Season 3, Episode 8 | Aired: 24 November 1998 | Written by: Dan Vebber | Directed by: David Semel
Spike returns to Sunnydale — drunk, humiliated, missing Drusilla, and in need of a love spell. He kidnaps Willow to perform the spell. This is largely an excuse to get Spike and Joyce into the same domestic situation for fifteen minutes, which is one of the season’s best scenes, and to break up Cordelia and Xander and Oz and Willow via a caught-kissing incident in a factory. The episode is a comedy with a body count.
What Happens
Drusilla has left Spike for a Chaos demon. Spike wants her back. He kidnaps Willow for a love spell. Xander and Cordelia follow; Cordelia falls through a rotted floor and is impaled on rebar. She survives but breaks up with Xander. Oz ends his relationship with Willow. Spike, persuaded by his own monologue about how love should be messy and desperate, decides to win Drusilla back the old-fashioned way (torture and declarations), and leaves Sunnydale without the spell. He takes out two of Angel’s minions on his way out of town, to be helpful.
Key Moments
Spike on Joyce’s sofa, eating her cocoa, telling her about Drusilla. It’s funny and strange and oddly touching — Spike as the most emotionally honest character in the episode, talking to the one person in Sunnydale who will listen to him without trying to stake him.
Monster / Villain
Spike — but a Spike who is too sad to be effectively dangerous. The real damage in this episode is emotional and self-inflicted.
Notable Quote
“I may be love’s bitch, but at least I’m man enough to admit it.” — Spike. This is essentially the episode’s thesis.
Where It Fits
Lover’s Walk is a detour that matters — it breaks up two relationships that had been running for a year and a half, resets the Xander/Cordelia/Willow/Oz situation, and reminds the audience that Spike is at his best when he’s unhappy. His return in Season 4 as a regular becomes legible from here.