Hey, all -- Elena invited me over since I was taunting in the main thread....

I really, really noticed the shout outs... Namechecking episodes Living Conditions and Gone.

I didn't notice the ep titles so much as a couple of visual shoutouts -- the shot of Dawn & Amanda breaking in through the window matched Darla and boy doing the same thing in WTTH, and D & A blocking the classroom door with the cabinet looked like W & T blocking the door in Hush. Obviously, not by the same means, or for the same ends as far as the story goes, but the composition of the shots was so similar as to make me immediately yell "shout-out!" Much to the dogs' amusement....

Also, not only is Clem back, but he has TiVO!

Overall, I was annoyed by much of the Dawn-goes-slaying plot, and I thought all the Buffy/Spike awkward-ex crap was strained as hell, but Xander was Xanderiffic at the end. And I really bought where Dawn was emotionally in that scene.

Finally the year of Xander?

Buffy gets to be selfish. She saves the world. A lot. She dies. A lot. She gets a pass from me for a lot of stuff.

Oh-- I forgot about Clem and the tiva-- I loved that. Also loved Anya saying she didn't really get the whole thing where Dawn was the same as Buffy in the gift.

I'm OK with Buffy being selfish. I'm ok with all of them having their faults. I am fairly certain that in real life, I would adore Buffy beyond reason.

I wouldn't. I would have to kill her because the way she says 'okay' bugs the shit out of me. She did it again tonight.

I think IRL, I would find Buffy too bossy. Bossy people make me want to do the opposite just to be contrary to their bossiness.

Which probably means I would have died in Season 1.

And when they were in the lab she didn't use the gas flame on the highly flammable vampire - granted, she did use it on a Harbringer, but vamps are much more up-in-flamey.

It looked to me like she intended to flame the vamp - there was a quick shot of her flipping on a bunson burner - but she got distracted when the Bringers showed up.

I thought all the Buffy/Spike awkward-ex crap was strained as hell

But I loved that the SiW's picked up on it right away, as opposed to...say.... her slow-on-the-uptake best friends last season.

And how "watcher's council" was it for her to lock the 4 slayers in training into a crypt with the vampire?

Totally! That surprised me.

See, I tend to adore bossy women who know what they are doing. I become their very nice sidekick. Hmmm. I haven't however, yet taken up magic.

It looked to me like she intended to flame the vamp - there was a quick shot of her flipping on a bunson burner - but she got distracted when the Bringers showed up.

You're probably quite right; too bad she was busy being pinned to the ground to do it.

Does anyone else think that having the FE retreat to re-group is kind of a lame excuse to do something else for an episode? I mean, it's the First Evil!!! Shouldn't it be chock-full of evil goodness all the time? Shouldn't it know every evil trick in the book?