I'm feeling better today, mostly. No more introspective ramblings about my own mortality. Instead I'll ramble about Buffy. Aren't you glad? I knew you would be.

The overall sentiment about this season's opener seems to be that Dracula was a let down, that he should have been more powerful, should have put up a fight and not been so easily defeated, and so on; and I agree.

But do you know what I suspect (and I hope this isn't just a big "well, duh, Jean, we all knew that already, bless your simple little heart")? Buffy's reality has been somehow altered (hence the little sister who heretofore didn't exist). That part is a pretty big "well, duh," but I was thinking it didn't start until the kid sister showed up at the end, that it was probably the little girl pulling something akin to what that Jonathan guy did to make everybody believe he was the ultimate cat's pajamas; but now I think that it started before that, and that Count Vlad is part of the altered reality. We just accepted that he was really there, because he and Buffy both exist in the realm of fiction and our willing suspension of disbelief allows for such things as crossovers; but before this I thought Dracula was supposed to be thought of as fictional in the Realm of Buffydom as well (which was supported by Angel telling that actress chick, when she asked something about if he was like Dracula, that his favorite Drac was Frank Langella). And it's no coincidence that Dracula repeated word for word what the first slayer told Buffy in last season's finale.

So my current theory is that either Dracula is still fictional and his sudden appearance was all tied into this little sister wierdness, or that he's real and he's the one who's creating this little sister wierdness; but either way the way-too-easy confrontation between the Slayer and the Prince of Darkness didn't actually happen.

I'm probably wrong, but still, it's a pretty decent theory.