Seth Green and AH ad-libbed that whole scene. Pretty amazing.

Good point about Darla. In fact, that opening scene subverts our expectations because, by all the logic of the genre, she should have been the victim. Instead she's the demon.

Yes.

This is a cut and paste of a post by Rook at AtPO just before Chosen aired. I think it works even better afterwards:

Nicely said.

Spike spent his whole life (and unlife) seeking the Grand Gesture. He got it, and he should be remembered for it.

Thank you all!

Thanks to you, too.

"Me."

A huge Thank You to Noel.

End of Days is a series of vignettes as much as it is an episode – much like WotW in S5 – but it works well nonetheless because many of the scenes are so good: Buffy/Xander in the kitchen; Buffy/Faith sharing the loneliness of being the Slayer (and yes, that *does* make sense); Buffy/Spike; and most of all, Anya and…

Chosen Trivia notes: (1) Buffy’s statement that she’s “not done baking” references FE/Warren in Lessons: “She's a girl. Sugar and spice and everything…useless unless you're baking.” (2) I take Spike’s dream – “I’m drowning in footwear” – as a reference to the Shanshu prophecy. Spike is barefoot; that is, he’s *sans…

Chosen — 2

There’s so much to say about Chosen that it’s hard to keep this short. I’ll start with the conclusion.

Joss does have a fondness for these last minute devices. In S1 it was the Codex; in S2 Kendra brought the sword blessed by the knight who first slew Acathla; in S3 Buffy got the papers from the volcano-ologist (or whatever); in S4 they came up with the joining spell; in S5 Glory became vulnerable.

Thanks MikeJer. Very good point on the "pay it forward" aspects. And a nice tie-in between the emotional confusion at the beginning and the chaotic battle scene at the end.

Yeah, very well said vadasz.

I can't say for sure, partly because there are so many versions (Wikipedia summarizes them). But the foundation story involves a wounded king lying abed until healed by a knight/fool. Buffy's wound was emotional, not physical, but the scene with Spike does hint at this sequence. Also,

It makes sense to start talking about Touched beginning with its ending, because that involves the spillover from the decision to evict Buffy in Empty Places and install Faith as the new General. In my view, which I explained in detail in my spoiler comment last week, the whole point of the attack on the “arsenal” was…

Heh.