‘Revelations’ is the seventh episode of 'Season 3'.
There’s an interesting pattern in each 'Buffy' season when it comes to the seventh episodes.
'Season 1', Episode 7 was 'Angel'
- the one that revealed Angel’s true nature,
Darla’s ending,
and was the last significant "Big Bad" episode in that season until
...'Prophecy Girl'.
Season 2’s Episode 7 was ‘Lie to Me’
-the episode that laid bare the philosophical blueprint for the rest of the season,
and perhaps the series itself.
Without spoiling, I’ll say that the Episode 7 phenomena continues for the rest of series,
and 4 out of those 7 episodes land squarely in my own personal Top 10 list for the entire series.
In nearly every case, the first six episodes clear away the dramatic debris remaining from the previous season
and then build the rocket of the upcoming arc.
Episode 7’s ignite it.
As the episode opens the gang is speculating that Buffy has been ditching them lately in lieu of a new boyfriend
and she deflects,
saying she and Faith have been spending more time together.
FINALLY, Faith is back with a centerpiece role in the story,
and she and Buffy have been cleaning the town up under Giles’ supervision.
Except now,
there’s a new Watcher in town to takeover Faith’s training.
“Who the hell are you?”
“Gwendolyn Post.”
"Mrs."
"Your new Watcher."
Gwendolyn injects a considerable amount of criticism and buttoned up sniping into the team chemistry.
So Gwendolyn has been sent by the Council to take over handling of Faith’s training
...as well as evaluate Giles’ handling of Buffy.
She also informs them of a danger from a demon named Lagos
who is looking for the Glove of Myhnegon, a gauntlet of unknown power.
After thoroughly and politely deriding Giles
...she exits with Faith.
Buffy heads to the mansion for some sexified Tai Chi lessons from Angel.
They look about to kiss
...but at the last minute she comes to her senses.
“I’d better hurry before somebody figures out what we’re doing."
“What are we doing?”
I mentioned earlier that I thought Buffy’s decision to keep Angel’s return a secret
felt like arbitrary nonsense meant to trigger
...drama later in the season.
The loudest argument against mine, brought up repeatedly in the comments,
was that she was simply reacting to everyone’s hatred of Angel
she perceived from Xander’s lie
...and Giles’ torture.
In thinking about these next two scenes, I understand I was wrong,
but I don’t think either point of view is completely correct.
We’ll discuss that in the library
but her decision aside,
I don’t find Buffy’s behavior with Angel here at all confusing or unmotivated.
Much the opposite actually.
She has spent the summer grieving for a loved one
that has come back from the dead
and is now here in front of her
with his Smoldering Chi.
Her inability to draw a proper boundary between Angel and herself feels perfectly believable.
Consider too that her metaphorical heart and spirit are both presently embroiled in a downward spiral towards each other,
the lives of Buffy’s trio once again
...paralleling her own by analogy.
I’m neither for or against
Xander and Willow or
Buffy and Angel.
Merely stating that I find their challenges in love here believable, and properly grounded in character.
This is a hopeless love no doubt, given Angel’s
...ah...
performance issues
-but the heart is not a rational organ
and love is a strange force that feels like it can never be wrong to act on,
...even when it is.
As if to emphasize the point,
Willow and Xander find themselves alone in the library,
and a friendly act on Xander’s part to relieve tension
leads to another kiss
which is luckily broken up by Buffy’s metaphorical mind.
Giles has discovered the location of the Glove in the specific cemetery in town
and Xander tries to alleviate his guilt over the Willow situation by putting himself in harm’s way and going after it.
When he does he discovers Angel,
who Buffy had told about the Glove earlier,
...has already beat him to it.
He tails Angel back to the mansion and discovers…
Ho boy!
Next day, the inevitable confrontation finally occurs.
Giles reveals that they know Angel is alive and that Xander saw them kissing.
Then makes the most succinct argument regarding Buffy’s motivations.
“You must’ve known it was wrong seeing Angel or you wouldn’t have hidden it from all of us.”
Exactly.
Ultimately, Buffy’s perceptions created by the Lie were irrelevant.
Even if the implications of the Lie were true
...she still should have mentioned Angel’s reappearance to the group,
...or at the very least, to Giles.
If nothing more than for the sake of Slayer prudence.
But the truth is, if her friends knew about him,
then she wouldn’t have been able to flirt with the idea of acting on her desires.
The heart making the wrong decision feel right again.
Now THAT I can believe.
The fight plays out predictably
...until Giles decides it has become unproductive and calls it off.
Buffy, perceiving an ally, goes to thank Giles,
...who then lays down the most devastating blow of them all.
"I won't remind you that the fate of the world often lies with the Slayer."
"What would be the point?"
"Nor shall I remind you that you've jeopardized..."
"...the lives of all that you hold dear"
"...by harboring a known murderer."
"But sadly I must remind you that Angel tortured me"
"...for hours"
"...for pleasure."
"You should have told me he was alive."
"You didn't."
"You have no respect for me,"
"...or the job I perform."
It’s an absolute gut punch,
...and not one totally undeserved.
The sad part here is that hiding Angel’s return has cast the return itself as a negative in everyone's eyes,
obscuring a VERY important question nobody in the scene is bothering to ask.
And that question has massive implications for the show
Is Angel, the souled vampire
...responsible for the actions of...
...Angelus, the soulless vampire?
Except for Buffy,
it seems as though everyone in this scene, including Giles,
...believes the answer is "yes".
"You’re harboring a known murderer," says Giles.
Present tense.
Even though Buffy already told him that Willow’s spell worked.
It’s an incredibly significant detail with deep ramifications for the rest of the series.
Buffy is only one in the room who seems to distinguish Angel from Angelus.
And really, there’s only one other character so far that has voted besides the people in this room:
"Angel, there must be some part of you inside that still remembers who you are."
"Dream on, schoolgirl!"
“Your boyfriend is dead.”
Even Angelus himself speaks of Angel as a different person.
Does the presence of a soul,
absolve a person of their wrong-doings without one?
Whatever the answer is, I believe it is absolute answer.
It isn’t a conditional question based on how much you do or do not like a particular character.
Justice isn’t intended to be based on preference.
I tend to believe the answer is either yes,
in which case,
Angel killed Jenny,
Angel assaulted Willow,
Angel tortured Giles,
and Angel tore a shopkeeper’s heart out,
or no.
And if it’s a no, it’s a no in all cases the soul cannon is applied.
Curiously,
we don’t have Angel’s vote yet,
but we will in a few episodes
and we’ll have much more to talk about at that point.
Gwendolyn goes to Faith and begins endearing herself to her while undermining her perceptions of the rest of the group.
A slighted Faith finds Xander, who tells her about a back-from-the-dead Angel, now in possession of the Glove of Myhnegon.
Conveniently, Xander shares just enough details with Faith to motivate her to kill Angel,
Xander’s propensity for subverting the decisions of the group once again making an appearance.
Giles shares the same information with Gwendolyn,
as well as the fact that he knows how to destroy the Glove.
We find out Gwendolyn is much more than just a buttoned-up meanie.
[hit]
"Good show indeed."
[confirmed Giles Knockout]
Xander and Faith discover an unconscious Giles.
Xander stays behind to attend to him
...and Faith assumes Angel did it and goes hunting.
Gwendolyn attacks Angel.
Angel fights back.
Faith shows up to stop him.
Buffy shows up and keeps him from getting staked
...and that allows Gwendolyn to put the glove on.
She then rewards Faith's trust in her:
"Faith."
"A word of advice."
“You’re an idiot.”
Angel saves Willow.
Faith distracts Gwendolyn
...and Buffy dismembers her.
Buffy attempts to reconcile with Faith but it is unsuccessful.
Their final exchange informs the scene in the library,
and the problem with Buffy keeping Angel’s return a secret.
It also distinguishes between the two of them.
“I'm on your side."
“I'M on my side."
"And that’s enough.”
“Not always.”
This is not one of my favorite Episode 7’s
...but it is a pretty solid episode.
I did think the climax was a bit underwhelming.
Faith and Buffy’s fights often suffer from a severe case of...
"oh-look-it’s-the-stunt double!"
And I never really doubted for a moment that Gwendolyn had ulterior motives.
As usual, the most compelling stuff here is the drama between our main characters
rather than the predictable scheming of the suffocatingly nefarious Gwendolyn.
And this time, the drama is all grounded in mistakes I found easy to empathize with.
So when the inevitable confrontation finally did occur,
...I was totally engrossed.
And boy did it sting.
Once again, the total ineptitude of the Council is brought to bear.
Or perhaps it’s just Giles?
We’ve had a...
second Slayer show up out of nowhere
...and nobody told Giles her Watcher was dead
until Giles went out of his way to call them at their annual Watchers' retreat.
And here, a shamed and sacked Watcher shows up out of nowhere
...and nearly destroys all of them
and Giles was supposed to find out about that through...
... paperwork?
"They swear there was a memo."
It’s almost as though the Watchers Council is being run by...
...Initech.
"--what's this I hear about you having problems with your TPS reports?
"Yeah."
"Didn't you get that memo?"
Though of course, this favors the patriarchy point of view of the Watchers Council,
and that perhaps...
being the Watcher to the Slayer is not the honor we the viewers naturally think it should be.
More on that later on.
Either way, the episode does light the fuse on several plots I love
...and look forward to talking about in the coming season.