I have figured out what Ethan wants and why he doesn't get it. At least not without effort. I need to write it down in some kind of formal through-line. And do the same for Giles. And Buffy, who is unfortunately going to be more or less a MacGuffin through this half of the story. She gets to be an active agent later.
What I really want to do is curl up on the couch for a week with a nice hot mug of coffee and my Macbook and just write this thing and not worry about anything else. Life, however, is not cooperating. And I, in turn, am not cooperating with it.
Need to fish or cut bait with finding somebody to take over teh big bangz0r.