"I’m afraid there may be internal bleeding"‏

It's seems that after almost every episode this season, my brain begins to spin because I cannot even begin to process all the information that has been fed to me. I also have trouble weeding it out of my own speculation. I don't know where I want to start these thoughts I have....I'll look at my notes from last night's ep and go from there..... ~ Ok, so this Uber-vamp thing, this Turok-han or whatever, there's more than one of them? Do they all some out of the same seal? Are there more seals around the world? Giles said that he thought they were myth, but he did talk about them as they, not he/she/it. But then again, maybe Giles can't be trusted.....but I'm getting ahead of myself. The Uber-vamp looks like the Grrr Argh guy, as noticed by Matt. I thought that was funny.~ Why is the First obsessed with vampires with a soul? That cannot be a coincidence. That means to me that this nonsense is all Spike's fault. If he hadn't gone and gotten his soul back, they might not have these problems.~ So speaking of Spike, did you catch the parallels between him and Andrew? (Which actually began last episode...) The bad guy captured by the good guys with some information about the Big Bad. The bad guy, not harmful enough to kill and can be kept alive because he could prove helpful. Andrew tied up in a chair and providing comic relief a la Spike in Giles' place in season 4. Andrew insisting that he is no longer bad. ("I must admit, I went over to the Dark Side. But just to pick up a few things, and now I’m back.") Xander's antagonism of him, and his antagonism of Xander is very Spike-ish. Some other parallels too, I'm sure...~ Andrew is a freaking riot though. His quote about evil names should be like Lex or Voldemort..."And it cost them their lives" as the Scoobies are discussing the Council...His geeky comic references and conversation about Wonder Woman with Xander...His questioning of Xander: Andrew: "So how long have you followed Buffy?" Xander says he doesn't follow Buffy, she's his best friend. "She seems like she'd be a good leader...her hair is shiny. Does she make you stab things?"~ Principal Wood. My gut tells me he's not bad, but he knows more than he's letting on. They are being too heavy-handed in the Wood is evil with his suspicious glares at Buffy and his odd behavior. I don't know what his deal is, but if I had to guess, I think he'll come out as a good guy. He has to know something more though, with his whole, "...once you see true evil, it can have some serious afterburn, and you can't unsee what you saw..." speech to Buffy.~ Why did Dawn change her clothes and her hair from the time when they were at the Summers' house to the time they were in the school basement? And are we to believe that everyone waited for her? Or was it just a silly, obvious mistake?~ Dawn had some good quotes this week: About the thing that Spike was strapped to: "Looks like the first made another sacrifice, or a music video." She also had the quote of the week: "Hello people of the future, kids today like Red Bull and Jackass!"~ Xander calling the seal a "satanic manhole cover" was amusing.~ Joyce is back again! I totally was not expecting that. Ii just don't know what it means though. Either Buffy's Joyce or Dawn's Joyce or both have to be First Evil (I'll call it FE to save typing), right? Cuz Buffy's Joyce was all, you have to rest if you are to defeat it. At one point, she was almost saying that there's no point, evil's in everything. (I really like Joyce's speech on evil.) But Dawn's Joyce was all, "Buffy will not choose you" and stuff. If they are both Joyce, it doesn't really work cuz if Buffy has to rest to defeat it, but Dawn has to oppose Buffy, wouldn't DAwn be working against the good? What I've just really doesn't make much sense I'm sure, but it's not all adding up in my head.~ And Juliet is back too! That was even more of a surprise and made the whole episode for me. I've missed her. It's a shame it wasn't the real Dru tho (even tho logically, the real Dru would be scared of FE and the Uber-vamps, right?) But Spike was right, she wasn't crazy enough to be the real Dru.~ The scene with Willow and the magic was really shocking and scary. What are they going to do with her? The rest of the season and Will and magic and stuff is going to be VERY interesting. And I can totally agree with how they portrayed the magic overtaking her....NOT a drug, but LIKE one.~ Other good Willow stuff: The look on her face after Kennedy's sleeping proposal was priceless! I'm not sure if exploring romance is the best idea at this time for either one of them though. With the big war coming, romance ain't a good plan. I also loved Will's apology to Buffy about the magic. Sometime soon she's going to have to choose between doing nothing to help Buffy (but research, I guess, which really isn't helpful in this case anyway) and her fear of using magic. I am so looking forward to Buffy in 2003.~ Why is Buffy so hung up on herself? If all the slayers in training are migrating to Sunnydale, then wouldn't they be killed, then Buffy and then Faith in L.A.? Buffy just assumes that she's the most important and will be killed last. But shouldn't Faith be killed last, after there is no one else to call? If I was FE, I would kill Buffy first cuz no one is called after her. Villains are stupid and cocky though.~ I liked that it was the same Christmas tree lot from "Amends."~ Why did she never explain what happened in "Amends?" Wasn't everyone curious as to what happened? I mean, it was First Evil? Geez.~ I liked the Buffy/Giles "I miss you" scene.~ Was it me, or was the fight scene in the warehouse very reminiscent of Terminator?~ So they all seem to be assuming that this isn't the worst of it. (Buffy says "Something is coming") That is very interesting. Very, very interesting. She's right though, they can't fight it without Spike. (Maybe give Angel a ring and see if he can lend a hand too? Yeah, I know, it ain't gonna happen...) But they will need Willow and her magic. Last time they faced something Buffy couldn't beat, it WAS Willow. (And before that, Willow was the only one that could hurt Glory.)~ So, that brings me to Giles. Oh Giles. He's alive right? That's really him, right? Tell me you know something I don't, cuz I'm really worried. But maybe that's what they want us to think. I mean, I think they were very careful that he didn't pick up anything and they didn't show how he got out of his predicament probably so people who pay attention to that stuff freak out because they don't know if he's alive or dead. However, I was thinking about it, and what if it the Giles we saw last night was a manifestation of FE, but Giles was still alive? If it was a manifestation, we can't really believe all of what he says. And he's the one who said that FE takes the form of the dead. (That was probably intentional too...) FE has already taken the form of Buffy, Spike and Dru, who could all be classified as both living and dead. So if last night's Giles is speaking the truth, technically FE has only appeared as dead people. However, Anya says this at some point in the episode (in response to Buffy saying that they need to find Spike so he can help): "Yeah, he'll help. If he's not crazy. Or killing people. Or dead. Or, you know, all of the above." Marti Noxon and Doug Petrie wrote the ep, and they do have a tendency toward clunky dialogue (witness the subject of my email), but Anya clearly states that at least she believes that Spike is alive (or he was when she last saw him). Is that just an oversight? I don't know. But Xander's reference to Signs: "That pantry thing could work. You saying M. Night Shamyalan lied to us?" made me think of The Sixth Sense, and in The Sixth Sense, the character that everyone assumed was living was actually dead the whole time.~ Incidentally, my subject quote, although clunky and out of place when it was used may refer to the Scoobies themselves...bleeding from the inside; the group may not be able to trust one another, but they don't know it yet... Damn Joss Whedon and his cohorts. It's all just so confusing. And how many red herrings have been thrown at us already? Is Wood good or bad? Is Joyce? Is Buffy? Is Willow? And now, is Giles? Are they all tricks or are some true and some not or are all of them true? Blasted questions.