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Spike's Soul: What Does it Mean?

© Peggin

Spike's actions for most of Season Six seemed to confirm my new opinion. In "Smashed", not only did Spike try to kill that girl, but he was absolutely gleeful over telling Buffy that she had come back wrong. In "Wrecked", he made an incredibly tasteless comment comparing the night he had just spent with Buffy to the thrill he had once gotten from killing a Slayer. A few episodes later, Spike offered to steal money in an attempt to convince Buffy to walk out on her job and abandon her responsibilities. Spike kept telling Buffy that she didn't belong with her friends, that she belonged in the darkness.

In "As You Were", we found out that Spike was involved in a dangerous scheme to broker demon eggs that could be used as weapons of mass destruction. Considering the number of times Buffy had been inside Spike's crypt all season, I can only assume that this was the first time he had tried something like this, but that hardly matters. It made no difference if it was a one shot deal or an ongoing project. What mattered was that Spike knew those eggs were going to be used to kill people and he didn't care. At that moment, it became clear to me that Spike had never progressed beyond the point of caring about Buffy and her immediate circle of friends. The people those eggs were going to be dropped on weren't real to him, so he didn't care if they died. And it's not just Spike's participation in that scheme that makes me say that he had made no progress, but the way he reacted after he got caught. He never admitted that he had been wrong or that it had been a stupid thing to do. The only comment he had to make was that Buffy should have known what he was.

There were times when I came close to disliking Spike over the way he was acting. Buffy acted badly towards him too, but at the time Buffy was suffering from depression, a serious mental illness. (Examining Buffy’s psyche would take an entirely separate essay, and I’m not going to attempt to do that here; suffice it to say that, having been clinically depressed myself, there was never any doubt in my mind that Buffy was mentally ill last season.) She was the one who needed help. Unless there was something wrong with Spike too, Spike should have been the strong one, the one trying to help her get better. In much the same way that, right now in Season Seven, Spike is the one who needs help and Buffy should be the strong one. The difference is that Buffy seems to be doing just that, she is doing what she can to help, and it does seem to be helping.