Spike (Buffyverse)
Encyclopedia
Spike, played by James Marsters
, is a fictional character
created by Joss Whedon
for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel
. Spike is a vampire and played various roles on the shows, ranging from villain
to anti-hero
. For Marsters, the role as Spike began a career in science fiction television, becoming "the obvious go-to guy for US cult [television]". For creator Whedon, Spike is the "most fully developed" of his characters.
Within the series' narrative, William was originally an unsuccessful aspiring poet in the Victorian era
. Sired by the vampire Drusilla (Juliet Landau
), William became "William the Bloody", an unusually passionate and romantic vampire. Alongside Drusilla and Angelus (David Boreanaz
), William acquired the nickname Spike for his method of killing; in time he became noted for killing two vampire Slayers. In the 1970s, Spike acquired his trademark bleached blond Billy Idol
haircut and leather duster. In 1997 Spike comes to Sunnydale
hoping to kill a third Slayer, Buffy Summers
(Sarah Michelle Gellar
), with whom he later forges an uneasy alliance. Over the course of Buffy, Spike falls in love with the Slayer and acquires a soul to prove himself to her, dying a hero in the Buffy series finale before being resurrected in the fifth season of spin-off series Angel.
Considered a 'breakout character
', Spike proved immensely popular with fans of Buffy. The character appears substantially in Expanded Universe
materials such as comic book
s and tie-in novels. Following the cancellation of Angel in 2004, Whedon considered creating a Spike film spin-off. Canonically
, the character appears in issues of the comic books Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight
and Angel: After the Fall
in 2007, several Spike miniseries, and a Spike ongoing series in 2010.
unfolds in flashback
s scattered, out of sequence, among numerous episodes of both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. The first flashback occurs in Buffy Season Five's "Fool for Love", and reveals William as in fact a meek, effete young man (and an aspiring poet) who lived in London
with his mother Anne. Anne would often sing the folksong "Early One Morning
" to her son when he was a baby, right up until the time he was turned into a vampire. William's surname is given as "Pratt" in the non-canon comic Old Times
and is written on the label of his jar of blood in the comic Spike: Asylum #002. The name William Pratt may allude to horror actor Boris Karloff
, whose birth name was William Henry Pratt, and can also be understood as the British slang term "prat", describing a person of arrogant stupidity. Spike is one of the youngest recurring vampires on the show; he claimed in Season Four "The Initiative
" that he was 126, although in "School Hard
" Giles read that he was "barely two hundred" and in "Fool for Love" it shows that Spike was sired in 1880, but this would have made him about 7 when he was turned which he clearly was not (see image below).
In 1880, William was a struggling poet
, 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 three years after it was first mentioned in Season Two, when it was believed to have purely violent connotations. William showed a strong capacity for loyalty and devoted love, which remained after his siring. After his romantic overtures were rejected by the aristocratic Cecily, William wandered the streets despondently and bumped into Drusilla. She consoled him, drained him of blood and made him drink of her blood, thus transforming him into a vampire – "siring" him, in the jargon of the series. Spike's grand-sire Angelus became his mentor (leading Spike occasionally to describe him loosely as his sire): "Drusilla sired me, but you, you made me a monster." 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 save her from tuberculosis
. But his mother, as a vampire, taunted William and insinuated he had always had a sexual fascination with her. William chose to stake her because he found he could not bear to see his mother behaving like the soulless vampire he had made of her. (She, like most vampires, lacked his unusual capacity for some of the softer human emotions.) He would later write a poem about this traumatic experience titled "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, to whom he was utterly devoted. Euphoric with his newfound vampiric abilities, he adopted the poses and trappings of a cultural rebel, affecting a working class North London
accent and embracing impulsiveness and extreme violence. He adopted the nom de guerre "Spike" based on his habit of torturing people with railroad spikes – possibly prompted by criticism of his poetry: "I'd rather have a railroad spike through my head than listen to that awful stuff." In "The Weight of the World" Spike mentions having spent "the better part of a century" in delinquency, suggesting criminal activities other than killing for blood. In the company of Drusilla, Angelus and Darla, Spike terrorized Europe
and Asia
for almost two decades. He had a strained relationship with Drusilla's sire Angelus, who continued a sexual relationship with her despite Spike's strong disapproval. Although Angelus did enjoy the company of another male vampire in their travels, he found Spike's recklessness and lust for battle to be unnecessary risks. 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.
In 1894, Spike and Angelus developed a rivalry with the enigmatic Immortal, who later had Spike sent to prison for tax evasion
. In 1900, Spike killed a Slayer in China
during the Boxer Rebellion
. In 1943, he was captured by Nazis for experimentation and taken aboard a submarine
, where he was briefly reunited with Angel. By the 1950s, Spike had reunited with Drusilla, and they traveled to Italy
. At some point, Spike also became rivals with famous vampire Dracula
. The enmity between Spike and Dracula was explored in the comic series Spike vs. Dracula, in which their mutual hatred is caused when Spike, along with Darla and Drusilla, slaughtered the Romani (gypsy) tribe who had cursed their patriarch, Angelus, with a soul, although it is unclear if either Spike or Drusilla knew precisely why Darla was so angry with the tribe. That clan (unknown to Spike) was favored by Dracula and he sought revenge for their deaths. Spike later mentions in a conversation with Riley Finn, "Dracula? Poncy bugger owes me £11, for one thing," because Dracula tossed Spike's signed copy of Bram Stoker
's Dracula in a fire in 1898. Spike also notes that Dracula's fame has done more damage to vampires than any Slayer. Spike attended Woodstock
in 1969, whereupon he accidentally became high after ingesting the blood of a hippy, he claims to have spent the next six hours following the incident "watching my hand move". In 1977 he fought and killed a second Slayer, Nikki Wood, aboard a subway train in New York City
, taking from her a black leather duster
which he wears throughout his appearances on Buffy and Angel until it is destroyed in an explosion in Season Five of Angel, whereupon he gets a new one that looks exactly like the old one ("The Girl in Question"). At some point post-1977, Billy Idol
allegedly "stole" Spike's look and made it famous as his own (as revealed in Season Seven's "Sleeper
"; see "Appearance" below); Spike's thoughts on this are unrecorded. Inasmuch as Buffy knew of the "theft" as of "Sleeper," Spike presumably shared the detail with her in an undepicted moment.
Spike's flashback appearances, in chronological order, include:
", accompanied by Drusilla. Spike and Dru were modeled on Sid Vicious
and Nancy Spungen
; punk, "badass" vampires to contrast sharply with the more ceremonial tradition of the Master and the Order of Aurelius
from Season One. Spike is in fact a fan of Sid Vicious' band The Sex Pistols
and punk band The Ramones. In the final scene of the episode "Lovers Walk
", he can be seen singing to a cover of "My Way
" by Gary Oldman
, who portrayed Vicious in the film Sid and Nancy
. Notably, Spike's first act in Sunnydale is to attack Buffy and a large group of people at her school, making his first appearance the deadliest of any of Buffys "Big Bad
s", as he very nearly kills Buffy, but Buffy's mother distracts Spike long enough for Buffy to recover. Throughout Season Two, Spike and Dru are the canon's most prominent example of affection between vampires, displaying the humanity and intricacies of vampire relationships. Spike was initially conceived as a disposable villain to be killed off, but proved so popular with fans that Joss Whedon decided to merely injure him instead, in the episode "What's My Line, Part Two
", in which Spike is crushed by a collapsing pipe organ
and left paralyzed. (Later it is revealed that he has recovered at some point, and has chosen to stay in the wheelchair to deceive Angel who he intended to betray.)
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
, as recounted in the canon comic book The Problem with Vampires. Spike is a devoted caretaker to Drusilla in her weakened condition, and initially hopes the Hellmouth's energy can help restore her strength. He reunites with Angel and seems genuinely pleased to see him, but is disgusted to find that Angel has a soul (whether or not Spike in fact knew that Angel's acquisition of a soul is why he left the group nearly a century before has never been made clear) 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; as he explains to Buffy, in addition to wanting Drusilla back, he also wants to "save the world":
Spike reappears in the Season Three episode "Lovers Walk
", in a drunken depression
after Drusilla, offended by his alliance with Buffy, dumps him for a Chaos demon. He kidnaps Willow and Xander, and forces Willow to conduct a love spell for him to make Drusilla love him again, even coercing Buffy and Angel to help him in exchange for the safe return of their friends. The excitement of a brawl with the Mayor's vampires helps him see that Drusilla left him because he had begun to go soft; he resolves to win her back by torturing
her until she likes him again, and tells Buffy where to find Willow and Xander. He also tells Buffy and Angel that they can 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 living with Harmony Kendall
, a shallow young vampire. He is in Sunnydale to look for the Gem of Amarra, a ring which makes a vampire effectively invulnerable. He finds it and attacks Buffy in daylight, but she wrests the ring from his finger and sends it to Angel. Spike goes to Los Angeles, and hires a vampire named Marcus to torture Angel in order to get the ring, but Marcus takes the ring himself and Angel finally destroys it.
After being captured by the Initiative and implanted with a cerebral microchip
which punishes him with debilitating pain whenever he harms or attempts to harm any non-demon life forms, Spike turns to the Scooby Gang for protection, bartering his knowledge of the Initiative. His inability to bite is comically compared to impotence, much to Spike's constant humiliation; in "Doomed", he attempts to commit suicide
by staking himself at Xander's house, but is stopped by Willow and Xander. Occasionally helping the Scooby Gang by providing them with information and/or combat assistance in exchange for cash or for the joy of fighting, but having no qualms about betraying them to such enemies as Faith and Adam. In Season Four, Spike was introduced to fill the antagonistic role that 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?" Spike appeared in every episode thereafter with the exception of "The Body".
In Season Five, after some erotic dreams, Spike becomes aware to his horror that 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, Spike attempts to prove his love by kidnapping her so that she can witness him killing Drusilla for her, to little avail; in her disgust, Buffy un-invites him from her house (something she had not bothered to do in the almost three years since their alliance against Angelus) and alienates him from the group.
Spike then has Warren Mears
make a robot in Buffy's likeness, programmed to love and obey him. Though Buffy is disgusted by this, her hostility towards him fades considerably when she learns that Spike refused, even under intense torture, to reveal the identity of The Key to Glory
, nearly laying down his life to protect Buffy's sister Dawn
. Buffy is moved by this unexpected loyalty and kisses him, saying she will not forget what he has done. In the days and hours leading up to the final showdown with Glory, Spike fights by Buffy's side, earning her trust and a re-invitation to her house. Spike displays unabashed grief 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 / older brother / protector to Dawn, helping Willow and Tara to raise her in Buffy's absence.
After Buffy is resurrected at the beginning of Season Six, she is despondent and detached from her friends. During this time, her relationship to Spike deepens and she is able to talk to him about things she feels she cannot share with the Scooby Gang. She gets drunk with Spike, and calls him "a neutered vampire who cheats at kitten poker." After a demon's spell makes them express their emotions in song, and Buffy sings "I want the fire back", Buffy and Spike begin a physical relationship, consummated two episodes later. The relationship is frequently violent, with Buffy most often initiating both the violence and the sex between them; the violence is made all the easier when Spike finds that (as a side effect of Willow's resurrection spell) his chip now does not stop him from harming Buffy. Buffy threatens to kill Spike if he ever tells anyone about their relationship. Both are unsatisfied; Buffy is ashamed of her dark desires, while Spike obsessively craves the love, trust, and affection that she is unwilling to give. In "As You Were", Buffy tells Spike she is using him and ends their relationship. Believing he still has a chance with Buffy after seeing her reactions of jealousy and hurt when he has a drunk sexual encounter with Anya, Spike corners her and makes aggressive sexual advances. When she refuses him, he grows desperate and unsuccessfully tries to rape
her. He is at once horrified by his own actions and intentions, while also somewhat remiss that he did not go through with the rape, since he is still essentially a demon and has had no problem committing such acts in the past. This is seen in his reactions to reliving the memory of the event while discussing his subsequent mood with Clem, who has come by with hot wings to hangout. 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. Up until this point it is still unclear what he hopes to gain from this. A question stemming from the back and forth between his demon nature and his love for Buffy. Is he asking to have his chip removed so he can be his old self again and "give her what she deserves" as he says, implying violence of some kind as retaliation for spurning his advances? Or is what she deserves a "better man? Proving his worthiness by surviving the trials, Spike earns his soul back.
In Season Seven, a re-ensouled Spike must cope with the guilt of his past actions and try to win back Buffy's trust. But under influence of the First Evil
's hypnotic trigger, Spike unknowingly starts killing again. Upon discovering 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 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. When Nikki Wood's son Robin tries to kill Spike, he unwittingly frees Spike from his hypnotic trigger: the song "Early One Morning
", a favorite of his mother, which 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 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 stays loyal to her when the Scoobies and Potentials mutiny against her, and his words and encouragement give a depressed Buffy the strength to continue fighting. They spend three 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 during the third 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 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 around him and the burning presence of his soul, glad to be able to see the fight to its end. In dying to save the world, he becomes a Champion.
at the same time as Oz arrives to give Angel the Gem of Amarra, Spike's objective was to get the ring and kill Angel. Oz gives Angel the ring who then hides it in the sewer, just as he is about to leave for another case he is ambushed by Spike who hits him with a wooden plank, Angel defeats Spike but Spike warns him that he will get the ring one way or another. Angel takes precaution and goes on a manhunt for Spike, Angel finally finds him, chases him through the alley, and corners him only to fall into Spike's trap. Spike captures Angel and hires a vampire named Marcus to torture Angel until he tells him where the ring is. After a while Spike gets bored of waiting so he goes to Angel's apartment to find the ring and leaving Marcus to torture Angel, he gets to the apartment only to find Cordelia
and Doyle aiming at him with weapons and demanding to know where Angel is. Spike reveals Angel's location and tells them that the only way he will release Angel is if they find him the ring. Cordelia and Doyle find the ring in the sewer and head straight to Spike. When they arrive at the location they find out that Spike had lied about releasing Angel. Taking precautions however, they then throw the ring away and just as spike was about to retrieve it, Oz bursts through the wall in his van and rescues Angel. Spike looks for the ring but finds out that Marcus, took it. Spike begins smashing Marcus's things and shouting about how he is going to work alone from now on until a hole that was in the ceiling lets sunlight in and sets the back of his hair on fire.
Despite his apparent death at the end of Buffys 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 seven episodes as an incorporeal being akin to a ghost
; he starts to understand being one when he battles "the Reaper" Matthias Pavayne. During this time he realizes he is being slowly pulled into hell. Later he becomes corporeal, due to a mysterious gift that arrives at the office of Wolfram and Hart. Soon afterward he is kidnapped by the psychotic Slayer Dana, who believes he was responsible for kidnapping and torturing her as a child. After this, Spike 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 (the Cup of Torment is revealed as a fake containing Mountain Dew). 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. Cordelia comments on this strange turn of events after coming out of her coma 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 Fred
is killed by Illyria, Spike mourns her death and decides to join Team Angel
in her honor. Upon learning that Buffy
is now dating The Immortal, Spike and Angel travel to Rome
on the pretext of business but spend most of the time there trying to find Buffy. In the end, they fail to catch up with her. (The blonde glimpsed in Rome is later
revealed to be a decoy Buffy, set up by Andrew Wells
, who had researched the history between Angel, Spike and The Immortal, and thought the idea would be "hilarious".) During the final episodes of Angel, Spike is the first to vote for Angel's plan to wound the Senior Partners
by massacring the Circle of the Black Thorn. He then spends what might be his last hours on Earth 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 (literally, he held the baby in one hand and a sword in the other) 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 that probably cost him his life as well as that of his friends.
literature concurrent with and subsequent to the television series, including both Buffy and Angel comic books. Many of these novels and comic books concern Spike's backstory in the periods between the events shown in flashbacks in the television series. From 2007, both Dark Horse Comics
and IDW Publishing
began telling canonical
continuations of Buffy and Angel, respectively. Marsters himself wrote for the miniseries Spike & Dru
in 2000. The collection also featured the Christopher Golden
stories "The Queen of Hearts", "All's Fair", "Paint the Town Red" and "Who Made Who?", set in or around episodes of Buffy in Seasons Two and Four; "Who Made Who" is set during the Buffy episode "Lovers Walk
" and depicts the disintegration of his relationship with Drusilla when they were together in Brazil
. After Buffy finished in 2003, Spike appeared in a comic story from the canonical Tales of the Vampires
series. Written by series writer Drew Goddard
, "The Problem with Vampires" establishes his adventures in Prague
prior to his introduction Buffy episode "School Hard". Christopher Golden's 2000 novel Spike and Dru: Pretty Maids All in a Row
depicts Spike killing a Slayer named Sophie in the 1940s, contradicting the two Slayers whom Spike is later established to have killed; the second Slayer Spike killed was established as New Yorker Nikki Wood. The short story "Voodoo Lounge" from the collection Tales of the Slayer
is a sequel to this novel. Golden's 2006 novel, Blackout
, is truer to the series' chronology by depicting Spike's fatal encounter with Slayer Nikki Wood in 1977. Diana G. Gallagher
's 2005 novel Spark and Burn
depicts the struggling early-Season Seven Spike remembering an account of his life, amounting to a chronological character history of Spike's life from the 19th century to the time of the framing device
.
Most Spike-centric stories, however, have been published subsequent to Angels finale episode. The 2005 IDW comic book Spike: Old Times, by Peter David
, depicts Spike's encounter with the vengeance demon Halfrek, explaining his recognition of her in Buffy episode "Older and Far Away", and clarifying that she was in fact his beloved Cecily. Mutant Enemy approved the story, even though IDW did not have rights to a Buffy-only character like Halfrek, because of her importance to Spike's backstory, on the condition that the story's timing was deliberately ambiguous. Following Angels cancellation, Spike immediately appeared in the Angel miniseries Spike vs. Dracula by Peter David
, a sequel to the Buffy episode "Buffy vs. Dracula" and expanding on the characters' century-old rivalry established in that episode. Scott Tipton's 2006 comic Spike: Old Wounds is detective fiction
set during Season Five, and also features allusions to Spike's activities in the late 1940s. Tipton's Spike: Lost and Found in 2006 is a Season Five story that acts as a sequel to the 1999 Buffy/Angel crossover episodes "The Harsh Light of Day
" and "In the Dark", featuring the immortality-bestowing Gem of Amarra in 2005 Los Angeles. Lastly, writer Brian Lynch teamed up with Franco Urru to produce the story arc Spike: Asylum (2006-7), depicting Spike's stay in a supernatural medical facility. Although originally of the same ambiguous relationship to canon, the characters it introduced would reappear in the canonical Angel comic books to come later. Whedon appreciated Lynch's writing of Spike in Asylum so much that he commissioned him to co-write the canonical continuation of the series, Angel: After the Fall
, in 2007. Lynch and Urru also penned Spike: Shadow Puppets
, featuring Spike and Lorne doing battle with the muppet demons of Angel episode "Smile Time" in Japan. In the explicitly-canonical Whedon stories of 2007, Spike and Angel first appear in a joint cameo in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight
(Dark Horse) as part of Buffy's sexual fantasies. In the Dark Horse Presents
#24 Season Eight tie-in, "Always Darkest", Spike and Angel appear (again in a dream sequence) at Buffy's side when she is fighting Caleb, but to her dismay the two start flirting with and kissing one another. Spike appears in Season Eight properly at the conclusion of the "Twilight
" story arc. Lynch's Spike series features some collaboration with Whedon to connect the IDW and Dark Horse series' continuities. Although IDW had planned to launch the series as a bona fide ongoing series, the transfer of Angel rights from IDW to Dark Horse necessitated that it end instead as an 8-issue miniseries.
In IDW's Angel: After the Fall
, Spike does not appear until the second issue, written by Brian Lynch with art by Franco Urru (the creative team of Spike: Asylum and Spike: Shadow Puppets
) with plotting and "executive production" by Whedon himself. In Angel: After the Fall, Spike has adjusted to Los Angeles' new status as a literal hell on Earth; he and Illyria both serve together as the Demon Lords of Beverly Hills, living in the Playboy Mansion
after the death of Hugh Hefner
and served by a harem of human and demon females known collectively as the "Spikettes." How Spike and Illyria got to be Lords of Los Angeles is detailed in the Spike: After the Fall (2008) miniseries, which also introduces a human friend for Spike in Jeremy Johns. In their new capacity, Spike and Illyria secretly rescue humans and benevolent demons, evacuating them into the care of Connor, Nina Ash, and Gwen Raiden. Spike rallies alongside Angel against the other demon Lords. When vampire Gunn causes Illyria to revert to her monster form, memories of Fred from Spike and Wesley are transplanted into her to restore her humanity. After the Senior Partners revert time to before the Fall, Spike begins a loosely-affiliated relationship with the reformed Angel Investigations
company, collaborating with Angel and his associates while maintaining independence. Spike continues to appear in the ongoing Angel spin-off series by IDW, under the pens of Kelley Armstrong
, Bill Willingham
and others. As part of its After the Fall franchise, IDW also published Bill Williams' miniseries, Spike: The Devil You Know in 2010. Spike (2010) follows Spike's journey out of Los Angeles and in its first arc, into Vegas. Lynch introduces a new nemesis for Spike, John, a human whose soul was taken when Spike earned his; when John removes Spike's soul, Spike realises his redemption had begun long before his soul, and charitably has Willow return it to Drusilla instead. The storyline feeds into the "Twilight" and "Last Gleaming" arcs of Buffy Season Eight, concluding Season Eight in 2011. In Season Eight, Spike comes to Buffy's aid to help prevent the end of the universe. When Buffy's decision sees the world lose its magic, Spike is the only one to be emphatically supportive of the decision she had to make.
Spike is also rare among vampires because he does not fear Slayers; he seeks them out and has killed two by the time he arrives in Sunnydale. He is proud of this accomplishment despite the fact that his victories had more to do with the Slayers' state of mind than a special prowess on his part (or "luck," as he reveals in Buffy episode Fool for Love). Spike admits this to an inquiring Buffy in the season 5 episode Fool for Love, and the impact of his revelation has probably not been completely felt as of the completion of season 8.
Spike is intelligent, insightful and a skilled analyst. His sense of humor is dry and sarcastic, and he carries himself with swagger.
Spike has a habit of pithy remarks and glib insults, even toward the few he does not view as antagonists. Among his favorite targets are Angel, Xander
, Giles
, and (to a lesser extent) Buffy. Joss Whedon credits this antipathy as what convinced him in the episode "Lovers Walk
" to bring Spike back as a cast regular. As James Marsters put it, "I was supposed to be the one who stood at the side and said, 'Buffy, you're stupid, and we're all gonna die'."
Spike often nicknames people, both as insults and as terms of endearment; for example, he calls Dawn "Little Bit" or "the Niblet". Spike also retains something of his literary intellect from his human side, routinely referencing poetry, songs, and literature; on occasion he even waxes poetic on the nature of love, life, and unlife as being driven by blood, reasoning that blood is more powerful than any supernatural force because it is what separates the living from the dead.
Spike often treats his vulnerability to the sun as simply an annoying inconvenience. He drives in broad daylight in vehicles with blacked-out windows, and on several occasions travels outside during the day using a blanket for cover. Indeed, he has a remarkably stronger resistance to sunlight than most all other vampires seen in the series except Angel; their elevated ability to endure the sun should not be confused with total immunity, however.
Spike has a punk look which strongly resembles English
rock
musician
Billy Idol
; humorously, Buffy claims that Billy Idol in fact stole his look from Spike. His hair is peroxide blond for the duration of his time on Buffy and Angel, although in flashbacks it can be seen in its natural medium brown state as well as dyed black. His nails are often painted black.
A Y-shaped scar on Marsters's left eyebrow, received during a mugging, was worked into the show; make-up artist Todd McIntosh decided to shave out his eyebrow in order to make it more prominent. He also included the scar on Spike's "vamp face" prosthesis
, albeit slightly altered as though the skin has stretched. In Spike's first appearances the wound still looks fresh, but it gradually fades until, in Angel season 5, it is barely visible. A flashback in "Fool for Love" reveals that Spike received the scar from the sword of the first Slayer he killed in 1900.
Spike usually wears long black leather coats, including one that he took from a Nazi officer and another that he took as a trophy from Nikki Wood, the second Slayer he killed. He wore the Slayer's black duster for over twenty-five years. When the coat was destroyed by a bomb from the Immortal in Italy, Spike heartbrokenly declared it to be irreplaceable; but the Italian branch of Wolfram & Hart quickly supplied him with a whole wardrobe of new ones, nearly identical, which he happily began wearing. His trademark look includes the leather duster, a black t-shirt or v-neck shirt and black denim pants, usually with heavy boots or Doc Martins. He also wore a red long-sleeved shirt fairly often, particularly during the earlier seasons of Buffy, and a bright blue shirt early in Season 6 & 7. He explained that the shirt was supposed to show Buffy that he had changed and give him confidence (because the First was messing with his head and he did not want Buffy to think he was still evil or crazy). But later, he returned to his trademark look, commenting that he was back.
, and his typical fighting style blends karate
, kung fu, and others.
Spike often displays insight and skills in perception and observation, especially with regard to relationships and personalities, so long as the relationship in question does not concern him personally. This ability allows him to wield powerful psychological weapons as easily and effectively as physical ones. For example, when he wants to create disharmony among the Scoobies, Spike divides-and-conquers with "The Yoko Factor", exploiting tensions that exist under the surface to alienate Buffy and her friends against each other. He explains to Buffy he was able to defeat two Slayers because he sensed and exploited their secret desires to be free of their burden. Spike's skills of analysis allowed him to realize Willow was barely holding it together after Oz's departure even though Giles and Buffy thought she was doing better, to be the first to see through Tara
's abusive and controlling family, forced Buffy and Angel to admit that they were more than "just friends" and identify when and why some relationships, such as between Buffy and Riley
, are not meant to last, masterfully feeding Riley's insecurities in an effort to sabotage his relationship with Buffy, so Spike can pursue her. His analytical skills also help him in battle from time to time; for example, in "Time Bomb", he identifies Illyria's fighting style as a Tae Kwon Do/Brazilian Capoeira / Ninjitsu
hybrid.
Although capable of developing sound battle strategies, Spike (particularly in the days before receiving his chip and being re-ensouled) often loses patience with anything more complicated than outright attack, as mentioned in the episode "In the Dark".
He is also impatient to fight the Slayer upon his initial arrival in Sunnydale; the attack is supposed to coincide with the Night of St. Vigeous (when a vampire's natural abilities are enhanced), but he "couldn't wait" to go after the Slayer and recklessly leads a mass assault against Buffy at Sunnydale High, which fails and results in the deaths of many Aurelian vampires. However, Spike did exercise patience throughout the later half of Buffy Season Two, when he used a wheelchair for several months after a brutal battle with the Scoobies in the episode What's My Line
left him paraplegic
. Feigning weakness, he endured torturous weeks watching Angelus sexually pursue Dru as he waited for the right time to strike against his enemy.
Spike's "vampire constitution" provides him with an extremely high tolerance for alcohol
(which he regularly consumes in copious quantities). Due to his experience in criminal activities, he is skilled at picking locks, hotwiring
cars, and pick-pocketing. He is also capable of easily operating various vehicles, such as various cars, a Yamaha XJR400
motorcycle
("Bargaining"), and a Winnebago
("Spiral"). He has also been shown using video game systems and a computer, treating injuries, and playing poker
and pool
. Spike is also seen speaking/understanding Latin, Luganda (a language of Uganda
, where he meets the demon shaman), and the language of Fyarl Demons, two of whom he once employed as underlings during his pre-Sunnydale days. He is also shown to be capable of recognizing literature; in the last episode of season five, he paraphrases a line from the St. Crispin's Day Speech while in conversation with Giles after Buffy tells them her plan of attack on Glory.
When Spike was transformed into a ghost-like intangible state following the destruction of Sunnydale and the Hellmouth and his subsequent materialization at Wolfram & Hart, he was capable of walking through solid objects. He was initially unable to make contact with objects around him until he learned how to focus his abilities through desire, allowing him to make brief contact with people and things if he concentrated enough. This ability was relatively useless in a fight; he was unable to pick up a wooden bar to hit the demon Tezcatcatl in "The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco", and required a few moments to properly punch a cyborg
strangling Gunn in "Lineage". Naturally, he lost these capabilities when he was recorporealized by Lindsey.
set plans for a Spike movie. The film, if ever greenlit, would star James Marsters
, Alyson Hannigan
and Amy Acker
. At a convention, Acker stated the film was not going ahead due to money issues.
in the third place. Spike was described as an "antihero in the true sense of the word, Spike is morally ambiguous and ready to fight pretty much anyone, for fun. But underneath it all, he loves deeply and earnestly in a way that remains achingly human. Although, ironically, his personality remains pretty much the same, whether he has a soul or not – in stark (and more entertaining) contrast to Angel." Other Buffyverse
vampires to appear on the list included Drusilla
(at 10th place), Darla
(at 25th place), Vampire Willow
(at 32th place), Harmony Kendall
(at 31st place), and the Master
(at 39th place).
Spike is also featured in Forbes
magazine's "Hollywood's Most Powerful Vampires" list along with Angel.
James Marsters
James Wesley Marsters is an American actor and musician. Marsters first came to the attention of the general public playing the popular character Spike, a platinum-blond yobbish English vampire in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off series, Angel from 1997 to 2004...
, is a fictional character
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
created by Joss Whedon
Joss Whedon
Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon is an American screenwriter, executive producer, director, comic book writer, occasional composer and actor, founder of Mutant Enemy Productions and co-creator of Bellwether Pictures...
for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel
Angel (TV series)
Angel is an American television series, a spin-off of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The series was created by Buffys creator, Joss Whedon, in collaboration with David Greenwalt, and first aired on October 5, 1999...
. Spike is a vampire and played various roles on the shows, ranging from villain
Villain
A villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters...
to anti-hero
Anti-hero
In fiction, an antihero is generally considered to be a protagonist whose character is at least in some regards conspicuously contrary to that of the archetypal hero, and is in some instances its antithesis in which the character is generally useless at being a hero or heroine when they're...
. For Marsters, the role as Spike began a career in science fiction television, becoming "the obvious go-to guy for US cult [television]". For creator Whedon, Spike is the "most fully developed" of his characters.
Within the series' narrative, William was originally an unsuccessful aspiring poet in the Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
. Sired by the vampire Drusilla (Juliet Landau
Juliet Landau
Juliet Rose Landau is an American actress best known for her role as Drusilla on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff show Angel, the latter appearance earning her a Saturn Award nomination. She is also known for co-starring as Loretta King Hadler in Tim Burton's Ed Wood.She has appeared in a...
), William became "William the Bloody", an unusually passionate and romantic vampire. Alongside Drusilla and Angelus (David Boreanaz
David Boreanaz
David Boreanaz is an American actor, television producer, and director, known for his role as Angel on the supernatural drama series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, and as Special Agent Seeley Booth on the television crime drama Bones....
), William acquired the nickname Spike for his method of killing; in time he became noted for killing two vampire Slayers. In the 1970s, Spike acquired his trademark bleached blond Billy Idol
Billy Idol
William Michael Albert Broad , better known by his stage name Billy Idol, is an English rock musician. A member of the Bromley Contingent of Sex Pistols fans, Idol first achieved fame in the punk rock era as a member of the band Generation X...
haircut and leather duster. In 1997 Spike comes to Sunnydale
Sunnydale
Sunnydale, California is the fictional setting for the U.S. television drama Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Series creator Joss Whedon conceived the town as a representation of a generic California city, as well as a narrative parody of the all-too-serene towns typical in traditional horror...
hoping to kill a third Slayer, Buffy Summers
Buffy Summers
Buffy Summers is a fictional character from Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise. She first appeared in the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer before going on to appear in the television series and subsequent comic book of the same name...
(Sarah Michelle Gellar
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Sarah Michelle Prinze , known professionally by her birth name of Sarah Michelle Gellar , is an American actress, singer and executive producer...
), with whom he later forges an uneasy alliance. Over the course of Buffy, Spike falls in love with the Slayer and acquires a soul to prove himself to her, dying a hero in the Buffy series finale before being resurrected in the fifth season of spin-off series Angel.
Considered a 'breakout character
Breakout character
A breakout character is a fictional character in different episodes, books or other media that becomes the most popular, talked about, and imitated. Most often a breakout character in a television series captures the audience's imagination and helps to popularize the show, sometimes inadvertently...
', Spike proved immensely popular with fans of Buffy. The character appears substantially in Expanded Universe
Expanded Universe
The term Expanded Universe is generally used to denote the 'extension' of a media franchise with other media...
materials such as comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
s and tie-in novels. Following the cancellation of Angel in 2004, Whedon considered creating a Spike film spin-off. Canonically
Canon (fiction)
In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
, the character appears in issues of the comic books Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight is a comic book series published by Dark Horse Comics. The series serves as a canonical continuation of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and follows the events of that show's final televised season. It is produced by Joss Whedon, who wrote the...
and Angel: After the Fall
Angel: After the Fall
Angel: After the Fall is a comic book published by IDW Publishing. Written by Brian Lynch and plotted with Joss Whedon, the series is a canonical continuation of the Angel television series, and follows the events of that show's final televised season...
in 2007, several Spike miniseries, and a Spike ongoing series in 2010.
Early history
Spike's story before he appears in SunnydaleSunnydale
Sunnydale, California is the fictional setting for the U.S. television drama Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Series creator Joss Whedon conceived the town as a representation of a generic California city, as well as a narrative parody of the all-too-serene towns typical in traditional horror...
unfolds in flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
s scattered, out of sequence, among numerous episodes of both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. The first flashback occurs in Buffy Season Five's "Fool for Love", and reveals William as in fact a meek, effete young man (and an aspiring poet) who lived in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
with his mother Anne. Anne would often sing the folksong "Early One Morning
Early One Morning
"Early One Morning" is an English folk song. The lyrics are first found in publications as far back as 1787. A broadside in the Bodleian Library, Oxford dates from about 1803...
" to her son when he was a baby, right up until the time he was turned into a vampire. William's surname is given as "Pratt" in the non-canon comic Old Times
Spike: Old Times (Angel comic)
Spike: Old Times is a comic based on the Angel television series.-Story description:Spike struggles to protect a man from Halfrek, a vengeance demon who has wronged Spike in the past; she in fact had been the object of his unrequited crush....
and is written on the label of his jar of blood in the comic Spike: Asylum #002. The name William Pratt may allude to horror actor Boris Karloff
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...
, whose birth name was William Henry Pratt, and can also be understood as the British slang term "prat", describing a person of arrogant stupidity. Spike is one of the youngest recurring vampires on the show; he claimed in Season Four "The Initiative
The Initiative
The Initiative is a fictional secret government organization in the television series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.-Origins:...
" that he was 126, although in "School Hard
School Hard
"School Hard" is episode three of season two of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The story for the episode was conceived by series creator and executive producer Joss Whedon and co-executive producer David Greenwalt, with Greenwalt penning the teleplay. It was directed by John T....
" Giles read that he was "barely two hundred" and in "Fool for Love" it shows that Spike was sired in 1880, but this would have made him about 7 when he was turned which he clearly was not (see image below).
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, 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 three years after it was first mentioned in Season Two, when it was believed to have purely violent connotations. William showed a strong capacity for loyalty and devoted love, which remained after his siring. After his romantic overtures were rejected by the aristocratic Cecily, William wandered the streets despondently and bumped into Drusilla. She consoled him, drained him of blood and made him drink of her blood, thus transforming him into a vampire – "siring" him, in the jargon of the series. Spike's grand-sire Angelus became his mentor (leading Spike occasionally to describe him loosely as his sire): "Drusilla sired me, but you, you made me a monster." Whereas new vampires in the Buffyverse
Buffyverse
The Buffyverse, also known as the Whedonverse or Slayerverse , is the shared fictional universe in which the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel are set. This term, originally coined by fans of the TV series, has since been used in the titles of published works, and adopted by Joss...
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 save her from tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
. But his mother, as a vampire, taunted William and insinuated he had always had a sexual fascination with her. William chose to stake her because he found he could not bear to see his mother behaving like the soulless vampire he had made of her. (She, like most vampires, lacked his unusual capacity for some of the softer human emotions.) He would later write a poem about this traumatic experience titled "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, to whom he was utterly devoted. Euphoric with his newfound vampiric abilities, he adopted the poses and trappings of a cultural rebel, affecting a working class North London
North London
North London is the northern part of London, England. It is an imprecise description and the area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes. Common to these definitions is that it includes districts located north of the River Thames and is used in comparison with South...
accent and embracing impulsiveness and extreme violence. He adopted the nom de guerre "Spike" based on his habit of torturing people with railroad spikes – possibly prompted by criticism of his poetry: "I'd rather have a railroad spike through my head than listen to that awful stuff." In "The Weight of the World" Spike mentions having spent "the better part of a century" in delinquency, suggesting criminal activities other than killing for blood. In the company of Drusilla, Angelus and Darla, Spike terrorized Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
for almost two decades. He had a strained relationship with Drusilla's sire Angelus, who continued a sexual relationship with her despite Spike's strong disapproval. Although Angelus did enjoy the company of another male vampire in their travels, he found Spike's recklessness and lust for battle to be unnecessary risks. 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.
In 1894, Spike and Angelus developed a rivalry with the enigmatic Immortal, who later had Spike sent to prison for tax evasion
Tax evasion
Tax evasion is the general term for efforts by individuals, corporations, trusts and other entities to evade taxes by illegal means. Tax evasion usually entails taxpayers deliberately misrepresenting or concealing the true state of their affairs to the tax authorities to reduce their tax liability,...
. In 1900, Spike killed a Slayer in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
during the Boxer Rebellion
Boxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion, also called the Boxer Uprising by some historians or the Righteous Harmony Society Movement in northern China, was a proto-nationalist movement by the "Righteous Harmony Society" , or "Righteous Fists of Harmony" or "Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists" , in China between...
. In 1943, he was captured by Nazis for experimentation and taken aboard a submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
, where he was briefly reunited with Angel. By the 1950s, Spike had reunited with Drusilla, and they traveled to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. At some point, Spike also became rivals with famous vampire Dracula
Dracula
Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor...
. The enmity between Spike and Dracula was explored in the comic series Spike vs. Dracula, in which their mutual hatred is caused when Spike, along with Darla and Drusilla, slaughtered the Romani (gypsy) tribe who had cursed their patriarch, Angelus, with a soul, although it is unclear if either Spike or Drusilla knew precisely why Darla was so angry with the tribe. That clan (unknown to Spike) was favored by Dracula and he sought revenge for their deaths. Spike later mentions in a conversation with Riley Finn, "Dracula? Poncy bugger owes me £11, for one thing," because Dracula tossed Spike's signed copy of Bram Stoker
Bram Stoker
Abraham "Bram" Stoker was an Irish novelist and short story writer, best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel Dracula...
's Dracula in a fire in 1898. Spike also notes that Dracula's fame has done more damage to vampires than any Slayer. Spike attended Woodstock
Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Music & Art Fair was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969...
in 1969, whereupon he accidentally became high after ingesting the blood of a hippy, he claims to have spent the next six hours following the incident "watching my hand move". In 1977 he fought and killed a second Slayer, Nikki Wood, aboard a subway train in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, taking from her a black leather duster
Duster (clothing)
A duster is a light, loose-fitting long coat.The original dusters were full-length, light-colored canvas or linen coats worn by horsemen to protect their clothing from trail dust. These dusters were typically slit up the back to hip level for ease of wear on horseback and were the recommended...
which he wears throughout his appearances on Buffy and Angel until it is destroyed in an explosion in Season Five of Angel, whereupon he gets a new one that looks exactly like the old one ("The Girl in Question"). At some point post-1977, Billy Idol
Billy Idol
William Michael Albert Broad , better known by his stage name Billy Idol, is an English rock musician. A member of the Bromley Contingent of Sex Pistols fans, Idol first achieved fame in the punk rock era as a member of the band Generation X...
allegedly "stole" Spike's look and made it famous as his own (as revealed in Season Seven's "Sleeper
Sleeper (Buffy episode)
"Sleeper" is the eighth episode of the seventh and final season of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.-Plot synopsis:Spike digs a grave for and buries the woman he just killed while he hums a tune. In London, a man with a briefcase finds a young woman he knows lying dead...
"; see "Appearance" below); Spike's thoughts on this are unrecorded. Inasmuch as Buffy knew of the "theft" as of "Sleeper," Spike presumably shared the detail with her in an undepicted moment.
Spike's flashback appearances, in chronological order, include:
- Lies My Parents Told Me 2nd flashback: In 1880 England, William, pre-Spike, tends to his ailing mother Anne.
- Fool for Love 1st flashback / DarlaDarla (Angel episode)"Darla" is episode 7 of season 2 in the television show Angel. Written and directed by Tim Minear, it was originally broadcast on November 14, 2000 on the WB television network. In this episode, Angel tries to rescue Darla from the clutches of Wolfram & Hart and Lindsey's affections, as she...
3rd flashback: In 1880, William is rejected by Cecily and sired by Drusilla, with whom he immediately falls in love. - Lies My Parents Told Me 3rd and 4th flashbacks: In 1880, William sires his mother Anne, who, as a vampire, turns against him, forcing him to destroy her.
- DestinyDestiny (Angel episode)"Destiny" is episode 8 of season 5 in the television show Angel. Co-written by David Fury and Steven S. DeKnight and directed by Skip Schoolnik, it was originally broadcast on November 19, 2003 on the WB network...
series of flashbacks: In 1880, Drusilla introduces William to her sire Angelus. Although the two become fast friends, they later clash when William discovers Angelus making love with Drusilla. Angelus, informing William that when one is a vampire "you can take what you want, have what you want, but nothing is yours," fights William for the first time. - "Fool for Love" 2nd flashback: Months after being sired, William, now called Spike, has through acts of public mayhem forced Angelus' vampire group (himself, Spike, Drusilla, and Angelus' sire/paramour Darla) to flee London; Spike first learns of the existence of the Vampire Slayer.
- The Girl in Question 1st flashback: In 1894, Spike and Angelus are imprisoned by the mysterious Immortal, who seduces Drusilla and Darla in their absence.
- DarlaDarla (Angel episode)"Darla" is episode 7 of season 2 in the television show Angel. Written and directed by Tim Minear, it was originally broadcast on November 14, 2000 on the WB television network. In this episode, Angel tries to rescue Darla from the clutches of Wolfram & Hart and Lindsey's affections, as she...
4th flashback: In 1898 Romania, Spike and Drusilla, under Darla's orders, attack the Kalderash tribe who ensouled Angelus, later called Angel. Following this incident, Angel parts company with the group, and the other three vampires resume their travels without him. - "Fool for Love" 3rd flashback / DarlaDarla (Angel episode)"Darla" is episode 7 of season 2 in the television show Angel. Written and directed by Tim Minear, it was originally broadcast on November 14, 2000 on the WB television network. In this episode, Angel tries to rescue Darla from the clutches of Wolfram & Hart and Lindsey's affections, as she...
5th flashback: In 1900 China, Spike kills the Chinese Vampire Slayer. Angel, still ensouled, briefly reunites with the group; when Spike and Drusilla boast of Spike's deed, Angel pretends to be impressed but is actually disgusted. - Why We FightWhy We Fight (Angel episode)"Why We Fight" is episode 13 of season 5 in the television show Angel. Sam Lawson, a mysterious man from Angel's past, arrives at Wolfram & Hart and takes Wesley, Fred and Gunn hostage. In a flashback to 1943, it is revealed that Angel was forcibly recruited by the Demon Research Initiative to...
series of flashbacks: In 1943, Spike and two other vampires are abducted by Nazi agents onto a Nazi sub. Angel, working for the US government, helps Spike seize control of the sub and escape. - The Girl in Question 2nd flashback: Spike and Drusilla visit Italy.
- Lies My Parents Told Me 1st flashback: In 1977 New York, Spike fights Vampire Slayer Nikki Wood while her young son Robin watches from a hiding place.
- "Fool for Love" 4th flashback: In 1977 New York, Spike again fights Nikki Wood, killing her. These are Spike's last depicted activities preceding his arrival in Sunnydale, California.
Sunnydale
Spike first arrives in Sunnydale in the second season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in the episode "School HardSchool Hard
"School Hard" is episode three of season two of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The story for the episode was conceived by series creator and executive producer Joss Whedon and co-executive producer David Greenwalt, with Greenwalt penning the teleplay. It was directed by John T....
", accompanied by Drusilla. Spike and Dru were modeled on Sid Vicious
Sid Vicious
Sid Vicious was an English musician best known as the bassist of the influential punk rock group Sex Pistols...
and Nancy Spungen
Nancy Spungen
Nancy Laura Spungen was the American girlfriend of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious. Spungen has been the subject of controversy among music historians and fans of the Sex Pistols.-Early life:...
; punk, "badass" vampires to contrast sharply with the more ceremonial tradition of the Master and the Order of Aurelius
Order of Aurelius
The Order of Aurelius is a fictional cult of vampires, seen primarily in the first season of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the first episodes of the show's second season.-The select, the elite:...
from Season One. Spike is in fact a fan of Sid Vicious' band The Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
and punk band The Ramones. In the final scene of the episode "Lovers Walk
Lovers Walk
"Lovers Walk" is episode 8 of season 3 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Sound Editing in a Series.- Plot synopsis :...
", he can be seen singing to a cover of "My Way
My Way (song)
"My Way" is a song popularized by Frank Sinatra. Its lyrics were written by Paul Anka and set to music based on the French song "Comme d'habitude" composed in 1967 by Claude François and Jacques Revaux, with lyrics by Claude François and Gilles Thibault. Anka's English lyrics are unrelated to the...
" by Gary Oldman
Gary Oldman
Gary Leonard Oldman is an English actor, voice actor, filmmaker and musician.A member of the 1980s Brit Pack, Oldman came to prominence via starring roles in British films Meantime , Sid and Nancy and Prick Up Your Ears , with his performance in the latter bringing him his first BAFTA Award...
, who portrayed Vicious in the film Sid and Nancy
Sid and Nancy
Sid and Nancy is a 1986 British biopic directed by Alex Cox. The film portrays the life of Sid Vicious , bassist of the seminal punk rock band the Sex Pistols, and his relationship with girlfriend Nancy Spungen .-Plot:The film opens with several police officers dragging Sid Vicious out of the Hotel...
. Notably, Spike's first act in Sunnydale is to attack Buffy and a large group of people at her school, making his first appearance the deadliest of any of Buffys "Big Bad
Big Bad
Big Bad is a term originally used by the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series to describe a major recurring adversary, usually the chief villain or antagonist in a particular broadcast season...
s", as he very nearly kills Buffy, but Buffy's mother distracts Spike long enough for Buffy to recover. Throughout Season Two, Spike and Dru are the canon's most prominent example of affection between vampires, displaying the humanity and intricacies of vampire relationships. Spike was initially conceived as a disposable villain to be killed off, but proved so popular with fans that Joss Whedon decided to merely injure him instead, in the episode "What's My Line, Part Two
What's My Line (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
"What's My Line" is a two-episode story in season two of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.In Part One, Buffy endures Career Week at school while Spike hires assassins to kill her; a fierce fighter who identifies herself as "Kendra, the Vampire Slayer" shows up in Sunnydale...
", in which Spike is crushed by a collapsing pipe organ
Pipe organ
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...
and left paralyzed. (Later it is revealed that he has recovered at some point, and has chosen to stay in the wheelchair to deceive Angel who he intended to betray.)
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, as recounted in the canon comic book The Problem with Vampires. Spike is a devoted caretaker to Drusilla in her weakened condition, and initially hopes the Hellmouth's energy can help restore her strength. He reunites with Angel and seems genuinely pleased to see him, but is disgusted to find that Angel has a soul (whether or not Spike in fact knew that Angel's acquisition of a soul is why he left the group nearly a century before has never been made clear) and is in love with the current Slayer, Buffy Summers
Buffy Summers
Buffy Summers is a fictional character from Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise. She first appeared in the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer before going on to appear in the television series and subsequent comic book of the same name...
. 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; as he explains to Buffy, in addition to wanting Drusilla back, he also wants to "save the world":
Spike reappears in the Season Three episode "Lovers Walk
Lovers Walk
"Lovers Walk" is episode 8 of season 3 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Sound Editing in a Series.- Plot synopsis :...
", in a drunken depression
Depression (mood)
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
after Drusilla, offended by his alliance with Buffy, dumps him for a Chaos demon. He kidnaps Willow and Xander, and forces Willow to conduct a love spell for him to make Drusilla love him again, even coercing Buffy and Angel to help him in exchange for the safe return of their friends. The excitement of a brawl with the Mayor's vampires helps him see that Drusilla left him because he had begun to go soft; he resolves to win her back by torturing
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
her until she likes him again, and tells Buffy where to find Willow and Xander. He also tells Buffy and Angel that they can 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 living with Harmony Kendall
Harmony Kendall
Harmony Kendall is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off Angel. The character is portrayed by Mercedes McNab...
, a shallow young vampire. He is in Sunnydale to look for the Gem of Amarra, a ring which makes a vampire effectively invulnerable. He finds it and attacks Buffy in daylight, but she wrests the ring from his finger and sends it to Angel. Spike goes to Los Angeles, and hires a vampire named Marcus to torture Angel in order to get the ring, but Marcus takes the ring himself and Angel finally destroys it.
After being captured by the Initiative and implanted with a cerebral microchip
Microchip implant (animal)
A microchip implant is an identifying integrated circuit placed under the skin of a dog, cat, horse, parrot or other animal. The chips are about the size of a large grain of rice and are based on a passive RFID technology....
which punishes him with debilitating pain whenever he harms or attempts to harm any non-demon life forms, Spike turns to the Scooby Gang for protection, bartering his knowledge of the Initiative. His inability to bite is comically compared to impotence, much to Spike's constant humiliation; in "Doomed", he attempts to commit suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
by staking himself at Xander's house, but is stopped by Willow and Xander. Occasionally helping the Scooby Gang by providing them with information and/or combat assistance in exchange for cash or for the joy of fighting, but having no qualms about betraying them to such enemies as Faith and Adam. In Season Four, Spike was introduced to fill the antagonistic role that Cordelia
Cordelia Chase
Cordelia Chase is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer; she also appeared on Buffy's spin-off series Angel...
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?" Spike appeared in every episode thereafter with the exception of "The Body".
In Season Five, after some erotic dreams, Spike becomes aware to his horror that 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, Spike attempts to prove his love by kidnapping her so that she can witness him killing Drusilla for her, to little avail; in her disgust, Buffy un-invites him from her house (something she had not bothered to do in the almost three years since their alliance against Angelus) and alienates him from the group.
Spike then has Warren Mears
Warren Mears
Warren Mears is a fictional character portrayed by Adam Busch in the American television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as well as its canonical comic book series continuation.-Television:...
make a robot in Buffy's likeness, programmed to love and obey him. Though Buffy is disgusted by this, her hostility towards him fades considerably when she learns that Spike refused, even under intense torture, to reveal the identity of The Key to Glory
Glorificus
Glory is a fictional character in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Also known as "Glorificus," "That Which Cannot Be Named," "The Abomination," and "The Beast," she appeared during the fifth season of the program and was portrayed by Clare Kramer.-History:Glorificus is a god from a...
, nearly laying down his life to protect Buffy's sister Dawn
Dawn Summers
Dawn Summers is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon and introduced by Marti Noxon and David Fury on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, portrayed by Michelle Trachtenberg. She made her debut in the premiere episode of the show's fifth season, and subsequently appeared in every...
. Buffy is moved by this unexpected loyalty and kisses him, saying she will not forget what he has done. In the days and hours leading up to the final showdown with Glory, Spike fights by Buffy's side, earning her trust and a re-invitation to her house. Spike displays unabashed grief 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 / older brother / protector to Dawn, helping Willow and Tara to raise her in Buffy's absence.
After Buffy is resurrected at the beginning of Season Six, she is despondent and detached from her friends. During this time, her relationship to Spike deepens and she is able to talk to him about things she feels she cannot share with the Scooby Gang. She gets drunk with Spike, and calls him "a neutered vampire who cheats at kitten poker." After a demon's spell makes them express their emotions in song, and Buffy sings "I want the fire back", Buffy and Spike begin a physical relationship, consummated two episodes later. The relationship is frequently violent, with Buffy most often initiating both the violence and the sex between them; the violence is made all the easier when Spike finds that (as a side effect of Willow's resurrection spell) his chip now does not stop him from harming Buffy. Buffy threatens to kill Spike if he ever tells anyone about their relationship. Both are unsatisfied; Buffy is ashamed of her dark desires, while Spike obsessively craves the love, trust, and affection that she is unwilling to give. In "As You Were", Buffy tells Spike she is using him and ends their relationship. Believing he still has a chance with Buffy after seeing her reactions of jealousy and hurt when he has a drunk sexual encounter with Anya, Spike corners her and makes aggressive sexual advances. When she refuses him, he grows desperate and unsuccessfully tries to rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
her. He is at once horrified by his own actions and intentions, while also somewhat remiss that he did not go through with the rape, since he is still essentially a demon and has had no problem committing such acts in the past. This is seen in his reactions to reliving the memory of the event while discussing his subsequent mood with Clem, who has come by with hot wings to hangout. Spike heads to a remote area of Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, where he seeks out a legendary demon shaman and undergoes the Demon Trials, a series of grueling physical challenges. Up until this point it is still unclear what he hopes to gain from this. A question stemming from the back and forth between his demon nature and his love for Buffy. Is he asking to have his chip removed so he can be his old self again and "give her what she deserves" as he says, implying violence of some kind as retaliation for spurning his advances? Or is what she deserves a "better man? Proving his worthiness by surviving the trials, Spike earns his soul back.
In Season Seven, a re-ensouled Spike must cope with the guilt of his past actions and try to win back Buffy's trust. But under influence of the First Evil
First Evil
The First Evil is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The First Evil first appeared in the third season episode "Amends", and became the main antagonist of the 7th and final season.A being manifested from all evil in existence, the First is an...
's hypnotic trigger, Spike unknowingly starts killing again. Upon discovering 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 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. When Nikki Wood's son Robin tries to kill Spike, he unwittingly frees Spike from his hypnotic trigger: the song "Early One Morning
Early One Morning
"Early One Morning" is an English folk song. The lyrics are first found in publications as far back as 1787. A broadside in the Bodleian Library, Oxford dates from about 1803...
", a favorite of his mother, which 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 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 stays loyal to her when the Scoobies and Potentials mutiny against her, and his words and encouragement give a depressed Buffy the strength to continue fighting. They spend three 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 during the third 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 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 around him and the burning presence of his soul, glad to be able to see the fight to its end. In dying to save the world, he becomes a Champion.
Los Angeles
Spike had previously appeared in the season 1 episode of Angel "In the Dark", Spike goes to Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
at the same time as Oz arrives to give Angel the Gem of Amarra, Spike's objective was to get the ring and kill Angel. Oz gives Angel the ring who then hides it in the sewer, just as he is about to leave for another case he is ambushed by Spike who hits him with a wooden plank, Angel defeats Spike but Spike warns him that he will get the ring one way or another. Angel takes precaution and goes on a manhunt for Spike, Angel finally finds him, chases him through the alley, and corners him only to fall into Spike's trap. Spike captures Angel and hires a vampire named Marcus to torture Angel until he tells him where the ring is. After a while Spike gets bored of waiting so he goes to Angel's apartment to find the ring and leaving Marcus to torture Angel, he gets to the apartment only to find Cordelia
Cordelia Chase
Cordelia Chase is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer; she also appeared on Buffy's spin-off series Angel...
and Doyle aiming at him with weapons and demanding to know where Angel is. Spike reveals Angel's location and tells them that the only way he will release Angel is if they find him the ring. Cordelia and Doyle find the ring in the sewer and head straight to Spike. When they arrive at the location they find out that Spike had lied about releasing Angel. Taking precautions however, they then throw the ring away and just as spike was about to retrieve it, Oz bursts through the wall in his van and rescues Angel. Spike looks for the ring but finds out that Marcus, took it. Spike begins smashing Marcus's things and shouting about how he is going to work alone from now on until a hole that was in the ceiling lets sunlight in and sets the back of his hair on fire.
Despite his apparent death at the end of Buffys 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
Wolfram & Hart
Wolfram & Hart − Attorneys at Law is a fictional international, and interdimensional law firm featured in the television series Angel, as well as other extended materials in Joss Whedon's Buffyverse.-Fictional history:...
, he spends seven episodes as an incorporeal being akin to a ghost
Ghost
In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...
; he starts to understand being one when he battles "the Reaper" Matthias Pavayne. During this time he realizes he is being slowly pulled into hell. Later he becomes corporeal, due to a mysterious gift that arrives at the office of Wolfram and Hart. Soon afterward he is kidnapped by the psychotic Slayer Dana, who believes he was responsible for kidnapping and torturing her as a child. After this, Spike takes on Angel to prove which one of them is the Champion spoken of in the Shanshu Prophecy
Shanshu Prophecy
The Shanshu Prophecy is a prophecy that appears in the fictional universe of the television series Angel. Contained in the Scrolls of Aberjian, the prophecy first appears in the episode "Blind Date" and is more fully revealed in the season finale of the show's first season, "To Shanshu in L.A."...
. Spike defeats Angel, but the prophecy remains ambiguous (the Cup of Torment is revealed as a fake containing Mountain Dew). Manipulated by Lindsey McDonald
Lindsey McDonald
Lindsey McDonald is a fictional character from the television series Angel. He first appeared in the series' first episode, "City of," and featured prominently in the story arcs of seasons one, two, and five. Lindsey is the only character besides Angel himself to appear in both the first and last...
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. Cordelia comments on this strange turn of events after coming out of her coma 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 Fred
Winifred Burkle
Winifred "Fred" Burkle is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon and introduced by Shawn Ryan and Mere Smith on the television series Angel. The character is portrayed by Amy Acker.-Character history:...
is killed by Illyria, Spike mourns her death and decides to join Team Angel
Angel Investigations
Angel Investigations is a fictional detective agency run by the title character Angel previously on the WB television series Angel . It is sometimes abbreviated as AI...
in her honor. Upon learning that Buffy
Buffy Summers
Buffy Summers is a fictional character from Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise. She first appeared in the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer before going on to appear in the television series and subsequent comic book of the same name...
is now dating The Immortal, Spike and Angel travel to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
on the pretext of business but spend most of the time there trying to find Buffy. In the end, they fail to catch up with her. (The blonde glimpsed in Rome is later
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight is a comic book series published by Dark Horse Comics. The series serves as a canonical continuation of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and follows the events of that show's final televised season. It is produced by Joss Whedon, who wrote the...
revealed to be a decoy Buffy, set up by Andrew Wells
Andrew Wells
Andrew Wells is a fictional character in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, played by Tom Lenk. The character also appears in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, the canonical continuation of the series....
, who had researched the history between Angel, Spike and The Immortal, and thought the idea would be "hilarious".) During the final episodes of Angel, Spike is the first to vote for Angel's plan to wound the Senior Partners
Wolfram & Hart
Wolfram & Hart − Attorneys at Law is a fictional international, and interdimensional law firm featured in the television series Angel, as well as other extended materials in Joss Whedon's Buffyverse.-Fictional history:...
by massacring the Circle of the Black Thorn. He then spends what might be his last hours on Earth 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 (literally, he held the baby in one hand and a sword in the other) rescuing an infant and destroying the Fell Brethren, Spike joins Angel, Illyria, and a badly-wounded Charles Gunn
Charles Gunn
Charles Gunn is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series, Angel. The character is portrayed by J. August Richards, and was named by Whedon after filmmaker James Gunn and actor Sean Gunn, both of whom had worked with Whedon...
in the alley behind the Hyperion
Hyperion Hotel
The Hyperion Hotel is a fictional home base for Angel in the television series Angel during the middle seasons of the show. The gang move into the Hyperion at the beginning of the second season, following the destruction of their offices in the finale of season one, "To Shanshu in L.A.".-History:In...
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 that probably cost him his life as well as that of his friends.
Literature
Spike appears significantly in a number of canonical Expanded UniverseExpanded Universe
The term Expanded Universe is generally used to denote the 'extension' of a media franchise with other media...
literature concurrent with and subsequent to the television series, including both Buffy and Angel comic books. Many of these novels and comic books concern Spike's backstory in the periods between the events shown in flashbacks in the television series. From 2007, both Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
and IDW Publishing
IDW Publishing
IDW Publishing, also known as Idea + Design Works, LLC and IDW, is an American publisher of comic books and comic strip collections. The company was founded in 1999 and has been awarded the title "Publisher of the Year Under 5% Market Share" for the years 2004, 2005 and 2006 by Diamond Comic...
began telling canonical
Canon (fiction)
In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
continuations of Buffy and Angel, respectively. Marsters himself wrote for the miniseries Spike & Dru
Spike & Dru (Buffy comic)
Spike & Dru is a trade paperback collecting comic stories based on the Buffy The Vampire Slayer television series. The book contains four stories, all starring the characters Spike and Drusilla.-All's Fair:...
in 2000. The collection also featured the Christopher Golden
Christopher Golden
Christopher Golden is an American author of horror, fantasy, and suspense novels for adults, teens, and young readers.Golden was born and raised in Massachusetts, where he still lives with his family. He is a graduate of Tufts University...
stories "The Queen of Hearts", "All's Fair", "Paint the Town Red" and "Who Made Who?", set in or around episodes of Buffy in Seasons Two and Four; "Who Made Who" is set during the Buffy episode "Lovers Walk
Lovers Walk
"Lovers Walk" is episode 8 of season 3 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Sound Editing in a Series.- Plot synopsis :...
" and depicts the disintegration of his relationship with Drusilla when they were together in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
. After Buffy finished in 2003, Spike appeared in a comic story from the canonical Tales of the Vampires
Tales of the Vampires
Tales of the Vampires is a five issue American comic book limited series , published by Dark Horse Comics and set in the Buffyverse. It comprises an anthology of short stories written by Joss Whedon, Jane Espenson, Ben Edlund, and Drew Goddard...
series. Written by series writer Drew Goddard
Drew Goddard
Drew Goddard is an American film and television screenwriter and producer best known for his collaborations with Joss Whedon and J.J. Abrams .Goddard joined the crew of Lost as a freelance writer for the first season in 2004...
, "The Problem with Vampires" establishes his adventures in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
prior to his introduction Buffy episode "School Hard". Christopher Golden's 2000 novel Spike and Dru: Pretty Maids All in a Row
Spike and Dru: Pretty Maids All in a Row
Spike and Dru: Pretty Maids All in a Row is an original novel based on the U.S. television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Voodoo Lounge, found in Tales of the Slayer Volume III, is a companion to this story.-Plot summary:...
depicts Spike killing a Slayer named Sophie in the 1940s, contradicting the two Slayers whom Spike is later established to have killed; the second Slayer Spike killed was established as New Yorker Nikki Wood. The short story "Voodoo Lounge" from the collection Tales of the Slayer
Tales of the Slayer
Tales of the Slayer are volumes containing prose short stories. Four volumes of this series have been released, all published by Pocket Books...
is a sequel to this novel. Golden's 2006 novel, Blackout
Blackout (Buffy novel)
Blackout is an original novel based on the U.S. television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.-Plot summary:It is 1977, the summer of a brutal blackout, the time of the Son of Sam murders, and a period of brutal fiscal disaster for New York. The slayer Nikki Wood fights against the forces of darkness...
, is truer to the series' chronology by depicting Spike's fatal encounter with Slayer Nikki Wood in 1977. Diana G. Gallagher
Diana G. Gallagher
Diana G. Gallagher is an American author who writes books for children and young adults based on television series. She has contributed to book series based on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Charmed, among others....
's 2005 novel Spark and Burn
Spark and Burn
Spark and Burn is an original novel based on the U.S. television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.-Plot summary:Spike was born in the nineteenth century as a gentle, intellectual boy named William. As a young adult, he meets a woman called Drusilla, a mysterious vampire...
depicts the struggling early-Season Seven Spike remembering an account of his life, amounting to a chronological character history of Spike's life from the 19th century to the time of the framing device
Framing device
The term framing device refers to the usage of the same single action, scene, event, setting, or any element of significance at both the beginning and end of an artistic, musical, or literary work. The repeated element thus creates a ‘frame’ within which the main body of work can develop.The...
.
Most Spike-centric stories, however, have been published subsequent to Angels finale episode. The 2005 IDW comic book Spike: Old Times, by Peter David
Peter David
Peter Allen David , often abbreviated PAD, is an American writer of comic books, novels, television, movies and video games...
, depicts Spike's encounter with the vengeance demon Halfrek, explaining his recognition of her in Buffy episode "Older and Far Away", and clarifying that she was in fact his beloved Cecily. Mutant Enemy approved the story, even though IDW did not have rights to a Buffy-only character like Halfrek, because of her importance to Spike's backstory, on the condition that the story's timing was deliberately ambiguous. Following Angels cancellation, Spike immediately appeared in the Angel miniseries Spike vs. Dracula by Peter David
Peter David
Peter Allen David , often abbreviated PAD, is an American writer of comic books, novels, television, movies and video games...
, a sequel to the Buffy episode "Buffy vs. Dracula" and expanding on the characters' century-old rivalry established in that episode. Scott Tipton's 2006 comic Spike: Old Wounds is detective fiction
Detective fiction
Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...
set during Season Five, and also features allusions to Spike's activities in the late 1940s. Tipton's Spike: Lost and Found in 2006 is a Season Five story that acts as a sequel to the 1999 Buffy/Angel crossover episodes "The Harsh Light of Day
The Harsh Light of Day
The Harsh Light of Day is the third album by pop-rock band Fastball, released in September 2000 by Hollywood Records. The album had a distinctly more layered and glossier sound than past albums, and featured an impressive roster of guest stars, including The Beatles contemporary Billy Preston,...
" and "In the Dark", featuring the immortality-bestowing Gem of Amarra in 2005 Los Angeles. Lastly, writer Brian Lynch teamed up with Franco Urru to produce the story arc Spike: Asylum (2006-7), depicting Spike's stay in a supernatural medical facility. Although originally of the same ambiguous relationship to canon, the characters it introduced would reappear in the canonical Angel comic books to come later. Whedon appreciated Lynch's writing of Spike in Asylum so much that he commissioned him to co-write the canonical continuation of the series, Angel: After the Fall
Angel: After the Fall
Angel: After the Fall is a comic book published by IDW Publishing. Written by Brian Lynch and plotted with Joss Whedon, the series is a canonical continuation of the Angel television series, and follows the events of that show's final televised season...
, in 2007. Lynch and Urru also penned Spike: Shadow Puppets
Spike: Shadow Puppets
Spike: Shadow Puppets is a limited series comic book based on the Angel television series. The Spike centric comic was released by IDW Publishing from June 2007 through October 2007. The four issues were collected together in a single trade paperback in December, 2007.-Continuity:* The continuity...
, featuring Spike and Lorne doing battle with the muppet demons of Angel episode "Smile Time" in Japan. In the explicitly-canonical Whedon stories of 2007, Spike and Angel first appear in a joint cameo in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight is a comic book series published by Dark Horse Comics. The series serves as a canonical continuation of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and follows the events of that show's final televised season. It is produced by Joss Whedon, who wrote the...
(Dark Horse) as part of Buffy's sexual fantasies. In the Dark Horse Presents
Dark Horse Presents
Dark Horse Presents was the first comic book published by Dark Horse Comics in 1986 and was their flagship title until its September 2000 cancellation. The second incarnation was published on MySpace, running from July 2007 until August 2010...
#24 Season Eight tie-in, "Always Darkest", Spike and Angel appear (again in a dream sequence) at Buffy's side when she is fighting Caleb, but to her dismay the two start flirting with and kissing one another. Spike appears in Season Eight properly at the conclusion of the "Twilight
Twilight (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
"Twilight" is the seventh story arc of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight series of comic books, based upon the television series of the same name, and is written by novelist and comic book writer Brad Meltzer...
" story arc. Lynch's Spike series features some collaboration with Whedon to connect the IDW and Dark Horse series' continuities. Although IDW had planned to launch the series as a bona fide ongoing series, the transfer of Angel rights from IDW to Dark Horse necessitated that it end instead as an 8-issue miniseries.
In IDW's Angel: After the Fall
Angel: After the Fall
Angel: After the Fall is a comic book published by IDW Publishing. Written by Brian Lynch and plotted with Joss Whedon, the series is a canonical continuation of the Angel television series, and follows the events of that show's final televised season...
, Spike does not appear until the second issue, written by Brian Lynch with art by Franco Urru (the creative team of Spike: Asylum and Spike: Shadow Puppets
Spike: Shadow Puppets
Spike: Shadow Puppets is a limited series comic book based on the Angel television series. The Spike centric comic was released by IDW Publishing from June 2007 through October 2007. The four issues were collected together in a single trade paperback in December, 2007.-Continuity:* The continuity...
) with plotting and "executive production" by Whedon himself. In Angel: After the Fall, Spike has adjusted to Los Angeles' new status as a literal hell on Earth; he and Illyria both serve together as the Demon Lords of Beverly Hills, living in the Playboy Mansion
Playboy Mansion
The Playboy Mansion is the home of Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner. Located in the Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles, California, the mansion became famous during the 1970s through media reports of Hefner's lavish parties.-History:The house is described as being in the "Gothic-Tudor" style...
after the death of Hugh Hefner
Hugh Hefner
Hugh Marston "Hef" Hefner is an American magazine publisher, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises.-Early life:...
and served by a harem of human and demon females known collectively as the "Spikettes." How Spike and Illyria got to be Lords of Los Angeles is detailed in the Spike: After the Fall (2008) miniseries, which also introduces a human friend for Spike in Jeremy Johns. In their new capacity, Spike and Illyria secretly rescue humans and benevolent demons, evacuating them into the care of Connor, Nina Ash, and Gwen Raiden. Spike rallies alongside Angel against the other demon Lords. When vampire Gunn causes Illyria to revert to her monster form, memories of Fred from Spike and Wesley are transplanted into her to restore her humanity. After the Senior Partners revert time to before the Fall, Spike begins a loosely-affiliated relationship with the reformed Angel Investigations
Angel Investigations
Angel Investigations is a fictional detective agency run by the title character Angel previously on the WB television series Angel . It is sometimes abbreviated as AI...
company, collaborating with Angel and his associates while maintaining independence. Spike continues to appear in the ongoing Angel spin-off series by IDW, under the pens of Kelley Armstrong
Kelley Armstrong
Kelley Armstrong is a Canadian author, primarily of fantasy works.She has published sixteen fantasy novels , set in the world of the Women of the Otherworld and the Darkest Powers series, also two crime novels in 2007 and 2009...
, Bill Willingham
Bill Willingham
Bill Willingham is an American writer and artist of comics.-Career:Willingham got his start in the late 1970s to early 1980s as a staff artist for TSR, Inc., where he illustrated a number of their role-playing game products...
and others. As part of its After the Fall franchise, IDW also published Bill Williams' miniseries, Spike: The Devil You Know in 2010. Spike (2010) follows Spike's journey out of Los Angeles and in its first arc, into Vegas. Lynch introduces a new nemesis for Spike, John, a human whose soul was taken when Spike earned his; when John removes Spike's soul, Spike realises his redemption had begun long before his soul, and charitably has Willow return it to Drusilla instead. The storyline feeds into the "Twilight" and "Last Gleaming" arcs of Buffy Season Eight, concluding Season Eight in 2011. In Season Eight, Spike comes to Buffy's aid to help prevent the end of the universe. When Buffy's decision sees the world lose its magic, Spike is the only one to be emphatically supportive of the decision she had to make.
Personality
Spike is seen as something of a paradox amongst vampires in the series, and frequently challenges vampire conventions and limitations. As a soulless vampire, he exhibits quite a few human traits such as love, loyalty, and aesthetic appreciation. As an ensouled vampire, Spike's need for violence remains unapologetically intact. Spike's actions are motivated by love in all of its incarnations (love of objects, love of life, love of a specific person). Drusilla does, however, make it seem that all vampires are capable of exhibiting human emotions (such as love) when she says to Buffy, "We can love quite well. Though not always wisely."Spike is also rare among vampires because he does not fear Slayers; he seeks them out and has killed two by the time he arrives in Sunnydale. He is proud of this accomplishment despite the fact that his victories had more to do with the Slayers' state of mind than a special prowess on his part (or "luck," as he reveals in Buffy episode Fool for Love). Spike admits this to an inquiring Buffy in the season 5 episode Fool for Love, and the impact of his revelation has probably not been completely felt as of the completion of season 8.
Spike is intelligent, insightful and a skilled analyst. His sense of humor is dry and sarcastic, and he carries himself with swagger.
Spike has a habit of pithy remarks and glib insults, even toward the few he does not view as antagonists. Among his favorite targets are Angel, Xander
Xander Harris
Alexander LaVelle "Xander" Harris is a fictional character in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as well as in numerous items in the series Expanded Universe, such as comic books, tie-in novels and video games...
, Giles
Rupert Giles
Rupert Giles is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The character is portrayed by Anthony Stewart Head. He serves as Buffy Summers' mentor and surrogate father figure...
, and (to a lesser extent) Buffy. Joss Whedon credits this antipathy as what convinced him in the episode "Lovers Walk
Lovers Walk
"Lovers Walk" is episode 8 of season 3 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Sound Editing in a Series.- Plot synopsis :...
" to bring Spike back as a cast regular. As James Marsters put it, "I was supposed to be the one who stood at the side and said, 'Buffy, you're stupid, and we're all gonna die'."
Spike often nicknames people, both as insults and as terms of endearment; for example, he calls Dawn "Little Bit" or "the Niblet". Spike also retains something of his literary intellect from his human side, routinely referencing poetry, songs, and literature; on occasion he even waxes poetic on the nature of love, life, and unlife as being driven by blood, reasoning that blood is more powerful than any supernatural force because it is what separates the living from the dead.
Spike often treats his vulnerability to the sun as simply an annoying inconvenience. He drives in broad daylight in vehicles with blacked-out windows, and on several occasions travels outside during the day using a blanket for cover. Indeed, he has a remarkably stronger resistance to sunlight than most all other vampires seen in the series except Angel; their elevated ability to endure the sun should not be confused with total immunity, however.
Appearance
Spike has a punk look which strongly resembles English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
Billy Idol
Billy Idol
William Michael Albert Broad , better known by his stage name Billy Idol, is an English rock musician. A member of the Bromley Contingent of Sex Pistols fans, Idol first achieved fame in the punk rock era as a member of the band Generation X...
; humorously, Buffy claims that Billy Idol in fact stole his look from Spike. His hair is peroxide blond for the duration of his time on Buffy and Angel, although in flashbacks it can be seen in its natural medium brown state as well as dyed black. His nails are often painted black.
A Y-shaped scar on Marsters's left eyebrow, received during a mugging, was worked into the show; make-up artist Todd McIntosh decided to shave out his eyebrow in order to make it more prominent. He also included the scar on Spike's "vamp face" prosthesis
Prosthetic makeup
Prosthetic makeup is the process of using prosthetic sculpting, molding and casting techniques to create advanced cosmetic effects...
, albeit slightly altered as though the skin has stretched. In Spike's first appearances the wound still looks fresh, but it gradually fades until, in Angel season 5, it is barely visible. A flashback in "Fool for Love" reveals that Spike received the scar from the sword of the first Slayer he killed in 1900.
Spike usually wears long black leather coats, including one that he took from a Nazi officer and another that he took as a trophy from Nikki Wood, the second Slayer he killed. He wore the Slayer's black duster for over twenty-five years. When the coat was destroyed by a bomb from the Immortal in Italy, Spike heartbrokenly declared it to be irreplaceable; but the Italian branch of Wolfram & Hart quickly supplied him with a whole wardrobe of new ones, nearly identical, which he happily began wearing. His trademark look includes the leather duster, a black t-shirt or v-neck shirt and black denim pants, usually with heavy boots or Doc Martins. He also wore a red long-sleeved shirt fairly often, particularly during the earlier seasons of Buffy, and a bright blue shirt early in Season 6 & 7. He explained that the shirt was supposed to show Buffy that he had changed and give him confidence (because the First was messing with his head and he did not want Buffy to think he was still evil or crazy). But later, he returned to his trademark look, commenting that he was back.
Powers and abilities
In addition to possessing the common powers and weaknesses of vampires, Spike's age and experience makes him a highly effective, skilled, and versatile fighter in both armed and unarmed combat. For example, he is able to briefly overcome Illyria during a testing of her abilities prior to her powers being greatly reduced by Wesley. Illyria criticizes his (and others') ability to adapt, calling it "compromise." He is able to withstand excessive amounts of pain for extended periods of time, particularly when properly motivated, as seen in the episodes "Intervention" and "Showtime". While not as skilled or as sadistic as Angelus, Spike also proves himself to be effective at torture, noting he had gained "screams, various fluids, and a name" from Doctor Sparrow. Much like Angel, he is highly proficient in various forms of martial artsMartial arts
Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....
, and his typical fighting style blends karate
Karate
is a martial art developed in the Ryukyu Islands in what is now Okinawa, Japan. It was developed from indigenous fighting methods called and Chinese kenpō. Karate is a striking art using punching, kicking, knee and elbow strikes, and open-handed techniques such as knife-hands. Grappling, locks,...
, kung fu, and others.
Spike often displays insight and skills in perception and observation, especially with regard to relationships and personalities, so long as the relationship in question does not concern him personally. This ability allows him to wield powerful psychological weapons as easily and effectively as physical ones. For example, when he wants to create disharmony among the Scoobies, Spike divides-and-conquers with "The Yoko Factor", exploiting tensions that exist under the surface to alienate Buffy and her friends against each other. He explains to Buffy he was able to defeat two Slayers because he sensed and exploited their secret desires to be free of their burden. Spike's skills of analysis allowed him to realize Willow was barely holding it together after Oz's departure even though Giles and Buffy thought she was doing better, to be the first to see through Tara
Tara Maclay
Tara Maclay is a fictional character created for the fantasy television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer . She was developed by Joss Whedon and portrayed by Amber Benson from the fourth to the sixth season until the character's death. Tara is a shy young woman with magical talents who falls in love...
's abusive and controlling family, forced Buffy and Angel to admit that they were more than "just friends" and identify when and why some relationships, such as between Buffy and Riley
Riley Finn
Riley Finn is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Portrayed by Marc Blucas, Riley was introduced in the 1999 season four premiere episode, "The Freshman", and Blucas was part of the series credited cast for the second part of season four...
, are not meant to last, masterfully feeding Riley's insecurities in an effort to sabotage his relationship with Buffy, so Spike can pursue her. His analytical skills also help him in battle from time to time; for example, in "Time Bomb", he identifies Illyria's fighting style as a Tae Kwon Do/Brazilian Capoeira / Ninjitsu
Capoeira
Capoeira is a Brazilian art form that combines elements of martial arts, sports, and music. It was created in Brazil mainly by descendants of African slaves with Brazilian native influences, probably beginning in the 16th century...
hybrid.
Although capable of developing sound battle strategies, Spike (particularly in the days before receiving his chip and being re-ensouled) often loses patience with anything more complicated than outright attack, as mentioned in the episode "In the Dark".
He is also impatient to fight the Slayer upon his initial arrival in Sunnydale; the attack is supposed to coincide with the Night of St. Vigeous (when a vampire's natural abilities are enhanced), but he "couldn't wait" to go after the Slayer and recklessly leads a mass assault against Buffy at Sunnydale High, which fails and results in the deaths of many Aurelian vampires. However, Spike did exercise patience throughout the later half of Buffy Season Two, when he used a wheelchair for several months after a brutal battle with the Scoobies in the episode What's My Line
What's My Line (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
"What's My Line" is a two-episode story in season two of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.In Part One, Buffy endures Career Week at school while Spike hires assassins to kill her; a fierce fighter who identifies herself as "Kendra, the Vampire Slayer" shows up in Sunnydale...
left him paraplegic
Paraplegia
Paraplegia is an impairment in motor or sensory function of the lower extremities. The word comes from Ionic Greek: παραπληγίη "half-striking". It is usually the result of spinal cord injury or a congenital condition such as spina bifida that affects the neural elements of the spinal canal...
. Feigning weakness, he endured torturous weeks watching Angelus sexually pursue Dru as he waited for the right time to strike against his enemy.
Spike's "vampire constitution" provides him with an extremely high tolerance for alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
(which he regularly consumes in copious quantities). Due to his experience in criminal activities, he is skilled at picking locks, hotwiring
Hotwiring
Hot-wiring is the process of bypassing an automobile's ignition interlock and thus starting it without the key. A vehicle owner or thief may implement this process.-Methods:...
cars, and pick-pocketing. He is also capable of easily operating various vehicles, such as various cars, a Yamaha XJR400
Yamaha XJR400
The Yamaha XJR400 was a motorcycle manufactured by Yamaha. It is a relatively light naked bike with around 53 hp/ 40 kilowatts. The XJR400 was built from 1990 until 2007....
motorcycle
Motorcycle
A motorcycle is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as long distance travel, navigating congested urban traffic, cruising, sport and racing, or off-road conditions.Motorcycles are one of the most...
("Bargaining"), and a Winnebago
Winnebago Industries
Winnebago Industries Inc., , is a manufacturer of motor homes, a type of recreational vehicle or RV, in the United States. It is based in Forest City, Iowa.-Corporate history:...
("Spiral"). He has also been shown using video game systems and a computer, treating injuries, and playing poker
Poker
Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...
and pool
Pocket billiards
Pool, also more formally known as pocket billiards or pool billiards , is the family of cue sports and games played on a pool table having six receptacles called pockets along the , into which balls are deposited as the main goal of play. Popular versions include eight-ball and nine-ball...
. Spike is also seen speaking/understanding Latin, Luganda (a language of Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
, where he meets the demon shaman), and the language of Fyarl Demons, two of whom he once employed as underlings during his pre-Sunnydale days. He is also shown to be capable of recognizing literature; in the last episode of season five, he paraphrases a line from the St. Crispin's Day Speech while in conversation with Giles after Buffy tells them her plan of attack on Glory.
When Spike was transformed into a ghost-like intangible state following the destruction of Sunnydale and the Hellmouth and his subsequent materialization at Wolfram & Hart, he was capable of walking through solid objects. He was initially unable to make contact with objects around him until he learned how to focus his abilities through desire, allowing him to make brief contact with people and things if he concentrated enough. This ability was relatively useless in a fight; he was unable to pick up a wooden bar to hit the demon Tezcatcatl in "The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco", and required a few moments to properly punch a cyborg
Cyborg
A cyborg is a being with both biological and artificial parts. The term was coined in 1960 when Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline used it in an article about the advantages of self-regulating human-machine systems in outer space. D. S...
strangling Gunn in "Lineage". Naturally, he lost these capabilities when he was recorporealized by Lindsey.
Unproduced spin-off movie
In 2004, Joss WhedonJoss Whedon
Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon is an American screenwriter, executive producer, director, comic book writer, occasional composer and actor, founder of Mutant Enemy Productions and co-creator of Bellwether Pictures...
set plans for a Spike movie. The film, if ever greenlit, would star James Marsters
James Marsters
James Wesley Marsters is an American actor and musician. Marsters first came to the attention of the general public playing the popular character Spike, a platinum-blond yobbish English vampire in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off series, Angel from 1997 to 2004...
, Alyson Hannigan
Alyson Hannigan
Alyson Lee Hannigan is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Willow Rosenberg in the cult classic television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Michelle Flaherty in three American Pie films, and Lily Aldrin on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother.-Early life:Hannigan was born in...
and Amy Acker
Amy Acker
Amy Louise Acker is an American actress. She is best known for her roles on the television series Angel as Winifred Burkle and Illyria and on Alias as Kelly Peyton. She is also known for her role as Dr. Claire Saunders/Whiskey on Dollhouse.-Early life:Acker was born and raised in Dallas, where she...
. At a convention, Acker stated the film was not going ahead due to money issues.
Reception
Spike was placed first in SFX magazine's "Top 50 Vampires" on television and movies list. The same list featured rival AngelAngel
Angels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...
in the third place. Spike was described as an "antihero in the true sense of the word, Spike is morally ambiguous and ready to fight pretty much anyone, for fun. But underneath it all, he loves deeply and earnestly in a way that remains achingly human. Although, ironically, his personality remains pretty much the same, whether he has a soul or not – in stark (and more entertaining) contrast to Angel." Other Buffyverse
Buffyverse
The Buffyverse, also known as the Whedonverse or Slayerverse , is the shared fictional universe in which the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel are set. This term, originally coined by fans of the TV series, has since been used in the titles of published works, and adopted by Joss...
vampires to appear on the list included Drusilla
Drusilla
Julia Drusilla was the second daughter and fifth living child of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder, and the sister of the Roman Emperor Caligula. Drusilla also had two sisters and two other brothers...
(at 10th place), Darla
Darla
Darla may refer to:* Darla , a character from Buffy the Vampire Slayer* "Darla" * Darla Records, a record label-People with the name:* Darla Baker, American fashion model...
(at 25th place), Vampire Willow
Willow
Willows, sallows, and osiers form the genus Salix, around 400 species of deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere...
(at 32th place), Harmony Kendall
Harmony Kendall
Harmony Kendall is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off Angel. The character is portrayed by Mercedes McNab...
(at 31st place), and the Master
Master
Master or Masters are terms denoting some kind of rank or status, and may refer to:-Ranks and titles:* Master craftsman in the Medieval guilds* Master , a title...
(at 39th place).
Spike is also featured in Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
magazine's "Hollywood's Most Powerful Vampires" list along with Angel.