Angel

REVIEW : ANGEL 5.04 - HELLBOUND

Spike is not a nice guy. Just ask him. Since regaining his soul, he’s been a good man - saving the world gets you plenty of good karma points, right ? - but his souless self has a lot of evil under his belt. Hell continues to beckon, something that the Angel Investgations gang thinks is both correct and perfectly normal. Even Angel seems resigned to his own eventual fire-and-brimstone destination. Heck, the guy has allowed mass murder, tried to kill a friend, and even destroyed world peace - and all with his soul firmly attached. Without his soul ? His list of misdeeds is pretty darn huge. He truly believes that he will go to hell (again). And yet, despite that, Angel still tries to be a champion. Even though he admits that he hates the word.

The most fascinating scene in this episode is one in which Angel and Spike sit and have a civil conversation. One has to wonder how things would be different between Spike and Angel if he wasn’t incorporeal. They likely would have come to blows within the first five minutes of Spike’s arrival. Circumstances being what they are, they are forced to communicate. Their sparring is limited to the verbal sort, but that opens up a dialogue. They are more alike than either of them wants to admit.

The answer to Spike’s lack-of-solidity problem still seems to be found with Fred. Spike uses every bit of charm his ghostly self can muster to encourage her work, and give Fred credit for knowing full well that it’s simply an attempt to beguile her. And yet, as we learn, he doesn’t have to put forth quite so much effort. She sees him as a champion, like Angel (whether he likes it or not), and as someone who could do a lot of good. She believes that he is worth saving... just like a certain blond slayer believed last year.

One thing that is unclear about Spike’s possible hellbound status : what part of him is going to hell ? According to the mythology of the series, a vampire has the memories of the person it once was, but is not truly that person. A demon inhabits the body. In the two cases of the soul being restored to the body, the demon remains inside, but the soul - the true individual - takes precedence. That said... is it the "true self" of these souled vampires that is fated for eternal suffering, or only the demon that resides inside them ? Where do the two separate ?

This episode also brought up a little something that was revealed back in Season 1 of ANGEL : Shanshu. A prophecy that seemed to foretell that Angel would regain his humanity once he has "fulfilled his destiny." However, the prophecy referes to the "vampire with a soul," and there are two of those around now (or, more accurately, 1.5 of them, as Spike isn’t entirely present). Nevertheless, Spike could be just as qualified to "shanshu" as Angel. Surprisingly, Angel doesn’t care about this. In fact, he states that he no longer cares about the prophecy at all. He has written off all prophecies as phonies, and views the entire thing with a cynical eye.

Speaking of eyes, this episode had an array of morbid ghostly presences in the background, such as Glass Shard In Eye Lady and Half Burnt Lawyer. These not exactly Casper-like ghosts are present in order to throw Spike off of his game, disturb him enough to make him pliable. This week’s villian, primarily referred to as Reaper, is an old, vengeful ghost who has been using other ghosts as fodder in order to keep himself on our plane of existence. In battling this evil-du-jour, Spike is faced with a choice : take advantage of an one-time-only opportunity to become corporeal again, or save Fred’s life. The choice seems obvious to us, but if Spike had still been minus his soul, Fred would likely have been throttled.

So far, Spike seems to be fulfilling the role of champion. He might start to hate the word as well.