I love Buffy's smile in Chosen - more than anything I think she's proud of him!

it's such a meld of Spike's wishful thinking and his actual insight into Buffy and her darker impulses

I was just thinking this yesterday, and wondering if I should have written more about it! Thank you so much for mentioning it!!! And the fact that the Bot fools her friends for so long shows how observant he is... but all of that probably belongs in a Spike-centric essay (which someone else can write - I'm tired out!).