Mallory Rubin

But when Willow is like, what's going on here?

I'm so firmly rooted in the Willow camp there that I don't think I would have wanted it to last longer, actually.

Yeah, exactly.

I think that's the main crux for me as well.

Again, I like when Buffy... It feels human to me to make this big declaration about your life and then sort of be compelled back into another version of that thing.

I think that's human.

That's normal.

I agree with you that the speed and haste with which Buffy wants inside those doors is like...

what's going on here exactly feels right and interesting.

I don't think that Buffy leaving the Watchers Council at the end of season three means that for the rest of time and perpetuity, she would never be or should never be interested in participating in a larger force.

I think that the fact that so much of Buffy's storyline in the back half of this season is tied up in Riley's journey, Adam, and the initiative is just a little bit less compelling because we're watching some really wonderful stuff, I think, with

Anya and Xander and Willow and Tara and Giles.

And they're in part because they're like a little bit on the outside of that looking in.

I do think that the, like I've had some sort of awakening about the differences between

And entwinements in, like, being a follower or being a leader and the way that Buffy is then kind of imparting that wisdom and helping somebody else have the scales fall off of their eyes through the wisdom that she has learned, like, not just because someone else told her, but from her firsthand experience, is interesting.

Riley's just not an interesting enough character to carry 10 episodes of that as a journey.

I think, like...

The overall connection, and this is obviously not just true with the back half of the season.

This is true for Buffy writ large and as part of what's so compelling about it.

But this is like a very identity-driven stretch of story.