Do You Remember When Spike Got His Soul?

[white avenger]

Okay, I know that you all have seen the episode at one time or another,but did you actually see that episode on first run TV, and if so,what was your reaction?

At that time, there was an "official" Buffy/Angel forum, now obviously defunct, canceled not long after the final episode of Angel, and we had been running a campaign since the beginning of Season 5 asking, demanding, and begging for Spike to get his soul back. There was even a "Who Will Give Spike 10% Of Your Soul" campaign there for awhile. (By the time the campaign was over, I think that he wound up with more soul than a church full of Southern Baptists in Revival Week) When "it finally happened," we were all patting ourselves on the back, feeling that we were at least partially responsible.

(What reminded me of that is that I was going through some of my old papers the other day, and found some of the drafts for my original letters, along with the addresses that we were sending the petitions to.)

 

[Tueuse de Vampires]

I actually missed that one. I'd seen the ones before, where he was absent from Sunnydale (with that 'previously on Buffy' thing which was getting quite annoying, where he's riding off on his motor bike to leave town). And I watched Lessons where he had the soul. That was kinda confusing. There again they had one of those 'previously, last season on Buffy' where they showed he had gotten the sould, but it was not clear why a sould had put him into the high school basement...

At that point, I didn't know much about the verse in general, I had only read about the whole Angel with a soul thing (I was a sucker for TV transcripts back then...read A LOT of them, so I was kinda aware of what had been going on before, just without visuals), so that all left me sort of weirded out. Also, more importantly, I didn't know that vampires didn't have souls.

The first episodes with Spike as an ensouled creature might have also been a bit over the top, especially if you weren't too well-acquainted with the verse. Later we got to know about how the First messed him up, but before it just seemed to be too dramatic of a change.

 

[Bungle Jerry]

I was living in Turkey at the time. We got them a few seasons late and without much knowledge of the world of fandom (just as well, it'd have been spoilers-a-plenty). So I haven't heard about that until just now. It's cute. I think I can recall that my reaction when it happened was "jeez, they're going to make a blond Angel". But one advantage of watching them in Turkey a few seasons late was that there were no cliffhangers - thye just showed "Lessons" one week later. So I didn't have to wait long to see it pan out.

 

[BuffyElevated]

I didn't have UPN when Season 7 was airing, so I didn't get to see any of it til the DVD set came out. But I remember spoiling myself by reading about it on the official Buffy forum back in the day and thinking "That's so cheapens Angel having a soul."

 

[white avenger]

I didn't have UPN when Season 7 was airing, so I didn't get to see any of it til the DVD set came out. But I remember spoiling myself by reading about it on the official Buffy forum back in the day and thinking "That's so cheapens Angel having a soul."

Yeah, I think that Angel felt the same way about it. "You know, I was the first. Back before it was all the cool thing. I was the first..."

 

[Black Eye Guy]

Yeah I remember watching it, and totally saw it coming, so when the actual moment hit, I was disappointed, cuz I knew they were going to put his soul back, but hoped I'd be surprised and they'd make him a bad ass vamp again!

 

[Kelsey]

Yeah, I think that Angel felt the same way about it. "You know, I was the first. Back before it was all the cool thing. I was the first..."

I would have liked if they'd taken Spike in a different direction than one they'd already travelled down extensively. From a canon point of view, it makes sense, but from a creative point of view, I'd have liked something different.

 

[Cohen]

I watched it when it first aired, and throughout the whole episode thought he was trying to get his chip out "to be like [he] was before". Cause that seemed like the way the story was going. And when the demon gave him his soul back, I thought he was being betrayed. So.. i guess i fell right into their trap.. but whatever. I was 11. lol.

 

[white avenger]

I would have liked if they'd taken Spike in a different direction than one they'd already travelled down extensively. From a canon point of view, it makes sense, but from a creative point of view, I'd have liked something different.

They could have made him human, mortal, but let him retain all of his vampiric powers, but then someone would have said that Joss was trying to make his own "Daywalker."

 

[dan k]

I was totally fooled. It wasn't until recently that i saw the opinions here on BB and i changed my mind on what Spike was looking to achieve. Originally i thought he'd gone to get the chip out but when watching season 7 he mentions how he won his soul for Buffy.

My reaction at the time was that it was a cool idea and i think it worked really well, my mind hasn't changed in regard to that.