Spoiler Slayer

Following the casting report from FilmJerk.com yesterday, I arrived back in the States to find a voice message from one of my sources alerting me to the fact that Sides have been released. At this time, I'm busily typing away in the San Francisco Airport terminal (thanks to my AT&T Mobile Phone with Bluetooth), so I haven't seen them yet myself because of the limited info I can access on the road. However, I'm going to put up what little I've been able to pick up from a couple of phone calls, and should have more details later tonight.

The updates have been inserted into the original synopsis. Nothing really new, just some clarification

Episode Title: Just Rewards

First, let's get the buzz of the boards out of the way. Spike is back and he's incorporeal. So apparently they've decided to go with 'Ghost-Spike' for the time being. Spike is not entirely happy about his return to the mortal coil, but is extremely happy to be annoying Angel. Just to be clear, Spike specifically references the fact that he was brought back against his will. The gist of the episode is that Angel discovers that one of Wolfram and Hart's clients has been using the firm to acquire the bodies of the recently deceased. The client is a necromancer, Hainsley, who charges demons a fee to put their essence into the human vessel.

After Hainsley kills the first messenger to pass along the news that Wolfram and Hart will no longer be his supplier, Angel goes to confront him. Spike decides to tag along, more to annoy Angel than any real desire to help. The discover that Hainsley has a showroom of dead people, from which the various demons can take their pick. When they arrive, Hainsley is with a client, and he asks his manservant to kill them. After a brief fight, Angel takes out the manservant and then gets into an argument with Spike. Angel seems to be quiet bothered by the fact that it took him nearly 100 years to deal with the guilt and remorse for all the things Angelus did, while Spike only needed a few weeks in a basement. During this argument, Spike starts to fade out and then vanishes.

Angel proceeds to take out Hainsley, only to discover that as a necromancer, Hainsley can control any non-living being. Which means that Angel can't touch him, however he doesn't want to kill Angel because Wolfram and Hart has big plans for him. Angel decides to let the firm take action, freezing his assets and having the IRS get in on the action. Not to be outdone, the necromancer decides to use Spike. He offers Spike a chance to not only get his body back, but to take Angel out at the same time. Which Spike seemingly is more than happy to do.

Not to fear, Spike has not gone evil over the summer. When Hainsley attempts to transfer Spike's essence into Angel's body later in the episode, Spike takes over Hainsley instead. This allows Angel to physically attack him, and Angel quickly dispatches Hainsley. This doesn't keep Spike from reanimating the corpse and getting in a few good swings at Angel's expense, until Angel makes sure that Hainsley's body will stay dead by decapitating him (looks to be a very amusing scene, with the head of Ghost-Spike sticking from the neck of Hainsley's body.

The only other thing to note is that Gunn is the one who puts the freeze on Hainsley's assets, looks like he is becoming a big player on the Wolfram and Hart side. Also, Spike is popping in and out of existence, so figure this to have some role in Spike's future. I can't imagine that we'll be seeing Ghost-Spike past the end of Sweeps (but that's just what my gut is saying, nothing based in any 'solid' spoilage. Pun intended).

(Thanks to B for the info over the phone, and L and T for the full scoop)