YMMV / Buffy The Vampire Slayer S 7 E 7 Conversations With Dead People

• Fan-Preferred Cut Content:
  • There was originally a scene planned where the First Evil would impersonate Jesse from the first two episodes to torment Xander. It would have solved many complaints about Jesse being a Forgotten Fallen Friend, and also served as a nice Call-Back to the first season. Sadly, Eric Balfour wasn't available.
  • Averted for the original plan to have the First manifest itself as Tara herself instead of as Cassie supposedly talking on her behalf. Both fans and Amber Benson agree it would have been too cruel. Besides, it's a more effective lure if Willow is told she can't see Tara without killing herself.
• Harsher in Hindsight: An in-universe example and lampshading:
  Holden: Hey, you remember Jason Wheeler, you know, "Crazy J"?
  Buffy: Oh, yeah.
  Holden: He always had that shtick of [waves hands around] "Yeah, I'm crazy, I'm crazy!"
  Buffy: How is he?
  Holden: Crazy. He's been in the chronic ward since graduation. (Beat) Not really that funny, I guess.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Willow's "Did I fall asleep?"
  • Holden's actor Jonathan Woodward later appeared on Angel as a completely different character who once again starts out friendly but ends up as an antagonist.
• Ho Yay: Holden Webster. Whom Spike told his name to before siring him. Is the implication that he picked him up too? (Although Spike was under the First Evil's control at the time, it arguably could be considered More than Mind Control.)
• Magnificent Bastard: Holden Webster is one of Buffy's former classmates, who rises as a vampire during her patrol. After almost killing her, Holden instead recognizes her and decides to talk with her, quickly picking up on her emotional struggles. As he continually gets her to open up by asking her hard-to-answer questions and attacking her while her guard's down, Holden remains genuinely friendly with her, looking forward to their eventual rivalry and swearing to Buffy that he's only there to help her. After deducing that her last boyfriend was a vampire, Holden gets her to open up about her relationship with Spike, telling her that Spike was the one who sired him before their final fight to the death.
• One-Scene Wonder: Holden, the cheerful, Affably Evil Vampire Therapist, who happily serves as The Confidant to Buffy and helpfully dissects her psychological problems... while also intermittently trying to kill her. He gets dusted at the end of the episode, but he has a big impact on Buffy. His actor later plays recurring character Knox in Angel's next season.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Sadly the writers' hands were tied with Eric Balfour and Kali Rocha being unavailable, but scenes were planned for Jesse and Halfrek to taunt Xander and Anya respectively. Both sound like interesting scenarios. On the reverse, the plan for Tara to taunt Willow is widely seen as just too cruel, and the resulting scene with Cassie being much more effective. Plus, imagine the First appearing to Giles as Jenny (although that was unlikely to happen, due to Robia La Morte's Christian beliefs making her uncomfortable playing the First in Season 3).

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