Inca Mummy Girl

[butterfly]

This episode really is a B/X shipper's dream. There's no Angel and not a single sign that Buffy was feeling the lack of Angel (actually, I get why Angel would want to get away a bit after the advent of Spike and Dru, especially taking into account what we know now). And Buffy never discourages Xander's blatent jealousy in early S2. She calls Angel on his jealousy but doesn't call Xander on his. It makes her smile, even. Like she told Xander in I Robot, You Jane, it's nice being the Belle of the Ball and a person gets used to that. But wow, it's amazing how open he is about it. It really puts into perspective her comments later on in the season. Because he had it bad for her and everyone in visual and audio range knew it. I get why she leaps to the jealous conclusion later on, even though I think she's mostly wrong.

And then there's her expression after Ampata (I wish we knew her real name) and Xander leave for the dance. It's wistful... not like she was wishing that she could go to the dance with Xander necessarily, but that she could be the kind of girl who could go to the dance. But there's a real longing there. And then there's the moment of connection at the end, over Ampata and over Buffy's death.

"I had you to bring me back."

And it's the beginning of Willow and Oz. Which begins as all of Willow's relationships do, with the other party falling hard for her on first sight. God, that girl gets romantic happiness handed to her on a golden platter. She had the perfect boyfriend and then she had the perfect girlfriend. And she didn't appreciate either enough at the beginning.