Confessions of a Liberal Puritan

I've watched the episode through 2 1/2 times so far (third time, I fast-forwarded past most of the non-Spike-related scenes), but didn't have time this morning to make written notes on the dialogue (I particularly want to get that last scene down on paper for future reference). Plus, I'm running on way too little sleep for several days now, so excuse me if my comments aren't especially deep or thorough, but -- hot damn! -- that was a GOOD episode!

This episode didn't go quite the way I expected from the previews last week, and frankly, I'm impressed as all-get-out. Also, with apologies to all those who loved "Soul Purpose" (which had some great content but just seemed too self-indulgent in the manner of presentation and pacing, thus reminding me most unfortunately of some of the "slightly-off" sermons I've preached when I was too impressed with my own brilliance and briefly lost focus on what was TRULY important), I have to say how much more watchable I found "Damage". This week, I never felt that the directing or other technical matters were getting in the way, "fogging up the window" on this other world that intrigues me so (I can't help feeling that directors, set-designers, actors, and writers -- like preachers and teachers -- should be as transparent as possible in their finished products, allowing other people to see THROUGH their skill and craft to the greater whole, the "truth", that lies just beyond them).

Even though I've often found Andrew annoying (at his embarassingly needy and socially inept "worst", I suspect he reminds me of my own fears of incompetence and rejection), it was great to get the update on where and how Buffy is right now. Plus, I thought it was a measure of Spike's growth as a hero that he tolerated Andrew's clingy and LotR-dominated expression of joy at finding Spike "alive" once more. Finding out that Andrew had apparently been talking to a therapist about his slight case of Spike-obsession (having been firmly turned down by Xander, once and for all, perhaps?) and listening to Andrew spin little scenarios in which he apparently saw himself as Legolas to Spike's Aragorn (without the pesky Arwyn-commitment) and boasted how about how much more "manly" he'd become since Spike had last seen him -- that WAS priceless. And for Spike to stand there in front of Angel and company and let Andrew sob all over him, or let Andrew tag along and natter to him, without threatening physical violence (not seriously, anyway) or verbally cutting Andrew into pieces -- I gotta say, I was impressed. Sure, maybe Spike had it in mind that Andrew was his first link to Giles and therefore to Buffy since his re-corporealization, and that he might need Andrew's good will if he were to learn anything of Buffy's current whereabouts and state of mind. And, yes, I'm sure that Andrew's gushing happiness and obvious affection for the no-longer-quite-so-martyred Spike had to be balm to Spike's soul on some level, representing the response he might LIKE to receive from Buffy but can't quite hope for, so being hailed as the long-lost-and-noble-love by somebody at least somewhat connected to Buffy may be as good as it's going to get. But, at the end of the day, I think I prefer to see Spike's pained but essentially patient tolerance of Andrew as a testimony to his growth and how far he's come since his first encounter with Andrew in Warren's basement or his barely-restrained irritation during their fact-finding road-trip together.

Spike's function as a mirror for Angel (a really annoying and unwanted mirror, as far as Angel's concerned) seemed particularly poignant last night, as their mutual antipathy seemed to push Spike into adopting a more "too-bad-so-sad-now-getter-over-it" attitude toward his pre-chip and pre-soul sins than he has previously shown, and to push Angel into a more-corporate-procedural approach to the problem of the psychopathic slayer than he might normally have taken. In Buffy's basement, before the Bringers kidnapped him and delivered him into the First's hands to be tortured, Spike had expressed plenty of remorse and awareness of the overwhelming amount of evil he'd done--but then, that was Buffy, and I doubt he'd be willing to bare his soul like that for anyone else, least of all Angel. Plus, Buffy HAD seemed to demand that he "get over it" when his soulful restraint seemed to reduce his usefulness in the fight with the First. Small wonder, then, that Spike presents such a "guilt-is-making-you-look-old, better-give-it-up" front to Angel. And, with Spike rushing in (I won't say "where Angels fear to tread" because it's just too obvious, and because "fear" isn't really the issue, I don't think), naturally Angel has to go even more toward the side of "do-this-the-right-way-and-the-smart-way-and-use-the-system-as-much-as-possible" than he might otherwise. Which makes the final scene in Spike's W&H clinic/hospital room all the more powerful (especially considering the fact that Spike had just had both his hands re-attached thanks to Angel's W&H resources, and all the memories of Lindsey and his final change-of-heart and break with W&H that and "final" words of advice about not playing W&H's game which that stirs up for Angel, as well as the memories of his "Hellbound" visions of the "dis-armed" W&H ghost it must have stirred up for Spike).

Spike's frank admission that he's physiologically incapable of saying that Angel was right, followed by his soul-baring acknowledgement of guilt over all the families he HAD destroyed and all the victims he'd left in his wake without a second thought while he pursued the "rush" and "crunch" of his "life-is-an-evil-party-and-most-poor-suckers-are-only-party-favors" philosophy -- THAT got to me, of course. But Angel's compassionate response to Spike (reminiscent of Spike's seemingly compassionate tolerance of Andrew earlier, perhaps?), admitting that while Spike might have been heedless of the harm he'd done, Angel had revelled in it and had deliberately developed the torture and destruction of human beings as the highest expression of his "art" -- THAT was REALLY powerful, and all the more so for being so simple and understated. And THEN they really blew my socks off, by casting the oh-so-damaged-and-damaging Dana as a mirror image of BOTH of them -- both in the monster she had become, AND in the innocent victim she had been in the beginning, just as Spike and Angel had once been innocent victims before their souls were replaced by demons.

Oh, and did I forget to say (speaking of mirrors) -- there was Andrew, just one scene earlier, slapping Angel in the face with the news that nobody in the Slayer camp, including BUFFY, trusts him anymore or considers him to be on their side. That was cold (particularly coming from Andrew, whose murder of Jonathan and assorted other crimes -- in spite of the tears he shed over the seal -- make his claim to be morally superior to Angel REALLY hard to sit through), but maybe it was also a turning point in Angel & Co.'s awareness of where their current path is leading them? After all, they can shrug off Spike's words of warning, with a little effort, but Buffy's apparent excommunication of them from the "I Save the World a lot -- Ask Me How" t-shirt-wearing club is a lot harder to rationalize away. (Had to love Andrew's 'Star Trek' bit and explicit reference to the fact that none of the twelve slayers currently providing his back-up had ever dated Angel, though.)

That's all for now. Getting light-headed from lack of food and sleep today. More later, hopefully -- unless everyone else has already said it all, and better, in which case I'll just wait for next week's episode with bated breath, like everybody else.