Heee! I've always loved Buffy's response to finding out they're just muggers.
"Kinda sweet, actually. Oh, well, not for you." ;D
Get your rocks off.
Mmmmyeah.
Liz - so glad you mentioned way back when about the shot pulling back on Spike in the alley. I'd never really paid attention to it, but now I do. How perfect that he's saying "you got no one else" as he's shown all alone himself.
De-ratting! Woo! Also? Projecting much, Willow?
Andrew. Heeee! Andrew! Head rush. ;D "Get the freeze ray out of here."
;D
Did Amy get much better at magic while she was a rat? Or was she able to do the stuff we see in this ep back in high school? 'Cuz if she was, she was waaaaaaaay ahead of Willow, wasn't she?
Also, this is one of the few times that Buffy comes close to talking to someone else about things that are going on with her and Spike until she totally loses it with Tara. Is she perhaps secretly glad that she was "over-shadowed" by the de-ratting? She's wanting to tell and to not tell and to hide and to be discovered. I think she wants someone to push her and ask her things and drag stuff out of her, rather than have her talk first. But the only one who is talking to her directly about things, the only one focused totally on her right now is Spike. . . . Huh. Which means, he was kinda telling the truth in the alley. I mean, the others all have big things going on in their lives, so it's not surprising they are more involved with them, but yet I also hold them more responsible for Buffy than normal, because of them bringing her back to life and all. Complex!
Poor, poor, frozen Rusty.
Yeah, he is fixated on a couple of kisses - 'cuz he's in love with you and kissing is, well, apparently showing interest. And yeah, she is awfully quick to forget them, because she is totally wanting to deny just how messed up she is, mentally and emotionally - she really does see her actions with him as just a reaction to being depressed (not just about Giles, though, I'd wager) and he really does know that this is (partially) a lie on her part, because she is feeling something for him and denying it. Complex!
Oh, Spike. Still with the continual need to create the big bad persona. Watching his "I can do this, I can do this" bite-a-victim pep talk? ;D and
and
This scene is a very interesting choice for the storyline. It wasn't all just James' acting that made Spike such a layered character - it was writing choices as well. They could have done a simple "try to attack, discover chip is still working" scene.
Heee! "Good God, that's a lot of shake!" ;D
Heee heee! I love capitalist Anya. All approving of property rights, but only when it's
her property.
Is magical computer hacking really satisfying, though? I mean, faster, yeah I guess, although Willow was always speedy with the computer stuff. And it shows how automatically she turns to it if she is willing to forego the enjoyment she always got from using her real computer hacker skills.
Ah, using-humor-to-displace-emotions Xander. How very Xander-y of you.
Sparkly. Big. Makes colors with the light.
Aaaaaaand here comes Spike! Totally intimidating these guys even with no ability to hurt them at all. Of course! ;D (Huh. Does Spike still have an invite from when the Buffybot got built?)
"You don't wanna hurt the Fett. 'Cuz man, you're not comin' back from that!"
Amy. Such an obvious little manipulator. And yet Willow goes for it.
"Nothin' wrong with me, something wrong with her." Love how he doesn't even realize that he is, in effect, saying that the chip still working means he's still all right.
Love love love the dueling scenes of Willow and Amy at the Bronze and Spike and Buffy goin' to town in their own way.
Willow - do you not see how the stuff Amy is doing should be a cautionary tale for you, not an instruction manual?!
Heee! No such thing as a frost monster who eats diamonds! (They really do suck at research, don't they? Neither Buffy nor Xander were ever the best at the book work and Anya just doesn't have the patience.
)
Sensible people. Going kablooey. Or bam. Or something.
Spike? You're calling me on the phone?
No grunting!
And Spike just provokes her into getting in the first hit. 'Cuz this is foreplay for him. And you just know who was on top, so to speak, in the Spike and Dru show.
The "you came back wrong" thing just plays into both of their fears/assumptions/mind-sets, doesn't it?
"What is wrong here, what is wrong here, what is wrong here, what is wrong here . . . " Obvious lyrics are obvious.
Mmmmmm. And sexy fight is sexy.
"Where the hell do you fit in?" Ah, Buffy, you always give yourself away.
Oh, that moment when Buffy, ahem, lowers herself down on Spike and they each get a positively trancendent look on their faces? Oh so nice!