The English folk song "Early One Morning" plays an important role in Spike's character development, which is ironic given the title and the fact that he is a vampire who sleeps or hides from the rising sun.
I heard a maid sing in the valley below
"Oh don't deceive me, Oh never leave me,
How could you use, a poor maiden so?"
Remember the vows that you made to me truly
Remember how tenderly you nestled close to me
Gay is the garland, fresh are the roses
I've culled from the garden to bind over thee.
Here I now wander alone as I wonder
Why did you leave me to sigh and complain
I ask of the roses, why should I be forsaken,
Why must I here in sorrow remain?
From Songfacts:
This folk song is particularly notable for its use in a number of well known arrangements. In the UK its usage in the opening bars of the "BBC Radio 4 UK Theme" by Fritz Spiegl, which until April 2006 was played every morning at 5.30 am is the best known.
The song has been used in a number of television programs. It was sung by Samantha in the TV series Bewitched, by Pernell Roberts (Adam Cartwright) in "The wooing of Abigail Jones" episode of the TV series Bonanza and was used as a trigger for the Vampire Spike in the seventh season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was also the theme song for the children's CBC TV show The Friendly Giant, which run from 1958 to 1985. In the UK, it was Frank Spencer's choice of song in the BBC sitcom Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em.
The song has also featured several times in the movies. In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, "Early One Morning" is played in the background at the beginning of the tale of Sir Launcelot, just before his assistant is 'mortally wounded' with an arrow. Also Hayley Mills and Nancy Olson sung this song in the 1960 Disney film Pollyanna.
In "Lies My Parents Told Me" (season 7) Buffy and Giles learn that the song has become a "trigger" put there by the First Evil which makes Spike kill people even though he now has a soul. Through the use of a magical stone, Spike remembers that his beloved mother once sang the song to him when he was a still a rather hapless and poetic mortal named William. When Spike is turned into a vampire by Drusilla he returns to his family home and bites his ailing mother to make her immortal like himself. However things do not turn out the way he expected. Spike forgot that his mother would become half evil demon as a vampire, and when she proceeds to take delight in describing their mother-son relationship as twisted and unnatural, Spike is shocked and realizes he has to kill her. At the last moment his mother returns to her original loving form.
Principal Robin Wood is wrestling with his own mother issues. We learn that he is the son of Nikki Wood, the New York Vampire Slayer whom Spike admits to killing in Fool For Love. In "Lies" Robin Wood and Giles conspire to put a stake in Spike against Buffy's wishes. Giles is thinking of the safety of the potential slayers, while Robin just wants revenge for his mother's death. As a result of their deception, Wood and Giles lose Buffy's trust, and she defends Spike as "the strongest warrior we have." This is foreshadowing for the final episode when Spike becomes Buffy's Champion and he saves the world.
Buffy echoes Nikki Woods advice to her son "The Mission is what Matters." Spoken like the true Slayers they are!
