I am also watching LMPTM. I come over to the computer on a commercial, and I find that my comments have already been posted for me. Except that I like the song.

I do too sj. Ohh. good cruel mama part. Be right back.

I think the song was appropriate... Here are the lyrics:

Early One Morning, a folk song.

Early one morning, just as the sun was rising
I heard a maid sing in the valley below
"Oh don't deceive me, Oh never leave me,
How could you use, a poor maiden so?"

Remember the vows that you made to me truly
Remember how tenderly you nestled close to me
Gay is the garland, fresh are the roses
I've culled from the garden to bind over thee.

Here I now wander alone as I wonder
Why did you leave me to sigh and complain
I ask of the roses, why should I be forsaken,
Why must I here in sorrow remain?

Through yonder grove, by the spring that is running
There you and I have so merrily played,
Kissing and courting and gently sporting
Oh, my innocent heart you've betrayed

How could you slight so a pretty girl who loves you
A pretty girl who loves you so dearly and warm?
Though love's folly is surely but a fancy,
Still it should prove to me sweeter than your scorn.

Soon you will meet with another pretty maiden
Some pretty maiden, you'll court her for a while;
Thus ever ranging, turning and changing
Always seeking for a girl that is new.

Thus sang the maiden, her sorrows bewailing
Thus sang the poor maid in the valley below
"Oh don't deceive me, Oh never leave me,
How could you use, a poor maiden so?"

With a mom like that, who wouldn't have issues?

I think Giles was wrong about what he said to Buffy. I am not sure if given the choice again she would sacrifice Dawn to save the world. She still tried to send Dawn away with Xander, to save them both. I am still finding Giles scenes painful, except for the part about the schools new library.

I'm having a theory about Spike's character.

I think he's a romantic idealist. For him, bad guys are bad guys, good guys are good guys. No one is a mixture of both.

This occured to me when he was telling Wood that it was the demon talking and not his mother. We had a discussion before about his mother possibly having some of the feelings she expressed when she became a vampire, and Angel mentioning that vampires do have soemthing to do with their former selves.

It fits a lot of what he does. His inability to really see that Buffy couldn't love him (she's a good guy, and so her actions should always be true). His getting a soul (he's fighting for good and can't reconcile that with being evil). Telling wood it's part of the game (bad guys do bad things, good guys try to stop them). Even his shutting down the hellmouth (He was happy to go out like the big hero with guns blazing).

That theory makes a lot of sense.

Well, on a simpler level -- it was his *mom*. Every kid wants his mom to be perfect, y'know? Not some freaky mean Oedipal bitch.

Well, she wasn't. But I'm sure as a human, she probably had uncharitable thoughts toward her son.

(okay, this is kinda my stream of consciousness babbling while watching LMPTM)

Also watching LMPTM...it's the duel of the Oedipal guys next! Spike for his Mom and Buffy, Wood for his mom and Buffy...hmm...seems like often on the show (as in real life) characters try to kill those in whom they see their own dark sides...does that make sense? Look at Willow and Warren; both used magic to control ones they loved and both were very arrogant during Season 6...seems like one of the show's major themes is the struggle w/ one's own Shadow/Dark Side. Probably why I love it.

Damnit, this scene would've been SO much better if they'd had Giles revealing that he killed Ben! That's one of the rare times that Buffy features a problem that many other programs has (for example, X-Files fans: Skinner shoots Krycek dead in cold blood and they mention it once afterwards); major actions on the part of major characters are forgotten the next day.