Awww, Buffy is a little jealous that Dawn gets the most attention. And Joyce, how come you never had names for Buffy? There are five years between them, I'm sure you had cute names for Buffy before Dawn arrived. I don't know, I thought the writers were too concerned with having Buffy jealous and hurt that they didn't care how Joyce sounded. I hate when they do that, turn everybody into jerks so we can sympathize with Buffy. Please.

Buffy finds Giles standing in the middle of the Magic Box, dressed in a spangled purple robe and a warlock's hat. Isn't Giles the cutest man or what? Seriously, he beats both Spike and Xander in the cutest department in this episode.

"You can't patrol, Buffy said. She also said you look cuter when you're all weak and kitteny and she'd better go solo or you'll get hurt." Uh oh. Dawn's tongue needs to be cut. So I guess Buffy came to the conclusion that she prefers to patrol alone this season, seeing how she usually had her friends patrolling with her from S2 to S4, keeping her company. Poor Riley, that's not something a man (also a woman) likes to hear. No wonder he'll start acting stupid soon.

Willow said the Snyder word describing Dawn. Dawn is a big spaz. :D

Watching this episode made me think: What did Anya do for a living? How was she able to afford her apartment? How did she afford the car she used to run away in S3? I guess we could say that she used to live off Xander (Poor Xander!) but it doesn't explain how she used run her life before Xander was part of it.

Anya has lousy social skills, she needs Xander's lectures like a human needs air. I love when Xander uses sarcasm to lecture Anya, I love when he uses sarcasm. Period. It's much funnier than when he gets goofy and stupid.

Anya wraps up a woman's purchase and hands it to her.

ANYA: (to woman) Please go.

The woman walks away, shaking her head.

XANDER: Anya, the Shopkeeper's Union of America called. They wanted me to tell you that "please go" just got replaced with "have a nice day".

ANYA: But I have their money. Who cares what kind of day they have?

XANDER: No one. It's just a long cultural tradition of raging insincerity. Embrace it.

Anya calls out to her customer.

ANYA: Hey, you! Have a nice day.

XANDER: There's my girl!

Anya grins with pride.

Aw, Xander and Anya are so adorable sometimes!!! :happy:

"Does this look right to you?" "Sure if you wrapped it with your feet." Hee, Willow and Anya are the female Spander. Except gentler. ;)

I love when Anya gives advices, I wonder why the Scoobies don't ask her often. Asking Anya makes more sense than just heading to Spike every time they needed info. I guess the writers just needed an excuse for Buffy to need Spike's knowledge.

Buffy's attempt to make Riley feel useful is adorable. I loved his advice "instead of you taking care of me, why don't we take care of each other." Wish all couples use this advice.

Man, Dawn is so clingy. Kid, you're 14, go to your 14 year old friends! Well, seeing how her mother still gets her babysitters, no wonder Dawn still acts younger than her real age.

I actually felt shudders through my spine when Buffy said, "You're not my sister." And felt so bad for Dawn. I wish I watched this episode when it first aired, I'd have probably thought that Dawn was a ghost of a demon, because they're setting it up like that.

And there starts the Spike Stalker Show. Taking after his grandsire, isn't he? ;) Now what is it with Buffy saying "William" here, hints of Spuffy? Spike is acting like a six year old with a crush, an adorable six year old with a crush. Now I'm rethinking who's gonna win the cutest award of the episode. :D

The last scene between Buffy and Dawn brought tears to my eyes. I feel sad they grew apart in S8, hope Joss fixes that.

Who are you guest? :D

I, too, hate how they turned Anya into this stupid innocent who knows nothing about human relations and behavior. She was such a normal person in S3, she seemed to know how to behave and deal with human matters. Then she arrived back in S4 and she was all, "How can I act like a human?" Started reading books and stuff when she seemed just fine with it in S3.

So far, Xander's lectures look fine to me. Anya needs them. Because with her lousy social skills, she won't be able to fit in, especially as someone who works in the cashier. 

Anya is a thousand plus years old and here is her twenty year old boyfriend cutting her off when she has input from massive experience with dealing with demons.

I don't remember Xander cutting Anya off when she shares her wisdom, unless she's talking about torturing men, which I can't blame Xander for being uneasy about. He's a man after all. :D Plus, the thought of Anya torturing people before is just scary, I don't think Xander ever wanted to dwell on it. He accepts Anya, but her past? I don't think so.

I agree with you on Dawn. The way her mom treats her, she's ought to become so clingy and childish.

Here's my hypothesis - when she was "undercover" as a Sunnydale High student, she could have gotten an apartment, and maybe even a car (possibly on D'Hoffryn's nickel since it was for a vengeance gig), and then kept them once she became human.

I like this explanation. :)

We don't see her ever work before this episode, and she couldn't possibly have been living off Xander to the extent that he paid for her apartment and car (especially not in season 3 when they weren't even dating).

When I said living off Xander, I meant S4. After they became a couple. Anya may own an apartment (with a closet full of clothes) and a car, but she also needs food. So maybe Xander helped her in this department. There's a conversation in S4 in which Anya complains that Xander is more concerned with getting money and doesn't pay attention to her, then he replies that getting money means buying Anya nice things.

Like I said, I hate that they overdid it with Anya not understanding human behavior, especially since we've seen the opposite of that in S3. If she's blunt, then it's her nature, but she acts like it's a normal thing humans do, not something impolite.

Fair enough ;) But love is a pretty strong word :P Not to say that I (or everyone) disliked Dawn. I just don't think that everyone loved her in s7 or otherwise.

I thought the S7 Dawn love was international :D Almost every fan I come across loves her in S7, even those who really hate her thought she was better than in S5 and S6, but that didn't mean they loved her, so I can see your point. ;)

I honestly loved Dawn's threat to Spike, just like I loved her reluctant to have Willow back, but sadly all that was dropped. That's what I hate about S7, it started amazingly, then lots of character issues were dropped for the Big Picture. It would have been nice to see Dawn going through a hard time trusting Willow and Spike again before they patch things up, and I've always wished we saw how Xander gradually started to accept Spike (like maybe show us how they interacted in Xander's apartment) instead of just giving us the end of that story. Sucks. I really wish they had Spike interact more with the other Scoobies in S7, instead of spending his time just with Buffy.

Anyway... we're turning this into a S7 thread :D Let's get back to S5, shall we?

So what are your thoughts on Buffy and Riley in this episode?