AtS Spike is possibly not the best example to use. Based on the music, the framing of scenes, even the lighting I would have had no idea from the early S5 episodes that he might eventually come to question the self-justification he gave Robin Wood in LTMPM. “She was a Slayer I was a vampire,” end of story even though Robin was neither. Robin was the victim he never thought about.

True S8 has yet to have its Damage and I can understand the argument that Joss so loves Willow it never will. Based on the treatment of the proto-Willow Kitty Pryde in AXM, however, I have confidence. The come-uppance scene that fannish schadenfrede would delight in most is absent but the story still makes it abundantly clear that it sees Kitty’s flaws whether or not she confesses them.