Tis my understanding that we are free to discuss the episode as soon as the Atlantic Canadian's have seen it.

My first thought, Jeff is getting off easy this year with the previously compared to last year!

I was convinced that Xander was going to hug Andrew! No doubt the comforting is happening now.

the retconning of the Uber-Vamps.

How so? Because they seemed easier to kill?

How so? Because they seemed easier to kill?

I thought that was a little bit of an asspull. I know Anya had that little tlak where she explained to the potentials the best ways to kill the ur-vamps, but the first one really took Buffy to the mat, it seems like it should have been harder.

Overall, I liked it. They went out with a good episode.

Maybe only the first one was an uber-vamp. The rest were sub-uber. t /wankorama

How so? Because they seemed easier to kill?

Yeah, all of a sudden the Uber Vamps are a bunch of wimps that go down if Anya scratchs one with her nails. Maybe there was a little Dues Ex Machina explanation which I missed, but it was always dumb to spend what seemed like a dozen episodes dealing with the first Uber, so I blame Joss not a whit for dumping that aspect. It just sort of highlighted what I missed throughout the season, the corners and silliness he had to try and write his way out of or ignore.

But I liked the every girl a slayer ending, and I liked that the First actually wasn't winning and all it took was for Buffy to recognize that, both in the beginning and in the end. The only flaws in the show were deep seated ones that go back months. Things Joss couldn't have dealt with without a time machine.

it was always dumb to spend what seemed like a dozen episodes dealing with the first Uber

Haven't seen yet, but I want to make one point. There were only two Ubervamp eps.

I didn't say that there were that many. I just said it seemed like it. It seemed to go on forever. To me.

A dozen Uber Eps, and a dozen SiT eps, and there's your season. And Storyteller.

Oh my.

I'm happy. The episode was good, it was solid. It wasn't Hush or OMWF, but it was satisfying all the same. And despite some flaws, there were so many little moments.

- the moment in the hallway with just the original four, even if the dialogue seemed a little forced.
- Dawn kicking Buffy in the shin and then no more being said about her return
- Angel being pissy about Spike but not going nuts about it. Spike being upfront about what he saw. (Enhanced vampire eyeballs, heh.)
- The cookie dough conversation
- Buffy turning the FE's own taunts against it and realizing how to win
- Anya finding her courage in facing the bunnies
- Wood turning the tables on Faith, more or less
- Spike going willingly to his end, eyes open all the way
- Kennedy. Joss actually made me like Kennedy.

Most of all, though, I loved Joss bringing it back to the nature of the slayer and recognizing that Buffy's greatest burden has always been the "one girl in all the world" bit. So in defeating the FE, she's also defeated the greatest obstacle to her ever being able to get past duty and into life.

(I'm fine with the not-so-UberVamps, partly because the first one was pretty silly anyway. And I can wank that if you're raising one at a time, you go for the biggie, but when you need an army of them, you have to take the C+ students.)

("fat grandchildren" Isn't that what Jenny Calendar said to Angel? He looked a little weirded out by the comment, too.)

My girl Vi! She rocked! When she got Slayer-y, there was this subtle shift where she got all confidence!face.

Sad that the freaks and geeks girl bit it, though.