Spike
(aka William "The Bloody") is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the cult television series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Spike is a vampire and played various roles on the shows, ranging from villain, comic-relief and anti-hero. He is considered a 'breakout character'.
Born circa 1853, William was an ineffectual gentleman who lived with his mother Anne in
London, England. His surname is given as "Pratt" in the non-canon comic Old Times; however, Joss Whedon has not confirmed this, lending question to its canonicity. Anne would often sing the folksong "Early
One Morning" to her son when he was a baby, right up until his mid-twenties. In 1880, William was a struggling poet who was often mocked by his peers, who called him "William the Bloody"
behind his back because his poetry was so "bloody awful." The true origins of this nickname were not revealed until Season
Five of Buffy, four years after it was first mentioned in Season Two. William
showed a strong capacity for loyalty and devoted love, which followed him after his siring. After his romantic overtures were
rejected by the aristocratic Cecily, a despondent William, while wandering the streets, bumped into Drusilla. She then bit him and transformed him into a vampire (cf. "Fool
for Love").
Whereas new vampires in the Buffyverse often delight in killing their families once they become evil, William
was a notable exception. Having always been very close to his mother, he turned her into a vampire to prevent her from dying
from tuberculosis. Unfortunately, his mother, as a vampire, taunted William claiming that
she had despised him all along, and insinuating that William had always had a sexual fascination with her. He ended up staking
her because he could not bear to see his mother in such a twisted form. Revealed in the Buffy Season Seven episode "Lies
My Parents Told Me" when the First
Evil uses it to manipulate Spike, this experience was a terrible trauma for
William; he would later write a poem about it entitled "The Wanton Folly of Me Mum," which was mentioned but
not recited in the Angel finale "Not
Fade Away".
After staking his mother, William began a new life
with Drusilla. Euphoric with his newfound vampiric abilities he became a rebel, adopting a working class North
London accent and embracing impulsiveness and violence. He adopted the nom de
guerre "Spike" due to his habit of torturing people with railroad spikes. In the company of Drusilla, Angelus (later known as Angel) and Darla, Spike terrorized Europe and Asia for almost two decades. Utterly devoted to Drusilla, he had a strained
relationship with Angelus; although Angelus did enjoy the company of another male vampire in their travels, he found Spike's
eagerness for battle to be an unnecessary risk. Angelus regarded killing as an art, not a sport, and killed for the sheer
act of evil; Spike did it for amusement and the rush. Tensions also arose surrounding Angelus' sexual relationship with Drusilla,
which continued despite Spike's strong disapproval (cf. "Destiny"). Spike at one point referred to Angel as both his "sire" and his "Yoda." Spike later notes that Drusilla made him a vampire, but Angelus made
him a monster. (Joss Whedon explained in an
interview that a vampire's sire refers to anyone prior to them in their
"line.")
In 1894, Spike and Angelus developed a rivalry with the Immortal; he made love concurrently with both Dru and Darla and later had Spike
send to prison for tax
evasion (cf. "The
Girl in Question"). In 1900, Spike killed a Slayer in China during the Boxer
Rebellion. In 1943, having lost touch with the other vampires, Spike was captured by Nazis for experimentation and taken aboard a submarine, where he encountered Angel(us) (cf. "Why
We Fight"). By the 1950s, Spike had reunited with Drusilla and they traveled to Italy. At some point, Spike also became rivals with famous vampire Dracula, apparently over his debt of "eleven pounds." Spike attended Woodstock, where he drank blood from a flower
child and spent the next several hours "watching his hand move", a side effect
from the psychoactive
drugs in their bloodstream. In 1977, he fought and killed Nikki
Wood, a Slayer in New
York City aboard a subway
train.
Spike's story before he appears in Sunnydale unfolds in flashbacks scattered among numerous episodes of both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. They are not presented
in chronological order. A guide to finding the flashback(s) to a particular event is "List
of Buffyverse historical flashbacks". The Buffy Season Five
episode "Fool
for Love", details much of Spike's history, more specifically his own
siring, and killing of the two Slayers.
Sunnydale
Spike first arrives in Sunnydale in the second season
of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in the episode "School
Hard", accompanied by Drusilla. Spike and Dru were fashioned after Sid and Nancy; punk, badass vampires to contrast sharply with the religiosity of the
Master and the Order
of Aurelius from Season One. Spike is in fact a fan of Sid Vicious' band, the Sex
Pistols; he can be seen singing to a Gary
Oldman cover of "My Way" in the final scene of the episode "Lovers
Walk." Throughout Season Two, Spike and Dru show for the first time on Buffy that vampires can be affectionate towards each other, and display the humanity
and intricacies of vampire relationships. Spike was initially created as a disposable villain that was going to be killed
off, however, he proved so popular with fans that Joss Whedon decided to simply injure him instead, in the episode "What's
My Line, Part Two".
Spike and Drusilla are major enemies of Buffy for
much of the second season. They arrive shortly after Drusilla is seriously weakened by an angry mob in Prague, the details of which are revealed in the canon comic book "The
Problem with Vampires". Spike is a devoted caretaker to Drusilla in her weakened condition, and
initially hopes that the Hellmouth's energy can help restore her strength. He reunites with Angel, but is
disgusted to find that he has a soul, and is in love with the current Slayer, Buffy
Summers. When Angel loses his soul and rejoins Spike and Dru, Spike's
initial celebration soon turns to resentment when Angelus starts pursuing Drusilla as a lover and taunting him. Spike decides
to ally himself with Buffy against Angelus; he explains to Buffy that, in addition to wanting Drusilla back, he also wants
to "save the world":
"We like to talk big, vampires do. I'm going to
destroy the world. That's just tough guy talk. Strutting around with your friends over a pint of blood. The truth is,
I like this world. You've got – the dog
racing, Manchester
United, and you've got people: billions of people walking around like Happy
Meals with legs. It's all right here. But then someone comes along with a vision,
with a real passion for destruction. Angel could pull it off. Goodbye
Piccadilly, farewell Leicester bloody Square." — Spike (cf. "Becoming,
Part Two").
Chip
Spike reappears in the Season Three episode "Lovers
Walk", in a drunken depression after Drusilla dumps him for a Chaos Demon. After
toying with the idea of using a love spell, he eventually resolves to win Drusilla back by simply torturing her until she
likes him again. He also tells Buffy and Angel that no matter what happens, they will never be friends because of their love
for one another. This insight foreshadows Spike's later role as the "truth-seer" of the group. Spike returns to Sunnydale
alone in Season Four, in the episode "The
Harsh Light of Day," briefly dating Harmony
Kendall, a shallow young vampire. After being implanted by The
Initiative with a microchip which prevents him from harming humans, Spike turns to the Scooby
Gang for protection. This inabilty to bite is comically compared to impotence, much to Spike's constant humiliation. From then on, he becomes a Buffy
cast regular and an unofficial member of the Scooby Gang, occasionally helping them out for a price (cf. "A
New Man"), but having no qualms about betraying them to such enemies as Faith and Adam. In Season Four, Spike was introduced to fill a similarly antagonistic
role as Cordelia had in seasons One to Three; as Joss Whedon explains on the
DVD featurette, "All of our characters got to the point where they were loving and hugging, and it was sort of like, 'Where's
Cordelia?'"
In Season Five, Spike becomes aware after some erotic
dreams that, to his horror, he has fallen in love with Buffy. He becomes a more active participant in the Scooby Gang, jumping
into several of Buffy's fights to provide assistance whether she wants it or not. When Buffy rejects his advances in the episode
"Crush", Spike attempts to prove his love by kidnapping her to witness him killing
Drusilla for her, to little avail. Not wanting to give up his obsession, Spike has Warren
Mears make a sex-bot
made in Buffy's likeness that is programmed to love and obey him. Disgusted, particularly after
witnessing the full extent of Spike's obsession, Buffy rejects Spike again, but reconciles after Spike refuses to reveal the
identity of Dawn
Summers to Glory under intense torture, nearly laying down his life to protect her. Buffy
is moved by his unexpected sacrifice and kisses him (cf. "Intervention"). In the days and hours leading up to the final showdown with
Glory, Spike fights by Buffy's side, earning her trust. After Buffy dies in the showdown with Glory, Spike honors her memory
by remaining loyal to the Scoobies, fighting at their side and serving the role of baby-sitter/father figure/protector to
Dawn.
During the sixth season, Spike and Buffy become violent
lovers following Buffy's resurrection. Unable to confide in her friends, Buffy is increasingly drawn to Spike. Their physical
relationship starts after a demon's spell makes them share their emotions and Buffy expresses that she "want[s] the fire back"
(cf. "Once
More, With Feeling"), but it is not consummated until the episode "Smashed". Buffy most often initiates both the violence and the sex between them,
and threatens to kill Spike if he ever tells anyone about their relationship. Both are unsatisfied with the relationship;
Buffy is ashamed of her dark desires, while Spike obsessively craves the love, trust, and affection that she is unwilling
to give. In the episode "As
You Were", Buffy admits that she is using Spike and finally ends their relationship.
Later, Spike and Anya get drunk together and seek solace in each other's arms (cf. "Entropy"). Believing he still has a chance with Buffy, Spike corners her and makes
aggressive sexual advances. When she refuses him, he grows desperate and unsuccessfully tries to rape her. Horrified by his own actions and intentions, Spike heads to a remote
area of Africa, where he seeks out a legendary demon shaman and undergoes the Demon Trials,
a series of grueling physical challenges. Proving his worthiness by surviving the trials, Spike earns his soul back (cf. "Grave").
Soul
In Season Seven, a re-ensouled Spike
must cope with the guilt of his past actions and try to win back Buffy's trust. When Buffy asks him why he had fought for
his soul, Spike explains that it was all in effort to find "the spark" for Buffy.
"Buffy, shame on you. Why does a man do what he mustn't? For her. To be hers. To be the kind
of man who would nev- To be a kind of man." — Spike (cf. "Beneath
You").
Under influence of the First
Evil's hypnotic trigger, Spike unknowingly starts killing again (cf. "Sleeper"). After he discovers what he has done, he begs Buffy to stake him, but
she refuses and takes him into her house, telling him she has seen him change. Buffy guards and cares for Spike throughout
his recovery, telling Spike that she believes in him, a statement which later sustains him throughout his imprisonment and
torture at the hands of the First. When Spike's chip begins to malfunction, causing him intense pain and threatening to kill
him, Buffy trusts him enough to order the Initiative operatives to remove it from his head (cf. "The
Killer in Me"). When Nikki Wood's son Robin tries to kill Spike, he unwittingly frees Spike from his hypnotic trigger:
the song "Early One Morning" that Spike's mother sang when he was human. The song evokes Spike's traumatic memories of his
mother's abusive behavior toward him after she turned; after Spike is able to address these issues, he realizes that his mother
had always loved him, knowledge which frees him from the First's control (cf. "Lies
My Parents Told Me").
Later in the season, Spike and Buffy achieve an emotional
closeness; they spend two nights together, one of which Spike describes as the best night of his life, just holding her. It
is unclear whether they resume their sexual intimacy the second night; creator Joss Whedon says on the DVD commentary for
"Chosen" that he intentionally left it to the viewers to decide how they felt the
relationship progressed, though Whedon had earlier stated on the commentary that he personally felt having them resume a sexual
relationship would send the wrong message. In the final battle inside the Hellmouth, Spike, wearing a mystical amulet, sacrifices
himself to destroy the Turok-Han and close the Hellmouth. He is slowly incinerated in the process, but not before Buffy tells
him "I love you." He replies, "No, you don't — but thanks for saying it". Even as he burns and crumbles to dust, Spike
laughs and revels in the destruction before him, glad to be able to see the fight to its end. He finally dies at the Hellmouth
and saves the world in the process, becoming a Champion (cf. "Chosen").
"Now, you listen to me. I’ve been alive a bit longer than you. And dead a lot longer
than that. I’ve seen things you couldn’t imagine- done things I’d prefer you didn’t. I don’t
exactly have a reputation for being a thinker. I follow my blood. Which doesn’t exactly rush in the direction of my
brain. I've made a lot of mistakes. A lot of wrong bloody calls. A hundred plus years and there’s only one thing I’ve
ever been sure of. You." — Spike (cf. "Touched").
Los Angeles
Despite his apparent death at the end of Buffy's final season, Spike returns in the fifth and final season of the spin-off series Angel. Resurrected
by the amulet in the Los Angeles branch of supernatural law firm Wolfram
& Hart, he spends the first seven episodes of the series as a incorporeal being
akin to a ghost. As well as battling enemies such as "the Reaper" Matthias Pavayne (cf.
"Hell
Bound") and psychotic Slayer Dana (cf. "Damage"), Spike also takes on Angel to prove which one of them is the Champion
spoken of in the Shanshu
Prophecy. Spike defeats Angel, but the prophecy remains ambiguous (cf. "Destiny"). Manipulated by Lindsey
McDonald into "helping the helpless", Spike becomes a sort of rival to Angel; resembling
the heroic Champion Angel was in earlier seasons before becoming disillusioned and corrupted by the bureaucracy of Wolfram
& Hart. In "Soul
Purpose", Spike even repeats the "double-staking" move which Angel performs in
the episode "City
Of", illustrating the similarity between the two characters. Cordelia comments
on this strange turn of events in "You're
Welcome", exclaiming to Angel, "Okay, Spike's a hero, and you're CEO of Hell, Incorporated.
What freaking bizarro
world did I wake up in?"
When Spike's friend Fred is killed by Illyria, Spike mourns her death and decides to join Team
Angel in her honour (cf. "A
Hole in the World" and "Shells"). Angel and Spike discover that Buffy is now dating the Immortal, and
travel to Rome to find her, but fail to catch up with her (cf. "The
Girl in Question"). During the final episodes of Angel,
Spike is the first to vote for Angel's plan to wound the Senior
Partners by taking out the Circle
of the Black Thorn. He then spends his potentially-last day returning to his mortal roots
as a frustrated poet, triumphantly knocking them dead (figuratively) in an open mic poetry slam at a bar. After single-handedly
rescuing an infant and destroying the Fell Brethren, Spike joins Angel, Illyria, and a badly-wounded Charles
Gunn in the alley behind the Hyperion as the series draws to an end, preparing to incur the apocalyptic wrath
of the Senior Partners, as a way of going out in a blaze of glory (cf. "Not
Fade Away"). The question of whether Spike survived this battle was left
unanswered by the show.
Spike appears in certain material set after Angel
Season Five. It is unconfirmed whether he will appear in the canonical Angel Season Six, although Whedon has confirmed Spike and Angel will appear in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season
Eight although as of issue #3 he, as well as Angel, has only appeared in a steamy dream sequence about Buffy's sexual
fantasies.