Spike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Spike is a fictional vampire character played by James Marsters in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series and its spinoff Angel. He is arguably the best example of Buffy's theme of redemption, first appearing as a thoroughly evil character, but reforming over several years to become a world-saving champion of good.

Spike in Angel

Despite his apparent death, Spike returns as a regular on Angel in its 5th and final season, having been brought by the amulet that he used to close the Sunnydale Hellmouth. The amulet was initially given to Angel by Wolfram and Hart, and is mysteriously returned to the offices by mail. For the first 7 episodes of the season, Spike is an incorporeal being akin to a ghost, with a connection to the human world that is unstable, causing him to disappear at random (but increasingly frequent) intervals. Spike tells Fred that every time he disappears, he is being transported to Hell. Spike seeks, at this stage, to leave Wolfram and Hart and find Buffy, but when he tries, he discovers that he is mystically bound to Los Angeles and unable to leave.

Related Topics:
Angel - Wolfram and Hart - Ghost - Fred - Hell - Los Angeles

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In "Hell Bound", Fred tries to make Spike corporeal again, but this plan is thrown by the appearance of another ghost, who threatens Fred's life; Spike throws away his opportunity to become corporeal (and, thus, stop being periodically sent to Hell) in order to save Fred, of whom he's become quite fond.

Related Topics:
Hell Bound - Fred

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In the episode "Destiny", Spike receives a mysterious package in the mail, addressed to him, but with no return address. On opening the package there's a flash of light, and upon trying to walk through objects as he's become used to, Spike discovers he's corporeal once more. One of his first acts is to have sex with Harmony again, now a secretary with the firm.

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We are told that the existence of two ensouled vampires in the world is affecting the fabric of reality. The two vampires learn from Eve that there is a prophecy detailing how to restore the balance, involving both vampires competing to reach the Cup of Perpetual Torment. Angel and Spike's relationship had always been strained due to competition over women, notably Drusilla and Buffy. Ego and personal hostility led to an extended battle between the two adversaries; Spike beats Angel to the Cup and drinks from it, believing it would bestow upon him great responsibilities and pain; making him the "greater" champion of the two. However, the prophecy turns out to be a sham (the liquid in the Cup was Mountain Dew), rendering the whole exercise useless.

Related Topics:
Eve - Prophecy - Ego - Mountain Dew

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Beginning in "Soul Purpose", Lindsey McDonald, pretending to be Doyle, with a connection to The Powers That Be, persuades Spike — until the ex-Wolfram and Hart employee's duplicity is discovered — that he is destined to "help the helpless," in much the same way as the real Doyle persuaded Angel of the same thing at the start of Angel Season 1. Spike, after a bout of depression, is brought back to being an affirmed Champion of the Good and, by the end of the season, Spike is a trusted member of the team, being entrusted to rescue an infant and destroy a demon cult in the final episode "Not Fade Away", in order to help defeat the Circle of the Black Thorn and wound the Senior Partners.

Related Topics:
Soul Purpose - Lindsey McDonald - Doyle - The Powers That Be - Destined - Depression - Cult - Not Fade Away - Circle of the Black Thorn - Senior Partners

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Before Angel's team of demon killers enter their greatest and perhaps final battle, Angel gives them the day off, to spend as though it was going to be their last day. Spike, returning to his mortal roots as a frustrated poet, knocks them dead (figuratively) in an open mike poetry reading, finally finishing a poem he'd begun over a century earlier, before being sired by Drusilla.

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After succeeding in his mission, Spike joins Angel, Illyria, and a badly-wounded Charles Gunn in the alley as the series draws to an end, preparing to suicidally incur the apocalyptic wrath of the Senior Partners, as a way of going out in a blaze of glory.

Related Topics:
Illyria - Charles Gunn - Suicidally - Apocalyptic

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