Oh come on! What am I, Saint Buffy? He's like three feet tall!

Earshot (Jane Espenson)

A cracking episode with much to love except, nitpicking here, the misdirection with Jonathan using a hunting rifle to attempt suicide.

"Infect? Infect?"

“It was intense.” “Yeah, for a minute there I thought you're gonna make an expression” “Well, I felt one coming on. I won't lie.”

Strange for me to say this but the scene between Buffy and Angel was excellent. She really does need to ask rather than obsess because it isn’t healthy.

The scene when Buffy reads the thoughts of all the Scoobies is fantastic: Willow’s dismay at Buffy knowing more about her taciturn boyfriend than she does, Xander’s one track mind and Cordelia’s literal one is all very funny:

“I am my thoughts. If they exist in her, Buffy contains everything that is me and she becomes me. I cease to exist.” “Hmm...” “What am I gonna do? I think about sex all the time! Sex! Help! 4 times 5 is thirty. 5 times 6 is 32. Naked girls. Naked Women! Naked Buffy! Oh stop me!” “God Xander! Is that all you think about?” “Actually...bye.” “Look at Cordelia. No! Don't look at Cordelia! She's a student! Oh I am a bad man. I'm a bad, bad man!” Excuse me.” “What's it like Buffy?” “I don't know. It's a little weird. But...look, please, don't for a second think that I don't need you, because I do. I want to share this with you. It's like all these doors are opening to all these little worlds, and I can just walk right inside.” “No one else exists either. Buffy is all of us. We think. Therefore, she is.” “She knows so much. She knows what Oz is thinking. I never know that. Before long, she'll know him better than I do.” “No, don't think that.” “I can't help it Buffy. I'm sorry, I just can't.”

“On the hood of a police car?!?”

“You had sex with Giles?! You had sex with Giles?!” “It was the candy! We were teenagers!” “On the hood of a police car?!?” “I'll be downstairs. You feel better.” “Twice!!!!”

Willow interrogates Jonathan again and the other investigations are also fun: I do like is sort of cutting from location to location while keeping the narrative thread (see also Checkpoint, Bushwhacked and De-clawed).

Hard to believe but when you’re not a beautiful one but true:

“You know what? I was wrong. You are an idiot. My life happens to, on occasion, suck beyond the telling of it. Sometimes more than I can handle. And it's not just mine. Every single person down there is ignoring your pain because they're too busy with their own. The beautiful ones. The popular ones. The guys that pick on you. Everyone.” “If you could hear what they were feeling. The loneliness. The confusion. It looks quiet down there. It's not. It's deafening.”

This is the perfect coda, Buffy had learned and grown as a person but even she’s not that gorgeous a person:

“Well, it's nice to be able to help someone in a non-slaying capacity. Except, he's starting to get that look, you know, like he's gonna ask me to Prom.” “Well, it would probably be good for his self-esteem, if you...” “Oh come on! What am I, Saint Buffy? He's like three feet tall!”

No, this is the perfect coda.

Obligatory pic of Willow in a hat