Kly's thoughts on "Empty Places"

Are pretty brief.

I'll be interested to see if it turns out that Buffy's right. Right and wrong, I suspect. Wrong, in that she has accepted a hierarchical model she shouldn't have fallen in with; she should in fact have learned the little girls' names; and she does need to know more about what they're facing.

I suspect she'll go into the vineyard on her own, or with Spike.

Not sure Kennedy is bad anymore, though I'm still going to enjoy watching her die.

That's definitely Giles. But he doesn't love Buffy anymore. In fact he doesn't give a damn about her. I'm going to enjoy watching him die too, or at least suffer a lot.

Pretty sure Wood is EEEVVILLLL. And Faith is onto him. He's certainly going to die.

***

Why, exactly has it not crossed anyone's mind that

IT'S BUFFY'S HOUSE?

If anyone should leave, it is all of the rest of them.

Not that Buffy would have let them; she would have left in preference, so that they could have what safety they might.

But it was Buffy's choice, no one else's. And I don't care if Dawn stood up for her after throwing her out. Talk about emotional blackmail:

"Buffy, I need you to leave."

Well, of course, then, Buffy would go. Because Dawn told her to and she loves her sister.

***

Four minor points:

Caleb is going to lose (that was the point of the Latin inscription.) But we knew that.

Buffy was in fact going to play into his hands, and lead the girls back into his clutches. That's because she was partly wrong. She does need to go back into the vineyard, where Caleb's source of power will be concealed, but I suspect she needs to go in alone. Or with Spike.

The vineyard, rather than the Seal, will be key because she's going to turn out to have been partly right.

Spike's away mission was partly to get him out of the way. But it was partly to establish him as having his own story.

Andrew is definitely being set up as Spike Lite, but I don't know why. So he can litely redeem himself? By dying, perhaps. Probably.

Anya doesn't get it in such a massively major way that it's reasonably clear to me that she's going to be playing for the wrong side. "You're not better - you're just luckier"? Buffy is lucky? Man, she must have hated Buffy for a long, long time. She's consumed with the mortal sin of envy - for Buffy, for Spike, for Willow, for everyone that isn't her.

But Anya she is obviously going to die too. And, like Wood, and quite possibly Giles, on the wrong side.

What's happened to Faith's hair?