"I have such a crush on this woman. It's almost sad." LOL, strike one word from that sentence and that's me, I'm too old for this sort of thing.

While I have not seen Gryphon, I am the owner of Chance and Lovers, Liars, and Lunatics. And I'm waiting for my copy of Simple Things to arrive in the mail. Race You to the Bottom is supposed to come out on DVD in a couple of weeks! I have such a crush on this woman. It's almost sad.

I'm envious that you were able to see all of The Inside. What kind of character did she play in her guest appearance?

And thanks for the link to "Tom Dooley." She does have a great laugh, and that's a nice cover of the song.

What I meant with my "which may be true" is that with the wrong material she can be clunky and I have seen Gryphon so I do know what I’m talking about. She was particularly fine (in more ways that one) in Supernatural (all fifteen minutes of her). She was also excellent in The Inside (we were lucky to get the series shown in its entirety over here) in a rather different role. Actually, I’ve tried to see all of her work (except for the horror films) post-Tara (especially her own films) and more than enough Jack Reeds to last a lifetime. I always liked her as Tara (though in the early days I did wondered why she smiled like that) and when I read more about what a great person she was I was sold. She has the filthiest laugh as this mp3 of her singing with Common Rotation shows.

The problem with Dawn is that the programme makers carried on making the mistake of treating her like a child and not a teenager and as you said did nothing with her.

I will reserve my judgement on Glory as the series progresses except to say she is better than Adam.

Are you talking about Amber Benson? I remember when she first appeared on the show that I thought she wasn't a very good actress, but I've come to the realization that Tara was badly and blandly written at first. I think Amber seems a notably better actress in season six when she actually gets to do some interesting things. After seeing her in other roles, it's nice to see that she can do more than just a variation on essentially the same character. She is also very naturally funny. Have you seen her guest appearance on 'Supernatural'? I'm not a regular watcher of that show at all, but I have seen that episode and enjoyed her portrayal of a vampire with a conscience. She is creepy and yet warm at the right moments. Amber is really good at bringing a lot of warmth to her characters.

In general, I like this episode pretty well. I find Buffy's insistence on finding a supernatural cause to her mother's illness and consequent attack on Dawn a little heartbreaking. I also thought the notion of Buffy having to struggle with her false memories of Dawn in subsequent episodes sounded interesting. The scene with Dawn telling Buffy that she can be the janitor of her "I had a bad day" club is very sweet.

I've expressed some Dawn hate elsewhere, so I would like to clarify my opinion. Dawn is a character whom I want to like, but the writers often discourage me from doing so. I think Michelle Trachtenberg does a pretty decent job of playing Dawn. She and Sarah Michelle Gellar generate some nice sister chemistry and have some sweet scenes together. At times, I also genuinely feel sorry for Dawn despite her incessant whining, and I think that she starts out season seven as pretty kick-ass. However, the writers persisted in characterizing her and the other characters' treatment of her as if she were ten or eleven rather than fourteen. The writers also never quite managed to figure out what to do with her and after season five ultimately did very little.

Now Riley I feel pretty comfortable disliking. Marc Blucas, in my opinion, never gave Riley the depth I needed to find him sympathetic despite the writers' characterization of him as needing to feel dominant in his relationship with Buffy. Though I do really like Blucas/Riley when he returns in "As You Were."

[small voice]I actually kinda like Glory.[/small voice] Now she isn't close to The Mayor or even Spike and Drusilla, but I like her a lot better than Adam. However, I think that Glory suffers from the same problem as every big bad subsequent to The Mayor: she talks too much. Maybe if she had been introduced later in the season...? I don't know. I do agree that she often feels like a retread of Harmony, who irritates me 95% of the time.

I also like Buffy's scene with the monk. I like the rhythm that actor used in speaking -- I think it brought a lot of pathos to the scene.