How is that a continuity error? (I may not have had enough coffee yet, so any explanations will help greatly.)
Not continuity over the course of the series--just in this episode. The Mayor didn't go to the airport. The vamp who met the courier at the airport had the means to pay the courier in a briefcase. When Faith arrives in the Mayor's office, that vamp does not come in with her. He remains in the limo (Buffy beats info about the Box of Gavrok out of him). The Mayor is alone when Faith enters his office. He has an envelope that seemingly contains the payment, and comments that he had to pay him.
The Mayor is alone when Faith enters his office. He has an envelope that seemingly contains the payment, and comments that he had to pay him.
I saw that as the payment the vamp had for the courier was for the box. The payment the Mayor had was for the vamp's service in picking up the box.
I just checked the scr ipt. It seems to support my interpretation.
PAN UP as he crosses the tarmac. The COURIER is an unsavory sort -- a serpent tattoo staining half of his face, pockmarked skin, bad Hawaiian shirt.
SWING AROUND as the Courier stops in front of one of the Mayor's vampire lackeys who waits near a limousine. The VAMP-LACKEY holds a briefcase.
COURIER
He in the car?
VAMP-LACKEY
(opening the car door)
No. I'll take you to him.
The Courier kicks the car door closed.
COURIER
The Mayor was supposed to be
here in person. With the money.
VAMP-LACKEY
(showing him the briefcase)
Got it right here.
COURIER
Uh huh. Well, the price just went
up. I don't like surprises.
(yada yada Faith kills him) ...
END OF ACT ONE
Act Two
EXT. CITY HALL - NIGHT
The street's damp and empty. The quiet suddenly broken by a car turning onto it. Stepping out from the shadows, across the street, is
BUFFY, who watches as the limousine pulls up in front of city hall and comes to a stop.
BUFFY'S P.O.V. - Faith gets out of the car, carrying the ornate box. She tucks it under her arm, takes a quick look around, then climbs the steps and enters the building. The limo then pulls into an adjoining alley-way.
ON BUFFY, as she quickly checks the coast and starts off across the street.
INT. MAYOR'S OFFICE - DAY
Faith enters the Mayor's office, box in hand. Gleeful, the Mayor jumps from his seat and takes it from her.
MAYOR
Hey ho! There it is.
The Mayor places the box on his desk, turns as he withdraws an envelope from his jacket pocket.
MAYOR (cont'd)
What happened to the courier?
I'm supposed to pay him.
Faith slips the envelope full of money back into the Mayor's jacket.
FAITH
I made him an offer he couldn't survive.
A beat as the Mayor gets her meaning. Then he grins.
I still don''t see how that is a continuity error, since even reading, I take this scene the way ChiKat did.
When I first went to the Bronze (and my first lurk was at the linear side), I was all set to post as "Closet Buffyholic" and when it was taken, I was so sad.
That is my all time favorite "I wish I had been there sooner and grabbed that posting name" name. That a lawgeeker got it is some consolation.
my Bronze handle was Xanderella.
I loved that name, too.
On this line of the Mayor's:
What happened to the courier? I'm supposed to pay him.
I read that as Vamp-Lackey=courier.
I read that as Vamp-Lackey=courier.
The problem with that reading is that the script distinguishes between the lackey and the courier, specifically, and that's who the Mayor refers to, specifically. If the mayor was not referring to the courier, the script would have said, "Fred, the Vampire-Lackey" and the Mayor would have said, "hey, where's Fred?"
One could wank it by saying that the lackey's briefcase was empty. But I think Cindy's right.
I read that as Vamp-Lackey=courier.
no, I think that Vamp Lackey was the one with the briefcase, and courier had the box
Right. That the Mayor could have been referring to the Lackey-vamp as "the courier" can't make any sense given the answer Faith gives to the Mayor, in response.
MAYOR: What happened to the courier? I'm supposed to pay him.
FAITH: I made him an offer he couldn't survive.
Faith didn't kill the Lackey Vamp. Buffy did, and Faith doesn't know about that, in fact, Buffy hasn't yet killed him when Faith brings the Mayor the Box of Gavrok.
right. the vamp lackey enticed the courier into the limo, jso that the courier could be killed by Faith. Faith then took the box in to the Mayor, who expected the courier, but realized that Faith had killed the courier/saved him a lot of money.
