Over the summer, one of the great mysteries was what Spike would be like as a vampire with a soul.

When Buffy stumbles onto him in "Lessons," we partly have our answer -- at least for the short term. He's a mess. His hair has grown out. His roots are showing. He's mumbling seemingly incoherent things about dropping his slate in the water and how he's sure to be caned.

He also speaks of three of something being in the room that inexplictedly has a lock on the inside. Who are the three? Another mystery.

He's got cuts on his chest where he tried to cut "it" out. What? The soul? His heart? The demon? Still more questions.

Spike's behavior also is quite different in that he doesn't come to Buffy's aid when the spirit attacks her. And he doesn't take her up on her offer to go help Dawn.

Rather, he seems to be caught up in his own internal dialogue that the basement is and always has been his home.

The final scene of "Lessons" offers us what may well be a glimpse of the Big Bad and its agenda. As it morphs from one entity to another, Spike is basically berated as failure whose soul will mean nothing in the great scheme of things.

But the Redemption key is in what the pseudo-Master says, "Look at you, trying to do what's right, just like her."

For all the talk about Spike being in the dark, the evil that is manifesting itself in the Hellmouth sees Spike on the same side as Buffy -- trying to do what's right.

--end--

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