Wow! At the beginning of this episode, I was feeling pretty ambivalent. I didn't really want to see Faith being Buffy. But wow, they put it to really great use.
SMG's acting can't be commended enough for this performance. I knew from the moment they switched what had happened. She just instantly started to seem Faith-y. I was continually impressed. The way she holds her body, both the words she says and how she says them, her actions and attitudes. It was perfectly Faith, in an uncanny yet brilliant way. ED also does a good job being Buffy, but we see a lot less of that.
But what was really great about this episode was how we get to see insight into Faith, and her start to evolve, through using Buffy's life. Her exploring her body and practicing being Buffy in the mirror is cute. Her breaking down when Riley makes it clear he wants to make love, not just have sex, was one of those moments when I really started to have sympathy for Faith. She'd annoyed me before; it felt like her fall into evil was too easy, and she'd been rather obnoxious from the moment she arrived. But now I finally see that she has a far more complicated backstory than I'd given her credit for. Especially when she freaks out when Riley tells her he loves her, asking what he wants - wow, she's had to overcome some crap in her life. After seeing the good Buffy has in her life, evidently so much of which she never had any inkling of in her own, she starts to reconsider her choices. She goes to the church to kill the vampires and save the people. You see her realize that she could go on a different path.
I think all this comes to a head when she beats up Buffy-as-Faith, calling her disgusting and a killer. While it's clear from her coma dreams that she has a lot of pent up rage and fear towards Buffy, the amount of emotion that goes into this makes it more clear it's about her battle against herself.
I expected to be unimpressed by the ol' body switching trick, but I was wrong. They used it brilliantly.
SMG's acting can't be commended enough for this performance. I knew from the moment they switched what had happened. She just instantly started to seem Faith-y. I was continually impressed. The way she holds her body, both the words she says and how she says them, her actions and attitudes. It was perfectly Faith, in an uncanny yet brilliant way. ED also does a good job being Buffy, but we see a lot less of that.
But what was really great about this episode was how we get to see insight into Faith, and her start to evolve, through using Buffy's life. Her exploring her body and practicing being Buffy in the mirror is cute. Her breaking down when Riley makes it clear he wants to make love, not just have sex, was one of those moments when I really started to have sympathy for Faith. She'd annoyed me before; it felt like her fall into evil was too easy, and she'd been rather obnoxious from the moment she arrived. But now I finally see that she has a far more complicated backstory than I'd given her credit for. Especially when she freaks out when Riley tells her he loves her, asking what he wants - wow, she's had to overcome some crap in her life. After seeing the good Buffy has in her life, evidently so much of which she never had any inkling of in her own, she starts to reconsider her choices. She goes to the church to kill the vampires and save the people. You see her realize that she could go on a different path.
I think all this comes to a head when she beats up Buffy-as-Faith, calling her disgusting and a killer. While it's clear from her coma dreams that she has a lot of pent up rage and fear towards Buffy, the amount of emotion that goes into this makes it more clear it's about her battle against herself.
I expected to be unimpressed by the ol' body switching trick, but I was wrong. They used it brilliantly.