I'm skipping a lot, and I feel terrible about it, not because of the show, which left me very underwhelmed, but because I'm just going to have go back for all y'all's brilliance at another time.

There was good parts - Buffy and Faith's talk, Anya's drinking the sterilizer, the wheelchair fight. But there was also the Angel-Ex-Machina, the ending that seemed straight out of "Passions" except there's a monkey on "Passions", and that stupid fucking axe which I hope really really hurt when ME pulled it out of their collective ass. The only way to redeem it would be to have Faith steal the scythe and use it to take out Brannon Braga forcing Buffy to fight in some interesting way.

I did have another idea for a nice ending image. They show Andrew standing over some charred metal thing in earth that marks the sealed hellmouth and describing the battle. Then they show a guy played by Firefly's Simon holding a baby who says, "We're still not naming her Buffy."

that stupid fucking axe which I hope really really hurt when ME pulled it out of their collective ass.

I can agree with the rest, but not with this. The axe has been set up for so long in Fray that it was a TOTAL geek-out moment for me when I saw it.

That's the problem - they set it up in "Fray" alone. I like the idea of having something occurring in both, but this came as a sudden Excalibur kind of thing, even though the big thing about the slayer was that she herself was the greatest weapon. She didn't need no steenkin' axes. If they had incorporated the scythe from the beginning of the season, like maybe had that woman make a previous appearance, it would have worked better. As it was, it seemed as cohesive as Buffy suddenly pulling Vera out of the rock - yeah, nice shout out, but very disjointing.

that stupid fucking axe which I hope really really hurt when ME pulled it out of their collective ass.

I can agree with the rest, but not with this. The axe has been set up for so long in Fray that it was a TOTAL geek-out moment for me when I saw it.

Me, too. Because we first saw it in the Tales of the Slayers TPB, right? And then Fray #7, which I strongly suspect was delayed to be in synch with Buffy.

I agree Victor. Even if I didn't already know about AxeCalibre from Fray, I wouldn't have minded it just popping up. Just like I didn't mind Acathla coming out of nowhere in Becoming 1 or the prophecy about Buffy dying only showing up in Prophecy. Though I did wonder about that Troll Hammer that became a Troll God Hammer in The Gift. Where is it now?

AxeCalibre made me buy all seven issues of Fray. Today. I never buy comics.

I'm also with Victor the GEEK in me loved that the axe appeared at all, not caring how or why. It was a secret for a reason. In the world that is Jossverse so much is built up and explained so carefully it's nice to see the good guys catch a break at the 25th hour like that!

Acathla was a demon, and there's tons of old demons being unearthed every day. There are crapzillion prophecies, and even Giles did admit he didn't know all of them about the slayer, plus some of the books tended to get stolen. Special weapons forged just for slayer-use - that's a new concept. I think if they'd had some mention of the old Middle-Earth mother's people beforehand, or a reference to weapons made just for slayers, it would have helped. And it would have been especially nice if Caleb hadn't been doing anything with it - if he'd been smart he'd have either immediately destroyed or kept as far from Buffy as possible. He was the very confident type, but he seemed brighter than that. (Which was also why I was hoping that there'd have been some mention of him considering blowing up the Summers house once Buffy and Spike had left it.)

I can agree with the rest, but not with this. The axe has been set up for so long in Fray that it was a TOTAL geek-out moment for me when I saw it.

For those of us who don't read Fray, it was an asspull. (or would that be axepull?)

One hour, but with a better show-to-commercial ratio than normal, thanks to all of that Acuvue sponsorship.

Has there been any "official" confirmation of this? Several people here have been saying it but giving no cites.

(not that I don't trust the buffista hive mind, but I'm..... skeptical)