Guest Starring: 
     
 Kristine Sutherland: 
 (Joyce Summers) 
   
 James Masters: 
 (Spike) 
   
 Jack Plotnick: 
 (Deputy Mayor) 
   
 Harry Groener: 
 (Mayor Richard Wilkins) 
   
 
 
  8. Lover's Walk.  
   
  Spike returns to Sunnydale, just in time to get in the way of Buffy and Angel's reconciliation.  
   
  Great quotes:  
   
 
Spike 'threatens' Willow.
  • The Mayor gets a couple of great lines: "I'd sell my soul for a decent short game, of course it's too late for that..." And "...let a loose cannon rock the boat, is that a mixed metaphor? Boats did have cannons, and a loose one would cause it to rock...".
  • Xander: "Whoa it smells like church in here! No wait, evil church."
  • Willow after Spike threatens her: "There will be no 'bottle in face' and no 'having' of any kind!"
  • Cordelia: "You're having too many 'ors', pick one!"
  • Spike: "I may be love's bitch but at least I'm man enough to admit it.".
  • Spike gets bored of his plan: "Sod the spell, your friends are in the factory..."
  • Spike on getting Drusilla back: "I'm gonna tie her up and torture her till she loves me again."
  
  Fantastic moments:  
   
 
  • The bit where Willow attempts to ward off Xander by waving the Pez-witch in his face after just admitting to being turned on by bowling alleys is great.
  • Everything Spike says to Buffy and Angel after their vamp-fight is genius. The way he reminisces ("We killed a homeless man on this bench...") and they don't react and the way he tells them about their future relationships ("You'll never be friends... you'll be in love until it kills you."); genius.
  • The scene between Spike and Joyce is pure brilliance, I love when he pretends to bite her to goad Angel on. Similar comments apply to the scene where he opens up to Willow about him and Drusilla. Alyson Hannigan does a great job of reacting to what he says.
  • The battle between the group of vampire lackeys and Spike, Buffy and Angel is wonderfully directed with lots of nicely innovative mini fights.
  • When they make you think Cordelia is dead... but she's not. It makes a lot of sense really, what with so many new characters, to kill off some old ones.
  • The final montage of scenes beautifully sums the episode up, as sad guitar music plays we look at the Scoobies in their emotional nadirs, and then cut to Spike cruising off victoriously singing the Sid Vicious version of 'My Way'. I love this show.
  
  Duff Bits:  
   
 
  • James Masters pronounces 'poof' wrongly (for a supposed English man).
  
  Dean's comments:  
   
 
Buffy, Angel and Spike get ready for a ruck.
Bringing Spike back, and in the same way that he first appeared in 'School Hard', a masterstroke! It's tough to work out exactly when the producers decided that they were going to bring Spike in as a main character, but one has to believe that they were thinking about it here. The writing for Spike in this episode injects a large chunk of much needed realism, comedy and 'heart' into the show. In later seasons, Spike will become a very dependable character, and his mini alliance with Buffy and Angel here is a springboard for that arc. There is a lot of comedy here, but also a lot of secrets being brought into the open. Buffy finally realises that the future is doomed in terms of her and Angel. Essentially the story is about having to face up to truths that you're trying desperately to avoid, often these facts come from people who aren't prepared to mince words to make you feel better, Buffy's arch enemy in this case. Buffy and Angel are tip-toeing around the fact that their relationship is doomed, Spike crashes back on to the scene bringing his emotional baggage and stamps all over the line that our heroes are unwilling to cross.		 
   
 9/10 
 
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