Buffy The Vampire Slayer: How Spike Had The Best Character Arc On 2000s TV

After a brief guest spot in Buffy's third season cemented him as the show's biggest breakout star, Spike returned to Sunnydale with a vengeance in season four, effectively replacing both Angel and Cordelia Chase, who had moved to Los Angeles. But this wouldn't be like last time.

Intent on killing Buffy once more, Spike finds himself kidnapped by The Initiative, an underground organisation who capture and experiment on demons whilst hiding out underneath the city's college. Captured, Spike is fitted with an inhibitor chip that prevents him from harming any living thing (except demons), a hard truth he learns when he tries and fails to bite Willow.

From here, the first major metamorphosis of Spike begins. He quickly goes from big bad to useless comic relief, unable to feed and forced to rely on the Scooby Gang to keep him alive in exchange for information about The Initiative. He soars as the season's funniest character, weirdly tragic, suicidal, and completely disillusioned.

It's during this time that Spike starts to embrace a different side of himself. Always a fighter, the reveal that he can still hurt demons even with the chip causes him to basically go to war with his own kind, and frequently help Buffy and the gang face-off with various apocalyptic threats (whether they want his help or not isn't an issue).

Unfortunately, despite their slight grudging respect for each other, Spike and Buffy still don't even remotely get along, and he still wants her dead. This leads to him becoming the right-hand to big bad Adam, as he infiltrates the gang and weakens their relationship by pushing on their insecurities. It's a funny development, but one that still works to highlight how conflicted and soulless Spike still is.

When season five kicked off, yet another side of Spike's personality was ready to show itself...

Cont.