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![]() Buffy s4e16 From the moment she arrived in Sunnydale, Faith has been jealous of Buffy; her friends, her life and her attitudes. This jeaulousy intensifies and combined with her own issues (sic) it makes her hate Buffy, see her as the opposite to her self. I think she is so sure that she is not/cannot be like Buffy that she swings wildly in the other direction, seeking out the praise and love of her father-figure the mayor. Remember how she reacts to his recognition and patronage: obviously he gives her reinforcement that she desperately needs. Unfortunately he rewards undesirable behaviour. Faith swaps bodies with Buffy because the mayor has told her that there is no place for such evil anymore now that he is gone. He is recognising that Buffy and what she stands for will survive, so he makes a present of her persona to Faith. Faith initially keeps being Faith-like in Buffy's body - drinking and flirting and being rude etc. but this just doesn't work, as a) she has to keep up the Buffy charade and b) because she has to act like Buffy a little, people start treating her like Buffy. And in the guise of Buffy she doesn't react to their treatment of her as Faith (by scorning or rejecting it), but rather sees it through Buffy's eyes. That's why she is so surprised when the girl thanks her so profusely - for Faith the buzz in slaying is about 'staking vamps', not saving lives, but when the girl physically holds her back she's forced to realise what real gratitude is, when it's directed at her. Then when Riley won't let her do her Faith-whore thing and forces her to have tender sex, it seems as if that's something she's never done before. She seems confused by it - so when he says 'I love you' it freaks her out as if no one has ever said it to her before, not in that context anyway. Faith obviously has never associated sex with love, rather with power and manipulation. This is why she asks Riley what he wants from 'her'. The mayor rewarded her with love for killing people and that seems to be the basis she works on. So I think Riley saying that ruptures some protective layer. Therefore it's really quite important. Throughout all these interactions, Faith starts to experience what it's really like to be Buffy. She starts to understand what it's like to be loved by a mother, friends and boyfriend and she stops thinking of her as a 'goody goody' and recognises the enormous duty that Buffy feels comes with being the Slayer. That's why she comes back from the airport - she's realised her duty to the people she can save and she wants it. However, when she experiences these emotions she experiences them as Buffy. She assumes that others are reacting to Buffy, not her. When she sees that Buffy has returned she freaks out - I think she'd started to believe she could be Buffy. She has a sort of identity crisis because she's convinced that she can't be good/ordinary as Faith, she needs Buffy's body, because that's what gives her the recognition; she doesn't believe Faith could get it. She feels that her redemption or second chance is bound up with being Buffy, it's like Dumbo's magic feather. This is why Faith starts beating her own body. In her new Buffy persona she tries to kill 'herself'. I don't think she's delusional or mad, I think her self hatred is just so strong that she detests the sight of herself - just like when people look in the mirror and say 'I hate you' to their reflections. She recognises herself as others have seen her and she does get hysterical, trying to wipe herself out. It's like the ultimate psychological cliche, meeting yourself face to face. There is an identity crisis there, as she is so sure that Faith-as-Buffy is totally different from Faith-as-Faith, but the idea that they act like each other because of the physical connection isn't quite enough. Both women are in situations in which people are reacting to them as something else. Faith does it because she has to, to keep up the pretense. Faith's behaviour is molded by the reactions Buffy gets and I think she starts behaving like her accordingly. Buffy does it because she's in a situation where she can't be herself. The Watchers won't believe she's Buffy and they're going to kill her so she gets out of that situation by acting like Faith. It probably wasn't conscious, it is feasible to assume that your body is molded to your behaviour and anyone else in it would be influenced by your imprint, as it were - like a kind of psychic ass groove! So while it is likely that the body has learned habits that override the mind's control, in this case the way people react towards Buffy and Faith temper their actions. Opinion varies on about the strength of Faith's redemption and only time will tell, but no matter what happens next, that was a massive turning point for Faith. She has had the chance to experience life as she wants it to be and it wouldn't seem convincing if she pushed this away and reverted. In a way, she found her soul through being Buffy.
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