"School Hard"

Spike's here--and there's going to be a little less ritual and a lot more partying.

The "Buffyverse," a storyline with a rich history to draw from and a berth of characters and incarnations, is finally becoming evident. The characters are starting to jell, and (I think) the major themes explored throughout the rest of the series have been introduced, at least briefly. There are still more characters to come--even important characters--but the structure of the Buffyverse is fairly well established even though people, relationships, and storylines still mature.

With that said, here's my quick list of important stuff

• If your name involves time, for instance, Calendar, it's a hint that you can count the number of days (or episodes) you'll last.
  
• This episode has one of the first overt mentions of religion, I think, when Willow tells Cordelia to pray as they are hiding in the closet from the vamp attack. Even though religious imagery abounds, like when Xander used the cross to make Angel listen and cooperate last season, religious references are worthing noting when they happen. In this case, when nothing else seems possible, prayer is last resort--and then, Cordy's prayer is humorous and ironic.
• Spike claims to feel more "manly" when he uses weapons, but what this means is subject to interpretation. She knows he's not a man, he knows she knows--it could be meant ironically humorous, or to underline that as a non-man, he doesn't need a weapon (his speech to her in "Fool for Love" about how a vamp always has his weapon, but she has to reach for hers is an interesting contrast.). Note that he's lying/manipulating the truth in that scene--the last slayer didn't beg for her life (we see flashback in a later season), Angel is his grandsire (although in another show he clarifies: Dru made me a vampire, you made me a monster, he tells Angel)
• Joyce stops Spike. After hitting him on the head with the axe, she says something about not hurting her daughter. Irony/foreshadowing: we know Spike has a weakness for mothers and had a loving relationship with his. And Joyce and Spike end up getting along well, even though she knows he's a vamp. (Contrast that with Angel, who she didn't especially like even when she didn't know he was a vamp; knowing it didn't improve the situation any either)
• "A slayer with friends and family...never heard of that before," or something close. Spike makes that point two times, underlining how unusual that is. It keeps her alive, he says later--and it throws his plans for a loop; Xander gets Angel as reinforcments to help, and Joyce bops Spike and stops the crisis du jour.
  
• Foreshadowing: When Spike sets up the vamp attack at the Bronze, it's so he can see Buffy's fighting style. Buffy doesn't have a stake--a spike--on her person (and how often does that happen in 7 years?? Once, I think) so Xander dashes to her purse, grabs her stake, and throws it to her. Buffy then dusts the vamp, and Spike appludes the show. Notice that Spike gets to see how emeshed Buffy is with her friends--and symbolically, Xander has handed her (or thrown her) to another man, the one who ultimately is a bigger threat to his relationship with Buffy than Angel is.
• Spike's image is all emotion, red hot. Where Angel is dressed in black, or black and white, blood red is spike's color--in this season, I think he's always got some red on somewhere. His speech in season 5 about blood--of course it's blood, that's the color of life...etc--underlines how important blood is to him, and of course to all vampires. The color of life, of passion--that's Spike's trademark color, at least for now.
• Despite how strongly Spike is identified with emotion, impatience, and the Id, notice the strategizing and planning. He wants to see Buffy fight before fighting her, he approaches the Annointed to gain an "in" there before incinerating the Anointed. His talk with Angel isn't about bonding, but digging for info--but Spike is as much about deliberation and power as about emotion.
• Spike is as tied into pop culture as the Scoobies. He calls Angel his "yoda," and he makes another few references just in the time between Angel and the fight with Buffy. He lives in the human world in many ways.
• Spike is gentle and caring towards Drusilla, his ill (mentally, primarily) partner. He's more overtly gentle than Angel is--at least towards their respectivie romantic interests--and that's even though Spike doesn't have a soul. Soul doesn't control empathy, at least totally.
  

That's the short version for now...