The Whirlwind was a "family" of four vampires (Angelus, Darla, Drusilla, and Spike) that caused destruction, suffering, and death.
Summery
The group originally consisted of Angelus and his sire Darla, two vampire lovers who had caused destruction, suffering, and death beginning in the mid 1700s. In 1860, Drusilla joined them after being sired by Angelus. In 1880, Spike joined the three after being sired by Drusilla and the foursome was completed.
They were perhaps the most brutal and dangerous group of vampires in recorded history, with Angelus as the most evil, Spike as the most violent, Darla as the most seductive, and Drusilla as the most insane. The group existed for no other purpose than to commit any acts of destruction and bloodshed that they could devise, and they cut a bloody swath across Europe and Asia.
Angelus and Darla were a couple throughout their time in the Whirlwind, as were Spike and Drusilla. Intimate liaisons also occurred between Angelus and Drusilla, Angelus and Spike, and Darla and Drusilla. Only Spike and Darla have not been confirmed to have any sexual relationship, though a comment made by Angelus implied that both men had unsuccessfully attempted to have ménage à trois with the two women together. While Angelus and Darla made a passionately evil pair, neither was capable of true love. In contrast, Spike and Drusilla truly loved each other despite lacking souls. However, Darla and Angelus did care for each other to an extent as Darla risked her life to save him from Holtz.
Timeline
19th Century
1894: The group encountered The Immortal, who imprisoned Angelus and Spike while he had a ménage à trois with Darla and Drusilla. Angelus and Spike considered him a mortal enemy thereafter, driven by jealousy and envy.
1898: The Whirlwind suffered a heavy blow when Angelus' soul was restored by a group of embittered gypsies. Also, Spike opposed Dracula in order to prevent the latter from turning Dru and Darla into "brides".
20th Century
1900: "Angelus" rejoined Darla, Drusilla, and Spike. At that same time, Spike killed a Slayer. However, the Whirlwind was disbanded when "Angelus", unable to commit acts of evil, rejected Darla (who eventually returned to The Master and the Order of Aurelius) while Spike and Drusilla went their own ways.
1997: Darla (the right-hand woman to The Master) is killed by Angel in order to save Buffy Summers (the current Slayer).
1998: Angelus rejoined Drusilla and Spike and they caused hell in Sunnydale and became an annoyance to Buffy. However, Spike (jealous of Drusilla's relationship with Angelus) teamed up with Buffy. Buffy and Spike fought Angelus and Drusilla. Spike knocked out Drusilla and took her away while Buffy fought and eventually defeated Angelus, just before his soul was restored to him.
21st Century
2000: A human Darla was brought back from the dead, and shortly thereafter Drusilla re-sired Darla, and the two female vampires caused hell in Los Angeles and became an annoyance to Angel. However, after Angel defeated the female duo several times, Darla and Drusilla went their separate ways.
2003: Spike and Angel team up to fight the Circle of the Black Thorn and to find a cure for Fred.
2005: Spike and Drusilla meet again and fight John, Drusilla is briefly ensouled but it apparently makes her more insane as she is overwhelmed with guilt. Drusilla allows herself to be taken to the mosaic wellness center.
In a way, you could say The Whirlwind still exists but with different purpose, still causing death and destruction but to demons and at rare times, evil humans. Angel and Spike now fight for good and possibly now Drusilla since Spike gave her his (or John's) soul; the quick summary of the spike comic says that Spike has to trust her, implying she is now on his side and is doing something for him. Spike has regained his soul again after Drusilla was unable to cope with it as she became more unstable with guilt and conscience that the soul gave her. Spike and Angel are now the only active members fighting the good fight and Drusilla is currently incarcerated in the mosaic wellness center, perhaps in hopes that she will become sane and learn to become somewhat good like spike did before getting his soul voluntarily. Oddly enough the vampires of this group not including Drusilla have died and been resurrected successfully, although Angel wasn't truly killed as he was stabbed with metal, not wood and he was just merely sucked into hell.
Power, threat and uniqueness
Due to each Vampire's unique talents ,personalities, this group was with no doubt very dangerous and destructive. Angelus with just Darla already spilled much of Britain's blood, and adding the most violent vampire to ever exist, along with a seer whose madness induces fear in other vampires and demons, made the Whirlwind a formidable force. The fighting skills of Angel(us) and Spike are most impressive and are able to keep up with slayers with Spike even exceeding their skills at times as he has defeated three slayers, killed two and nearly finished off Buffy Summers until Joyce hit him with an axe. Darla hasn't been shown to fight often, though she showed great strength while facing angel.
Darla: the eldest and possibly the most knowledgeable of the group. While not (presumably) having the fighting skills of Angel or Spike, her age makes her the physically most powerful, her hunting methods are used through seduction.
Angelus: the most evil of all vampires and perhaps even demons, he already had a reputation for slaughter and bloodshed way before The Whirlwind was formed. He brings to the group along with his knowledge and terrifying torture skills, his artistic view of killing, possibly posing bodies and making "scenes".
Drusilla: a vampire endowed with psychic abilities such as precognition, clairvoyance, telepathy, hypnosis, and aura reading. Drusilla like her fellow Whirlwind members, was feared by other vampires and demons, her madness has possibly contributed to this as it makes her extremely unpredictable and they fear she could lash out at any moment. While not having the fighting skills of Spike or Angel, she has done a rare feat and killed a Slayer.
Spike: William The Bloody is a very violent and dangerous vampire. He unusually retained some humanity but rather than making him a bit less evil it made him far more vicious than Angelus due to the rage, anger, and passion that comes from the emotions of humanity. Spike is the youngest of the group and thus weaker than they in terms of physical vampiric strength but he is the deadliest and the strongest fighter of the group. He, like Angel, is stronger than any other vampires due to his being over a hundred years old (vampires get stronger with age). Spike has killed two Slayers and nearly killed his third, Buffy Summers.
The Whirlwind is unique among vampire packs due to their bond with each other; they are very close with one another despite being the most evil of vampires. This bond stays with them whether they have a soul or not, an example would be when Angelus threatens to kill Spike in 1880 in the mineshaft. Angelus has shown that he has no qualms about killing vampires that annoy him or cause him inconvenience but never killed Spike and it is with no doubt Spike has many times caused mobs of people to chase after them due to his blood-lust. Also when Angel encounters Spike or Drusilla and Darla he never kills them, he constantly gives them warnings to leave town; but when Angel encounters other vampires he sired like Penn or Sam Lawson, he kills them when he gets the chance and with no warnings. It should be said that Angel has killed Darla and set Drusilla on fire but these circumstances were different as Darla was threatening Buffy's life and Angel was severely disheartened and dark when he set them on fire.
Souls
The Whirlwind has at times had their souls re-gained and taken. Angelus has regained his soul three times and Darla regained hers while human until she was made a vampire again, also later being under the influence of Connor's soul while pregnant with him. Spike voluntarily regained his soul after completing the demonic trials (supposedly at the same time that John lost his soul), while Drusilla temporarily was re-souled due to extraction magic used on Spike's soul but the situation was then reversed.
Members and Status
- Darla: Redeemed, Deceased, Ghost working for the Powers that Be
- Angelus: Living, Re-ensouled, Imprisoned within the soul of Angel
- Drusilla: Living, Re-ensouled, Redeemed, In a Mental facility
- Spike: Redeemed, gave his soul to Drusilla, helps Buffy and Angel fight against the forces of evil