- I just realized for the first time (am I slow? yeah, always) that someone must have gone all the way back to this ep to play with Spike's mother issues in "Lies My Parents Told Me." It totally makes sense that someone on the ME writing staff said, "You know, why did Spike exclaim 'Women!' and run away when Buffy's mom hit him on the head? Why didn't he keep fighting?" It being so unmanly and all; really *not* vicious and ruthless as he was supposed to be then. And at the end he says: "A slayer with family and friends--that wasn't in the brochure." Well, okay, so what? He could have killed them all. Is it that he *respects* those ties?
- Why doesn't Angel warn Buffy properly about who Spike is? Why so coy? He's rarely very proactive in helping her with stuff, early on.
- Willow's expression as Cordelia prays in the broom closet is priceless. "Ask for some aspirin."
- Spike is anti-ritual, the kind of guy who stirs things up. He comes in at the beginning of the ep in game face and you get the feeling it's a *thing*, it's what you do when you meet strange vamps, to prove yourself one of them. And a lot of his other behavior comes off that way too, as a posture to ensure that he gets respect and deference. But he knows how to show it. He kneels to the anointed one--first incidence of Spike on his knees--but then, yay, offs him.
- "What's a sire?" Cool that they just let that hang unanswered. Let the viewers define it as they will.
- The last line is a classic. "Let's see what's on TV." Love it.