Spike Season 2 character review...

[Alyrenee]

Okay..so I do a podcast right. I am going to focus on blondie bear on a season by season basis in a couple of upcoming episodes. First up is Spike in Season 2...

So i would love to hear some feedback about Spike in his first season as one of the big bads. What were your initial thoughts? How did your opinion of him change when Angelus came into the picture? What did you think of the bargain he struck with Buffy to save Dru? Did you cheer when he fried the annoying one? What was your favcorite s2 spike quote? Favorite S2 Spike episode etc...

And unless you tell me otherwise, i might quote you in the podcast...

[mattitude]

I think Spike is just too cool in season 2. It's when we first get to know him and I just love the way he comes off as a punky little vamp with a hell of an attitude. Normally I just can't stand people like that but with him, it makes me want to see him more and more. I feel like we never really get this version of Spike ever again in the series, because the more we know about him and the more fleshed out his character becomes, it's hard to look at him the same way again.

I think for a lot of season 2, he just comes across as an arrogant little jerk who wants his way--and I love it! Not to say that I don't love him after that, but it's like he's in his purest form here before we found out his entire history and he showed what a sap he really is.

My favorite Spike scene is his very first one--crashing through the Sunnydale sign, "Home sweet home", the whole bit. It's just oozing with attitude, at least I think so anyway.

[Nightmare]

Spike was cool when he was bad i dont like him good

Gareth

[piratesrhot]

I didn't start watching Buffy until it was all over, so my perspective is a little different. I knew that Spike went good at some point, so I was almost waiting for it. I love Spike in season 2. I really like it when Angel goes bad and they are fighting over Dru all the time.
I think my favorite season 2 moment has to be when Spike is sitting in the living room with Joyce and she asks if she's met him before. I love the akward silence.

I also love the twisted relationship with Spike and Druscilla before Spike is injured. It's so fun to watch and James Marsters and Juliet Landau have such great chemistry.

[sueworld]

I think that this review from Buffy author Keith Topping in todays Xpose magazine says a lot that I agree with in regards to Spike's appearance in season two....


Quote

"Halfway through the transmission of season two, Buffy was switched from
the 9pm Monday slot that it had occupied since debut to the more warm
and friendly and less competitive 8pm Tuesday. There it stayed. And,
there it flourished.

But, of course, all of this would've meant little if the season itself
had fallen flat on it's collective face. That was where Joss Whedon had
a, quite literal, masterstroke up his sleeve. A James Marsterstroke, in
fact.

It is not unfair to suggest that until Spike came along in the season's
third episode (the wryly amusing action-movie pastiche School Hard),
Buffy had been a good show that was waiting for a final piece of the
jigsaw to make it into a great show. It didn't happen immediately, of
course. It took a few more episodes of going down cul-de-sacs; and it
wasn't entirely down to James Marsters' addition to the already
impressive cast. (The decision to use Charisma Carpenter's comedy
talents more fully and give Cordelia something more to do that get a -
metaphorical - custard pie in the face once per week helped. So too did
Alyson Hannigan's sweet combination of intelligence and naïvety and the
introduction of an actor with the range of Seth Green. 'He can own a
scene he has no lines in,' Whedon once perceptively noted about Green.)
But the fact remains that the introduction of Spike and Drusilla -
Buffy's own Sid and Nancy - was a significant piece of foresight on
behalf of Whedon and his team. They brought menace hand-in-hand with a
strange empathy. Never before had TV produced a couple of outright
psychos whom so many viewers really rather cared about!"

[Girl Power]

I loved season 2 Spike. I thought it was great how he went against the vampire formula. Up to that point, the vamps had a very strong, mystical hierarchy that they had all followed unquestioningly. For instance, the vamps who failed the Master gave up their lives in sacrifice. The Anointed One had become head of this hierarchy. When Spike killed the "annoying One", he broke the previous mythology of the show, as well as establishing himself as a new, rebellious, play by his own rules kind of vamp.

James Marsters has said that he cringes when he sees School Hard, because he thinks he played Spike too over-the-top and he doesn't like the way he did his accent then.

I just adored Spike in season 2. Well, I adored Spike all the way through. One of my favorite season 2 scenes was when Spike was at Buffy's making the deal to betray Dru, and Joyce asked if they'd met before, then Spike said they'd met at the school and Joyce had threatened him with an axe, "Get the hell away from my daughter." And Joyce looked all embarassed and looked away. Hilarious.

[Alyrenee]

these are all great guys...that is especially interesting Piratesrhot...i can't even imagine what i would have thought of spike back then if I would have known he would join the good guys later on. And just imagine...spike and dru were only supposed to be in a couple of episodes....

[sueworld]

alyrenee said:

And just imagine...spike and Dru were only supposed to be in a couple of episodes....

That's not strictly true. Originally Dru alone was meant to be the main threat in season two, as Spike originally was going to be killed off the the episode What's my line part two, but by then the writers had been so smitten with Marsters performance that they ended up just having Spike injured instead.

And so the rest of the season was subtly changed to fit in with this new approach, ie confining him in part to a wheelchair, thus freeing Dru's character for at least a few episodes so they could still follow the same sort of story arc, at least for a while, before bringing Spike back 'into the game' so to speak.


Looking back on it now I just can't imagine what it would have been like without him.

[Alyrenee]

Yeah...having Spike die would have been a bad bad thing...season four would have been completely worthless. And love it or hate it...i really liked what he added to the fang gang on season five of angel.

[northernstar82]

Spike was supposed to die in season 2 ?? I didn't know that !! Glad they changed the script !!

[tranquillity]

Hi, This is my first post on this forum, i was directed to it by the Undead American podcast, which btw, i love.
Anyway, my thoughts on season 2 Spike....
I've just watched School Hard over the weekend and was once again amazed at the impact of Spike and Dru's arrival in sunnydale. I find it hard to believe that Spike was intended to be such a short lived character and wonder if this wasn't just a bit of publicity spin. In hindsight, Spike's introduction has all the signs that he was always intended to be a major addition to the show. We are shown from the get go that he is a character of contrasts - a Killer of Slayers, but also a caring, loving boyfriend. He's full of Bravado and big talk yet he's also very sensative and intuative. He works out very quickly that Buffy's strength is her friends and senses that all is not quite right with his old friend 'Angelus'. He is immediatly set up as a communicator - he engages Buffy in sarcastic banter before and during their fight, the first vampire to match Buffy's pithy wit. He says more in this episode than Angel did in the entire first half of series one. Then there's the blood/paint thing. is it coincidence that within a scene of each other Buffy and Spike both have a streak of red (one blood, one paint) down their cheek in nearly the exact same place? there's a connection between them and it is shown to us symbolically in the very first episode he appears in Sunnydale. it is also interesting that in this episode he 'saves' Buffy - not from a physical attack, no, he initiates that - but he does save her from her mother's wrath. Just before Spike's entry, Joyce is taking Buffy home with the intent of 'discussing' her school behaviour. Mum is not happy. Then the vampire gang arrives, chaos ensues and by the end of the ep. Mum is proud that her daughter is strong and resourceful - a complete contrast to her earlier opinion. Spike has saved her from months of groundings and an interfearing parental eye... this in itself lays interesting ground work for their future relationship.

I love how Spike rejects all vampire ritual and tradition, yet when Angelus returns 'home' and Dru is healthy again, he immediatly falls in with the family heirarchy and allows himself to be dominated completely by them. again, a complete contrast to the ballsy vampire of the first half of the season.

becoming part 2 is probably one of my favourite episodes. I love how Spike, (who is not a dumb as Angel/us would like to believe) turns the tables on his 'family' and goes to buffy with information and a plan. this sets up his permanent return in season 4 beautifully - ever the opportunist, Spike does what he must to survive, even if it means going to his enemy for help. This evil blood-sucking vampire, is at the end of the day, motivated by very human emotions, love and jealousy, to act against his vampiric nature. yes he leaves Buffy to face Angelus alone but, hey he got what he wanted out of the deal (Dru back, at least temporarily) and he is, well, evil...
i love the scene of Buffy and Spike in the street after he has saved her from being arrested (again, he saves her..) by the policeman. Their discussion is great and i love how they walk down the street eyeing each other off....It crackles with tension and chemistry. Then of course there's the classic 'explanation' to Joyce when the truth about her slaying duties is finally revelaled.
Yeah, i loved Spike's introduction in season two - it raised the level of the show from good to great!

[Alyrenee]

Welcome Tranquility and so glad you love my podcast! I love doing it! Great thoughts too...I plan to watch school hard this evening myself....