Spoiler Slayer

PM Update
First off, updated spoilage from the Cross and Stake

Gone

• Updated: Xander confronts Willow, discovers Spike in the middle of something with an Invisible Buffy, and spends some quality time bickering with his fiancee.


• New: In a fit of rage after meeting a social worker about Dawn, Buffy takes her anger out on her hair, which later requires some professional assistance and ends up much shorter.


• New: Willow uses a *tiny* bit of magic, but stops herself before the magic serves its purpose or she gets caught, and she still feels guilty.


• New: Buffy finally discovers the supervillains and their evil plans.

Angel X also supplied a title for Episode 14: Older and Far Away.

Now onto what I've been researching as of late...

What follows is complete and total speculation, and the discussion of speculation. There is nothing based on any solid evidence or facts, so please don’t read too much into it.

Let’s look at these entire ‘number theory’ for a moment.

It could mean nothing, it could mean everything, but I think it’s safe to conclude that it could be a while before we find an actual meaning in them. I’m falling out of favor of the idea that it’s just ‘fashion’. ME pays too much attention to the details to have it be nothing. Once or twice, I could safely say it was ‘fashion’. Six times over four episodes, it has to be something. But remember, ‘Counting down from 730’ really didn’t make any sense until about a year after, and the full meaning didn’t become apparent until after ‘The Gift’ actually aired.

I did do some juggling, tossing them around to see what would come up. As you can see, the numbers could mean just about anything.

55 – Five by Five, possible reference to Faith
11 – As stated earlier, both 1.11 and 6.11 will deal with invisibility.
13 – When She Was Bad – Same thing Buffy’s going through right now.

I’ve also had numerous people point out that the crooked ‘8’ Buffy wore in ‘Life Serial’ could mean infinity, which is yet another angle. The entire reason I brought up the ‘number theory’, was because I was going for what the sum pointed at. Mainly because it had to do with a couple other rumors that have been floating around, and I was trying to get them jump on them. Of course, I forgot about the ‘8’, which made the point moot.

The spoiler or speculation I’ve been trying to prove or disprove is the one about Riley returning. Yes, you heard me right; I’ve been tracking speculation about the return of Marc Blucas. That spoiler I’ve been disputing all season long. It’s being rumored that…

Mutant Enemy has been shuffling both the production and airdate schedule to fit MB’s schedule (which is why new episodes are being delayed). Riley, who was last seen heading to Central America, will return very different from when he left. He might not return alone, as both he and his new girlfriend might have some bones to pick with another Sunnydale couple (which both have a history with). They might even be pulling the strings of the Troika.

Okay, so Riley and Drusilla are going to return as the ‘Big Bads’, upset that their ex’s are now an item. It’s the same thing that was being speculated about last Season, and I’m still not sure how much I really believe it might be true. As a storyline, I can’t argue that it would be an interesting one, and would echo much of the current season’s storyline. Riley suffered from an addicition last season, what if he didn’t get over it. Then we would have a nice case study of addiction and it’s consequences. My problem with it, is that it would be too predictable, and since when have the gang at Mutant Enemy ever been that. I decided that I would start checking out facts, and came up with some unexpected results.

First argument against his return, Marc Blucas is working on three films; he wouldn’t have time to do the show. A quick check to verify that at IMDB, showed that two of those films are in post-production, and he could be wrapping the third at anytime.

I then checked the interview Marti did for TV Guide, where she said that they would love to have him back, but his movie career is making it hard. However, she didn’t say that he wouldn’t be back; she just said it would be a big ‘if’. It all depended on if he was available, plus she did say that it was a possibility in a recent interview.

WilliamThePoet, who I believe originated this speculation, wrote me a while back pointing out that both Darla and Drusilla were placed ‘South of the Border’, when it really wasn’t necessary. Wouldn’t that be ideal for a run-in with Riley? I can see him those two and raise him a Harmony, who also is vacationing in the vicinity.

I then tried to work from the angle of the shooting schedule, but it does appear that it is being pushed around. From all things that I could track down, it looks like Episode 11 took almost a month to film. Was there a break in-between? Why are we so close to the holidays, but the cast is still filming furiously from what I’ve heard?

However, as interesting as all that is, there are numerous cons to this entire speculation.

According to my notes, for the last three seasons, there have only been ten episodes aired before Christmas. The reason why we didn’t get a new episode in December is that both parts of Bargaining were aired together. If it had been broken up over two weeks, then ‘Wrecked’ would have aired in December. In the same manner, the current rumored schedule for January also fits previous seasons. That means that the argument that episodes are being pushed isn’t valid.

Could they really keep something like this under wraps? On the one hand, I’m bothered by the multiple sources referring to Riley’s return. Could some of this be deliberate misinformation from Mutant Enemy? If you threw out a ludicrous Riley story arc, it would certainly endanger anyone buying any rumors of his return. I’ve counted as many as four different sources talking about his return. I’ve seen one or two sources in the past, but never four (and all referring to different episodes for the return). On the other hand (falling prey to this very argument), it is ‘yet another Riley rumor’.

There is no way I can see them being tied to the Troika, and in the past the Big Bad has always had some connection with the little bad. I would rather see the ‘Big Bad’ be one of the Troika, as perhaps Andrew is really Prof. Walsh’s son or Warren is really a robot (perhaps built by Ted). There are many theories that could be thrown about, which would tie in a lot better with the Troika. While Riley might be comfortable with technology, everything points to Drusilla not caring for it very much. The only thing I could imagine is that one of them had a crush on Harmony in High School, and she’s returned with the other two.

If anything, it’s too soon for a return by either Riley or Drusilla. If I did have something like that planned, I think a season-finale shock ending would be more appropriate. No matter how you look at it, the basic story arc is going to boil down to the interaction between the two couples. However, are Buffy and Spike at that stage yet? I would say that they aren’t. No matter what will happen with Buffy and Spike, you can’t just leave the entire ‘Buffy came back wrong’ thing hanging. That’s exactly what would happen if you brought back Riley and Dru, and let’s not forget that we still have two other Scooby couple having relationship troubles.

In fact, if I were going to have Riley and Dru return, I would definitely consider what I’ve always thought was an excellent concept for a ‘Big Bad’, the anti-Scooby gang. You could design it along these lines, with the members being balanced, good vs. evil.

Buffy <-> Dru
Spike <-> Riley
Xander <-> One of the Troika
Anya <-> Harmony
Willow <-> Amy

You could easily have a behind-the-scenes Riley/Dru take out one of the Troika and Amy, over the course of the rest of this season. They wouldn't actually be the 'Big Bad' or even revealed, until the very end of the Season Finale. Thus leading to a season-long ‘Big Bad’, that would really give the Scoobies a run for their money in Season Seven.

My final take on this, in the end its just speculation. I’ve decided that the arguments both ways are equally good, so I’m not going to change any of the rankings. It all comes down to what happens during the ‘bridge episodes’.

Oh, and if you’re still curious about the numbers, if you add up all the numbers besides the ‘8’, you get ‘88’, which was the episode that Riley left. Then again, if you subtract that ‘8’ from 100, you would get ‘Crush’, the last episode with Harmony and Drusilla. My judgment on the numbers is that they do mean something; it’s just nothing we’ve figured out just yet.