Professor Walsh
Feminist slayerette
In fact, I think the way they both submitted to Buffy's authority immediately shows that they both know and understand that Buffy is not a prize or possession to be won. I honestly think Buffy's authority and independence is a big part of why they both fell for her.
Needing some downtime, I'm watching this now and seing that like you said, it's definitely played for comedy to an extent that I'd entirely forgotten. The smirk and the sulk in Buffy's room? Priceless. Not to mention the testosterone poisoning comment. Still, though, pissing contests? SO not my thing.
Although they were both being ridiculous, if I had to choose I would pick Angel because he was just trying to talk and apologize to Buffy and Riley sees him and is like "Angel's back in town, that automatically means the girlfriend who trusted me enough to confide about her past the other night has cheated on me, slept with him, turned him evil and endangered the world. And it's up to me, dun...dun,dun,dun, Riley, perfect American soldier boy to whoop his a** and save the day without giving him or Buffy a chance to explain." Sorry, I just really hate Riley.
Jumping to that conclusion was uncalled for, absolutely. Still, I'm not too surprised that he got his knickers in a twist when he saw Angel fighting with people that had been his close friends.
That's why Angel's smug little smirk (although really funny) kind of annoyed me, because it was as if he had "won" their little feud by Buffy choosing to talk to Angel in private away from Riley.
It was really funny, though! I must say, even though they both annoyed the hell out of me, I'm still a bit happy every time I see Angel back on the show.