Willow. Kitchen. Sulk. Suck. Sigh. "Sigh" is just my shorthand for the complete disgust I have for the whole addiction plot. I can't even complain anymore. I just sigh. Sam clomps into the kitchen and makes a belabored attempt at "stage business" by affectedly pushing a bit of her bangs behind her ear. She apologizes for bringing up a sensitive subject and then…and then…and then she tells Willow a little story about two -- not ONE, but TWO -- shamans the Special Forces had working for them who used dark magic and became addicted. Addicted, JUST LIKE WILLOW! So, see, audience, you mock the magic addiction because you've never heard of it once in the six years the show's been on, but it EXISTS. It really, really does. Because Sam says so. And Sam is a mighty goddess, swept down from the sky, perfect in every regard. Then it gets worse. Sam continues her little exercise in plot justification by telling Willow that the magic-addicted shamans "are gone." Totally gone. Like that episode we just had, called "Gone." And she's never ever met anyone as special and wonderful and great as the great and wonderful and special Willow, who is the only person in the whole wide world who had the power to quit magic before it ate them alive. Writers trotting in tertiary characters to praise and illustrate the worth of lead characters really chaps my hide. Writers trotting in tertiary characters to praise and illustrate the worth of lead characters, while also using said tertiary characters to shore up spurious and poorly developed plot lines, makes me furious. Sam leaves the room, and Willow looks all glowy. Sigh.