Angel

5.12—You’re Welcome: Waking Beauty
Written and directed by David Fury

Cordelia Chase has been a bit of everything. Privileged High School clique queen. Vamp victim (in BtVS “Dopplegangland”). Underprivileged, talentless struggling actress. Office manager for Angel Investigations and colleague of hapless Doyle and clumsy Wesley, in his “Rogue Demon Hunter” incarnation. Roommate of Ghost Dennis. Queen of Pylea, a demon dimension. Sybil, receiving visions direct from The Powers That Be and Teller of uncomfortable truths. Part demon. Higher Being. Occasional amnesiac. Part of the Ewww-fest that was the Cordy/Connor coupling. Also the Ewww-fest of smoochies with The Beast (“Give mama some sugar.”) Possessed ritual murderer of an innocent. Magic-wielding bitch monster of death who killed Lilah, freed Angelus, and tried her skanky, pregnant best to prevent Angel’s resouling. Mother of Power Jasmine, full-grown at birth. Angel’s magically comatose lost near-love.

Veteran BtVS/AtS writer David Fury presents many of these facets, showcasing Cordy in all her truth-telling, feisty splendor in the series’ milestone 100th episode (opening the door to profitable syndication) showcasing the force of nature (and fashion) that is Cordelia.

Something Old

Cordy apparently awakens spontaneously from her coma, displaying none of the ambiguities that plagued the character in Season 4. Having attended to the pressing need for shopping, she hits the ground running...whereas the rest of the Fang Gang are at a virtual standstill, having encountered one horror too many from one of their demonic clients who’s jumped dimensions, courtesy of a gaggle of ritually slaughtered nuns, to evade prosecution. Angel, disgusted with grays and compromise, declares that he’s quitting, which would have all sorts of repercussions with the demonic Senior Partners, with whom he contracted to become Wolfram & Hart’s CEO. One suspects the two events—Angel determining to quit and Cordy’s awakening—are not unconnected, even though her actual vision appears to be of Lindsey’s runes and of Angel being punched or stabbed.

Although Cordy needs to be brought up to speed on some things, part of her strength and authority is that she brings the past intact into the present: Cordy remembers Connor. She also remembers, as no one else now can (not even Angel), what Angel was like in his deepest self before the confusions and compromises of Connor and W & H conspired to change him. The past informs the present and awakens it to the truth. If Cordy has been uneasily, inexplicably asleep and divorced from her true nature, so has Angel.

Cordelia’s waking is a wake-up call for Angel, as well.

Also continuing from more recent episodes are (1) EveL’s plans to undermine Angel with the Senior Partners and (2) the machinations of Lindsey/”Doyle” to encourage Spike to supplant Angel in his role as the Champion of The Powers That Be. Both plot threads are resolved here.

Something New

Spike, playing irascible Donkey Kong as physical therapy for his reattached hands, sparks an unguarded admission from Lindsey/”Doyle”: that he, too, once had a hand replaced. Lindsey then sends Spike to dispose of the reawakened Cordelia, whom Lindsey claims has been possessed by a demon. Always a man of direct (if impulsive) action, Spike immediately attacks Cordy...with a bite—a taste-test to determine her demon status. (Before the removal of the chip, he could have made a human/non-human determination by punching her, as he did with Tara.) This leads to the unmasking of the impostor: not Cordelia, but Lindsey. The moment Spike says his contact calls himself “Doyle,” alarms go off for Cordy and Angel because they remember Doyle, as neither Spike nor the rest of the Fang Gang do. And when Spike dredges up the mention of a reattached hand, they’re able to put a name to their opposition.

Cordy has had a vision of Lindsey’s runes. With her help, Wesley discovers that those runes conceal Lindsey not only from the Senior Partners but from any but face-to-face viewing. So modern surveillance equipment is blind to his presence, as well. Lindsey can enter even the most heavily secured parts of W & H and wave at the security cameras without detection.

And we learn that Lindsey has been nobody’s agent but his own, motivated by jealousy that Angel has achieved the top spot at W & H that Lindsey wanted for himself but forfeited by refusing a promotion. Although he left W & H, Lindsey is still answerable to the Senior Partners because his contract is still in force. Once they detect him when his protective runes are magically lifted via Wesley’s spellcasting, they collect him with a magical vortex, presumably to express their displeasure in person. However, that vortex is up, not down. The significance of that direction, assuming it has any, is unclear.

Also new is the brief but significant separation of Gunn from the rest of the Fang Gang at the prospect of Angel’s quitting. For the first time, Angel bluntly expresses suspicion of Gunn’s brain boost and what change of loyalties it may have produced. And Gunn agrees that, if the rest of the Fang Gang left, he well might stay. It’s expressed as his conviction that he’s able to do good in his present role. Still, it’s the first crack of a split that doubtless will widen if/when the Fang Gang starts breaking apart from the many pressures combining to divide it.

Something Borrowed

This celebration of the life and works of Cordelia Chase has references to each of her guises in Angel’s life in L.A. There’s a small, embedded tribute to Doyle, whom Cordy refers to as the “first soldier down,” comparing the unhesitating ultimate sacrifice Doyle made to Angel’s present confusion about his purpose.

Borrowed as well are the notion of the monster concealed below (Forbidden Planet, anyone?); the crystal-based superpowers Lindsey contrives for himself, the sentry zombies (we know W & H has no lack of zombies), and the setting of the climactic duel between Angel and Lindsey, visually reminiscent of that between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back, in which sliced-off and subsequently reattached hands also figure.

Something Blue

This episode is a celebration of Cordy at her irrepressible finest. But it’s also her swan song. As she greets Angel, she pulls the hospital curtain to conceal the occupant of the bed. At episode’s close, after her fond review of might-have-beens and could be’s with Angel, we learn that occupant was Cordelia’s still comatose body. Cordy has been awakened, not as an intangible ghost, but as a living spirit, solid to the touch. But one who’s come for a purpose—to put Angel “back on track”—who cannot stay once that purpose has been accomplished. It seems Cordy’s true identity, now, is as a Higher Being serving The Powers That Be. Once she’s recalled by them (as Lindsey was recalled by the Senior Partners), her body dies. The implication is that her still comatose body is in the hospital bed for the entire episode until the end.

Cordy bluntly condemns Angel’s pact with, and role at, Wolfram & Hart. But the effect of her visit is not only to awaken his sense of self and purpose—“I’m Angel. I beat the bad guys.”—but to prevent his quitting. Is this a good thing? Likewise Cordy condemns the memory wipe—Angel now refers to it as a change in reality rather than mere memory manipulation—he bargained for, for Connor’s happiness, and thereby inflicted on his friends without their knowledge or consent. But she does nothing to dispel it, other than her initial mention of Connor’s name. That pot of eventual badness is still simmering and has yet to boil. We’ll keep watching it.

The story leaves open the possible return of either Cordelia (in her role as a Higher Being) or Lindsey (who’s sucked up the tubes, apparently by the Senior Partners, but not killed outright). Eve, however, is decisively gone. Her treachery exposed, slapped around by unsouled, evil vampire Harmony for the greater good, repudiated by Angel and the rest of the Fang Gang, Eve’s elevator goes down, taking her to face the wrath of the Senior Partners, whose purposes she did not serve well.

Goodbye, devious, cold, smirky, unenthralling Eve. We won’t miss you a bit.

Nan Dibble 2/5/04 Acknowledgement: As always, I am indebted for the gladly shared insights, wit, and general snarkiness of my fellow S’cubies: the members of the Soulful Spike Society.

MISCELLANEOUS

It’s confirmed that Lindsey did, indeed, send Spike to find Dana in “Damage.” Four good Spike moments: frustrated with Donkey Kong, Spike proceeds to attack the TV on which he’s been playing; his taste-test attack on Cordy, and Angel’s fiercely indignant, protective reaction; his holding action with the sentinel zombies “(“Come on, lads—no need to be gentle: we’re all dead men here.”); and when, somewhat chagrined to admit that he’s been played, that he bought into the idea that he might have a destiny, he joins the rest of the Fang Gang as they decide to soothe their sorrows with a pint or two. This is the first time Spike has been included, without question or objection, in any social gathering of the Fang Gang. Fred certainly seems impressed by and fascinated with Wesley’s spellcasting. Developments pending on that front? It seems that Archduke Sebassis’ collared, naked walking blood bank has been hiding inside a copier at W & H ever since “Life of the Party” (5.5), subsisting on toner. Which presumably accounts for the toner shortage that so incensed the bloody-eyed employee in “Harm’s Way.” Stand-alone episodes, this season, with a Monster of the Week. Yeah, right. Cordelia, it is possible to show more cleavage. But only by taking the blouse off altogether. Cordy kisses Angel and is lightly bitten by Spike. Have the visions been passed on, a la the Doyle/Cordy kiss? If so, to whom? Re Spike’s taste test: had Cordy come back exactly as she was before becoming a Higher Being, Spike would indeed have tasted some trace of demon in her blood, inasmuch as she was made part demon in order to endure the visions. Spike would have believed Lindsey’s contention that she was evil and tried to kill her. However, that he can detect no trace of demon in her blood means either that she’s become fully human again...or that she’s a Higher Being, whose blood apparently is indistinguishable from human. Since the latter proves to be the case (since her actual body is still in the hospital bed, yet she’s material enough to be bitten, and for Spike to taste her blood), Spike’s tasting is more significant, and less idiotic, than it seems at the time.

Hmmm...

Since Lindsey’s use of Doyle’s name is part of what unravels Lindsey’s secret scheme, why did he use it in the first place? It meant nothing to Spike. It had seemed that Lindsey intended the imposture to be unmasked by those who’d known Doyle and Doyle’s relationship to Angel. That now seems not to be the case: Lindsey did NOT want his attempts at manipulating Spike to be known. So again, why choose a name that was a liability the first time Spike chanced to mention it to Angel, as he inevitably would?

It’s understandable that Lindsey is armed only with a knife in the “Death Star control room” battle: he hadn’t expected to face Angel directly. However, let’s pass quickly by the subtext of that knife growing to sword proportions as he faces Angel.

Cordelia is presented here as the voice of right and truth. So how come she gets away with demanding that Angel torture Eve, and then accepts Harmony as replacement torturer, as does Angel? Didn’t “Damage” suggest to us that torture is wrong? The scene is funny, but one wonders....

It appears that the crystal Lindsey pushes into the beast-releasing machine is responsible for his superpowers, since Cordy’s removing it causes him to lose those powers. So...why is there a power-enhancing container for the crystal to go into on the machine in the first place? Why would one who operates it need super fighting powers?

A Code 7 means clear the building immediately. Who issued that Code, and why was it deemed necessary by anybody? Unless it was part of the automatic protocols of releasing the basement beast...targeted only at Angel. True, there could be peripheral damage, but why should the SP care about that?

Memorable lines:

Angel: That’s it.... I can’t do this anymore. Gunn: Do what? Angel: Any of this. Living with it. Running Wolfram & Hart. I quit.

Angel: Status quo. Evil wins. ‘Cause instead of trying to wipe it out, we negotiate with it. Or, worse, for it.

Cordelia: I’m a vision of hotliness. And how weird is that?

Cordelia: So where’s Connor? Gunn: Who?

Cordelia (to Angel, of Eve): So you two are groin buddies? And I thought Darla was rock bottom.

Cordelia (as Eve exits): So that’s the kind of person you’re doing business with now. Angel, do you realize what’s happening? You’ve made a deal with the devil.

Cordelia: So not only did you strike a deal with your worst enemy to give up your son, you let them rape the memories of your friends, who trust you.

Cordelia: OK: Spike’s a hero, and you’re CEO of Hell Incorporated. What frickin’ bizarro world did I wake up in?

Cordelia: I naturally assumed you’d be lost without me—but this? Angel: I am lost without you. Cordelia: You just forgot who you are. Angel: Remind me. Cordelia: Oh, no: that’s for you to figure out, bubba. I can tell you who you were: a guy who always fought his hardest for what was right...even when he couldn’t remember why. Even when he was miserable, which was, let’s face it, not a small portion of the time. He did right. And that gave him something—a light. A glimmer. And that’s the guy I fell in l—The, um, guy I knew.

Cordelia: Spike! I heard you weren’t evil anymore, which kind of makes the hair silly.

Cordelia: And you called this guy the big hero? Spike: You called me a hero? Angel: I didn’t know you were eating people.

Spike (to Cordelia): And, actually, well, you don’t taste evil. Demons are more astringent, with a sort of a...oaky, really—"

Cordelia (to Eve): Let’s go, Lilah Junior.

Angel: A couple of weeks ago, a man approached Spike, told him that the Powers That Be have some missions for him. Spike, brain trust that he is, went along with it. Spike (feebly): Hey!

Angel: Harmony, guard Eve. She moves, eat her. Harmony: Really? Thanks!

Fred: Angel, you’re not going down there alone. Angel: That fail-safe’s meant for me. I’m not going to risk anybody I care about. Spike: I’ll go. Angel: Okay.

Lindsey (seeing Angel now has a sword): It’s not the size, big guy—it’s how you use it. (Lindsey’s switchblade lengthens/expands to a sword.)

Angel (to Lindsey): Doesn’t matter what you try. Doesn’t matter where I am or how badass you think you’ve become. ‘Cause you know what? I’m Angel. I beat the bad guys.

Cordelia: Oh—and you’re welcome! (Angel takes a phone call and learns she’s died.) Angel: Thank you.