I agree with SlayerAngel. I am so happy that Spike is once again talking like the bad boy he is. What a turn-on! 🙄 Actually, I agree about the story arcs. They are fairly short and I am glad that they are. It reminds me of the first few seasons of Buffy, when each episode would have a strong individual story, instead of the last three seasons, when there were never really any good short episodes. They all just kind of coalesced into a longer ongoing story, and the individual episodes were not all that memorable by themselves. (There were a few exceptions, like Tabula Rasa and of course, Once More With Feeling.)
I am not sure that I am loving the synopsis of tonight's episode, but I am glad that this season is not going to be another intense, season-long conflict like last season. Obviously the return of Spike and the whole Wolfram and Hart thing will be an onging story, but it will also open up some room for good single-episode stories. This last episode showed us how much fun having Spike around can be. 🙂 By the way, I am guessing that the big bad this season is probably going to be a Senior Partner at Wolfram and Hart or something. Something is obviously going to come of this, and I would not be surprised if Angel and the gang are no longer in charge of Wolfram and Hart by the end of the season.