I had a couple of off the wall thoughts about this ep. Of course I loved Tara and how protective she was of both Buffy and Willow. I've read a lot about her teasing Spike, but I never got the impression that any of it was particularly good natured. It was just her finding the nicest possible way to tell him to back off of Buffy, with varying degrees of subtlety.
And I find it fascinating how many people I've seen on other boards who thought Anya was right and Willow should have tried a spell. Interestingly, the vibe I got was that Tara might not have objected if Willow had wanted to try, given the circumstances. She wouldn't have liked it, but that's another matter. But there was no way she was going to sit back and watch them try to force Willow into doing something she didn't want to do. (And my favorite part of that was Willow's little half-smile in response.)
I think Willow gained some major trust points with Tara, who last week clearly didn't trust Will at all. That's a good first step for them.
One reaction I had that seems different from a lot of other folks was my read on Anya. I was left with the impression that Anya, for all of the child-like humanness she's been displaying for years now, is still carrying around a good bit of darkness inside her. She seemed awfully quick to lash out when she felt threatened. She's often been tactless, but going after Will like she did bordered on outright cruelty.
I mean, she's spent all this time reaquainting herself with humanity. But what kind of human was she in the first place? People don't get chosen for the vengeance demon gig because they are sweet and good natured. It's because they have a talent and desire for hurting people.
And, as a side note, it makes perfect sense when considering this, that Cecily might have been chosen as a ven--err I mean justice demon as well. Because the glimpse we got of her in FFL, she was rather adept at being cruel.
There was a lot I liked about this ep, though some of the Buffy/Dawn and Xander/Anya scenes toward the end were just a bit sloooow.
Oh, and someone should tell Dawn that screeching is not a good way of encouraging people to want to spend time with you.
Ari
