Especially with OOMM, which falls into the period when the Initiative is no longer an issue but before she needs his help to protect Dawn from Glory, so he really has no useful purpose to keep him alive.
I think the problem with this period is that staking Spike would basically involve her walking into his crypt one day and staking him in cold blood (though I could imagine her doing it during the fight at the end of OOMM), and that's not something I could imagine Buffy doing. There's provocation, but it's all provocation one step removed from actually inciting Buffy to stake him right in front of her when she has a stake and no distractions, without any time for her temper to cool or for him to make himself useful again. (I mean, by the start of S5 I think it's arguable Buffy's settled into a routine with Spike, where she expects him to be there for the cash, so it would take something above and beyond what she expects of him to make her go against that routine and stake him. And, well, by the end of OOMM the status is still quo as far as she's concerned.)
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Date: 2010-04-04 10:53 pm (UTC)I think the problem with this period is that staking Spike would basically involve her walking into his crypt one day and staking him in cold blood (though I could imagine her doing it during the fight at the end of OOMM), and that's not something I could imagine Buffy doing. There's provocation, but it's all provocation one step removed from actually inciting Buffy to stake him right in front of her when she has a stake and no distractions, without any time for her temper to cool or for him to make himself useful again. (I mean, by the start of S5 I think it's arguable Buffy's settled into a routine with Spike, where she expects him to be there for the cash, so it would take something above and beyond what she expects of him to make her go against that routine and stake him. And, well, by the end of OOMM the status is still quo as far as she's concerned.)