Scrappy, can you expand on "needs a third act"? I tried, but I was talking out my hat. (A nice straw fedora.)

The loveliness of the finale for me is that it nullified the idea of season 8, without invalidating seasons 1 through 7.

Connie, as a woman who has never felt disempowered either, I though the premise lovely because, dammit, not all women are as pigheadedlucky as I've been, and it's just one of those moments that will always get me, no specific gender required, where from either inside or symbolically from outside, one finds the strength to do what one couldn't before.

Automatic crypoint.

That's why I thought there was no sex, too. I think his t-shirt was even tucked in.

I believe the padlock on his jeans was also still intact.

So there was really a scene with Wooden Robin and the Gilesbot sharing a joint? Definitely would have liked to have seen a shot on the bus with Giles shotgunning the rest of the doobie to Wood in order to keep him alive.

"Inhale, man. Dammit, inhale."

I have what I think is an idiotic question, but here goes. What did the FE want? I'm really having a hard time figuring out what the goal was for the FE. To wipe out the slayer line? Because after seeing the baseball girl etc, it just seems like it wouldn't have ever worked.

What did the FE want?

The same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the world.

Just got the following quote in the upper right:

You'll fight, and you'll shag, and you'll hate each other till it makes you quiver, but you'll never be friends. Spike, "Lover's Walk."

What's ironic (to me, anyway), is that while the first three items on Spike's list were all too true for him and Buffy throughout the years, I feel that in the end, the two of them did wind up with a deep sort of friendship.

What did the FE want?

It did say that once it defeated Buffy and took over, it would become corporeal.

First, thanks for the Salon article!

I said last night at Deb's, "You know, the show really could have ended at S5 and I'd have been satisfied."

Not only would I not be satisfied, I quite possibly never would have seen it (since it was OMWF that made me a Buffy watcher).

To me it seemed like the Kennedy character was brought in for a little ratings hike (two hot babes kissing - OK, we get it already!!), and for annoying us because of her unrelenting criticism of Buffy.

I like Kennedy-even before she admitted she was a brat. Which she is-but that was exactly what Willow needed (someone pushy who wouldn't take no) and I liked her for Willow's sake first (and at the end for her own sake).

Very hard for me to rank the seasons. 1 is by a wide margin the weakest for me, 2,3 and 6 get an A overall and 4,5, and 7 get a solid B. But half of all the episodes get a B+ or better from me, and about one third get an A- to an A+. In the entire 144 episodes there isn't one that doesn't have at least 10 minutes I like, and just 5 that ONLY have 10 minutes I like (Reptile Boy, Bad Eggs, Weight of the World, Wrecked, DMP).

Easier for me to list, say, my 27 favorite episodes (in chronological order): Welcome to the Hellmouth, Passion, Phases, Becoming, Lovers Walk, The Wish, Dopplegangland, Earshot, The Prom, Graduation, Pangs, Something Blue, Hush, Restless, Fool For Love, The Body, The Gift, Bargaining, OMWF, Tabula Rasa, Dead Things, Two To Go, Grave, Beneath You, Selfless, CWDP, Chosen.

Also, didn't Spike say that the time he spent cuddling with Buffy was the best night of his life?

The difference between their interactions in S6 and S7 (and yeah, Buffy was using Spike in S6) is that in S7 they were honest - with each other, with the rest of the Scoobies, and with themselves. Yes, Buffy and Spike needed/wanted different things. But that's true of virtually all relationships.

Incidentally, am I the only one who saw parallels between the early stages of Spike/Buffy and the early stages of Xander/Cordelia?

I am going to buck the trend and say I liked Season 5 the best. Because it was my first, and I remember it the most.