Becoming part 2 will always win in my book. I don't care that Angel got to come back later. For me, that episode is all about teeny tiny girl has a swordfight with her hulking asshole ex-boyfriend, and she completely beats his butt all around the town.

I swear, I could just fast-forward the whole episode to that bit where she catches the blade between her hands and shoves it back at Angel, so his wrist collapses and he smacks himself in the head with the butt end of the sword.

It is like unto the Flaming Baseball Bat of Passion.

It's disconcerting to see DB Woodside in ads for the new season of 24

I've so thoroughly inculcated my Mom into Buffista-speak that she called me and asked me, "Did you know that Principal Hottie is going to be on 24 this season?"

Go Mom.

Becoming part 2 will always win in my book. I don't care that Angel got to come back later. For me, that episode is all about teeny tiny girl has a swordfight with her hulking asshole ex-boyfriend, and she completely beats his butt all around the town.

I swear, I could just fast-forward the whole episode to that bit where she catches the blade between her hands and shoves it back at Angel, so his wrist collapses and he smacks himself in the head with the butt end of the sword.

Oh, yes. This. "No weapons... No friends... No hope... Take all that away... and what's left?" - "Me".

Again, I am Nutty. Well, a non fast-forwarding Nutty, because despite thinking this moment is the core of the episode, I do love the rest of it, too (both before and after it). But still.

"No weapons... No friends... No hope... Take all that away... and what's left?" - "Me".

In the final summation, however, it does take weapons, friends and hope to save the world, doesn't it?

I'm with Nutty and Nilly on Becoming 2 (and that is a fun sentance to read - hee). I don't think it's cheapened at all by Angel coming back - it didn't make the act any easier for Buffy at the time.

My biggest problem going forward was that the reprecussions of Angel coming/being back were kinda swept under the rug after Amends (with the exception of Enemies). That and it took so long to get any followup on THE BIG LIE.

Also, Steph's mom - funny.

In the final summation, however, it does take weapons, friends and hope to save the world, doesn't it?

It does, and despite winning this battle, being deprived of pretty much everything else, Buffy herself did have a hard time to cope, and she ran away. But on that moment, she really didn't have anything else. She was all alone and she still hit back. And won. Willow was casting the spell, but even without that Buffy would have won.

She wants her battles to have friends and hope and weapons, she knows they're necessary, but even when it seems they're all gone, she still holds on to herself. To me, it seems like one of those things that once you realize you still have something - even when they don't exist - that's how you can reclaim them, if I'm making any sense.

I've never seen that! I need to find a torrent.

oh yes, you do. He plays a new tenant in Samantha's building, and Samantha brings him a welcome basket, and he answers the door dripping wet in hastily thrown on towel that he's holding with one hand (good), then ends up dropping the towel (very good)

I think I get what you're saying, Nilly. The battle is her reasserting her right to the things that have been stripped away -- give me those things back, you melodramatic pancake-makeup-wearing lunkhead! And beating Angel's butt all around the town is a bonus. But, to quibble:

In the final summation, however, it does take weapons, friends and hope to save the world, doesn't it?

Well, they could have had thumb wars instead of a sword fight, but it would not have been as cool. Without Buffy's friends, Giles would (probably) have died, and Angel would have gone to hell soul-free, where he would have been given a tickertape parade. (This presumes Buffy can draw blood with her thumbs, which I don't doubt.) I can't be sure on hope, but my general sense is that Buffy didn't have any hope -- and that the cruellest thing the scoobies could do was show her hope right before she had to run it through with a sword.

it took so long to get any followup on THE BIG LIE.

Well, if you like, you can say the repercussions were immediate, just indirect. Because Buffy wasn't prepared for the possibility that Angel would regain his soul, she completely freaked at the end, and fled. And when she returned? Lied to the scoobies until Giles insisted (because he'd already figured it out). So, one selfish but sort of well-intentioned lie sparked another, and Xander's punishment for lying was spending a summer as Nighthawk being bopped on the head.

Er, by which I mean, the characters never openly discussed the Big Lie, but it all shook out in a way that satisfied me dramatically.

Well, they could have had thumb wars instead of a sword fight, but it would not have been as cool.

No, not that final summation, the one after it. In the end, S7, there's a specific weapon, and specific company that gets the win.

It's not a critique of the ending of S2, just, like Nilly said that if you strip it down to the core you have something strong, but then if you don't, you have something stronger.

Sometimes it takes something stronger to win, as is commented on many times later in the series.

(This presumes Buffy can draw blood with her thumbs, which I don't doubt.)

I think todays FW rerun with the Gnarl prety well confirmed that. Ick.