I think that I'll ask in fic.

I found this via Mr Pointy, from Halloween:

Spike: Really? Did my pet have a vision?
Drusilla: Do you know what I miss? Leeches.
Spike: Come on, talk to Daddy. This thing that makes the Slayer weak? When is it?

So did anyone else find that very weirdly paced?

Very much so. I think it was all my fault. I think the mediocrity of this ep was TPTB getting even for my downloading the wildfeed. Karmic balance and all that.

Spike "drowning" was just weird. And what was with the goody-two-shoes proto-slayer running off? It felt like they cut out a scene or something.

Jon, Welcome to Atlantic Canada!

It felt like they cut out a scene or something.

Yeah, that didn't make any sense at all.

And there was a shot of Giles between Buffy and the sunrise that looked really weird. In a bad video kind of way.

I can't put my finger on what was wrong with this ep. Was it the writing or the directing? So many things that should have been HSQ were just eh. Like first seeing Giles, discovering there were other slayers, or Buffy's speech at the end.

Was this Marti's ep?

It was Marti & Petrie, which made it more disappointing. Somehow, I expect the joint efforts to be better (like CwDP).

I think the Giles and the sunrise thing was supposed to add to the Is-Giles-an-Avatar-of-the-First mystery. We couldn't tell if Mr. GrrrArrgh was frightened of the sun or of Giles.

Oh, and what kind of accent was the proto-slayer Molly supposed to have? Was that supposed to be Austrailian?

See, I've not liked Marti eps in the past, but Petrie? I expect a lot more from him.

what kind of accent was the proto-slayer Molly supposed to have?

Sounded like bad Cockney to me. Not DickVanDyke!Cockney, but pretty bad nonetheless.

I thought Cockney in the first scene, and then I thought maybe she was supposed to be Austrailian in the next. It was bad whatever continent she was from.

The episode felt a bit underplayed by most, except Dru and the neanderthal vamp. Might have been to emphasize the nastyness of the nasties or maybe the next few eps are gonna be big and they wanted to maximise on the impact.

Either way the pace was odd, but not exactly bad...

Hey, I totally forgot Buffy was on last night until 8:00 and had a frantic tape switching incident. Good thing YTV reruns on Saturday.

I didn't have as many issues with this episode and mostly enjoyed it. I did think the Spike drowning scenes were totally rediculous because of the non-breathing and Spike has endured much worse torture. That was badly conceived.

I liked the Willow possession scene a lot. It showed just what kind of power they are dealing with, though Willow shouldn't be such a wuss and refuse to use her powers.

Giles being dead is supported by the fact that he didn't touch anything and he had the proto-slayer carry the Watcher's council books and papers. I wonder if the proto-slayers he brought with him are aware of his being dead, if he is indeed no of the living. Would that mean he's a ghost or poltergeist?

Principal Wood remains a mystery - but he likes mysteries.