Spike (Buffyverse)

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Spike (né William Pratt), is a fictional character created by Joss Whedon for the cult television programs, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. The character is portrayed by James Marsters.

1 Biography
2 Appearances
3 See also

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Biography

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Character history

William Pratt was born circa 1853 in London to Anne Pratt and an unknown father. William's surname was not revealed in the series and for years was widely accepted to be "Walthrop" in the fandom. However, creator Joss Whedon recently revealed it to be "Pratt". William Pratt was the birth name of legendary horror actor Boris Karloff.

In 1880, at approximately 25 to 30 years of age, William was a brown-haired, ineffectual gentleman who lived with his mother and wrote poetry. He was called "William the Bloody" behind his back by his peers, because his poetry was so "bloody awful." This nickname (with more deadly connotations) would followed him in the future as a vampire. After his romantic overtures were rejected by the aristocratic Cecily, a despondent William accepted comfort in the arms of Drusilla only to be bitten and transformed into a vampire. Euphoric with his new-found vampiric abilities, and hungry for revenge on his peers, he abandoned the genteel hypocrisy of Victorian life (though not before turning his own mother into a vampire) and became a rebel, adopting a working class accent and becoming prone to impulsiveness and violence. He adopted the name "Spike" because of a habit of torturing people with railroad spikes. (It should be noted that one of his detractors in his human days exclaimed he'd rather "have a railroad spike driven through my head" than listen to William's poetry, a possible inspiration for the torture.)

In the company of Drusilla, her sire Angelus and Angelus's sire Darla, Spike terrorized Britain, Europe, and Asia for almost two decades. Utterly devoted to Drusilla, Spike had a slightly strained relationship with Angelus, rather like two rival brothers; although Angelus enjoyed the company of another male vampire in their travels, he found Spike's eagerness for battle and unnecessary risk to be unbecoming, since Angelus regarded killing as an art, not a sport. The level to which Spike felt any closeness to Darla was never really clarified, although in the flashback in The Girl in Question, both Angelus and Spike express outrage that Darla and Drusilla allowed the Immortal to ravish them concurrently, noting "You never let us do that!" The clear implication that there ARE some things that the two vampire women "let" their paramours do with both of them suggests that Darla's affections might not have been reserved solely for Angelus.

In 1900, in one of his proudest moments, Spike killed a Slayer during the Chinese Boxer Rebellion; it was her sword that gave him the scar on his left eyebrow, which remains a century later. Shortly afterward, Spike and Drusilla lost touch with Darla and Angelus (who, unknown to Spike or Drusilla, had recently been cursed with a soul), and the couple wandered the world seeking amusement and mayhem, occasionally separating to pursue separate interests but always reuniting. During World War II, Spike was captured by Nazis and transported aboard a submarine which was in turn seized by Americans; after he and two other vampires killed most of the crew, Angel made Spike and another vampire Angel had just sired, leave the sub, by forcing them to swim to shore before the submarine reached the United States. By the 1950's, Spike, having reunited with Drusilla, spent some time in Italy.

At some point in a century or so of being his own boss, Spike employed a pair of Fyarl Demons as muscle, which is noteworthy since in the Buffyverse vampires and demons rarely get along. He attended Woodstock, where he drank blood from a hippie and spent the next several hours watching his own hand move. Spike has been known to drive in broad daylight despite the fact that his vulnerability to the sun requires him to cover most of the windows, leaving him with little means to see where he's going.

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Style

William's natural hair color was medium brown; in 1943 he was seen with it dyed black and slicked down; and by 1977 he had begun to bleach it, keeping that look at least until he was last seen in 2003. Spike has claimed that Billy Idol stole his look from him.

Spike has a taste for long black leather jackets, including one that he took from a Nazi officer and another that he wore as a trophy of Nikki Wood, a Slayer whom he killed in 1977 after coming to New York specifically to find and fight the Slayer of the time. It is unclear how many times the two fought before Spike killed her in their final battle, as is how else Spike might have occupied himself in New York or whether Drusilla was with him during this period. Spike wore Nikki's jacket for over twenty-five years before it was finally destroyed in a firefight in Italy, after which the Italian branch of Wolfram and Hart supplied him with duplicate jackets.

Spike smokes Morley cigarettes.

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Sunnydale

Spike first appears in Sunnydale in Buffy's second season, in the episode School Hard, accompanied by his longtime love Drusilla, who was suffering from poisoning (having narrowly escaped an angry mob in Prague); Spike initially believed that the Hellmouth's energy would cure Drusilla, and the presence of a Slayer he could fight only made the town more attractive to him. Upon discovering that Angel(us) was also in Sunnydale, Spike seemed genuinely glad to see him, suggesting that despite their many differences, he still considered the older vampire a friend. However, Angel's loyalty to Buffy soon ended that camaraderie, and when Spike later learned that Drusilla could only be cured by the blood of the vampire who had created her, Angel, Spike was willing to kill him without a second thought. (Early on, before his past is clearly revealed to viewers, Spike refers to Angel as his "sire," but in later episodes, it is made it clear that Drusilla is the one that sired Spike. However, because Angelus is the one who sired Drusilla, it can be argued that he is also the sire, or at least the "grandsire," of Spike. It can also be said that Angelus was the one who had to act as Spike's sire by teaching him about the vampire world, since the insane Drusilla was hardly qualified for the job.)

For much of the second season, Spike and Drusilla are major enemies of Buffy, until Spike is so severely injured in a fight with Buffy and Kendra that he spends several months confined to a wheelchair. When Angel loses his soul after making love with Buffy, he joins the pair, and eventually plots to destroy all of humanity, as a way of getting rid of the stench of humanity that Buffy's love left in him. Spike at first celebrates their reunion with Angelus, again demonstrating that genuine affection exists between the two, but when Angelus steals Dru as a lover and persistently taunts the (temporarily) helpless Spike, their longtime rivalry is renewed. This rivalry eventually motivates Spike to ally himself with Buffy in their attempts to defeat Angelus; there is some ambiguity regarding his motivation in doing so, since despite his initial claim that he just wants Drusilla back, he also makes a memorable speech:

“We like to talk big, vampires do. I’m going to destroy the world. That’s just tough guy talk. Strutting around with your friends over a pint of blood. The truth is, I like this world. You’ve got – dog racing. Manchester United. And you’ve got people: billions of people walking around like Happy Meals with legs. It’s all right here. But then someone comes along with a vision, with a real passion for destruction. Angel could pull it off. Goodbye Piccadilly, farewell Leicester bloody Square."

Spike takes out Drusilla and removes her from the fight; but doesn't stay around when Angelus corners Buffy with a sword in his hand. Spike and an unconscious Drusilla leave Sunnydale and travel to Brazil.

Spike appears in only one episode of season three (Lover's Walk), attempting to force Willow Rosenberg to cast a love spell on Drusilla, who had turned away from him because he's not enough of a demon for her, because of his alliance with the slayer and (as we learn later) because she suspects that he has feelings for Buffy. One interesting point in this episode is Buffy's remark to Angel that "I can fool Giles, and I can fool my friends, but I can't fool myself – or Spike, for some reason," foreshadowing Spike's role as the "truth-seer" of the group. Spike abandons the love spell idea, and resolves to win Drusilla back the old-fashioned way: by torturing her, as Angel did in 1860.

Spike returns to Sunnydale alone in season four to search for the Gem of Amarra, a talisman that allows a vampire to endure sunlight and even a stake to the heart without ill effect. He becomes involved with Harmony Kendall, a shallow young vampire. Despite her beauty and affection, Spike considers her little more than a nuisance and sexual plaything. His unlife takes a pivotal turn when The Initiative, a secret government demon-fighting army, captures him and implants a microchip in his head, which causes crippling pain whenever he harms or attempts to harm a human being, though it allows him to fight demons. Unable to hunt for blood, he turns to the Scooby Gang for protection, bartering his knowledge of the Initiative. He helps Rupert Giles out of a tight spot for a price. He and Buffy briefly become engaged through an accidental enchantment by Willow, foreshadowing their later bond. (it is telling, that though Willow only told them to get married, that both of them mention being in love with the other)

In season five, Spike becomes aware after some erotic dreams that, to his horror, he has fallen in love with Buffy. Buffy's younger sister Dawn, who has a crush on Spike, perceives his obsession with Buffy, and casually tells Buffy of it. Disgusted, Buffy rejects him, going as far as to uninvite him from her home (something she hasn't done, even though he's had an invite since his alliance with her against Angelus). Still, Spike's feelings for the Slayer, his inability to harm humans, and his love of a good scrap lead him to fight alongside the Scooby Gang against the forces of evil. During this time, Spike impressed Tara Maclay, at least, as having genuinely been in love with Buffy; Tara also shared Spike's near-parental love for Dawn. There is unfortunately little further connection between Tara and Spike.

During season six, Spike and Buffy became lovers of a sort, engaging in a twisted sexual but emotionally one-sided relationship where she does not to return his obsessive love. Their physical relationship starts after a demon's spell(in the episode Once More,with Feeling) makes them share their emotions and Buffy expresses a need to get the fire back, but they do not get intimate until Spike finds out that his chip no longer stops him from hurting Buffy since she was resurrected by Willow's spell. Buffy most often initiates both the violence and the sex between them. This includes a dark moment where Buffy beats Spike severely enough to cause injuries that last at least a week. She also threatens to kill Spike if he ever tells anyone about them. When Buffy decides to call it off, Spike at first tries to get her back by making her jealous by bringing an unnamed goth girl as his date to Xander and Anya's wedding. He succeeds in making her mildly jealous but she keeps up her resolve to not resume the destructive relationship with him. Later, after Xander leaves Anya at the altar, Spike and Anya get drunk together and try to find solace in each others arms. Buffy catches them, and her jealousy at seeing Spike with Anya leads him to believe he still has a chance at winning Buffy back. Spike, his obsession out of control, tries to rape Buffy when she yet again refuses to resume their relationship.

Also during season six, Spike was accused of being "The Doctor," a smuggler of demon eggs (As You Were). This was never conclusively proven and he himself claimed to be storing the eggs for a friend. Evidence against his being the Doctor includes his lack of a telephone, money, and any kind of knowledge in the safe storage of such eggs. It has been conjectured that the true Doctor is "Doc", a demonic wizard seen twice in season 5, although the events of The Gift make it inconceivable that Spike would sincerely refer to Doc as "a friend".

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William's soul

Incapable of dealing with his emotions, he leaves town and heads to a remote area of Africa, vowing to "give her what she deserves." He seeks out a legendary Shaman/demon with the power to make him "What he once was." He undergoes a series of grueling physical trials (the Demon Trials) to prove his worthiness before a demon shaman, who promises to give him what he wants if he survives. In the final scene of the season (Grave), Spike survives the trials and the shaman grants his request, giving him back what he lost: his soul. Since Spike had not mentioned his soul, saying only that he sought to make himself worthy of Buffy, fans debated whether Spike intended to get his soul back or the Shaman tricked him. The Buffy writers though have clearly stated almost instantly, that yes, he did go to get his soul. This was confirmed in Lessons, where the First in the form of the Mayor confirms that Spike chose to get his soul. Spike repeated this with his own words when he tells Buffy about his soul, at the end of Beneath You:

BUFFY: "This is all you get. I’m listening. Tell me what happened."

SPIKE: "I tried to find it, of course."

BUFFY (annoyed): "Find what?"

SPIKE: "The spark. The missing— the piece. That fit. That would make me fit. Because you didn’t want— god— I can’t! Not with you looking."

He stands up and moves off into the shadows.

SPIKE: "I dreamed of killing you."

Spooked in spite of herself, Buffy bends down and picks up a splintered piece of wood and wields it as a stake.

SPIKE: "I think they were dreams. So weak. Did you make me weak? Thinking of you, holding myself and spilling useless buckets of salt over your . . . ending. Angel, he should have warned me. He makes a good show of forgetting but it’s here in me — all the time. The spark. I wanted to give you what you deserve. And I got it. They put the spark in me — and now all it does is burn."

Buffy is stunned.

BUFFY: "Your soul . . ."

SPIKE: (laughs) "A bit worse for lack of use."

BUFFY: "You got your soul back. How?"

SPIKE: "It’s what you wanted, right? It’s what you wanted, right? And now everybody’s in here, talking. Everything I did, everyone I . . . and him . . . and it . . . the other. The thing beneath – beneath you. It’s here, too. Everybody. They all just tell me go. Go — to hell . . ."

BUFFY (horrified): "Why? Why would you do that?"

SPIKE: "Buffy, shame on you. Why does a man do what he mustn’t? For her. To be hers. To be the kind of man who would nev— To be a kind of man."

It was clear that all Spike had done, he had done for love of Buffy. In both series he appeared in, it was always clear that unlike Angel, who saw himself as seeking redemption(since he got his own series), Spike wasn't as openly concerned about that.(though it must be mentioned that originally, Angel only started to help people because of Buffy, it's highly doubtful that Angel would have ever become a champion without her influence) What he had done as a soulless vampire did come to haunt him, as he told Angel in the episode in the Angel episode where they were preparing to do battle over Cup of Perpetual Torment, "You had a soul forced on you. As a curse. Make you suffer for all the horrible things you've done. Me, I fought for my soul, went through the demon trials, almost did me in a dozen times over, but I kept fighting. Because I knew it was the right thing to do. It's my destiny."

But he became ensouled, and became Champion, dying at the Hellmouth, for Buffy. Even though he knew she didn't love him the way he wanted her to, and he didn't think anyone cared for him. He still gave up his life to save the world. Both for the sake of Buffy and the world.

When Spike first told Angel that unlike him, he was ensouled by his own choice, it may have seemed that Spike believed himself different from Angel because love had motivated his change, where Angel's was forced on him. It's an understandable sentiment, considering all the belittling Angel does where Spike's concerned. Angel rebutted with the fact that only reason Spike wanted his soul was to "get into a girl's pants".

With the returning of his soul comes a conscience filled with guilt as well. He will have to learn to live with himself as Angel did when he was cursed with a soul. In the early episodes of season seven, Spike resides in the basement of recently reconstructed Sunnydale High School, close to the Hellmouth's opening. Tormented by The First Evil as well as by his newfound conscience, Spike appears to be going insane, and Buffy, after learning that he is ensouled, leaves him alone in the basement for several months, before she finally takes pity on him and has him live with Xander. But this arrangement backfires as Spike, under influence of the First Evil, is enticed to kill innocent people. After he discovers what he's done, Spike begs Buffy to stake him. Buffy refuses and takes him into her house and tells him she has seen him change.

To the dismay of Giles and most of her other friends, she trusts Spike enough to relieve his agony, by allowing Initiative agents to remove his now-malfunctioning microchip. She also takes Spike's side when Principal Robin Wood, son of the slayer Spike murdered in 1977, attempts to kill him as retribution. (Ironically, by attempting to kill Spike when he is under the First's influence, Wood frees Spike from a hypnotic trigger, the song that Spike's mother often sang to him before he became a vampire.) Late in the season, Spike and Buffy achieved an emotional closeness as he remained her only supporter when the other Scoobies abandoned her. In one of the series better moments, Spike contemptously tells the rest of the Scoobies, "you sorry sods, she died for you, and you betrayed her!" In what had to be the ultimate irony, the only one that remained selflessly loyal to Buffy was Spike. They spend two nights together, though it is not clear whether they resume their sexual intimacy. Creator Joss Whedon has said he intentionally left it to the viewers to decide how they felt the relationship progressed though Whedon himself said he personally felt that it would be wrong for them to resume a sexual relationship.

In the final battle inside the Hellmouth, Spike, wearing a mystical amulet, sacrifices himself to destroy the First's army of Turok-Hans (pure demon übervampires). The amulet channels power that turns the Turok-Hans to dust and collapses the cavern containing the Hellmouth, sealing the Hellmouth and creating a crater which swallows the entire town of Sunnydale). Spike is incinerated in the process, but not before Buffy says "I love you." He replies, "No, you don't — but thanks for saying it,".

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Los Angeles

Despite his apparent death at the end of Buffy's final season, Spike returned as a regular on Angel in its fifth and final season, having been brought back by the same amulet. The amulet was initially given to Angel by Wolfram and Hart, and is mysteriously returned to the offices by mail. For the first seven episodes of the season, Spike is an incorporeal being akin to a ghost, with a connection to the human world that is unstable, causing him to disappear at random (but increasingly frequent) intervals. Spike tells Fred that every time he disappears he is being transported to Hell. Spike seeks, at this stage, to leave Wolfram and Hart and find Buffy, but when he tries, he discovers that he is mystically bound to Los Angeles and unable to leave. One of Fred's attempts to make Spike corporeal is thrown by the appearance of another ghost, who threatens Fred's life; Spike throws away his opportunity to become corporeal (and, thus, stop being periodically sent to Hell) in order to save Fred, of whom he's become quite fond.

Possibly Spike's willingness to regain his soul was a factor in why he, unlike Angel, spent comparatively little time racked with remorse for his literally thousands of murders. Although Angel spent almost a century coming to terms with his past, wasting a lot of time that he could have helped people, Spike was very much his old self little more than a year after his re-ensoulment, and unlike Angel, he shows little interest in attempting to "redeem" himself for his past crimes, much to Angel's annoyance.

Later another mysterious package comes in the mail, addressed to Spike but with no return address. On opening the package there's a flash of light, and upon trying to walk through objects as he's become used to, Spike discovers he's corporeal once more. One of his first acts is to rekindle his physical relationship with Harmony again, who is now Angel's secretary.

We are told that the existence of two ensouled vampires in the world is affecting the fabric of reality. The two vampires learn from Eve that there is a prophecy detailing how to restore the balance, involving both vampires competing to reach the Cup of Perpetual Torment. Angel and Spike's relationship had always been strained by competition over women, notably Drusilla and Buffy. Ego and personal hostility led to an extended battle between the two adversaries; Spike beats Angel to the Cup and drinks from it, believing it would bestow upon him great responsibilities and pain; When Angel asks him if it's the destiny he wants, or just to take something away from Angel, Spike answeres honestly, "A bit of both." Then, for the first time in over a century of friendship and rivalry, Spike clearly defeats Angel. However, the prophecy turns out to be a sham (the liquid in the Cup was merely Mountain Dew), rendering the whole exercise seemingly useless. Though Spike regains a lot of his selfconfidence with his defeat of Angel.

Beginning in Soul Purpose, Lindsey McDonald, pretending to be the late half-demon Doyle with a connection to The Powers That Be, persuades Spike, until the ex-Wolfram and Hart employee's duplicity is discovered, that he is destined to "help the helpless," in much the same way as the real Doyle persuaded Angel of the same thing at the start of Angel. Spike, after a bout of depression, is brought back to being an affirmed champion of the good and, by the end of the season, Spike is a trusted member of the team, being entrusted to rescue an infant and destroy a demon cult in the final episode Not Fade Away, in order to help defeat the Circle of the Black Thorn and wound the Senior Partners. Before Angel's team of demon killers enter their greatest and perhaps final battle, Angel gives them the day off, to spend as though it was going to be their last day. Spike, returning to his mortal roots as a frustrated poet, knocks them dead (figuratively) in an open mike poetry reading, finally finishing a poem he'd begun over a century earlier, before being sired by Drusilla.

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

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Powers & Abilities

Spike has the standard powers and vulnerabilities of a vampire. On many occasions he has tracked people or demons through the streets (or even sewers) by smell alone; unlike a dog he does not need to sniff the ground to track in this manner. He can also smell fear. He can identify and track someone by scent alone, though it's easier for him to track blood.

Spike's most distinctive trait is his love of combat for its own sake; even before he regained his soul, he did not much care if he fought for good or evil, only the desire to do violence. This was extremely ironic, because as a human he was quite meek, and gentle. But even the return of his soul did not extinguish the genuine love of battle Spike had acquired. Like most truly great fighters, he fights for the sheer joy and adrenalin rush of combat. When he first came to Wolfram and Hart, he and Angel were confronted by a Droxlar Beast, whom Angel attacked. Spike immediately moved to fight the Droxlar (although, being immaterial at the time, this proved impossible), despite being in the course of a bitter argument with Angel and having no particular reason to help him.

What gives Spike an added edge in both combat and personal matters is his skill in perception and observation, especially with regard to relationships and personalities. Perhaps due to his failed attempt at poetry, Spike's perception gives him the previously mentioned "truth-seer" status. In combat, Spike has used this to his advantage, beating Angel in "Destiny" and even scoring an albeit brief upper-hand in combat with llyria during a testing of her abilities, when she was at the height of her powers. Indeed, she asked to "keep" Spike, in her own way a compliment to his abilities.

He has acquired a number of skills in his long unlife. Spike is a highly skilled in armed and unarmed combat. His fighting style seems to blend several different disciplines accumulated over fighting others. His style resembles street fighting.

When he fights he generally prefers to take advantage of his superhuman strength and speed. He has mastered many varieties of weapons, such as a rifle, knife, sword, axe, crossbow, stake, and a staff.

While not as skilled or as cruel as Angelus, Spike is also a skilled torturer as seen when he tortured Doctor Sparrow in Angel season 5 Shells. Although capable of developing sound battle strategies, he inevitably loses patience with anything more complicated than outright attack.

He is also seen picking locks; driving a car, a motorcycle and a motor home; using video game systems and a computer. He is fluent in Latin, Luganda (a language of Uganda, where he met the demon shaman), and the language of Fyarl demons. It is implied that he has at least some knowledge of Italian.

For some reason Spike, even while soulless, retained more human emotion than is common for a vampire. Possibly this is because he was sired by Drusilla, who shares this trait, which could be attributed to either her precognition or her insanity.

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Romantic Interests / Intimate Liaisons

While mostly confirmed as a heterosexual who often gets obsessed over the women he falls in love with, Spike has also shown points of homosexuality with a small handful of men, though only one of which had been fully confirmed.

Cecily Addams/Cecily Underwood: A girl Spike was attracted to during his human life. She spurned his affections. Subsequently, Spike was consoled by Drusillia, who turned him into a vampire.

Drusilla: Spike was romantically involved with Drusilla for a long time. They were one of the few vampires who actually loved each other. They shared more than a century travelling around the world, keeping each other company and enjoying themselves. Dru, however, cheated on Spike with a demon in South America after realizing that Spike had feelings towards Buffy.

Angel: Spike mentioned in the fifth season episode, Power Play, that he "was never intimate with Angel... except for that one time". Whedon has confirmed in numerous interviews and forum posts the possibility at least a one night stand between the pair. In the DVD commentary to the episode Hole In The World explicitly states: "Are you telling me that they were hanging around for a hundred years together in Europe and had never done it?"

Alexander 'Xander' Harris: In Beneath You a character, confronted with the convoluted sex lives of the main characters, asked if any of the characters had not had sex with each other. Xander and Spike exchanged awkward glances. This could mean something happened while they were sharing living space, something almost happened, or they pray nothing will ever happen.

Harmony Kendall: Spike dated her from season 4 through early season 5.

Buffy Summers: Spike became her ally reluctantly during season 4, and fell in love with her reluctantly in early season 5. During season 6 they started an unhealthy sexual relationship which ended badly. During season 7 they became close in a quasi romantic way.

A skanky goth girl, in the episode "Hell's Bells": Brought her as a date to a wedding.

Anya Jenkins: Spike slept with her once in Season 6.

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Appearances

Spike has appeared in:

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Buffy'

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Spike was a series regular in the show's fourth (starting with The Initiative), fifth, sixth and seventh seasons, although he did not appear in The Body. He appeared in 96 episodes, including guest appearances in: