"Who Do Ya Love?"

For this blog I wanted to talk about the increasingly intense instances of trust versus mistrust. "The I in Team", "Goodbye Iowa", and "New Moon Rising" all deal with the chaos that comes from not knowing who you can trust and whether or not you can trust your own senses.

In "The I in Team" the struggle is between Buffy/Slayer and Prof. Walsh/The Initiative. Buffy puts a great deal of faith into the initiative but ultimately her questioning of their methods roused some fears of discovery. It was obvious that the Initiative had a secret. Buffy lost trust in the Initiative when Maggie Walsh tried to have Buffy murdered and then lied to Buffy. However, Maggie soon discovered that she could not trust the Initiative herself. Her own creation turned against her. Adam exemplifies for the audience that things are not what they exactly as they appear.

Adam also is the cause of the mistrust that is present in the next episode, "Goodbye Iowa". In this episode, Riley is beginning to lose faith in himself, the Initiative, and Buffy. Adam tells Riley of his purpose in Prof. Walsh's plan. Though Riley verbalizes that he is not the kind of monster Adam is, the audience can sense doubt in his character and a kind of uncertainty appears to be present. Riley's connection with Prof. Walsh and her recent death coupled with the fact that Riley had not been taking his medicine has created a great deal of confusion for Riley. On top of that, though Buffy is the one person Riley should trust, he saw her helping spike and so now he is confused to whether or not Buffy has been lying to him as well.

"New Moon Rising" deals with a different kind of trust and mistrust. It is not based on lies or deception but misunderstanding and confusion of the mind and senses. Willow faces the confusion within herself as she is put in a situation where she is joined once more by Oz. She feels a connection with him again but is also made unsure because of Oz's betrayal as well as her new feeling for Tara. Oz deals with trust or mistrust of Willow because he is expecting her to have waited for him as well as his own issue with trusting himself and his new power to contain his animal instincts.