Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Who Are You

"You can't do that! It's wrong!"

This seems, at first, as though it's going to be predictable: Buffy and Faith have switched bodies because of some McGuffin. We can see the sort of direction in which this is headed, right? Except that we then see that it's both written and directed by Joss Whedon. Immediately we begin to suspect that this is going to be much cleverer than we expected.

We in Doctor Who fandom often speak of "Doctor lite" episodes, in which the Doctor is largely absent for production reasons but this makes us all the more aware of the Doctor because of the gap he leaves behind. This is a Buffy lite episode in that sense, albeit one that happens to star Sarah Michelle Gellar as Faith. And Gellar's mastery of all Faith's mannerisms is scarily brilliant.

The whole shape of the episode is relievingly focussed on Faith's reaction to living Buffy's life, and gradually becoming her, as opposed to lots of potentially frustrating scenes of Buffy being misunderstood and disbelieved. Yes, there are scenes with Buffy and a few annoying idiots from the Watchers' Council, but that's fine because they're idiots. The "British" dialogue is really awkward, though, which is really surprising from Joss Whedon, who previously has always got it right. They refer to the UK as "the mother country", a phrase no Brit would ever use: we're not Russians! And as for "Stop her, you ponce!"…. oh dear!

Still, all the scenes with Faith in Buffy's body are incredible to behold. I love the shot with the mirror, early on, and Faith's slow gradual acceptance of the hero's role. The whole thing pivots on the sex scene with the unwittingly unfaithful Riley, as Faith experiences slow, loving sex for the first time and is disturbed by it. There's a slightly troubling aspect to this- Faith, like the vampires in this show, is kinky, and this seems to be a bit of a signifier of nefariousness, like smoking. This scene can only really be read as saying that Faith learns the error of her bad, kinky ways and learns the value of loving, emotional sex, as though the two were mutually exclusive. It's a surprisingly and disturbingly judgemental and puritanical message.

Still, the other sex scene is much nicer and cuter, even if, what with it being a lesbian sex scene and this being the USA in 2000, it has to be shown in metaphor. But the intense, sweaty "spell" between Willow and Tara clearly shows us that, as Faith notices, they're a couple. Oh, and that exchange ("I am, you know." What?" "Yours.") just made me melt. The two of them are such an adorable couple. Even better, the two of them are more or less now officially "out", at least in Scooby circles.

The ending is perfect, with Faith angrily lashing out at Buffy for looking like her and hating the bad things she's done and the choices she's made. The body swap doesn't last, but at least for Faith there now seems to be a chance of redemption.