I was watching an old episode and I had a total WTF!? moment

In "The Gift" Spike suddenly announces "I know that I'm a monster but you treat me like a man..."

As I saw, the Buffy just stopped insulting and beating on Spike because "we need him" That's not treating someone like a man, Buffy just realized that they needed Spike's help and stopped abusing him so as to not risk losing his help.

Any thoughts? Anyone notice any  similar occurrences where someone just suddenly compliments a "sacred character" for no apparent canonical support to give credence to it?

I always thought that was because...she always came to him for her problems.  Initially, it would be with a punch in the nose or something in s5, but then later, she would ask him to watch her family or help her with something (like finding Dawn or the fleeing thing)--so her interaction with him changed.  In "Checkpoint," Spike makes note of all of this "manly responsibility."  So I didn't have a problem wih that particular assessment considering...In that half of the season anyway.

I could have sworn this was already discussed somewhere, but anyway, I didn't have a problem with that.  To this day, I still wanna know how he was going to finish that sentence.  I'm curious as to what else he was going to say.  At that point, she did treat him more like a man, it's only after her resurrection that everything went to hell.

Buffy just stopped insulting and beating on Spike  - In addition to Guest and Guest, Buffy gave him a very sweet kiss after Glory beat him up.  She goes to get him when they want to escape town and tells the rest of them to go to hell when they want to bounce his ass out on the street. 

To this day, I still wanna know how he was going to finish that sentence.  I'm curious as to what else he was going to say.  At that point, she did treat him more like a man, it's only after her resurrection that everything went to hell.

Aptly put, Tammy.  And, yes, it'd be nice to know that how Spike would have finished that sentence.  I'd say he was gonna say something along the lines of, "...but you treat me like a man, and that's more than I expected," or something to that effect.  Of course, it's entirely possible that the writers had no idea how to finish that sentence, so they didn't. :-P

Anyway, I think Spike's statement is appropriate.  At that point, Buffy has been treating him like a man. She starts to do so after "Intervention" when she finds out the that he protected her and Dawn from Glory.  She asks him to protect her family, she defends him against the Scoobies when they object to his help (in a tone that brooks no freakin' argument), and most importantly, she entrusts him with the person most precious to her: Dawn.  Buffy's willing to let the world go to unspeakable hell for Dawn's sake.  She doesn't even trust the Scoobies not to harm Dawn and threatens them all with death if they touch her.  Putting Dawn in Spike's hands shows a tremendous amount of trust from Buffy.  He was pretty chuffed, and rightly so.

I hate not knowing the rest of that sentence, it bugs me just as much as the scene in "Smashed."  Right before Buffy shut him up with the sexcapades, I still wanna know what he was about to say.  I hate that it bothers me...lol!

This is Joss at his finest - these unfinished sentences just gnaw and gnaw and gnaw at you.

"This is Joss at his finest - these unfinished sentences just gnaw and gnaw and gnaw at you."

Indeed - I love how the viewers have to come to their own resolutions -