Spoiler Slayer

AM Update

Just a brief bit, from the Sci Fi Wire. It's an interview with Danny Strong, where he mentions that he'll be in both 'Gone' and 'Dead Things'. A couple people have pointed out that the Troika is supposed to vanish at the end of 'Gone', I still think that's possible. They may very well be missing in action for 'Doublemeat Palace', but then pop up again, so I think that the spoilage on that is still 'Likely'. The promo pic from a while back looked like something bad was about to happen, and they are playing with their new little inviso-ray. So it's likely that they'll 'zap' themselves out of existence (or become invisible) again at the end of 'Gone'. We shall have to wait and see. Update: Obviously, this statement is confusing some people, as I've gotten a flood of e-mails about it. People 'pointed out' that how can the 'Troika be missing in action', if Danny Strong says that he'll be in 'Dead Things'. There was also great deal of speculation that the Troika will no longer be around after 'Gone'. The current scenario looks as if the Troika will 'vanish, become invisibile, take off' for an episode or two before coming back. My current read is that this will be an important plot point, which is why I want to keep the spoiler up that they are MIA for at least an episode. I've tried to edit it to make it clearer.

Jumping ahead a bit to "Dead Things", which we've heard might feature a fight and some dancing, I had presumed that this would be the 'Birthday Episode'. You would expect the Birthday to either be episode 12 or 13, I was leaning towards 13 (if only because DeKnight wrote last years as well). However, I'm not so sure now, as the title for Episode 14 would fit as both a birthday reference and a Giles reference. 'Older and Far Away' could be describing both Buffy and Giles. If Buffy is heading for a breakdown (which looks to be the case), you would think that he would be on hand to help her. It would also make sense that the episode might be later than usual, we should remember that there was an episode added to the mix ('Life Serial'). 'Gone' does sound like it would have been a better ending to sweeps, especially if it had aired on schedule. That would then move 'Older and Far Away' back to the pattern of birthday episodes. In any case all spoilage after 'DMP', except for dancing and fighting in Episode 13, is pretty much guaranteed not to be accurate.