I looked at jennyo's discussion, but I am not convinced.

I wouldn't be surprised if at the end of the season (or at some time during the season) Buffy would lose her Slayer powers (echoing Riley's loss of strength). It would be ironic if Miss Superiority complex would lose the foundation her arrogance and "I am the Law" attitued is based on. The last time she lost her powers during her cruciamentum she handled the vampire threat, but psychologically she didn't deal well with the "impotence." I honestly don't expect Buffy to die, because I am beginning to suspect that Joss is not an advocate of grand sacrifices. I believe he favours the idea of making other options work and then moving on to cope with life. :-) Here's hoping (because that would bode well for Spike too).

BTW, Someone at BigBadBoard, I believe it was Lumily, came up with the theory that Spike's story is a retelling of the pinocchio plot. To me that makes a lot of sense. I hope she's right. That way we might end up with human Spike, which is a hell of a lot better than dusted Spike.