Yes, Joss has become so predictable that it's a joke. Oh, someone's happy? Who's going to die?

I agree with you about Darla's death. I was thinking BtVS more than AtS, but yeah, looking back that really was done well and made sense. Like they were following things to the natural conclusion of the story, instead of just blatantly manipulating the characters/story to get to the conclusion they wanted.