I'm feeling a bit smug today because I am not thinking about PrettySpike and how Pretty he looked smacking that annoying Drusilla around and carrying her off.

And he looked Pretty, looking at Angelus and Buffy and thinking Angelus was about to kill Buffy, but shrugging philosophically and going on about his business.

Sometimes I like disinterested altruism, but not most of the time. My favorite characters tend to cast a somewhat jaundiced eye over the concept of noble, self-sacrifice and decide it's a sucker's game.

I like it that Spike kept his eyes on the main point, dragging Drusilla out of there before Buffy did her in, not that I don't want Drusilla dead, or at least gone, but whatever.

I like his capacity for loving extravagantly. I think it's interesting that we're getting this in a character who lives (so to speak) in an environment where this kind of passion is completely unexpected.

I liked the contrast between Drusilla's relationship with Angelus and her relationship with Spike, as well. (I'm marginally put off by the violence of these relationships, but I'm pretty wussy.)

Anyhow. For whatever reason Spike is crazy in love with this pathologically sadistic lunatic. (Why is he in love with her? Just because she's the one who vamped him? Does he lack alternates? Why do we only see three, so far, "human-looking" vampire women, and one of them not until post-Drusilla? Are women who aren't half-decomposed rare enough in the vamp world that Spike has to stay with Drusilla or risk not getting any?)

Why won't anyone explain to me why there are a few human-like vampires scattered amongst the armies of animated, decomposing bodies?

You people who know these things and won't tell me are pissing me off, but don't bother to write and tell me now because I'm not listening. (La-la-la-la I can't hear you.)

I don't need no stinking canon. I can make up my own reasons. I'd tell you what I've decided, but I'm not speaking to you, either.

Continuing with my original train of thought, if vampires are, as that annoying Xander keeps shrieking, just demons inhabiting the bodies and memories of "real people" then does that mean demons have the capacity for love as well as hate? For loyalty, even honor? Where do these emotions come from? Are the side-effects of inhabiting human bodies with all of the hormones and whatnot? Can't be...once the body is dead, all of the chemical reactions that produce emotions are pretty much at an end. That means the emotional reactions have to be those of the demons, and not the original humans. Unless the bodies are "alive" again once inhabited, but that doesn't seem to be the case based on Angel saying he doesn't breathe (and we'll just skip on past Spike being able to smoke, but he is Pretty, isn't he?), in which case it could be that the demons are getting all tangeled up in the "human" emotions produced by the chemical reactions in the bodies they take over.

I may be over-thinking some of these details, of course.

What in the heck is a "demon" in this universe, then? Are we getting a bait-and-switch and are all of these elements really just standard-issue bible/mythology characters, with angels and fallen angels and whatnot?

Not that I care. I love that Whistler guy. I think it's sort of amusing that instead of demons being "fallen angels", we're getting some "ennobled demons" or whatever the guy is. I hope we see him again. Also, I think Angel was out of line complaining about Whistler's wardrobe, considering that he, Angel, looked like he'd been living in a dumpster and apparently smelled much the same.

What is it with this whole vampire thing? How much of a "person" is their memories? It's an Id thing, isn't it? Vampires are the Id and without souls, they don't have an ego or superego? (Didn't I hear that on one episode?) Sounds plausible, except that I don't think we've seen any vamps that are really focused on the "I want" to the complete exclusion of everything else. (Plus which I've always had my doubts about Freud.)

What kind of intelligence does a vampire have? The average vamp, I mean. The same intelligence as the person who used to own the body had? Not if "the person" is gone, though. Not unless you're postulating that "intelligence" is somehow a function of the structure of the brain instead of...whatever else it actually is and no one really knows.

Why do some vamps kowtow to the humanish looking ones? What is "power" in the vamp world and how is it exercised? How do the vamps "in power" keep the others in line? Or is it that demons aren't that much different from "people" after all, and most of them really just want someone to tell them what to do and to think?

So, we have vamps that can totally pass for human, vamps that almost can, and vamps that should just start shedding bits of bandaging and moaning, Ooohhhh since they look so completely like something out of a Vincent Price movie. What's up with that, anyhow? (La, la, la Not listening.)

How boring does it get that every episode has to have the action stopped for ten minutes while the characters fight with a bushel o'baddies? Why does Buffy whomp the enemy around forever before she stakes them? Why not just stake them when they show up? But, noooo, we always have this scene where she's getting ready to fight and they're getting ready to fight and when everyone is finally settled and braced, then they fight. Even when a baddie jumps out of the bushes, everyone stops to collect their thoughts for a few seconds before any real battle commences.

Tedious. I love being on DVD. I mostly fast-forward the fight scenes.

I don't care if he got his soul back or not, I'm glad Angel got stuck and sent to the netherworld. How dare he smash up Giles?

Spike looked Pretty, didn't he?