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revdorothyl at 08:44pm on 20/11/2003 under angel episode commentary
revdorothyl at 08:44pm on 20/11/2003 under angel episode commentaryI had to re-watch the latest "Angel" (5.08 "Destiny") a few more times today, just for sheer enjoyment, as well as to pause the VCR and write down bits of dialogue for future reference as I went along. Here are some of my thoughts about this and the previous two episodes.
Before this episode, I had been thinking of Spike and Angel as potential (though unacknowledged, since neither one of them would care for the comparison) reflections of each other, mirrors in which to check the state of their souls and change direction, as needed. And I couldn't help but notice the way recent episodes have been highlighting the importance of hope and faith in the champion "biz". But in "Destiny," all of this seems to have come into focus in some very interesting ways. I only wish I had time enough to adequately express the thoughts it raised.
Two weeks ago, "The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco" (AtS 5.06) showed us what Angel might turn into, if he continued to try to derive meaning solely from "making a difference" to other people or from his connection to HIS little family of heroes (Wes, Gunn, Fred, and Lorne, presently), rather than having hope based on belief in the Shanshu prophecy.
To measure your self-worth by your ability to "make a difference" (to be effective, to produce results) is, of course, problematic in any universe (leads to the 'hamster wheel of perfectionism', works righteousness, or the 'what-have-you-done-for-me-lately?' trap) and has never been encouraged in the Joss-verse (see Angel's words to Buffy in "Gingerbread" or to Connor in AtS 4.01, or see the essay on the subject "No Big Win" in the 2003 volume edited by James B. South on BtVS and Philosophy).
But suggesting that loyalty to one's family is not, in itself, sufficient reason to live . . .? This seems to me to represent an interesting development for the Joss-verse, where attachment to family (however constructed, and RARELY defined by blood relationships) and friends has sometimes been portrayed as the way to salvation (however constructed, and rarely defined by traditional theological terms) -- I'm thinking of bits and pieces from "School Hard", "Epiphany", "Primeval", etc., in this respect.
One might argue (or I might, anyway) that Number Five had lost HIS way after his brothers died because he had put too much stress on their connection to one another as the source of their strength and what gave meaning to his actions (perhaps a bit like people who expect their spouse to meet all their emotional and social needs, to carry the relational work-load previously shared out among family, friends, and community, as well as marital partner). His words to Angel in his apartment -- words which mirror much of Angel's experience -- give us an idea of Five's priorities:
Being impoverished himself in the meaning and inspiration department, it is no wonder that Angel's pep talk to Five in the boxing arena falls flat.
A bit later in Angel's office, when Wes tries to counsel Angel (and in the process manages to draw attention to the essential disconnect between Angel and HIS family, based on their differing memories of the past), Wes emphasizes that Angel's faith, or lack of it, matters even more than the results they achieve:
Then, last week, in "Lineage" (AtS 5.07), we were amply reminded that the "Angel" gang (with the exception of Fred, whose wonderful parents earned wistful looks from the rest of the crew when they visited in season 3) is rife with conflicted and unsatisfactory family dynamics.
By pumping nine bullets into his faux father to save Fred, Wes not only restored Angel's free will and uncovered a new source of danger, but also (on some level) made amends to Angel for the "sin" only Angel and Eve now remember, the kidnapping of Angel's infant son Connor (the death of a father, who turned out not to be his father, in repayment for the loss of a son, who isn't actually dead?). More than that, Angel ends up APPRECIATING Wes for his willingness to sacrifice even his closest relationships in service to what he BELIEVES in:
Now, this week, Spike is suddenly corporeal again (thanks to the hidden machinations of the interestingly inked Lindsey McDonald and sly little Eve, we're led to believe, since Eve seems to be saying that they were responsible for starting all the chaos -- unless the link between the world going crazy and Spike's sudden entry into the Shanshu sweepstakes is just ANOTHER lie or misdirection on Eve's part?) and squarely in Angel's face and space, for real.
Solid Spike is even harder to ignore or brush off than walk-through-walls Spike, since this Spike has true free will (no mystical leash tying him to Wolfram & Hart or to Angel) and the mass and muscle to affect the world around him even when he's NOT particularly thinking about it.
Worse, yet (from Angel's point of view, given the way their fight turns out), Spike -- who has never lacked for desire and the ability to focus on the object of his desire (see "School Hard" and onward) -- has had all these weeks as a frustrated ghost, having to learn (since "Hell Bound") to focus that desire as a weapon or tool, in order to punch out evil ghosts and ninja cyborgs. And the flashbacks suggest that -- from Spike's perspective -- Angel might OWE him a destiny.
Actually, the flashbacks suggest a whole lot more than that.
We see Angelus, apparently smarting from Darla having left him in order to answer a summons from HER sire (therefore choosing loyalty to the Master over attachment to her "Dear Boy" Angelus), seducing Drusilla in order to hurt William. In the carriage scene, William seems to be reveling in the unaccustomed opportunity to hang with and learn from a male role model, a big brother or father-figure.
[Having read other people's postings on this, I can agree that there's certainly plenty of sexual tension between Angelus and pretty William, as well, but that simply wasn't what struck me first or interested me most in this episode.]
William is unstinting in his admiration and enthusiasm for Angel's most recent act of desecration at a wedding service, having combined sheer brutality with scriptural mad-libs (adapting Matthew 5:29 in the KJV --"If your right eye offend thee, pluck it out . . ."). But rather than take the bride-leftovers that Angelus offers him (a symbolic or not-so-symbolic act of intimacy with Angelus?), William unknowingly pushes Angelus' buttons by indicating that he'd rather go be with Drusilla, instead.
By referring to her as his "destiny" he not only thwarts Angelus' desire to come first with his protegee (to use William as a mirror or 'Mini-Me' and a sort of adoring son to give him the unconditional approval he never got from his own father, perhaps), but also rubs Angelus' nose in the fact that, after all the fun and desecration is over with, William DOES believe in something greater than himself, DOES hold something to be sacred and meaningful to him, and that 'something' is definitely NOT the oh-so-needy-and-twisted-up-with-envy Angelus.
William has a kind of faith that Angelus lacks, and so Angelus sets out to both punish William and destroy that faith in his destiny.
Now, in the present, where Angel has been struggling to do as Wes suggests and begin to believe once more in the Shanshu prophecy -- to find a hope that will sustain him even when everything or everyone else is taken from him, -- Spike's seemingly effortless faith in his own destiny (the destiny which everyone had assumed to be Angel's) is intolerable to Angel, once again. Angel's "mirror-mirror-on-the-wall" vampire progeny is insisting (loudly and forcefully) on showing him a reflection of himself that is hard to take, even for someone used to brooding and feeling guilty.
Over the car phones, Spike instinctively goes for the jugular:
Later, at the beginning of the fight for the "Cup of Torment", Spike attempts to separate himself from Angel, to declare his independence as many a child has done, still using the parent or mentor as mirror (if only as a negative reflection, defining himself in terms of what he is NOT):
Later still, Spike continues to try to establish his independence and 'maturity' (admittedly, neither one of 'the boys' actually seems very adult just then -- like many family relationships, they seem to bring out the worst in each other), telling Angel, "You're not gonna win this time. Vampire with a soul! Nobody knows what side he's gonna fight on when the big show comes down. Except, we already know what side you're on, don't we? Already made your choice. Traded in your cape and tights for a nice comfy chair at Wofram-and-bloody-Hart." And in what seemed to me the most telling part of their confrontation,
Near the end of the episode, Angel shows us the face of a 'father' who's just learned that his son is stronger than he is for the first time, and the face of someone whose world has been taken apart, down to its foundations, and who's now trying to find something upon which to stand long enough to even survey the real damage:
What, indeed?
The part of me that says "the show's still called 'Angel', after all" suggests that, in the end, Angel IS going to be the One, obviously.
And the part of me that hangs on every word of dialogue and every fleeting expression on Spike and Angel's faces as if it were sacred scripture ("You mean, it's not?") says that, in the end, this ISN'T Spike's destiny, but NOT because he's a supporting player, or because he's not worthy to be called a champion and world-saver. It's because, for me, the cumulative effect of all the dialogue quoted above is to suggest that Angel NEEDS this more.
Spike's working out his own salvation along different lines, and he's actually making pretty good progress at it (that little "nooner" with Harmony and assorted other not-so-heroic-or-admirable behaviors notwithstanding).
Ultimately, faith isn't something that Spike lacks. Even when his faith in individuals is betrayed or misplaced, he doesn't stop believing, doesn't stop looking for his destiny, his meaning, and his hope, no matter how far he has to go or what he has to endure in order to find it. Spike may have DESIRED the cup more, wanted it more than Angel did at that particular moment, but Angel NEEDS the expiation and redemption more.
Angel needs to learn to BELIEVE in something other than his own shortcomings as a human being (see his words to Buffy in "Amends" about what in him REALLY needs killing) or -- in his Angelus persona -- the pursuit of pure evil and chaos. There's enough truth in Spike's list of Angel's sins as a soulless vampire and grand-Sire to make them hurt, and to remind us all that the weight of Angel's sins probably exceeds Spike's sins to a marked degree.
The final exchange between Spike and Angel, just before Spike discovers they've both been had ("It's . . . Mountain Dew!"), is quite telling:
So, I say, let Angel have the Shanshu, and let Spike (who, after all, has no trouble keeping his soul AND making hot naked love to the woman he adores, at the same time) eventually fulfill his (implied) intention to go back across the pond and meet up with Buffy again. Let Spike see if she can convince him that she really DOES love him, one of these days.
We know that a purely mortal Angel doesn't do too well as lover of a Slayer, anyway (yes, that might be different now, since she's no longer the only one, the one who bears the brunt of all the world-saving to be done, and may not be in mortal peril every single day anymore, but ...). More than just satisfying my wishful thinking all around, this arrangement, in the end, seems likely to allow Angel to finally find his faith and work on some of those attachment issues left over from dear-old-long-dead Dad.
As a final thought (in case anyone is still with me, at this point), here are a couple of quotes that came to mind when I was thinking about Spike's emphasis on DOING and never giving up (the writer of the letter of James would have LOVED Spike, I think . . . eventually!), Angel's search for hope and faith, their changing family dynamics (growing up being an eternity-long process, apparently, at least for en-souled vampires), their mutual mirroring (with all the conflicted emotions this inspires), and the capacity for love (in many forms) which characterizes BOTH these champions:
Before this episode, I had been thinking of Spike and Angel as potential (though unacknowledged, since neither one of them would care for the comparison) reflections of each other, mirrors in which to check the state of their souls and change direction, as needed. And I couldn't help but notice the way recent episodes have been highlighting the importance of hope and faith in the champion "biz". But in "Destiny," all of this seems to have come into focus in some very interesting ways. I only wish I had time enough to adequately express the thoughts it raised.
Two weeks ago, "The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco" (AtS 5.06) showed us what Angel might turn into, if he continued to try to derive meaning solely from "making a difference" to other people or from his connection to HIS little family of heroes (Wes, Gunn, Fred, and Lorne, presently), rather than having hope based on belief in the Shanshu prophecy.
To measure your self-worth by your ability to "make a difference" (to be effective, to produce results) is, of course, problematic in any universe (leads to the 'hamster wheel of perfectionism', works righteousness, or the 'what-have-you-done-for-me-lately?' trap) and has never been encouraged in the Joss-verse (see Angel's words to Buffy in "Gingerbread" or to Connor in AtS 4.01, or see the essay on the subject "No Big Win" in the 2003 volume edited by James B. South on BtVS and Philosophy).
But suggesting that loyalty to one's family is not, in itself, sufficient reason to live . . .? This seems to me to represent an interesting development for the Joss-verse, where attachment to family (however constructed, and RARELY defined by blood relationships) and friends has sometimes been portrayed as the way to salvation (however constructed, and rarely defined by traditional theological terms) -- I'm thinking of bits and pieces from "School Hard", "Epiphany", "Primeval", etc., in this respect.
One might argue (or I might, anyway) that Number Five had lost HIS way after his brothers died because he had put too much stress on their connection to one another as the source of their strength and what gave meaning to his actions (perhaps a bit like people who expect their spouse to meet all their emotional and social needs, to carry the relational work-load previously shared out among family, friends, and community, as well as marital partner). His words to Angel in his apartment -- words which mirror much of Angel's experience -- give us an idea of Five's priorities:
FIVE: ...The five of us were always joined, always connected, and when necessary, we came together as a fist. We fought monsters and gangsters, vampiros. We were heroes. We protected the weak and we helped the helpless.
ANGEL: I know a little something about that.
FIVE: We spent every waking hour together....
Being impoverished himself in the meaning and inspiration department, it is no wonder that Angel's pep talk to Five in the boxing arena falls flat.
A bit later in Angel's office, when Wes tries to counsel Angel (and in the process manages to draw attention to the essential disconnect between Angel and HIS family, based on their differing memories of the past), Wes emphasizes that Angel's faith, or lack of it, matters even more than the results they achieve:
WES: ...You blame your melancholy on your new position, but I don't think it's about the type of work. I think it's because you've lost hope that the work has meaning.
ANGEL: 'Course it has meaning -- we save people's lives.
WES: I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about you: it's lost meaning for you. Spike says you no longer believe in the Shanshu prophecy.
ANGEL: Of course not. Prophecies are nonsense, you know that. Oh come on, Wes -- after everything we've seen the past couple of years . . . 'the father will kill the son'...
WES: What are you talking about?
ANGEL: Look, we're getting the work done. As long as I keep doing what I do, doesn't matter if I believe in the Shanshu or any other prophecy.
WES: I'm sorry Angel, but nothing matters more. Hope is the only thing that will sustain you, and keep you from ending up like Number Five.
Then, last week, in "Lineage" (AtS 5.07), we were amply reminded that the "Angel" gang (with the exception of Fred, whose wonderful parents earned wistful looks from the rest of the crew when they visited in season 3) is rife with conflicted and unsatisfactory family dynamics.
By pumping nine bullets into his faux father to save Fred, Wes not only restored Angel's free will and uncovered a new source of danger, but also (on some level) made amends to Angel for the "sin" only Angel and Eve now remember, the kidnapping of Angel's infant son Connor (the death of a father, who turned out not to be his father, in repayment for the loss of a son, who isn't actually dead?). More than that, Angel ends up APPRECIATING Wes for his willingness to sacrifice even his closest relationships in service to what he BELIEVES in:
ANGEL: They're all trying to bring us down. The perception is that we're weak.
WES: No, the perception is, I'M weak. That's why they went for me.
ANGEL: They're wrong. You do what you have to do to protect the people around you. You do what you know is right, regardless of the cost. You know, I never really understood that. And you're the guy who makes all the hard decisions, even if you have to make them alone.
Now, this week, Spike is suddenly corporeal again (thanks to the hidden machinations of the interestingly inked Lindsey McDonald and sly little Eve, we're led to believe, since Eve seems to be saying that they were responsible for starting all the chaos -- unless the link between the world going crazy and Spike's sudden entry into the Shanshu sweepstakes is just ANOTHER lie or misdirection on Eve's part?) and squarely in Angel's face and space, for real.
Solid Spike is even harder to ignore or brush off than walk-through-walls Spike, since this Spike has true free will (no mystical leash tying him to Wolfram & Hart or to Angel) and the mass and muscle to affect the world around him even when he's NOT particularly thinking about it.
Worse, yet (from Angel's point of view, given the way their fight turns out), Spike -- who has never lacked for desire and the ability to focus on the object of his desire (see "School Hard" and onward) -- has had all these weeks as a frustrated ghost, having to learn (since "Hell Bound") to focus that desire as a weapon or tool, in order to punch out evil ghosts and ninja cyborgs. And the flashbacks suggest that -- from Spike's perspective -- Angel might OWE him a destiny.
Actually, the flashbacks suggest a whole lot more than that.
We see Angelus, apparently smarting from Darla having left him in order to answer a summons from HER sire (therefore choosing loyalty to the Master over attachment to her "Dear Boy" Angelus), seducing Drusilla in order to hurt William. In the carriage scene, William seems to be reveling in the unaccustomed opportunity to hang with and learn from a male role model, a big brother or father-figure.
[Having read other people's postings on this, I can agree that there's certainly plenty of sexual tension between Angelus and pretty William, as well, but that simply wasn't what struck me first or interested me most in this episode.]
William is unstinting in his admiration and enthusiasm for Angel's most recent act of desecration at a wedding service, having combined sheer brutality with scriptural mad-libs (adapting Matthew 5:29 in the KJV --"If your right eye offend thee, pluck it out . . ."). But rather than take the bride-leftovers that Angelus offers him (a symbolic or not-so-symbolic act of intimacy with Angelus?), William unknowingly pushes Angelus' buttons by indicating that he'd rather go be with Drusilla, instead.
By referring to her as his "destiny" he not only thwarts Angelus' desire to come first with his protegee (to use William as a mirror or 'Mini-Me' and a sort of adoring son to give him the unconditional approval he never got from his own father, perhaps), but also rubs Angelus' nose in the fact that, after all the fun and desecration is over with, William DOES believe in something greater than himself, DOES hold something to be sacred and meaningful to him, and that 'something' is definitely NOT the oh-so-needy-and-twisted-up-with-envy Angelus.
William has a kind of faith that Angelus lacks, and so Angelus sets out to both punish William and destroy that faith in his destiny.
Now, in the present, where Angel has been struggling to do as Wes suggests and begin to believe once more in the Shanshu prophecy -- to find a hope that will sustain him even when everything or everyone else is taken from him, -- Spike's seemingly effortless faith in his own destiny (the destiny which everyone had assumed to be Angel's) is intolerable to Angel, once again. Angel's "mirror-mirror-on-the-wall" vampire progeny is insisting (loudly and forcefully) on showing him a reflection of himself that is hard to take, even for someone used to brooding and feeling guilty.
Over the car phones, Spike instinctively goes for the jugular:
SPIKE: Still can't accept it, can you? Sad, really. All these years believing you're the signified monkey, only to find out you're just a big hunk of 'nobody cares.'
ANGEL: Really wish you'd stayed a ghost.
SPIKE: But I didn't, did I? Burned up saving the world, and now I'm back. For real. Wonder why that is? Oh, wait -- 'cause I'm the ONE, you git!
Later, at the beginning of the fight for the "Cup of Torment", Spike attempts to separate himself from Angel, to declare his independence as many a child has done, still using the parent or mentor as mirror (if only as a negative reflection, defining himself in terms of what he is NOT):
SPIKE: Oh, yeah...look at you! Thinking you're the big savior, fighting for truth, justice, and soccer moms. But you still can't lay flesh on a cross without smelling like bacon, can you?
ANGEL: Like you're any different.
SPIKE: That's just it. I AM. And you know it. You had a soul forced on you, as a curse, to make you suffer for all the horrible things you'd done. But me, I fought for my soul. Went through the demon trials. Almost did me in a dozen times over, but I kept fighting, 'cause I knew it was the right thing to do. It's my destiny.
Later still, Spike continues to try to establish his independence and 'maturity' (admittedly, neither one of 'the boys' actually seems very adult just then -- like many family relationships, they seem to bring out the worst in each other), telling Angel, "You're not gonna win this time. Vampire with a soul! Nobody knows what side he's gonna fight on when the big show comes down. Except, we already know what side you're on, don't we? Already made your choice. Traded in your cape and tights for a nice comfy chair at Wofram-and-bloody-Hart." And in what seemed to me the most telling part of their confrontation,
SPIKE: Come on, hero. Tell me more! Teach me what it means. And I'll tell you why you can't stand the bloody sight of me!
ANGEL: Tell it to your therapist!
SPIKE: 'Cause every time you look at me, you see all the dirty little things I've done, all the lives I've taken, because of you! Drusilla sired me, but you -- you made me a monster.
ANGEL: I didn't make you, Spike. I just opened up the door and let the real you out.
SPIKE: You never KNEW the real me. Too busy trying to see your own reflection, praying there was someone as disgusting as you in the world, so you could stand to live with yourself. Take a long look, hero. I'm NOTHING like you.
Near the end of the episode, Angel shows us the face of a 'father' who's just learned that his son is stronger than he is for the first time, and the face of someone whose world has been taken apart, down to its foundations, and who's now trying to find something upon which to stand long enough to even survey the real damage:
GUNN: You okay?
ANGEL: I don't know. He beat me, Gunn.
GUNN: Who, Spike? Looks to me like he got as good as he--
ANGEL: No. He beat me to the cup.
GUNN: You mean, the fake cup? The make-believe, fairy-tale cup? So what?
ANGEL: No, you don't.... He won the fight, Gunn, for the first time. Doesn't matter if the cup is real or not. In the end, he.... Spike was stronger. He wanted it more.
GUNN: Angel, it doesn't mean anything.
ANGEL: And what if it does? What if it means, I'm not the One?
What, indeed?
The part of me that says "the show's still called 'Angel', after all" suggests that, in the end, Angel IS going to be the One, obviously.
And the part of me that hangs on every word of dialogue and every fleeting expression on Spike and Angel's faces as if it were sacred scripture ("You mean, it's not?") says that, in the end, this ISN'T Spike's destiny, but NOT because he's a supporting player, or because he's not worthy to be called a champion and world-saver. It's because, for me, the cumulative effect of all the dialogue quoted above is to suggest that Angel NEEDS this more.
Spike's working out his own salvation along different lines, and he's actually making pretty good progress at it (that little "nooner" with Harmony and assorted other not-so-heroic-or-admirable behaviors notwithstanding).
Ultimately, faith isn't something that Spike lacks. Even when his faith in individuals is betrayed or misplaced, he doesn't stop believing, doesn't stop looking for his destiny, his meaning, and his hope, no matter how far he has to go or what he has to endure in order to find it. Spike may have DESIRED the cup more, wanted it more than Angel did at that particular moment, but Angel NEEDS the expiation and redemption more.
Angel needs to learn to BELIEVE in something other than his own shortcomings as a human being (see his words to Buffy in "Amends" about what in him REALLY needs killing) or -- in his Angelus persona -- the pursuit of pure evil and chaos. There's enough truth in Spike's list of Angel's sins as a soulless vampire and grand-Sire to make them hurt, and to remind us all that the weight of Angel's sins probably exceeds Spike's sins to a marked degree.
The final exchange between Spike and Angel, just before Spike discovers they've both been had ("It's . . . Mountain Dew!"), is quite telling:
SPIKE: Probably should have dusted you, but, honestly, I don't want to hear HER bitch about it.
ANGEL: Spike, wait! Wait. That's not a prize you're holding. It's not a trophy. It's a burden. It's a cross -- one you're gonna have to bear 'til it burns you to ashes. Believe me, I know. So ask yourself, is this really the destiny that was meant for you? Do you even really want it? Or is it just that you want to take something away from me?
SPIKE: ... Bit of both!
So, I say, let Angel have the Shanshu, and let Spike (who, after all, has no trouble keeping his soul AND making hot naked love to the woman he adores, at the same time) eventually fulfill his (implied) intention to go back across the pond and meet up with Buffy again. Let Spike see if she can convince him that she really DOES love him, one of these days.
We know that a purely mortal Angel doesn't do too well as lover of a Slayer, anyway (yes, that might be different now, since she's no longer the only one, the one who bears the brunt of all the world-saving to be done, and may not be in mortal peril every single day anymore, but ...). More than just satisfying my wishful thinking all around, this arrangement, in the end, seems likely to allow Angel to finally find his faith and work on some of those attachment issues left over from dear-old-long-dead Dad.
As a final thought (in case anyone is still with me, at this point), here are a couple of quotes that came to mind when I was thinking about Spike's emphasis on DOING and never giving up (the writer of the letter of James would have LOVED Spike, I think . . . eventually!), Angel's search for hope and faith, their changing family dynamics (growing up being an eternity-long process, apparently, at least for en-souled vampires), their mutual mirroring (with all the conflicted emotions this inspires), and the capacity for love (in many forms) which characterizes BOTH these champions:
James 1:22-25 (NRSV): "But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act--they will be blessed in their doing."
I Corinthians 13:8-13 (NRSV): "Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love."