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Who Are You

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Season 4, Episode 16
Air date February 29, 2000
Written by Joss Whedon
Directed by Joss Whedon
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"Who Are You" is sixteenth episode of the fourth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and is the seventy-second episode altogether. It was written and directed by Joss Whedon. It originally broadcast on February 29, 2000.

Buffy (in Faith's body) is abducted by the Watchers Council Special Operations Team, while Faith (in Buffy's body) has ruthless fun at Buffy's expense. After rescuing a group of people in a church that has been attacked by vampires, they switch their bodies back.

Contents

Synopsis

Faith: It would be wrong!
Faith (in Buffy's body) stands by Joyce while Buffy (in Faith's body) is carried away in an ambulance. They discuss Faith, and Joyce notes how horribly unhappy Faith must be. After their conversation, Joyce hugs Faith, who is uncomfortable by this sudden affection. Afterward, Faith goes upstairs to take a bath. She tries to get used to her new body, and practices phrases she thinks Buffy would say. Faith then crimps her hair, puts on sultry makeup, and gets dressed up in black leather. Soon after, she buys a plane ticket with Joyce's credit card, and then goes out to meet the gang. Meanwhile, Willow and Tara talk about Faith, and Tara confesses that she "belongs" to Willow. An armored truck runs into the police car carrying Buffy and leather-clad operatives of the Watchers Council jump out. They capture Buffy and put her in the back of their truck. Giles soon informs the gang that the Watchers Council has sent a team to apprehend Faith and take her back to England. Faith is ecstatic at the news, and she celebrates by dancing with several men and women (concurrently) at The Bronze until she runs into Spike .
Faith: I could squeeze you until you popped like warm champagne, and you'd beg me to hurt you just a little bit more.
Once she realizes who Spike is, Faith speaks to him seductively and teases him ruthlessly, telling him all the things she could do to his body; when it is obvious that Spike is confused, yet attracted to her, she concludes by telling him that she won't do anything she could do to Spike "... because it's wrong." Frustrated and furious, Spike promises that as soon as he gets his chip out, they will have a confrontation. Faith, however, merely smirks at Spike's threat, and walks away from him, and he storms out of The Bronze soon after.

Elsewhere, a vampire pack return to their nest to find Adam waiting for them. Adam talks to them, discussing things that vampires fear and concluding that vampires are a paradox; because they are immortal, they fear death at even more than mortals do. Meanwhile, Buffy awakes to find herself chained in the back of a truck with the Council team. She tries to convince them that her body has been switched with the other Slayer, but they are unfazed: She is merely a package for them to deliver. At The Bronze, Willow introduces Tara to Faith. When Willow goes to get drinks, Faith makes no effort to maintain Buffy's persona and says several rude, harsh things to Tara. Willow returns and points out a vampire with a girl, which Faith reluctantly leaves to slay. When the girl thanks Faith for saving her, Faith is stunned by the girl's gratitude.



Buffy: Now you unchain me - very slowly And, politely, or I kill this guy.

One of the Council members, Smith, enters the truck where Buffy is being held, and she attacks him. However, the other members, Collins and Weatherby, remain focused on the mission. At The Bronze, Tara explains to Willow that Buffy was not Buffy; Tara recognized the fragmented energy coming from the body, and knows that "Buffy" is not Buffy. As Willow and Tara prepare to perform a ritual to locate Buffy's real energy, Faith visits Riley and seduces him in the guise of Buffy. At first, Faith is overly sexy and provocative; however, she is surprised to find that Riley is not interested in games, and that he wants to make love rather than just have sex. After they sleep together, Riley tells Faith that he loves her, which confuses and disturbs her own identity yet again. In the morning, she attempts to leave quickly from a sleeping Riley and catch her flight, but ends up having a confrontation with Forrest, who is concerned about her influence over his friend.

When the Council team realize that they will not be able to get the dangerous Slayer to England, they decide to kill her instead. Buffy, however, is prepared; she uses Collins' gun to break her chains and the lock on the door, and then moves to the driver's seat and leaves with the armored truck.



Willow and Tara: Ayala flows through the river in me.

Faith, meanwhile, now at the airport, prepares to leave town by obtaining a boarding pass for a plane. Buffy arrives at Giles' place and struggles to convince him of the truth about the body swap. She reminds him about his stint as a demon and about his sexual relationship with her mother, which sufficiently convinces him of her true identity. Willow and Tara arrive, having created a katra that will switch Buffy and Faith back the next time they make contact. After turning on the TV, they learn that the group of vampires are holding hostages at a church. At the airport, Faith sees this on TV and decides to visit the church as well. Riley arrives, wanting to help, but Faith reminds him of his injury and asks him to stay outside.

Faith challenges the vampires inside, and as the last one is hitting Faith, Buffy stakes him from behind. The two Slayers fight and Faith lets out her anger towards Buffy and herself. Buffy grabs Faith's hand and the two switch back to their own bodies. The real Faith runs away and is gone without a trace. The next day, Buffy and Riley talk and Buffy realizes that Riley had sex with her while Faith was in her body, a revelation that deeply troubles them both. Faith leaves town in a cargo car of a train.

Cast

Starring

Guest Starring

Co Starring

  • Rick Stear as Booke
  • Jeff Ricketts as Weatherby
  • Kevin Owers as Smith
  • Amy Powell as Reporter
  • Rick Scarry as Sargeant
  • Jennifer S. Albright as Date

Trivia

  • The credits read "Eliza Dushku as Buffy" (not Faith) as a special guest, so the credits reflect the exchange correctly.

Quotes

Spike - "[speaking, unbeknownst to him, to Faith in Buffy's body] You know why I really hate you, Summers?" 
Faith - "'Cause I'm a stuck-up tight-ass with no sense of fun?" 
Spike - "Well... yeah, that covers a lot of it." 
Faith - "'Cause I could do anything I want, and instead I choose to pout and whine and feel the burden of Slayerness? I mean,
I could be rich. I could be famous. I could have anything. Anyone. Even you, Spike. I could ride you at a gallop until your
legs buckled and your eyes rolled up. I've got muscles you've never even dreamed of. I could squeeze you until you popped
like warm champagne and you'd beg me to hurt you just a little bit more. And you know why I don't? Because it's wrong."

Willow - "I'm sorry you're feeling blechy. But we'll get together with Buffy another time, sometime soon. I really thinkyou'll like her..." Tara - "She's not your friend." Willow - "I may have overestimated the 'you liking her' factor. But I wish you'd give her a chance; she's very importantto me." Tara - "No, I mean... I don't think she's... her... A person's energy has a flow, a unity. Buffy's was fragmented; it grated,like something forced in where it doesn't belong. Plus she was kinda mean."

Buffy - "[trying to convince Giles she's really Buffy in Faith's body] Giles, you turned into a demon, and I knew it was you.I mean, can't you just look in my eyes and be all intuitive?" Giles - "How did I turn into a demon?" Buffy - "Oh, 'cause, uh, Ethan Rayne. And-and you have a girlfriend named Olivia... and you haven't had a job since we blewup the school... which is valid lifestyle-wise. I mean, it's not like you're a slacker type, but - Oh, oh! When I had psychicpower I heard my mom think that you were like a stevedore during sex. W- Do you want me to continue?" Giles - "Actually, I beg you to stop." Buffy - "What's a stevedore?" -- Buffy references Giles being turned into a Fyarl Demon in "A New Man", his sexual encounter with Joyce in "Band Candy",and the manner in which she learned about that encounter in "Earshot".

Continuity

  • This episode follows immediately after the previous episode "This Year's Girl".
  • Faith (in Buffy's body) becomes the first person to recognize Willow and Tara's romantic relationship when she comments that Willow "isn't driving stick anymore." She is the only character to recognize it without being told. Tara herself references it when she states that she is Willow's.
  • This episode also contains the first explicit references stating that Tara and Willow are having a romantic relationship (previously all that had been given were "hints").
  • Spike and Faith do not meet again until three years later, when the Slayer returns to Sunnydale as an ally against the First Evil. Faith reminds him of this conversation, and he clearly remembers it, noting that it is "not the kind of thing a man forgets."

Music

  • Headland - "Sweet Charlotte Rose"
  • Nerf Herder - "Vivian"
  • The Cure - "Watching Me Fall"
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