That may be overstating things, but Marsters' scene-stealing work as Spike was clearly a big part of the show's success, if only because Buffy the Vampire Slayer's writers gave him some of the best lines of the series and put him front and center during some of the show's most vital moments. Some might even argue that Buffy the Vampire Slayer didn't truly begin to transform into the era-defining genre treat as which it's regarded until Spike entered the picture. It was a long road to get Spike to that point, one that found the bleached-blonde bad boy of Buffy the Vampire Slayer change in ways no one could've conceived when he made his grand entrance early in the show's second season. Spike appears in all episodes of Season 5.Played with an unrepentant mix of cocksure swagger, raw sexuality, and soul-searching pathos by a then relatively unknown James Marsters, the character also became one of the most beloved in the Buffy-verse.Spike appears in all episodes of Season 4 to 7, with the exception of "The Freshman", "Living Conditions", "Fear, Itself", "Beer Bad" and "The Body".Temporarily had the ability to phase through solid objects as a ghost.Fluency in several languages (such as Latin, Uganda, and the Fyarl demon language).Capable of operating a wide variety of vehicles.Highly skilled in both armed and unarmed combat.Advanced age gives him physical abilities superior to most other vampires and demons.In addition to the common powers and vulnerabilities of vampires, Spike possesses many qualities unique to himself: After becoming corporeal again, Spike struggled to find a place in the world, only to join Angel in his battle against the Senior Partners and become a Champion in his own right.Īfter a slew of adventures, Spike reunited with Buffy and the Scoobies in Europe and joined them in the battle against "Twilight." When the world was made void of magic, he moved to San Francisco to continue fighting by Buffy's side, but eventually left in the hopes of "finding himself." However, bound to an ancient amulet, Spike became an incorporeal entity haunting the halls of the Los Angeles branch of Wolfram & Hart, then under the management of Team Angel.
Spike sacrificed his life in battle against the First Evil, both defeating its army of Turok-Han and permanently closing the Sunnydale Hellmouth, as well as the town of Sunnydale itself. Eventually, Spike realized that he had fallen in love with Buffy and officially joined the Scooby Gang, later being motivated by his love for her to successfully fight to regain his soul. Though he quickly established himself as one of Buffy Summers' most dangerous enemies, he was eventually forced into multiple uneasy alliances with her and her team, the Scooby Gang, after he was captured by the Initative and implanted with a cerebral microchip that rendered him unable to harm humans. Spike first traveled to Sunnydale in 1997, accompanied by Drusilla. After being sired by Drusilla, he reinvented himself and terrorized Europe alongside Drusilla, Angel and Darla throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. In his human life, William was an unsuccessful and unappreciated romantic poet known as William the Bloody, for his "bloody awful" poetry, though after he became a vampire, that moniker was repurposed to imply he was very violent. Spike (born William Pratt) was a famous and widely feared vampire, well-known among both humans and demons for having faced and killed two Slayers throughout his unlife and for his history of torturing his victims with railroad spikes (which is what it is rumored the moniker of "Spike" is derived from) in fact, his reputation for evil and bloodshed was second only to that of his grandsire Angelus'. James Marsters " I may be love's bitch, but at least I'm man enough to admit it" ―Spike