gotta have...
Mar. 6th, 2003 05:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mamajoanwell, just about everyone who knows me knows what a huge "thing" I've always had for Faith/Eliza, so, are you surprised that I have comments about last night's "Angel" episode? Nah. Of course you're not.
It seems like everyone on LJ thinks it was the Best Episode Ever or some such. I'm not sure what crack y'all are smoking, but I sure wish I had some.
To sum up quickly the stuff that I want to comment on but not go into depth about:
* Evil Cordy, or Cordevilia as she's apparently now called on lj, is boring. I'm sorry, but she is. Charisma's acting is SO crappy lately. I feel for her, being preggers and probably really tired and all, but damn.
* Connor still needs to go away. Far, far away. I like what![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jennyo said about Connor being a teenager and needing discipline, and especially the delicious irony of Faith being the only one who realizes that ... but even taking that into consideration, still, make him go away. Please. Somebody.
* Angelus, sad to say, is also boring. Hello, where's the evil?? The taunting and tormenting demons in bars and drinking from the already-dead Lilah and making lame sexual innuendo at Faith is, I'm sorry, just not evil enough. And killing the Beast is almost the opposite of evil, for Angelus, considering that's what the MoG brought him back for!
* Fred too was extra-special-useless in this one, dude. Damn.
* Gunn, OTOH, was in good form. I liked his interaction with Faith. It makes sense that they would feel a kinship, and it seemed like a little of the old Gunn attitude was back.
* The Cordy pregnancy, which I had been spoiled on so it wasn't a surprise, still strikes me as the stupidest thing ever. I really hope they find a way to pull it out that *isn't* super-dumb, but I don't have a lot of hope.
Now, on to the thing we all care most about *g*, namely, Faith.
I thought Eliza did an amazing job in the episode. From the expression on her face when she first strides out into the prison yard -- a sort of "this is my place now whether I like it or not, I just want to do my thing and not be fucked with" -- to her steely determination at the end as she used her last bit of strength to protect herself from Angelus via sunlight, she was On, dude. She definitely highlighted how crappy Charisma's performance was, unfortunately for CC.
To me, there were several bits that really called out how much maturing and inner growth Faith has done in the couple of years she's been in prison:
* When Wesley tells her about Angelus, she takes it all in quickly, assimilates, weighs all the angles, and takes almost no time at all to reach the conclusion that, consequences be damned, she's gotta get out of her and help. (Plus, who among us wasn't gasping in awed lust at "Step away from the glass" and her subsequent effortless jailbreak?)
* After the first fight where Wes basically tests her, and she says casually, "Like riding a biker." Only, if you look closer at Eliza's expression and body language, not really so casually. There's a bitterness underlying that line, born from the mixture of a) her realization that this is necessary and b) her disappointment that it still comes so easily. What I took from that was that Faith doesn't WANT any more to be the kind of person who slips so easily into mindless violence, whose existence is defined by her capability for violence and who will be judged by others based on today's violence as compared against yesterday's. She knows that Wesley wanted to see her fight to be sure she was still up for it, and she knows that he was right to do so, but she also knows that it means Wesley still thinks of her as what she was, and not what she is becoming, or trying to become.
* In the hotel when Faith tells Cordy that she doesn't want to argue right now and they can do that later. She makes no effort to excuse, deny, or dismiss her past misdeeds and Cordy's reaction to them, but she's pragmatic. She doesn't pitch her voice to provoke or give Cordy any attitude. She just calmly points out that now is not the time.
And, of course, the bits with Connor that I already mentioned.
The thing is that Faith, in some ways, is serving as a plot point toward the character development of Wesley (and, to a lesser extent, of Angel/Angelus and Cordy and perhaps Connor). Faith is a bugaboo for Wesley, the big ugly failure in his life, the thing he regrets the most. In a way, his "conversation" with Lilah was also a conversation with Faith, and in a way, faux-Lilah led him to the realization that he needed to get his faith/Faith back (this insight courtesy ofjennyo) in order to defeat Angelus. It's all about redemption -- the entire series always has been (and BTVS too, to a lesser extent) and, in a way that's deeply ironic to all of us who have followed Faith since the beginning, she's actually the one who's doing the best at the redemption thing. Faith, alone among all the characters, has set her feet on the path and *stayed* on the path. She alone has done the introspection, even when it was hard and painful, and has refused to take the easy ways out. She alone is actually making *progress* toward her redemption, and has become a better person for it. Thus she becomes even *more* a symbol for Wesley of what he wants to accomplish, which is why symbolically it makes sense that Faith is able to easily enter the warehouse and find Angelus while Wesley is stuck outside struggling with the lesser vampires. Because Faith has already figured out how to cut through the unimportant crap and get right to the heart of the matter, whereas Wes is still bogged down with stupid little details like Fredlust and his sleeping-with-Lilah guilt.
It's interesting too if you watch Wesley while Faith is fighting off the two prison guards after breaking through the glass -- Wesley simply stands aside. A chair goes sliding across the floor past him and he simply steps around it; a guard goes flying past him and he casually leans aside. It's almost like Wes is already testing Faith here, too. But he's also sending her a message at the same time; by neither interfering with nor helping her in the fight, he's showing her something about what has happened to him, how he's not the same guy she tied to a chair and cut up with bits of glass. That guy might have cowered, or tried to stop her from actually hurting the guards; but not today's Wes. But nor is he going to help her either, because that would make him an accessory to her escape, and this way he can look like an innocent bystander/victim.
The sexual subtext twixt Faith and Wesley is hard to miss too, and of course it makes sense; for one thing Faith has subtext with just about everyone (*pause for copious drool time*) and for another, as the Jossverse is so often trying to show us, the lines between love/hate, repulsion/need, idolize/demonize are so very thin. Please, like Wes hasn't wanted her since "New Watcher? Screw that."
Faith wasn't able to kill the Beast. But that wasn't really her purpose, was it? She's here to bring Angel back from Angelus, and the Beast was just sort of a side-effect of that task. In fact, once we learned that the Beast had a boss, he himself became basically irrelevant anyway. All we need now is to know what he did with Angel's soul, and Faith can find that out, once she heals up a bit.
So overall I guess what I'm saying is that Faith's character development has all taken place offscreen -- we have to assume it. And Eliza is helping us out a *lot* by imbuing each scene with more depth than it necessarily had on paper. It's all in the subtleties of her expressions, her body language, her vocal inflections. Have I mentioned lately how much I love Eliza? :)
Don't get me wrong, I had a lot of problems with the episode and certain aspects of the storyline. Mainly they're details that the Jossverse writers are typically bad with anyway -- like, why was it so easy to break out of the prison, how did the other prison chick get hold of such a huge knife, how come Faith was sentenced to 25 years for a first offense (even if it *was* murder, she was still a minor, and I don't know much about criminal law but it sounds excessive), how come Connor is the only one of the MoG who objects to Faith coming in and barking orders at them, how can Cordy know she's pregnant so fast, how is Lorne suddenly able to do magic when he never could before, and lots more like that.
But that stuff is what annoys me, so I prefer to dwell on the nicer stuff, like the beauty and wonder that is the Faith character and how I love her. Swoon.
I could go on and on, but that's enough deep thought from me for now.
It seems like everyone on LJ thinks it was the Best Episode Ever or some such. I'm not sure what crack y'all are smoking, but I sure wish I had some.
To sum up quickly the stuff that I want to comment on but not go into depth about:
* Evil Cordy, or Cordevilia as she's apparently now called on lj, is boring. I'm sorry, but she is. Charisma's acting is SO crappy lately. I feel for her, being preggers and probably really tired and all, but damn.
* Connor still needs to go away. Far, far away. I like what
jennyo said about Connor being a teenager and needing discipline, and especially the delicious irony of Faith being the only one who realizes that ... but even taking that into consideration, still, make him go away. Please. Somebody.* Angelus, sad to say, is also boring. Hello, where's the evil?? The taunting and tormenting demons in bars and drinking from the already-dead Lilah and making lame sexual innuendo at Faith is, I'm sorry, just not evil enough. And killing the Beast is almost the opposite of evil, for Angelus, considering that's what the MoG brought him back for!
* Fred too was extra-special-useless in this one, dude. Damn.
* Gunn, OTOH, was in good form. I liked his interaction with Faith. It makes sense that they would feel a kinship, and it seemed like a little of the old Gunn attitude was back.
* The Cordy pregnancy, which I had been spoiled on so it wasn't a surprise, still strikes me as the stupidest thing ever. I really hope they find a way to pull it out that *isn't* super-dumb, but I don't have a lot of hope.
Now, on to the thing we all care most about *g*, namely, Faith.
I thought Eliza did an amazing job in the episode. From the expression on her face when she first strides out into the prison yard -- a sort of "this is my place now whether I like it or not, I just want to do my thing and not be fucked with" -- to her steely determination at the end as she used her last bit of strength to protect herself from Angelus via sunlight, she was On, dude. She definitely highlighted how crappy Charisma's performance was, unfortunately for CC.
To me, there were several bits that really called out how much maturing and inner growth Faith has done in the couple of years she's been in prison:
* When Wesley tells her about Angelus, she takes it all in quickly, assimilates, weighs all the angles, and takes almost no time at all to reach the conclusion that, consequences be damned, she's gotta get out of her and help. (Plus, who among us wasn't gasping in awed lust at "Step away from the glass" and her subsequent effortless jailbreak?)
* After the first fight where Wes basically tests her, and she says casually, "Like riding a biker." Only, if you look closer at Eliza's expression and body language, not really so casually. There's a bitterness underlying that line, born from the mixture of a) her realization that this is necessary and b) her disappointment that it still comes so easily. What I took from that was that Faith doesn't WANT any more to be the kind of person who slips so easily into mindless violence, whose existence is defined by her capability for violence and who will be judged by others based on today's violence as compared against yesterday's. She knows that Wesley wanted to see her fight to be sure she was still up for it, and she knows that he was right to do so, but she also knows that it means Wesley still thinks of her as what she was, and not what she is becoming, or trying to become.
* In the hotel when Faith tells Cordy that she doesn't want to argue right now and they can do that later. She makes no effort to excuse, deny, or dismiss her past misdeeds and Cordy's reaction to them, but she's pragmatic. She doesn't pitch her voice to provoke or give Cordy any attitude. She just calmly points out that now is not the time.
And, of course, the bits with Connor that I already mentioned.
The thing is that Faith, in some ways, is serving as a plot point toward the character development of Wesley (and, to a lesser extent, of Angel/Angelus and Cordy and perhaps Connor). Faith is a bugaboo for Wesley, the big ugly failure in his life, the thing he regrets the most. In a way, his "conversation" with Lilah was also a conversation with Faith, and in a way, faux-Lilah led him to the realization that he needed to get his faith/Faith back (this insight courtesy of
jennyo) in order to defeat Angelus. It's all about redemption -- the entire series always has been (and BTVS too, to a lesser extent) and, in a way that's deeply ironic to all of us who have followed Faith since the beginning, she's actually the one who's doing the best at the redemption thing. Faith, alone among all the characters, has set her feet on the path and *stayed* on the path. She alone has done the introspection, even when it was hard and painful, and has refused to take the easy ways out. She alone is actually making *progress* toward her redemption, and has become a better person for it. Thus she becomes even *more* a symbol for Wesley of what he wants to accomplish, which is why symbolically it makes sense that Faith is able to easily enter the warehouse and find Angelus while Wesley is stuck outside struggling with the lesser vampires. Because Faith has already figured out how to cut through the unimportant crap and get right to the heart of the matter, whereas Wes is still bogged down with stupid little details like Fredlust and his sleeping-with-Lilah guilt.It's interesting too if you watch Wesley while Faith is fighting off the two prison guards after breaking through the glass -- Wesley simply stands aside. A chair goes sliding across the floor past him and he simply steps around it; a guard goes flying past him and he casually leans aside. It's almost like Wes is already testing Faith here, too. But he's also sending her a message at the same time; by neither interfering with nor helping her in the fight, he's showing her something about what has happened to him, how he's not the same guy she tied to a chair and cut up with bits of glass. That guy might have cowered, or tried to stop her from actually hurting the guards; but not today's Wes. But nor is he going to help her either, because that would make him an accessory to her escape, and this way he can look like an innocent bystander/victim.
The sexual subtext twixt Faith and Wesley is hard to miss too, and of course it makes sense; for one thing Faith has subtext with just about everyone (*pause for copious drool time*) and for another, as the Jossverse is so often trying to show us, the lines between love/hate, repulsion/need, idolize/demonize are so very thin. Please, like Wes hasn't wanted her since "New Watcher? Screw that."
Faith wasn't able to kill the Beast. But that wasn't really her purpose, was it? She's here to bring Angel back from Angelus, and the Beast was just sort of a side-effect of that task. In fact, once we learned that the Beast had a boss, he himself became basically irrelevant anyway. All we need now is to know what he did with Angel's soul, and Faith can find that out, once she heals up a bit.
So overall I guess what I'm saying is that Faith's character development has all taken place offscreen -- we have to assume it. And Eliza is helping us out a *lot* by imbuing each scene with more depth than it necessarily had on paper. It's all in the subtleties of her expressions, her body language, her vocal inflections. Have I mentioned lately how much I love Eliza? :)
Don't get me wrong, I had a lot of problems with the episode and certain aspects of the storyline. Mainly they're details that the Jossverse writers are typically bad with anyway -- like, why was it so easy to break out of the prison, how did the other prison chick get hold of such a huge knife, how come Faith was sentenced to 25 years for a first offense (even if it *was* murder, she was still a minor, and I don't know much about criminal law but it sounds excessive), how come Connor is the only one of the MoG who objects to Faith coming in and barking orders at them, how can Cordy know she's pregnant so fast, how is Lorne suddenly able to do magic when he never could before, and lots more like that.
But that stuff is what annoys me, so I prefer to dwell on the nicer stuff, like the beauty and wonder that is the Faith character and how I love her. Swoon.
I could go on and on, but that's enough deep thought from me for now.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-03-06 04:20 pm (UTC)She's also been *locked up* for two years, basically removed from society-at-large, sort of like going to a monastary (except with, you know, prison sex and violence and stuff).
The rest of the redemption-seekers have been out where things are still a little bit more complicated, the world moves by at a rapid pace and barely gives you time to recoup before the next apocalypse. Kind of hard to sit and be introspective about your road to redemption when you're fighting evil daily :)
no subject
Date: 2003-03-07 09:10 am (UTC)Right there with ya.
Date: 2003-03-06 08:07 pm (UTC)25 years for confessed 1st degree murder is low. For confessed 2nd degree murder it's probably a tad high. For confessed manslaughter it's just overkill. I would suspect (filling in the gaps) that Faith didn't pull the "minor" card. That's a mitigating circumstance and I don't think she was in a mental space right then to be making excuses. She probably didn't do any bargaining for a reduced sentence of any kind.
I was very happy with Faith's changes and Eliza's improvement in her craft. I was actually awestruck at just how much better she's become as an actress playing that character. Even her portrayal in Angel season 1 was weaker than this (although not weak in objective terms).
My favorite scene was the jailbreak scene: first, her subtle response to Wesley's "Angel is gone." A split second of sorrow, fear and guilt. Then her escape, which tells us everything we need to know about her changed attitude, in that a) she always could, but never did (a quick recap of the last scenes of Sanctuary, basically) and b) she warned Wesley to step away from the glass.