Should ANYBODY Have Known?

[white avenger]

This is inspired by a similar thread in the "Close Your Eyes" section relating to the episode "Who Are You?" in which Faith possesses Buffy's body, and, despite her quite obvious character differences, none of her friends, the people who supposedly knew best, thought that anything wrong other than that Buffy was acting "strangely." It took Tara, someone who didn't know her at all, to recognize that Buffy literally wasn't herself. The general consensus there was that Angel would have seen through the deception immediately.

So, the question is, do you find it strange that, given the evidence of their eyes, her friends didn't suspect that it really wasn't Buffy, or can you understand why they were fooled?

Personally, I think that no one who actually knew Buffy would ever have even suspected that the person who they saw wasn't actually their friend, maybe just acting strange, but still 100% Buffy. At least, not in the short amount of time that the spell was actually in effect.

 

[Dagenspear]

Tara was a truly astonishing woman. Buffy's "friends" should've known.

 

[kndizzle]

I kind of always thought that Tara's knowledge in the magics are what led her to come to that conclusion.

That's not to dismiss her powers of observation, but I just kind of assumed.

 

[RipperGilesFan]

I don't think they could/should have known. I never thought it weird they thought Buffy was acting strange & weird but never suspected she wasn't herself -- literally

 

[Kean]

I don't think any of them could have known exactly what happened but, they all should have known that something was wrong. Giles especially. It's kind of his job to peg things like this.

What I have to wonder is how Willow didn't know. She is witch, she is Buffy's best friend and she hates Faith. You'd think that would be enough for her to pick up on something.

 

[Ripper666]

I think if you know a person for years you could, no should notice if somethings wrong with him/her. Just to be there to help him/her if she/he needs help. Buffy needed help, but noone was there.

 

[white avenger]

I don't think any of them could have known exactly what happened but, they all should have known that something was wrong. Giles especially. It's kind of his job to peg things like this.

What I have to wonder is how Willow didn't know. She is witch, she is Buffy's best friend and she hates Faith. You'd think that would be enough for her to pick up on something.

But that's precisely my point. No one who knew Buffy, regardless of whether it be "the one who sees everything," the one with mystical powers, the lover, or the vampires, EITHER ONE of them, would have bothered to even think about looking beyond the simple evidence of their eyes and ears. This person LOOKED like Buffy, she SOUNDED like Buffy, so it must be Buffy. Buffy acting out of character, certainly, but not really much more out of character than she did at the beginning of Season 2, just a bit (okay, a LOT) more slutty about it. They knew that something was wrong, but they thought that it was something wrong with Buffy, not that it might not actually BE Buffy.

If the charade had lasted for a longer period of time, they might have caught on, because Faith certainly wasn't trying to act the way that Buffy did. Then again, we have to remember that Faith wasn't planning on hanging around Sunnydale for much longer than it took to clean out Buffy's bank account and catch the first bus headed out of town. She wasn't really worried about any sort of long term deception. In fact, Faith might have actually WANTED everyone to remember Buffy that way as a sort of revenge.

Tara was totally objective in her observation. She saw Buffy, someone who she had never met, and therefore had no preconceived notions as to who she was or what her normal behavior might have been before that first meeting. All that she saw was a human whose aura didn't match her body.

 

[Kean]

This person LOOKED like Buffy, she SOUNDED like Buffy, so it must be Buffy. Buffy acting out of character, certainly, but not really much more out of character than she did at the beginning of Season 2, just a bit (okay, a LOT) more slutty about it. They knew that something was wrong, but they thought that it was something wrong with Buffy, not that it might not actually BE Buffy.

And that is precisely my point. Her walk, her talk, her tone, her clothes, her gestures; they were all overwhelmingly not Buffy. Not just Buffy acting strangely but alien to who Buffy was.

And of course they had every reason under the sun to look beyond "My friend is acting weird". They live in Sunnydale and have been fighting the forces of evil since they were 16. They couldn't have more reason to delve deeper.

Of course, if this incident is looked at as a whole for the over-riding S4 arc, rather than in isolation, you can see it is a key part of the Scoobies drifting and falling apart narrative. So, I can see how it makes sense on a grander scale. But, honestly, I still think they should have at least been concerned. Like they were when Kathy was sucking Buffy's soul out.

 

[PassionBecoming]

And of course they had every reason under the sun to look beyond "My friend is acting weird". They live in Sunnydale and have been fighting the forces of evil since they were 16. They couldn't have more reason to delve deeper.

Of course, if this incident is looked at as a whole for the over-riding S4 arc, rather than in isolation, you can see it is a key part of the Scoobies drifting and falling apart narrative. So, I can see how it makes sense on a grander scale. But, honestly, I still think they should have at least been concerned. Like they were when Kathy was sucking Buffy's soul out.

This is pretty much what I think. I went back and forth with it a few times, because my first reaction was, "They all should have known Buffy would never act like that!!" Then I would think, "Well, if one of my friends was acting oddly I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that someone else was in her body." But, yes, they live in Sunnydale, where the weird and freaky often occur, so I would say they should have checked it out.

 

[Joan the Vampire Slayer]

Of course, if this incident is looked at as a whole for the over-riding S4 arc, rather than in isolation, you can see it is a key part of the Scoobies drifting and falling apart narrative. So, I can see how it makes sense on a grander scale. But, honestly, I still think they should have at least been concerned. Like they were when Kathy was sucking Buffy's soul out.

This explains it I agree; the Scoobies failure to notice that Buffy wasn't herself was just an indication of them drifting apart.

 

[white avenger]

And that is precisely my point. Her walk, her talk, her tone, her clothes, her gestures; they were all overwhelmingly not Buffy. Not just Buffy acting strangely but alien to who Buffy was.

And of course they had every reason under the sun to look beyond "My friend is acting weird". They live in Sunnydale and have been fighting the forces of evil since they were 16. They couldn't have more reason to delve deeper.

We're butting heads here, Miss K, for the simple reason that I don't see Willow and Xander seeing Buffy's strange performance as anything more than exactly that. Buffy was in some kind of weird mood, Buffy has just finally said "To hell with it. I've held it in for too long, I'm gonna bust loose." That would be their normal, human reaction. Yes, given a few hours to watch her antics and look at it logically, they would almost certainly come to the conclusion that their friend wasn't drunk, and wasn't just finally letting her hair all the way down. She's either possessed, or we're dealing with Buffy's evil twin sister. But look back at the show. Faith/Buffy never was around any of Buffy's closest friends more than a few minutes, at most, and Willow and Xander are teenagers who pretty much fight demons as a very dangerous hobby. They look at things first as teenagers, THEN as demon fighters. Giles might have seen the difference immediately, because that's the way he sees everything. But not Willow, not Xander, not Riley, certainly not Spike, and just as certainly, not Angel, but for a very different reason.

Angel loves Buffy the way that only someone who has never loved anyone before can love someone, and it takes a lot more than a few minutes with them to see anything beyond the person who they love. Faith could have been dancing at the Bronze, naked, with strips of bacon wrapped around her ears, and his first reaction would be, "My god, the pressure's finally gotten to my girl. She's snapped." but his immediate reaction would be to help her, simply because all that he saw was his girl, not his girl's body with someone else occupying it. That would be the last thing that he, or anyone else would think.

Eventually, yes, Faith's charade would be exposed, simply because she wasn't trying as much to act like Buffy as she was just to look like her. But for just the immediate, short term performance, that's all that she would need. She looked like Buffy. She spoke with Buffy's voice. She even smelled like Buffy, to those whose sense of smell was hyper sensitive. First impression: they saw Buffy, maybe with something wrong with her, but Buffy, just the same.

 

[Kean]

We're butting heads here, Miss K, for the simple reason that I don't see Willow and Xander seeing Buffy's strange performance as anything more than exactly that. Buffy was in some kind of weird mood, Buffy has just finally said "To hell with it. I've held it in for too long, I'm gonna bust loose." That would be their normal, human reaction.

I just don't believe that the normal human reaction is a good enough explanation here given their history. Especially when Tara, who didn't even know Buffy, called it straight away.

I can take your on board you side as far as Willow and Xander, just barely, but not Giles. It is his job see this.

And I am not saying they should have known exactly what happened. I'm saying they should have known something was wrong and expressed concern before Tara brought it to their attention.

 

[Ripper666]

I can take your on board you side as far as Willow and Xander, just barely, but not Giles. It is his job see this.

Maybe yes, maybe no. On the one hand he, as Buffys watcher should have noticed. On the other hand I think that all this "teenage/new generation" things overtax him. He is just another generation and don't really understand all of Buffys, Willows or Xanders reasons to do something. I blame him less then for example Willow or Xander. But I think Spike should have noticed. Instead he accepted without questioning and dreamed his dream.

 

[white avenger]

I just re-watched the sequence where Faith/Buffy was in Giles' home, and I frankly can't see any alarming difference between how Buffy would normally act. She just seemed, at most, somewhat distracted, but if you look, Giles, himself, seemed to be rather preoccupied with the capture and proposed fate of Faith (Buffy). It wasn't until the scenes at the Bronze that we see Faith's personality begin to emerge, and, once more, none of her friends were there with her for more than just a few moments. Also, it must be remembered that they had already seen Cave Buffy and Love Struck Over Spike Buffy just within the last few weeks. After changes like those, just about anything would shrink to insignificance. And, once more, people tend to look at things and see what they expect to see. Giles, Willow, and Xander expected to see Buffy, and that's exactly what they saw initially. If they had spent the evening together, it would have no doubt been a different story, but for those few moments, they just plain dismissed the behavior as unusual, but not so unusual as to be any cause for alarm.

Tara, on the other hand, was totally unbiased, simply because she didn't have any preconceived notion of who Buffy was, or how she should be acting. She saw a stranger with a screwed up aura, not a friend who had been going through an exceptional amount of stress lately, even for the Slayer.

 

[PassionBecoming]

I just re-watched the sequence where Faith/Buffy was in Giles' home, and I frankly can't see any alarming difference between how Buffy would normally act. She just seemed, at most, somewhat distracted, but if you look, Giles, himself, seemed to be rather preoccupied with the capture and proposed fate of Faith (Buffy). It wasn't until the scenes at the Bronze that we see Faith's personality begin to emerge, and, once more, none of her friends were there with her for more than just a few moments. Also, it must be remembered that they had already seen Cave Buffy and Love Struck Over Spike Buffy just within the last few weeks. After changes like those, just about anything would shrink to insignificance. And, once more, people tend to look at things and see what they expect to see. Giles, Willow, and Xander expected to see Buffy, and that's exactly what they saw initially. If they had spent the evening together, it would have no doubt been a different story, but for those few moments, they just plain dismissed the behavior as unusual, but not so unusual as to be any cause for alarm.

Tara, on the other hand, was totally unbiased, simply because she didn't have any preconceived notion of who Buffy was, or how she should be acting. She saw a stranger with a screwed up aura, not a friend who had been going through an exceptional amount of stress lately, even for the Slayer.

All good points. Most of the Scoobies didn't see her when she was acting all weird.

 

[SlayerFest]

Tara was always portrayed as being really smart. Like when she makes that "insect reflection" joke and no one gets it. Willow is smart too, obviously, but Tara knew more about magic and she just saw through people. She's a very quiet person and quiet people are often times, more observant. When I first meet someone I watch them interact with the people around them. It helps me get a sense of their character. Tara is probably 10x smarter than me haha (and clearly the rest of the scoobies) so it makes sense that she immediately thought, "That doesn't belong there..." I don't how to explain what I mean exactly, she was just very...intuitive.

 

[Icarium]

And that is precisely my point. Her walk, her talk, her tone, her clothes, her gestures; they were all overwhelmingly not Buffy. Not just Buffy acting strangely but alien to who Buffy was.

And of course they had every reason under the sun to look beyond "My friend is acting weird". They live in Sunnydale and have been fighting the forces of evil since they were 16. They couldn't have more reason to delve deeper.

This isn't Charmed where the protagonists were possessed literally several times per season (and yet never learned when a bad guy was pretending to be one of them). Buffy behaving oddly could have had a completely rational explanation, this is far more likely than any supernatural problem. And "Buffy" didn't act that oddly anyway, at least not in front of Willow, Xander or Giles. For all they knew, Buffy was just happy to have gotten rid of Faith.

I just don't believe that the normal human reaction is a good enough explanation here given their history. Especially when Tara, who didn't even know Buffy, called it straight away.

Tara had the ability to see people's auras. And "Buffy" was far meaner to her than to Willow, Xander or Giles. So her noticing that something is wrong doesn't mean that those three should have noticed too as they saw different behaviour and had no supernatural hints to help them solve the case. Even Tara was not sure and had to do a spell together with Willow to understand what's going on.

 

[Kean]

This isn't Charmed where the protagonists were possessed literally several times per season (and yet never learned when a bad guy was pretending to be one of them). Buffy behaving oddly could have had a completely rational explanation, this is far more likely than any supernatural problem. And "Buffy" didn't act that oddly anyway, at least not in front of Willow, Xander or Giles. For all they knew, Buffy was just happy to have gotten rid of Faith.

You're right, this isn't Charmed. This is Buffy where the protagonists and other characters are possessed, go through body swaps, lose souls, revert to their teenage selves and have dopplegangers on a very regular basis.

By the time this incident had happened the Scoobies had gone through Amy's mother taking over her body, Xander being Hyhena!Boy, everyone turning into their Halloween costumes, Angel losing his soul, every woman in Sunnydale falling for Xander, Buffy and Angel being possessed by ghosts, Band Candy, The Wish where their whole reality was up-ended, Gingerbread where the evil kids possessed/controlled half the town, Vamp!Willow, Kathy sucking Buffy's soul out, Cave!Buffy, Buffy wanting to marry Spike, and Demon!Giles.

By the time the Faith thing happens there had been at least 14 incidents when a Scooby had been acting strangely in a way directly associated with the supernatural. That's why I still believe they had every reason to notice Buffy's off behaviour and to consider it potentially Hellmouth related.

As I said earlier, I understand that the fact that they didn't notice is directly tied to one of the main themes of the season. But in isolation I feel they had a strong enough track record to know better.

Then again, if you flip it, you could argue that them not seeing it is on point in terms of continuity.