"Once More, With Feeling"

Spoilers ahoy ...

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So, did I love it? Pu-lease. Spike was incredible, and there was a kiss. An incredibly fiery, passionate kiss. Everything else was just icing on the cake.

What didn't I love? When Dawn said that Willow & Tara fighting give her tummy rumblings. Is she 15 or 5? That's my only complaint.

I loved the horned goat guy in the first number (he reminded me of Tim from Monty Python and the Holy Grail). And the dancing vamps. And the hunky guy she rescued.

I loved Anya's rockin' bunny solo. That put me in hysterics. "Or maybe midgets." HEE!

Loved the crew cameos: The mustard guy was David Fury, and the parking ticket lady was Marti Noxon.

Loved the dancing street sweepers.

Tara's voice is so very pretty. I especially loved her duet with Giles.

The demon was very cool.

I loved that we were mercifully spared from Dawn's stereotypical teen angst solo and given dancing instead. The dancing was cool.

Loved, loved, LOVED Xander & Anya's number. The whole thing, but high points were "skeezy cheeses," "his eyes are beady," and "his penis got diseases from the Shumash tribe." BWA! Any reference to the funny syphilis is, well, funny. And I really loved both their rants to Giles right after, though I'm still trying to figure out what each of them are saying. Anya's saying something about feeling like they were being watched, and their apartment suddenly had only three walls instead of four, and where did the fourth wall go?

Spike. Spike, Spike, Spike. My heart broke for him when he figured out Buffy was just there for information, even though "What else would I pump you for" was a total Freudian slip. JM is just so amazing. I loved the surprised/scared look on his face when he started singing, and the way he rolled his eyes when he couldn't make it stop. That whole number was pure Spike. Sexy and dangerous and frustrated and still completely Buffy's bitch and disgusted with himself for it. And in typical Spike fashion, not only completely honest about what he was feeling, but insightful and spot on about what Buffy was feeling. And he vamped out! He hasn't done that since "Crush." And I loved the way he turned human again the second Buffy touched him. A great visual confirmation of my whole "Buffy calms the demon and allows the man to shine through" theory.

"Walk Through the Fire" was a great number all the way around. SMG did a great job there. I loved Spike's lines. "I'm free if that bitch dies! I better help her out ..." and "First I'll kill her, then I'll save her ... No, I'll save her, then I'll kill her!" He is so completely Love's bitch. Poor guy.

Buffy's final song was pretty heartbreaking. So was the look on Willow's face when she learned she'd "rescued" Buffy from heaven.

Interesting that the death wish Spike told Buffy about exactly one year ago (this and "Fool for Love" were both the seventh episode of the season) came true last night. Spike's words to Buffy back then? "Sooner or later, you're gonna want it. And the second- the second- that happens... You know I'll be there. I'll slip in... have myself a real good day."

So what does he say when it finally happens, and he is there? "You'll get along/The pain that you feel/You only can heal /By living /You have to go on living/So one of us is living."

Talk about a one-eighty ...

Interesting also that their kiss also occurred in the same ally where he told her about the death wish. A year ago, after that conversation he tried to kiss her, and she knocked him on his ass and told him he was beneath her. Last night, she kissed him. And I'm really still too incoherent to talk much about the kiss without melting into a puddle of goo, but that was pretty much the hottest kiss in the entire history of the show. Angel who?

Oh! And the little Mutant Enemy guy sang too! That was the perfect capper. Too bad it was all tainted by the preview for next week. I think the Giles/Anya kissage has scarred me for life.