Home » Film & TV » Buffy Vampire Slayer/Angel » Spike's Soul: What Does it Mean?

Spike's Soul: What Does it Mean?

© Peggin

Maybe it's the same for vampires, with the soul acting as a kind of metaphysical Prozac. Maybe vampires can't “recover” from being evil without a soul, but if they want it -- which, according to Giles, is the most important part of the equation determining whether a monster can be redeemed -- then help is available to them. The problem with vampires is that most of them don't want it. They revel in being evil, as did Spike himself for most of his existence. Spike, however, is unique among vampires in that, even without a soul, he fell in love with Buffy. He has always been Love's Bitch, the Fool for Love, and it's not surprising that he would let his love for a Slayer lead him towards the path of redemption. Love helped him decide that he wanted to become a better person. Once he made that decision and realized that he needed help getting there, help was available to him and he was able to go out and search for the soul he needed.

I don't think the fact that Spike needed to put his life on the line to get his soul negates this conclusion. He had done countless horrible things over the course of his existence, almost all of them willingly. Gleefully. No matter how much Spike may have needed a soul before he could become a good person, I don’t think the soul should have been just handed it to him. Spike needed to demonstrate that this was not a decision he had made lightly and that he was really serious in his decision to turn his back on evil.

I also don't think that having a soul is a guaranty that Spike will be a good person. That's still up to him. We've seen many Buffyverse humans do evil things, starting with Catherine Madison in "The Witch" and going right up through last season's evil trio and Willow. Clearly, having a soul does not make someone good. But I do think it gives them a choice. Each of the evil acts we've seen humans do have been choices; things they have planned out and thought through. Even Willow, who may have partially lost control of herself while under the influence of the black magic, made the deliberate choice to invite that power into her body. I don't think Spike really had a choice, either in his failure to understand that he was hurting Buffy last year, or when he attacked Buffy, but I think he does have a choice now that he has a soul.