Crayon: Xander's welcome back sign for Willow is written in yellow crayon. As he starts to remind the others, this recalls his world-saving appeals to Willow's humanity in season six finale Grave. To judge by Buffy's teasing of him - "We've heard the crayon speech a few times" - Xander may have mentioned it occasionally since then.
Gnarly: Camden Toy, who played the Gnarl Demon, previously starred as the lead Gentleman in Hush. Does Gnarl remind you of Gollum from Lord of the Rings? Jane Espenson confirmed some suspicions when she posted at the Bronze Beta board: "Collect the money on the bet. There was some Gollum in the history of Gnarl". Watch out for Toy again later in the season, playing an even more horrific monster.
Please do not ask for credit: Camden Toy is not given guest star billing at the start of the episode - and for the first time in the series' history, neither is anyone else.
Changing rooms: With Willow long absent and Tara tragically dead, Buffy has finally moved into Joyce's old room. Arguably this reinforces her motherly role for this season.
Glow like a lover: "What's a word (that) means glowing? It's gotta rhyme", asks Spike of Buffy (overheard first by Willow). This is almost exactly what William the bloody awful poet asks the Victorian London waiter in season five's Fool For Love. It could be a sign that Spike is regressing to be more like his human soul.
Take the long way home: Why does it take Willow and the others over 75 minutes to get from Sunnydale Airport to Buffy’s house? In season two, characters could walk there in no time at all. Perhaps everyone hung around at the airport waiting for the people they couldn't see.
Location, location: Willow and Anya try a locator spell similar to the one in season four's Goodbye Iowa, where Willow attempted to call the goddess Thespia with Tara's help. At the time Tara's furtive disposal of the powder, ruining the spell, was an inexplicable action: Tara's fears about herself were only explained in season five's Family.
So the Net girl: Dawn researches Gnarl using the website called 'Demons, Demons, Demons'. This is the same resource used by Cordelia in the Angel season one episode The Ring.
Looking Dawn on you: Dawn tries to persuade Buffy to let her wear high heels more often. This stems from Michelle Trachtenberg’s real pleas to Joss Whedon throughout season six to allow Dawn to grow up and wear high heeled shoes.
Loose end or plot trend?
Moments when we thought, "Now, where's that leading?"
Warning, may contain Spoilers.
