Spike


 * For the unproduced film, see Spike (film).

"I may be love's bitch, but at least I'm man enough to admit it."

- Spike

Spike (aka William "The Bloody") was a famous and widely feared vampire.

Spike first appears in Sunnydale in Buffy's second season, in the episode "School Hard", accompanied by his longtime love Drusilla. Spike has the standard powers and vulnerabilities of a vampire. But he seems more resistant to the sun light than any other vampire in the series. He also has a more varied diet than just blood. He can identify and track someone by scent alone. One of the factors making Spike so deadly an opponent in battle is his complete disregard for tradition and rules. He loves combat for the sheer joy and adrenaline rush. He particularly appreciates fights that pose a challenge and his fighting style blends kung fu, karate, and various other martial arts.

Early history
William Pratt was born circa 1850 to 1853 in London, England to Anne and an unnamed husband. In 1880, when William was about 27 to 30 years old, he was an ineffectual gentleman who lived with his mother and wrote poetry. He was called "William 'the Bloody'" behind his back because his poetry was so "bloody awful." This nickname (with more deadly connotations) would follow him in his future as a vampire. While he traveled in high society circles, William found little in common with his peers. He 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 (as seen in the episode "Fool for Love"). However, in "School Hard," Spike's first appearance on the show, Spike says that Angel was his sire. The apparent contradiction can be resolved if we assume that the sire of ones sire can also be loosely called "sire". (Angel directly sired Drusilla)

While new vampires in the Buffyverse sometimes delight in killing their families once they become evil, William had always been very close to his mother, and 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. The entire experience was a terrible trauma for William; he would later write a poem about the experience entitled "The Wanton Folly of Me Mum," the text of which was never presented on-screen. This experience also comes to haunt him later on in the series when The First Evil uses it to manipulate Spike.

After staking his mother, William began a new life with Drusilla. Euphoric with his newfound vampiric abilities he abandoned the genteel hypocrisy of Victorian life. 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, inspired by a detractor from his human days who had exclaimed that he would rather "have a railroad spike driven through [his] head" than listen to William's poetry. In the company of Drusilla, her sire Angel and Angelus' sire Darla, Spike terrorized Europe and Asia for almost two decades. Utterly devoted to Drusilla, he had a strained relationship with Angelus, rather like two rival brothers. 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's sexual relationship with Drusilla, which continued despite Spike's strong disapproval. 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 1900, Spike killed a Slayer during the Boxer Rebellion; She gave him the scar on his left eyebrow, which remained a century later. Shortly afterward, he and Drusilla lost touch with Darla and Angelus (who, unknown to Spike or Drusilla, had recently been given a soul), and the couple wandered the world seeking amusement and mayhem, occasionally separating to pursue separate interests but always reuniting. During World War II, Spike and Drusilla accepted a commission from the ice demon Skrymir, and were tasked with the elimination of all potential Slayers, as well as the Slayer herself, in exchange for Freyja's Strand, a task at which they ultimately failed. Later in the war he was captured by Nazis for experimentation and taken aboard a submarine which was in turn seized by Americans. After Spike and two other vampires killed most of the crew, Angel made Spike and another vampire Angel had just sired leave the submarine, forcing them to swim to shore before the submarine reached the United States. While leaving the submarine, Spike looked to Angel and proclaimed, "You're still a dick." By the 1950s, Spike had reunited with Drusilla and they traveled to Italy. At some point, Spike spent time in prison for tax evasion. He also at some point became rivals with Dracula, apparently because he owes Spike £11.

At some point in a century or so of being his own boss, Spike employed a pair of Fyarl Demons as muscle, which is unusual because vampires and demons rarely get along; he continues this diversity in friendships and relationships throughout his un-life. 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 the 1970s, He fought and killed Nikki Wood, a Slayer in New York City aboard a subway train.

Sunnydale
"Once he starts something he doesn't stop, until everything in his path is dead. Stay away."

- Angel on Spike

Spike first appears in Sunnydale in the second season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in the episode "School Hard," accompanied by his longtime love Drusilla, who has been seriously weakened by an angry mob in Prague. He is a devoted caretaker to Drusilla in her weakened condition, and initially hopes that the Hellmouth's energy can help restore her strength. The presence of a Slayer to fight makes the town even more attractive to Spike. Upon discovering that Angel(us) is also in Sunnydale, he initially greets the older vampire as a friend (not realizing that Angel now has a soul); however, Angel's loyalty to Buffy soon ends their camaraderie. When Spike later learns that Drusilla can only be cured by the blood of the vampire who had sired her (Angel), he is more than willing to kill Angel in order to restore Dru.

Spike and Drusilla are major enemies of Buffy for much of the second season. He is severely injured in a fight with Buffy and Kendra (in the episode "What's My Line, Part Two") when a church organ collapses on him and spends several months unable to walk, using a wheelchair instead. (Joss Whedon had originally intended to kill Spike, but the character had grown popular with fans and it was decided to injure him instead.)

When Angel reverts to Angelus after making love with Buffy, he joins Spike and Drusilla, and eventually plots with Dru to destroy all of humanity. Spike initially celebrates their reunion with Angelus and demonstrates affection, but their longtime rivalry is renewed when Angelus taunts the (temporarily) helpless Spike by pursuing Dru as a lover. Spike continues to use his wheelchair after he recovers, feigning weakness to avoid suspicion while he plots against Angelus. Spike decides to ally himself with Buffy in his efforts; 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."

When Buffy makes her attack, Spike knocks out Drusilla, removing her from the fight. He and an unconscious Dru leave Sunnydale and travel to Brazil.

Spike appears in only one episode of Season Three, "Lovers Walk." In Brazil, Drusilla is horrified by his alliance with the Slayer and senses that Spike will develop feelings for Buffy; she rejects and cheats on him, which sends him into an extended drunken depression. Spike returns to Sunnydale and attempts to force Willow Rosenberg to cast a love spell on Drusilla. He visits Joyce Summers, who listens sympathetically to his heartache, and recruits Buffy and Angel to help him gather spell ingredients. After reveling in the rush of an intense fight, Spike cheerfully abandons the love spell idea, resolving to win Drusilla back by 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. Buffy remarks to Angel that "I can fool Giles, and I can fool my friends, but I can't fool myself – or Spike, for some reason," foreshadowing Spike's role as the "truth-seer" of the group.

Chip
"You feel smothered. Trapped like an animal, pure in its ferocity, unable to actualize the urges within... Clinging to one truth like a flame struggling to burn within an enclosed glass... That a beast this powerful cannot be contained."

- Adam

Spike returns to Sunnydale alone in Season Four, in the episode "The Harsh Light of Day," to search for the Gem of Amarra, a talisman that allows a vampire to endure sunlight and even a stake to the heart without ill effect; he later travels to Los Angeles to retrieve it, torturing Angel in an attempt to discover its location before he is thwarted and driven from the city (cf. Angel, Season 1, "In the Dark"). He becomes involved with Harmony Kendall, a shallow young vampire who used to be Cordelia's best friend before being turned at graduation. Despite her beauty and affection, Spike treats her as little more than a nuisance and sexual plaything.

His un-life takes a pivotal turn when The Initiative, a secret government demon-fighting army, captures him and implants a microchip in his head, which causes crippling pain whenever he harms or attempts to harm a human being. Unable to hunt for blood, Spike turns to the Scooby Gang for protection, bartering his knowledge of the The Initiative; he quickly becomes their reluctant captive. In the episode "A New Man," he helps Giles out of a tight spot in exchange for money. In the episode "Something Blue," Spike and Buffy briefly become engaged through an accidental enchantment by Willow; although the spell only commands them to get married, each mentions being in love, foreshadowing their later bond.

Spike discovers that the chip does not prevent him from fighting demons; since he thrives on violence, he fights alongside the Scoobies on occasion. At this point, Spike is still looking out for himself first and foremost, and does not shy away from letting the Scoobies know it. For example, upon learning that Faith is on the loose after coming out of her coma, he proclaims that he will find her and tell her exactly where the Scoobies are, and watch while she tears them all apart.

Later in the season, Spike allies with Adam, a demon/human/cyborg chimera created by the Initiative, and helps the creature in its quest to destroy the Initiative and the Scoobies. Spike's price is simple: he wants the Initiative's chip out of his head for good. He briefly manages to turn the Scoobies against each other by manipulating existing tensions within the group (cf. "The Yoko Factor"), but he changes sides again when he realizes that Adam is double-crossing him and helps to save the Scoobies from rampaging demons in the middle of a battle.

In Season Five, Spike becomes aware after some erotic dreams that, to his horror, he has fallen in love with Buffy. Unsure how to proceed, he keeps a nightly vigil outside her home, occasionally even breaking in (most notably to sniff and steal Buffy's clothing, and to steal photographs for his secret shrine to her). Spike also 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. At Buffy's request, he reveals to her how he killed the two Slayers he had fought, offering survival advice, and later comforts her when her mother has to go into the hospital.

Buffy's younger sister Dawn, who has a crush on Spike, perceives his feelings for Buffy, and casually mentions it to Buffy. When Buffy rejects his advances, Spike attempts to prove his love by kidnapping her to witness him killing Drusilla for her. When that fails, Buffy has has Willow uninvite him from her home (something she had not bothered to do in the two years since their alliance against Angel).

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 location of the Key to Glory under intense torture, nearly laying down his life to protect Dawn. Buffy is moved by his unexpected sacrifice and kisses him. In the days and hours leading up to the final showdown with Glory, Spike fights by Buffy's side, earning her trust (as well as a re-invite to her home). 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. Blaming himself for Buffy's death, he keeps track of the number of days since she died until she is resurrected in Season Six.

During the sixth season, Spike and Buffy became lovers. 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," but it is not consummated until Spike finds out that his chip no longer stops him from hurting the resurrected Buffy. 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. During their first sexual encounter, they fought and the house around them shook and fell, foreshadowing the volatile nature of 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.

Shortly after Buffy's ex-boyfriend Riley Finn finds Spike in possession of smuggled demon eggs and accuses him of being "The Doctor" (cf. "As You Were"), Buffy ends their relationship. Spike at first tries to make her jealous by bringing a date to Xander and Anya's wedding. Later, after Xander leaves Anya at the altar, Spike and Anya get drunk together and seek solace in each other's arms. Buffy and Xander catch them, and her jealousy at seeing Spike with Anya leads him to believe he still has a chance at winning Buffy back.

After a lecture from Dawn, Spike, his obsession out of control, corners an injured Buffy in her bathroom, making aggressive sexual advances. When Buffy refuses him, he attacks her in desperation, apparently intending to rape her; although their sexual history is highly violent, Buffy clearly says no to this encounter. Horrified by his own actions and intentions, Spike leaves town and heads to a remote area of Africa. He seeks out a legendary demon shaman and undergoes the Demon Trials, a series of grueling physical challenges, to prove his worthiness. Spike survives the trials, earning back his soul (cf. "Grave").

Soul
With the returning of his soul comes a conscience filled with guilt. In the early episodes of Season Seven, Spike resides in the basement of the recently reconstructed Sunnydale High School, close to the Hellmouth's opening. Tormented by The First Evil as well as his newfound conscience, he appears to be going insane (he notes at one point that he is "bug-shagging crazy"). When Buffy asks him why he had fought for his soul, Spike explains: "For her. To be hers. To be the kind of man who would nev-...To be a kind of man." After Buffy learns that Spike is in the basement, she enlists his assistance in several situations, although it is not until well after she learns that he is ensouled that she decides to bring him out of the basement.

Spike becomes reluctant roommates with Xander, because he has nowhere else to go. However, this arrangement backfires as Spike, under influence of the First Evil's hypnotic trigger, unknowingly kills innocent people. Spike initially has no memory of his actions; after he discovers what he has done, he begs Buffy to stake him. Buffy refuses and takes him into her house, telling him she has seen him change. He suffers severe withdrawals after his extended feeding on human blood, and is still vulnerable to the (as yet unidentified) hypnotic trigger, so he is willingly confined with ropes or chains. 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 Evil.

Spike assists Buffy in her efforts to train the Potentials that are gathering in Sunnydale. In the meantime, his chip begins to malfunction, causing him intense pain and threatening to end his un-life. To the dismay of Giles and her friends, Buffy trusts Spike enough to order Initiative operatives to remove it from his head. She also takes Spike's side when Robin Wood attempts to kill him in retribution for the murder of his mother, Nikki Wood, the Slayer Spike killed in 1977. Ironically, by attempting to kill Spike when he is under the First's influence, Wood frees Spike from his hypnotic trigger: a song called "Early One Morning" that Spike's mother often sang to him before he became a vampire. 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.

Later in the season, Spike and Buffy achieve an emotional closeness; he, alone, remains selflessly loyal to her when the other Scoobies, Giles, and the Potentials abandon her (noting, with contempt: "You sad, sad, ungrateful traitors. Who do you think you are? ... She has saved your lives again and again. She's died for you. And this is how you thank her?"). After Spike tracks Buffy to an abandoned house, they spend three nights together; after the first night, Spike tells Buffy that it was the best night of his life, just holding her. It is unclear whether they resume their sexual intimacy the second night; creator Joss Whedon said 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, fights alongside Buffy, Faith and the newly awakened Slayers against the First Evil's army of Turok-Han. The amulet mystically channels sunlight that turns the Turok-Han to dust and collapses the cavern containing the Hellmouth, sealing it and creating a crater which swallows up the entire town of Sunnydale. Despite Buffy's pleas, Spike sacrifices himself to destroy the Turok-Han and close the Hellmouth. Spike is slowly incinerated in the process, but not before Buffy tells him "I love you." (This is what the prophetic Cassie Newton was referring when, earlier in the season she says to Spike, "She'll tell you".) Even as he burns and crumbles to dust, Spike chuckles 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.

Los Angeles
Despite his apparent death at the end of Buffy's final season, Spike returns in the fifth and final season of Angel. The amulet he wore at the Hellmouth mysteriously returns to Wolfram & Hart by mail; Spike materializes from a whirlwind after Angel opens the envelope. Spike initially intends to leave Wolfram & Hart and find Buffy, who is now in Europe; however, he discovers that he is mystically bound to Los Angeles and unable to leave.

For the first seven 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. As his disappearances become more frequent and intense, Spike, terrified, confides only to Fred that every time he disappears, he is being transported to Hell. He asks her to help save him, and she promises to find a way to make him corporeal again. Later, in the episode "Hell Bound," it is discovered that Spike's disappearances are being caused by another ghost, Matthias Pavayne aka The Reaper, who toys with the many souls trapped at Wolfram & Hart in order to delay his own sentence to Hell. Fred successfully creates a machine to recorporealize Spike, but when Pavayne threatens Fred's life, Spike chooses to use the machine to save her, throwing away his opportunity to become corporeal but successfully stopping Pavayne; Spike's heroic actions reinforce Fred's belief that he is "worth saving." Spike finds himself able to affect the world around him if he wants to badly enough, so he is able to assist in fighting before he is actually recorporealized.

Later, Spike receives a mysterious package in the mail; when he opens it, he sees a flash of light and discovers that he has become corporeal again. Chaos concurrently erupts in Wolfram & Hart, and Eve arrives with information that the existence of two corporeal ensouled vampire Champions is complicating the Shanshu Prophecy and destroying the fabric of reality (although it was later implied that Angel's old foe Lindsey McDonald made the situation worse than it would have been). She tells them that a new translation of the Prophecy reveals that, in order to restore the balance, Spike and Angel must compete to drink from the Cup of Perpetual Torment, which will bestow upon the winner great responsibilities and pain before ultimately washing his past clean and allowing him to live as human again. In their extended physical and verbal battle, each tries to assert himself as the better man. Although Angel tells Spike that Spike is a monster just like him, Spike denies any similarities: "You had a soul forced on you. As a curse. Make you suffer for all the horrible things you've done. Me, I fought for my soul, went through the demon trials, almost did me in a dozen times over, but I kept fighting. Because I knew it was the right thing to do. It's my destiny." Their battle culminates with Angel unable to touch a giant cross, which Spike, contemptuously ignoring the pain, holds and wields with ease. During the fight, he also reveals his hate and resentment toward Angel for making him into the monster he became. Spike defeats Angel for the first time in their long history and drinks from the Cup, but the prophecy turns out to be a sham (the liquid in the Cup was merely Mountain Dew).

Even though he is now corporeal (and therefore no longer bound to Los Angeles), Spike decides not to go to Europe in search of Buffy; he wants her to remember him as the hero who died to save the world. Beginning in the episode "Soul Purpose," Lindsey McDonald, using the name of the late half-demon Doyle with a connection to The Powers That Be, persuades Spike 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. Alienated by Angel's corporate, bureaucratic approach to fighting evil, Spike steps into his role as hero. He takes on Dana, a psychotic Slayer who had, until recently, been locked in a mental institution, but Dana captures him, drugs him, and cuts off his hands. This experience causes Spike to more deeply examine the nature of the evil inside him, and he tells Angel that Dana thought that he had killed her whole family, and says: "And I'm supposed to, what, complain, because hers wasn't one of the hundreds of families I did kill?" Spike believes that Dana has become a monster like them, but Angel responds that the girl is an innocent victim, and Spike points out that he and Angel were innocent victims at one point. Spike's hands are reattached at Wolfram & Hart, and he is instructed to play video games for physical therapy, including Donkey Kong and Crash Bandicoot''.

Eventually, Spike learns that "Doyle" is actually Lindsey, who has been manipulating him the whole time. His relationship with Angel becomes increasingly acrimonious, and they contemplate the possibility of Spike leaving L.A. after a particularly bitter argument over whether cavemen or astronauts would win in a fight (cf. "A Hole in the World"). When Fred becomes infected with the essence of the Old One known as Illyria, Spike works alongside Angel and the rest of the crew to find a cure, and mourns for Fred when they fail. He abandons the idea of leaving L.A. after Fred's death, deciding to stay because that is what Fred would have wanted. Spike is put in charge of "testing" the newly-awakened Illyria's abilities, which generally involves fighting with her and recording details on his clipboard, and the two develop a bond. By the end of the season, Spike is a trusted member of the group. Although Spike and Angel remain antagonistic, they are a lethally effective fighting team thanks to their decades or so of experience with each other.

When the final episodes of Angel air, Spike is the first to vote for Angel's plan to wound the Senior Partners by taking out the Circle of the Black Thorn. Before Angel's team enters what may be their 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, triumphantly knocks them dead (figuratively) in an open mic poetry slam at a bar after having some drinks to gather 'Dutch courage,' reciting his completed version of a poem he had begun over a century earlier before being sired by Drusilla (cf. "Not Fade Away").

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.

Spike would, however, survive the battle.

After the Fall
After the rebellion of Team Angel, the Senior Partners sent the entire city of Los Angeles to a hell dimension. With the city divided among several demons, Spike becomes the Lord of Beverly Hills, taking with him a huge harem of human and demon girls.

Slayers
"You know what I find works real good with Slayers? Killing them."

- Spike

In "Fool for Love" Spike retells Buffy of how he first learns about the Slayer. And how He then sets out with the goal of killing her. He tracks down his first Slayer, Xin Rong in China during the Boxer Rebellion. Spike kills her during the battle, but not before she cuts him above the eye, giving him his trademark scar. He feeds off of the Slayer, whose blood acts like an aphrodisiac to vampires.

Later, in the 1970s he tracks down another Slayer, Nikki Wood, in New York. They fight on the subway, with Spike eventually snapping her neck. He then takes her leather coat which he is seen wearing for the entire series.

Behind the Scenes

 * Spike's story before he appears in Sunnydale unfolds in both Expanded Universe material and flashbacks scattered among numerous episodes of both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.
 * Whedon has confirmed Spike and Angel will appear in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight although as of issue #11 he, as well as Angel, has only appeared in a steamy dream sequence about Buffy's sexual fantasies.
 * Spike was originally intended to die in What's My Line, Part Two, at which time Drusilla would become the main villain along with Angelus. However, due to the immense popularity of the character and Marsters' performance, the character was given a reprieve and placed temporarily into a wheelchair instead.
 * It was after Marsters' guest appearance in one episode of Season 3, and Marsters' immediate chemistry with the cast, when Joss Whedon decided that he wanted Spike to return as part of the permanent cast and devised the chip storyline.
 * James Marsters auditioned for the role with both a Southern US Gentleman's accent and the eventually-chosen cockney accent.
 * Spike's present-day resemblance to British punk rocker Billy Idol was a running gag throughout Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Numerous times, Spike claimed that he invented the look, and Idol stole it.