This 24-Year-Old Buffy the Vampire Slayer Episode Had the Stars’ Best Performances (& It Included Multiple Subtle References)

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Posted 2 hours ago by inuno.ai

Category: Animations & Comics

Body-swapping is a common trope in movies and TV shows. Whether through science or magic, having characters switch places and face living life as someone else can make for a great story and offer new insights into the beliefs and feelings of those involved. It can also give actors a chance to show off their range by taking on a completely different role for a brief time, playing an already established character with their own mannerisms and style. Buffy the Vampire Slayer managed to accomplish all of these things while advancing ongoing plots with the Season 4 episode, “Who Are You?”

The previous episode, “This Year’s Girl,” had concluded with Faith, recently awoken from a coma, using a device left to her by the Mayor, to switch bodies with Buffy. Now on the run from the Watcher’s Council, Buffy, in Faith’s body, was faced with finding a way to reverse the spell and convince her friends of her true identity. Meanwhile, Faith began adapting to her life as Buffy and was forced to confront some harsh truths about herself. Along the way, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Eliza Dushka demonstrated their remarkable acting abilities through memorable performances.

Sarah Michelle Gellar Nailed Faith’s Attitude and Inner Pain

Faith, in Buffy’s body, is the first character to recognize Tara and Willow’s developing romance.
Faith’s flirting with Spike foreshadows the later feelings the vampire will develop for the Slayer.
Sarah Michelle Gellar had played a villainous character for the first time in Cruel Intentions just a year before “Who Are You” aired.

Through three and a half seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sarah Michelle Gellar played a character who was both noble and silly, courageous and full of self-doubt. Buffy was a complex and unique character but, at her core, she was a kind person. For many fans, it was likely difficult to imagine Gellar as anything but a sweet person with an aura of innocence about her. In taking on the role of Faith, however, the skilled actress became a completely different sort of person.

From speech patterns to movement and mannerisms, Gellar completely captured the character of Faith. Even simple things like how she sits and watches the crowd while at the Bronze show a style that speaks to Faith’s more relaxed, edgier demeanor. While great writing contributes to the overall effect, it’s Gellar’s delivery that truly makes it feel like Faith is inhabiting a different body. This performance becomes even more impressive when she faces the challenge of playing Faith pretending to be Buffy.

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Seeing Faith inhabiting Buffy’s body revealed tantalizing hints into Faith’s psychology and how she viewed Buffy and herself. The early scenes, with Faith practicing being Buffy in the mirror, subtly reveal Faith’s instability, lack of a clear sense of self, and her need to see her rival as foolish and naive. As she mocks Buffy by pretending to be an uptight do-gooder and devolves into hysterical laughter, it hammers home to viewers that Faith can’t bring herself to accept that Buffy is simply a good person. She needs to believe that Buffy’s nobility is an act or the result of her being a prude. For Faith to admit otherwise would mean confronting her own flaws and the terrible things she’d done.

Faith’s confidence and sexuality also come through dramatically in Gellar’s portrayal. Flirting with Spike and seducing Riley both show the actions of a person fundamentally different from Buffy. Further, her reaction to Riley rejecting her more wild side also shows just how much, deep down, Faith struggles with her nature. Her reaction to hearing him tell her he loves her reveals in heartbreaking fashion how broken she is and how, beneath the surface, she hates herself and feels unworthy of true affection. None of this would have been nearly as effective if not for Sarah Michelle Gellar’s acting.

Eliza Dushku Was a Great Hero

Eliza Dushku is officially credited as Buffy in “Who Are You.”
Neither Sarah Michelle Gellar nor Eliza Dushku were able to watch the filming of the other’s scenes, having to trust in each other’s abilities.
Dushku later got to play the hero in a Joss Whedon show with Dollhouse.

While Sarah Michelle Gellar had to become a villain, Eliza Dushku had the monumental task of briefly becoming the show’s protagonist. In addition to taking on the lead role, she also had to portray Buffy in particularly stressful situations and experiencing heightened emotions. As with Gellar, Dushku rose to the challenge and offered a commanding performance. This extends from her physical performance to her more intimate moments and, particularly, her chemistry with other characters.

In her struggle with the agents of the Watcher’s Council, she shows herself to be holding back physically, showing how Buffy, in contrast to Faith, would not want to hurt innocent people. Later, when confronting Giles, she manages to convey a mix of frustration, anxiety, and hope just in how she stands and looks at her Watcher. This scene also highlights Dushku’s ability to portray Buffy through her touching and funny exchange with Giles.

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Eliza Dushku perfectly captures the tone of Buffy in even small moments. Her asking Giles what a stevedore is, both nails the Buffy voice and calls back to a humorous moment from earlier in the series. The way she both speaks to her mentor and clearly looks to him for support feels exactly like Buffy and, while this is aided by a great performance from Anthony Stewart Head, it largely comes from Dushku’s capacity to fully inhabit a different character.

Both Gellar and Dushku manage to bring these portrayals to a dramatic conclusion when they confront each other in a church, picking on their fight from the previous episode and finally restoring the status quo. While each gets their own body back, however, the brief swap leaves both characters shaken and, narratively, advances several different arcs.

“Who Are You” Connects Old and New Plotlines

Faith’s plotline was picked up in subsequent episodes of Angel, which featured a guest appearance by Sarah Michelle Gellar.
In “Who Are You,” Willow speculates that Buffy may be possessed by a hyena, which is a callback to the very first season when Xander is possessed by an animal spirit.
To convince Giles of her true identity, Buffy references his past relationship with her mother, which occurred in Season 3, and his brief transformation into a demon, which occurred earlier in Season 4.

In addition to showcasing the talent of Sarah Michelle Gellar and Eliza Dushku, “Who Are You” also developed both of their characters and advanced major storylines that had been developing for multiple seasons. Since her fight with Buffy at the end of Season 3, Faith had been out of the picture and lingering issues had been left unresolved. These, along with other conflicts and threats, were significantly advanced by the end of the episode.

Faith definitively turned to evil when she allied with the Mayor, but it was always clear that, deep down, she was a conflicted person and struggling with who she was. She’d had an unhappy childhood and her accidental killing of an innocent man had pushed her over the edge. While she had tried to convince herself that she didn’t care and that she was just a cynical survivor, her time as Buffy showed her how far she’d fallen. By the end of “Who Are You,” her self-loathing had finally been brought to the surface. Her beating Buffy, in Faith’s body, while calling her dirty and evil, was undoubtedly an unconscious attempt to punish herself and confront her past actions. This moment captured Faith’s turmoil and set her up for redemption in Angel.

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“Who Are Young” also advanced the Buffy-Riley romance, with Faith’s deception forcing the couple to grow closer through reconciliation. The fallout of these events would ripple through the rest of the season and arguably influence their relationship for the rest of its duration. Finally, it brought the conflict between the two Slayers to the forefront, resolving a conflict that had mostly been forgotten about for nearly a year.

While it wasn’t the most consequential part of the season, only briefing featuring the big bad, Adam, “Who Are You” was still a great episode and helped advance the arcs of Buffy and Faith. It also gave their actresses a chance to try something different and demonstrate just how amazing they are, whatever role they’re playing.