I've never made that correlation before, but it works for me! I'm rather unsure whether or not Spike believed her; sometimes I think he did and others I don't. But I can't just can't conceive that he wouldn't of have believed that she cared about him and would've wanted to know he was back.

You know, I didn't try to get back into the on-line fandom until after the series was over, but when I did, I was shocked to find that there were people who didn't believe she loved him. It was just so obvious to me, especially in the last few eps.

The thing is if you look at any person, fictional or not, from extremely cynical viewpoint, you're going to find them distasteful. This holds true for Buffy, Giles, Angel, Xander, Willow, as well as Spike. That's what is both wonderful and frustrating about visual storytelling: no matter how good the actor is, you're not privy to the thoughts of the character because they're not the one who put them there. It leads to scintillating discussions and rather bitter arguments. It's kind of exhausting, really.

I don't know where I was going with that. :)