The Rome Decoy Problem

[Joshua]

I have a couple questions about the Rome Decoy

1. What happens to the "Buffy Summers" in Rome?
2. Does The Immortal know he's dating a decoy?
3. Does the Rome Decoy have the exact face of Buffy Summers? (sorry for the stupid question)
4. Who was the Slayer's identity decoying as Buffy?

 

[scoobygang]

First, in rome there is a double of buffy it's not the real buffy,
for the second question i don't think because that must stay a secret (nobody knows the exeistence of double buffy)
for the third question, i don't know but we can suppose that she looks likes of buffy because concerning the buffy who lives under the earth, we can constate that she looks like to the real buffy.
i am not sure to have understood exactly the last question.
But i can say you that there are more and more demons and vampyrs on the earth since the final battle of the season 7 because after this war, Buffy has gathered and protected many many potentials. for re-balance the strenghts (of the evil and the good), forces of darkness have send on the earth a lot of demons and vampyrs.

 

[white avenger]

I have a couple questions about the Rome Decoy

1. What happens to the "Buffy Summers" in Rome?
2. Does The Immortal know he's dating a decoy?
3. Does the Rome Decoy have the exact face of Buffy Summers? (sorry for the stupid question)
4. Who was the Slayer's identity decoying as Buffy?

And, if I might be allowed to add a fifth question,

5. Why was this charade necessary in the first place? We learn in the first issue of Season 8 that it's some scheme that Giles and Andrew cooked up, but why? For the life of me, I can't imagine that, surrounded by a battalion of eager young Slayers as she was, there could be any reason to conceal her true presence for her personal protection, so, what does that leave?

Anyhow, as for the original questions:

1) All that we know for sure is that she was cavorting around town with the Immortal, who, or WHATever he is. Why? We will probably never know. Dammit.

2) I would say, probably not. To my way of thinking, and this is pure conjecture, his sexual conquests are very important to the Immortal, and having the Chief Slayer as his lover is more of a status symbol than anything else (no offense to Buffy, but there are probably thousands, if not tens of thousands of more skilled courtesans in the world, and, supposedly, the Immortal would have his pick of any or all of them. Why settle for a relatively inexperienced girl? To taunt Angel and Spike? Unlikely)

3) Almost certainly, the decoy Slayer bears a very close resemblance to Buffy, but I doubt that an exact double would be necessary.

4) The Roman decoy is obviously meant to be as anonymous as the underground Buffy was, so I seriously doubt that we will ever know who she really is.

 

[Skytteflickan88]

What they said.

But I wonder, since The Immortal is such a public figure, if the decoy isn't, unlike the underground decoy, wearing a glamour. Both for her body and scent. That would explain why Spike and Angel don't think "wait, why doesn't the apartment smell like Buffy &Dawn?" on the other hand, then why wouldn't they do the same for the underground slayer? just in case.

 

[VisionGirl]

The bottom line is that we don't know the answers to these questions. Season 8 never addressed it other than what has already been stated, & season 9 hasn't either.

 

[Stanger406]

I think the decoys were set up so that the supernatural world would never really know where Buffy was or what her plans are. We see the demon world talks a lot throughout the series, and so the rumors would be going around saying "I saw the slayer in Rome" or "The slayer is underground" etc. So, I think the decoys were for protection, but also had other purposes, since Buffy is probably the most famous and sought after slayer.

I suppose their could be a glamour on the decoys, which I never thought about...it always bothered me that Angel and Spike would have not been able to tell that wasn't Buffy in Rome...especially because Buffy and Angel could always sense each other's presence (which they said in Pangs). The fact that they called the Roman Buffy a fake in season 8 was a something I was extremely happy about...I always hated seeing the scene in "The Girl in Question" when we see "Buffy" and it wasn't SMG. Seemed pretty pointless to me to even bother then.