Doomed

If I'm feeling generous, this is a "slice of life" episode, a little bit of normal life with a monster thrown in. It's good, and recaptures the ambiance of earlier seasons--which ties in with what seems to be one theme in the episode: you can't go home again--exactly, might be the way to say it.

If a person is less generous, the episode could seem like a checklist of "gotta do's" in season and character development. Buffy, after being analyzed briefly by Riley (sounding like a pysch grad student for one of the few times in the series), does start a relationship with him. Willow and Xander are again hanging out, researching sans Anya, like old times, and Giles is leading the research. Spike--who often is far more insightful than he appears to be--realizes that he can use words to wound as he calls Xander and Willow the same 10th grade losers they used to be (echoing a feeling Willow had from comments made at a party early in the episode), and accuses them of being Buffy's groupies, not valued assistants. He also discovers that he can kill demons, which beings him closer to being a de facto Scooby as well as feeding his need for violence.

At the end, though, Buffy couldn't have beat the demon du jour without specific things Willow, Xander, Riley and Spike did to help--Willow and Xander are not just groupies, and Spike and Riley are, whether they realize it or not, on their way to becoming honorary Scoobies. They are fighting in the high school, but it's not the same--Willow comments on that, in fact, noting that it looks smaller. Things have changed, and the characters are starting to change as well.

And the title? Could go many ways, but most obviously--Riley and Buffy's relationship is doomed; she knows it won't be true love that lasts forever...but she's going for it anyway. Also, reference to Buffy's almost certain demise is referenced, I think, and the implication that the high school, located on the hellmouth as it was, had been doomed from the beginning as well--but I need to double check that.