Was the Buffy Decoy in Rome a Cop Out?

J

Joshua

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Do you think the Rome Decoy in "The Girl in Question" was a Cop Out for Sarah not actually appearing?
 
I guess you could look at it that way. But I just thought it added an extra layer of humor onto the already humorous episode. Kind of a way to give a shout out to the fact that the events of Angel season 5 happened in canon.
 
Not particularly. If SMG appeared, it would've changed the entire tone of the episode to be much more serious and intense. It's best that she and The Immortal never actually appeared TGIQ, since it just added to the disbelief and hilarity.
 
Without a doubt it was a cop out, although they have recovered quite well.
The initial explantion in S8 was good, and they are continuing validating it in S9, making it look less like one, so I approve.
 
Well, considering SMG's aunt died and that's why she didn't apear, means they had to find a solution for it.
 
Sarah was supposed to appear in the 100th episode, but she couldn't, at the point she was filming away from the States. So they used Charisma and "Your welcome" was written. Afterwards she was available, and wanted to guest, but Whedon didn't want to use Sarah in one of the final 3 episodes. And "The Girl in Question" was written, an episode that Sarah was NEVER supposed to appear.
 
Chosen Enemy said:
Well, considering SMG's aunt died and that's why she didn't apear, means they had to find a solution for it.
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zianna said:
Sarah was supposed to appear in the 100th episode, but she couldn't, at the point she was filming away from the States. So they used Charisma and "Your welcome" was written. Afterwards she was available, and wanted to guest, but Whedon didn't want to use Sarah in one of the final 3 episodes. And "The Girl in Question" was written, an episode that Sarah was NEVER supposed to appear.
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Do you guys have links to where you found this info?
 
Chosen Enemy
Chosen Enemy
No, it's just something I remember reading about a few times
Pretty sure Iv read Joss say that they were trying really hard to get Sarah to return the favour David did for her but she just wouldnt....
 
Haha I love all the theories. Its great what fans come up with.

I think the episode would have lost the comedy had Sarah actually appeared. It would have been great to actually see her in the last season though, I would have preferred to see her rather than Charisma in the 100th ep, not saying its a bad ep, I just prefer Buffy over Cordy.
 
R
randiann
[No message]
OccaQuokka said:
Haha I love all the theories. Its great what fans come up with.

I think the episode would have lost the comedy had Sarah actually appeared. It would have been great to actually see her in the last season though, I would have preferred to see her rather than Charisma in the 100th ep, not saying its a bad ep, I just prefer Buffy over Cordy.
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I dont think she was meant to be in THAT episode. If they could have got her the episode would have been completely different. So it wouldnt have taken away from the comedy, as it wouldnt have been the same, just with her there 🙂
 
I think that having a fake Buffy assigned to Rome for some mysterious reason was just something that was tossed into Season 8 so that there wouldn't have to be any sort of explanation as to why the real Buffy was no longer there. Joss just didn't want to write the story that way. The same goes for the deus ex machina that got Angel, Spike, and Illyria out of that alley after "Not Fade Away," and even why Willow revealed that Buffy actually knew that Spike had come back, and where he was, after "Chosen," Joss just plain didn't want to be bothered with writing any sort of real story clearing those things up. And, frankly, I was, for some reason, really intrigued with the mysterious character known only as "The Immortal." I really wanted to see just what, exactly, he was, and what the power that he seemed to have over everyone, especially women. Then, once having found that out, I really wanted to see Spike,Angel, or both of them, kick the immortal crap out of him.
 
white avenger said:
The same goes for the deus ex machina that got Angel, Spike, and Illyria out of that alley after "Not Fade Away"
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This part is actually not *quite* true, because Angel After the Fall comic series - plotted by Joss and scripted by Brian Lynch - dealt with 'getting out of that alley' issue very carefully and ingeniously. The series actually replay the scene right after the fight breaks out between Angel and Co on one side and the demonic army on the other side *twice* in vivid detail. With two different outcomes. And the dragon that flies in the sky in NFA plays a major role in the whole series - that was exclusively suggested by Whedon himself. You might call the entire plot twist 'deus ex machina' , but no more so than for example killing of the Beast, or eliminating the Circle of Black Thorn. You might dislike it , but you cannot compare it to the decoy in Rome twist in sheer amount of detail and attention put into making that part ( ie getting them out of that alley and putting them back into LA , eventually) work.
 
ladydorotea said:
This part is actually not *quite* true, because Angel After the Fall comic series - plotted by Joss and scripted by Brian Lynch - dealt with 'getting out of that alley' issue very carefully and ingeniously. The series actually replay the scene right after the fight breaks out between Angel and Co on one side and the demonic army on the other side *twice* in vivid detail. With two different outcomes. And the dragon that flies in the sky in NFA plays a major role in the whole series - that was exclusively suggested by Whedon himself. You might call the entire plot twist 'deus ex machina' , but no more so than for example killing of the Beast, or eliminating the Circle of Black Thorn. You might dislike it , but you cannot compare it to the decoy in Rome twist in sheer amount of detail and attention put into making that part ( ie getting them out of that alley and putting them back into LA , eventually) work.
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"A deus ex machina (play /ˈdeɪ.əs ɛks ˈmɑːkiːnə/ or /ˈdiːəs ɛks ˈmækɨnə/ DAY-əs eks MAH-kee-nə;[1] Latin: "god from the machine"; plural: dei ex machina) is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object."

If what happened in that alley between Angel's final line, "Let's go to work," and the beginning of the "Not Fade Away" arc doesn't qualify as a deus ex machina by that definition, then it comes about as close as you could come and still miss the mark.

Unless it's your contention that Higher Being Cordy sent Dragon Cordelia to save the day, which was never suggested as far as I can recall, there was no reason whatsoever for that dragon to do what it did.

Unless maybe that was the Shrek dragon, and she mistook Angel for Donkey. That would be an honest mistake.
 
My dear man,
Joss wanted Angel to become the dragon-whisperer, and so he did make it so that the dragon listened. The rest of te story followed. It was not as if it never happened, or if the alley scene was subverted to be a hallucination or a clever diversion. The dragon was actually there. They faced it and lived another day. Which makes a big difference with the GiQ plot treatment.
 
I'm totally OK with how it played out because the idea of a decoy gave us the issue "The Chain" which is one of the finest things I've ever read.
 
K
Kanazaka
[No message]
I think when the episode aired, it was intended to be Buffy. But after a few years had passed it was pretty clear, even probably to the people who wrote the episode in the first place, that "Buffy" in that episode didn't act anything at all like Buffy. Like, at all. It was pretty funny to find out as a throw-aside that it wasn't really Buffy. I don't really think it was a cop out in that way.
 
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