I was surprised when there wasn't an immediate hoyay response of "brain?"

Hey man. There was plenty of hoyay in there already. I mean, Xander just loves his...brain. </Timberlake, NERD>

I wanna know where the ocean went. There were docks, damnit

Oh that's easy-the docks aren't actually in Sunnydale, but a few miles outside town (just out of sight of the final shot). Along with the major airport.

I think the timestamp (along with the title) was a style-choice and nothing more (well, maybe also a nod to 24).

2) Joyce-to-Dawn: When the going got rough, Buffy sent Dawn away with Xander (Joyce's warning caused Dawn to be prepared with the stun gun - poor puppy's been carrying that thing around for months. You should have seen the time she zapped herself in math class. Talk about humiliating.)

The stun gun was simply in the car along with the crossbow and Glory knows what else. As to what "Joyce" meant-that depends in part on whether that was FE Joyce or real Joyce, which was left open (I always thought it was FE Joyce myself).

3>) Eye-of-Botox:

This one really isn't an issue that requires any fanwanking-that scene was there because they needed an explanation as to why the FE was doing this NOW rather than 10 or 100 or 1000 years ago, That's what that scene was for, and that's all it was for.

My problem with the eye of Botox is that it merely told us why it was happening now, when the more important thing should have been to tell them. I want that information to have been important to the characters. They're more important than I am.

I do agree with you on the stun gun thing -- they were going through weapons in the car.

Joyce worked fine for me. She was totally the FE. And what she told Dawn gave us insight into what Dawn feared--being not a scoob and not trusted. And also set up Dawn not trusting Buffy, since she didn't tell her what Joyce said, It also meant that when push came to shove, Dawn chose the Scoobs over Buffy.

I'm guessing the Eye was there to set up something about the Slayer succession for the Faith spin-off. When that went bye-bye they had enough work to do trying to change the other stuff that they just left it alone. Thus driving those of you of a nit-picking propensity insane.

See, I thought the Joyce haunting was too physical for the FE.

I seriously think, either it was something that got dropped, or it referred to Buffy trying to get Dawn out of the way before the final battle. Why Joyce would go to such efforts for that - err. That's where it kinda falls down. I hate the idea that it was just a dropped thread, though, rather than a botched one (see pod-Giles set up as possible FE).

(I always thought it was FE Joyce myself).

The First couldn't manipulate surroundings at all, let alone trash the Summer's residence.

Did we see Joyce trash things, though? Didn't that happen offscreen with lots of wind and stuff? Or am I on monkey crack?

What Allyson said about ?Joyce? in CwDP. Also? Dawn did a spell calling on the power of "all the people that love me."

In the Buffyverse, that sort of spell trumps all. She saw real Joyce.

ted - I was joking about the stun gun. I was joking with all my answers in that post, but I don't think it came across. I actually accept your stun gun explanation.

Did we see Joyce trash things, though? Didn't that happen offscreen with lots of wind and stuff? Or am I on monkey crack?

No - you're not on monkey crack. But the FE never did anything like that in any other appearance on the show. It didn't harness the elements, etc. All it did was appeal to the evil inside humanity, and then get humans to work its will. That's not what we saw in CwDP. We saw some sort of entity/force/whatever - mess up the house and cause the appliances to go apeshit.

I think the point I'm trying to make, Scrappy (I'm not always certain what my points are) is that The First, from what we've seen, is unable to manipulate environmental things. Something sliced up Dawn, blew the windows out, created big winds.

Now, Joyce wouldn't hurt Dawn, so the slice and dice couldn't have been Joyce, but neither could it have been the First. Even the Brongers had no mystical powers. They had to hire the prison chick to kill Faith, they're hands on when it comes to killing, otherwise, they would have slit their throats from afar and saved themselves the cardio.

I think someone dropped a subplot, or maybe the thought that the First didn't have the power to manipulate environment came later. Either way, it's stoopid.

I like dangling subplots, I prefer that in an ending. This was just fucked up.