Also, My Sis And I were Talking About The "Vampire" At The End. We Hadn't Decided If We Thought That Was The Master, Sup'ed Up, Or If It Was Something That Would Have Sired The Master (Or Grandsire, Or.. &c).

Also, Anyone Else Pissed About The Reminder Of Giles Fate, And Then The Total Lack Of Mentioning It? My Guess Is That We Won't Hear Anything About, Except That he's Missing, Until He Shows Up Just In The Nick Of Time To Save The Day, Like Last Season. (And I Won't be Disappointed.)

First, I've felt since the beginning of this season that the girls getting killed were the 'potential' slayers, and everything in this episode makes me more sure of it. If the First is making a comeback, what better way to ensure his survival in the early stages than to remove the one person who could kill him? Ah, but if he kills the Slayer, there's just another one waiting to take her place. Well, not if you kill them all before they can become Slayers, which is a good tie-in to bring Faith back this season, I'm betting Giles will spring her from the joint.

Hey, what's up with the Principal?? Is he a minion of the First? Is he something else? There's still a couple of directions he could be going.

1. He's a secret minion of the First
2. He's some kind of servent of the Powers that Be, waiting for the right moment to help the Slayer
3. He's a freak who hides dead bodies because it's too much paperwork

Question: Why did none of the Scoobies figure out that Spike deliberately tried to kill Andrew before he could tell them what he knew? Even after the blind monks tried to kill him, they still didn't make the connection.

Hey, what's up with the Principal??

Question: Why did none of the Scoobies figure out that Spike deliberately tried to kill Andrew before he could tell them what he knew?

One quick question - where are those monks from? Aside from the X-Files. Were they from the season w/Glory? Buffy recognized them, but I didn't.

Bonus points: where's the "It's All About Power" reference in this episode? Someone brought this up several weeks ago, and it's held true - power over someone else, power over yourself, power vs. responsibility...

And does anyone think the "First" is actually The Big Bad for this season? They mentioned the word "lies" way too many times this episode for my comfort - I think a friend of mine was right: The Big Bad, for this season, is The Devil. The Prince of (waitforit...) Lies.

One interesting thing I noticed about an hour after the show ended - if the Shapechanging Nasty is what's letting The First out, what does that relegate the Shapechanging Nasty to? A sidekick? Considering all the abilities of this thing (invisibility, shapechanging, lies), The First almost seems anticlimactic.

The Shapchanging Nasty Is The First, That's How He's Manifesting.

Bonus points: where's the "It's All About Power" reference in this episode? Someone brought this up several weeks ago, and it's held true - power over someone else, power over yourself, power vs. responsibility...

I agree it's not obvious, but I vote for this ep showing the power of banding together. Xander and Anya were able to cooperate for a change in the good cop / bad cop routine. Willow didn't wipe out Blood Boy as soon as she saw him. Buffy didn't give in to Spike's wishes and kill him. Buffy kept a possessed Spike from taking out Blood Boy thru the wall. When the monk's attack came, they struck on three levels of the house and the Scoobies rebounded and rallied quickly to fight back and win on all levels. Their ability and power to do all of this and work as a team where everybody during the ep did something RIGHT to help the group cause came by their ignoring the lies that had been previously set to distract and disrupt them. Contrast this with the power of the Council, which is rapidly diminishing as their unified structure is being disrupted.

What would prevent him from using Tara's likeness that didn't stop any of the others?

The only thing I can think of(and I shudder at the thought) is this: Maybe the First was already in control when Jonathan shot Tara. Maybe he was already wittling away at Willow's power even then. And perhaps, since he had a direct involvement in her death, she's protected from being used by him.

Or maybe I'm looking too deep into this, and Amber Benson has a busy schedule. :)

Is anybody else out there wondering why Mr. Morph didn't change into Tara a few eps back?

It could be Amber Benson's schedule. It could also be that Willow knew Tara far too well. Dawn never had a good chance to talk to Joyce, and Buffy spoke to a guy she barely remembered. Willow, on the other hand, had a good, long conversation with her visitor. That's a big risk to take if Morphy couldn't perfectly emulate Tara, since Willow would spot it. But, if Morphy instead used someone Willow knew well enough to trust, but not well enough to spot small mistakes when it was a fake, then he/she/it had a much better chance for success.

Is anybody else out there wondering why Mr. Morph didn't change into Tara a few eps back? Maybe Amber Benson was too busy to work on that ep, but I can't see why.

From what I've read (in reviews and Wanda's weekly stuff at E!Online) UPN and Amber couldn't reach a contract agreement.

The reports I've read said that UPN and Amber Benson's agent couldn't come to an agreement. It struck me as odd that they'd mention the agent rather than the person, and they've probably done so for good reason. I suspect Amber Benson is not pleased with the way her agent handled those negotiations.

I just watched the last few minutes of "Two To Go," the second last episode of season six. Dark Willow looked at Buffy and said, quote, "Buffy ... I gotta tell ya ... I get it now. The Slayer thing really isn't about the violence. It's about the power." Unfortunately, I don't remember who first noticed that theme in season seven, but it certainly looks like that was completely intentional from the outset. Nice catch.