Season 4

Spike returns again in Season 4, this time accompanied by schoolgirl-turned-vampire Harmony (Dru has dumped him again). This time he is searching for the Gem of Amarra, a mythical stone which renders the vampire who wears it unkillable. After finding the Gem, on a ring, Spike and Buffy fight in daylight and he taunts her about Angel.

Buffy beats him and takes the ring, intending to give it to Angel. Spike realises what the plan is and goes to LA. He manages to capture Angel and tortures him, but loses the ring which Angel then destroys.

Spike returns to Sunnydale only to be captured by a secret army group called The Initiative. As he lies unconscious in his cell he mumbles about killing Buffy.

When he wakes up he is misinformed that Buffy works for the Initiative which makes Spike even more determined to kill her. He escapes and after a brief reconciliation with Harmony he seeks Buffy out. Going to her dorm he finds Willow alone and tries to bite her. He receives intense pain in his head and it transpires that the Initiative have planted a chip in his head which causes pain whenever he tries to hurt a living creature. Buffy comes to save Willow and inadvertently helps Spike to escape recapture by the soldiers.

We next see Spike stumbling around the woods wrapped in a tattered blanket, obviously cold and starving. The implant won't allow him to feed. He tries to get Harmony back but she throws him out. Having nowhere else to turn Spike goes to Giles and Buffy and offers them information on the Initiative in exchange for food and shelter.

Still not trusting him they agree but tie him up to stop him escaping.

Spike later moves to being chained up in Giles bathtub. He's not very forthcoming with information on the Initiative. He's worried that Buffy will kill him once he's told them what he knows. Buffy is relishing in Spike's incapacity for violence and teases him whenever she can. The audience can feel the loathing between them. When Spike escapes Buffy recaptures him and looks about ready to kill him when events take an interesting turn. One of Willow's spells goes wrong, causing Spike and Buffy to fall in love and get engaged. The look on their faces when the spell is reversed and they find themselves kissing is priceless.

 

When Giles' girlfriend Olivia comes to stay with him for a few days Spike is forced to move in with Xander. Neither is particularly happy with this arrangement. Xander is the only person, apart from Buffy, not to take any crap from Spike. Xander tells Spike that he's nothing now that he can't hurt people. Spike takes this quite badly, feeling useless and pathetic. He tries unsuccessfully to kill himself. However, the threat of an apocalypse sees the return of the old Spike. He finds out that the implant doesn't stop him from hurting demons. Satisfied that he can hit something again, Spike's depression soon vanishes.

Having now found out about the Initiative and the Spike isn't completely helpless Buffy and Giles let him go and he moves into a crypt, still trying to avoid the Initiative who are looking for him. Spike helps the gang out now and again albeit reluctantly and word soon spreads that Spike has been killing demons. He is beaten up by a groups of demons who tell him they will kill him if they ever see him again.

We finally see evidence of Spike's attraction to Bufy in Who Are You? Faith, in Buffy's body, flirts with him and there is definite lust and longing in his eyes. Nothing more is said of it at this point.

 

Spike is still desperate to get his chip removed and forms an alliance with Adam, a demon created by the Initiative. He will betray Buffy and her friends in exchange for the removal of the chip. However, when his plan fails Adam turns on him and Spike re-unites with the gang to defeat him.

 

Season 5