Spoiler Slayer

This story actually came out on Tuesday, but apparently overlooked by many. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette TV Editor, Rob Owen, also interviewed Joss during the WB Press Tour, and managed to get information that neither Kristin or The Futon Critic turned up. Surprisingly candid, Joss lets drop quite a bit of info on Spike's arrival on the show, as well as providing some more info on Charisma's status. The juicy bits of the article are as follows...

(edited for space)

Contrary to statements by WB executives in May, "Angel" executive producer Joss Whedon says, actress Charisma Carpenter may appear on the drama series again. Though she's no longer a series regular, Whedon said, he wants Carpenter to return to give closure to her character's story...

"That's what we want, but it's dependent on her schedule," Whedon said Sunday at a WB party. "We know what we want to do; it's just a question of when to do it."

James Marsters, who played the vampire Spike on "Buffy," will join "Angel" in the first episode, but Whedon wouldn't explain how the character, killed in the "Buffy" finale, will be resurrected, except to say the amulet he held during his demise will play a role in Spike's revival.

"The second episode deals with what the hell he's doing there," Whedon said. "In the old version of the show, we might have stretched that out for a lot of episodes. In the new version of the show, by the end of that [episode] you'll know why he's there and, more importantly, what part he plays in the ensemble."

So as I suspected, Spike may show up in some form in the Season Opener, and it probably will be the final scene. My own personal speculation was that Cordelia would have something to do with his return, and I should explain myself.

I personally was a big fan of Cordelia's character, until last season. The writers managed to ruin her character, with no real explanation of why she did what she did. The scene when she sacrificed the young girl was the final straw for me. So I was expecting that there would be some kind of payoff from the writers, where we would find that it wasn't really Cordelia, but something else that had taken over her body. Yes, it was a stretch, but it would be nice to get a little redemptive closure for her before she leaves the show entirely.

My presumption would have been to have Higher-Being Cordelia, reveal what really happened to the gang, but still have to leave to be a Higher-Being in another dimension. Now if the writers wanted to still go with the 'Visions', is there anyone else better at portraying searing headaches than James? So Cordelia's arc would be closed, and Spike would be moved into her place. It would be a nice little wrap-up and transition.

When Joss started positioning that Spike would be the 'voice of reason' in the early days of Angel Investigations interactions at Wolfram and Hart, it made sense that he would essentially be taking over her role on the team.

But that doesn't look to be the case at this stage.

As time goes on, I'm becoming more and more convinced that the Spike we're going to see early on might begin as a spirit/ghost. There were some unconfirmed reports about a month back that James stunt-double would not be needed for the first few episodes. This weekend, it came out that most of his scenes in the early episodes would all be filmed at once. So perhaps we will see Spirit-Spike for the first few episodes, but I doubt that if this happens, it will be a long-term situation.

(Thanks to Anthony for the heads up on the article)