I'm in a hurry and I have to go get focused on tomorrow's test, so I'm just copying this over from my message board (as opposed to copying from here to there like I usually do). Buffy spoilers ahoy ...

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I for one am relieved that nothing profound happened with Spike this week. I have a test tomorrow and I can't afford to be up all night analyzing stuff.

This was a good ep. Not great, but plenty entertaining. I even got a little verklempt over Willow, when she was so happy and relieved that they came to save her and didn't leave her there. Plus I'm thrilled that she wasn't trying to shirk her responsibility or downplay her potential to be dangerous. This is still a Willow I can get behind.

Posable Dawn was comedy gold. I'm really liking Dawn so far. MT's comedic timing just keeps getting better.

Anya had good hair this ep, finally. I continue to love her. It'll be interesting to see where they're going with her conflictedness over her vengeance duties.

Xander continues to be an oblivious dumbass (and how funny that even in his current condition Spike still has the wherewithal to point this out), but at least he's a more loveable dumbass than he was last year. And he seems to be trying to at least be civil to Spike. I can't get too mad at him for wanting to get snarky. After all these years that's a reflexive reaction for him, and now he has legitimate cause to have to be nice to Spike rather than just tolerate him.

Spike. Bless his heart. I figure they're saving any major advances towards regaining his sanity until November sweeps (just speculation, people!). Anyway. He's still not in any condition to talk things out with Buffy. He goes from being overjoyed to see her (and reverting to William at the sight of her) to remembering what happened between them and being hit with the guilt, not even able to stand her looking at him. I'm glad they went to him for help. He made it emphatically clear during his lucid period last week that he wants nothing more than to help Buffy, and she's taking him up on that. And it's while he's in Helpful Spike mode that he's capable of being the most lucid. He has something to focus on besides Buffy and what happened between them, something to think about other than his past. I'd think it's almost a relief to him. People seemed to be worried that the SG were taking advantage of him, but he seemed lucid enough to me to say no, and he showed them that he's still perfectly capable of understanding them.

Did anybody else get the sense that when nobody else could see Willow in the basement, he decided she must be the MMBB?

Buffy is keeping her distance, and that's understandable (and not at all surprising considering we've still got a few weeks until sweeps. Iif any monumental Spuffy advances are coming, that's when they'll happen). She's majorly wigged, not just by Spike's fun new insanity but also by what he did for her. But enough trust has been re-established between them (on her side, at least) that she admitted to him that she was scared. That's not something she ever would have confessed to him before. Buffy's talking about her feelings, people. To Spike. She's being honest about how she feels. To Spike. That is fucking huge.

I'm sad that Giles didn't come home with Willow. Also? That was probably the most disturbing and downright nasty MotW ever. I haven't had such a visceral (heh) gross-out reaction to a TV show since back when X-Files was still good. Blech!