Yeah that makes sense and I can certainly understand it. The great thing about these notes is that you guys are digging deeper and discussing the less obvious nuances in the writing, so it's much appreciated and I understand why you'd focus on this reading of Angel more.

I'd love to hear everybody's thoughts on Xander in this episode because I actually found some of his behaviour a little disturbing. I love Xander a LOT but his behaviour towards Angel has always irked me. He seems way too enthusiastic about killing Angel (and eliminating his romantic competition) and it never sits well with me. Giles also thinks "it is a slayers duty" but he's clearly more conflicted about the idea, whereas Xander takes way too much pleasure in the thought of it. I had a discussion about this on BF recently and not too many people saw anything wrong with it so am I alone in finding it kinda icky?