Well, color me floored.  We are now dealing with a whole new set of characters.  Gone are the Buffy, Xander, Spike, Willow, Giles from the first seasons.  They are all new and improved.  Of course they're improved from last year.  You couldn't possibly get worse than that.

In the interest of...well, my own interests, I'll start with...

Spike

First off, I love the hair.  Finally proof that hair grows on dead people in the Buffyverse.  Go figure.

Secondly, this new Spike is truly disturbing.  I was certain he wouldn't have changed an iota from the cocky, smart-ass guy who left for Africa.  This guy changes more often than I change my underwear.  (Okay, that's a little psychological problem of mine.  I'm working on it.)

Season 2: Big Bad

Season 3: Pathetic Love's Bitch Big Bad

Season 4: Just pathetic, and kind of bad

Season 5: Love's Bitch, thinks he's bad

Season 6: Desperate Love's Bitch, kind of trying to be good

Season 7: Psycho vampire who recently escaped from Bellview.

My heart broke seeing him there in the basement.  Can't tell what's real from imaginary.  Blathering on and on about nonsensical musings.  Can I take him home now and nurse him back to health?  Please?  If Buffy doesn't want him, I'll take him.  Hell, he might not even notice I'm not Buffy if I just bleach my hair a little.

Willow

Ah!  That's more like it.  I truly hated Willow of last season.  Yuck.  It's nice to see a bit of the old sweet girl shining through - not concerned with her level of power.  Tara would be proud of her, I think.

The hair:  still too red.

Giles

Still miss Giles.  <sniff>  I'm finding myself with a soft spot for all the English characters recently.  It's a plot, I tell you.  An evil plot to infiltrate the American entertainment industry with their soft, lulling accents.  They must be stopped!  (Or, not.  Never mind.  I'll go take my medication now.)

And for the record, I don't get synchronized swimming either.

Xander

Still puffy.  BUT, he has magically risen through the ranks of manual labor to obtain a position where he's, what, an architect?  He began as a grunt and now he's in a suit meeting with clients.  WTF?

Sadly, no hair changes.

Dawn

Now you're talkin'.  No more whining.  Self-sufficient (kind of).  Like her.  Don't like her friends: Billow and Lander.

Anya

Anya got the brush off this episode.  They basically told us she's lost her flare for vengeance.  Great.  Spike was better than her without the frelling soul.

Buffy

Best change of all, IMNSHO.  

Nice, mom hair.  However, I can't say the shirt was very mom-esque.  My mom never wore shirts where her breasts threatened to fall out.  She never wore stiletto heels either.

Is she flirting with that principal?  Bad Buffy.  Bad girl.

The one scene that really tore at me was in the basement with Spike.  He's crouched there like a loony, and you can see she really wants to help him...find out what's made him so nuts.  But her sister is out there facing death.  In the end, I agree with her decision to leave and help Dawn.  But I have to say that part of me was yelling, "Forget the child!  You have man-meat in front of you."  (I'm spending way too much time in the BA_Gutter, aren't I?)

But then, SHE LEFT HIM DOWN THERE!!!  ARGH!!  I didn't see her leaving Angel to fend for himself when he came back in season 3.  Nooooo.  And right after she admitted to the zombie-ghosts that she is the sister who dateS dead guyS.  (No.  I'm not Spike-centric at all.  It's all your imagination.)

Yay!  No more Double Meat Palace.

Can someone explain why Buffy cowered from the male zombie-ghost in the bathroom?  Shouldn't her initial instinct to have been to punch it in the face?  And why are dead things always attacking her in the bathroom?  If I were her, I'd use an outhouse.

_______________________

Overall: great episode.  Spooky and upbeat.  A definite improvement over last season.

What's with the out of place Istanbul scene?  I assume we'll find out later.  But it's sure strange to open an episode, let alone an entire season, with this scene.  (Show of hands: who was singing the They Might Be Giants Song during that scene?)

One comment though.  That whole scene with Spike and the new Big Bad?  I have no clue what that guy was saying to Spike.  My mind was too busy trying to figure out how the hell Warren could still be alive...then how the hell Glory could still be alive and sharing a body with Warren.  Then, when I finally realized that the new Big Bad was just changing forms for Spike's benefit (or maybe just in Spike's mind), I was too busy wondering who would come after the Mayor, considering Spike himself was one of the Baddies, and Angelus is really the one who should appear, but there's that darn no crossover rule...  By the time I had done all that pondering, the speech was over.

(A picture you wish you'd never seen.)

And I also had a really hard time understanding the entire dialogue in the scene with Giles and Willow, and most of Spike's words.  Am I going deaf, or did anyone else notice that?

Favorite Line

"Wrong one again.  I'm the one who dates dead guys."

Screen Caps courtesy of Spirit Crow