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.)