Sarah This is but OK, so I'm going to continue to finish this quote here. 00:29:20 Sarah I'm going to kind of encompasses all of the dream sequences between faith and the mayor, so I figured we'll just kind of because, I mean, they're all kind of rehashing of the same thing, But I'll just talk about it here. 00:29:31 Sarah So we talked about how the knife is a symbol of her warrior nature is. 00:29:37 Sarah That she denies her freedom and denies her responsibility for what she's done because it's almost. 00:29:41 Sarah Like she puts it into the knife and says oh, like this knife had no choice. 00:29:46 Sarah I had no choice. 00:29:47 Sarah And that was a big thing. 00:29:47 Sarah And season three, you do have a choice and faith, you have chosen poorly. 00:29:51 Sarah You have chosen poorly. 00:29:55 Sarah Got my Indiana Jones references out of the way. 00:29:58 Sarah OK, so she says the quote goes on and says she is nothing but a weapon to be wielded by the freedom of the mayor. 00:30:05 Sarah She is merely the instrument of the mayor's will, as Dostoyevsky might put it, you murdered him. You are the real murderer. 00:30:11 Sarah I was your only instrument. 00:30:12 Sarah Your faithful servant. 00:30:13 Sarah Faith herself has no more responsibility than the dagger. 00:30:16 Sarah Itself would have. 00:30:18 Sarah Daggers don't kill people, though people do. 00:30:20 Sarah Of course, faith is lying to herself and this is what we call bad faith. 00:30:25 Sarah Again, it's no coincidence that faith is named Faith, so Buffy in taking faiths dagger, a dagger, functioning like a relic, which is possessed by faith Spirit is in effect taking faith herself, possessing faith. 00:30:39 Sarah And all this kind of ties in with the Young's shadow side. She then makes faith conscious of herself and reflexively conscious of her concealed guilt. And. 00:30:48 Sarah Morse by returning the dagger to her in the most forceful way possible by stabbing her, making it part of her, thus revealing to her the gut wrenching guilt for which she has been fleeing. 00:30:58 Sarah The dagger then, is a symbol of faith's guilt as well as the objectification of faith herself. In her attempt to hide from that very guilt. The dagger thus functions in part like Macbeth's. 00:31:08 Sarah Spectral dagger, which he says appears before him. 00:31:11 Sarah It's handled towards my hand. 00:31:13 Sarah So again, Joss loves his Shakespeare. 00:31:15 Sarah So you have a little bit of Macbeth there you have. 00:31:17 Sarah The start you have a little bit of, you know, just all these different philosophers and interesting bits of literature and and it all comes together very Shakespearean. 00:31:26 Sarah Two faith. 00:31:27 Sarah It's like, all right, faith. 00:31:28 Sarah You have blood on your hands, you blood on. 00:31:30 Sarah The sheets. 00:31:31 Sarah Are you going to take responsibility or once again, as the subconscious is implying, are you going to say it's buffys fault? 00:31:38 Sarah Copies the one that should pay for it. 00:31:40 Tabby So we move on over into the basement and this starts the running gag of Xander trying to fix the weapon but struggling the entire episode and and then we see like Buffy and Giles talking on the side, we find out that she's been patrolling nonstop for three days straight trying to find. 00:32:00 Tabby Adam suggests that she needs rest, but of course we know Buffy. 00:32:04 Tabby She's not going to find rest, especially if there's like a Terminator. 00:32:07 Tabby Like half man, half robot man out there. 00:32:13 Tabby There's no word from Riley. We find that he is still inside the initiative, but she's heard that he's quote, UN quote. 00:32:18 Tabby Fine, but she doesn't know what that quite means. 00:32:21 Tabby Zander gets shocked. 00:32:22 Tabby From the gun in the corner, no one notices. 00:32:24 Sarah That was pretty funny. 00:32:25 Leah No one noticed this. 00:32:27 Leah I know. 00:32:27 Leah It's so sad. 00:32:29 Tabby And the Buffy makes a good point. 00:32:30 Tabby She's like, well, what happens to somebody if they're being brainwashed? 00:32:34 Tabby The initiative and the initiative stops liking their behavior, which is very true. 00:32:39 Leah Which is also like why was no one asking this question forever ago, because it's like the initiative was always so shady about their initiation process. 00:32:49 Leah I guess for lack of a better. 00:32:51 Leah Word but it's like. 00:32:52 Leah How do they get recruited? 00:32:53 Leah It's not like the military, where you go and sign up because it's secretive, like you don't know about it. 00:32:59 Leah So it's like, how do you get into it? 00:33:01 Leah How do you get out of it like there just was so much about the initiative that didn't seem like a lot of. 00:33:07 Leah People were asking about. 00:33:08 Sarah Right. 00:33:09 Sarah Well, and if they're willing to put chips into monsters into animals, and they have created, they have created a monster. 00:33:17 Sarah In order to do what we don't. 00:33:20 Sarah Know but like take over the world. 00:33:21 Sarah Or take out, get rid of all the monsters and stuff. 00:33:24 Sarah And we know that they are drugging Riley, or they have drugged Riley in the past. 00:33:27 Sarah Just because Maggie Walsh is gone doesn't mean that idea isn't still floating around with a lot of people, you know? 00:33:32 Sarah So I feel like these are natural conclusions that like they should have come. 00:33:35 Sarah To a few episodes. 00:33:37 Sarah So, but that's season four for you. 00:33:40 Tabby And then we see in the initiative hospital Riley is in bed and then grabs Buffys headband or whatever that is from last episode. 00:33:50 Tabby And he tries to get up and his waist is still bandaged. 00:33:54 Tabby He's struggling. 00:33:55 Tabby My gosh. 00:33:55 Tabby And the freaking forest comes up. 00:33:57 Tabby I just was like like I'm just getting. 00:34:02 Leah In the way every time he pops. 00:34:03 Sarah I'm kind of. 00:34:03 Sarah Done with forest, yeah. 00:34:04 Leah Up, I know because. 00:34:06 Tabby He says the same thing. 00:34:07 Tabby It's not like. 00:34:07 Tabby It's something new that he's like. 00:34:09 Tabby You know, cropping on. 00:34:11 Tabby It's like the exact same thing. 00:34:12 Tabby It's like it. 00:34:14 Tabby This just felt like when you're in high school and your parents don't want you to date somebody and ask you where you're going. 00:34:19 Tabby That's how it felt. 00:34:19 Tabby I was like, my goodness. 00:34:20 Sarah You're not his parent. 00:34:22 Sarah Yeah, well, I mean again, they're going for the whole family aspect because it's supposed to be like the toxic family metaphor. 00:34:28 Sarah This idea of, like, if we can keep you in, if, if if we have to keep you thinking that. 00:34:33 Sarah Well, we're your family, and you can't betray your family. We want you tied to us so that you don't feel guilty or so that you feel guilty if you betray us or whatever. And I mean. But Forrest is so Dang obsessed with Riley's sex life. 00:34:48 Sarah Every time he's talking, there's something sexual that comes out about Riley. 00:34:52 Sarah Like, don't even tell me you're headed for that girlfriend of yours. 00:34:55 Sarah Look at you. 00:34:55 Sarah One good conjugal visit and you'll be back in intensive. 00:34:59 Leah It's not all about sex. 00:35:03 Tabby Go ahead, Leah. 00:35:04 Leah Comes off as gay. 00:35:06 Leah This is why he doesn't know when he comes. 00:35:06 Sarah Right. Yeah. Hey, wait, wait. 00:35:08 Leah No, it's because he's so hyper focused on like Riley, sex life. 00:35:14 Sarah Riley's yeah. 00:35:15 Leah But it's like if you're just a friend, or if you're even just a family member or like supposed family member. 00:35:22 Leah Why are you so obsessed? 00:35:25 Leah Like, that's why it comes off as this. 00:35:27 Leah Like, like possessive ex lover is like, oh, you're going to go. 00:35:33 Leah To your girlfriend. Have sex. 00:35:34 Leah With her like. 00:35:34 Tabby Well, did you? 00:35:34 Leah Well, maybe. 00:35:35 Leah Maybe I am. 00:35:35 Tabby Did you? 00:35:35 Tabby Catch what Riley said. 00:35:38 Tabby Did you get because the IT sounds so like there was some undertones because they're talking and then he goes like uh, like forces something like, oh, you're gonna go home. 00:35:47 Tabby And so whatever to your girlfriend. 00:35:48 Tabby And then Riley goes you would you wouldn't under. 00:35:53 Tabby Right. Yeah, it sounds. 00:35:55 Leah Like, come on. 00:35:56 Leah Yeah, it just comes off as, like, force. 00:35:59 Leah You wouldn't understand me because you're. 00:36:00 Leah Not into girls. 00:36:01 Tabby Like, that's what I'm saying, yes. 00:36:04 Leah It's it's. 00:36:04 Leah Yeah, uh-huh. 00:36:05 Leah Like from Stranger Things when? 00:36:07 Sarah I was gonna say it's gonna gives Will Byers. 00:36:10 Leah When when Mike tells will like? 00:36:14 Leah Uh, what does he say? 00:36:15 Sarah You, he says you wouldn't. 00:36:15 Leah He says I don't understand you. 00:36:16 Tabby Like girls. 00:36:17 Tabby Yeah, yeah. 00:36:18 Leah Don't even like. 00:36:18 Tabby No, he says. 00:36:19 Tabby Yeah, that's what he said. 00:36:19 Leah Yeah, yeah. 00:36:20 Leah Which is like pretty much the same thing along the lines of like, you don't understand what I'm going through because you literally don't understand what I'm. 00:36:28 Leah Going through like. 00:36:30 Leah I know people. 00:36:31 Leah I know people are. 00:36:31 Leah Tired of hearing it like like? 00:36:34 Tabby I know that people could brush it off as. 00:36:36 Tabby Like oh, like he's saying that as in, like, oh, you don't like date. 00:36:40 Tabby You don't go out and like, you don't have a girlfriend sort of thing. 00:36:43 Tabby But it's like the. 00:36:44 Tabby Way he says it, it's like almost as if he's been waiting this moment to, like, throw. 00:36:47 Tabby It at him. 00:36:48 Sarah I don't know. 00:36:48 Sarah It's so weird. 00:36:50 Sarah The subtext is very much there for sure. 00:36:52 Sarah I mean, I think they initially wrote it to be like because forces we have a problem. 00:36:56 Sarah We all deal with that. 00:36:57 Sarah Problem you know the most important thing of the equation right now is we keep set problem within. 00:37:00 Sarah The family. 00:37:01 Sarah It's like the cultish vibe of, like, we don't let anybody else know. 00:37:06 Sarah Like we're having internal investigations, we're not or internal reviews. 00:37:09 Sarah We're not gonna let anybody else know about it, but the subtext and it the the sad thing is that we all see and write for us as gay because that gives us some gives him some motivation and humanizes him. 00:37:21 Sarah Which tells us that they're not doing a good enough job of humanizing and flushing out for us. 00:37:26 Sarah So we have to add the subtext and back story there for him. 00:37:28 Leah Right, I think honestly say that's the point is. 00:37:31 Leah Like we don't. 00:37:32 Leah Ever see Forrest as anyone but Riley's obsessive friend? So it's. 00:37:37 Leah Like the only. 00:37:37 Sarah Yeah, right. 00:37:38 Leah Natural way way we can take that is like. 00:37:41 Leah Clearly you're into him because we only ever see him obsessing over Lily. 00:37:45 Leah We don't see him at all having any desire. 00:37:48 Leah Hates likes anything for. 00:37:51 Leah Anything else? It's all done. 00:37:52 Tabby Other than Riley and his sex life, yeah. 00:37:56 Tabby So we see like faith and like it's very reminiscent of the colors. 00:38:01 Tabby And the dress that mayor gave her, the pink one. 00:38:04 Tabby And I don't remember which episode. 00:38:06 Tabby And they're having like this, like Father, daughter picnic, which is kind of what he says like to her when he gives her that dress in season three, he's like, it's very like a fatherly thing. 00:38:14 Tabby Like he buys her an apartment, like he's kind of just being that, like, stand in Father figure they're having just a very, like, pure time. 00:38:22 Tabby And I really feel like, what is the most telling about this specific? 00:38:27 Tabby Dream because this one's quicker than the other ones and it seems a little bit more simple, but I feel like other than like obviously about me showing up and like killing the mirror, which is like that one's pretty in our face. 00:38:36 Tabby We know what that one means, but I feel like the part of this dream that really stuck out to me. 00:38:44 Tabby Was that they're having like this, like, beautiful simple picnic and the sun is shining and they're sitting out in the open. 00:38:51 Tabby They're not hidden, they're out in the open during daylight, and while the mayor is having, like, a very, like, he's able to relax, he's able to have a good time. 00:39:01 Tabby Faith says it looks like it's going to rain. 00:39:04 Tabby And he's like, no. 00:39:06 Tabby Like it like, just enjoy, like, whatever paraphrasing and then she goes like, it always seems to rain right about now. 00:39:14 Tabby Oh, that made my heart hurt. 00:39:16 Tabby I was like, man, like, it's like it's this part of her that. 00:39:19 Tabby They just they can't enjoy the good things in our life because it's always ripped away. 00:39:24 Tabby And again, from Faithe perspective, it's really sad, but then it's like also you think about season. 00:39:30 Tabby Three you like. 00:39:30 Tabby Well, you kind of dug yourself this ditch. 00:39:33 Tabby You know what? 00:39:33 Tabby Mean like you made you lose this? 00:39:36 Tabby Chose the mayor as like a stand in father. 00:39:38 Tabby And yes, he was nice to you, but again, you you pushed away the Scoobies like you pushed away those possibilities. 00:39:44 Tabby But then you also understand her perspective. 00:39:46 Tabby It's like, oh, like the mayor really did accept her flaws, and she felt like she could just show that side of herself whether or not like she could show both sides for herself to him is kind of a a question mark. 00:39:57 Tabby But it's like that whole side of herself that she hates. 00:39:59 Tabby She felt like. 00:40:00 Tabby She could have she. 00:40:01 Tabby Felt a little bit more accepted for. 00:40:04 Leah You know, we also know that that fleet has had a serious, I mean a obviously faith has daddy issues. 00:40:10 Leah Uh, Ding, Ding, Ding. 00:40:11 Leah But like also the fact that, like, we know that she had another watcher who died. 00:40:18 Leah And then it's like then you come and you see her observe this relationship between laughing and Giles, which is so beautiful and so like tender. 00:40:28 Leah But it's like. 00:40:29 Leah Her watcher dies and then you see Buffy. 00:40:31 Leah Who has this watcher that's alive and loves her and has such a beautiful connection that she's like desiring not. 00:40:38 Leah Of her own if she wants someone who understands her and loves her and defends her and protects her the way that Giles does her Buffy. 00:40:48 Leah And then it's like then she gets roughly. 00:40:51 Leah Then she gets. 00:40:52 Leah The girl, who wasn't even a real watcher. 00:40:55 Leah And then she gets betrayed by her. 00:40:57 Leah Then she gets Wesley, who's little weasel, when he's introduced. 00:41:01 Leah And he's like such a stickler for the rules. 00:41:04 Leah Clearly doesn't even care for faith like he just is there, because that's his job. 00:41:10 Leah That's his duty is to be a watcher and he doesn't really understand that. 00:41:15 Leah Being a watcher so much more than just giving them demands and you know, missions, it's it's about caring for their well-being. 00:41:24 Leah And then she meets the mayor, and the mayor is like the only one who actually seems to care. 00:41:32 Leah The only one who seems to actually see the dark parts of her. 00:41:36 Leah And instead of. 00:41:37 Leah Correcting her opens her with, I mean, welcomes her with open arms. 00:41:41 Leah Yes, of course. 00:41:43 Leah She should have known better. 00:41:44 Leah But also they just do such a good job of like really making. 00:41:50 Leah Like you really understand why. 00:41:52 Tabby She did what? 00:41:53 Leah She did, and why she was drawn to what she like, what she did. 00:41:56 Leah I don't know what I'm saying. 00:41:59 Leah I hope this makes sense. 00:42:01 Sarah No, it all makes sense and it's actually going to tie into what I was going to say next because you know, you literally have Riley. 00:42:06 Sarah And for us, talking about family, is that what we are and all that stuff? 00:42:09 Sarah And again, they are constantly contrasting and comparing Riley with different characters. 00:42:13 Sarah And so right now, Riley and Faith are kind of going through the similar thing. 00:42:16 Sarah All the Scoobies are going through some sort of identity crisis in this season. 00:42:20 Sarah But right now, Riley and Faith are kind of at a similar. 00:42:23 Sarah Place we have family. 00:42:26 Sarah This concept of family and then we see this dream sequence with faith, with the only family we've met, like on screen. 00:42:33 Sarah So far we have her with the mayor, the father figure they're on a picnic they're wearing. 00:42:38 Sarah She's wearing the dress or something similar to it that the the mayor gifted her back in season 3. 00:42:44 Sarah She wants a family. 00:42:45 Sarah She wants a place to belong. 00:42:47 Sarah Since the beginning of season 3, Faith has always wanted a place to belong. 00:42:50 Sarah Amends. She goes to Buffy and Joyce's house for Christmas. Like there's just a common theme here. And so with the mayor, she felt like she found a place to belong for a little while. 00:43:02 Sarah While, but once again, instead of taking responsibility and accepting that maybe her choice is letter to the place where she is now, she blames it on Buffy because she talks about the rain and then who shows up looking like a rain cloud. 00:43:13 Sarah It's Buffy. 00:43:14 Sarah You know, like it once again, it's showing what faith wants things from her perspective and. 00:43:21 Sarah And then Buffy. 00:43:22 Sarah You know, is it? 00:43:23 Sarah I do also think it's really interesting that. 00:43:25 Sarah The mayor says he sees the snake, the little Garter snake, and he says they're now little fella. 00:43:30 Sarah I don't know where you belong, but it's sure not here with us. 00:43:33 Sarah There you go. 00:43:34 Sarah You see, there's nothing that can spoil our time together again. 00:43:36 Sarah This is from faithe perspective. 00:43:38 Sarah It's like in from her mind. 00:43:40 Sarah She wishes that he was solely focused on her. 00:43:42 Sarah Maybe not the Ascension, which I thought was interesting. 00:43:45 Sarah I think this parts up for interpretation. 00:43:47 Sarah I've heard some people say that like. 00:43:49 Sarah In with Christian symbolism the the snake. 00:43:52 Sarah Represents the deception of a man and of woman and of sin and all that stuff. 00:44:00 Sarah And so the symbolism of the mayor picking up the snake and saying you don't belong here with us, it's faith subconscious trying to say, oh, no guilt, no shame, no any evil or bad thing. 00:44:13 Sarah Belongs here with us. 00:44:14 Sarah It's just my time with the mayor. 00:44:15 Sarah This is what she wishes would have happened. 00:44:18 Sarah Which is really interesting. 00:44:19 Sarah And again. 00:44:21 Sarah We have the way the mayor talks about faith. 00:44:23 Sarah It's very childlike, kind of like what we talked about season 3. 00:44:29 Tabby I just kind of thought that it was like. 00:44:32 Tabby Now that I'm saying, gonna say that also I'm so dumb. 00:44:35 Tabby But like a mini version of like himself, because that's what he turned into. 00:44:39 Tabby And so it's like like him being like ohh like at at at peace or like one with like like nature and like that like Oh yeah scary part of nature. 00:44:51 Tabby But it's like a tiny one and he's. 00:44:53 Tabby Just like oh. 00:44:54 Tabby And then just like puts it down and it's like not affected by it? 00:44:57 Tabby Whereas like if this was like actual father daughter picnic, to say that she's like 3 or 4, she'd be freaking. 00:45:01 Tabby What about it? 00:45:02 Tabby So the fact that he's, like, chill about it and I was like, oh, hey, friend. 00:45:05 Tabby And I just gotta put it down. 00:45:06 Tabby It's like, oh, you you don't belong here, but. 00:45:08 Tabby Right could also be the the. 00:45:10 Tabby Metaphorical sin thing too. 00:45:13 Sarah No, it's all up for interpretation. 00:45:14 Sarah I mean, there's some stuff that's very clearly written in there by Josh Whedon, but I think everybody is welcome to bring their own interpretation to things, too. 00:45:21 Sarah Cause it's art, you know, it's. 00:45:23 Sarah What does it mean to you in this moment, and things are written so vaguely and broadly sometimes that within the weed and verse and the Buffy verse that we're able to be able to go, hey, this can mean multiple different things. 00:45:33 Sarah So you're not. 00:45:34 Tabby Wrong. So we. 00:45:35 Tabby See Buffy in the in the gang patrolling again, I'm looking for. 00:45:40 Tabby For them. 00:45:41 Tabby And then they start to split up and then they all run into the same demon. 00:45:45 Tabby That's kind of. 00:45:46 Tabby Splayed out and hung up, and all of its organs on display. 00:45:51 Tabby And they can kind of guess that. 00:45:53 Tabby Adam is taking mental notes of how anatomy works and how. 00:45:59 Sarah Life works physical notes too. 00:46:01 Tabby It looks like, yeah. 00:46:03 Tabby So back in the basement, they're all talking about it. 00:46:05 Tabby They're all very clearly grossed out about it. 00:46:08 Tabby They say Adam is studying bodies, trying to figure out what life is like. 00:46:12 Tabby And then uh buffys like, hey, like I need to get Riley out and then starts giving all these orders them initially or individually and tells will like, hey, you need to hack into the initiative. 00:46:23 Tabby Give her 10 minutes to get in, and if that doesn't work out to use magic anything that she can do to get her inside tells Zander. 00:46:32 Tabby He can take any of the weapons that he has and then Riley pops up and says I'm really worth all that. 00:46:39 Tabby Well, if he just like walked out of you were like. 00:46:40 Tabby No, just kidding. 00:46:43 Sarah Leave them in there. They're so, so much more interesting. When he wasn't here. Like, look, look what happens when Riley's gone. Faith shows up. Let's. 00:46:44 Leah Maybe for a busy. 00:46:50 Sarah Do more of this. 00:46:50 Tabby We see it patrolling too. 00:46:52 Tabby We haven't seen patrolling so long like he's like here. 00:46:54 Tabby Oh, yeah. 00:46:55 Tabby We get to see something. 00:46:56 Leah Yeah. And they're together, I. 00:46:57 That's a new. 00:46:58 Leah Understand why the show decided to make the emotional crux of the of the season on the most. 00:47:07 Leah Motionless character. 00:47:10 Leah Like I actually don't understand, like I'm not trying to bash Riley, but like Riley is just objectively not a very emotional character. 00:47:18 Leah He like, I mean. 00:47:19 Leah He's he has emotions and he's like, not extremely emotionally intelligent, but. 00:47:24 Sarah He's just not well written, yeah. 00:47:26 Leah He's just not like Buffy is an emotionally complex character, so is, so is Zander. 00:47:33 Leah So is Willow. 00:47:34 Leah So like, so is even they even like Wesley to a certain degree, had an emotional depth. 00:47:41 Tabby To him like. 00:47:43 Leah I just don't like. 00:47:44 Leah I don't know. 00:47:45 Leah I I look like the writers just fell asleep when writing lightly. 00:47:49 Leah I don't. 00:47:50 Sarah They're like, oh, wow, this is a compelling. 00:47:53 Tabby And here's the thing. 00:47:54 Tabby I think that and we'll get there in the episode. 00:47:57 Tabby But there's a specific conversation in this episode that I think was well done. 00:48:00 Tabby I just don't find the whole. 00:48:04 Tabby Soldier, I'd follow rules storyline compelling in anything I watch. 00:48:08 Tabby I can't think of 1 storyline right now in my head where it's like. 00:48:13 Tabby It's this whole. 00:48:15 Tabby Rule follower. 00:48:16 Tabby Someone who doesn't break the rules has to be taught their own autonomy storyline. 00:48:21 Tabby Interesting, I think just to have land. 00:48:22 Sarah You know, you know what this reminds me of is I cannot remember his name, but the guy in the new trilogy of Star Wars, I think was his name. 00:48:31 Sarah Finn, he was set up to be kind of like a Riley character. 00:48:35 Sarah He was the old he was a Stormtrooper and he was supposed to be like coming out of that. 00:48:42 Sarah And then he was supposed to break out of that and like. 00:48:44 Sarah They completely dropped his storyline in the new trilogy. 00:48:46 Sarah Is his name Finn. 00:48:47 Sarah Do you guys know what I'm talking about? 00:48:49 Tabby I think The thing is then I've only seen The Force Awakens or whatever. 00:48:49 Leah It's been. 00:48:51 Sarah Is it sin? OK, yeah. 00:48:54 Leah Only the first one too I. 00:48:55 Tabby I've seen. 00:48:55 Tabby OK. 00:48:56 Leah Haven't seen the other two. 00:48:57 Tabby Yeah, I haven't. 00:48:58 Sarah I've seen all of them, but you guys can pretty much guess based on what you've seen and like there's a huge. 00:49:04 Tabby Remember, I remember that storyline, though in the first one. 00:49:06 Sarah Yes, and that was a that was a huge moment in the trailers when we saw the Stormtrooper take his helmet off and it wasn't one of the clones that we known, it was a black man. 00:49:09 I liked it. 00:49:16 Sarah And then we watched him wrestle through with I don't agree with the ideology anymore, and I'm coming out of that. 00:49:22 Sarah And we're like, whoa, this is so compelling. 00:49:24 Sarah Is this going to go? 00:49:24 Sarah Can you use the force? 00:49:25 Sarah Like he's fighting, I think he picks up a lightsaber at one point, like there were so many interesting things, and then they just dropped the ball. 00:49:32 Sarah And it's very much like. 00:49:32 Leah I remember. 00:49:33 Leah With Riley, he picks up the lightsaber and he. 00:49:36 Leah Like a sword. 00:49:37 Leah Like he, you can tell he he doesn't have the sword. 00:49:38 Sarah Ah yes. 00:49:40 Leah It was like it was a. 00:49:41 Leah Complete fake out. 00:49:42 Leah I remember that cause I was like oh this. 00:49:44 Leah Is gonna be interesting. 00:49:45 Leah And then I saw and he literally. 00:49:46 Leah Uses it as like a. 00:49:47 Leah Defense it's it's you can tell the way that he uses it. 00:49:51 Leah It's not like it's not like an extension of his body, it's it's a weapon. 00:49:56 Sarah But yeah, it was just. 00:49:57 Sarah It was something that a lot of Star Wars fans are really upset about because they're like, man, this is this was so compelling. 00:50:04 Sarah This would have been so cool. They really just kind of stopped his storyline and he had something that was similar to Riley's. 00:50:09 Sarah And so I just, I wonder if like I mean that's two examples of maybe it's too broad of a thing to say, but it feels like a lot of times there's like a really good idea, but. 00:50:18 Sarah People aren't really sure how to execute it and to to kind of go on with it, but. 00:50:22 Sarah I feel like they're kind of doing the same thing here with Riley, where they have a really good idea. 00:50:25 Sarah It's a really compelling thing. 00:50:27 Sarah Who doesn't want to hear about a guy that's like, been programmed his entire life to think one way and then has his world kind of, like, crumbled beneath him, his foundation? 00:50:36 Sarah Everyone's had something like that happen at some point in their lives, so it is compelling. 00:50:41 Sarah I just think they haven't written. 00:50:43 Sarah Riley very well. 00:50:45 Tabby And I appreciate. 00:50:46 Tabby That Riley tries to apologize Philosophised. 00:50:48 Tabby I was like, you know, like that's. 00:50:49 Sarah Yes, some especially to Willow. 00:50:49 Tabby Awesome. Like he. 00:50:50 Tabby Sat there and he was about to take yes. 00:50:52 Tabby Like taking accountability and then we was like, hey, like if you help us bring down Adam, then we're even. 00:50:57 Tabby And and then we have our last dream sequence with faith and like. 00:51:03 Sarah Chills is so good. 00:51:05 Tabby I mean, Speaking of like slashers, this is giving me major like Michael Myers. Vibes. Yeah. Like Buffy's walking so slow with just like a knife. And it's so mechanical. 00:51:15 Sarah She's so scary looking and yeah. 00:51:17 Tabby At a graveyard and then faith is like sprinting. 00:51:21 Tabby Like like, terrified. 00:51:23 Tabby Then this would be so fun as like Sarah Michelle Gellar, who's always played like Buffy, like the protagonist to, like, be this, like, creepy, ominous version of herself. 00:51:29 Sarah Right. 00:51:33 Tabby That'd be so fun. 00:51:34 Sarah To do. 00:51:35 Sarah I want to talk real fast about the the music here. 00:51:38 Sarah I'll go into it more later. 00:51:40 Tabby But this music is. 00:51:41 Sarah Very, very similar to some of the stuff in hush, and it's also going to be almost the exact same music that's going to be. 00:51:47 Sarah Used in the later. 00:51:49 Sarah But I've talked about how. 00:51:50 Sarah Christoph Beck has done some films that we all know now. 00:51:53 Sarah He's done frozen too. 00:51:55 Sarah The soundtrack, so I don't know if you guys remember the siren, the the voice. 00:52:00 Sarah That calls to Elsa and frozen to. 00:52:01 Tabby Do we remember? 00:52:04 Sarah That's the exact same notes and pitch that is used in this this moment. 00:52:08 Sarah There's like a siren called. 00:52:09 Sarah There's like this creepy music that happens this this female that vocalizes as fates walking around, and it's the exact same, no. 00:52:17 Sarah And I was like Christoph Beck. 00:52:18 Sarah You're just recycling your stuff. 00:52:19 Sarah Here I mean. 00:52:19 Leah Can you tell that Sarah has two kids who obsessed over frozen too, as much as like, yeah. 00:52:26 Leah How do you remember that? 00:52:26 Leah And I remember the fact that Sawyer, literally his favorite movie, was present to for years, and that's all he wanted to watch. 00:52:33 Leah Was like never mind. 00:52:33 Tabby Well, when we lived there during COVID, we watch it like every freaking day. 00:52:37 Tabby And I remember Gwen. 00:52:39 Tabby And so we were both saying if you have a video of, so you're singing that siren call. 00:52:44 Leah Gwen, would you? 00:52:45 Leah Invent a different movie and then so. 00:52:46 Leah He would. 00:52:47 Leah Be like Yep. 00:52:51 Sarah No, but I also, I love frozen too. 00:52:54 Sarah I thought it was so great and that show yourself makes me ***. 00:52:57 Sarah Show and do the next right thing. 00:53:01 Tabby Gosh, yeah. 00:53:01 Sarah Every time. 00:53:02 Sarah Yeah, no. 00:53:03 Sarah OK, but there's the devil's tritones once again playing there. 00:53:07 Sarah So if you guys do not listen to our hush analysis, go back and listen to that. 00:53:12 Sarah Also the music in there, I talk a lot about devil's try tones and all this other stuff. 00:53:16 Sarah There's also a video that I made on YouTube, so I don't plug this in. 00:53:20 Sarah But I make a bunch of like analysis videos and I put them on YouTube and I kind of compile our analysis of the episode and they're on our tick tocks on our YouTube, on our Instagram pages I think. 00:53:29 Tabby Don't know they're on our wall, YouTube. 00:53:30 Sarah Pretty cool. 00:53:31 Tabby Dang, yeah. 00:53:31 Sarah I know. Look at. 00:53:33 Tabby News to me. 00:53:34 Tabby Good job, Sir. 00:53:34 Sarah Kind of sore of like multiple juggling everything. 00:53:38 Sarah No, check them out. 00:53:40 Sarah I think they're really interesting. 00:53:41 Sarah Really informative. 00:53:42 Sarah And it's kind of a nice way to get a summarization of the analysis that we do of our episode. 00:53:46 Sarah I don't do it for everyone, but hush. 00:53:48 Sarah Is on there and you'll learn a lot. 00:53:50 Sarah Learn a lot, I. 00:53:50 Sarah Think so. 00:53:51 Sarah Anyway, all that to say. 00:53:53 Sarah This is eerie. 00:53:54 Sarah It's beautiful. 00:53:54 Sarah It's perfect. 00:53:55 Sarah I love dream sequences and creepy music. 00:53:58 Sarah And Buffy not acting like herself. 00:54:00 Sarah And the symbolism here, and I think it's super interesting that faith comes out victorious, showing that like maybe we're going to see a little bit of immersion of faith with her shadow self, Buffy. 00:54:11 Sarah But also it's raining. 00:54:12 Sarah And that's what Faith had told the mayor. 00:54:14 Sarah She's like it always reigns. 00:54:15 Sarah And this is her kind of like. 00:54:17 Sarah Instead of her embracing the life that she wishes, she she she's accepting. 00:54:18 Tabby Except excuse. 00:54:19 Tabby Yeah, she's accepting the rain. 00:54:21 Sarah This is who I am. 00:54:22 Sarah This is what's gonna happen. 00:54:24 Sarah She's like, it's like this rageful moment of, like, fine. 00:54:27 Sarah I'm gonna go seek revenge. 00:54:27 Tabby And I feel like this dream sequence, like being the last one, is like the pull-ups of of what we saw in like the first dream sequence. 00:54:35 Tabby Like, oh, her wanting that, you know, camaraderie with Buffy and then this when she's like you. 00:54:40 Tabby But yeah, like Buffy's the villain. She's trying to kill me. I'm the damsel in distress. I'm gonna come out victorious, and I'm just gonna be where I'm gonna be. 00:54:42 Get up. 00:54:51 Tabby And yeah. 00:54:52 Tabby So she, like, crawls out of the grave, it's raining yells and accepts her victory and the rain and then wakes up. 00:55:00 Sarah The hospital, the male shout. 00:55:03 Sarah This is not the female shout. 00:55:04 Sarah The female scream. 00:55:04 Tabby Yeah, victorious. 00:55:05 Sarah This is the male shout. 00:55:06 Sarah Right here. 00:55:07 Sarah Yep, Yep. 00:55:08 Tabby That's so true. 00:55:10 Tabby Oh my gosh, I could be a sub box. 00:55:11 Tabby Could talk about for. 00:55:12 Tabby Like it's like. 00:55:12 Sarah Five hours, dude. 00:55:14 Sarah Once again. 00:55:15 Tabby Did you see that interview? 00:55:15 Tabby Hush analysis. 00:55:17 Tabby For like the menu. 00:55:18 Tabby I haven't seen the movie, but the interview with Anya Taylor, Joy talking about like feminine rage women. 00:55:23 Tabby Yes, she's like. 00:55:25 Tabby Women tend to and television have horrible things happen to them. 00:55:28 Tabby And then one single glistening. 00:55:29 Tabby Here, come down. Yes. 00:55:31 Tabby And she was like, no, I did not want to do that in. 00:55:33 Tabby This movie she was like. 00:55:34 Sarah I was gonna go in glass. 00:55:36 Sarah Onion man. 00:55:37 Sarah Talk about female rage. 00:55:39 Tabby True. Amazing. Loved it. Yep. 00:55:39 Sarah That was pretty great, yeah. 00:55:43 Tabby Anyway, so she wakes up in the hospital and this is like my least favorite. 00:55:47 Tabby Thing that people do and. 00:55:48 Sarah No, don't talk about it. 00:55:48 Sarah I know what you're. 00:55:49 Sarah Gonna do. 00:55:49 Sarah I know you're gonna say and. 00:55:50 Tabby It's going to hit me for doing too. 00:55:52 Tabby But when they like this, just reminded me of, like, remember, isn't it romantic when she pulls it out the blood? 00:55:59 Sarah Pulling out the Ivy needle. 00:55:59 Tabby Like when she was out of her arm, is being realistic. 00:56:02 Tabby It's like an actual realistic. 00:56:04 Tabby Depiction, you know? Yeah, I. 00:56:06 Sarah Know every time I'm in the hospital for IV, I just look at it and go. 00:56:07 Leah I just cringe. 00:56:09 Leah How do people do that? 00:56:11 Leah I know. 00:56:12 Tabby God and none of them are ever. 00:56:14 Tabby Bleeding out. I'm. 00:56:14 Tabby Like, OK, yeah. 00:56:17 Tabby Umm, she walks out from the bottom level and then comes into like this girl who's at the like. 00:56:24 Tabby I'm like, why is she just down here with a teddy bear like? 00:56:27 Tabby A bear she. 00:56:27 Sarah She's a visitor. 00:56:27 Tabby You said. What is this? 00:56:28 Sarah She's coming to see someone sick and she got lost. 00:56:31 Sarah That's why she asks Faith for directions. 00:56:33 Tabby Oh, and that's why she's probably holding a. 00:56:34 Tabby Teddy bear, huh? I was. 00:56:35 Tabby Like this makes no sense to me. 00:56:37 Tabby And so she, like, asked her, like, about graduation. 00:56:41 Tabby And then what year it is, what the date is. 00:56:43 Tabby And the girls just kind of like. 00:56:46 Tabby Gives her some small like details, but doesn't go into too much. It's OK. I should get you some help, but she does say that kids, the principal and the mayor died and faith spaces like devastated. And then we jumped to saying that faith walks out with that girl's clothes. 00:57:05 Sarah Now they dressed that girl as innocently as possible to just contract I. 00:57:10 Sarah Mean what a subtle but powerful detail. 00:57:11 Tabby But then also Red Riding Hood, jacket and faith is not the Red Riding Hood, but she thinks she is specifically with the last dream. 00:57:21 Tabby So it's very interesting that they did that. 00:57:24 Tabby And then this conversation is the one I kind of pointed out earlier. 00:57:27 Tabby I feel like this is written pretty well. 00:57:29 Tabby This dorm room conversation between Buffy and Riley, it starts out by saying, like both Buffy and Riley talked about how they never stopped thinking about each other when they were, when they were apart worrying about each other, and he shows it the headband and says it's what got me through it. 00:57:43 Would that be? 00:57:44 Tabby And and then he kind of keeps looking out the window and. 00:57:47 Tabby It's like I. 00:57:47 Tabby Think we're being watched? 00:57:49 Tabby Kind of like this, like paranoia of like realizing like, oh, I don't know what the initiative is capable of because clearly there's so much that I didn't know and I was on the end. 00:57:58 Tabby UM, she asked if there's anything she can do and and he's like, well, I don't know. 00:58:03 Tabby Like, I'm used to giving orders like, that's not how like I've been trained. 00:58:07 Tabby Like, I feel like I've been groomed to just be this like lapdog for everybody, or just like be given orders and to do what people tell. 00:58:15 Sarah Me to do. 00:58:15 Sarah Then Buffy brings up the Council and it's really interesting. 00:58:18 Sarah First, I didn't really like this conversation, so it's really funny that you said you thought this was really good tabs. 00:58:22 Sarah UM, I was like, this is kind of dumb because I was like, I don't think Buffy was scared at all to quit the council like she almost like was like, yes, get off my. 00:58:30 Sarah Back and and I don't really think she ever really saw herself underneath the Council in the 1st place because we really they only meddled one time. 00:58:39 Sarah Giles was an extension of the Council, but like I never really got the sense that she cared all that much about what the Council thought. 00:58:47 Sarah So it felt a little bit odd. 00:58:49 Leah Even in the very first episode when Buffy meets Giles and then Giles says something about her needing to be this way, or she kind of tells him to like F off and it said she's like, dude like you owe me. 00:59:01 Leah You don't know what I go through. 00:59:03 Leah Like so. 00:59:04 Leah It's like, even before Giles, Buffy really didn't care. 00:59:09 Tabby I'm more talking about from Riley's perspective. Like we can see a little bit more about Riley's psyche. 00:59:13 Tabby But then also like Buffy tries to connect with. 00:59:16 Tabby Him in the. 00:59:17 Tabby And then he asks her. 00:59:18 Tabby He's like. 00:59:18 Tabby But did you follow any of the rules? 00:59:19 Tabby And she goes. 00:59:21 Tabby And so, like, like, she kind of catches up herself. 00:59:24 Tabby Me, like, maybe this is in the same situation, like, clearly there's a disconnect between these two people. 00:59:26 MM. 00:59:29 Tabby And even in this moment when they're trying to have this. 00:59:32 Tabby Oh, I've been through something similar. 00:59:34 Tabby It's not quite the same, so I think that it was written in that sense to show that like the difference between them and what Riley specifically going through, that's what I mean. 00:59:43 Tabby By like like. 00:59:44 Sarah That's fair. 00:59:45 Tabby Showing that this good conversation because it's showing like. 00:59:48 Tabby This is a little bit more interesting to me than than him like talking to Forrest or Graham or like trying to get out like that's boring to me, but it's like when you like. 00:59:58 Tabby You know, contrast both Buffy and Riley in this situation and she's hard because it's like we're supposed to be rooting for this couple. 01:00:08 Tabby This is not the conversation where I'm. 01:00:09 Tabby Like, yes, good job. 01:00:12 Tabby If those sort of things. 01:00:13 Tabby A month? 01:00:13 Tabby Think you can? 01:00:16 Tabby No, totally. 01:00:17 Tabby Do you think this really works? 01:00:19 Sarah Or right? Well, it was so interesting cause like, like I said, I was like, this is dumb conversation. But then I thought about it a little bit further on Riley's end. 01:00:25 Sarah And like, yes, you're right on it's hard because I see on Buffy's side and then Riley side, they're both so good on their own. 01:00:32 Sarah But then you put. 01:00:32 Sarah Them together and there supposed to be a. 01:00:33 Sarah Romantic relationship? 01:00:34 Sarah You're just like it's. 01:00:35 Sarah Just not working for me. 01:00:36 Tabby Somehow it's so dull. 01:00:38 Sarah Yeah, but this episode is prepping us for faith and is trying to call us back to season three. 01:00:44 Sarah Remind us that a big reason Buffy did quit the Council. 01:00:47 Sarah And the reason she even got the courage to do so was because of faith. 01:00:51 Sarah Faith was the one who encouraged her not to follow orders and to think independently, not always in a healthy way. 01:00:57 Sarah But she was key in buffys growth and development as a Slayer, because, again, there was Aw. 01:01:01 Sarah Whole like immersion of the the shadow self. 01:01:04 Sarah So this calls back to choice and finding your own way. 01:01:08 Sarah And that was everything that season three was about. 01:01:11 Sarah And so we're shown right here in this that Buffy has grown, she has fully integrated with her shadow self. 01:01:17 Sarah Faith no longer needs her. 01:01:20 Sarah So this is once again a reinforcement. 01:01:22 Sarah Of hey, this episode is not going to be about what faith is going to teach Buffy. 01:01:25 Sarah This episode is going to be about what, Buffy? 01:01:27 Sarah Is gonna teach faith and so. 01:01:29 Sarah Again centering Buffy as the linchpin of the episode here for both Riley and Faith is key to make making her the emotional center of the season once. 01:01:40 Sarah So I was like, OK, I see what they're doing in this conversation. 01:01:43 Sarah I just don't think it worked exactly for what they wanted it to, romantically wise, but it worked for. 01:01:48 Tabby Oh yeah, romantically. 01:01:49 Tabby Absolutely not. 01:01:50 Tabby No, for sure. 01:01:51 Tabby Yeah, maybe I'm being too harsh on the fact that they're both supposed to. 01:01:54 Tabby Be 20 years old, but. 01:01:55 Tabby Like it? 01:01:56 Tabby Like she's having to sit here and kind of tell him hey. 01:01:59 Sarah You need mother, he. 01:02:00 Tabby To be. 01:02:01 Tabby Mommy, you need to like you know, you know, say that. 01:02:06 Tabby Find yourself. 01:02:07 Tabby Move on. 01:02:08 Tabby Giving him a step by step and. 01:02:10 Tabby He's like but. 01:02:10 Sarah She's given him orders. 01:02:10 You know if. 01:02:11 Tabby I if I'm not a soldier and she is like a good person. 01:02:15 Tabby A good man. 01:02:17 Sarah Yeah, you have more to you than just being a soldier, but if you can't see past that, I don't see. 01:02:22 Sarah This working just saying. 01:02:23 Tabby And just like, OK, Oh my gosh, the non reciprocal sexual affection that Riley gives Buffy slash Marc Blucas in these scenes and makes me my whole body. 01:02:34 Tabby Just go. 01:02:36 Tabby I just get like she's like straddling him, kissing his head, and he's just sitting there. 01:02:41 Tabby He doesn't put his arm around her until, like, halfway through. 01:02:44 Tabby And I'm like, I just like. 01:02:50 Leah It's a bitter and I not like triggering. 01:02:53 Leah I guess it's just traumatizing, like just watching it. 01:02:55 Leah It's like like. 01:02:58 Leah It's just like I know. 01:02:59 Leah You're supposed to feel wrong about it. 01:03:01 Tabby Are we? 01:03:04 Tabby I don't think we are. 01:03:05 Tabby I don't think we are. 01:03:06 Tabby But it's just. 01:03:07 Tabby That's the problem with this whole season. 01:03:09 Leah Yeah, like. 01:03:11 Leah There's no way that you're. 01:03:13 Leah Supposed to feel good about those? 01:03:14 Sarah Things I think you are, but yeah, I don't. 01:03:16 Sarah I walk away. 01:03:16 Leah So bad. 01:03:17 Sarah It feels like she's she's mothering him, just like Maggie Walsh. 01:03:20 Sarah I mean that tied with the the whole, like, I just need someone to give me orders and puppies basically telling him, like, this is what you can do here. 01:03:27 Sarah Your choices. 01:03:28 Sarah And like all this other stuff, it's kind of like Riley. 01:03:30 Sarah Who are you, apart from women? 01:03:31 Tabby She's still giving him choices, though, like she's like, here's the. 01:03:32 Leah Also likes. 01:03:35 Sarah Two things that I said she's. 01:03:35 Tabby That's you do. 01:03:36 Tabby And he's like ah. 01:03:37 Sarah Feed on him, yeah. 01:03:37 Leah Also, that's so embarrassing to be like. 01:03:39 Leah I need someone to give me orders. 01:03:40 Leah It's like maybe think for yourself. 01:03:45 Tabby I know that's too hard. 01:03:49 Sarah Too much? 01:03:49 Sarah Not a thought in his head. 01:03:50 Tabby I think it's. 01:03:50 Leah Just like it's just awkward too, to like, go from like talking about, like giving orders and stuff like kissing. 01:03:56 Leah And like. 01:03:57 Sarah Unless that's Riley's kink. No, no, no. 01:04:00 Tabby Probably is absolutely he's a bottom. 01:04:03 Leah Bottom I'm trying not to hate slightly. 01:04:05 Sarah I mean, what was? What was the episode, was it it was. It was the IN team. I mean Riley. 01:04:11 Sarah Was was on. 01:04:12 Sarah The bottom. 01:04:13 Leah That's what I'd be saying, that's what. 01:04:15 Sarah I know I agree with you. 01:04:16 Leah I've been saying. 01:04:17 Sarah I'm backing you up. 01:04:17 Sarah I've got the evidence anyway. 01:04:20 Sarah All right, moving on tape ain't watching that tape again. 01:04:20 Leah Roll the. 01:04:24 Tabby No, no, thank you. 01:04:24 Tabby Please put on hold tape. 01:04:25 Sarah You can roll the I'm. 01:04:26 Sarah Gonna do something else. 01:04:27 Sarah I'm gonna watch this episode again. 01:04:29 Sarah Then we have this scene where the, like, Faithe nurse is, like, frantic is like, oh, my gosh. 01:04:35 Tabby Oh, my gosh. OK, wait, hold on. This nurse is like a random side character and like so many sitcoms in the 2000s, not sitcoms. But, like, you know, parks are. 01:04:35 Sarah I don't know what happened. 01:04:45 Tabby Check with the episode where Ron is like forced to have his office in the dead center of the Parks and Rec, and he's. 01:04:51 Tabby Like the the spinny chair. 01:04:53 Tabby She's the she's the girl who comes in. 01:04:55 Tabby It's like, Sir, Sir. 01:04:58 Tabby And then runs her. 01:04:58 Sarah That's funny. 01:04:58 Tabby She keeps walking around and choosing something else, but I can't remember. 01:05:00 Sarah That's really funny, tabs. 01:05:03 Leah But I keep. 01:05:03 Tabby Singing, popping up in like random shows that I'm watching as just funny, but yeah, she's the nurse and stuff so. 01:05:08 Sarah That's hilarious. 01:05:10 Sarah Yeah, she like, lets the detective know that faith is gone. 01:05:13 Sarah They're like, oh, my gosh, you had, like, a known killer here and you didn't tell anyone. 01:05:18 Sarah Why is she here? 01:05:19 Sarah And they're like, well, she was in a coma and blah, blah, blah. 01:05:21 Sarah And then at the very end, the nurse, the script even says, like, her frantic demeanor goes away, and she immediately becomes deadpan. 01:05:28 Sarah And then she grabs the phone and she's like, it's happened. 01:05:31 Sarah Send the team and you're like, oh, no. 01:05:33 Tabby Honestly, it's a. 01:05:33 Tabby Good question though, why we have cameras in that bottom level. 01:05:38 Tabby You know they. 01:05:39 Tabby Have the whole the part of the hospital and it's supposed to be this like. 01:05:42 Tabby Convicted. I don't know. 01:05:44 Sarah Yeah, well, yeah, I I have no idea. 01:05:47 Sarah I think they genuinely. 01:05:47 Sarah Well, I mean, they didn't think she was gonna come out of the coma. 01:05:49 Sarah So why? 01:05:50 Sarah Why waste all that money on someone who's just not going to get out of it? 01:05:54 Sarah But yeah. 01:05:56 Sarah So this next scene Faithe walking down the street I wrote. 01:05:59 Sarah Ah yes, the obligatory I don't know where I am. 01:06:02 Sarah The world has changed. 01:06:03 Sarah Walk down Main Street. 01:06:04 Sarah We had this with Vamp. 01:06:06 Sarah Willow wish. 01:06:07 Sarah Cordy and the music is the same in Hush and we have like all. 01:06:10 Sarah Fathers and daughters like going out and doing things, and it's just it's funny. 01:06:14 Sarah This happens every single time. 01:06:17 Sarah And then we have faith going to the windowsill, looking into the window, just like we're saying. 01:06:22 Tabby Oh well, she first says the high school. 01:06:24 Sarah Too. Oh that yes. 01:06:25 Tabby High school closed down and that opens up, yeah. 01:06:26 Leah Which that was kind of cool to see. 01:06:28 Leah I I like every time I. 01:06:29 Leah Kind of. 01:06:29 Leah See the high school glimpses. 01:06:31 Leah Of it, I'm like, oh, we're still in Sunnyvale. 01:06:31 Tabby It makes me sad I miss. 01:06:33 Sarah That that one shot was better than all of doomed inside of the. 01:06:41 Tabby The dental floss rope that tied Buffy. 01:06:44 Sarah The special like military. 01:06:47 Tabby Rope the five minutes. 01:06:48 Tabby Of the demon falling before Buffy jumps in afterwards to grab it. 01:06:52 Sarah Don't even don't get me started. 01:06:54 Tabby We're all traumatized in the episode. 01:06:56 Sarah This next scene with Faith coming into John's courtyard, reminded me so much of pangs. 01:07:00 Sarah We talked a lot about doorways and Windows and people on the outside looking in, and we have spike with his blanket. 01:07:07 Sarah Like looking over into. 01:07:08 Sarah Like you know, the family of vampires feasting on a human, and then we have Angel looking in. 01:07:13 Sarah And it's this idea of like, an outsider wanting in with the family atmosphere and aspect. 01:07:18 Sarah And it's really interesting because the fire in the fireplace in this scene was actually a huge ordeal to produce. 01:07:25 Sarah It was a real fire, so it required a fire Marshall on set and then a certain number of fire. 01:07:29 Sarah Extinguishers on the ready and Douglas Petrie said that he felt that the ordeal was worth it because the scene needed to feel homey and cozy because it needed to contrast what faith was feeling on the outside and and it just feels very much like spike with the blanket looking. 01:07:44 Tabby And Speaking of outside looking in, we now see faith kind of looking through the window of Giles's house and like this whole injection we're talking about Adam, like, she just keeps scanning and looking at, like Buffy and Riley. 01:07:58 Tabby You can see her being like I just feel like I can see Eliza Dish could just such an amazing job because I can see the different thoughts that she's having. 01:08:05 Tabby As every time she kind of peers back at the couple, it's like first of, like, huh. 01:08:11 Tabby And then it's like a ohh you little slimy weasel. 01:08:14 Tabby You're not even with Angel. 01:08:16 Tabby But just like like, oh, I can use this or like interesting. 01:08:20 Tabby Like, there's just like, there's so much going on her brain that she's, like, very confused, but then also just being like, oh, of course, like, she's not surprised at all. 01:08:26 Leah But I like that we're seeing such an intelligent fighter player that isn't just immediately reacting, going and fighting Buffy because we know that probably last season, that's like, that's more of what she would have done. 01:08:38 Leah But we're seeing her observe and kind of gain information and then make a plan which is like. 01:08:46 Leah Like I like when. 01:08:47 Leah You know. 01:08:48 Leah Antagonist or things like that are actually intelligent rather than just being like, you know charging in. 01:08:54 Tabby Yeah, Mary, yeah. 01:08:56 Tabby Well, and then she's kind of biting her time. 01:08:58 Tabby Like, she's, like, waiting it out. 01:08:59 Tabby And then Giles gets a call and then hands it to Buffy. 01:09:03 Tabby Then she kind of, like, puts two together. 01:09:05 Tabby So that's probably about me. 01:09:06 Tabby And then. 01:09:06 Tabby She like, leave. 01:09:09 Tabby And then Buffy tells everyone that faith is awake. 01:09:12 Tabby Kind of goes into her classic Buffy speech. 01:09:16 Leah But the Buffy is like. 01:09:17 Tabby So like optimistic about faith. 01:09:20 Tabby And I wish that faith, I know why they did it, but I wish that. 01:09:23 Tabby Faith was there so she could hear. 01:09:25 Tabby Her like talking about her and. 01:09:28 Tabby It's so frustrating. 01:09:30 Tabby I understand. 01:09:32 Sarah Yeah, yeah. 01:09:33 Sarah We can't have faith getting to that point yet. 01:09:35 Sarah A couple of observations about this scene though. 01:09:38 Sarah So the first thing was they asked Riley to be a double agent, so now he Riley is going to basically share information from the initiative, which I thought was interesting and will actually give him something to do. 01:09:48 Sarah The second thing is, and this is a big. 01:09:50 Sarah Question is. 01:09:51 Sarah Who called Buffy? 01:09:53 Sarah It wasn't the Witches Council, because we know that's who the nurse call. 01:09:57 Sarah So who's the one? 01:09:58 Sarah Was it the? 01:09:58 Sarah Nurse like it. 01:10:00 Sarah I mean, Buffy could have put herself as the emergency contact. 01:10:02 Leah Have they thought about? 01:10:03 Sarah Of this thing. 01:10:04 Sarah Yeah, there's there's, like, a glare. 01:10:05 Sarah I mean, there's some options, some ideas maybe, but it's like kind of like I don't see any situation which Buffy would be the one. 01:10:11 Sarah That they would call. 01:10:13 Leah If they're gonna put Buffy as her emergency contact when she moved to actually know, what would she even like? 01:10:23 Leah No, I don't understand. 01:10:24 Leah Maybe Childs, maybe Giles. 01:10:27 Leah I was guessing. 01:10:28 Leah Maybe Giles put FS emergency contact like. 01:10:32 Leah When would they have time to do that? 01:10:33 Sarah Yeah, I don't know it. 01:10:35 Sarah There's just kind of like a a big hole here. 01:10:37 Sarah You're like, OK, who did? 01:10:38 Sarah But regardless, they had to get the information to puppy. 01:10:40 Sarah They got it to puppy. 01:10:41 Sarah It's fine. 01:10:42 Sarah But on your point Tappy about how Buffy immediately goes to the she might be scared she might be alone, like she immediately goes to putting herself in faithe shoes. 01:10:53 Sarah Wanting to help faith. 01:10:56 Sarah Instead of like a Willow who was all like, oh, let's just. 01:10:58 Sarah Go kill her just turned. 01:10:59 Tabby Will wait. 01:11:00 Tabby I was going to say yes. 01:11:01 Tabby I was going to say that I was waiting till the second time. 01:11:01 Sarah Yeah, yeah, yeah. 01:11:04 Tabby She says it, but it's like it's almost as if, like Willow. 01:11:09 Tabby Again, there's so much in this episode. 01:11:12 Tabby If you watched it without the context of season three, you'd be very like torn between the different like pieces of information that we're getting here, like season 3. 01:11:24 Tabby Buffy did not want to hurt faith. 01:11:26 Tabby She did every precaution she could until literally graduation, part one where like she was like at her last straw and killing faith was the only option in her head and she didn't want to do it like that was the first time they ever fought. 01:11:42 Tabby They didn't even fight before that even, I mean. 01:11:44 Tabby They they didn't. Uhm. 01:11:46 Tabby They didn't enemies, but that was like, yeah. 01:11:49 Tabby But again, that was like life or death, you know? 01:11:54 Tabby But she didn't want to do it again. 01:11:55 Tabby There they were. 01:11:56 Tabby So many situations that happened that build up to that, but it's like the fact it's like Buffy hated doing that. 01:12:01 Tabby Buffy didn't want to do that. 01:12:02 Tabby It's not like she just was like, I'm going to do some asskicking on faith. 01:12:05 Tabby Just because she just wanted to. 01:12:07 Tabby So the fact that it's like willows saying that. 01:12:11 Tabby It's so frustrating because it's like Buffy didn't. 01:12:13 Tabby That's not who Buffy is. 01:12:14 Tabby That's not how, Buffy. 01:12:15 Tabby Wants to treat faith, you know. 01:12:16 Leah By the two Willow. 01:12:17 Leah Is I think that that's the important thing about the scene is that Willow snow. 01:12:21 Tabby Doesn't want to take the steps. 01:12:24 Leah I'm trying to say this without like I'm trying to say this delicately. 01:12:30 Leah I do not think that Willow is necessarily. 01:12:35 Leah I think that we get the impression in the first few seasons of Buffy that was this, like, very. 01:12:43 Leah Kind tempered person. 01:12:45 Leah She would never have to fly. 01:12:48 Leah I'm not saying the will isn't pinned, I'm just saying that I think that because Willow is shy, we automatically tie that in with kindness and like that and innocence. 01:12:59 Sarah In a sense. 01:13:00 Sarah In a sense. 01:13:00 Leah Yes, thank you. 01:13:02 Leah Whereas I don't think it will is necessarily an innocent character. 01:13:05 Leah I think that she is a. 01:13:08 Leah More shy character, but I think that we see an insecure character, but I think that we see that as well as gaining confidence with magic and herself and all that. 01:13:23 Leah A bit more of a biting edge to her. 01:13:27 Leah We've seen that with some of the spells that she's tried to cast. 01:13:31 Leah We've seen that. 01:13:33 Leah Just in general, she has this kind of sense of. 01:13:38 Leah If people, if she feels like people have long toes, she has, she feels justified in her actions, body does not have that lobby, I think because Buffy bears the burden of being the Slayer, she is a lot more cautious because she knows the repercussions, whereas Willow is a lot more quick. 01:13:59 Leah Kind of react. 01:14:02 Leah And I think that, you know, Willow always had it off from the very beginning. She didn't like the fact that she took quote, UN quote Buffy from her. She didn't like the fact that she, quote, UN quote, took Xander from her. 01:14:16 Leah You know, Willow always kind of had. 01:14:20 Leah This issue with faith some of that justifies some of it, no? 01:14:24 Leah But and I think that she now feels that it's justified to take that anger out on faith because faith did so many helpful things in season three that she thinks it's OK to just kill her, get rid of her because, you know, think that all these evil things. There's, like, Buffy's coming out of us like, no. Like, this is someone who. 01:14:45 Leah We fought with and someone that we knew, and it's a human life on top of the fact. 01:14:49 Leah That it's another. 01:14:50 Leah Slayer, like Buffy, views her a lot more objectively than Willow does. 01:14:55 Leah I think Willow is a lot more. 01:14:59 Leah She's going out this whole very hot angle and I know a lot of people that I knew not like that because a lot of people love her and I love the little too. 01:15:08 Leah But I don't view Willow as this innocent character who would never hurt a fly. 01:15:14 Leah And I think a lot. 01:15:15 Leah Of people do. 01:15:16 Sarah It's hard because, well, Willow initially did like faith, but it all changed when faith slept with Xander and Xander, slept with faith, and that has colored her view of faith ever since. 01:15:29 Sarah And like, obviously there was the hurt there. 01:15:31 Sarah When faith and Buffy started hanging out more. 01:15:34 Sarah But it was never quite like it was when she was mad at faith. 01:15:38 Sarah And, well, she's she's never mad at. 01:15:41 Sarah There's just misogynistic undertones here. 01:15:43 Sarah She's not upset at Xander for sleeping with faith. 01:15:46 Sarah She's upset at faith and like, even when the whole thing happened with Veruca, she compares Veruca with faith like, you know, voice, like an albatross. 01:15:54 Sarah And you know, dress like a ******. 01:15:55 Tabby The dress seems Yep. 01:15:56 Sarah She makes some sort of. 01:15:57 Sarah Yeah, something. 01:15:58 Sarah That so it's just kind of like will have some things that she needs to work out. 01:16:03 Sarah And it's it's frustrating cause we see her kind of treat on you this way. 01:16:06 Sarah And I'm like Willow. 01:16:08 Sarah You're like, let's just say it. 01:16:10 Sarah You're with Tara now. 01:16:11 Sarah It's not been like, explicit yet, but you're with Tara. 01:16:14 Sarah It's implied heavily. 01:16:15 Sarah Why are you still hung up on the fact on someone that never even was your boyfriend? 01:16:19 Sarah Something you cheated on? 01:16:20 Sarah I don't know. 01:16:21 Sarah I just find. 01:16:23 Sarah Honestly, yeah, what it is. 01:16:23 Tabby Control and the people in her life that will. 01:16:26 Tabby That's the attention on her. 01:16:28 Tabby You know what I. 01:16:28 Tabby Mean like if it's like. 01:16:30 Tabby And I can give her some, like, some excuses for, like, the whole Buffy and faith thing. 01:16:36 Tabby Like when that happened in the beginning of season three, I really felt her pain. 01:16:39 Tabby It was like they would go and and she would make make Buffy would make comments about, like, oh, the Slayer thing. 01:16:40 Sarah Right. 01:16:44 Tabby But Buffy was trying to protect Willow because she saw darkness and faith. 01:16:48 Tabby So it's like again, it's very nuanced. 01:16:50 Tabby I understand that perspective and it's like and. 01:16:54 Tabby I know I got crap, but it's like in season three, when she's crying in the bathroom. 01:16:58 Tabby I know now that it's like it, it was multi layered. 01:17:01 Tabby Why she was crying? 01:17:02 Tabby But it it's like you have no right to be upset about somebody losing their virginity when you're in a relationship. 01:17:09 Tabby And I know there are other reasons why she was upset, but it's like this whole like control thing or like. 01:17:14 Tabby Or just people. 01:17:16 Tabby Like taking their attention away from her, someone said or has a new girlfriend she armed with his like the new girlfriend because they're besties her whole life, but he hasn't done that with her like he liked us, you know. 01:17:27 Sarah And I'm sure it's more it's multi layered. 01:17:29 Sarah I'm sure that Willow it's not that a romantic interest in Xander anymore because there's also the aspect of faith tried to assault. 01:17:36 Sarah Xander and almost killed him. 01:17:38 Sarah So yes, Willow being upset about those things is justified. 01:17:42 Sarah You don't get the sense all the time, though, that those are the. 01:17:44 Sarah Reasons though it. 01:17:45 Sarah Feels like what you guys are saying feels like a central thing. 01:17:45 Tabby Yeah, well, even she said in season three, she says. 01:17:49 Tabby She says I have an issue with faith. 01:17:50 Sarah I don't like for sharing my people. 01:17:51 Tabby Yes, with sharing my things or taking my things or whatever it is like, that's. 01:17:55 Sarah Yes, which is concerning. 01:17:55 Tabby What it is? 01:17:58 Sarah And we see that symptom with when she's talking about us and something blue. 01:18:02 Sarah It's interesting that her heart desire. 01:18:05 Sarah It wasn't to like, have us come back, but like it's to. 01:18:09 Sarah OK, I'm going to change my emotions. 01:18:11 Sarah She just didn't like that I that that, that feeling of that lack of control and that spreads to the people around her so. 01:18:17 Tabby So outside of campus, will and Buffy are talking about. 01:18:22 Tabby What Buffy specifically told Riley about faith? 01:18:25 Tabby And she's like, hey, like you have bits and pieces, but not like the entire story. 01:18:29 Tabby She glossed over the whole Angel bit, which I actually like. 01:18:33 Tabby I don't blame Bobby for like, that's that is like a different conversation. 01:18:37 Tabby You have to sit down and you have to really go into like, you know when like you're dating somebody and it's like there's some parts about yourself that you're like. 01:18:44 Tabby I'm not withholding. I'm just. 01:18:47 Tabby Like, there's certain stuff that you need to preface before you get to the big stuff that you have to talk about in your life and it's like, it's not like you're lying to them. 01:18:55 Tabby It's not that you're like being deceptive. 01:18:56 Tabby It's like there are moments and times where you have to sit down and really just give a whole evening to spelling out everything. 01:19:03 Tabby And that wasn't when everyone else. 01:19:05 Tabby Was in the room, you know? 01:19:05 Leah And there's there's. 01:19:06 Leah Also, a difference between being like, hey, yeah I had. 01:19:10 Leah Loved him. 01:19:12 Leah It didn't work out and being like, let me divulge this very detailed thing that happened where we had to, you know, it was like this life altering moment. 01:19:24 Leah It was, you know, there's so many emotions, so many connections like. 01:19:28 Leah Obviously it's hard to translate in that into like vampire life, but it's like there is a difference between like telling a complete something like, hey, me and my boyfriend broke me and my ex-boyfriend broke up. 01:19:38 Leah You know, a couple. 01:19:38 Leah Of years ago, whatever. 01:19:39 Leah Giving them the details or. 01:19:41 Leah Giving them the. 01:19:42 Leah Overall without being. 01:19:43 Leah Like it was in the hearts breakups of my life. 01:19:45 Leah I was depressed. 01:19:46 Leah For months after like those. 01:19:47 Leah Are two different conversations. 01:19:48 Tabby I've had to kill him. 01:19:49 Leah Yeah, like, those are two different conversations of, like, this is what happened. 01:19:52 Leah And then this is what happened in detail. 01:19:55 Sarah Angel is a part of Buffys past, so it's going to come up when, as Riley is learning about bug. 01:20:00 Sarah But he's not angels, not a part of their relationship right now. 01:20:03 Sarah But he hasn't even seen Angel since they started dating. 01:20:06 Sarah So it's it's not like, OK, we need to sit down and have a conversation about it, because Angel affects buffys. 01:20:12 Sarah Life right now. 01:20:13 Sarah They will eventually have to have a conversation, but I don't get the sense that, like, yeah, and her saying, like, she's not withholding it or whatever, you know? 01:20:20 Sarah I I think that I I actually believe Buffy when she says that you. 01:20:25 Tabby Yeah, absolutely. 01:20:26 Tabby It just wasn't the time like there's. 01:20:28 Tabby So much that's happening right now, you know. 01:20:29 Sarah And to be fair, there's been a lot that's been happening, so I don't fault Buffy like we haven't had the chance for that kind of. 01:20:34 Sarah Conversation yet? 01:20:34 Sarah Although again, this episode is setting up a lot of things and they brought up Angel and then they bring up the whole like Riley's like, who's faith? And then you have that moment where Buffy doesn't really fully tell. 01:20:46 Sarah Riley, who faith is and you could tell that she's worried that Riley or Faith's going to hurt. 01:20:51 Sarah Someone she loves. 01:20:53 Sarah And then she goes to Joyce and. 01:20:54 Sarah I'm like, oh. 01:20:55 Sarah I kind of get the sense the storm is brewing here. 01:20:58 Tabby And I'm like. 01:20:58 Tabby Yeah, this is just the thing planted. 01:20:59 Sarah Things that haven't been brought up, and it's no one's fault, but I'm kind. 01:21:04 Sarah Of like oh boy, this is this. 01:21:06 Sarah Is going to explode. 01:21:07 Tabby Uh, so they continue talking in the buffys like if. 01:21:10 Tabby I were faith. 01:21:11 Tabby I'd stay as far away from here. 01:21:13 Tabby And then, lo and behold, faith turns around. 01:21:15 Tabby It's like, well, you're not me. 01:21:17 Tabby I when I. 01:21:18 Tabby Remember first watching this episode, I was. 01:21:20 Sarah Yeah, again. 01:21:21 Sarah Important though that the first words out of faithe mouth to Buffy, to her shadow side is your not me. 01:21:26 Tabby Hmm. Separates yourself. 01:21:29 Tabby Yep, Yep. 01:21:30 Tabby And then she's, like, kind of talking to Buffy, being like, hey, like, check you out. 01:21:34 Tabby Big, big girl on campus. 01:21:36 Tabby Is working out for you and then Buffy's like, hey, like, I've been looking for you. 01:21:41 Tabby I just keep making jokes and like, hey, like, oh, I've been standing so for eight months like. 01:21:45 Tabby How hard you look? 01:21:46 Tabby There's so much bitterness and faiths tone in this conversation. 01:21:50 Tabby Like she's like. 01:21:52 Tabby Ohh like like I just keep thinking about the fact that you tried to kill me. 01:21:55 Tabby Not for yourself, but for a boyfriend not even dating anymore. 01:21:59 Tabby And he could tell buff. 01:22:00 Tabby He's just like you don't know anything about me like. 01:22:03 Tabby This whole conversation is just. 01:22:05 Tabby Faith, like there's clearly something faith is really just bitter and angry about when it comes to. 01:22:10 Leah Buffy. Well, she. 01:22:11 Sarah Says you took my life, you know. 01:22:13 Leah It's also like maybe there's not the victim. 01:22:16 Leah Bobby did everything she could not to try and kill fate. 01:22:20 Leah They what? 01:22:21 Leah What Buffy did was purely reactionary and self-defense, and I just think that he doesn't see it that. 01:22:29 Sarah Well, and faith, faith doesn't want to see it that way. 01:22:31 Sarah Faith wants to deflect because she doesn't want to take responsibility for her actions. 01:22:35 Sarah She doesn't want to admit that she had a choice. 01:22:37 Sarah She wants to say I had no choice because I don't want to admit that what I did was messed up. 01:22:41 Sarah But I mean, like Buffy, saying these are innocent people. 01:22:44 Sarah Faith saying no such animal if no one is actually innocent, then that means that I'm justified in killing or whatever because other people are guilty. 01:22:51 Sarah Too it's super fasting, so the script initially had it written that Buffy was going to be the one that threw the first punch. 01:23:02 Sarah Douglas Petrie had written that and Joss actually rejected that and he said he felt that it was too unsympathetic to hit a girl who had just been in a coma. 01:23:10 Sarah But also Buffy is incredibly sympathetic in this episode. 01:23:14 Sarah I think it would have been against her character, at least in this episode, to have struck faith 1st, and I like that conscious decision. 01:23:21 Tabby Thought these strikes. 01:23:21 Tabby 1st when it's like a clear villain, I've never seen her strike first. 01:23:25 Tabby When it's like a a grey somewhere in the middle. 01:23:29 Leah Character but also. 01:23:29 Tabby They're usually the one who starts the 1st. 01:23:30 Leah We've never seen Buffy strike face first. 01:23:33 Leah And unless it was a little. 01:23:34 Leah Like you just killed someone. 01:23:36 Leah Or I need to kill you to save Angel. 01:23:39 Leah It's every other time. 01:23:41 Leah She's literally tried to talk faith out of it every other time. 01:23:45 Sarah She she strikes first in graduation day, Part 2 in their big showdown, but that was very. 01:23:50 Sarah Clearly like Buffy haired. 01:23:50 Leah But but that. 01:23:51 Leah But that's what I'm saying. 01:23:52 Leah But it's also like. 01:23:54 Leah You're literally about to cause the hell mouth to be like here. 01:23:59 Leah I don't have time to sit here and talk to you. 01:24:01 Leah You need to be put out. 01:24:01 Sarah Sure. Justify. Yes. 01:24:02 Leah Of the way. 01:24:03 Leah Yeah, it wasn't. 01:24:04 Leah Like you know, oh, there was a it was like, no, you need to be put out of the equation because I. 01:24:09 Leah Need to save people. 01:24:10 Tabby Well, she even says like. 01:24:12 Tabby Like you had it coming and Speaking of like, the way the actors deliver lines like sammichele killer chose on paper, you could say this so many different ways and it would be a different response every time. 01:24:25 Tabby She could have sat there and be like you had it coming. 01:24:28 Tabby We would have very different scene there. 01:24:30 Tabby But she says. 01:24:30 Leah It softly. 01:24:32 Tabby Almost as if, like she's saying, like faith, you know you had it coming. 01:24:37 Tabby Like it's stern, but it's like soft at the same time, like man, so much like, like, just can't say a simple line without me thinking like 5 different ways that she's thinking. 01:24:47 Tabby Or like the way that she's trying to interpret this line like again, it it could have been so snarky. 01:24:53 Tabby Like, I'm just thinking, like CW, like Vampire Diaries, the way that they would say. 01:24:56 Tabby It they'd be. 01:24:57 Tabby Like you had it coming, like nostrils flowing. 01:24:59 Tabby And it's like there's like little dimension there, you know. 01:25:04 Tabby So so not. 01:25:05 Tabby Very different types of shows. 01:25:06 Tabby I need to stop doing that because it's a very different. 01:25:08 Tabby Type of show. 01:25:08 Tabby But like with this one, it's. 01:25:10 Tabby Like it it's supposed to be a little bit more confusing than that, you know? 01:25:14 Tabby Hear sirens, cops come up and then faith beats them up. 01:25:17 Tabby Runs away. 01:25:18 Tabby Buffy falls her but then ends up losing her. 01:25:21 Tabby And then we see Willow and Tara hanging out in the lounge. 01:25:24 Tabby And then Willow, like, fully tells Tara about faith, which is interesting because it's like you could tell that she told her the entire story, whereas Buffy didn't tell that story of faith until I seen absence. 01:25:35 Leah Riley also. 01:25:39 Leah Given the context. 01:25:41 Leah Faith and Buffy went through way more than Willow, and she's like, it's almost like telling someone like, hey, my friend and her ex-boyfriend broke up in this way versus like me and my ex-boyfriend. 01:25:46 Tabby Yes, sure. 01:25:54 Leah Like there is a difference. 01:25:55 Leah There was a different level. 01:25:57 Leah There was a different relationship. 01:25:58 Leah Willow was giving Tara. 01:26:01 Leah Context and understanding, whereas Buffy has to divulge this personal story, it's a completely different. 01:26:08 Tabby I'm not blaming Buffy. 01:26:08 Leah Yeah, I'm just trying to like, say. 01:26:10 Tabby I'm just saying I'm just saying that, like, contextually wise, contextual, whatever. 01:26:16 Tabby It's interesting. 01:26:18 Tabby And it tells us. 01:26:19 Tabby Suddenly we're Willow and Tara are at and tells us where Buffy and Riley are. 01:26:25 Sarah At, you know, that's interesting because I was also thinking that, I mean, Willow is buffys's metaphorical spirit. So the fact that she's telling Tara could imply that buffys. 01:26:39 Sarah Bear is willing to tell Riley she's not withholding from Riley because she's being deceptive, like we talked about. 01:26:43 Sarah She truly is just too. 01:26:44 Sarah Busy, but also the game doesn't know that Tara exists at this point, and yet Tara knows it's implied that Tara knows about the Slayer. 01:26:54 Sarah Tara knows about all this other stuff, which? 01:26:55 Leah I think is. 01:26:56 Leah Actually, I didn't even think about that. 01:26:56 Sarah Incredibly fascinating. 01:26:58 Leah That's kind of like, really scummy, like, not to tell buddy that, like you're giving this random person. 01:27:04 Leah So much information about Buffy specifically, and you're not even telling her, like, that's a little weird. 01:27:12 Leah I'd be ****** about Buffy, and I did. 01:27:14 Leah Just tell me, let. 01:27:15 Leah Me know because I. 01:27:15 Sarah It is odd. 01:27:16 Leah Wanna know who knows about me? 01:27:17 Sarah Oh, OK, so passion the nerd was talking about this scene with Giles and Xander and Spike, and he was saying that Giles, Xander, and Spike. 01:27:24 Sarah These three characters have like nothing to do in this in this episode, and that's why this scene was written. 01:27:29 Sarah It was to be like, hey, so Spike is still in this season. 01:27:33 We we still have. 01:27:34 Sarah James Marsters as a main character, a season. 01:27:38 Tabby Need so we. 01:27:38 Sarah Gotta put him in this episode. 01:27:40 Sarah UM, but he wrote about how this episode, what could have been just like or this scene. 01:27:46 Sarah What could have just been a throwaway scene ended up being one of the funniest and most memorable scenes of this episode because of how Spike reacts and responds. 01:27:57 It's funny. 01:27:57 Tabby Just he looks like so into the conversation. 01:28:00 Leah Like ohh right. 01:28:00 Leah Hmm, how about this? 01:28:02 Sarah The most engaged to spend all season. 01:28:05 Tabby He's like, I'll head out, find this girl, tell exactly where all of you are, and watch as she kills you. 01:28:11 Tabby Like his, the way that his timing is so good and he's like they just like staring at him and he gets so annoyed. 01:28:18 Tabby He's like, could any one of your damn little Scooby. 01:28:20 Tabby Pull up at least ride to remember that I hate. 01:28:23 Tabby You all so good. 01:28:27 Tabby The next time you need money, we'll. 01:28:28 Sarah See you again. 01:28:29 Sarah Try to remember that. 01:28:31 Sarah Again, two that them putting in Xander talking to Giles about how like you know, faith wants me, you know, we have a history and all this stuff. 01:28:38 Sarah They did such a good job. 01:28:39 Sarah With such a. 01:28:40 Sarah Meaningless scene to also catch you up on where everybody is, not only in this season, but what happened in the past. 01:28:47 Sarah I don't. 01:28:47 Sarah Know it just. 01:28:48 Sarah It was, it was masterfully done. 01:28:50 Sarah It was very. 01:28:50 Sarah Funny back in the. 01:28:52 Tabby Hospital we see the same nurse walking outside and we see a helicopter with three men and full leather and briefcases. 01:29:01 Leah OK, welcome to the nurse. 01:29:03 Leah Say that this is Sunnydale Mountain Vegas. 01:29:06 Leah Like how? 01:29:07 Leah How was there just like helicopters and all this? 01:29:10 Leah It's just flying into supposedly a small town. 01:29:13 Leah Like with no one batting an eye. 01:29:15 Sarah Into the hospital, of all places. 01:29:16 Tabby And if this is like for. 01:29:18 Tabby Called in for faith, we can kind of assume that it's probably like the Council. 01:29:22 Sarah Right. Yeah, it's. 01:29:22 Tabby Like it can't be anyone else at this. 01:29:25 Sarah Yeah, it says three men get out. 01:29:26 Sarah We don't know it yet, but they're the watchers. 01:29:28 Sarah Council special. 01:29:29 Sarah OPS, Collins, Weatherby and Smith. 01:29:31 Tabby There's definitely three of them, so oh, oh, I thought it was a Collins Weatherby. Was someone's full name. 01:29:36 Tabby Nope, it's right. 01:29:37 Tabby And then just Smith. 01:29:42 Tabby Uh, faith is back in the street. 01:29:44 Tabby She sees a knife, so she hides in the alley and then a demon comes and he's like, hey, we have something from you from someone mutual. 01:29:50 Tabby And I'm like girl, what if it was word of? 01:29:52 Leah Mouth, you can't. 01:29:54 Sarah Whoops. Guess we'll never know. 01:29:55 Tabby You got lucky. 01:29:56 Tabby This envelope, my goodness. 01:29:58 Tabby And he seemed nice. 01:29:58 Tabby I was like you trying to be sneaky or creepy. 01:30:01 Tabby I was like Dang. 01:30:02 Tabby This is another sky sky situation, like this poor guy Stevens guy. 01:30:06 Leah Guys are. 01:30:07 Tabby Or I peace guys guy. 01:30:08 Tabby Just being given like these like little like odd jobs and they have like a whole apartment. 01:30:13 Tabby And like, you know, the nice part of town, family chill. 01:30:15 Tabby A life, a children waiting for them. 01:30:20 Tabby I just was like, Dang, what if it was like a, you know, again, like, something that someone told him and he had to tell her rather. 01:30:26 Tabby Than an envelope. 01:30:27 Sarah Well, the funny part to me was like, you know, then you have the police car with their, like, their lights as they're. 01:30:31 Sarah Looking for faith as. 01:30:32 Leah And they didn't see the body. 01:30:33 Leah They didn't see the body. 01:30:33 Tabby Yeah, this was like hello. 01:30:37 Tabby Classic Sunnydale classic. 01:30:39 Tabby Sunnydale police man. 01:30:43 Tabby There's like, OK, this is demon. 01:30:44 Tabby They they move on and then we see. 01:30:47 Tabby We're assuming that faith is like broken to like a video store. 01:30:53 Tabby She puts the tape into a TV and this. 01:30:59 Tabby Videotape is very interesting because I didn't pick up on the fact that he like. 01:31:07 Tabby Yeah, it's like nice and sweet because he's like, oh, like, you know, there's those little moments of him being like, I'm so proud of you. 01:31:12 Tabby Like like, but you're in a coma. 01:31:14 Tabby Like maybe you won't wake up and the pessimist may think is thinking that maybe we didn't make it, yadda yadda yadda. 01:31:21 Tabby But what I find? 01:31:22 Tabby So interesting is that he's telling her that you're basically done for. 01:31:28 Tabby There's no part of him that's giving her hope in this moment. 01:31:31 Tabby I never picked that up until this. 01:31:33 Tabby This rewatch, and this is the moment, and like I was doing a podcast. 01:31:35 MM. 01:31:37 Tabby So I'm like my gosh, there something moments that I would have never noticed if I just kept binging the show. 01:31:43 Sarah Uh, maybe I would, I don't know. 01:31:45 Tabby Having to kind of look for these little spots, I just say he goes. 01:31:48 Tabby He's like, he's like if I'm not here, your days are numbered and it's like as if he's, like, inserting this fear into faith through because of Buffy. 01:31:58 Tabby And so it's like it's adding this whole other layer to her that's listening to somebody who cared for her and loved. 01:32:03 Tabby Her and it's. 01:32:04 Tabby Kind of affirming. 01:32:06 Tabby Her fears when it comes to Buffy and people, the people that don't love her and like, accept her and he says at the end he's like, just because it's over for my faith doesn't mean she can't go. 01:32:14 Tabby Out with a bang. 01:32:15 Tabby It's like Dang, like you're like. 01:32:16 Tabby Giving her like a mission now. 01:32:17 Tabby Like why? 01:32:18 Tabby Can't you just live, like, give her some? 01:32:19 Leah Hope, but I think it also goes to show. 01:32:23 Leah As much as the master. 01:32:25 Leah Oh, my gosh. 01:32:26 Leah The mayor did love thee. 01:32:30 Leah He ultimately was a selfish man with a selfish goal, and he really saw faith as an add on to his plan. 01:32:38 Leah She was a bonus. 01:32:39 Leah She was he loved faith. 01:32:42 Leah He loved having her at his side. 01:32:43 Leah Ultimately, his plan came first. 01:32:45 Leah And he couldn't see anything past his plan. 01:32:48 Leah So this plan didn't succeed. 01:32:50 Leah Then there's no way. 01:32:51 Leah That faith had a life outside of that. 01:32:54 Sarah Yeah, well, passion. 01:32:55 Sarah The nerd brought up a really good point. 01:32:56 Sarah He says. 01:32:57 Sarah It's kind of wonderful how faith insertion this season fits well with all the other themes that season four has been toying around with family identity, belonging not totally surprising given. 01:33:06 Sarah These puppies? Former shy. 01:33:07 Sarah Self the mayor's proclamation that faith doesn't have much time left without him is a soft echo of Professor Walsh's statement that Bucky's main problem was the absence of a male role model. 01:33:19 Sarah Riley is trying to figure out who he is without the initiative. 01:33:22 Sarah Faith now needs to discover herself without the mayor, so it's like this idea that, like, he cares. 01:33:27 Sarah For her. 01:33:27 Sarah But he almost views her like a child. 01:33:29 Sarah The mayor did. 01:33:30 Sarah And like we talked about in season three and so this idea of like, oh, without a male role model without a strong father figure, you're just gonna flounder. 01:33:38 Sarah You're not gonna have purpose, and that's kind of what Maggie was saying. 01:33:40 Sarah And so like, once again, the show is reinforcing this idea of, like, faith doesn't have these crutches. 01:33:47 Sarah These security blankets, even these people, to fall back on that she can point a finger and say you're the reason. 01:33:53 Sarah That I am the way that I am. 01:33:54 Sarah Who is faith without all these people? 01:33:56 Sarah Passionate nerd even implies that he believes at the very end that faith was preparing to like die, that she was gonna like off Joyce while she went out. 01:34:06 Sarah Well, because in her mind, she said, well, the mayor said that I don't have any other. 01:34:10 Sarah Like, she didn't know like he was. 01:34:12 Sarah I mean, we don't know, but he's implying that faith didn't know what that little box did that the mayor gave her, that it was some sort of, like, something that will take out Buffy as well as faith. 01:34:22 Sarah She didn't know that it was going to be a body swap, which I mean, I don't know. 01:34:26 Sarah I think that's an interesting take. 01:34:27 Sarah UM, but yeah, I don't know. 01:34:29 Sarah It adds a whole their light to this episode. 01:34:31 Sarah And yeah, I think it's pretty consistent with the rest of the themes. 01:34:35 Tabby UM, and then Riley's. 01:34:37 Tabby Room Buffy is kind of. 01:34:38 Tabby It's like. 01:34:39 Tabby Very frustrated with Riley because he's kind of like making like, a a game of, like faith because he's like, oh, somebody that Buffy can't like. 01:34:47 Tabby Master can't, like, beat, you know, he finds that like. 01:34:51 Tabby Interesting, but yeah, I Andrea's a good word, Buffy said. Lecture him being like hey, like. 01:34:58 Tabby This is serious like. 01:34:59 Tabby She tried. 01:35:00 Tabby Like, I'm scared. 01:35:00 Tabby She's gonna go after people I love. 01:35:02 Tabby Like she's like. 01:35:03 Tabby Like scary issues like, you know, homicidal, you know, all these things, and you can see, like, he started to, like, understand a little bit more, but he's those people that I really feel like won't believe people until he sees it for his own eyes, which is so. 01:35:17 Tabby Frustrated because I. 01:35:18 Sarah I mean, at this point, he's been lied to by the people he trusts most. 01:35:22 Sarah He's got some trust issues, but there's also the whole, like, there's something you're not telling me. 01:35:26 Sarah And I'm like, oh, no, I know how TV shows go. 01:35:29 Sarah I know how this goes. 01:35:30 Sarah The fact that she's not telling him about Angel either, he's going to use it, yes, or something big is going to. 01:35:33 Tabby He's going to use it as a point of insecurity. 01:35:39 Sarah Happen to where? 01:35:39 Sarah He's like you didn't tell me and. 01:35:41 Sarah He's already struggling with trust issues like. 01:35:42 Tabby Or it's going to slip out of someone else's mouth and then he's going to be like he. 01:35:44 Sarah Oh, I wonder who? 01:35:45 Tabby It's gonna, yeah. 01:35:46 Tabby Didn't tell. 01:35:47 Sarah Who do we know that it's really not great about keeping buffys's stuff to himself. 01:35:56 Tabby Calling it now. 01:35:57 Sarah Not that I haven't seen the show. 01:35:58 Sarah Before or not? 01:35:59 Sarah But I feel like. 01:35:59 Tabby I don't know why it's consistent with this character, because I'm thinking if stuff happens Season 7 and I'm like, what is so consistent? 01:36:06 Tabby Ohh, I want to sprinkle them every time something that happens, like it's not your permission so. 01:36:08 Tabby We've been gotten there, yet we haven't gotten there yet. 01:36:11 Tabby We got we got time as of now. 01:36:13 Tabby It's all fine and dandy. 01:36:13 Tabby Xander has been completely unproblematic this entire season. 01:36:17 Yeah, anyway. 01:36:19 Tabby Not completely, but generally OK. 01:36:22 Tabby So we flip from. 01:36:23 Tabby She's saying she's scared she'll come after people she loves and too dumb and dumb. 01:36:27 Tabby Buffys home. 01:36:28 Tabby She opens up the door to Joyce and not. 01:36:28 Leah Not choice, not choice. 01:36:31 Leah Choice out. 01:36:32 Sarah Also, hello, Christine Sutherland. 01:36:34 Sarah Moving back or coming back from Spain, it's been since fear itself since we've seen her because of her being in a different country. 01:36:34 Tabby I know we miss her. 01:36:40 Tabby Well, no, the beginning of the episode, season 4. 01:36:43 Tabby The freshman we saw her. 01:36:45 Sarah Then we saw her in fear itself. 01:36:46 Sarah The next episode or not the next episode. 01:36:48 Sarah But a couple. 01:36:49 Sarah Episodes later, the Halloween episode when she's making. 01:36:49 Tabby Ohh you're right. 01:36:50 Tabby Customer knows like. 01:36:51 Tabby Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's. 01:36:52 Sarah The little Red Riding Hood. 01:36:53 Tabby Last time. 01:36:54 Tabby Yeah, yeah. But that was like, real brief in that episode. So and Joyce's room, poor Joyce is sitting on the bed while faith is like, looking through her lipsticks. 01:37:05 Tabby Is kind of like rummaging through everything and she's like asking her. 01:37:09 Tabby She's like, it's like, be honest. 01:37:11 Tabby How do I look? 01:37:12 Tabby And Joyce is so snarky. 01:37:13 Tabby She's like, psychotic. 01:37:15 Tabby Her delivery is Amy. 01:37:16 Leah Saying you see where Buffy gets it from? 01:37:20 Tabby Yeah, she's so quick. 01:37:20 Sarah Joyce was savage. 01:37:22 Tabby Like, yeah, she's. 01:37:23 Tabby Like quick witted. 01:37:24 Tabby Too, she's like. 01:37:25 Tabby You're thinking you'll never get away with it. 01:37:27 Tabby She's like, actually, I was thinking my daughter's. 01:37:29 Tabby Gonna kill you soon. 01:37:30 Sarah I was like, Dang, Joyce going to like. 01:37:32 Tabby Even Joyce wants. 01:37:33 Leah Faith to die. 01:37:37 Tabby Oh my gosh, this part hurt though, like faith. 01:37:38 Tabby Like pulls out like the letter from Buffy and it's like, oh, she hasn't been here in a while. 01:37:42 Tabby She's gonna leave you here to. 01:37:44 Tabby Die it goes all this whole. 01:37:45 Tabby Long rant that like and she inserts herself in this. 01:37:48 Tabby Like like conversation with Joyce. 01:37:51 Tabby She's like she's moved on from people like us. 01:37:54 Tabby Like she doesn't need us anymore. 01:37:55 Tabby You've served a purpose in our life, but she's inserting herself in this conversation like, girl, you're you're showing, you're showing your card to your girl. 01:38:03 Tabby Like, keep it close. 01:38:04 Tabby To your chest. 01:38:05 Sarah Well, according to Douglas Petrie, the subtext of this scene. 01:38:09 Sarah Is that if Joyce were faithful, mother faith would not have neglected Joyce's protection as she accuses Buffy of doing so. There's this idea. 01:38:16 Sarah There, that faith is just looking. You know how it is when you're when you're mad at someone, when someone's wrong, do you? 01:38:21 Sarah You wanna go find someone that agrees with you, cause it validates your feelings and what you're going through, and that's what Faith's doing right here. 01:38:28 Leah But I also think that faith is trying to prove the Buffy isn't. 01:38:33 Leah What everyone thinks she is. 01:38:34 Leah Oh, she's not a good daughter. 01:38:36 Leah She's not a good player. 01:38:36 Tabby It affirms her, yeah. 01:38:37 Leah Not a good. 01:38:38 Leah It's like her kind of bad Buffy isn't perfect. 01:38:40 Leah Buffy isn't her that she does all these bad things. 01:38:42 Leah MM yeah. 01:38:44 Tabby It it like it affirms like faiths, actions in her head. 01:38:50 Tabby If Buffy isn't this perfect superhero that everyone views her to be, then it's like her be like couple that I'm justified into, like, you know, whatever I. 01:38:58 Tabby Do against Buffy. 01:38:59 Sarah Well, all of season three was faith saying you like the darkness, Buffy you. 01:39:04 Sarah You know she. 01:39:05 Sarah She wants to drag her down to. 01:39:06 Tabby Her level and Joyce is like, were you planning on slitting my throat anytime soon? 01:39:10 Tabby Just like I don't want to hear your ***. 01:39:11 Tabby Love her. 01:39:11 Tabby Story let's go for real. 01:39:14 Tabby And she's like. 01:39:14 Tabby Oh, Buffy left you here to die. 01:39:17 Tabby She's not coming for you. 01:39:18 Tabby And then Buffy breaks through the window. 01:39:20 Sarah This is amazing. 01:39:21 And she's like. 01:39:22 Tabby Hi, mom. 01:39:23 Tabby And she's like hi. 01:39:24 Tabby And Joyce doesn't even seem like, like, shocked at all. 01:39:27 Tabby Like it's it's almost like she just was waiting like she had, like, no part of her felt like Buffy was not coming. 01:39:32 Leah She had so much faith in her, which is also the contract. 01:39:32 Tabby And I love that they didn't feed. 01:39:33 Tabby Into that, yeah. 01:39:36 Leah Rest of the the master ohhh. 01:39:39 Leah My gosh that that like she was telling faith pretty much like I don't think you're gonna make it. 01:39:45 Leah I don't know what you're going to do after me. 01:39:47 Leah Where's like Joyce is so. 01:39:48 Leah Much faith in. 01:39:49 Leah Buffy, just being like, she's gonna make it, she's going to save me like she's she's Buffy. 01:39:50 MMMM. 01:39:53 Tabby Which is interesting because the mayor only saw faith as like a I'm a salvation to you. 01:40:00 Tabby I'm helping you whereas like, if you really love somebody, it's like you want them to be happy and to be independent and to find themselves like. 01:40:09 Tabby Because you love and you. 01:40:10 Tabby Want them for like you want that for them. 01:40:13 Tabby And so like the fact. 01:40:14 Tabby That, like Joyce, is like understanding of Buffy as an individual. 01:40:19 Tabby And like I'm sure that's gonna hurt, like as a parent to, like, not see your child for a while, but also understand the puffies like. 01:40:25 Tabby Chuckling so much in her life. 01:40:27 Tabby And so when Buffy does show up, it's not a sign of, like insecurity or like thinking about you and be there for her. 01:40:35 Tabby It's like those things can coexist. 01:40:38 Tabby You can be sad and like and and miss your daughter and wish you saw her more. 01:40:44 Tabby But then also. 01:40:46 Tabby Like, know who she is. 01:40:47 Tabby At the same time. 01:40:48 Tabby So it's like, you know, that she's gonna come when? 01:40:50 Tabby Like when Joyce is needed, you know. 01:40:53 Sarah Well, in an episode all about family. 01:40:56 Sarah I mean you're Riley and Forrest talking about family, and now you have faith talking about family and the mayor and the dynamics between parents and siblings and all this stuff. 01:41:04 Sarah It was so interesting that they had faith go after Joyce, the Buffys actual family that's around and. 01:41:10 Sarah Like what you guys are saying? 01:41:12 Sarah Joyce is completely trusting that Buffy will come through for her if she needs to, and also giving Buffy the space to go out and live her life all on her own without feeling the need to be like circle the wagons check in with me every few moments or whatever, you know? 01:41:28 Sarah And so again, it goes back to both Joyce and Giles's parenting philosophy. That's very different from the mayor. 01:41:34 Sarah And Maggie Walsh and all that other stuff. 01:41:37 Tabby Yep. And then as they're fighting, falling down the stairs, hurting each other, Joyce calls 911 good for her. 01:41:44 Tabby And like I just oh kilisa this could just stay because I've been missing so many of these fight scenes I was like, oh deprived. 01:41:51 Sarah It was so interesting. 01:41:53 Sarah It was so good. 01:41:53 Tabby I've been so deprived of good fight scenes like I miss it. 01:41:55 Leah No, I'm just so sick of stupid weapons like, oh, my gosh, I really am because there's so much of this season. 01:41:59 Sarah Yes, hand to hand fighting. 01:42:03 Leah So much of this season has been like weapons and machinery and all that because it's focusing on the mechanics of the initiative. 01:42:10 Leah It's like I don't care. 01:42:12 Leah I wanna see well crafted fight scenes. 01:42:16 Tabby And it's so well done. 01:42:18 Tabby Like they're they're just so creative like that. 01:42:20 Tabby When the when Faith brings out the door and mother Buffy and she breaks her, I was like. 01:42:23 Sarah Being cheap, yeah. 01:42:26 Sarah Yeah, they're so interesting and so brutal, too. 01:42:29 Sarah I love watching it. 01:42:32 Tabby And a lot of it you could tell is like Eliza and Sarah Michelle Gellar. 01:42:36 Tabby Like, you could tell, like sometimes it's like it's back and forth. 01:42:41 Tabby But I was like, oh, like you could tell they did a lot of practice with a lot of these sense too, because they're also talking throughout it. 01:42:46 Tabby So they're like, slam each other up against the walls, and they're talking about like, oh, like, going for the boyfriend again. 01:42:51 Tabby That's tired, you know, like. 01:42:52 Tabby Talking about Riley. 01:42:53 Tabby And then Angel and all that sort of stuff. 01:42:57 Tabby And then, uh, we kind of as the last jump back we see in Giles's house that the Council or the guys or whatever were Smith and the other dude's house. 01:43:08 Tabby Wonder if they want Giles. 01:43:09 Tabby I wonder if he would accept being a watcher again and then back at Buffys House we hear sirens. 01:43:15 Tabby Sirens come and then. 01:43:16 Tabby Faith takes out the gadget. 01:43:18 Tabby Grabs Buffys hand as she is about to swing, and then some light flashes. 01:43:25 Tabby Then she takes it off her hand. 01:43:28 Tabby Breaks it on the floor and then Buffy knocks out faith. 01:43:33 Tabby Joyce comes down the stairs and it's like, oh, like, are you OK? 01:43:38 Tabby But he's like. 01:43:39 Tabby She's their problem. 01:43:39 Tabby Now Joyce is like you sure you're OK. 01:43:42 Tabby And then with an ominous look, Buffy goes 5 by 5. 01:43:47 Sarah It has like this weird. 01:43:49 Sarah Like non blinking psychopathic look down. 01:43:53 Sarah We're like, wait, what? 01:43:55 Sarah Yeah, to be continued. 01:43:59 Leah Ah, so good then. 01:44:00 Sarah Such a good episode. 01:44:01 Sarah I mean, as I said before, I typically don't like part ones because they are just a lot of setup, but this had just some great dialogue, some great foreshadowing. 01:44:10 Sarah You can tell it's setting up a lot of stuff, but it's still like there's a lot of payoff. 01:44:14 Sarah It's obviously a body swapping episode, which. 01:44:17 Leah And was overall just a good stairwell episode. 01:44:20 Sarah It's so good. So so. 01:44:22 Sarah So yeah, I'm. 01:44:24 Sarah I'm like, I'm like, ready to record the next one. 01:44:26 Sarah I need to go watch and everything. 01:44:27 Tabby Oh, I can't wait for the next few episodes. 01:44:30 Leah OK. 01:44:32 Sarah Alright guys, that was season four, episode 15, this year's girl. 01:44:38 Sarah What do you guys think of the return of faith? 01:44:40 Sarah Did you like it was a good refresher. 01:44:42 Sarah Are you excited for the next couple of episodes and the arc that's to come? 01:44:46 Sarah We are, let us know your thoughts. 01:44:48 Sarah As always, guys, you can find us on Instagram on TikTok on Tumblr becoming Buffy podcast, and you can e-mail us at [email protected] and yeah, we will see you guys next time for who are you? Can't wait until then, guys.

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