Spoiler Slayer

Well, the Halloween episode summary certainly is interesting. Much like other recent spoilage, it doesn't add much to what we already know or suspect. There are a few things that we didn't know (details), then there are a few things that don't gel with what we've heard in the past.

For example, Buffy's return is more than three months from the time she died. We have confirmed shooting location reports of Spike saying that he's been covering the Scoobie's butts for five month. Yet Buffy says in this summary that she was out of commision for three months. I also picked up from other mentions that Dawn and Janice were familiar with Zack and Justin (like they were supposedly students they knew from school), but it doesn't feel that way in this summary. Then there is the disjointed timeline of patrolling. Spike offered to patrol, but not for that evening. It's Halloween (and as the summary brings up later), it's not a night for the baddies to be on the prowl. But Buffy decides to take him up on his offer, so confused a bit there. I'm also concerned that we lose Xander and Anya in the middle of this, did they go out to look, did they stay at the house?

I end up being sort of torn between believing this or not. There isn't anything new, so it doesn't really change what I would add to the Spoilers for this episode. I did upgrade the Willow/Tara fight rumors, because as presented her, it does work. Which is the main thing I see when reading this, it works (and pretty well) as a Buffy episode. The character actions and growth are what I would expect at this point in the season (though the motives are slightly off, but that could be lost in the translation). If this episode ties so strongly with Episode Five, I would expect to see some hints of how the musical would be launched in Episode Seven. The Xander having cold feet rumor doesn't seem to fit, though the Dawn rumor (she wants to know what the others think of her) does fit. We also have a loose story arc (Dawn's five-fingered discount) which doesn't seem to be resolved here. It also doesn't answer a question that DeKnight has been teasing Bronzer's about for a while, and this episode should have provided that.

DeKnight @ The Bronze: Halloween ep going great. Two words on the costumes: wooden shoes.