First Date

*Kris snuggles under her blankie, cranks up the heat setting on the space heater, takes a swig of her Starbucks Frappucino, and prepares to whip out a review before turning her attention to work she brought home...*

Poor Furry!Spike... he was so shocked by my excited shrieking, giggling, and all around glee with parts of this episode. And after all of the bits and pieces of spoilers I'd come across in connection with this ep, I'm even more excited with how this ep played out

And before I get any further: Last week, I was trying to figure out why Riley would have called Spike "Bass-Face." Thanks to all of the wonderful people who set me and my clogged ears straight on what he *really* said...

So... let's get to the quick points, shall we?

Heyla, Heyla moment:

Ripper's back, and you're gonna be in trouble… My, oh my... now we know how Giles was able to escape that nasty looking axe (not to mention the nasty looking Bringer wielding the axe). And when you think about it, Giles asserting his party pooper authority at the end of the ep firmly established his role as Watcher of the group. If you're a Giles fan, this can only be A Good Thing.

Busted! Moment:

Buffy and Spike looking like kids caught with their hands in the cookie jar as Giles (and the SITs) figure out that Spike has indeed been dechipped. I made my poor hubby replay that scene for me before we could watch the rest of the ep - it was just terrific. To use a common TabRas-ism: Hee!

Bwahaha Moment:

Spike flying across the scene to tackle Giles, with the ensuing sniping between the two Brits. I was just rolling.

Not again Moment:

Poor Xander just can't catch a break, can he? If he's not attracting the demony women types, he's suddenly finding that he's got something in common with Spike, whether he realizes it yet or not. And worse yet - he's got Spike to thank for his (relatively) quick rescue...

Heavy Analysis Time...

Oh, there was just so much going on in this episode... We got teased with the whole "I've never had anything so good in my mouth" commentary in the UPN teaser (yuck!), but this really turned out to be quite the B/S episode, didn't it? (And just in time for Valentine's Day, too...).

We also had multiple instances of people simultaneously expecting Buffy to act like an adult and then laughing at her attempts to be more responsible. Giles is howling over the fact that he doesn't think that Buffy is taking her responsibilities seriously, but at the same time, he openly criticizes her decision making. Willow and Giles both laugh at the concept of Buffy getting a promotion based on her job performance (whether or not their laughter is appropriate isn't the point, although I'm inclined to agree)... When you think about it, everyone has been questioning Buffy's decision making as of late, except for one person: Spike. And tonight, he started off the episode by stating quite emphatically that Buffy "... had to make a choice."

What does this all mean? Is it a figment of my overloaded imagination? Either way, Giles summed it up quite nicely: "You rely on him, and he relies on you." We had so many little pieces of dialogue and acting that only confirmed what so many people have been seeing this season - I could hear squeals of delight as I sat here in my rec room watching my tape. Between Buffy admitting that she loved Spike (is that loved or loves?), to people throughout the house practically hitting her over the head with the fact that they can all see the sparkage that's still there, to watching Spike do his best to not get in Buffy's way (even though we can see that it's hurting him), to seeing Buffy and Spike come back together at the end...

<happy sigh>

Something else that struck me was Xander's comments about how things are "karmic" for him on this date, whether he realizes it or not. At first he was referring to being stood up - and may I say that it's nice to see that the wedding-that-wasn't was *not* swept under the rug? - but in the end, he's the one who ends up with the romantic engagement that *so* does not end up with the ending he expected. We have Anya getting her vengeance in a manner of sorts (but still not really seeming all that happy about it), and Xander's choices are indeed coming back to haunt him in a way.

Choices seemed to be a big theme for this ep. It starts with the fallout of Buffy's choice to dechip Spike, then careens to Buffy's choice to research Principal Hottie, to jumping to the effects of Andrew's choice to follow The First (oh, did I mention that he returned in this ep?), to the ill-advised choice of Willow and Company to try to record The First to the effects of Xander's choice to ask a girl no one knew out on a date (oh, you just had to know that he was asking for trouble), to the effect of Willow's decision to keep the gun in the house after last week, to the effect of Spike's actions back in the 1970's... wow. How they packed all of this into one hour is beyond me...

Which brings me to my one nit-pick of the evening: not only does the actress playing The First's incarnation of Nikki not all that similar in physical resemblance to the slayer we saw Spike fight in FFL, the timing we saw in FFL doesn't seem all that right in light of what we learned tonight. According to what we heard, Wood has to be 31 or younger... maybe it's just jealousy over the fact that *I'm* 31 and I don't look nearly as good as Principal Hottie, but he just doesn't look like he's that old.

Hmmm.

Overall, this was a great ep. So many characters had to own up to their past actions, we had Buffy admitting to Spike that she can't lose him (yay!), to the moments of Buffy and Spike easily falling into their tag-team fighting - oh, it was great. And unlike last year, when Spike and Xander were hurt and Buffy went to Xander first, she rushed to Spike's side after the fight was over tonight - even when her "date" was standing in the same room. You can tell that TPTB are trying to set up a triangle - I'm just left with a very Spuffy feeling after tonight, coupled with a good deal of unsettledness (is that a word) over all of the loose ends that are out there...

Quotes of the Night:

"Had to make a choice." - Spike, sticking up for Buffy, and perhaps making a statement about some of the themes we saw throughout the ep tonight...?

"You're a frisky vixen." - Willow, trying to give Buffy a dosage of Grrrrl!Power confidence...

"giggle snort" - Willow, upon Buffy's idea that she could be getting promoted for doing such a good job…

"Why does everyone in this house think I'm still in love with Spike?" - Buffy, getting exasperated...

"Thud" - Spuffy fans across the country, falling off their respective comfy chairs/couches/seating arrangements after being overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of acknowledgement of the B/S relationship in this episode...

Dear Hubby Quote of the Night:

This was such a good ep that I didn't get any really good quotage for this evening... just lots of "whoas!" and "Huh?" comments...

Ewwwwwwww Score:

4 out of 10. The whole bloody knife bit with Principal Hottie really had me unnerved... and seeing Xander getting sliced wasn't all that pleasant.

Furry!Spike Score:

4 Paws. This was just a really great episode all around, even if there were some things that made me narrow my eyes here and there (if Wood is such a great vamp hunter, then why didn't he pick up on Spike being a vamp right off the bat?).

Overall:

So many questions answered, so many more raised. This is what sweeps is all about, right? The hour passed so quickly, and I'm already trying to figure out when I can watch the ep again. Buffy came clean (sorta) on her feelings for Spike, and she's not backing down on her feelings for him when she's backed into a corner by her parental figure - whoo hoo! All of the characters had at least a little something to do... it was just darned great to watch.

I'm giving this one 9 out of 10.

And next week we get another new ep. Whoo hoo!

Hugs to all...

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Kris