References to The First, in Amends:

Giles:
These letters contain references to a, a, an ancient power known as The First.

Buffy:
First what?

Giles:
Evil. Absolute evil, older than man, than demons. It could have had the power to bring Angel back.

Buffy:
These guys, (picks up one of the letters with sketches of the eyeless priest) I-I saw them in my dream. I, I fell asleep up there.

Giles:
You had another dream? With Angel? (Buffy nods) What happened?

Buffy:
(evasively) Oh, we don't need to get sidetracked. Who are these guys?

Giles:
Um, they're known as the, uh, (sits) as the Bringers o-o-or Harbingers. They're high priests of The First. They, uh, they can conjure spirit manifestations and set them on people, influence them, haunt them.

Buffy:
These are the guys working the mojo on Angel?

Xander comes out from behind the counter.

Xander:
We gotta stop them.

Giles:
Y-you can't fight The First, Buffy. It's not a-a physical being.

Buffy:
Well, I-I can fight these priest guys.

Xander: If we can find them.

Buffy: 'A child shall be born of man and goat and have two heads, and The First shall speak only in riddles...' No wonder you like this stuff. (closes the book) It's like reading The Sun.

Jenny/The First: Hmm. You think you can fight me? I'm not a demon, little girl. I am something that you can't even conceive. The First Evil. Beyond sin, beyond death. I am the thing the darkness fears. You'll never see me, but I am everywhere. Every being, every thought, every drop of hate.

I thought that was a great episode to start the hiatus with. Remember last year how annoying it was to have Wrecked (and the Actual Car Crash) as the last thing we saw?

They gave us some answers to re-fuel speculation and some mysteries to wonder about. (Is Giles alive or dead? What's up with the principal?) I also greatly enjoyed the HSQ of blowing up the COW. (ok, that sentence made me giggle)

I also thought it was really well done. There were about five or six times when I really noticed an actor's reaction to a line (in a good way, that is). Is that the sort of thing a director does?

So, in summary: Loved.

But I hated that they talked about Spike having withdrawal from human blood. Dudes, it's like saying you're withdrawing from not getting your favourite food.

And it did seem that they exploded the CoW. But they didn't know where Giles was, either.

Oh, and Brian got his ENT appointment for December 10th. He also seemed quite bitter, Megan, that you didn't ache and has decided to take up Pilates on the chance that he'll ever need another CT scan.

He also seemed quite bitter, Megan, that you didn't ache and has decided to take up Pilates on the chance that he'll ever need another CT scan.

It sounds like Brian (I ALWAYS type Brain first) was in the Scanner a lot longer than I was. He must have had a more thorough job done than I did in Dartmouth. I can give him some Pilates pointers!

What ENT is he going to? Same as before?

Halifaxistas, I just sent you emails to your profile addresses. Nothing big, just a funny picture Brent sent me. If you haven't watched last night's Buffy, wait before opening it.

Megan, good luck tomorrow at the ENT!

Thanks Sue. Apparently my GP called this afternoon and talked to Brent. My CT Scan shows that my sinuses are completely closed over, though it doesn't appear that I have pollups. She suspects that my allergies have caused a huge production of mucus so I'll have to address that in order to prevent further incidents of sinusitis.

She suspects that the ENT will book me in for a lavage rather than endoscopic surgery. It sounds like I'll still be put under a general anesthetic but I'll find out tomorrow.

How was your presentation?

It went okay. Not stellar, but okay. Last night we cut out almost half of our slides to be under 15 minutes, so it was a real gloss. There were other people, however, who spoke for 30 minutes, so I was a little annoyed.