Having a hard time reading some of these reviews without a mini-Cordelia Chase leaping out of me and smacking the screen.
It's quite clear from Buffy's tone, body language and behavior around Xander - especially at the hospital with Willow - that she is WRACKED with guilt, shame and horror at what happened to one of her oldest, dearest friends. She does what Buffy always seems to do - bottle it and try to soldier on, much the way she did when her mother got sick and it was Riley and Dawn she shut out. As a coping mechanism, it definitely doesn't help her relationships, but you can understand why someone - especially a relatively young someone - would fall back on it, especially with the fate of the world on her shoulders. Anyone who can look at her and read it as cavalier, oblivious or unconcerned... it just doesn't seem like you're paying much attention.
Buffy's not a perfectly mature, always-insightful young woman: she's flawed. All of them are; frankly, it's what makes the show so special. When people are written as REAL - ugly sides and all - it's that much more amazing to see them come through in the moments when they're heroes. However, Buffy's flaw here is that she's impatient and a little foot-in-mouthy when it comes to being right. What she says is true; she just doesn't say it well. That hardly makes her a villain or justifies the mutiny (and Princess Dawn's little "this is my house too" comment was beyond the pale... I've never wanted to see someone backhanded so badly).
It's quite clear from Buffy's tone, body language and behavior around Xander - especially at the hospital with Willow - that she is WRACKED with guilt, shame and horror at what happened to one of her oldest, dearest friends. She does what Buffy always seems to do - bottle it and try to soldier on, much the way she did when her mother got sick and it was Riley and Dawn she shut out. As a coping mechanism, it definitely doesn't help her relationships, but you can understand why someone - especially a relatively young someone - would fall back on it, especially with the fate of the world on her shoulders. Anyone who can look at her and read it as cavalier, oblivious or unconcerned... it just doesn't seem like you're paying much attention.
Buffy's not a perfectly mature, always-insightful young woman: she's flawed. All of them are; frankly, it's what makes the show so special. When people are written as REAL - ugly sides and all - it's that much more amazing to see them come through in the moments when they're heroes. However, Buffy's flaw here is that she's impatient and a little foot-in-mouthy when it comes to being right. What she says is true; she just doesn't say it well. That hardly makes her a villain or justifies the mutiny (and Princess Dawn's little "this is my house too" comment was beyond the pale... I've never wanted to see someone backhanded so badly).