Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 3, Episode 7 Review: Revelations

Revelations
Original Airdate: November 18, 1998
Writer: Douglas Petrie
Director: James A. Contner

This episode and its successor can be argued as the end of the beginning phase of the season. With that, it could’ve been easy to have this change addressed in a two-parter much like “What’s My Line” last season. However, the second episode’s main story deserved its own episode rather than subjected as a subplot in two. Even with the good pay off moments, this episode ends up messy and a little rushed in some places.

Following Faith’s first Watcher’s grisly murder by Kakistos, it seemed like the council was content with having Giles perform double duty training the slayers. This episode at first appeared to answer what the process is for getting a new Watcher to a slayer, but that wasn’t the case with the twist. They would deal with that, but later in the season.

There is a critical story flaw: wouldn’t Giles’ have known Gwendolyn was no longer a part of the Watcher’s Council if she was fired a few years ago? It is pre Google, Facebook and Wikipedia, but why didn’t he contact the Council (or vice versa) to make sure everything was proper? It should’ve been more appropriate to have her still be a Council member, but hiding a secret agenda in obtaining the glove.

Faith’s estrangement from the group becomes more tangible in this episode. As it’s been hinted, she didn’t have support before she became a slayer, so making friends with Buffy made up for that. However, Gwendolyn plants doubt about her position in the gang. Not including her in the intervention, while it might’ve been appropriate since she wasn’t around, sends a message that could be read that the gang doesn’t accept her as one of them. The problem is that this trust between Gwendolyn and Faith isn’t earned enough to make this move as profound as it needs to be. Gwendolyn doesn’t have time to take Faith under her wing, nor does she have a similar personality which would win Faith over.

The biggest sign of Faith’s lack of empathy occurs en route to killing Angel with Xander. While Xander is motivated by his jealousy (and maybe a little interested in Faith), he backs up when he finds Giles seriously hurt and holds back to get him an ambulance. However Faith doesn’t think twice about leaving him to die, using slayer duties as an excuse. Buffy wouldn’t make the choice to sacrifice someone like that for the sake of the kill, another representation of Faith as the Slayer Buffy wouldn’t allow herself to be. Faith isn’t completely lost though, as she seemed to reach out to Buffy, albeit very briefly in the end, but clearly there are dark times ahead for her until she can reach out to others.

Besides her relationship with Faith, Gwendolyn’s motivations about getting the glove (besides wanting to blow stuff up with lightning) are never fully explained. Unfortunately the Lagos demon is wasted as well, barely a blip before Buffy dispatches him. Another episode could’ve fleshed this out more.

Short term, Gwendolyn does very well in challenging the Giles and Buffy relationship. Obviously they have grown close like a father and daughter, but Giles’ job is to train her to kill demons and vampires. While there have been some minor tensions since Buffy came back, he doesn’t start to question her judgment until this episode. Once Angel’s return comes out in the least comfortable manner possible, Gwendolyn’s criticism gains considerable weight.

The intervention is how the catharsis in “Dead Man’s Party” should’ve played out. Each of the characters’ reactions reflect who they are, instead of them acting inconsiderately to create a scene with awkward fighting. Giles is betrayed that she would place above him the man who murdered his love and then tortured him for kicks. People will assume Xander’s motivations will always been driven by his jealousy rather than what’s right. Having the characters bring that out in the open made for great drama. It’s also good to show that they haven’t forgotten what Jenny’s death did to the group and Giles in particular. It’s surprising no one considered maybe Buffy lied about sending Angel to hell since they don’t know how he returned. Of course, Willow’s going to be sympathetic towards Buffy’s predicament as she’s in a similar jam. With Buffy in the dog house, she’s not likely to come clean about it anytime soon. It’s a shame it gets resolved by the end of the episode.

There are some problems that hinder the episode’s climax. The Faith and Buffy fight had too many shots where it was clear the stunt people were on camera rather than the actresses. Obviously the stunt people do the more dangerous moves, but they’ve done better at hiding that. This fight is a key moment: the first between Buffy & Faith, but the impact is diminished because of poor editing.

Then there’s the end, where Buffy slices off Gwendolyn’s arm, causing the heavens to vaporize her. It’s more the method than the amputation itself that’s awkward. Is it possible for even a sharp shard of glass to slice off someone’s arm that way? Cutting through the flesh would work, but I think that it’d have to be faster than anything Buffy could throw would cut bone clean off. If only Lagos’ axe was still handy.

This may be one of the few instances where Buffy shows bruising after a fight. Considering the routine beatings, it’s shocking that that didn’t happen more often, but with the story, perhaps keeping it was meant to be metaphorical for the pain Faith is in being unable to trust anyone.

Overall this episode needed some expansion to make some of the moments too rushed to be really effective. Unfortunately they had a bigger idea for what device they would use for the other key turning points at this point in the season. Regardless, what follows this episode and where the characters go in the rest of the season make up for the faults in the road getting there.

Overall Score: 7/10