Cut to a silent shot of current Anya back in human face, pinned to the frat house wall with the sword, unconscious or dead. Ouch, what a painful cut. I don't know why, but Anya and her story touch me in ways Spike's never did. I know their plots are very similar, but with Anya, I'm all a mixture of horror and disgust at what she was and is, and lip-trembling pity at how she became that way. Whereas similar scenes with Spike leave me rolling my eyes and fantasizing about walling him up in the basement. Isn't life complicated? Xander, next to a number of gory smears on the floor, regains consciousness and calls, "Anya!" I think perhaps part of why I can now stomach Anya's story over Spike's is that I feel the writers are finally being honest about her. Much of the action in this episode takes place in a house smeared with red reminders of just what horrors Anya is capable of, and that just seems much more honest than the pathetic fence-sitting to be found in demon-egg trafficking. If ME had been truly honest about portraying Spike's past nature, and not tried to whitewash it for two seasons in order to hook him up with the heroine, I think I might have been a little more sympathetic.