“Intent guys. Intent.”
I’ve been saying this forever when it comes to this.
Spike’s chip works like an intention alarm. If he does not intend to do harm, then his chip does not go off.
People have cited “Tara” as the excuse for this. But I’ve already argued that the reason why his chip goes off in that scene even if he never intended to hurt Tara is because he intended to hurt Mr. Maclay.
So it’s not just about physical harm. His trigger goes off only if he INTENDS to do any kind of harm. Physical or not. This arc makes far more sense this way rather than if it was just physical harm.
So rather than something being wrong with Buffy in Season 6 as to why Spike can hurt Buffy without his chip going off, maybe it’s more so because he never actually intended to hurt her. It’s just performative.
Deep down, his attempts of violence and assault were not about causing Buffy any harm. They were, in a way, huge respect and faith in her level of strength and power. And the writers decided to completely go against that in what happened in ‘Seeing Red’ because Spike never intends to hurt Buffy. He does hurt her, sure, but it’s not his intention and therefore his chip wouldn’t go off.
Putting Spike’s ability to harm Buffy down as Buffy’s fault was a huge mistake. She is not to blame for Spike’s sense of entitlement of her affection and reciprocation at all. I think this is how they put it right. They make it clear that Spike always had a choice by showing he doesn’t now with The First.
In a way, Spike’s chip was a very cruel trick because it taught Spike to not intend to cause harm. It’s like an animal shock device and The First is now using that functionality to take advantage of Spike. Spike’s chip doesn’t go off at all now because Spike is not the one intending to harm. Instead… The First is.
It’s not a fault or a defect. It works the way it’s supposed to. There’s actually nothing wrong with Spike’s chip until it actively starts harming him without there being any logical reason for it to.
Doing harm is different from intending to do harm. You can harm someone without intending to harm them and Spike never intends to harm anyone anymore except those that actually deserve it.
And a huge problem with ‘BtVS’ is that they make a huge distinction between human/demon as good vs evil by saying that only demons deserve to be hurt.
‘Wynonna Earp’ handles good vs evil much better in that they have the “heroes” question their intentions. I would very much say Spike was prime for that if ‘BtVS’ was brave enough to go there. To change the lore up to “good is as good does/evil is as evil does”. They only give Spike this “hero” status now because he has a soul and not because he already learned his lesson.