Christina's Review

A goofy little bit of fluff with some pointed things to say about what it is people think they want in love, and what they actually *do* want....

Plot:
We open with Buffy working out her bad emotions about Spike's recent confession of love/lust/obsession via one of her usual methods: punching her workout bag and stressing to Giles. The Watcher tries to reassure her that there is nothing about her so weird that Spike's icky obsession would be justified, but isn't doing so well, since Buffy continues to pummel the bag with extreme prejudice --- until the bag finally objects. Xander is helping out by wearing the Big Stay-Puft Marshmellow Man outfit, and even with that on, Buffy has just hit critical mass. She apologizes and helps him lean against the wall, still babbling furiously about what a complete loser she must be if Spike is fixated on her. Xander tries pointing out that the problem is not her, and Buffy says that she just wants to know that there'll be another good one that she won't chase away with her remarkable strength and self-involvement. Buffy speculates that maybe she can laugh at men's jokes more often, be less self-centered; and Xander replies that she should just be herself, and there'll be no problem, there will be another guy along any minute --- eliciting a hug from the Slayer to her bemused (almost-Xander-shaped) friend. "Maybe the reason you haven't found a great relationship on the Hellmouth is because --- it's a Hellmouth? Seems to me it's a terrible place to try to build anything," Xand points out. Buffy sighs and takes comfort in hugging him like a leathery teddybear.

Meanwhile across town, a car slows down to let a hitchhiker out, and an attractive young women with an extremely precise speech pattern thanks the driver for dropping her off. "Are you sure you want to be here, I mean this place is kind of... what are you looking for in Sunnydale, anyhow?" the concerned driver asks.

"True love," the girl answers, smiling confidently as she looks around the darkened town.

[Cue credits, much stuff about Chevy, 3000 Miles from Graceland, Got Milk?, Pantene, and Doritos]

When we come back, Joyce is showing off her new dress to her daughters, and they're making her spin like Wonder Woman while examining the outfit. Joyce has a date and is concerned that she doesn't look too "Mom-ish." Her date is Bryan, a nice, normal guy she met at the gallery, and she's extremely optimistic about her evening's plans. It's dinner and a movie, or maybe a movie and dinner; or then again, maybe she'll just freak out until seven o'clock. Buffy refrains from giving any dating advice, while Dawn and Buffy continue to tease Joyce, and Buffy mentions the Spring Break party she is going to that evening.

Tara and Anya are crossing campus and chatting as they walk; Tara mentions that Willow is really good with computers, while she isn't, and Anya admits that she had a hard time adjusting to the Information Age when she became human again, but that now she's got it down and mastered online trading. "Anyway, I took the money from working for Giles, and then I tripled it." "Tripled? You mean, first money, then money money money?" Tara asks, impressed. Anya smiles in satisfaction. "Yes, I'm thinking of buying something really expensive. Maybe an antelope."

The hitchhiking girl walks up to them, interrupting their conversation, and asks if they know Warren; and if they do, do they know where to find him? They deny all knowledge, the girl thanks them perkily, then goes on to accost another bystander and ask him the same question. Tara and Anya shrug and keep moving, still discussing the wonders of the Web.

Cut to later that evening, and the Spring Break party, where Buffy and Xander are dancing. Anya now feels secure enough to let Xander dance with the emotionally-recovering Buffy, and expects a karmic reward from same. As the dance ends, Buffy spots Ben across the room and nervously approaches him near the punch bowl. Ben makes an awkward joke, Buffy laughs hysterically, and much nervous chit-chat ensues before Buffy asks him to dance.

Anya is enthralled with Chex Mix, which Xander is explaining to her when the hitchhiking girl enters, calling for Warren. Anya mentions meeting her earlier, and adds that "she speaks with a strange evenness and selects her words a shade too precisely." "Well, some of us like that kind of thing in a girl," Xander admits, which earns him a happy smile from his extremely-precise-and-literal girlfriend.

In a different part of the party, a guy who must be Warren looks panicky and approaches another girl and says they have to leave, now. Without explaining why to his protesting companion, he makes tracks out of the party with his girlfriend, entirely avoiding the searching hitchhiker.

Willow joins Anya and Xander, and Anya mentions Xander's fascination with the new girl, despite his protests. The hitchhiker approaches the trio, asks after Warren again, (getting denials of all knowledge, again) and says that he must be looking for her--- he lost her. She moves off as Tara joins the Scoobies, wondering about Warren and the girl, and giving Willow the evil eye when she comments that a girl who looks like *that* isn't going to stay lost for too long.

Ben has gone to dump his drink, and Spike approaches the Slayer, who is in no mood for his idea of banter. "If you want me to leave, you can put your hands on my hot, tight little body and make me," he invites her. [As the reviewer goes to get a glass of ice water. Oh my. Woo.] "Get. Away. From. Me," Buffy orders him and Spike wanders off as Ben comes back. Spike death-glares the couple from a darkened corner as Ben offers Buffy his phone number *before* she sees him dance, covering his bases as it were, and includes an offer to get coffee. Buffy is almost pathetically grateful for this, and feels compelled to tell him that she has a bad dating history, but Ben says that he just really likes coffee, and he'd like to get to know coffee better, despite the potential for tragedy.

Hitchhiker Chick is still working the party, still looking for Warren, and she approaches Spike, who asks who she is. "I'm April. I'm looking for my fella," she says cheerfully. "Maybe you just found him," he says meaningfully, looking for an opportunity to make Buffy jealous. "Really? Where?" April asks eagerly. Spike leans in and whispers something probably pretty lewd to April, who is disgusted. "That would be wrong! You're not my boyfriend!" she shouts as she picks him up bodily and throws him through the front window, to the surprise of all partygoers and the delight of the viewers.

[Cut to commercial while we wonder if we'll be lucky enough to see James Marsters with his shirt off this episode. Well, we can dream.]

Spike struggles out of the glass and timber with shocked anger, as April tells him he can't make those suggestions to her. She has a boyfriend, Warren. "My bleeding sympathies to Warren!" the vampire says before he stalks away. "No one but Warren can touch me," she informs her stunned audience.

Buffy feels compelled to approach the precise and slightly-psycho April, happy that she threw Spike through a window, but wondering what is up with this chick. At the suggestion that she should maybe take a second to stop looking for her boyfriend, April repeats her person-tossing performance and throws Buffy across the room, to the Slayer's pain. "If I hurt you just now, I'm sorry. And I hope that your boyfriend will take good care of you," April informs her apologetically as she leaves.

"Ow," Buffy complains in the Student Lounge, fed up with "super-strong little women who aren't me." At least she didn't do *too* much damage, Tara points out, before Xander goes on a carpenterly riff about the cost of the repairs, then becomes appalled at his job-oriented reaction to the situation. The general consensus is that April is a robot who wants Warren. Willow is going to check the Sunnydale U register for him tomorrow, but there's not a lot they can do about him or April tonight.

Buffy goes home to rescue Giles from Dawn-sitting duty; the teenager is subjecting him to cookie dough, girl talk, and the Top Ten Greatest Hits via 'N Sync and BackStreet Boys, and he is all too glad to be gone. Buffy fills him in on the Spike-throwing with much glee, just as Joyce shows up, having had a lovely time on her date, and Rupert gratefully departs. Buffy ribs Joyce about the lack of kissage, which Joyce takes a reason enough to mess with Buffy's head, saying she left her bra in his car. No, wait. The restraunt! Buffy flees upstairs as Joyce continues to tease her daughter, obviously in a good mood.

Meanwhile, April is working her way across town, going from door... to door... to door... even at 3:30 in the morning, asking about Warren. No luck so far for the lovely android, but you have to give her credit for being methodical.

Next morning, the Scoobies are filling Giles in on the rest of the Robot Adventures while Willow checks the University rolls with no more luck than April is having. Xander observes that the guy who made the robot knew what he was doing, and Anya is unthreatened by his appreciation. Giles resorts to sarcasm, and then Willow finally finds a Warren who might fit the bill. Buffy plans to go talk to the guy, and Giles objects that they have no idea what he built April for--- until Tara and Willow stammer a bit before Xander says the obvious: she's a sexbot. Guys dream about that, someone to obey their every whim! The women around the table look at him enquiringly as Xander mutters to himself, "Too many girls. I miss Oz. He'd get it. He wouldn't have said anything, but he'd get it."

Anya wonders why anyone would do that, make a person when there are so many real ones, while Tara and Willow feel a little sorry for him, figuring he couldn't get anyone. Buffy isn't so sympathetic --- even though she's feeling pretty lonely right then herself.

Buffy decides to call Ben (who is in mid-metamorphosis from being Glory, but answers the phone as himself) and arranges their coffee date. As he hangs up, Ben is disgusted to see he's wearing one of Glory's designer outfits. Methinks the upcoming coffee date could be a little complicated.....

Across town, Warren is panicking again, packing his stuff and telling his girlfriend Katrina that they have to leave Sunnydale, now. Katrina objects, since she's having a good time, and shouldn't they at least tell his mom? "Is something going on you don't want me to see?" Warren is still trying *not* to explain as he heads for the door --- opening it to see Buffy, who says they have to talk. Warren asks, "Is this about her?" Buffy confirms it, and Katrina remains terminally confused, but getting angrier. Warren is dismissive of Katrina's questions, then makes the mistake of telling her to shut up, and Katrina storms out, allowing Buffy to enter and ask Warren if he knows who she is--- he does, he was at Sunnydale High for one semester. Warren is stammering his way to an explanation, saying that Buffy can't *possibly* know, something incredible, something unbelievable--- April's a robot!

"Uh-hunh," Buffy agrees, just stopping herself from rolling her eyes at the obvious.

[Dodge Stratus, "Say It Isn't So", Kit Kat Bites, Midol, Pop Stars (God help us), local news commercial, Dodge, Sprite, Pontiac - do you get the feeling the WB is going to be missing some *serious* ad revenue when Buffy jumps to UPN?]

Tara, Willow, Dawn and Xander are on their way out of the Magic Shop, explaining the Robot April thing to Dawn as they go, just as Spike forces his way in, covered with a blanket. The Scoobies are much less-than-welcoming, Willow informing him that they're trying to work out a way to de-invite him (even if it is a public place), Xander objecting that it's more fun to toss him out. Spike is almost hurt at Dawn's coldness toward him, but still goes forward with a load of blarney about how he and Buffy got rid of Dru the week before, and how he *isn't* obsessed with Buffy--- until Ripper lets loose, slams Spike against the bookshelves and informs the vampire that they are not his friends, they are not his way to Buffy, and that he should "get over it.... Move the hell on." Spike leaves, stone-faced but at least temporarily defeated in his psycho quest.

April is still, still looking for Warren --- but getting tired as she interrogates some guys at the Expresso Pump. One of them can't resist playing with her, telling her Warren just left, and April is extremely grateful as the guy and his friends laugh after she's gone.

Meanwhile, Buffy is sarcastically talking with Warren, a bit disgusted with his 'manufacturing' approach to getting a girlfriend. Warren is defensive, and says that he did _not_ make a toy, he made a girlfriend--- "she cares about me and supports me... she *loves* me." Surprised, Buffy asks if he's in love with the robot, and he says no, as we watch the lovelorn April continue her pathetic search across town. "You know, I really thought I would be? But she's predictable. She got boring. She's exactly what I wanted and I didn't want her. I thought I was going crazy."

Buffy continues to listen in disgust as Warren tells about meeting Katrina and falling in love with her. "So you took her out of the box, played with her for five minutes, then told her to go away? And she got mad. She didn't go, hunh?" Warren admits that no, he didn't have the nerve for that --- he just left April in his dorm room, hoping her batteries would give up, like they should have days ago. Buffy is appalled, asking if he even gave her a chance to fix what was wrong-- and no, Warren didn't, he just hoped she'd run down before he had to do that. "Is she dangerous?" Buffy asks. "She's only programmed to be in love," Warren admits. "Then she's dangerious," Buffy concludes.

April is still looking for Warren when she meets the last person who she should encounter at this point --- Katrina, who is angry enough to tell April that Warren is *her* boyfriend, and she should leave him alone. The 'bot doesn't take this well, denying this vigorously, demanding Katrina tell the truth while getting the girl in a power-hug, breaking her ribs and cutting off her air supply.

Spike's doing some house-cleaning in his crypt it looks like, throwing out mementos from the Buffy Shrine....

Warren and Buffy are looking for April, Warren calling her name, and he explains how she's voice-activated, programmed to come when he calls, and April experiences pain if she doesn't respond. Buffy is even more disgusted, until they run into April--- who is holding up an unconscious Katrina, saying how "this girl kept lying to me-- and then she went to sleep!"

[more commercials, silly movies, junk food, Dove soap, Air Force, Wendy's, minivans, Gilmore Girls--- we're back!]

"April, what did you do?" Warren asks, horror-struck.

Buffy tells her to put Katrina down, but the robot only listens to Warren. "Is she broken?" a concerned April asks. Katrina's still alive, thankfully.

"Did I do something wrong? Is this a game? I waited and you never came back. A long time. I made you five sweaters," April offers, staring at Warren with big confused eyes. Warren still doesn't want to 'fess up, even though Buffy's insisting on it and Katrina's unconscious.

"April, I made a mistake---"

"You can't make mistakes!" April laughs.

"No, I did." Warren repeats, as we see him from April's point of view, framed by the Operating System Warren installed -- a long listing of fetishes and sexual positions, the overriding need to locate and protect Warren, and the recognition module: boyfriend, really_smart, handsome, snappy_dresser, good_dancer.... and Warren continues to try to explain how he doesn't love her anymore. Obviously, April just doesn't have the software to find this remotely comprehensible.

"But I can be whatever you want. I'll do whatever you want. I love you. Do you want a neckrub?" April smiles desperately, her arms out to him.

"I can't love you. It's not your fault, but I don't love you..." April's OS trips into Combat Mode as Warren panicks again and points to Buffy. "I love her!"

"*snarlll*!"

"She growls? You made her so she *growls*?" Buffy asks in grossed-out shock, then April goes for her, picking her up and throwing her across the park. April whacks a teeter-toter in half as she and Buffy get into it, Buffy hits her with part of bench, ripping a hole in her side and exposing wiring, and while they're fighting, Katrina wakes up. She's sickened to see that April's a robot, *and* Warren's ex-girlfriend, and she flees the scene, Warren in pursuit, still trying to justify himself.

Buffy kicks, April kicks, punch, punch, fight, fight---and finally April has Buffy in a chokehold--- but she can't complete it. "Can't... crush! What's happening to me? Warren, where are you?" she asks, looking around in confused fear.

"Can you cry?" Buffy's voice asks as we focus in from above, to see the two super-human girls sitting on the swings, Buffy swinging very gently, April motionless. "Sometimes I feel better when I cry. But there might be rust issues."

"Crying is blackmail. Good girlfriends don't cry," April informs her, her perky smile still in place, but looking a little less focused now, her body limp as Buffy looks at her with sympathy.

April can't understand any of this; she was a good girlfriend. What happened? "I'm only supposed to love him. If I can't do that, what am I for? What do I exist for?"

Buffy doesn't know, saying that Warren wasn't fair, and that none of this was fair to April. April is worried--- "It's getting dark. It's so early to be dark.... What if he comes back, and he can't find me in the dark?" The Slayer looks around the sunny playground, her expression saddening as she realizes April is running down, and she reassures the android that she'll stay with her, and help Warren find her if he comes back. April wonders if this is a Girlfriend Test, and all she has to do is wait for him. Buffy lies sympathetically, telling April that Warren loves her and is proud of her; April is sure Warren will come back.

"When things are sad, you just have to be patient. Because... because every cloud has a silver lining. And when life hands you lemons, make lemonade," April says, her voice patterns becoming more metallic as her processors slow down.

"Clouds and lemonade, hunh?"

"Yes... and things are always darkest, before...." April runs out of energy before she can complete the aphorism, her happy smile still on her face as Buffy looks away sadly.

Buffy is watching Xander repair the broken window and bibble about carpenterly things. She is still feeling very sorry for April, and decides that she needs a time-out herself from the love thing; she doesn't need a guy right now, she needs to be alone with herself. Xander offers verbal support, as the Slayer smiles, then opens up Ben's phone number again, and calls his machine, cancelling their coffee date. She's just not up to the dating thing right now.

Glory listens to the phone message in confusion. Jinxy says that it sounds like Ben tried to make a date with the Slayer; Glory refuses to believe that, sure he's working against her. Then she rethinks that a moment, and pouts. "She turned us down?"

Warren is desperately trying to explain to Katrina over the phone again, and packing his bags, when he turns around to find Spike in front of him with a box of stuff--- and the need to place an order. "I'm not making any more girls," Warren protests. "Yes you are," Spike says menacingly. "And you're going to make her real good for me."

Buffy is just getting home, and notices that Joyce has a bouquet of flowers from Bryan in the front hall. She calls out for her mom, offering to pick Dawn up at school--- while in the background, we can see Joyce collapsed on the living room couch. "Mom? What are you doing?" Buffy calls, then notices her mom, and walks toward the couch.

"Mom? Mom?... Mommy?" Buffy almost-whispers, her expression growing fearful.

Fade to black.

Review:
This one's a transition ep, extremely fluffy, and probably not everyone's favorite. It's setting up more than it explores, since the return of the Sexbot is even sillier a few weeks down the line when Spike has his new 'toy', and the episode following this one is "The Body" --- which really overshadows just about the second half of the season, if not the whole thing; so there's no way this could possibly adequately lead into it. Still and all, I liked this one, even if the message was simple and the humor fairly predictable.

Unless you're a huge fan of the sixties and "I Dream of Jeannie", you can't help but be sorry for April. Sure, she's a robot, but she does have feelings, albeit very basic ones, wanting to love and be loved, wanting honesty, wanting to not be alone. She's the epitome of the Anti-Rules Girl, everything guys are supposed to want in a retro universe, and women are supposed to be in the same one, and she's a perfect example of why being what a woman is 'supposed to be' for a guy is no guarantee he'll love you forever. Perfect is boring. We all know that. But the deadpan delivery and cheerful smile go a long way to selling the attitude, and you end up more disgusted with Warren for limiting her mentality without even thinking through her design parameters than you do pitying April.

More fun is everyone else's reactions to her, admiring the casing even as they pick up on the extreme wonkiness of the programming within about two minutes. By now, the Scoobies are experienced enough to know Weird Chicks when they talk to them, and Warren's later 'revelation' is a nice anti-climax. When you half-expect there to be another startling discovery, it's amusing to find that you're on the same page as the experts. Cute, strong, talks funny--- gotta be a demon or a robot. (If she'd tried to date Xander, we'd've *known* it was a demon robot. Possibly one based on insect life.)

I was relieved that Buffy decided to give dating the cute-but-screwed-up Ben a miss, and more for the reasons she gave in the ep than the obvious logistical difficulties of her dating the alter-ego of the Glorificus. Riley's been gone a few weeks, and it's way too soon for her to be trying to hook up with someone else. She's still got issues left over from the way *her* break-up went (witness her 'didn't you give her a chance to fix it?' to Warren, and her reassurance to a dying April about her relationship) and the recent Spike revelations aren't helpping. That she felt the need to get a new boyfriend was just the post-relationship hangover and personal insecurity. Thankfully, Joss & Co. are not stupid, and they don't write the Slayer as dumb enough to keep going down that road for long. Watching April do an extreme version of Buffy's need-to-be-paired dance, she gets a clue and wisely refrains from complicating her life further.

Spike and the incipient love doll.... appalled me when I first viewed this episode. I thought they were turning him into a joke, even though the scene in the Magic Shop was well-thought-out and clearly established that he was still trying to get Buffy interested in him, and willing to do anything to achieve that. That her friends aren't stupid enough to fall for it in any way should *not* come as a shock to him, but I think he just couldn't help himself; any more than he could help following up on the robot girl idea once it was explained to him. Since the Buffybot was played for laughs, and I managed to explain to myself Spike's actions as a need for a Love/Nicorette Patch following Buffy's rejection, this wasn't as bad as I'd feared it would be. Could've been worse.

One to watch for the funny lines, (Giles complaining about Dawn, Joyce's teasing, Xander's riff on windows, the OS system view, Glory's pouting about the broken date), for Spike going through a window (ha!), Xander's lovely emotional support (even if some people think he's been doing that too much this season, I don't get sick of it), and the sweetly sad end scene of April falling apart (literally) after Warren's rejection.

A reminder for *anyone* who's ever loved someone else, or the idea of a relationship, more than themselves.

SunSpeak

"Dead Joyce was REALLY WELL DONE at the end there. Er, I mean that in performance/staging/filming terms, not that she was cooked or anything. At least, not that I could tell."
"I very much agreed here. I liked that she looked almost like she was napping...but just a bit awkward for that to really be the case. I like that it looked like she started to feel odd for a moment, went to sit, then had an aneurysm or blood vessel burst (my current guess for cause), and went from, "I think I'll sit down" to slipping into the half-reclining position where Buffy found her. I think Kristine did the glassy-eyed-dead-stare just beautifully." -- Jennie and Amy

"I also really like that we didn't get histrionics from Buffy; they're not really appropriate at that point where she's still confused, uncertain, shocky, and hasn't gotten a clear and certain concept that Joyce is *dead*. I liked the subtler approach of her questioning, "Mom? Mom? Mommy?" I like the very light touch where we can see her going from concern to an innate knowing that things are terribly, terribly wrong, even though the logical part of her is still in denial. (I mean, I'm certain I'd be in denial at the very *least* until I touched her, checked, her, got medical assistance to check, etc.)" -- Amy

"And Spike...was that EYEBROW ACTION I was seeing there? He's got such adorable eyebrows. Although, y'know, I think I dated someone very like him once only he wasn't so cute. NOT fun to be in Buffy's shoes, really. Only I don't THINK there was a shrine or a mannequin, just that awful hanging about and not really able to HEAR 'sorry, not attracted.' This went on for at least six years, and prolly still is 12 years later, I just get to avoid knowing about it now." -- Jennie

"It's rather fun to be rooting for both sides in this little disagreement. James is bloody BRILLIANT if he can get *me* to root for Spike under the circumstances." -- Jennie

"Oh, and GILES!!!! Way to tell Spike off! He was...they gave him something to DO, and they had both of them in one scene, and it was such a LOVELY scene, don't you think?"
"This was nice too...Tony and James in a scene together...and doing not-silly stuff. I can't remember the last time the gave Tony something serious to do while simultaneously giving him *lines*. I'd forgotten what a treat it is when he gets to act. Of course, it was also entertaining to see him lamenting the eating of cookie dough whilst Dawn talked about boys..." -- Jennie and Amy

"James has been, for me, the best reason to watch Buffy this year. A close second has been, for me, Michelle. I thought Dawn-the-phantom-ret-con-sister was the stupidest idea I'd ever heard, but I find that I *really* like what they've done with her, largely because Michelle does such great work in the part. She fits seamlessly into the Summers family, with the manerisms, gestures, expressions, vocal patterns, etc., to make it believable that she has "been there" all along...at least from her point of view. Having James and Michelle in scenes together the last couple of weeks has been really lovely...put the most interesting characters/actors together more." -- Amy

"I liked us getting to see the latest step in Anya's human development--the assurance (mostly to herself, I think!) that she wasn't jealous, accompanied by her explanation and reassurance of *why* Xander could see other women and she could choose not to be jealous, and could choose to be secure in her knowledge that Xander loves her. I think his clear statement and confession of same helped her in that area, but it was sweet to see her practicing this new skill." -- Amy

"And the icky details of how realistic the fem-bot is supposed to be just... just won't go away. eeeee."
"Yeah, but the Buffy-bot is going to have some, ah, particular fetishes.
fetish_01
set fetish_01="fangs are sexy"

Or however the hell it would be written up." -- Kiki and Tina

"And are they going to bring Almanzo--I mean Hank--back? < g > Because I liked Hank; the few times we saw him in first season and second he was actually a concerned father, and he didn't start getting distant until they really started emphasizing the Giles-as-surrogate-father theme. Potential conflict there with Dawn, and will Hank want to take her to live in L.A. with him?"
"I was wondering that myself - what about Dawn. I mean, Buffy is old enough so that the issue of guardian doesn't come up but I doubt she's old enough so that they'd let her serve as Dawn's guardian and since Dawn has a living parent, I doubt they'd consider Giles either (not that I suspect they'd go that direction. She either has to go live with Hank in L.A. (showing up on Angel maybe???) or something must be resolved re the Key (say in May sweeps)" -- Tina and Deb

"I've always wondered *what*, exactly, that spell did. Rather than a spell that dropped a brand-new, 14-year-old Dawn into the midst of Sunnyhell, and rearranging everyone's memory, I think what they did was alter time, and they dropped a new-born Dawn into the Summers' life 14 years ago. When you think about it, it's much easier than changing the memory of everyone who would have ever come in contact with Dawn. All their memories would have evolved organically, from exposure to Dawn as she grew up along with Buffy. *How* they managed to change the past but *not* alter any of the events of the future by adding a new factor, I dunno. Ow, time travel paradoxes always make my head hurt..." -- Maureen

"Whether [Hank will] show up for the funeral, or be mentioned in any custody arrangements, may be (realistically!) dependant on whether the actor is available to make an appearance. If they stick to continuity, they have to at least _mention_ him. I'll be very disappointed if he's not even mentioned in passing. It's entirely possible that Joyce re-wrote her will when Buffy reached 18, and Buffy is now legally Dawn's guardian, but, if nothing else, Hank should be notified of Joyce's death so he could be there for her funeral." -- Maureen

"Of course, if Hank decides to fight for custody, I can certainly see any court preferring a parent over a barely-adult sibling, but who's to say he'd *want* to fight for custody? He's been noticibly absent in their lives so far -- he probably wouldn't want to have the sudden responsibility of raising a teen-ager alone."
"But he hasn't been absent from their lives - he's only been absent from us is my impression. Buffy refers to going down to see him in the past and it has been used (as I recall) as an excuse for her presence in LA during sweeps), Dawn obviously goes to see him as well. They all three went to the beach together based on Dawn's birthday gift to Buffy. Yes, he bagged on the ice capades thing for Buffy's birthday way back when but I don't think we've seen anything that indicates Buffy's dad in utterly uninterested or somehow barred from their lives." -- Maureen and Deb