This episode is almost all about subterfuge – and Angel’s acting skills. We start off with everything seeming good in Buffy’s world. Buffy and Angel are a couple committed to not having sex, Buffy and Faith seems to be getting along again, and only the audience knows that Faith has already betrayed Buffy and the Scoobies by aligning herself with Mayor Wilkins.
From there, things start to go off course and by the end of the episode Buffy is left feeling betrayed by both Faith, and worse, Angel. Let’s rewind now, shall we?
Okay, before getting into the A plot, I just want to say that it’s nice having Cordelia back in the fold again, even if it’s because she’s into Wesley. I mean, she asked him out by asking him to help her with her English paper, because he’s English. It’s like she’s trying to be subtle, yet lacks all subtlety. Welcome back Cordy. Now that that’s out of the way…
Without the audience knowing it, Buffy and Angel decide to play Faith. They hatch a plan that only they and Giles know about in order to find out if Faith really has betrayed them, as they fear she may have. I’m assuming this all starts after her first visit to Angel where she tries to kiss him. This officially makes her the worst friend! Except that she isn’t Buffy’s friend anymore. I think she wants to be friends with Buffy, but feels like she’ll never be accepted and now has the Mayor whispering in her ear. She really just needs to be accepted for who she is and Mayor Wilkins has done that for her.
Anyways, you can tell that during this whole encounter Angel is feeling a bit uneasy about Faith, so it makes sense that he and Buffy wouldn’t trust her. (I mean aside from the fact that Faith knows how Angel lost his soul and is still trying to seduce him, which just makes her seduction attempts that much more obvious.) It stands to reason, then, that this is when Angel and Buffy figured out that Faith was trying to turn Angel and reached out to Giles for guidance.
Again, the audience knows none of this. We have to piece this whole plot together after the fact. Which makes the episode that much more disturbing! But here we are. The trio are able to pull the wool over Faith’s and the Mayor’s eyes with the help of a Shaman who owes Giles a favor. First of all, Giles is an interesting guy – like more than we already suspected. Second, when Giles says that he introduced the Shaman to his wife, and that’s why he is owed a favor, that just makes him even more interesting. I mean, I’m sure this line was more for laughs, but who is the Shaman’s wife and how did Giles know the Shaman from before and… I just have so many questions. Like, can we please have a Buffy prequel that’s all about Giles? Please?
Okay, moving on. One more thing about this plan is that Buffy was already experiencing trust issues when it comes to Faith, so it makes sense that she would see Faith’s seduction attempt as horribly evil. But it also means that she can play the role of jealous girlfriend very easily. Angel and Buffy use that as they use Faith to learn the truth about her and the Mayor. It’s also the thing that leaves Buffy so hurt at the end of all this.
From the audience’s point of view, this plays out in a much different way. Faith, with the Mayor’s assistance, gets a Shaman to turn Angel (or so they think) into Angelus. Angel then does a very good job of pretending to be his soulless self – or does he? Once you know he’s acting you can go back and look for clues. Would Angelus let Faith live or would he kill her? I can see both sides of this. On one hand, Angelus would be happy to be Angelus and might let her live as a thank you, but the other side is that he’s probably hungry and killing a slayer would quench his thirst and affect Buffy. And that’s what he’s all about right, hurting Buffy? He also only punches Xander. I know Angel was probably happy to have the opportunity to punch Xander – these two have always been frenemies, at best, but would Angelus have passed up the opportunity to send Buffy a Xander-shaped message? And why would Angelus take orders from the Mayor? Sure, he can’t be killed at the moment, but surely Angelus could still overpower him, and bury him alive or something, right? There is no reason why Angelus wouldn’t try to take back the power he had when he was running the Sunnydale bad guys club back in season 2.
And there is one more big clue. After he and Faith kidnap Buffy and he is chaining her to the wall he doesn’t seem evil. He’s being too gentle. It’s a quick glimpse of the truth, but it’s there. However, he also does a disturbingly good job of pretending to be soulless (I know I’ve said this already, but that’s the whole point of this episode!). He and Faith repeatedly kiss (passionately) in front of Buffy, and he seems way too happy at the prospect of torturing her. Of course, it’s all in the name of committing to his role in order to fool Faith (and the Mayor) to get as much info as possible, but does he go too far?
According to Buffy, yes. Watching this episode, you really believe that he has become Angelus once again, so clearly he’s convincing, but Faith and the Mayor don’t know Angelus – could he have toned it down? From the point of view of the story – no. If he did, the audience wouldn’t be so happily surprised when Buffy is suddenly chain free and Angel is back by her side, prompting Faith to say, “You played me!,” before running away. We are just as surprised as she is. And of course, the more drama the better, so why not have Angel be so convincing that even Buffy is disturbed by his stellar acting?
If only a daylight ring from The Vampire Diaries/Originals could make its way to Angel – he could have a great Hollywood career.
There isn’t really anything more to say about this episode. The fallout is shown, in part, in the next episode and then we’re on the road to the two-part season finale. This episode is just another notch in getting there. I can’t believe season 3 is almost over!