Are Buffy and the Big Bad (Spike) destined for a lip lock? Or a right hook? The debate’s
been raging on the Internet with the following diatribe by David Fury, one of the show’s
writers:
“To those who feel my conviction that Spike can never be redeemed and cannot someday end
up with our heroine, shows a lack of imagination on my part, I say you're right. It is
beyond my limited imagination to see a strong, independent, female character end up
falling for a murderer who would be killing innocent people were he not suffering from
chip affliction.
”I regret I don't have the creative mind that, say, Thomas Harris had when he saw fit to
sell out the character of Clarice Starling by having her become lovers with a
cannibalistic psychopath, charming and brilliant as he may be.
”That's just one of my many weaknesses as a writer.
”For those of you who fault my thinking, I can only say I'll try to be more open minded in
the future.
”In the meanwhile, S/B shippers, you can go back to writing your pen pals, Richard Ramirez
and the Hillside Strangler, and I hope they finally accept your marriage proposals.
”Your simple-minded pal,
David Fury”
David Fury’s incendiary logic should shame every pro-heroine bone in my body. But why I
do I still find myself day dreaming of a Buffy/Spike romance? What is it about that
bleach blonde black jacket-wearing boy that gets me all a flutter? Is it because he’s a
bad boy? No, it’s not that simple as the recent episodes of “Blood Ties” and “Crush”
prove.
Spike, like all vampires, was a killer. However, since having a behavior modification
chip implanted in his brain, he has slowly gotten in touch with his humanity again. This
humanity never completely drained away despite centuries in a cold undead world. As
Drusilla remembered in “Crush,” the love in Spike’s heart never extinguished. He was very
different from Angel, who was devoid of humanity as the fully vamped Angelus.
Speaking of Angel, the adoring love who lurked in the shadows… not even a sensitive
teenage girl could live with that much devotion without it suffocating her. Angel was the
love who idolized Buffy and never posed a challenge to her on an everyday level. And
Riley was always “support guy,” the one you could depend on like a faithful retriever.
So what role could Spike possibly play in her life? After he leveled with Buffy in “Blood
Ties” about some of her thoughtless behavior, I had the answer. It came to me in the form
of a very famous passage: ‘When I was a child, I spoke as child… when I was a man, I spoke
as a man and it was time to put away childish things.’ I’m sure I mangled that quote, but
you get the picture.
Spike is the guy who could teach Buffy to live a little more easily in the world. If
Buffy is to survive and become a grown-up, she needs the big dose of reality which Big Bad
can provide in heaping portions. Life is not there to bend to her will every second of
the day. As she gets older, her insistence that it does will turn her bitter, depressed,
or into the biggest bitch west of the Rockies. Spike is the kind of guy you settle down
with in your mid- to late-20’s after you’ve come to know yourself a bit better.
At this point, I don’t think the chip is preventing Spike from being a killer. Not
anymore. Drusilla proved it. Even after she taught him not to feel the pain of the chip,
he had no desire to kill the girl in the club.
So what does Joss Whedon, the show’s creator, have planned? After David Fury’s eloquent
dismissal, you’d think nothing but lots of comical misery for Spike. Sure that’s fun, but
somehow, I don’t think so. He loves her when she’s mad, when she’s sad, when she’s on the
rag… all the parts she hid so well from Angel and Riley.
When will it happen? By the build up, I’d say so slowly that the entire audience will
accept it when it does, possibly even David Fury. Certainly it will occur after lots of
opportunities for redemption and thrashings by Buffy and her friends. They don’t call it
“crushing” for nothing. Hopefully, the puppy dog won’t totally lose his bite.
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"Crushing"
