Fans will undoubtedly be indebted to you for bringing back Amy. How have you moved her character forward?

It wasn't hard for me. I was excited too because I've been a fan of the show from the first episode myself, even before I was even working on it, so I've been waiting for Amy to come back.

When I found out that that was going to be part of my first Buffy episode ever, I jumped up and down as a fan. Then, as a writer, you sit down and you're like, "Oh God, how am I going to make this happen?"

The truth is that Amy's been in her own little fuzzy prison for about three years and that changes people. It affects you when you've been in a totally strange and different environment, the way I imagine she has been, so I didn't feel really bound by anything we'd seen before.

I think that the core essence of Amy is there in that she's a cool girl who wants to have fun, but she's got an edge to her which is different than what we've seen before. I think it's entirely appropriate given the circumstances she's been living with for three years.