My brain appears to be functioning again‏

Of course, I've been doing a lot of Buffy thinking and I have a few thoughts. After thinking about the episode for a day or so, I've realized that I enjoyed it more that I originally thought I did. Not just the end, the whole episode. I think it felt more like the Buffy of old. So, my initial reaction to the end was that maybe Spike was going crazy, or maybe his demon friend did something other that just giving him his soul. That's too simple, and I don't think that it really stands up to analysis. Second thought was First Evil, from "Amends," written also by Joss (coincidence?). That might make sense, especially since those zombie-ghosts were conjured by someone/thing, and first evil has to be conjured as well. (Remember those good-looking priesties that lived underground?) And First Evil could also take the form of something that would torture the person it was....um....torturing. Still, First Evil was basically banished in one episode and never heard from again. Why now? But then, I was thinking some more. I was thinking about "The beginning." That is what they are going back to, right? That's what the Master said. So, I did some searching and found the script from Welcome to the Hellmouth/The Harvest...the very beginning. And I found what I was looking for. I quote Giles: "The world is older than any of you know, and contrary to popular mythology, it did not BEGIN (my caps) as a paradise. For untold eons, demons walked the earth; made it their home; their hell. In time, they lost their purchase on this reality, and the way was made for the mortal animals. For man. What remains of the Old Ones are vestiges: certain magicks, certain creatures...[Vampires] walk the earth, feeding. Killing some, mixing their blood with others to make more of their kind. Waiting for the animals to die out and the Old Ones to return." Those lines were also written by Joss. Written at the beginning, about THE beginning, which, they are supposedly going back to. I think that this really makes sense. Halfrek said something like if you want to survive, you best be with the baddies. Spike seemed quite scared of whatever was talking to him, maybe because he knows what it is he is talking to. And whatever this thing is, it is connected to everything; Willow told us that. And if we are to believe what we read in Fray #3, i.e. there's this big ol' confrontation between good and evil: In the Twenty-first century a big apocalyptical battle erupted between an army of demons against the slayer and her allies, some mystical. The aftermath of it, all demons and Earthbound magick where banished to another dimension. So maybe that is where we are headed. The major thing that confuses me is not necessarily the appearance of all the baddies, but that the Mayor and Dru referred to themselves as the Mayor and Dru, not as whatever this thing is. The Mayor says, "Why do you think I sold [my soul]?" and Dru says something about Spike always being hers and how they sing their "little songs." I suppose Dru doesn't necessarily have to be referring to Dru, but I think the Mayor is specifically referring to himself. However when the thing is Warren and Glory, it is clearly talking about itself (and not Warren or Glory him/herself) when it says, "I'm more than that; more than flesh..." (Warren) "More than blood, I am.....You know, I don't think that there's a human word fabulous enough for me. Oh, my name will be on everyone's lips. Assuming their lips haven't been torn off...." (Glory) So, unless this thing is whatever is left of the Mayor (a la Espenson's "Haunted"), I'm a bit confused. I also still do not like that it was Warren and not Dark Willow. She's the baddie, he's a peon. But maybe that's because Spike didn't see Dark Will? And wouldn't know who she was? I'm also real curious as to why it ended as Buffy. Well, I have a transcription of that scene, so I'm going to watch it again at home and dissect what it all means.