Over time, Spike falls in love with Buffy, and he briefly becomes Buffy's lover in Season Six.

Earlier in the series, the audience glimpsed Buffy's most personal sexual fantasy in her dreamspace: a threesome with Angel and Spike.

The series ' final two arcs are in some sense are about Buffy's relationships with Angel and Spike.

Notably, Spike's first act in Sunnydale is to attack Buffy and a large group of people at her school, making his first appearance the deadliest of any of Buffys " Big Bads ", as he very nearly kills Buffy, but Buffy's mother distracts Spike long enough for Buffy to recover.

Spike then has Warren Mears make a robot in Buffy's likeness, programmed to love and obey him.

Though Buffy is disgusted by this, her hostility towards him fades considerably when she learns that Spike refused, even under intense torture, to reveal the identity of The Key to Glory, nearly laying down his life to protect Buffy's sister Dawn.

In the days and hours leading up to the final showdown with Glory, Spike fights by Buffy's side, earning her trust and a re-invitation to her house.

Spike displays unabashed grief after Buffy dies in the showdown with Glory, Spike honors her memory by remaining loyal to the Scoobies, fighting at their side and serving the role of baby-sitter / older brother / protector to Dawn, helping Willow and Tara to raise her in Buffy's absence.

In Season Seven, a re-ensouled Spike must cope with the guilt of his past actions and try to win back Buffy's trust.

In the explicitly-canonical Whedon stories of 2007, Spike and Angel first appear in a joint cameo in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight ( Dark Horse ) as part of Buffy's sexual fantasies.

In the Dark Horse Presents # 24 Season Eight tie-in, " Always Darkest ", Spike and Angel appear ( again in a dream sequence ) at Buffy's side when she is fighting Caleb, but to her dismay the two start flirting with and kissing one another.

In Season Eight, Spike comes to Buffy's aid to help prevent the end of the universe.

When Buffy's decision sees the world lose its magic, Spike is the only one to be emphatically supportive of the decision she had to make.

Giles later loses Buffy's trust somewhat when he takes part in a scheme with Robin Wood to kill Spike (" Lies My Parents Told Me ").

Drusilla, fully restored, now takes care of Spike, who has been temporarily paralyzed by Buffy's attack.

Tara remains a part of the group, spending time with Dawn, and non-judgmentally acting as Buffy's confessor when Buffy divulges she has a painful and addictive sexual relationship with Spike, a vampire whom she loathes.

Riley also appears in the first issue of the follow-up series Season Nine ; the structure of " Freefall, Part I " suggests that Riley — like Spike, Xander, Willow and others — could have been Buffy's possible one-night-stand after the party she hosts at her apartment in San Francisco.

" In contrast to both Angel and Spike, Riley held out the possibility of normality in Buffy's life.

Spike is reviewing Buffy's fight.

* When Spike suggests that Angelus rip Buffy's lungs out as a Valentine's Day " gift ", Angelus replies that such an act lacks poetry.

The Master says, " It's not about right ; it's not about wrong ," then he morphs into Buffy who tells Spike, " It's about power ", echoing the real Buffy's opening line from the beginning of the episode.

They discuss Spike, his soul, and Buffy's feelings for him.

After a wild round of sex on the bottom floor of Spike's crypt, Buffy and Spike carry on a real conversation about decorating and Buffy's feelings for Spike.

The crew is made up of four unique characters: Jet Black, a former ISSP police officer who retired following a mob hit that cost him his arm, Spike Spiegel, a laid-back exiled hitman of the ruthless Red Dragons ' Syndicate, Faye Valentine, a beautiful amnesiac con artist who awakened into the future world after a lengthy period of cryogenic hibernation, and Radical Edward, a hyperactive and barefooted preteen girl with a reputation as a prolific computer hacker.

He studied there for four years, meeting fellow students and future collaborators Sara Driver, Tom DiCillo and Spike Lee in the process.

After a very successful run on Spike and with the upcoming announcement of the UFC's new relationship with Fox, Spike officials made a statement regarding the end of their partnership with the UFC, “ The Ultimate Fighter season 14 in September will be our last ... Our 6-year partnership with the UFC has been incredibly beneficial in building both our brands, and we wish them all the best in the future .”

The Spike is a 1997 book by Damien Broderick exploring the future of technology, and in particular the concept of the technological singularity.

Then in Seasons 3 and 4 and the movie, his son Daniel would replace him as these episode took place in the future where Spike had grown up.

In August 2011, after a very successful run on Spike and with the upcoming announcement of the UFC's new relationship with Fox, Spike officials made a statement regarding the end of their partnership with the UFC: “ The Ultimate Fighter season 14 in September will be our last ... Our 6-year partnership with the UFC has been incredibly beneficial in building both our brands, and we wish them all the best in the future .”

Suhayl Saadi has written about subjects as diverse as psychedelic music, Sufism, the British pantomime, the future of creativity, and the relationship of literature to global politics, for many periodicals, including The Independent, The Times, The Herald, The Sunday Herald, The Scotsman, and Spike Magazine, and for the British Council.

* The Mayor is the second character ( the first being Spike ) who vocalizes the fact that Buffy and Angel's future together as a couple is ultimately doomed.

Spike maintains that Riley has no future with Buffy, and the two rivals eventually share a drink, discussing how they both love her, but she doesn't seem to return the feeling for either of them.

The writing team also included many future talents such as Charlie Kaufman, Louis C. K., Jon Glaser, Dino Stamatopoulos, Spike Feresten, Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell and Robert Carlock.

Watanabe, however, made no secret that, in addition to Lupin III, the series paid subtle tribute to his favorite American films and series, which were shown in Japan during the 1970s and ' 80s including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ( the relationship between Spike and Jet ), Bruce Lee films ( Spike's martial-arts practice ), films with blues or jazz soundtracks ( the music of the series ), as well as Blaxploitation films ( the series has a very racially diverse supporting cast ).

Buffy suffers emotional turmoil throughout this season, including the realization Dawn is not actually her sister, the deterioration of her relationship with Riley, the discovery that Spike has become obsessed with her, and her mother's death from a brain aneurysm.

Forced to take a mundane and degrading job slinging burgers at the Doublemeat Palace, she begins suffering from extreme depression and self-loathing, embarking on a violent sexual relationship with the vampire Spike which leaves neither satisfied and spawns dire consequences for the both of them.

During this time, her relationship to Spike deepens and she is able to talk to him about things she feels she cannot share with the Scooby Gang.

" After a demon's spell makes them express their emotions in song, and Buffy sings " I want the fire back ", Buffy and Spike begin a physical relationship, consummated two episodes later.

The relationship is frequently violent, with Buffy most often initiating both the violence and the sex between them ; the violence is made all the easier when Spike finds that ( as a side effect of Willow's resurrection spell ) his chip now does not stop him from harming Buffy.

Buffy threatens to kill Spike if he ever tells anyone about their relationship.

In " As You Were ", Buffy tells Spike she is using him and ends their relationship.

After the Senior Partners revert time to before the Fall, Spike begins a loosely-affiliated relationship with the reformed Angel Investigations company, collaborating with Angel and his associates while maintaining independence.

In the follow-up series Season Nine ( 2011-present ), Spike bases himself out of his ship in San Francisco to be near Buffy, but eventually leaves due to the complications of their relationship, with a spin-off miniseries to come.

Spike often displays insight and skills in perception and observation, especially with regard to relationships and personalities, so long as the relationship in question does not concern him personally.

Spike's skills of analysis allowed him to realize Willow was barely holding it together after Oz's departure even though Giles and Buffy thought she was doing better, to be the first to see through Tara's abusive and controlling family, forced Buffy and Angel to admit that they were more than " just friends " and identify when and why some relationships, such as between Buffy and Riley, are not meant to last, masterfully feeding Riley's insecurities in an effort to sabotage his relationship with Buffy, so Spike can pursue her.

" Anya cannot find anyone who wishes vengeance on Xander and so she takes comfort in sex with Spike, an act which puts her relationship and friendship with Xander and Buffy in jeopardy.

She and William, later known as " Spike ", shared an intimate relationship, though Angelus continued to engage in sexual relations with Dru as well.

Drusilla and Spike flee to South America, where Drusilla becomes disillusioned with their relationship.

Writer Jane Espenson believes one of the reasons why Faith elicits sympathy from the audience is the touching father / daughter relationship between her and the Mayor, comparing their affection for one another to that between vampires Spike and Drusilla in the earlier season.

In the course of this feud, Molly began a relationship with Spike Dudley, leading to internal disputes within each family, as well as a Romeo and Juliet-style feud between the six of them.

Harmony begins a sexual relationship with Spike, her " blondie bear.

" Neither Spike nor Harmony are satisfied with their relationship ; Spike is frustrated by Harmony's ignorance and clinginess while she is exasperated with his endless broken promises and repeated attempts to kill Buffy.

They separate, although she agrees to rekindle their relationship after Spike escapes from the Initiative.

Spike shows no interest for Harmony until he regains his corporeal form and proceeds to seduce her into a brief, disastrous fling, after which neither of them puts any effort into rekindling their tumultuous relationship.