Buffy issue 7 summary and analysis

[moscow_watcher]

The issue starts with a flashback of Buffy\Faith's fight in Graduation Day 1. This time we see it from Faith's POV: according to her, she wanted to be Buffy's friend but Buffy refused to accept her friendship and tried to kill her. Obviouly the flashback is done to refreshen reader's memory and make the parallel with current situation even more striking.

Faith arrives to the party at Gigi's mansion. She throws off the earphone that connects her to Giles. "I've got enough voices in my head already". She is searched with a radio-metal locator but the guards doesn't notice a small knife in her hairdo, disguised as a pin. When Faith is asked to show an invitation she throws a Paris Hilton fit and is allowed to enter the mansion without an invitation. "You're one of them, all right" says the butler.

Staying in the line of the visitors who present Gigi their cards, Faith gives herself a pep-talk: she doesn't want to kill a slayer, but she has to believe Giles that the girl is dangerous. Gigi's tantrum interferes with Faith's plans and she goes to the balcony to smoke and to calm the nerves. Gigi joins her there and they bond instantly over Amy Winehouse songs. For three panels they discover how much in common they have, then Faith is finally ready to kill Gigi.

She reaches for a knife in her hairdo... and is immediately attacked by Roden's gargoyles who sweep her in the air. She sticks her knife in one of them, and somehow destroys the other (obviously he falls to pieces when she hits him). Then she falls unconscious. Probably it's Roden who sent her to sleep, since he's already staying by Gigi who's shattered. Probably it's just a plot necessity, because in the next scene...

Faith regains consciousness in Gigi's bedroom. "I'm begging you snuff her out now" says Roden to Gigi before Faith opens her eyes. Curiously, he can't do it himself. Either he's bound by some weird spell (like Drogin who couldn't lie) or he's afraid to contradict Gigi who has already found her best friend in Faith.

Faith opens her eyes and Gigi tells her that she's "like her and other girls who have tapped into an ancient force". Gigi plans to become their leader after the coronation "to take our rightful place at the head of this wretched society. Right after I destroy the woman holding us back and take her mantle as queen". She's talking about Buffy. She's clearly obsessed with her the way Faith was obsessed in season 3. Gigi's "locker room" is covered with Buffy's photos. Some of them fresh. Some of them may be made inside Buffy's castle. Buffy with her team. Buffy with her zap gun. Buffy with Twilight sign painted over her face.


Analysis.

Slayership as the metaphor of aristocracy could provide a basis of compelling story a century ago. But today the influence of aristocratic society on politics, economics and culture is next-to-nonexistent, so the metaphor works only as a requisite element of storytelling ("hey, Jossverse is about metaphors so we have to provide you with our metaphor-du-jour!")

Back to storytelling, I noticed that after the first issue of No Future For You many people presumed that Faith wasn't going to kill Gigi and that she agreed to work for Giles only to prevent the murder of a fellow slayer. So her actual behavior in the issue was a shock. I always saw her acceptance to do a "wet-work" for Giles as an honest agreement. Because otherwise she automatically becomes a traitor and a double agent. Not Faith-like. Vaughan provided Faith with enough lines to indicate that she's tortured about her mission. But in real life, when war is raging, people rarely choose between good and evil. People usually choose between bigger and lesser evil.

Obviously Vaughan is planning to make Faith's mission as hard as possible and I like it. I suppose the bonding between two slayers will be continued and Faith will find it more and more hard to see Gigi as an enemy. Right now the resolution is unclear. Either Faith eventually kills Gigi or she converts her to Buffy's side and Gigi becomes the next extra in Buffy's army. Or we'll get another unresolved storyark, like escaped Amy and Warren - an arc to be addressed in a year or two.

Interestingly, Gigi calls Roden "fascist tutor". It's one more mention of fascist ideology in season 8. In issue 5 Joss introduced debates on fascism in a girls' banter right before Fake!Buffy gets activated by Willow's spell. Interesting coincidence. Or maybe not a coincidence.

I still can't define the type of logic that should be applied to the story analysis. For example, is Gigi really "special"? I mean - why Roden chose Gigi, an aristocratic girl with influent parents who can raise a lot of fuss about the slayer business? Could he choose a less prominent figure - say, an orphan? Has he chosen Gigi because she has something other girls hasn't or because Joss decided to use slayership-going-wrong as a metaphor of aristocracy?

stormwreath has a very interesting theory about it but I not sure such complex plot twist could be resolved in two remaining issues. It's stuff thick historical romance novels are made of. Then again, such twist could deepen the slayership\aristocracy and leadership\heirship parallels. And in this case weird "filthy whore!" flashback in previous issue could be even relevant to the plot.

Another example of moot logic is Faith's cover not being exposed. She has killed the first gargoyle with her knife and nobody mentions it. Should we draw a conclusion that Roden knows it and is now playing Faith in hope she'll lead him to her boss? Or we should just suspend our disbelief and accept that nobody has checked the knife?

So far, I like the story without caring much about characters. Trying to figure out the puzzle is part of the fun. Hopefully there is something to figure out. But Joss' "true love kiss" explanation made me wonder. If the twist of the first arc is the absence of it and the actual solution is *that* simple, could other twists also be as elementary as this one?

Overall impression: Story-wise, it's solid, professionally done entertainment. Some visuals are cringe-worthy, but that's understandable: no drawing can give dazzling Eliza Dushku her due.