Yes yes yes,
I knew it was the first evil ever since the visitations episode. I love it when a show is so consistent in style that you can tell a villain from their MO.
All in all I htought this was a completly rocking episode, it was really great at ratcheting up the tension and revealling more of the plot without even really telling us what is going on. I am sorry they blew up the council though, I wanted to see Sunnydale invaded by the tea and crumpet brigade armed to the teeth.
My only real complaint is that they still haven't shown us what happened to Giles, darn it.
<raving fan boy mode off>
On more detailed analysis did Xanders monlogue about having his heart ripped out and replaced with darkness strike anyone as just a bit bad? How do we know that something more isn't going on with him? Especially given the fact that they have done nothing to show the FE messing with him.
Also what do you think is up with the vampire that was freed from the seal. It looke similar to the master but I am more than willing to attribute that to the effects that vamps suffer from age. The real question is how old is it and what was the first evils motivation in raising it?