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Spike's Soul: What Does it Mean? - Page 3

© Peggin

The quote from Giles, along with the fact that Spike seemed to be trying to do good things, convinced me that the free will position was the correct one. After that, I spent most of Season Five hoping and believing that Spike was growing a desire to be good and that having that desire was going to be enough to allow him to become good.

The events of Season Six, however, have led me to modify my thoughts on this issue. I now think there is more to it than that. Looking at Giles's definition once again, I think it allows for the possibility that there could be a monster who can't will himself to redemption even though he might want to be redeemed. According to Giles, however, his desire for redemption is more important than his having the ability to achieve it under his own power.

During Season Five, nearly every week I saw some progress in Spike’s journey that seemed to support the free will interpretation. Even when Spike was exhibiting his worst behavior, I could see his sensitive “William” side under the surface. Sometimes his sensitive side was even more obvious at the moments his behavior was at its worst. In "Crush", when Spike chained Buffy up and was begging her for the tiniest hope that she could someday return his love, his behavior was certainly wrong and disturbing, but at the same time he also seemed to be at his most vulnerable. It was clear to me that he desperately wanted to be loved. Another example is in the first half of "Intervention", when Spike was playing with his BuffyBot. Despite the fact that building a BuffyBot was a terribly creepy thing to do, when Spike told the robot to “just be Buffy,”there was a warped kind of sweetness to the way he said it -- his only motive was to have some way to express his love for Buffy.

Over the course of the season, there were many times when we saw Spike doing good things: he helped Buffy kill the Queller demon, he tried to help people who had gotten hurt in the Bronze, he looked after Buffy’s family. In the beginning, he was doing it purely for the hopes of a reward. At times he acted like a petulant child when his desired reward didn't materialize, showing just how far he still had to go. Sometimes, however, the very act of doing good deeds can have a redemptive effect. Actions originally performed deliberately can, over time, become habit and become a part of you, changing who you are. I think we saw this beginning to happen in "Intervention", when Spike was willing to let Glory kill him rather than helping her discover that Dawn was the Key. It was Spike's first entirely selfless act, one for which he expected no reward. Ironically, yet appropriately, it was the first time he did receive a reward, when Buffy gave him a kiss as a sign of her appreciation for his sacrifice.

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