Buffy The Vampire Slayer: 10 Worst Things Spike Ever Did

For all Spike’s vampiric savagery, some of this can be written off as the nature of a vampire. But Spike is the rare bloodsucker who tries to change for the better even without a soul forcing him to do so, which his why his sexual assault on Buffy in season six’s “Seeing Red” is so difficult to watch.

Indeed it’s one of the most harrowing scenes in a show that, while generally bouncy in tone, never strayed away from the darkness in life. Spike visits Buffy’s house to attempt to regain her affections. She responds with an unequivocal no, but Spike won’t hear it. He attempts to force himself on her before she kicks him off.

He’s instantly ashamed of himself, and the incident directly leads to him fleeing Sunnydale and eventually regaining his soul. It’s a a harrowing scene, courageous in its way for its unflinching look at the horror that can exist within a relationship, but slightly mishandled in that the ramifications of this unforgivable act are never fully explored when Spike returns with his soul (James Marsters for his part felt it didn’t quite work).

For all his supernatural evil, it’s the mundanity of this assault that looms largest in Spike’s catelogue of misdeeds.