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In 1880, William was a struggling poet, often mocked by his peers who called him "William the Bloody" behind his back because his poetry was so "bloody awful." William showed a strong capacity for loyalty and devoted love, which followed him after his siring. After his romantic overtures were rejected by the aristocratic Cecily ("You're beneath me, William"), a despondent William, while wandering the streets, bumped into Drusilla. She consoled him, bit him and forced him to drink from her, thus transforming him into a vampire – "siring" him, in the jargon of the series. Spike's grand-sire Angelus became his mentor (leading Spike occasionally to describe him loosely as his sire, even though most of the time they didn't really get along): "Drusilla sired me, but you, you made me a monster." Whereas new vampires in the Buffyverse often delight in killing their families once they become evil, William was a notable exception. Having always been very close to his mother, he turned her into a vampire to prevent her from dying from tuberculosis. But his mother, as a vampire, taunted William and insinuated he had always had a sexual fascination with her. William chose to stake her because he found he could not bear to see his mother behaving like the soulless vampire he had made of her. (She, like most common vampires, lacked his unusual capacity for some of the softer human emotions.) He would later write a poem about this traumatic experience titled "The Wanton Folly of Me Mum," which was mentioned, but not recited in the Angel finale "Not Fade Away". After staking his mother, William began a new life with Drusilla, to whom he was utterly devoted. Euphoric with his newfound vampiric abilities, he adopted the poses and trappings of a cultural rebel, adopting a working class North London accent and embracing impulsiveness and extreme violence. He adopted the nom de guerre "Spike" based on his habit of torturing people with railroad spikes – possibly prompted by criticism of his poetry: "I'd rather have a railroad spike through my head than listen to that awful stuff." In the company of Drusilla, Angelus (later known as Angel), and Darla, Spike terrorized Europe and Asia for almost two decades. He had a strained relationship with Drusilla's sire Angelus, who continued a sexual relationship with her despite Spike's strong disapproval. Although Angelus did enjoy the company of another male vampire in their travels, he found Spike's recklessness and lust for battle to be unnecessary risks. Angelus regarded killing as an art not a sport, and killed for the sheer act of evil; Spike did it for amusement and the rush. In 1894, Spike and Angelus developed a rivalry with the enigmatic Immortal, who later had Spike sent to prison for tax evasion. In 1900, Spike killed a Slayer in China during the Boxer Rebellion, and in 1943, he was captured by Nazis for experimentation and taken aboard a submarine, where he was briefly reunited with Angel. By the 1950s, Spike had reunited with Drusilla, and they traveled to Italy. At some point, Spike also became rivals with famous vampire Dracula. Spike later mentions in a conversation with Riley Finn, "Dracula? Poncy bugger owes me £11, for one thing," because Dracula tossed a signed copy of Bram Stoker's Dracula in a fire in 1898. Spike, having paid eleven pounds for the book, maintains Dracula owes him the cost of the novel. Spike attended Woodstock in 1969 and later fought and killed the Slayer Nikki Wood aboard a subway train in New York City, 1977, taking from her the black leather duster he wore throughout his appearances on Buffy and Angel until it is destroyed in an explosion in Season Five of Angel, whereupon he gets a new one that looks exactly like the old one.

Throughout Season Two, Spike and Dru are the canon's most prominent example of affection between vampires, displaying the humanity and intricacies of vampire relationships. Spike was initially created as a disposable villain to be killed off, but proved so popular with fans that Joss Whedon decided to simply injure him instead, in the episode "What's My Line, Part Two", in which Spike is crushed by a collapsing pipe organ and left paralyzed. Spike and Drusilla are major enemies of Buffy for much of the second season. They arrive shortly after Drusilla is seriously weakened by an angry mob in Prague, the details of which are revealed in the canon comic book The Problem with Vampires. Spike is a devoted caretaker to Drusilla in her weakened condition, and initially hopes the Hellmouth's energy can help restore her strength. He reunites with Angel, but is disgusted to find that Angel still has his soul, and is in love with the current Slayer, Buffy Summers. When Angel loses his soul and rejoins Spike and Dru, Spike's initial celebration soon turns to resentment when Angelus starts pursuing Drusilla as a lover and taunting him. Spike decides to ally himself with Buffy against Angelus; as he explains to Buffy, in addition to wanting Drusilla back, he also wants to "save the world." Spike reappears in the Season Three episode "Lovers Walk", in a drunken depression after Drusilla dumps him for a Chaos demon. He kidnaps Willow and Xander, and forces Willow to conduct a love spell for him to make Drusilla love him again, even coercing Buffy and Angel to help him in exchange for the safe return of their friends. He eventually realizes Drusilla left him because he had begun to go soft, and he resolves to win her back by simply torturing her until she likes him again, simply telling the two where Willow and Xander are being held. He also tells Buffy and Angel that they can never be friends because of their love for one another. Spike returns to Sunnydale alone in Season Four, in the episode "The Harsh Light of Day," briefly dating Harmony Kendall, a shallow young vampire. He returns to Sunnydale looking for the Gem of Amarra, a ring which would make any vampire immune to all of their conventional weaknesses. He finds it and faces off with Buffy before she steals the ring and sends it to Angel. He goes to Los Angeles, and hires a vampire named Marcus to torture Angel in order to get the ring, only for Marcus to steal the ring himself and for Angel to destroy the ring later on. After being captured by the Initiative and implanted with a cerebral microchip which prevents him from harming or attempting to harm humans without experiencing crippling pain, Spike turns to the Scooby Gang for protection. This inability to bite is comically compared to impotence, much to Spike's constant humiliation; in "Doomed", he attempts to commit suicide by staking himself at Xander's house. From then on, he becomes a Buffy cast regular and an unofficial member of the Scooby Gang, occasionally helping them out by providing them with information and/or combat assistance in exchange for cash, but having no qualms about betraying them to such enemies as Faith and Adam. In Season Five, after some erotic dreams, Spike becomes aware to his horror that he has fallen in love with Buffy. He becomes a more active participant in the Scooby Gang, jumping into several of Buffy's fights to provide assistance, whether she wants it or not. When Buffy rejects his advances in the episode "Crush", Spike attempts to prove his love by kidnapping her to witness him killing Drusilla for her, to little avail; Buffy un-invites him from her house, something she hadn't bothered to do in the almost three years since their alliance against Angelus.

Not wanting to give up his obsession, Spike has Warren Mears make a robot in Buffy's likeness, programmed to love and obey him. Disgusted, particularly after witnessing the full extent of Spike's obsession, Buffy rejects Spike again, but her hostility towards him fades considerably when she learns that Spike, even under intense torture, refused to reveal the identity of The Key (Dawn Summers) to Glory, nearly laying down his life to protect Dawn. Buffy is moved by his unexpected loyalty and kisses him, telling she will not forget what he has done. In the days and hours leading up to the final showdown with Glory, Spike fights by Buffy's side, earning her trust and a re-invite to her house. After Buffy dies in the showdown with Glory, Spike honors her memory by remaining loyal to the Scoobies, fighting at their side and serving the role of baby-sitter/older brother/protector to Dawn, helping Willow and Tara to raise her in Buffy's absence. After Buffy is resurrected at the beginning of Season Six, she is despondent and detached from her friends. During this time, her relationship to Spike deepens and she is able to talk to him about things she feels she cannot share with the Scooby Gang. She gets drunk with Spike, and calls him "a neutered vampire who cheats at kitten poker." After a demon's spell makes them express their emotions in song, and Buffy sings, "I want the fire back", Buffy and Spike begin a physical relationship, consummated two episodes later. The relationship is frequently violent, with Buffy most often initiating both the violence and the sex between them; the violence in their relationship is made all the easier Spike finds that (as a side effect of Willow's resurrection spell) his chip now does not stop him from harming Buffy. She also threatens to kill Spike if he ever tells anyone about their relationship. Both are unsatisfied with the relationship; Buffy is ashamed of her dark desires, while Spike obsessively craves the love, trust, and affection that she is unwilling to give. In the episode "As You Were", Buffy tells Spike she is using him and ends their relationship. Believing he still has a chance with Buffy after seeing her reactions of jealousy and hurt when he has a drunk sexual encounter with Anya, Spike corners her and makes aggressive sexual advances. When she refuses him, he grows desperate and unsuccessfully tries to rape her. Horrified by his own actions and intentions, Spike heads to a remote area of Africa, where he seeks out a legendary demon shaman and undergoes the Demon Trials, a series of grueling physical challenges. Proving his worthiness by surviving the trials, Spike earns his soul back. In Season Seven, a re-ensouled Spike must cope with the guilt of his past actions and try to win back Buffy's trust. When Buffy asks him why he had fought for his soul, Spike first replies, "Buffy, shame on you," and then explains it was done in an effort to become the kind of man she deserves. Under influence of the First Evil's hypnotic trigger, Spike unknowingly starts killing again. After he discovers what he has done, he begs Buffy to stake him, but she refuses and takes him into her house, telling him she has seen him change. Buffy guards and cares for Spike throughout his recovery, telling Spike she believes in him, a statement which later sustains him throughout his imprisonment and torture at the hands of the First. When Spike's chip begins to malfunction, causing him intense pain and threatening to kill him, Buffy trusts him enough to order the Initiative operatives to remove it from his head, instead of having them repair it. When Nikki Wood's son Robin tries to kill Spike, he unwittingly frees Spike from his hypnotic trigger: the song "Early One Morning", a favorite of his mother, which evokes Spike's traumatic memories of his mother's abusive behavior toward him after she turned; after Spike is able to address these issues, he realizes his mother had always loved him, knowledge which frees him from the First's control. Later in the season, Spike and Buffy achieve an emotional closeness; they spend three nights together, one of which Spike describes as the best night of his life, just holding her. In the final battle inside the Hellmouth, Spike, wearing a mystical amulet, sacrifices himself to destroy the Turok-Han and close the Hellmouth. He is slowly incinerated in the process, but not before Buffy tells him "I love you." He replies, "No, you don't — but thanks for saying it". Even as he burns and crumbles to dust, Spike laughs and revels in the destruction around him and the burning presence of his soul, glad to be able to see the fight to its end. In dying to save the world, he becomes a Champion.

Despite his apparent death at the end of Buffy's final season, Spike returns in the fifth and final season of the spin-off series Angel. Resurrected by the amulet in the Los Angeles branch of supernatural law firm Wolfram & Hart, he spends his first seven episodes of the series as an incorporeal being akin to a ghost. During his time as a ghost, he battles "the Reaper" Matthias Pavayne. When he becomes flesh he is kidnapped by the psychotic Slayer Dana. He realizes that he is corporeal when he walks into a door and bounces off it. After this, Spike takes on Angel to prove which one of them is the Champion spoken of in the Shanshu Prophecy. Spike defeats Angel, but the prophecy remains ambiguous. Manipulated by Lindsey McDonald into "helping the helpless", Spike becomes a sort of rival to Angel; resembling the heroic Champion Angel was in earlier seasons before becoming disillusioned and corrupted by the bureaucracy of Wolfram & Hart. Cordelia comments on this strange turn of events after coming out of her coma in "You're Welcome", exclaiming to Angel, "Okay, Spike's a hero, and you're CEO of Hell, Incorporated. What freaking bizarro world did I wake up in?" When Fred is killed by Illyria, Spike mourns her death and decides to join Team Angel in her honor. Upon learning that Buffy is now dating The Immortal, Spike and Angel travel to Rome on the pretext of business but spend most of the time there trying to find Buffy. In the end, they fail to catch up with her. (The blonde glimpsed in Rome is later revealed to be a decoy Buffy, set up by Andrew Wells, who had researched the history between Angel, Spike and The Immortal, and thought the idea would be "hilarious".) During the final episodes of Angel, Spike is the first to vote for Angel's plan to wound the Senior Partners by taking out the Circle of the Black Thorn. He then spends what might be his last hours on Earth returning to his mortal roots as a frustrated poet, triumphantly knocking them dead (figuratively) in an open mic poetry slam at a bar. After single-handedly (literally, he held the baby in one hand and a sword in the other) rescuing an infant and destroying the Fell Brethren, Spike joins Angel, Illyria, and a badly-wounded Charles Gunn in the alley behind the Hyperion as the series draws to an end, preparing to incur the apocalyptic wrath of the Senior Partners, as a way of going out in a blaze of glory again.

Canon: Spike's played throughout random points of canon, but it's pretty much safe to assume if it's not specified in the post he's after season 7 of Buffy, before season 5 of Angel.



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