Seeing them fight gives me a similar visceral physical anxiety as when there's conflict amongst people I love in real life.

Oh yeah, though on balance I probably get more anxious watching Buffy & co. fight because my family tends towards being overly vocal on a pretty regular basis. Also we're usually arguing over stuff like who broke the coffee-maker, and not because I sent my newly re-ensouled demon lover to hell and then ran off to L.A for three months.

What I love about DMP is that I can't really decide who's in the right because well, nobody right and that's the point (though I call no-way on Willow 'forgetting' that she was going to meet Buffy to go shopping--that was just a bit of pettiness on Willow's part, imho).

Wrod. And yeah! Regarding Willow not forgetting to show up for shopping... Willow was giving Buffy a taste of her own medicine. I guess I give her a pass for that, though. Aside from the big argument in the middle of the DMP party, the bedroom argument between W&B (before the zombies invade the party) angers me, too. Willow is all, "I was having serious dating," in a self-righteous tone to her friend that she knew had been thrown out of her house, expelled from her school, and had to kill her lover (or at least--as far as Willow knows--the demon who wore his face) to save the world. And we're supposed to think she was wronged because she was having "serious dating", and learning glamor spells to hide zits? In the final scene in DMP, when B&W are at the coffee house of Willow's moral superiority, and they make up--that always makes me angry, too. Willow's talking about all her issues, when Buffy is still expelled from school, and won't be readmitted until FH&T. Pffft.

They don't know about Angel not being Angelus when Buffy killed him, so their snarkiness is extra emphasis intended for us because we do know.

See...this. Given what DMP did and did not reveal, it's hard to know whether they didn't know, or just didn't want to know. Remember in Becoming part 2, that Willow was taken over during the Restoration spell. She, Oz, and Cordelia at least (because Oz & Cordy were with Willow) had reason to suspect that Buffy somehow killed Angel and not Angelus. Again, I'm not faulting DMP for this. It makes for a nice little game of brain ping-pong.

The Buffy-Empathetic Brain Cells (BEBC) are saying: They should have at least suspected!

The Scooby-Empathetic Brain Cells (SEBC) are saying: How could they have known? Once they figured out she killed him, they must have figured the spell fell flat!

BEBC: Well, then why didn't they accuse her of running off with a newly resouled Angel then? They mentioned that was a possibility at the end of Becoming.

SEBC: Look, Willow was still pretty green where magic was concerned at this point. Even though she felt the spell's effects, and Oz and Cordy saw them, none of them had much experience with regard to magic. How could they have known it might have worked?

BEBC: Over the summer, they must have told Giles what happened to Willow when she performed the spell, over the summer. Wait! No! They told Giles about the orb glowing and something going through Willow at the end of Becoming part 2.

SEBC: But...back then, Giles didn't know much about magic, either.

BEBC: Bollocks! Lie to Me retconned that point of canon. He knew a lot. He just pretended he didn't. And if he didn't suspect something was fishy about Angel's death, then later on in Faith, Hope, and Trick, why did he trick Buffy that he was doing a binding spell to ensure Acathla remained dormant?

SEBC: Just to make her get it all out, we guess.

BEBC: But...but...why...and how did they know she killed him at all? Nobody was left at the mansion by the time Buffy killed Angel.

SEBC: Good point... What are we fighting about again?

BEBC: I dunno. Where's the pie?

SEBC.: What pie?

BEBC.: You bastards! You ate all the bloody pie, didn't you?

SEBC: *brushes crumbs from corner of little brain celly mouths*

BEBC: *plunges sword through the SEBC and into Acathla*

SEBC: *get sucked into hell*

BEBC: *move to L.A. and start waitressing*

t grabs Cindy's post and runs to COMM.

:):):)

Okay, I adore Cindy's post with big buckets of adoration, cause my brain has those kind of arguments. (Only not so funny)

For me, Xander is the biggest 'whap him over the head' candidate. Every time, I hear that 'So your honey was a demon. Most girls don't jump on a greyhound bus out of boy troubles,' I'm just *grrrrrrr, snarl, grrr*. I have this entire rant I shout at Xander(every time I see the episode), but you can probably live without it, it's not very coherant.

Much like this post.

You know, many of us listen to the little voices in our heads. Cindy has the few who actually post their conversations.

DMP is also one of those episodes that always reminds me, in sort of a more mundane way than the big trauma episodes like Becoming, just how invested I am in these characters.

Yup. One of my favourite scenes in BtVS is in Revelations, when the gang are in the library having an argument. The central figures being Buffy and Xander. Unlike most shows when friends argue, you can really feel the passion behind the gangs anger. And you can see both sides or all sides of the arguements. The big bust up in Becoming is a cracker as well "You just want your boyfriend back."

That was back in the days when Xander had things to do and say. Even if he was being an arse. And even though he was being an arse he had understandable motives

Oh, and Cindy is mad. Crazee.

One of my favourite scenes in BtVS is in Revelations, when the gang are in the library having an argument.

Ooo, I love this scene--Relevations was one of the very first episodes I watched and despite being horribly confused about what the hell was going on I found it immediately involving. Yeah, Season Three--that's my favourite Buffy, right there. Not that I got to see a lot of it first time round since my mum heard the words 'vampire slayer' and banned me from watching it, thus ensuring I took every chance I got to record it on the sly (meaning the first three episodes I saw were Beauty and the Beasts, Revelations and then Enemies, which was quite the trippy viewing experience and probably accounts for my love of Faith, since I originally missed so much of the crap she pulled.)

I agree with you about the motivation, DavidS, but the self-righteousness, particularly from Xander, still drives me nuts.

Yeah, his is what really got to me the most. Because of this:

It was very involving. I didn't mean to imply it wasn't good writing, or that it wasn't effective. To the contrary, it was great. It really pokes me with a pointy stick.

And here’s a question:

They don't know about Angel not being Angelus when Buffy killed him

I plead Season 3 deficiency (again), but did I miss an ep or scene where they asked what happened to Angel? I mean, do they know that she had to kill him? Or do they just assume the spell didn’t work, so she killed him? I seem to recall the scoobies debating about what might have happened at the end of Season 2 since, the world didn’t end, ‘cuz, check it out.

(OK, I just finished reading Cindy’s post after I wrote that last question. I haven’t refined my meara-ing skills yet) 1 – Cindy funny, funny, funny and right on. 2 – I’m now reassured that I didn’t miss anything. They were butts for not even asking how it all went down in the end. Even though I know Giles eventually does do this. And I agree that concern/relief/anger are mixy things. Still. Meanies.

I mean, do they know that she had to kill him? Or do they just assume the spell didn’t work, so she killed him?

It's in....Faith, Hope, and Trick, maybe. Great scenes. Buffy lies at first and tells Giles that the spell didn't work, and then she comes clean eventually.

"I kissed him, and I told him I loved him. And I killed him."

If you didn't want her to leave and never come back you shouldn't have said it.

Totally. Her words were, "If you leave this house don't even think of coming back." Joyce said get out. Buffy did.

Have none of you ever said anything in a moment of anger and passion that you regretted later and really didn't mean? Maybe it's just that I grew up in the Emotional Instability Funhouse, but I'm fairly certain we did that on a weekly basis. I still do sometimes, which drives Patrick up a wall.

That said, I agree that Joyce should have taken more responsibility for her words.