Cheer up Sarah, it's nearly over.
Empty Places (Drew Z. Greenberg)
Everyone is leaving Sunnydale. Buffy has a cold. Willow uses the force. Willow cries. Caleb is boring. Faith goes dancing. Buffy reiterates how freaking marvellous Spike is. The First has a cold. Amanda gets drunk. Spike and Andrew have chemistry as they talk about onion blossoms with Andrew’s arms wrapped around Spike’s waist.
The empty places in this episode are in the writers’ heads. I don’t actually mind the notion of a revolt against Buffy’s cold leadership but this is so forced and stupid; Buffy’s closest friends betray her and her own sister kicks her out of her own house (and without a toothbrush and a change of clothes).
But you didn't earn it. You didn't work for it. You've never had anybody come up to you and say you deserve these things more than anyone else. They were just handed to you. So that doesn't make you better than us. It makes you luckier than us.
What a load of tripe. That’s right, seven years of not earning and not working, that’s our Buffy.
Aargh, if I hadn’t already reached the rough part of my Buffy relationship then I would probably loathe this as much as “Dead Man’s Party” and “Into the Woods” but...
Three to go!
I actually think Anya has a point. She doesn't phrase it the best because she's angry, but she does have a point.
Buffy didn't earn the right to become a Slayer -- she just was. She has shouldered that burden and became a leader, making tough decisions over the past seven years. But Willow, Xander, and Giles have been right there with her, clocking field time and making tough decisions of their own. And Anya, Faith, Dawn, and probably other people in that room whom I can't remember, have their own experience dealing with monsters from which to draw.
But at that moment, Buffy was denying all of that and relying on her Slayerness to pull rank, which was just handed to her and not something she worked toward for seven years.
Now I will agree that Dawn, et. al. kicking Buffy out of the house feels forced, but with Xander's recent loss of an eye I can believe he and Willow turning on Buffy.