Joyce! Oh, gosh that was a shocker. Not so much because they had foreshadowed it but it just happened and SMG's performance killed me. She was like, "Mommy?" Awwwwwww!

I just watched the last five eps of Angel last year and was unspoiled for years too. I'm not really in those fandoms and I'm glad so I remained unspoiled and new nothing of any drama. Angel was still a good run all these years later. :-)

Tara. Ouch. That hurt because she was one of my favorites. :-( I didn't have favorites much on Buffy and liked the gang as a whole but I really liked her. Fortunately, Willow was ragey on my behalf so I was less shocked about Tara than I was over Willow.

What I was going to say the other day was how valuable the first season was. I liked season 1 or I wouldn't have continued watching the show at all. But we built a relationship with those characters. When Willow changes after Tara's death and Xander talks her down, we know that little girl almost as well as Xander does. I felt like I literally watched Willow grow up over years of watching the show so then that season and that arc hits home even more keenly, I think.

So for me, like you, season 1 = good stuff. :-)

Now, I gotta go watch that vid!