Oh, I loved this episode! But then, I really liked this whole season a lot, and never had much sympathy for the season-haters.
When Willow got blasted by someone off-screen, I shouted, "Giles?!" Then the camera cut to Giles, and I began laughing hysterically. I was really hyped up.
And the ending was really cornball, and would have been terrible in less-accomplished hands. But Joss is fantastic, and we know the characters so well, and the dialogue was so adroit, that I didn't doubt it for a moment. At some point during the climax, I looked over at my girlfriend: tears were streaming down her face. It was a good scene.
I *did* think that the evil temple looked cheesy. But that's okay -- who ever said that Satanists had to have a flair for architecture?
Daniel