Tonight on Buffy...
Yes, I'm gearing up for the last few episodes of one of my most beloved TV shows ever, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Last week (well two weeks ago, really -- last week was a repeat) introduced the sinister psycho henchman behind all the rampant evil that's been plaguing the cast, providing one of the single-most stunningly horrorific scenes in the history of a horror-based show. I won't give it away, but when a main character gets maimed on camera in gruesome fashion, you sit up a little straighter and think Joss Whedon (the creator of the show) may be ramping up for one powerful sendoff. The scene was great and shocking, but I believe it had a duel purpose -- it sends a message letting the viewer know that all the usual rules for a series are off -- every character is expendable. With a show like Buffy, that makes its own rules, 'tis a dread warning indeed.

Anyway, on my way to check out what was going on tonight, I stopped by the listings on MSN's Entertainment TV page. Here's the description they gave for tonight's show:

Caleb [the aforementioned henchman - mj] launches an attack against Buffy; Faith takes the potential slayers out to blow off some steam, and the night ends with a startling development.

Hmm. Well, MSN sure is trying to milk the last five minutes of the show for UPN. Out of curiousity, I checked out UPN's own synopsis, which is:

Faith decides to take the young women out for the night to blow off some steam, which leads to a startling development.

No mention of the new henchman in this one, which is kinda odd because at the end of last episode he had beaten them up pretty badly (not to mention killing a few). Too much info? Does UPN censor their previews because of their younger audience base?

For the ultimate in reliabilit, I've found that the reviews at Buffy Guide are much more thorough. So much so you they are marked as 'spoilers'. If you've ever read The Force.net you will be familiar with this format -- designed to prevent someone from inadvertently reading material they didn't want to know. I'm one of those people, frankly; I like to know only the minimal amount of information going in to a film. Nevertheless, I trust that the folks at Buffy Guide won't trick me. Here's their preview:

As Sunnydale's residents evacuate en masse, Faith rallies the demoralized potentials while an emotionally fragile Buffy endures another run-in with Caleb.

A lot darker than the first two. Buffy fans 'keeping it real'? Once I see the show, I'll know which one sounds better, but it's interesting to see how the same show can produce three very different tv-guide listings. I would have thought that the show would publish its own brief preview, but what do I know? All's I know is it is time to order pizza for the show, coming on in 40 minutes.

Update: The winner is the review at Buffy Guide. Overall captured the feel and events of the episode. Caleb didn't really 'launch an attach' on Buffy -- he just taunted her. If he wanted her dead at that time, frankly he could have killed her easily. He's hoping to badger her mental state, steer her into doing what he wants, and based on the 'startling development' that [highlight to read] Buffy was voted out of her own house by everyone else because they don't believe she is leading properly anymore, it may be working. Oddly, the video preview for next week's episode here doesn't seem remotely the same episode as in the descriptions. From the video, you'd expect wall-to-wall sex. Not that I'm complaining. I just don't want to see Wood getting it on with Faith -- she's too cool for that.