Spoiler Slayer

AICN has more definite spoilers for 'After Life' and the Halloween episode. A little more detail for 'After Life', but it backs up the Halloween episode summary entirely. In addition, it's becoming very obvious that at least the first half of the season is going to revolve around magic. Willow's continued dabbling with powerful forces, the 'Troika', as well as what appears to be at least two episodes based around magic gone awry (The Mummy's Hand is supposed to be crucial for 'Life Serial, and the musical will involved another magical mishap). Which continues to make me think that this season's 'Big Bad' will be magical in nature, and will probably be one of four witches who have visited Sunnydale in the past. Of course, this speculation is based on the show following the Buffy Formula, which it didn't last season. But I envision a showdown between Willow and the Troika around mid-season, which will end up with the Troika being defeated, but at a terrible cost. There are still pieces missing, and I'm basing much of this on spoilers, but that is the pattern that seems to be emerging. Plus, while my speculation is always true to the characters and show themes, I've often been off the mark. For example, my speculation on how Buffy would return.

However, that doesn't mean that the speculation doesn't tell us things. I never felt that Willow or the Scoobies would be involved in the return, at the time it didn't make sense. Yet if you are going to have magic be a crucial theme of this season, especially in terms of Willow's getting in over her head, it suddenly makes a lot of sense to have her be the key to the return. Sooner or later, there will be a price to pay, but I'm thinking that will arrive with the mid-season break. I still don't see Willow herself being the 'Big Bad', but I think she'll have something to do with bringing about the 'Big Bad'. Unfortunately, without having anything in the way of spoilers past episode Eight, it's impossible to even guess what that might be.

I also upgraded the Buffy/Spike connection spoiler. At this point, with what we know so far, it's obvious that Buffy and Spike will continued to be paired off by the writers (much like they were for the second half of last season). Whether or not it will lead to anything remains to be seen, but I do figure that this will be the dominant Buffy story arc for the first half.