Important Buffyverse Willow/Spike facts

Note

Key Willow/Spike Episodes

• Lovers Walk: Spike kidnaps Willow and attempts to force her to perform a love spell to reunite himself and Drusilla.
• Wild At Heart: Spike gets Tasered and carried off by the Initiative (boo!). Willow is devastated by Oz's departure.
• The Initiative: Willow shouts "Come in!" to a knock at her dorm room door. Unfortunately, it's Spike. He attempts to kill her, offering her a choice of whether or not to become a vampire; something (which the audience learns is a chip implanted by the Initiative) prevents this.
• Pangs: Spike, unable to feed, appears at Giles's door, begging for assistance. Willow confirms his story that he tried to bite her but had "performance issues". Giles and Buffy let him in after he offers to spill what he knows about The Initiative, then tie him to a chair.
• Something Blue: Buffy and Giles are discussing Willow's state of mind in front of a chained Spike; Spike is disgusted, and interjects "She's hanging by a thread. Any ninny could see that." Willow attempts to cast a spell to make her will be done so she can get over Oz. Instead, she winds up blinding Giles, making Xander a demon magnet, and making Buffy and Spike decide to get married.
• Doomed: Willow prevents Spike from committing suicide, much to Xander's disgust. Spike repays her by being snarky and calling her one of Buffy's groupies.
• The Yoko Effect: Spike drives wedges between the Scooby Gang. He casts aspersions on Willow's technological competence and hints that the other Scoobs are making fun of her affair with Tara.
• Fool For Love: Spike's life story, seen through his eyes.

Vital Statistics

Names

• Willow Rosenberg (not Rosenburg). Some fanfic gives her the middle name of "Anne", but it hasn't come up on the show. A rejected scene for Bad Girls (http://www.mustreadtv.com/buffyscripts/badgirlsdraft2.html) has the line "if my parents hadn't settled on 'Danielle', Danger would be my middle name."
• Spike AKA William The Bloody. Nicknamed "the Bloody" as a human because he was a "bloody awful poet" (Fool for Love). Seems to have named himself "Spike" sometime in the 1880s, although he probably prefers Giles's explanation, "Got his nickname by torturing his victims with railroad spikes." (School Hard)
• Drusilla (not Drucilla). We assume this was her human name as well.
• Harmony Kendall. Goes by just "Harmony" after vamping, as far as we know.

Ages

• Willow is approximately Buffy's age; that makes her 16 during Season 1, 17 in Season 2, 18 in Season 3, 19 in Season 4, 20 in season 5. No known birthday; presumably born in 1981.
• Spike's age as a vampire keeps changing on us.
  • In Fool For Love, he was vamped in 1880, making him 121 as of 2001.
  • In The Initiative, Spike says "I'm only 126!" (therefore vamped in 1873ish)
  • In School Hard, Giles says Spike is "barely 200" (therefore vamped in 1797ish)
  A lot of existing fanfiction is based on one of the two earlier dates.
• Drusilla was sired by Angelus around 1860 (Becoming 1, Darla), which makes her 137 at her first appearance in School Hard.
• Harmony is presumably Buffy's and Willow's age. She was attacked by a vampire in Graduation Day 2 in season 3, and reappeared as a very young, obnoxious, and ineffectual vampire in The Harsh Light Of Day in season 4. We assume she was vamped in May 2000. By season 5, she has her own lair and followers; her relationship with Spike is off again/on again. After The Crush, she stalks off in disgust... again.

Body Temperature

• Willow's is presumably 98.6.
• We see Spike's in The Initiative as "clocking in at room temp", actually 62.3 Fahrenheit. This implies that vampires, like lizards, take on the temperature of their surroundings, and that UC Sunnydale is definitely economizing on the heat.

Coloring

• Willow: Either green or brown eyes, deep red-brown hair, which lightens (presumably dyed) to red as the seasons move on. For confirmation that her eyes are brown, see the close-ups in Welcome To The Hellmouth. For comfirmation that they're green, see http://www.angelicslayer.com/tbcs/images/willow/willow1.jpg. Is a puzzlement. Willow's hair is very long in Season 1 and gets shorter with each passing year, up to a very unflattering wispy bob for seasons 4 and 5.
• Spike: Blue eyes (black when pupils dilated, and he spends a lot of time in low light), bleached (we assume) white hair; scar in his left eyebrow, acquired from the Chinese slayer he killed. (Based on Fool For Love, his natural color is mousy brown.)
• Drusilla: Blue eyes, brown hair
• Harmony: Blue eyes, blonde hair

Religion

• Spike, Drusilla, and Harmony are vampires. The human Drusilla used to be a Catholic; in Becoming 1, she's seen in confession with a priest.
• Willow insists repeatedly that she's Jewish, notably in Amends and Bad Eggs. Although she's a practicing Wicca who invokes pagan Goddesses, there's been no evidence that she actually worships them. We've never heard her say "Goddess" instead of "God".

Who Sired Spike?

Ah, a debate that can occupy many a long evening. In Fool For Love, Drusilla sires William on-screen; that's official canon now. However....

In School Hard, Spike berated Angel, saying "You were my Sire, man! You were my Yoda!" A lot of existing fic is based on this statement. Joss Whedon later gave interviews saying that Drusilla was Spike's sire, causing howls of protest from the faithful fans. (For two such, see http://www.oocities.org/lalana24/sire.html and http://www.oocities.org/Area51/Orion/9979/ass.html.)

Joss explained that any elder vampire in a vamp's line is his sire: thus, Darla is not only Angel's sire, but Drusilla's, Spike's, and Penn's as well. Joss says there's no such thing as a grandsire.

Note from previous version of FAQ: Joss reserves the right to change his mind about anything that's not actually said on the show (and sometimes things that are -see Spike's age-), so this may well change again.

Living Quarters

Willow

Seasons 1-3

Willow is living with her parents, Ira and Sheila Rosenberg, at an unknown address. Judging by the exterior shots in I, Robot and Gingerbread, the family house has only one story. Her bedroom has French windows to the outside; Angel comes by to get her Net help in Lie To Me, and Angelus comes by to kill her fish in Passion.

Season 4

Willow is living in a never-specified dorm room with an unknown (but presumably obnoxious) roommate. She occasionally spends the night in Oz's room up until Wild At Heart. After Living Conditions she shares Room 214 of Stevenson Hall with Buffy. Her bed is on the left if you're facing the window.

Season 5

Tara helps Willow move into a single dorm room. We don't know where it is.

Spike

Season 2

In School Hard, Spike takes over the Factory from the Anointed One and moves in with Drusilla. In Passion, Giles burns down the Factory; Spike, Angelus, and Drusilla move to the Crawford Street mansion.

Season 3

In Lovers Walk, Spike returns from Brazil to haunt the burned fragments of the Factory.

Season 4

Spike is living in underground Sunnydale with vamp-Harmony (ecch!) until he is captured by the Initiative (Wild At Heart). He escapes from the Initiative (The Initiative) and flees to Giles for help (Pangs). He subsequently lives with Giles; in Xander's basement; and eventually moves out to a crypt of his own.

Season 5

Spike is still in his crypt, which proves (The Crush) to have a secret sub-basement.

Drusilla

Wherever she jolly well pleases.

Harmony

History

Spike claims to have been at Woodstock. In Fool For Love, we saw him kill two Slayers, one in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion (she gave him the eyebrow scar), and a foxy blaxploitation chick in New York City in 1977. Spike and Drusilla were attacked by a mob in Prague, seriously injuring Drusilla (School Hard). Drusilla killed Kendra (Becoming 1), and Spike implies this is her first Slayer.

Love Lives

Willow

Season 1 and 2

Willow has an unrequited crush on Xander, which she abandons in disgust after she catches him smooching Cordelia (Surprise). She begins dating Oz in season 2 (Surprise), discovers he's a werewolf (Phases) but decides she likes him anyway; when she's recovering from a coma, she awakens calling his name (Becoming 2).

Season 3

Willow rediscovers her crush on Xander (Homecoming), begins secretly flirting with him, gets caught with Xander c/o Spike (Lovers Walk), reconciles with Oz (Amends), and loses her virginity with Oz (Graduation Day 1).

Season 4

Willow and Oz continue to go steady in college until he is unfaithful with fellow werewolf Veruca and leaves town (Wild At Heart). She is crushed and heartbroken, but spends a lot of time with fellow witch Tara (Hush and afterward). Oz eventually returns (New Moon Rising) but Willow rejects him for Tara. It isn't clear precisely when Tara and Willow became a couple; there are strong hints from Who Are You? onward.

Season 5

Willow and Tara, sitting in a tree...

Spike

Season 2

Spike is introduced (School Hard) as Drusilla's consort. He takes care of the sickly Dru until he works a magic that uses Angel's blood to restore her (What's My Line 2); Buffy interrupts the ritual and Spike gets an organ dropped on him. When next seen, Spike is badly scarred and wheelchair-bound (Surprise). Angelus reappears and Dru transfers her affections and favors to him (Innocence), much to Spike's fury. Spike regains the ability to walk (I Only Have Eyes For You), allies with the Slayer to stop Angelus and reclaim Drusilla, and chokes Drusilla, stuffs her into his car, and leaves town (Becoming 2).

Season 3

In Lovers Walk, Drusilla has cast Spike off because of his alliance with the Slayer. Spike kidnaps Willow to force her to do a love spell to reunite him with Drusilla. After ruining everybody else's love lives, Spike leaves town, vowing to torture Dru until she loves him again.

Season 4

Spike reappears in Harsh Light of Day as vamp-Harmony's bed-partner but still pining for Drusilla. He attempts to stake Harmony, but discovers that the Ring of Amara makes her invulnerable; steals ring and abandons her. Briefly reconciles with Harmony (The Initiative), then dumps her again. Attempts to reconcile a third time (Pangs), but she's wised up.

Season 5

Spike continues to bop in and out of Harmony's bed as convenient. In Out Of My Mind he realizes, to his horror, that he is in love with Buffy.

In Crush, he definitively rejects Drusilla and Harmony in favor of Buffy. She, oddly, doesn't appreciate this, possibly because he threatened to allow Drusilla to kill her if she didn't reciprocate. By season's end, he is mostly reconciled to his love's being unrequited.

Languages And Education

• Spike speaks Fyarl (A New Man) and isn't great at Latin (he needs Dalton's help in What's My Line 1); he uses the French "raison d'être" once in the Angelus era, but that could just be a handy phrase. Before Season 5, he pretends to be lower-class; in Season 5, he starts admitting to his education, going so far in The Gift (sob!) as to quote the St. Crispin's Day speech from Henry V.
• Willow has studied French (she's tutoring Buffy in School Hard) and has, for plot purposes, translated Gaelic (Fear Itself) and cast spells in Latin (The Zeppo and many others). The spell she cast to re-soul Angelus was in Romanian (Becoming 1 and 2), but it isn't clear that she actually understood what she was saying, since she was possessed at the time. In her dream in Restless, she paints a poem by Sappho in Greek on Tara's back; this may or may not indicate a real-life knowledge of Greek.

Overlaps

• Spike ignores Willow entirely in School Hard. He sees her at the Bronze with Buffy, but he's focusing on Buffy throughout the episode. He does threaten in passing to kill Buffy's friends when Willow and Cordelia are hiding in a janitor's closet.
• Drusilla and Willow have never met. Willow was injured by one of Drusilla's minions in Becoming 1, but Drusilla was busy killing Kendra at the time.
• Willow knew (and hated) Harmony when she was alive; vamp-Harmony tried to kill Willow in Harsh Light of Day.
• As far as we know, Spike was out of town for Doppelgangland, so he's unaware of vamp-Willow.

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