While on patrol, Buffy goes into battle with a punk rocker vampire, and inadvertently has her stake plunged into her own gut.

While the wound is painful it’s not life-threatening, but emotionally it takes a toll on her. For the first time, she’s really had a taste of mortality and the taste is bitter.

Turning to Giles for help, she begins to research the final battles of two previous Slayers; one during China’s Boxer Rebellion and the other in 1970s New York City. Although there is virtually no details about their deaths, both women, they learn, were killed by Spike. To get answers, Buffy goes to Spike, who gleefully provides the details she’s looking for, for a price: cash and spicy buffalo wings.

Through Spike’s recollections, the audience is brought back to the time period of both previously mentioned Slayers, as well as Spike’s days as a human and what led to his turning.

Review:
All is forgiven for “Family,” as “Fool For Love” is an AMAZING episode, made even more astounding by the fact that this is the show’s fifth season and the producers continually manage to pull the veritable rabbit out of the hat.

Over the years, Spike has grown considerably more interesting while simultaneously becoming a real fan favourite. Writer Douglas Petrie and director Nick Marck do a splendid job of rewarding the fans, beautifully intercutting between the past and the present to tell the tale. It’s fascinating to see Spike as a human (William “the Poet”) in 1880s London, being rebuffed by the woman he has fallen in love with (“You’re beneath me, William,” she says coldly after he confesses his feelings for her) and heading outside to the darkness to seek solace. Instead, he literally bumps into Drusilla, Darla and Angelus, capturing Dru’s attention and leading to her ultimately turning him into a vampire.

The interest level never wanes. When we’re back in the present, we witness a pool game between Buffy and Spike in which he notes that Slayers basically have a death wish; that after spending so much time dealing with killing, they secretly hunger for knowledge of what awaits them, and that the only reason Buffy is still alive is that she has people in her life that she cares about. This, apparently, is what separates her from previous Slayers.

From there, we’re back at the Boxer Rebellion (nicely staged by Angel producer/director Tim Minear, who helmed those sequences while shooting the “Darla” episode of that show), seeing mounting conflict between Spike and Angelus and watching Spike kill that time period’s Slayer.

After that, it’s New York City in 1977 where Spike takes on and eventually defeats an African-American Slayer. The latter scene offers a nice filmmaking touch in which Spike, while in battle with the Slayer, looks off-camera and continues his present-day conversation with Buffy. Then, things become even MORE amazing when the flashbacks are over and Spike actually tries to kiss Buffy. Disgusted, she backs away, sneering, “You’re beneath me, Spike,” throwing cash in his face and leaving him in a crumpled heap, where he’s racked with tears. Incredible moment, but it’s STILL not over, as a thoroughly pissed-off Spike goes home, gets a shotgun and proceeds to get rid of Buffy once and for all, realising that he’ll have a couple of hours of severe pain due to the chip in his brain, but that it will be worth it. THEN, he shows up at Buffy’s house to see her crying over the fact that she’s discovered that her mother has a brain tumour, and his entire demeanour changes as he tries to console her.

Although the episode works on every level, real credit has to be given to James Marsters and Sarah Michelle Gellar who make the give-and-take of their every scene together something the audience has no choice but to relish. “Fool For Love” offers great performances, impressive production value and one surprise after another (which we’ve apparently pretty much blown).

Best line: “You’re beneath me, Spike!” (Sure we mentioned it above, but the line has such a devastating effect on Spike that suddenly our sympathy is with him. You’re left thinking, “What a bitch!)

Bloopers: Well, we don't know. E-mail us with your suggestions.

Trivia: Spike’s leather jacket was taken from the body of the 1970s Slayer, and he’s worn it ever since.