As for the attempted rape...think it showed Spike's frustration at being pushed away (not saying it should have happened but what do you expect from a soulless vampire). The fact that he was able to love in spite of not having a soul says a lot about the kind of person he was before he was turned.

In fact the attempt to rape her was not unlike the time they first had sex. Buffy tried to leave and Spike grabs her...she fights but gives in. I think in some twisted way that he thought she'd give in again...it was his desperate attempt to try and get her to love him. No matter how human like his character seemed to be, he was still a vampire and that's the only way he could understand it...It wasn't until he got a soul that he actually felt the weight of what he had done.

And explain what you mean by "a bit wet." I think that's a Britishism that's not translating for me.

I think for me what I like about Tara is her quiet, gentle strength. In the beginning, every time she spoke seemed like a triumph of will over shyness, a shyness that was forced on her rather than inherent. As the series went on, that strength became more obvious until we get a Tara in "Older and Far Away" who will tell Anya to back off when she pushing Willow to do magic. I also think that Amber makes all of her characters warm on some level and it's hard for me not to respond to that.

Charles, I've always thought that if Tara hadn't been played by Amber Benson then she wouldn't have clicked for me the way she did. As written, Tara is a bit wet but the extra thing that Amber gave her created for me a compelling and beautiful character. I understand that some folks neither like Tara or her portrayal and I can see their point of view but there is something for me that is wonderful and endearing in the Tara/Amber combination.

I'm inadequate at expressing what exactly that something is but I do know (from commenters here and other bloggers) that I am not alone in liking that something and hating what happened on the show even though Joss keeps doing it to us (how many cats can I have?).

I think Anya/Emma Caulfield was treated pretty shabbily at times too.

On the one hand, it has some of the very few post Tabula Rasa moments that I find really enjoyable. And while Tara is my favorite character and it really hurts to lose her, I can also at least somewhat accept the idea that it tells us something interesting - that it's the best one of all of them who ends up getting killed rather than the superheroes.

On the other hand, Joss seems almost pathologically committed to making that point. And this episode also marks the point where there is almost literally zero things worth watching afterward (probably the only exception being the Xander/Willow crayon confrontation), so I'm not willing to give them much slack on it as a "plot development."

I sometimes wonder how Tara ended up being such a wonderful character given the obvious disdain the production team seemed to feel for her. Is it just down to the talent of Amber Benson to sell her? I often wonder if she was so great in a strange way *because* she was allowed to develop slowly and surely without massive interference and pushing.

For AB, I truly hated the credits thing. It was blatantly unfair and although we may never know why she didn't make the credits way back in season 5, what they did here is so cruel that, even if it's a completely biased sentiment, I didn't found real enjoyment in BtVS after Seeing Red.