- The first scene was very lovely, loved the picture they painted of a family. This season's theme. It's sad that Anya and Tara aren't there to support Buffy and Dawn as well. But I guess someone has to be at the Magic Box and Tara probably has a class.

- I loved the Buffy-Riley exchange. They appeared like a real couple. For the past two episodes, they were physically and emotionally apart.

- Hee, at Xander and Giles almost hugging but catching themselves and settling for a handshake. They're going to get that hug next year ;)

- Buffy and Dawn playing vampire/slayer in the past. I assume this is S3 when Joyce knew about Buffy being a slayer because I can't picture Buffy openly playing this game if Joyce didn't know.

- Anya not getting that Buffy and Dawn were playing kinda annoyed me. I know she takes things said too literally and it'll show later in this scene when Xander makes a sarcastic comment that Anya doesn't get. It just pains me to see Anya this stupid.

- I'm still pissed that Xander is able to drink. He's a 19 year old going on 20. If they weren't allowed to drink at 18, then why they're able to at 19? The legal age is either 18 or 21 in the states, right?

- Good thing that Buffy decided to give Riley a special night. I'm actually happy it came from her. Not as an advice from someone else. It makes me kinda hate Riley a little. Because Buffy's distance was more because her mother was sick, which is understandable.

- I think Riley is upset that Buffy didn't let him be there for her. With her mother's illness, Buffy had suffered alone, which she shouldn't. She had a devoted boyfriend and he would have made sure to make it easier if she had let him in. What Riley doesn't know is that Buffy had hardened, preferring to be weak alone and pretend to be strong in front of everybody, even those close to her.

- Stalker Spike enjoys Ruffy sex ;) He's got it so bad, poor thing. Lol

- Uh Oh, Riley is leaving. He needs his vamp-bite-drugs. He doesn't know he's caught. I really hate that Riley decided to go and get bitten after the special night Buffy prepared for them. That's just so low, Riley.

- Buffy had been neglecting a lot of things. School, which is bad. Her friends, which is okay because they're very understanding and supportive. Slaying, which also bad, seeing her friends' lousy fighting skills. Riley, which she'll sadly lose in this episode. Her mom wants her to pay more attention to her life, but Buffy wants to make sure her mom is alright. To be honest, I don't think Buffy is doing anything wrong, there's no problem with making your very sick mother your first priority but you must keep in mind that life goes on and is not gonna hold on until you're done with your current dilemma.

- LOL!!! Spike is just great! He just steps into the house, makes himself welcome and just goes to Buffy's bedroom like that. I love this guy. :D

- Buffy is naked. Does that mean she had another sex night with Riley? I bet Anya demanded that Dawn stays with Tara and Willow or Giles. She can't have another night without Viking in the Sack sex. :D

- I bet Spike wishes for the box with a mirror that Xander had used in an attempt to get a glimpse of an undressed Buffy.

- Why didn't Buffy spring to action at the sight of people being sucked on by vampires?

- Spike is such a sneaky bastard. :D Did you notice his smirk when Buffy ran away at the sight of Riley having vampire whore sucking him and saying "Harder"? Eww to Riley. Poor Buffy :(

- Aww, Spike was hurt by Buffy's angry stare. I can't blame Buffy for being pissed, what she saw was just awful and she obviously knew that Spike only showed her Riley's sick situation for selfish reasons, which I assume Buffy thinks that Spike wants to hurt her and Riley for his evil pleasure, while the truth is Spike only wants them to have a fight and break up. Both selfish reasons but different intentions.

- Okay, is that vampire stupid? How would Riley bring the slayer in when he was upstairs having his blood sucking session? Didn't he see Buffy going in with Spike?

- I can see why Riley is so torn. He doesn't really like his life as a no-body. He likes the man he used to be and it's a good thing that this new army isn't the Initiative. They don't care about studying demons and doing experiments on them, they only stop them from killing people. They're the army version of the Scoobies, only they'd allow Riley to feel like a better man. A useful one.

- That conversation between Willow and Anya is interesting. I can see why Anya is wary of Willow. Willow is Xander's best friend, when your boyfriend has a girl as a best friend, you're ought to be jealous. Not to mention, how close Willow and Xander are to each other. I think Willow wasn't trying to mock Anya, she was just adding to Giles' sarcastic response. Remembering high school years, I do remember Buffy, Xander and Willow mocking each other sarcastically and not taking offense, but I understand why Anya would.

- It doesn't help that Xander asks Anya to be polite. It feels to Anya like he's taking Willow's side. From Xander's exhausted sigh and dropping his head on his hands, I picture these Willow-Anya fights happening more often than not.

- So Buffy didn't spring to action at the sight of vampires biting people because she knew they pay vampires to bit them? How did she know that fact? Or did she realize it after she saw Riley there?

- Did Giles used to let vampires bite him for money in his Ripper days? I think he did. He used to be one disturbing young man.

- Hmmm, Giles isn't as black and white as we think. He wouldn't have Buffy kill the vampires in the nest because they're not doing anything wrong. They're doing what humans want them to and get paid for it. Buffy, feeling betrayed and angry, doesn't see his point.

- Why doesn't Riley stake Spike? What is it that he wants from him? He knows Spike has a thing for Buffy and it seems that it's driving him crazy. Staking Spike would have saved him lots of headache and obviously no one would be angry with him. I did like their conversation though. It's like they understand each other.

- Xander and Anya, here it goes. Xander doesn't like hearing about Anya's criminal past and he's not comfortable with her telling others about their sex life. I can actually see where he comes from: Seriously, who wants to hear their other half talk about how they used to kill people? As for his angry yelling, I think Xander is too upset about what's going on with Buffy and Riley to tolerate Anya's irritating if naive 'Tales of Anya and Xander's Sexcapades.' He could see that Riley isn't in the mood for that and that he wants them away because he has something important to discuss with Buffy. Sadly, Anya's unobserving nature doesn't pick on things like that and acts like an innocent child most of the time.

- Ouch! The Buffy/Riley talk was awful. I understand both sides. Riley wants to feel equal, he wants to take care of Buffy like Buffy takes care of him. Buffy, on the other hand, reminds him that part of her personality is being on top of everything. She's the slayer, she does the "taking care of" part and it's hard on her to be weak and let someone else takes care of her. I wish Riley had his talk with Buffy early this morning and not wait until night to tell her. At least, she would have had more hours to think about it.

- While Xander gives Buffy the choice to either let Riley go or run after him, it's obvious he wants her to stop Riley from leaving. I think after all the disappointments of older boyfriends like Angel, Scott Hope and Parker, Xander really thinks that Riley is the one. I don't blame him, Buffy was much happier as Riley's girlfriend than she was as Angel's and the others'.

- Buffy running after Riley felt more like she was moved by Xander's speech. I really wonder how things would have changed for both of them if Riley glanced outside the helicopter.

- Some fans don't believe that Xander loves Anya, but I think he does. He enjoys her company and always seems excited to get home and spend time with her. He doesn't shy away from showing affection to her in public and he smiles sincerely at her quirks, the ones that don't involve embarrassing stories about their sex life of course. :D While it sucks that he doesn't wanna accept what she used to be and tries to get much further into denial land, he really appreciates the woman she became and that's what matters. Besides, it was Anya who made him notice how hot smart girls are, not Willow. ;) 
 

Buffy and Dawn playing vampire/slayer in the past. I assume this is S3 when Joyce knew about Buffy being a slayer because I can't picture Buffy openly playing this game if Joyce didn't know.
That line has always kind of struck me as weird. You're right that season 3 is really the only time they could play that game (unless they did it when their parents weren't around), but it sounds like a game for much younger kids than 17-year-old Buffy and 12-year-old Dawn. I can see Buffy indulging a younger Dawn if she wanted to play, but at 12 I wouldn't have been caught dead playing pretend.

The legal age is either 18 or 21 in the states, right?
The legal age is 21. However, plenty of kids manage to drink underage, so it wouldn't surprise me if the gang did it at times, especially in college, where there are many opportunities to get drunk before you're legal. (Whether they should be condoning underage drinking on the show is a different story.)

Good thing that Buffy decided to give Riley a special night.
This seemed to fit very well into the "couple gets happy right before everything goes to hell" pattern that Joss seems to like so much - Buffy and Angel having sex only to have him turn evil, Cordelia and Oz being really sweet to Xander and Willow right before they find out about the cheating, Joyce having a date with a really nice guy right before she dies, Willow and Tara getting back together right before Tara dies, Xander and Anya resolving their issues right before Anya dies, Buffy telling Spike she loves him right before he dies... you get the picture. So after a few episodes of tension and distance between them, Buffy and Riley get their happy reconciliation only to have it all fall apart.

I really hate that Riley decided to go and get bitten after the special night Buffy prepared for them.
I'm not entirely sure what we're supposed to think about this. Are we supposed to hate Riley for not giving Buffy a chance to fix the problems in their relationship, now that her mom's better? On the other hand, the crackhouse parallels suggest that Riley's now got an addiction, and even though Buffy's being a better girlfriend, he can't help himself. I guess my question is - if Buffy hadn't found out, and if Riley hadn't made the decision to leave, would he have eventually stopped on his own, if things with Buffy got better? Or was he just too far gone that his addiction to the vamp-sucking would have destroyed their relationship regardless of Spike's intervention?

To be honest, I don't think Buffy is doing anything wrong, there's no problem with making your very sick mother your first priority but you must keep in mind that life goes on and is not gonna hold on until you're done with your current dilemma.
I think this is a situation that would be difficult for anyone, but Buffy has never really been good at balancing different parts of her life. She's always had trouble balancing school work and slaying, and let's not even get started on dating and slaying. She was often having fights with her mom because of conflicts that came up, and she always seems to be neglecting one thing or another. So while I can certainly understand a sick mother taking over your priorities, it seems like Buffy's not very good at dealing with more than one crisis at a time, which would only exacerbate the situation.

So Buffy didn't spring to action at the sight of vampires biting people because she knew they pay vampires to bit them? How did she know that fact?
She realized it when she saw Riley - it might not be clear in the shot, but the shooting script indicates that Buffy "takes in the scene before her... The vampire in Riley's arms... The money on the mattress..." so she was supposed to see the money and figure out that he's paying for this.

He wouldn't have Buffy kill the vampires in the nest because they're not doing anything wrong. They're doing what humans want them to and get paid for it.
When you think about it, the vampires aren't really doing any worse than Angel when he would steal the blood packets from the hospital. (At least, I'm assuming he stole them, maybe he paid someone off, who knows.) It's not like Buffy's going to run out of vampires to kill, so she might as well concentrate her energy on the ones who are actually killing people to feed, rather than ones that have a fairly benign arrangement with humans.

Is anyone going to discuss how Buffy somehow managed to not notice the bites?  Maybe they weren't groiny for awhile due to problems, but they were that night, and there had to have been scars...I think both Riley and Buffy were pretty oblivious in that relationship, and it was on a fast track to nowhere.

Maybe he put a bandage over it and said he'd had to give blood? :)

Riley vamp bites - in one scene he wears a turtle neck and in another he has a very obvious bandage on his arm.  Buffy doesn't inquire.  The implication is that sex isn't happening all that often, which isn't surprising since Buffy is living at home.  It also implies that Buffy doesn't care all that much.

Everytime you come in here like this - Buffy threatens Spike when he shows up, but it doesn't appear that Riley ever told her about Spike's visits to her bedroom.  So, what is she talking about?  Has Spike come up to visit her before?  I'd like to think so.  If she does know about the underwear sniffing, why didn't she do something?  Yeah, yeah, I know she was busy with Mom, but I'm thinking Spike would have felt her cute little boot in his head if she'd known.

Riley is a total jerk - He has sex with Buffy (as witnessed by Spike) then sneaks out of the house to go visit his vampire girlfriend.  Don't think Spike is enjoying listening to Buffy and Riley go at it, he just can't help himself.

My favorite scene is Buffy and Xander's argument.  Totally packed with Angsty Goodness.  Okay the end, where Xander convinces her that Riley is such a fab guy sucks, but the rest is great.  Not to mention the preceding fight where Buffy takes out a herd of vampires.  It's sort of her personal best.  And, she takes out Riley's vamp girl after letting her go.  Sort of her personal worst.

Spike's reaction as Buffy runs away is interesting.  It's like it never occurred to him before that Buffy might love Riley and be upset to find out about the vamp girls, especially in this way.  What was he expecting, that Buffy would knock Riley upside the head?  Sometimes, Spike is just plain goofy.

Drinking in the states - Each state is different and the laws are always swapping back and forth, the argument being that if you're old enough to go fight in a war you ought to be old enough to have a beer.  Unfortunately, teenagers plus beer equals bad bad car accidents. 

Has Spike come up to visit her before?
I doubt she's ever caught him in her room before. The exact line is "Every time you show up like this..." so it doesn't have to mean him coming in her room, just him showing up unexpectedly. She's already caught him lurking outside and sneaking out of her basement, so I think that's what she's referring to.

Drinking in the states - Each state is different and the laws are always swapping back and forth
No, actually, it's not. The legal age in EVERY state is 21, and has been since 1984.

I'm not trying to start up Xander bashing, but I didn't like how Buffy was moved by the power of Xander's speech to chase down Riley because she's realized she loves him and never wants to let him go!  It was rotten of Riley to give her a time-limit, and only an hour or so at that. What if she had stopped him but they hadn't been able to work out their differences and get through their problems? Riley would have resented her for keeping him from getting back a job he loved and a purpose and maybe been angry that he gave up a career for her and she isn't willing to compromise her feelings about him paying vampires to bite him when she should obviously OWE him.

Xander went after Buffy without knowing that Riley had been doing something stupid, self-destructive, and addictive and blowing off patrol for it and not communicating with Buffy and sneaking out of bed with his girlfriend to get satisfaction from soulless demons who always seem to be FEMALE. Then, when Buffy reveals the reason she is angry is because Riley had been paying vamps to suck on him, Xander barely blinks before getting back to his 'go after him, he's the perfect one' speech. Couldn't he realize that Buffy's feelings were valid and her confusion about who Riley was now and what he needed and his thoughts about a relationship were different and maybe they'd end up making themselves miserable??

Has Spike come up to visit her before?

In her room, I doubt it. But I think she meant in general, not in her house. However, there was that time he stepped into her house with Buffy around (Listening to Fear).
but I didn't like how Buffy was moved by the power of Xander's speech to chase down Riley because she's realized she loves him and never wants to let him go!

Ask me: Who's the most forgiving character in the verse? I answer straight away Buffy... except with Faith. :D I don't think she forgave Riley per say, but in her heart she believed he was worth trying to work it out. Why won't she think that? From my S5 rewatch I was shocked by how supportive and sweet Riley was –considering the various Riley bashing around- (I only started to dislike his actions once he started getting his bites from vampires. Which was ep: 8) and I think he'd been so good to her. He was also a passionate lover and we know how Buffy values sex  ;) Not to mention that he was liked by all her friends and family, and believe me, that's a great relief for the girl when the people she loves like her boyfriend. I can see why Buffy would want to give Riley a second chance.

Couldn't he realize that Buffy's feelings were valid and her confusion about who Riley was now and what he needed and his thoughts about a relationship were different and maybe they'd end up making themselves miserable??

I think Xander knows that what Riley did sucks. He was the only one who noticed Riley's foolish heroic missions and had called him on it. While Riley wasn't as perfect as the Scoobies liked to think, I think Xander saw him as someone worthy for a second chance. Riley had sacrificed a lot for Buffy, she had always been his first thought and Xander was the only one who knew about Riley's heartwarming feelings toward Buffy. It's no wonder he'd want her to go after him.

Now I agree with you that it was so low of Riley to keep such an info about re-joining the army until one hour was left. He should have at least told her that earlier in the morning.
 

Drinking in the states - Each state is different and the laws are always swapping back and forth
No, actually, it's not. The legal age in EVERY state is 21, and has been since 1984. 

Sorry - I meant that each state makes its own laws on the subject, it's not a federal law.  At the moment there's chat about taking Illinois back to 18.  As to getting a drink in the Bronze under age - doubtful.  The bartender carded Anya - why not Xander?  Bars generally take the underage drinking thing a lot more seriously than they did when I was a callow youth.  I used to drink in bars from time to time when I was 19 and never got carded even though I looked like I was about 15.

There IS a federal law - the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984. All states are required to set the minimum age at 21 or they get subjected to a ten percent decrease in their federal highway funding. Since the law was passed, every state has complied, so there hasn't been any "swapping back and forth," just occasional opposition that crops up and doesn't go anywhere. No state has actually lowered the minimum age, presumably because they don't want to lose funding.

Okay Eowyn - you're making me look stupid.  I don't need any help, obviously. :)  Presumably the states could enact a lower age drinking law if they wanted to stop sucking off the federal tit, which as you point out is not likely.

Who's the most forgiving character in the verse? I answer straight away Buffy...   That seems doubtful to me.  "The quality of mercy is not Buffy."  It's a lesson she learns the hard way.  I do notice that she can be brought around by a request for help which both Willow and Spike do. 

Who's the most forgiving character in the verse? I answer straight away Buffy... That seems doubtful to me.  I'll agree with that.  The most forgiving one is clearly Xander.  He put up with a ton of stuff that he really didn't have to.  Wesley is a close second.

Buffy takes people back in over and over. The actual forgiveness inside her takes a lot longer. But people she's taken as her group, or people that look like lost puppies, are cases Buffy lets back in again and again. She doesn't let go of resentments easily at all, because she doesn't deal with issues, but her frequent denial does mean her friends that screw up aren't out of her life - because Buffy would rather have them with all the mess, than be alone.

CM

I see your point, guys. I do think Buffy is forgiving. She forgave her boyfriends and her friends over and over. It may need a little work on the inside, but on the outside, she was always welcoming them back.

As for Xander, he's very forgiving - the most forgiving- when you're his friend. If you're not, then not so much.