Although, where did it come from? Are we gonna find out? Is that a twist?

Can't speak for The Hook, who's gone to bed already (I'm staying up to work on taxes, yawn), but I'm not sure whether or not we'll be elaborating on this. In the meantime, though, you might find a very vague hint about the origins of this counter-charm back in Chapter Six... :-)

I'm glad that Willow stepped up and beat them back and saved Xander. I was worried she wouldn't do it, be too afraid to or something.

Hopefully we've now seen the last of scaredy-cat Willow. From here on in, you can expect magic, magic, magic! Personally, I'm just glad she didn't blow the junior Slayers to smithereens.

And uh ohhhh for Buffy and Dawn!!

Oooh yes. And we'll be seeing a lot more of Buffy in the next couple of chapters...