There was an episode of Angel where he became human again because of the blood of a demon. The episode was about the sacrifices that must be made for the greater good. In addition Darla’s ressurection as a mortal occured on Angel. Basically I’m claiming these two things are setting up for Spike to become mortal. I’m really just making fun of JW’s tendancy to tie together random things that came before critical episodes as well as to make back references.
About Spike’s chip I think it functions by either a demon or human detector. I don’t think the initiative was worried about him fighting with the other inmates. They took only a few out at a time, while heavily sedated. The chip was probably a precaution for if he woke up on the operating table. A big problem with the chip as a demon or human detector is that the operatives were searching for Spike by thermal vision. One of the things that might explain this is that the chip doesn’t work at long ranges (which might mean Spike could have gotten a sniper rifle and taken out Buffy, which would have been pretty smart to begin with, but that’s not the issue). It’s also possible that no demon has the body temperature of a human. So the chip can detect that, maybe based upon Spike’s internal senses (vampire Willow was able to tell that normal universe Xander was alive, and it seems like a reasonable sense to have). Maybe it uses Spike’s instincts, and the lack of pain has made him aware of Buffy’s unnaturalness (or just low body temperature as a result of being dead for awhile). A vampire more intune with their instincts might have been able to tell without the chip.
Spike was a loser in life (the explaining how he killed two Slayers episode shows that). Dru saw something in him that interested her and that’s how he became a vampire. He’s not really a big bad, he’s a petty evil. In “Something Blue” he got very moody about Buffy mentioning Angel and he acts in a lot of ways like he fears he’ll be again like he was in life (ie disregarded by the women he loves as being beneath them).
Also in the episode where he “can’t get it up” his conversation with Willow is not what you’d expect from a really evil individual. He reassures her that she’s attractive, and that he has wanted to sink his teeth into her before. If Angelus found himself with that chip in his head he would have worked through the pain and made Willow a vamp, psychologically tortured her and then use her as a weapon against Buffy. If Druisilla had a chip she’d just convince Willow to hurt herself with that weird “be in me” trick (btw is it just me or do fellow Vampire: The Masquerade players think Druisilla is an ant. Malkavian, I’m sure that Joss must have read the damn book because of how similar she is to that stereotype). Spike does not continue on through the unpleasentness, his motivation to do harm just isn’t that strong.
Yes, and no. We see Spike’s origin (and how he killed two Slayers} in the Season 5 episode “Fool for Love.” He had blond hair but it was done in a style approprite to the period and it wasn’t bleached.
Yes, and no. We see Spike’s origin (and how he killed two Slayers} in the Season 5 episode “Fool for Love.” He had blond hair but it was done in a style appropriate to the period and it wasn’t bleached.
So I’ve heard… Spike is really pretty pathetic. I think becoming a vampire was thebest thing that ever happened to him because he’s really a pathetic loser in his heart. In a cute way.
Well… YEAH… <sniff> Help me! I have been spending way too much time and energy browbeating my sweetie that we have to invest vast sums of money in the DVD/UK solution…there has to be a cheaper way!!!
Stoid: If it helps any, this is a link to a site with plot summaries of all the Angel episodes, including this season’s sweeps. Not as good as seeing the episodes themselves, but cheaper than buying a European DVD player.
Also, considering the depth of your Spike crush, you really, really need to see him as a human. His hair makes him look like a startled dandelion, and when he professes his love to one of the Victorian-era socialites, he gets the single meanest rejection I’ve ever heard. Great stuff. They showed it during the Buffy marathon on Thanksgiving, which you may have missed if you’re one of those fools who place friends and family over Buffy re-runs.
No, I watched the whole day because I don’t celebrate the holidays, but I only watched the ones I’d seen. Having watched the Halloween one out of order last Halloween I realized i didn’t like doing that.
Stoid…if you’re patient, you can save your money and just wait. FX will be showing the Fool For Love episode (where Spike gets vamped) on Wednesday,December 12th…
ah…rereading Lola’s post, I see that she is also offering the Angel episode that continues the storyline. Alas, you can wait until 2004, when Angel hits syndication…
Don’t y’all agree that FX should have to show all the Angel episodes that cross-over with Buffy?
Faith does go to L.A. She starts beating people up, taking their apartments and money, even killing one guy? She captures and tortures Wesley. Angel decides to help her, he doesn’t let the Watchers Council take her. I think the episode ends with Faith sitting in jail, and Buffy bitchng at Angel for taking care of her, and Angel telling Buffy to get out of L.A. and out of his business.
My biggest problem with the chip making Spike good is that it negates the whole premise of the Slayer. If vampires, through technology, love, lust, or any other cause, have the ability to choose to follow the path of good, then what right does Buffy have to stake them? My take on the premise of the show is that vampires don’t have a choice like humans do; they act in evil ways because their nature demands that they be evil. Killing vamps is an act of good, because vamps are by definition evil, incapable of being good (Angel the obvious and supposedly unique exception). When Faith killed the deputy mayor, Buffy didn’t object that an innocent had been killed, she objected that a human had been killed. If a vampire springing fresh from the grave has the same moral choices that a human does, how can it be right for some vigilante to be standing in the graveyard ready to drive a stake through its heart? If every vampire can become a force for good through a combination of brain chips and Slayer-boinking, then the whole idea that it is a sacred duty to rid the world of them is kind of shot.
On the Willow magic/drug addiction storyline, it just seems way over the top. I’m hoping the last scene of her where I think she was claiming that she would never use magic again is just part of a cycle. She lives in Sunnydale, for Christ sake! What is she going to do next time she’s walking down the street and sees someone being attacked by vamps? Is she going to let them be killed because she doesn’t want to use magic anymore? The magic=drugs seems a little off, because it seems more like magic=drugs=bad. There’s a big difference between morphine used by a doctor as a pain reliever and morphine used illegally by an addict. From some of the earlier posts, it seems like other people got the impression that the writers were aiming more for Willow misusing magic rather than there being something intrinsically wrong with magic itself. I’ll have to watch the repeats and look for that take, because I’d like that meaning a whole lot better.
I think it came down to Willow misusing magic. She seemed fine as long as she was using magic to fight evil, but using it to close curtains and make party decorations seemed rather self-serving. Not to mention fooling with other people’s memories.
Anyone else notice that Amy mentioned her father was expecting her? I wonder what she told him about spending three years as a rat.
I also wonder if Amy’s mom is going to come back this season. I spent part of my summer speculating that she would be the big bad this year. Step one - bring Amy back. Done. Step two - have a situation where Amy feels like she needs to bring her mom back. And then see whether Willow decides to fight her back with magic or not. Well, I think it would be a good idea.
I feel reasonably confident that Amy’s mom melted in the explosion that destroyed Sunnydale High, as she’d been living in the trophy case for the previous couple of years. Although I suppose that Willow and/or Amy could try to bring her back (or that someone remembered to cart her out of the school before it blew), but since I thought she was pretty lame and pathetic in her one appearance I really hope she’s a puddle.
