The romance between Buffy and Spike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer averted a much darker future. Most Vampire Slayers settle for killing the undead, but Buffy had a habit of dating them. Over the course of the popular TV series, Buffy fell for not one but two different vampires – first Angel, and later Spike.
Introduced in season 2 as a potential rival to Angelus, Spike gradually became a much more sympathetic character, transformed after the loss of Dru. He became a regular in Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 4, and gradually transformed into a troubled love interest – and he notably even assaulted Buffy in season 6. In the end, though, Spike redeemed himself when he fought alongside Buffy and the Scoobies against the First Evil, sacrificing himself – even if he did ultimately return from the dead. But it seems Spike’s story could have gone in a very different direction.
Boom! Studios’ new Buffy the Vampire Slayer 25th Anniversary Special features a short story called “Mirrors Don’t Lie” by Casey Gilly, Bayleigh Underwood and Heather Breckel. While many of the short stories contained within the special are set in different dimensions of the Slayerverse, this one appears to be part of the main timeline, and it tells a story in which Spike stalks a witch named Allegra Valentine. The story appears to be set in 1977, with Spike feeling emboldened after he killed the latest Slayer, but Allega reveals she’s used her magic to draw him there. The universe is offering Spike a shot at redemption, she explains; there is a warrior coming who he would love and serve, and she gives Spike a vision of Buffy. Naturally, the vampire is repulsed at the thought – but Allegra warns that if he does not serve her, she will be his Slayer, and he will meet his death at her hands.
It’s difficult to say whether Spike remembers this; the encounter with Allegra appears to shake him, so much so he forgets he meant to kill her, but there can be no doubt he attempts to put it behind him. It would be more two decades before he actually meets Buffy, by which time his memory of the girl he’d seen a vision of would surely have been rather blurry. Still, a seed of an idea is sown nonetheless; that not all of the many Slayers needed to number among Spike’s enemies.
The irony, of course, is that Spike has a lot less free will than he likes to think. He may not have pursued redemption as Allegra recommended, but years later that possibility will become the only thing that matters to him. Had Spike not wound up falling in love with Buffy, had he not given in to those feelings, she would have been the death of him – and the story of Buffy the Vampire Slayer would have been very different.
