I thought this was excellent. We're so used to being involved in the lives of the Scoobies and their adversaries that it's really easy to overlook the people who get caught in the middle of the battle, other than to use them as a convenient plot device. Here, getting into Mary Claire's head in the confessional really turned that convention on its head and worked really well.

I especially liked the unexpected guilt that she's responsible for other potential deaths and her anger at being a pawn in Buffy's negotiation with Jerri

"Even though this business is all about her, she’s being utterly ignored here, by the heroine as well as the villainess: they’re negotiating about her, but both of them are talking past her, as if she were a puppy or a pound of hamburger. I thought the feelings of frustration just oozed out of her here.

Normally the ending with Buffy killing Jerri anyway would have me cheering, but knowing what we know about Mary Claire’s guilt and anguish, Buffy’s action really sheds a much darker light on the nature of decisions that the Slayer and perhaps all the Scoobies sometimes take on behalf of other people. Buffy may have saved Mary Claire, but it doesn’t mean that she didn’t leave her damaged.

Really well done. I enjoyed this a lot.