WHY WE FIGHT - SEEKING PURPOSE

 

By:  Lori Del Rossi

Written by:  Drew Goddard and Steven S. DeKnight

Directed by:  Terrance O'Hara

 

“Why We Fight”

 

So we beat on

Our boats against the current

So we beat on

These waters are uncharted

Bravely we sail alone

Riding the storm

Clutching honor, bearing pride

Ocean salt that burns our wounds

Only this immortal ship will prevail

The sun sinks into distant waters in the west

And off the east, the green light shimmers

Amidst the fog

It stands desolate and harbors broken dreams

Which we will defend.

 

Gatsby's American Dream

 

 

“Destiny,” “Soul Purpose, “Why We Fight,” titles of this seasons' episodes;  questions everyone struggles to answer.

 

Doyle:  “The past, she don't ever let go.”

Angel:  “She never does.”

 

Angel has been fighting for a long time, not always on the good side.  We get flashbacks showing moments in Angel's long life.  His unsuccessful fight for his father's approval.  After his siring, his rampage over decades with Darla, James, Elizabeth, Drusilla and Spike.  His wanton murder of Holtz's innocent wife and children, a part of his past that results in terrible repercussions in Season 3.  After the gypsies gave him back his soul, Angel was lost, a misfit; no longer a vampire, but still not a human. He had no goal, except to stay away from humans; to keep temptation at bay.  We saw him briefly compassionate in the 1920's when he rescued a little dog from a speeding car, only to push away the woman who wanted to thank him.  We've seen his interaction and subsequent hanging by humans at the Hyperion Hotel in 1952.  We've watched in horror as he drank human blood from a recently dead man in a diner in the 1970's.  After that, he hid himself further away, existing on the blood of vermin, until Whistler arrived and asked Angel if he wants to “become somebody.”

 

In Sunnydale, his purpose was to help the slayer combat evil. Since he came to LA, Angel has had a mission to help “the weak ones lost in the night” and to atone for his vicious crimes as Angelus.  He had a reason to continue on a path toward his final destiny.

 

 Mission, reason, purpose - words used frequently in this episode and often used from the beginning of Angel's quest in Los Angeles.  In this season we have seen him struggle with his decision to come to Wolfram and Hart.  We watched as the once close knit group floundered in its purpose amid “all the gadgets and stuff.”  They no longer seemed to be “reaching out to people, showing them that there's love and hope still left in the world.”  In “Destiny,” we saw his confidence shattered when Spike defeated him to win the fake cup.  In “Soul Purpose,” Angel was haunted by his decision to work at Wolfram and Hart. His dreams revealed his fear of betrayal; his feelings of despair.  He has been so disconnected that he has lost sight of his purpose.

 

Doyle:  “It's about letting them into your heart.  It's not about saving lives; it's about saving souls. Hey, possibly your own in the process.”

 

In the first scene of “Why We Fight,” Angel is living in squalor, alone, away from humans, purposeless, sitting dejectedly in the dark, listening to music.  His reverie is interrupted by government emissaries who crash into his apartment armed with stakes and crossbows.  He has been on government “radar,” at least by the government's Demon Research Initiative.  His vampiric attributes, not needing to breathe, being impervious to cold, make him the perfect choice for a dangerous mission - to fall through the ocean, get into a captured German submarine that is in trouble, and rescue the boat and the crew.  Since the cargo consists of murderous vampires that are attacking the humans, Angel, a notorious vampire, at least formerly, is the ideal choice to control or kill the vampires on board.

 

The military types know he has a soul and although they expect that he is still a killer, they believe they can manipulate Angel because of it. They know that although Angel may not want to cooperate with the government, his pricking conscience, his soul, will force him to participate; to rescue the innocent crew.  Perhaps part of his reason was patriotic. Although Angel protested he was not interested in the war, his apartment floor was strewn with newspapers reporting the carnage.

 

Ensign Lawson's mission is to bring the submarine and his crew safely to America, after the death of the captain.  That role gives him a purpose and he is willing to sacrifice his own life to fulfill that obligation.  Angel is shackled and dropped into the ocean.  He arrives tapping SOS on the sides of the torpedo tube he uses to gain access to the boat.  When he gives appropriate codes, the crew willingly accepts that he has been sent by their government. 

 

Angel opens the locked hatch to find a surprised Spike on the other side.

Spike:  “Of all the bloody faces I expected to see down here.”

Angel:  “You're a Nazi.”

Spike:  “What, oh, no, I just ate one.”

Spike introduces Angelus to the other two vampires.  “This is Angelus. The Angelus.”

 

Angel quickly stakes Nostroyev because he will not agree to stop killing the remaining humans.  Spike is reluctant to agree as well, believing they can maneuver the sub on their own.  After he pulls levers sounding an alarm, even he realizes that the crew is essential if they are to survive.  While the men are attempting to revive the ship, Angel and Lawson take the bodies of the dead crewman away and the ensign questions why Angel is keeping Spike and the Prince of Lies alive.

 

Angel:  You don't need to know why.  We've got to bring this sub in.  Those are our orders.  Isn't that the point, following orders?

Lawson:  “ There's a difference between orders and purpose, Sir...I can even handle dying if I know it's for a greater purpose.”

 

Ensign Lawson's mission is to bring the submarine and its crew safely to America, after the death of his captain.  That role gives him a purpose and he is willing to sacrifice his own life to fulfill that obligation. Lawson has a purpose, to fight against the Nazis who are doing horrible things to their fellow human beings.  Angel, at this time of his life, has no purpose.  Angel's immediate mission, however, is to bring the crew and the sub to safety in American waters.  The sub may give the military important information that “will help win the war.”

 

But the shackled Nazi officer escapes unnoticed in the distraction to fix the ship after depth charges.  He stabs Lawson as he attempts to fix the engine.  Mortally wounded, Lawson will not live long enough to repair the damage.  All will be lost. In desperation that he will fail in the mission entrusted to him, Angel bites Lawson and makes him drink.  Lawson does not die and he fixes the engine.  However, he is now a vampire.  Angel and Lawson have successfully achieved their purpose, saving the crew and the submarine.  But Lawson paid with his life and Angel's soul will have yet another reason to haunt him.

 

A vampire is a misfit, “I can walk like a man, but I'm not one.”  Although he may look human and can live among them, he can never be real part of society.  To survive, vampires drink blood, and human blood is the most powerful.  Misfits lurk alone on the edge of society, never fitting in, preying on those weaker than they. When Lawson became a vampire, he joined the other outcasts living on the fringe of community.  He lost his soul.  He had no direction. Finally the burden of purposefulness became too much and he sought Angel, his sire.

 

Lawson:  “I felt nothing for sixty years of blood drying in my throat like ashes...You gave me just enough didn't you? Enough for your soul to keep me trapped between who I was and who I should be.  I'm nothing because of you”

 

Lawson has captured and tied up Wes, Gunn and Fred in an attempt to pay Angel back for turning him. “I'll hurt you.  Maybe that's enough.”  Maybe that can be his new mission.  Maybe hurting Angel by killing his friends will give him the purpose that he so desperately desires.

 

But Angel has lived for centuries.  He knows that “it never is” enough; killing and mayhem never take away the loneliness, or provide a reason to survive.

 

Lawson's final purpose was to force Angel to stake him.  “. . . maybe I found my mission after all these years” - to hurt Angel. To remind the vampire, that even with a soul, he had destroyed a human life.  But he really wanted Angel to end his unlife because “We all need a reason to live even if we're already dead.”  Lawson had no reason to survive.

 

In Season 1, someone else wanted Angel to end a life of anger and despair.  In “5X5,” Faith begged Angel to kill her.  She had lost her purpose.  She had betrayed her mission as a vampire slayer.  She “murdered a man.”

 

Faith:  “...You don't know what evil is.  I'm bad . . . I'm evil!  I'm bad . . . Please Angel just do it . . . Angel please, just do It . . . Just kill me.”

 

Angel did not kill Faith.  Recognizing her pain and despair, he offered her “sanctuary.”  He gave her a mission - to seek redemption.

 

Mission, purpose, reason - terms much in focus this season.  Angel is concerned that his decision to work within Wolfram and Hart, will thwart his mission to “help the helpless.”  In Season 1's “In the Dark,” he gave up the Gem of Amara to continue his purpose.

 

Doyle:  “...think of all the daytime people you could help between 9 and 5.”

Angel:  “They have help.  The whole world is designed for them, so much that they have no idea what goes on around them after dark.  They don't see the weak ones lost in the night, or the things that prey on them.  And if I join them, maybe I'd stop seeing too.”

 

Has he stopped seeing them? Now, he just negotiates with demons, signs contracts in his blood to stop warring demon factions, and gets scumbag clients out of their just punishments, at least temporarily.  He unilaterally made a deal to save his son, which cost his friends some of their memory. If, or when they discover what he's done, he fears that he will lose them.  His past puts people he cares about in danger.  Those who come after him often hurt those close to him.  He failed to save Cordelia, his closest friend, his love.

 

Doyle:  “The good fight, yeah?  You never know until you've been tested.  I get that now.”

 

Angel has recently been tested and found lacking in direction, in desire.  But because of Cordelia's visit in “Your Welcome,” Angel now knows that the Powers that Be still want him as their warrior.  He has a renewed sense of purpose, a clearer vision of his mission, a reason to keep fighting.

 

“So we beat on

Our boats against the current

So we beat on.”

Gatsby's American Dream

 

 

Questions

 

• Gunn's verbal stumble - “... we may be able to establish a new liaison through a - a - through a protocol.”  Is his mind enhancement wavering?  Or is he “just tired?”

 

• How was Angel on the government's radar?  Do they keep a vampire registry?

 

• If Spike and Angel hadn't seen each other since China in 1900, why wasn't Spike more surprised to see him?  Why didn't he ask Angel why he disappeared?

 

• Did Angel have a choice in turning Lawson?

 

Quotes

 

Spike to Angel:  “I didn't know you were back there.  I would have come for you too.”

 

Spike about Angel:  “He likes to pretend he's the boss.”

 

Spike to Angel:  “I'm playing nice with the anchovies like you asked.”

 

Spike to Angel:  “I want to be called Captain.  After all, I did eat him.”

 

Spike to Lawson about the Nazi:  “I'll menace, you talk.”

 

Spike to Lawson:  “I'm not getting experimented on by his government.”  (Oh yes he would.)

 

Spike to the Nazi:  “Found out you were gonna pop our tops and melon ball us.”

 

Spike to Angel:  “Oh pipe down.  That official sailor talk is it? Well ahoy matey you can just swab my deck.”

 

 

Miscellaneous

 

• Did anyone else think Angel looked really hot while he was wet and giving the military codes?

 

• Spike's hair - What was the color - boot black?

 

• Spike does have a thing for black leather, even if it has a swastika on the sleeve.

 

• Spike still gets the best lines.

 

• Angel expected Spike to do what he asked.  Spike obviously respected Angel's authority.  He did what Angel asked, despite protests.

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