July 5, 2001
Welcome to a special mid-week edition of the Spoiler Whore Zone!
Early this morning, Hercules on Ain’t It Cool News posted some reported spoilers for the first 8 episodes of
Season 6. Most people have dismissed these spoilers as too detailed, too early.
I’m going to argue that they may be true. Why? Because that’s the kind of gullible person I am.
First, let me remind you of these two tidbits:
Marti Noxon 6-27-01
http://tv.zap2it.com/news/tvnewsdaily.html?18855
Noxon is currently back at the show's Santa Monica studios, working on next season. She reports that four
scripts are in the can, with a couple more stories in progress. She also says that Whedon is laboring on episode
six, the long-awaited all-singing, all-dancing "Buffy."
Steve DeKnight at the Bronze 6-29-01
Ep 5 is in the early early early outline stage. I will give you all one little smidge of info: Halloween. Boo, I say, boo!
To reiterate: four scripts are done, "in the can." Script five is in the early outline stage, which means it has been
broken.
(See Jane Espenson http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/work/jobbank/files/scriptwriter.shtml)
"[The script] is considered ‘broken’ when the writing staff has figured out what happens in every scene of the
episode. Then the writer of that episode is sent out to turn that structure into an outline and then into a script."
Are they breaking Joss’s script now? One can speculate that Joss must have a good idea already what is
happening in this episode if he is writing songs/lyrics for it.
OK, let’s look at what Herc’s source has to say:
Posted by Herc at AICN 7-5-01
We’ve got our first, very confident look at the first eight UPN episodes of the best television show in production,
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer."
Here’s the big news:
* Buffy and Spike become more than friends before Thanksgiving.
Here’s a rough breakdown of the episodes through November sweeps:
Buffy 6.1/6.2 (Oct. 9)
Buffy is dead and buried. Giles, with no slayer to watch, heads back to England. Anya has taken over the Magic
Box. Willow and Tara are acting as Dawn’s guardians. And Willow has reprogrammed the Buffybot: it not only slays
Sunnydale’s demons, it goes to college and attends PTA meetings so Dawn’s dad remains unaware of Buffy’s
death.
Willow uses her growing powers to revive Buffy, but the spell is slow-acting and the gang misses the slayer’s
emergence from the grave. When Buffy does get back above ground, she is not herself and wanders back to the
scene of her own death.
A demon motorcycle gang rides into Sunnydale to challenge the Buffybot. The demons damage the Buffybot badly
but it stays "alive" long enough to tell Dawn of Buffy’s return. Dawn finds Buffy at the tower, where Buffy defeats
the demon gang and, at episode’s end, reunites with the Scoobies.
Buffy 6.3 (Oct. 16)
As the Scoobs contend with a demon ghost, Buffy realizes she was happier with the peace of the afterlife. She
finds a sympathetic ear in someone else who knows something about an afterlife: Spike.
Buffy 6.4 (Oct. 23)
With Joyce gone, Buffy finds herself trying to contend with burst pipes and home-improvement loans.
She seeks out the advice of a just-returned Giles and indulges an off-camera meeting with Angel (which makes
Spike very jealous).
Buffy’s ongoing frustration is bad news for the demon dispatched – by a trio of bored, twentysomething would-be
sorcerers – to the slayer’s home. Buffy begs the demon not to break anything, and winds up drowning him in a
pool of water formed by her plumbing leak.
Buffy 6.5 (Oct. 30)
When Dawn lies to Buffy and spends Halloween night joyriding and partying with boys, Buffy finds herself having
to assume the role of parent/disciplinarian.
Meanwhile, after Willow and Tara have a fight about Willow’s abuse of magic, Willow casts a spell on Tara to make
her forget the fight.
Buffy 6.6 (Nov. 6)
Panicky about his impending marriage to Anya, Xander accidentally concocts a "truth spell" that causes everyone
in Sunnydale to reveal all of their innermost thoughts and feelings in song.
When Buffy and Spike learn of their true feelings for each other, they share their first real kiss.
Willow reveals in song that she cast a spell to make Tara forget their fight, and Tara decides to break up with
Willow as a result.
Finally, Giles decides to return to England for good.
The episode’s original score and lyrics were written by "Buffy" creator Joss Whedon.
Buffy 6.7 (Nov. 13)
Giles says his good-byes as he finalizes preparations for his return to the U.K.
Buffy 6.8 (Nov. 20)
When a demon invades Buffy, making it impossible for her to determine what is and isn’t real, she winds up in a
mental hospital.
[I deleted the script spoilers.]
OK, here is why I think these are true.
1. Hercules uses the words "very confident." Now, consider that when Herc posted the proven-true spoilers by
"Scriptgirl" about "Intervention," he was up front about being skeptical but said that the spoilers had "the
ring of truth." He doesn’t say that here. He says he is "very confident." I think he has a high-level source.
2. Someone on BC&S said that at this stage of the process, the only people with access to the scripts are
high-level people. Well, see above.
3. Why would someone who is high-level leak spoilers? Well, for one thing, s/he may be trying to maintain
interest in BtVS over the summer, generate publicity, float trial balloons (the reported S/B kiss; Dark Willow;
Anyanka’s return). Or maybe this person simply feels sorry for us!
4. We are given far less information for episodes 7 and 8 than the others, which would make sense if the
general idea is all that’s there for 7 and 8 and they haven’t been broken yet.
5. marriage between Xander and Anya isn’t very interesting. A wedding and the accompanying shenanigans
are. This information suggests a way that ME could have a wedding without a marriage—and bring Anyanka
back in the bargain. Anyanka’s return was alluded to by Emma Caulfield at the FSF convention in Australia in
June.
6. I am the first to decry the BuffyBot. Always seemed like a dumb plot device to me. However, if you are ME
and UPN and dealing with a network change, you probably want Sarah Michelle Gellar, your show’s star, to
show up frequently in the first episode. However, you also want to show the effects of her "death";
otherwise, the death as plot device has less punch. Therefore, it makes sense to have a Buffy substitute in
the first show. ME could also have used flashbacks, or fantasy/ghost sequences, but that kind of story is a
little more cheesy and angsty than it seems ME wants for Season 6.
7. Another benefit of the BuffyBot: it alleviates the need to deal with boring custody issues. We don’t need
Hank in town threatening to take Dawn away, which would be more realism than BtVS really needs,
especially after last season.
8. When Steve DeKnight first talked about his Season 5 script, he indicated that it was not specifically a
Halloween-themed episode. Later, he indicated that he would refer to Halloween in it. The description of his
episode, 5, is not inconsistent with this information. A Dawn joyriding story would not necessarily have to
be Halloween-themed. Furrthermore, DeKnight has written Dawn very well (Blood Ties) and may have been
given this assignment to play to his strengths.
9.Several elements are consistent with highly reliable spoilers from members of the cast/crew: Jonathan is in
Episode 4 (as per Jane Espenson, Succubus Club interview). Giles is leaving and will be back for episodes 1,
4, 5, 6. (As per BBC interviews with Tony Head.)
OK, here are reasons to argue against these spoilers being true:
1. Xander knows better than to do spells. As he pointed out in Lover’s Walk, every time he does a spell it goes
wrong.
2. Episode 3, Jane Espenson’s episode, sounds a lot less comedic than her usual fare. She sounds like a better
choice for Episode 4. However, she did indicate in her Succubus Club interview that she wanted the
Jonathan episode, and Petrie got it.
3. Giles is mentioned in Episode 7, and we do not have confirmation that he will be available for that episode yet.
4. It seems hard to believe that Willow and the others would become involved in an attempt to resurrect Buffy.
Do you want to:
Correct me? Yell at me? Praise me? Send me spoilers or inside info?
E-mail me at ww1614@yahoo.com
http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=9473
* The increasingly powerful telekinetic redhead Willow is going to go from Marvel Girl to Dark Phoenix. Look for her
to emerge as the season’s Big Bad.
* A midseason wedding is planned for Xander and Anya, but when an anxious Xander gets cold feet on wedding
day, Anya turns back into a vengeance demon and seeks out the boy who stood her up. But even in demon-mode
Anya realizes she can’t hurt her little butt-monkey – and reverts back to human.
* There will be a recurring "little bad" this season as a trio of bored twentysomethings begin using dark magic to
conjure demons. Nerdy Jonathan, last seen in "Superstar," will be one of the more harmless members of the troika.