Buffy the Vampire Slayer: On Spike’s Continued Struggle as a Neutered Vampire

In the cult television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and later in its spin-off, Angel, we are both repulsed and intrigued by the platinum-blonde, British vampire named Spike.

Played by James Marsters, Spike is the dynamic villain that we can’t help but love to hate, and love to love. But what’s especially interesting about Spike is that despite his villain status (for most of the show, anyway), he is continually prevented from being able to fulfill his ultimate desires. He is, effectively, impotent.

We first meet Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 2 Episode 3, “School Hard.” He is violent, ruthless, and arrogant, just as a vampire really should be. We don’t see his “human” face until we see him with his lover, Drusilla. Also a vampire, Dru has been weakened and needs Spike to care for her.

So, in addition to playing the role of the “tough-guy” villain, Spike is placed in a patriarchal role as well. Drusilla even refers to him as “Daddy,” while he calls her names such as “Pet,” and “Poodle.” But none of this lasts for very long. After only a few episodes, Spike is effectively castrated—a trend that will follow his character until the end of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff, Angel.

The Wheelchair

On Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 2 Episode 10, “What’s My Line?” Spike holds Angel hostage as he prepares for a ritual that will help Dru to regain her strength. The ritual begins but is interrupted by a battle in which Angel is rescued by Buffy and her gang, and Spike is crushed by a pipe organ.

At the episode’s end, we learn that the ritual is still just enough to help Drusilla regain her strength. She rescues Spike from underneath the rubble, and she ceremoniously carries him out of the building.

The next time we see Spike, he is bound to a wheelchair, and his face is scarred. For much of the season, the roles are reversed as Spike must now rely on Drusilla for the thing that sustains him: human blood.

The Cerebral Microchip

Spike only appears sporadically throughout Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 3, but he returns more permanently in Season 4 when he is abducted by “The Initiative” and implanted with a cerebral microchip. And what does this microchip do, exactly?

As Riley explains on Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 4 Episode 7, “The Initiative,” Spike “Can’t harm any living creature in any way without intense neurological pain. Can’t feed. Can’t hardly even hit anymore.” Spike first discovers his inability as he tries to attack Willow in her dorm room, a scene reminiscent of rape that undoubtedly makes viewers cringe. But return to the scene, and we find Spike sitting at the end of Willow’s bed, head in his hand.

“I don’t understand, this sort of thing’s never happened to me before,” he says. Willow tries to comfort him by saying, “Maybe you were nervous” and “Maybe you’re trying too hard. Doesn’t this happen to every vampire?”

Willow later explains to the rest of the group, when Spike arrives hoping for help, that “he had a little trouble performing.” The references to Spike’s impotence are clearly pretty blatant. The chip remains until Spike seeks out a soul, and he fights (remember the key here, “can’t harm any living creature”) alongside Buffy for the remainder of the series.*

The Not-So-Corporeal State

Spike returns in Season 5 of Angel, after sacrificing himself in the series finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He quickly learns that he can’t fight, even if he is on the good side, because he can’t touch anything. He’s not technically a ghost, but he might as well be. In the same episode, the only way he is able to battle is by inhabiting Angel’s body, which just adds insult to injury, since Angel is his ultimate rival.

And when Spike eventually realizes that he is slowly being sucked into Hell, he reluctantly goes to Fred for help, begging her not to tell anyone else. He is ashamed, and he can’t stand the idea of Angel finding out about yet another weakness.

The good news is that Spike eventually does become corporeal again, and he goes down swinging through the series finale (granted, the story continues with the comic books, but that’s a blog for another day).

Spike is a favorite character within the Buffyverse, and there are many reasons why. He’s a bad-ass, complex vampire who grows and changes for the better. But among all of the reasons that we love him so much: he’s a “neutered vampire who cheats at kitten poker.”**

*Spike does begin killing again temporarily in Season 7,
but only because he is being controlled by “The First Evil.”
Buffy trusts him and remains on his side, and Spike is remorseful.

**Buffy refers to Spike as a
“neutered vampire who cheats at kitten poker”
in “Life Serial” (BVTS: S6:Ep5).

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