An easy way to bring Giles back to Sunnydale would be to have Ethan Rayne show up again. However that would only last for an episode or two once they put Ethan down again, and then Giles would be jonesing to return to England. Personally I thought Buffy proved to Giles while talking with him in the season finale that she does in fact need him and just because she's an adult that doesn't dismiss the fact that Giles' kibittzing does help keep her from making as many mistakes. They could toy with a romance for Giles, either with Anya or Willow. However, if Willow turns back to the dark side, many lesbian fans will be up in arms. Also though Giles & Willow do have much in common now, the age difference would be disturbing to other fans. However, that age problem doesn't exist between Giles & Anya. Anya IS technically a thousand years old, but she acts like she's a spoiled baby, so it evens out, and we learned in "Tabula Rasa" that they share a base physical attraction, provided they could get past the fact they hate one another... Oookay. Romance is probably not a good way to write Giles back into Sunnydale.

We know he is going to be instrumental in Willow's rehabilitation in England. He described the coven in Devonshire England as the place that helped him slow Dark Willow down. There's probably no other place on the planet that could handle Willow right now. They could explain Giles' re-arrival in Sunnydale easily enough: he'll simply escort Willow back to Sunnydale after she's allegedly recovered, and perhaps will want to hang around awhile to monitor her progress. That will bring him back to Sunnydale. Keeping him in Sunnydale may involve the events of the latest "Big Bad" evil that the Scooby Gang has to face. If the Big Bad is something that Giles has an unique affinity with, then he'll definitely stay for half the season.

Perhaps a Big Bad that Giles has a history with. Perhaps a Big Bad that he and Buffy faced some six or seven years ago... *smirk* I'm not hinting Ethan Rayne this time.

ZachsMind | July 14, 14:37 CET

(warning, more spoilery info)



Recent spoilers indicate that Giles is not escorting Willow back to Sunnydale. This would imply his scheduled appearance in at least 10 episodes would mostly be in the second half of Series 7?

I would love to see Ethan Rayne back. There's undiscovered country there in his relationship with Giles, which I would very much like to see explored. Unfortunately, the show, as Whedon told Head in the past, is about Buffy, not about the Watcher. I think Rayne would never return as part of a story arc. He'd probably show up in a stand alone epi and we have been promised there would be more of those next season. (see Jane Espenson at the Succubus Club)

I once read somewhere (a one off post on a mailing list so I don't know if there's any truth to it) that originally the idea was to end the series with Slayer vs Watcher. This scenario was published as a novelisation (The Lost Slayer, Christopher Golden), in which "Joyce Summers is dead. Spike has been slain, Faith is gone and So Cal has fallen under vampire rule. And Rupert Giles is Vampire King."

This really would be the perfect way to re-introduce Giles into the series. It'll never happen, I'm sure.

Caroline | July 14, 15:10 CET

Never say never when it comes to Whedon. Personally I think that's far too easy, but ASH is certainly talented enough to play it off. We've seen that he has a dark past which he fears is going to haunt him. Eyeghon seemed to purposefully want Giles to be its last host. The demon killed all ASH's old school chums other than Ethan, and had targetted him second to last. Personally I think Eyeghon was originally planning on turning Giles into its permanent residence, and Jenny just got in the way.

Eyeghon may be gone, but I'm sure there's plenty of other skeletons in Ripper's closet which could turn him evil. Personally though I'd rather they not turn him evil and explore a more detailed plot arc between Giles and Rayne in the BBC series if it ever gets off the ground. Is that BBC TV series still viable, or has Manchild pretty much taken up ASH's attention?

ZachsMind | July 14, 16:53 CET

re: Ripper
Quote from ASH, at CreepCon last month: "Joss wants to do it, I want to do it, BBC wants to do it. It kind of depends on FOX and because it'll have to be produced by the BBC under the license to FOX since Joss and I only want to do like six episodes a year. The American studios - UPN were very interested but they want 22 episodes, which is like not really on the cards. So, it's still happening, Jane Espenson [Buffy writer/producer] and Joss are putting together a pile of scripts."

Caroline | July 14, 17:57 CET

I still think UPN could sell the Ripper BBC series as a "mini-series" here in the states and both advertisers & viewers would run to it like candy. However, that depends on the end result. So long as I get to see it without having to fly to London. =)

ZachsMind | July 14, 18:17 CET