Spoiler Slayer

Note: This is more rant than speculation. Still nothing new on the Spoiler front and getting a double-Wildfeed doesn't help. I'm itching to do a review of 'Entropy', complete with speculation. That's my goal for tomorrow if there is no new spoilage to report.

Are We Being Misled

Most of the e-mail I've been receiving today has to deal with the promo for 'Seeing Red' that aired after last night's episode. Which, by the way, should be up this evening at Buffy.com. Everyone is wondering about the promo talking about 'Everything You've Heard Is Wrong', as if this might mean that Tara will not die at the end of 'Seeing Red'. Speculation has abounded about everything, including the 'Seeing Red' wildfeed, being part of a massive Mutant Enemy disinformation scheme.

Which makes absolutely no sense at all. In order for this to be true, it means that Mutant Enemy has spent considerable time and money to pull this off. Remember the mantra...

"If Willow is going to become the Big Bad, Then Tara has to die".

There is really no other equation that would result in what we've heard at the Shooting Location reports. If they really wanted to fool us, simply releasing some incorrect script pages could do it. However, we have an actual wildfeed, multiple witnesses of Willow as the 'Big Bad' and other characters commenting on Tara's death, plus press releases and promotional material which all confirms the rumors. Considering that the Shooting Location reports are coming from Willow and Tara fans, I can hardly imagine that they could be coerced by Mutant Enemy into planting false reports (or that Mutant Enemy would go through all the expense of planning false shoots for their benefit).

To be honest, probably less than 5% of the Buffy audience pays any attention to spoilers. The majority of the fans have probably not heard the rumors or even know what's going to happen in 'Seeing Red'. I think that at times, we overemphasize the concern that the writers have in regards to spoilers getting out. They know it's going to happen, they know it's only going to affect a small segment of the audience, so why bother with any subterfuge?

Other Popular Questions

My other two frequent questions are about my feelings about what's going to happen with Tara, as well as Buffy and Spike.

I'm just waiting to see what happens. I don't want to control it

This was a statement that James Marsters made in a recent interview, about the future of Spike's storyline; I have to say that it sums up my feelings about the show quite nicely. Apparently, not everyone is satisfied with the direction the show has been taking this season. Which is exactly the opposite of my own feelings, I think that overall the show has never been better. Does this mean that I still don't have a few problems with this season, not at all. Do I have more issues with this season versus last season? The answer would be a resounding No.

In the same way I'm tired of the age-old "Spike's an evil, soulless, killer" argument, I've about had it with e-mails about Tara's death being clichÎd and stupid. This is a TV Show, it's not reality. I've said it many times, I love the story the writers are telling, and I'm going to stay glued to the screen to see what happens next. That doesn't stop the emails coming either defending or attacking Spike's actions in 'Seeing Red', or fans asking me to start a letter-writing campaign to save Tara. Are the events in 'Seeing Red' horrible? I don't think anyone can argue that they aren't, but I'm pretty sure the name of the show is 'Buffy' and not 'Seventh Heaven'. Since when have horrible things not happened on the Hellmouth?

So while it might not be the popular opinion, I don't have any problems with the current writing staff or the direction of the show. If I did, as was the case with 'Wrecked', I wouldn't hesitate to talk about it here. But from my end, it's all thumbs up for Joss, Marti, Steven, Drew, Jane and David. Keep up the great work, I can't wait to see what happens next.