Confessions of a Liberal Puritan

Okay, I’ve only watched the latest episode of “Angel” (5.05, "Life of the Party") once, so far, and I’m a little incoherent from a head cold and medications, but here are my thoughts at the moment:

Lorne seems to be the ‘symptom-bearer’ for the group, in this episode. From what I remember of my readings in Family Systems Therapy, when a family or close-knit group is under stress -- when something’s just not right and the family system is sick -- the first person to act out or show symptoms is just ‘the identified patient,’ and functions as the tip of the iceberg or the canary in the coal-mine, indicating much more far-reaching problems below the surface of the group. According to Family Systems theory, the person who shows the symptoms of being sick or dysfunctional is not necessarily the weakest member of the group; they may, in fact, be quite strong to start with and simply wear themselves out trying to make things right, to fix things for everyone else. In either case, you can’t hope to heal the individual without healing the whole system, first. Otherwise, you may deal with one set of symptoms, only to have the identified patient come up with new symptoms, a new way to try to say “something’s very wrong here!”

Beyond the obvious references to the classic film “Forbidden Planet” (monsters from the Id) and to the Incredible Hulk in the way Lorne’s repressed and severed unconscious mind manifested itself in the climax of this episode (not to mention a certain resemblance to the BtVS episode 4.09 “Something Blue” in the effects of his projective empathy, or to Freud’s comments about monster stories representing the return of the repressed), what really struck me about this episode was that Lorne’s illness might finally give Angel and the others a window into what’s happening to them all. Lorne’s need for sleep is everyone else’s wake-up call.

I mean, think about it: the first clear indication we get that something is definitely wrong with Lorne is when his mirror-image becomes distorted, ceasing to merely reflect and instead trying to exercise control over the real Lorne. Similarly, Lorne has almost always used his empathic ability and his talent for observation to reflect the state of other people’s souls and emotions, to help others see themselves more clearly, or face their hopes and fears more honestly. Now, instead of being the mirror his friends have come to rely on him to be, to show them the truth about themselves, Lorne has become a distorted parody of himself, a cracked mirror, imposing random thoughts and emotions on others, as his own mental state becomes more and more fragmented.

Yes, the parallels to other stories of entertainment bigwigs who feel they can’t keep up with all the demands placed on them without resorting to drug-abuse are clearly there. But on a deeper level, I would argue that Lorne’s illness has relatively little to do with the demands of his job and a great deal to do with what he must have been unconsciously picking up from Angel and Wes and Fred and Gunn, since they all decided to accept the possibly poisoned apple that Wolfram and Hart (like the disguised witch/queen in Snow White) held out to each one at the end of season 4. Maybe he had his “sleep” removed and cut himself off from contact with his own unconscious mind in dreaming, not just in order to be able to work more hours, but because he was TIRED of trying to process so much repressed fear and anxiety and stress from those around him, in addition to his own conflicted feelings about not judging his clients and contacts at W&H, trying in his own person to re-create the neutral territory of Caritas in the midst of the battle between good and evil, desperate to preserve his self-image as “a lover, not a fighter” and one who can always sort of see the other guy’s point of view and find something to agree with (I’m thinking particularly of Lorne's explanation of why he never fit in with the black-and-white, all-or-nothing, sacred jousting culture of his native Pylea in AtS episode 2.19 "Belonging"), when a part of him apparently wants to kick some evil butts.

So that’s my diagnosis, and here’s my prescription: in order for Lorne to truly recover from his psychic breakdown, the whole group is going to have to honestly confront the ways in which the situation at W&H is doing the same thing to them in a much less visible way, dividing them from their own selves and from each other. As the non-corporeal outsider in the group, Spike could be a natural choice for group therapist or facilitator, but somehow I can’t quite picture him doing it. I CAN, however, picture Spike as the gadfly prophet, the Jeremiah in their midst, gleefully (rather than gloomily, as the original Jeremiah so frequently had reason to be) pointing out the self-deception and dysfunction around him, and refusing to allow our heroes to believe that just putting Lorne to bed has made everything okay.

“They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.” (Jeremiah 6:14 AND 8:11) I’m hoping that Angel and crew won’t fall for the lie of the easy fix, but even if they do, I bet that Spike won’t sit still for it.