I don't know. Maybe I'm reaching. I don't have a lot of evidence to support my theory.

Three, two, four, one, six, five, and seven

I think my season order is three, two, one, six, five and seven. While season one is weaker than season six in terms of an arc, I at least enjoy the characters, I feel like I'm watching Willow and Buffy kick themselves in the balls repeatedly whenever I watch season six.

Siblings are very absent from BtVS until season five anyway I wonder if Joss is an only child?

Your remark about Willow being in a huff had crossed my mind before. It would make sense for me if Tara’s thinking "Please just ask me what’s wrong." (I’m a guilty party when it comes to expecting to be asked what’s wrong rather than just saying) and Willow’s thinking "Fine, be like that. I wasn't even good enough for an introduction."

Unsurprisingly, season seven is my least favourite. Even without the whole Tara thing and the neutering of Willow, it was a series running out of steam but at the same time wasting opportunities. Any time Andrew was on the screen was a waste of time for, say, some proper development for Dawn or Anya or Xander or Giles or, indeed, anyone else. I can’t say the Potentials worked as an idea for me either.

I think season six has a major problem in magic equalling addiction and I found the Buffy and Spike relationship interesting though not always a pleasure to watch. In addition, Tara gets to be more than an appendage.

Today, my order is three, two, four, six, one, five and seven.

Oh, and I meant to say in my previous comment that I also think that Willow was more apt to leave Tara alone in her room to do her spell in "Family" because she was a little hurt that Tara didn't introduce her to her family earlier in the episode.

Season five ties with season seven as my least favorite seasons. Which season is your least favorite? A lot of people criticize season six, and while I definitely don't think that it has near the quality of seasons two or three, at least the entire season wasn't a complete standstill as seasons five and seven were. And as you mentioned, season five had really uneven characterization. I can only think of "The Body" as a real stand-out episode. I don't even like "The Gift" that much. Maybe I would enjoy it more if I understood A) how Buffy gained the information that the monks had used her blood to make Dawn and B) how Buffy's blood could close the portal even if that information were true. With all the fuss Glory makes about finding The Key, you'd think that the portal could tell the difference between Key blood and non-Key blood.

Yeah, I'm babbling a lot. I hope that's OK. I'm in the process of rewatching the series myself and it's nice to have a place to share my thoughts.

I wonder if Willow would have had father issues if we had ever seen him (which is in itself an absent father issue).

My re-viewing of season five has revealed a lot of weaknesses such as sentimentality and inconsistent characterisation that I passed over/ignored first time round and so far it is definitely my second least favourite season.

I actually like the first scene of this episode because I enjoy seeing Tara be silly in a confident rather than awkward way with Willow, though I could do without all of Alyson Hannigan's baby-talk. (I heart Aly to pieces, but after a couple of seasons Willow's breathy, child-like way of talking began to grate a little.)

I really dislike how men, especially father figures, are demonized on 'Buffy.' I think that Willow is the only main character -- whose parents didn't die hundreds of years ago -- who does not have daddy issues. I also don't think that Tara's family is particularly one-dimensional given their small amount of screen time, but I wish that they weren't portrayed as hicks. Conservative, child-repressing families live in urban areas too.

I like Xander and Riley fighting -- I think the few times I could stand Riley were when he was with Xander. But I can't stand Buffy when she is talking to Xander about Tara. Xander seems sweet and like he is trying to understand, but Buffy... "It isn't exactly the most thrilling social event of the season"? Like her birthdays go so well? But this exchange was a small opportunity to address some awkwardness that Buffy and Xander might feel about Willow dating Tara, though I wish that the script had delved a little deeper. While I appreciate that Willow announcing that she was dating Tara did not cause much of a fuss, I think that not making any fuss does a disservice to the characters and their relationships. While I think that Buffy’s initial reaction of surprise and then support was appropriate, I think that it would have been appropriate for some follow-up weirdness.

I don’t think Willow leaving Tara alone seems contrived. I think that Willow was just trying to give her some space. And I don’t know if it’s the editing or the writing, but I don’t like the scene between Tara and her cousin Beth. I just don’t feel like it creates enough momentum to get Tara to The Magic Box for the climax. And I guess I also don’t understand Beth’s motivation for being there. Does she not think that she will become a demon herself?

Generally I like Whedon-penned scripts, but he also has a tendency to overwrite, which I think is the case with this episode. I hate hate HATE most of the big confrontation scene in The Magic Box. Why does Mr. Maclay fall down? It's like the actor accidentally tripped and the editor decided to use that take for some reason. It's very odd. Anyway, that scene goes on forever, but it doesn't manage to be very interesting until the end. I agree that Buffy & Co. are very forgiving of Tara almost getting them killed, even though they seem to understand that her spell didn't work exactly how she intended and that Tara was just scared. Because Tara's storyline was intended to parallel Buffy negotiating her feelings toward Dawn, I think that I might have found the ending more convincing had Dawn stood up for Tara first and her words affected Buffy enough to cause her to support Tara. Or something like that. The "She's a hair-puller" exchange is very cute.

As for the last scene at The Bronze, if the dialogue had stopped after Willow's line "See, that's where you're a dummy," and no one had floated it would have been perfectly fine rather than sappy. While Buffy was always a little melodramatic, season five featured an excess of treacly sentimentality, and unfortunately Tara and Willow's relationship became the repository for much of that sensibility.

Amber Benson does do some nice work in this episode. I especially like the "I'm not a demon." "You're not a demon." "He hurt my nose." exchange between Willow and Tara. I do like the warmth between those two that is evident in this episode. Word about Alyson Hannigan's delivery of "I know that!"