Fool for Love (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

"Fool for Love"
Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode
Spike in New York, circa 1977, after killing his second Slayer
Episode no.	Season 5 Episode 7
Directed by	Nick Marck
Written by	Doug Petrie
Production code	5ABB07
Original air date	November 14, 2000
Guest appearance(s)
David Boreanaz as Angelus Mercedes McNab as Harmony Kendall Julie Benz as Darla Juliet Landau as Drusilla Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers Kali Rocha as Cecily Addams Edward Fletcher as Male Partygoer Katharine Leonard as Female Partygoer Matthew Lang as 2nd Male Partygoer Chris Daniels as Stabbing Vampire Kenneth Feinberg as Chaos Demon Steve Heinze as Vampire #1 Ming Liu as Chinese Slayer April Wheedon-Washington as Nikki Wood
Episode chronology
← Previous "Family" Next → "Shadow"
List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes

"Fool for Love" is episode 7 of season 5 of the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It is a companion to the Angel episode "Darla", which aired later on the same night on The WB network; both episodes include multiple flashbacks to the history of Spike and Darla, shown from their respective viewpoints.

After a common vampire nearly kills her with her own stake, Buffy turns to Spike to learn how other Slayers met their end so as not to make further mistakes.

Buffy receives a serious stab wound while fighting a run-of-the-mill vampire at the cemetery; she is saved only by the unexpected arrival of Riley. Despite his encouragement that she is not losing her edge, Buffy wants to research ways to avoid making more mistakes. She and Giles start looking in the Watcher diaries for information about past Slayers' deaths, but Giles tells her there won't be much information because the Watchers usually also died or found it too painful to recount the incidents. Buffy then remembers they have another witness to Slayers' final battles: Spike.

Buffy drags Spike from his crypt, takes him to the Bronze and pays him to tell her about his battles with the two Slayers that he killed. He starts out by describing how he was turned in 1880 London, revealing (to the audience, if not entirely to Buffy) that he was the meek poet William, ridiculed by his peers and rejected by the love of his life, Cecily, who declared him "beneath her," before Drusilla sired him and took him with her to travel Europe with her sire Angelus (Angel sans soul) and his sire/paramour Darla.