I think if Spike had shown up and announced "I got my soul back" in however subdued fashion, she would have almost inevitably distrusted this. But seeing him in this state established to her from that moment onwards he'd really done it.
Really excellent points all, including the ones in your previous response. Buffy has to not just hear it but KNOW the truth of it fully, suss it out for herself. Because it's a huge development, and it's easy to focus on Spike and his heroism here and forget Buffy in thinking about this, but the guilt of "causing" Angel to lose his soul has weighed heavily in her heart all these years. Of course the notion that a vampire would go and get their soul for her - would turn her worldview completely upside down.
I haven't seen AtS so what I know of Angel's time after getting resouled is restricted to BtVS, but as you say, even though Spike sought his soul, it would be unfathomable to me if he didn't suffer from it. (In some ways, a vampire getting a soul is the opposite of Buffy dying and being resurrected - PG, Bargaining); in either case it wouldn't be BtVS if there weren't some sort of consequence or outcome that didn't disappear in the very next episode.
In fact I prefer it this way; Spike, in his usual impulsive and deluded way, thinks that getting his soul is going to be the big dramatic gesture that will make Buffy fall in love with him finally, without stopping to consider that what he's taking on is a lot bigger than that.
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Really excellent points all, including the ones in your previous response. Buffy has to not just hear it but KNOW the truth of it fully, suss it out for herself. Because it's a huge development, and it's easy to focus on Spike and his heroism here and forget Buffy in thinking about this, but the guilt of "causing" Angel to lose his soul has weighed heavily in her heart all these years. Of course the notion that a vampire would go and get their soul for her - would turn her worldview completely upside down.
I haven't seen AtS so what I know of Angel's time after getting resouled is restricted to BtVS, but as you say, even though Spike sought his soul, it would be unfathomable to me if he didn't suffer from it. (In some ways, a vampire getting a soul is the opposite of Buffy dying and being resurrected - PG, Bargaining); in either case it wouldn't be BtVS if there weren't some sort of consequence or outcome that didn't disappear in the very next episode.
In fact I prefer it this way; Spike, in his usual impulsive and deluded way, thinks that getting his soul is going to be the big dramatic gesture that will make Buffy fall in love with him finally, without stopping to consider that what he's taking on is a lot bigger than that.