Angel

5.22 Not Fade Away—Heere There Be Dragons
Writers: Jeffrey Bell & Joss Whedon Director: Jeffrey Bell

I don’t know. Maybe I thought if I didn’t write the review, the series wouldn’t be over. Huh. It’s over anyway. So I guess I should get to work.

Looking back on the season, all the episodes, some things don’t make sense or are left unexplained. I’ll itemize some of them later. But chief among them surely has to be why/how was Spike brought back from his immolation in the Hellmouth?

Theory 1: The Powers That Be

TPTB presumably exist in the whole Jossverse. But they never were acknowledged players on BtVS. Never mentioned or invoked by name. No help, knowledge, or protection is ever sought from them. The same is true of the Senior Partners: both are exclusive concepts of the Angelverse. The Powers are at least the opposites and perhaps the equals of the SPs—forces of dubious Good, opposed to the forces of undoubted Evil. (Jasmine may have been a Power.) They certainly could resurrect Spike if they wanted to.

But Spike’s essence was contained in the amulet, which was provided (through Lilah) to Angel by the Senior Partners, who presumably intended that Angel wear it during the climactic battle in “Chosen,” be consumed by its energies, and suffer the same aftermath as Spike does in his return. However, Buffy instead chose Spike as her Champion and gave the amulet to him. It’s likely that the closing of the Hellmouth and Spike’s immolation produced a change in the Balance. Aware of that change, the Powers might have had and exercised the option to undo his destruction—reward his unlooked-for heroism and thereby put the Balance right again. One author for the amulet and another for the resurrection.

If it was the Powers who resurrected Spike, in part because he’s a second souled vampire and therefore worthy of their regard, they presumably intended that he act on their behalf, as Angel (mostly) does. So why would they have brought him back as a ghost, unable to make contact with the living world? Why would they have needed to manifest him through an evil artifact, the amulet? Why would they have set him on a slippery slope at whose foot rested a flaming abyss he was powerless to avoid? Though we cannot rule it out entirely, I think the actual circumstances of Spike’s return argue against TPTB having any active part in it.


Theory 2: The Senior Partners

The Senior Partners supplied the amulet and got what they presumably wanted: a souled vampire, powerless, alone and afraid. Ripe for their control. Except it was the wrong vampire.

One of the major themes of the season (and the series as a whole) is freely willed choice, leading to authentic, effective action, and its opposite, lack of free will leading to coerced action that serves another’s purposes. We have killer cyborgs: humans modified somehow (by the Watcher’s Council?) to follow orders absolutely. We have evil puppets. Angel is denounced as a puppet several times and even becomes one, although briefly. Presumably the SP gave Angel control of W&H to subvert him, confident that he’d be incapable of working with Evil all around him without being corrupted by making use of such evil means: make him lose his purpose either through disgust at how that purpose was being accomplished or through becoming accustomed to using such corrupt methods. Gunn’s downfall seems the paradigm for what Angel’s was to be, writ somewhat smaller.

None of what the SPs planned for Angel is applicable to Spike. Spike has no power beyond himself and, as a ghost, can’t even call on that. If the SPs resurrected Spike, they thereafter appear to ignore him as of no interest or use except to annoy and distract Angel, who remains their primary target. It therefore seems unlikely that the SP either brought Spike back or sent the box of flash that made him solid again.


Theory 3: Lindsey

Lindsey’s gameplan is never made explicit. He claims to have had the amulet delivered to Angel and also to have sent the box of flash. He’s won the love and active support of Eve, duplicitous agent and intermediary for the Senior Partners, but also has his person and his dwelling spelled (sexy runes) against detection by them. So he’s apparently not working for the SPs. But his imposture with Spike (claiming to be Doyle and sending Spike to “clean up Dodge” from the alleys and dark spaces of the city), the destructive dreams he inflicts on Angel through the slugs, and his attempt to release the buried “fail-safe” monster that will destroy W&H and all who sail in her, all pretty well rule out his working for TPTB, either. Lindsey is nobody’s puppet. He’s playing his own game.

He knows of the Circle of the Black Thorn: the Fang Gang learn about it mainly from him. He knows the Circle are the chief representatives and agents of the SPs on this plane: they can be reached, hurt, killed on this plane of existence, as the SPs themselves cannot. Lindsey, who walked away from W&H (the only W&H employee ever known to have done so), has quite specific aims that can be deduced from what he does. He wants Angel dead, or dreaming, or squabbling with Spike over the promised shanshu. Rendered impotent, in any case. Pitting Spike against Angel every chance he gets, Lindsey wants Spike to reenact Angel’s rise from lone defender of the helpless to the top of W&H, supplanting Angel, with himself gliding right on behind as Spike’s trusted right hand. Lindsey then wants Spike, as the boss of W&H and the Fang Gang, to do what Angel does in this episode: join and then destroy the Circle of the Black Thorn. Except in that scenario, only Lindsey would be left standing at the end. All blame from the SPs would fall on Spike, Angel, and the Fang Gang, conveniently dead, but Lindsey would be able to call on favors from TPTB for putting such a major spoke in the wheel of the SPs ongoing apocalypse.

Angel intimates as much in his final conversation with Linsey:

Angel: ...you’re good in a fight and lets say we come up rolling 7’s and this thing does go our way. We tear up this firm, someone’s going to have to step in. I know that’s what you want. And I’m a lot more comfortable with the thought of you in that position than anyone else.
Lindsey (smiling): The devil you know.
Angel (smiling): That’d be you.

Not precisely the plan as Lindsey made it—Angel’s still in charge—but a recognizable version all the same. Enough to get Lindsey’s help for the finale.

No persuasive challenge to Lindsey’s claim to have sent the amulet or the box of flash is presented in the series. As an obvious magic-user, he could have manipulated magical artifacts. He had the knowledge, the power, and the motive to bring Spike into the Fang Gang mix, and capitalizes on it once Spike’s made material. Therefore, even amid all the confusion, it should be accepted.

So it seems that it’s Lindsey’s hidden grand design that’s responsible for Spike’s presence in S5, and for the shape of the conclusion. It’s therefore also the reason for his ordered execution by Lorne.


The Perfect Day

One of the highlights of this episode is that prior to the Godfather-like execution of the highest levels of the opposition, Angel sends all his allies out to spend what they know to be their last afternoon of life/unlife however they please. “Live the day like it’s your last, ’cause it probably is.” What they do with the time is illuminating.

Lorne sings “If I Ruled the World” in a cocktail lounge. His favorite activity, his favorite milieu. The implicit irony is in his awareness that he’s accepted a mission to help kill those who actually do rule the world: the Circle of the Black Thorn.

At a coffee shop, Angel visits Connor. They talk of the unremarkable stuff of everyday life—Angel’s new girlfriend, an internship Connor is applying for—the life together Angel has missed out on with his son—first stolen, then given away. Connor knows the truth of who Angel is, what Angel did, and is reconciled to it. Therefore Angel is, as well.

Spike downs shots in a bar, apparently gathering the needed liquid courage “to make [his] presence felt”: apparently his idea of a perfect day is to be a no-hold-barred bar brawl. But a subsequent scene reveals that the bar hosts an open-mike poetry slam, and Spike recites the terrible poem he wrote for Cecily in 1880, the jeering and contemptuous response to which made him miserable and despairing enough to say fervently, “Oh, yes!” to being turned when he encountered Drusilla. The poem sounds fine, this time. Spike’s made peace with the words and learned how to interpret them with his soul. The audience applauds loudly. Spike is vindicated. And so is the William that he was and is again, through this scene. But because he’s Spike, he follows up his triumph with the announcement that his next poem will be “The Wanton Folly of Me Mum!” From the title, the poem promises to be rowdy and disrespectful and self-mocking. Rather like Spike.

Gunn returns to Anne (“Blood Money”), proprietor of the shelter in his old neighborhood. She’s loading donated furniture, moving into a new shelter. After asking about his old vampire-hunting gang, he asks, “What if I told you it doesn’t help? What would you do if you found out that none of it matters? That it’s all controlled by forces more powerful and uncaring than we can conceive and they will never let it get better down here. What would you do?" She replies, "I’d get this truck packed before the new stuff gets here.” Her reply to Gunn’s doubts echoes Angel’s, a series ago, to the effect that if nothing matters, then all that matters is what we do. It’s enough: Gunn pitches in and helps, braced as well as he can be against the events to come.

Wesley cannot accept such reassurances. Because Fred is gone, nothing can make a perfect day for him, so he tends to injured, perplexed Illyria who intends to join their fight out of indignation for the beating Hamilton gave her. Without Fred, there is nothing that he wants. He rejects Illyria’s almost-offer to present the illusion of a loving Fred, a gift she seems to want to give her mentor: “The first thing a Watcher learns is to separate truth from illusion because in the world of magicks, it’s the hardest thing to do. The truth is that Fred is gone. To pretend anything else would be a lie. And since I don’t actually intend to die tonight, I won’t accept a lie." So he contents himself with trying to make Illyria’s injuries better. And she admits, yes, it’s better.

Lindsey has a romantic interlude with Eve, responding to her uneasiness about Angel with, “As long as I’m fighting on his side, he’ll play me fair. When the smoke clears, then we’ll see where we stand.” He expresses no worries at being paired with Lorne on the night’s execution mission.

All the Fang Gang seem to be looking to their roots. Only Lindsey is looking to a future beyond this night. And Wesley isn’t looking anywhere at all.


The Execution

After their “perfect day,” the Fang Gang reconvene at Spike’s apartment, and Angel leads off with the comment, “This may come out a little pretentious, but...one of you will betray me." Spike immediately volunteers. When Angel chooses Wes instead, Spike lowers his hand, disappointed, saying, “Oh. Can I deny you three times?" (He also was first to volunteer for burning the house down “while we’re still in it” in “Power Play.”)

Though nobody eats here, this is an implicit recapitulation of Jesus’ Last Supper before being crucified. Spike’s the one who’s had all the crucifixion imagery over time, but it’s Angel who walks the walk and talks the talk. The differences are that (1) Angel’s not merely volunteering for death, he’s actively choosing and planning it; (2) the Fang Gang includes Illyria, who’s definitely not one of Angel’s disciples and only formerly male; (3) Lindsey is not included (not all the “disciples” are there); (4) there’s an eager volunteer for the betrayal part; and (5) you have to squint quite a lot to see Angel as the savior of mankind because (6) Angel plans to take a whole lot more with him before he goes.

Each gets his or her assignment. The killing is ready to begin. Several of the baddies we’ve seen this season are targeted members of the Circle of the Black Thorn: Archduke Sebassis (Angel’s target); the decrepit sorcerer Vail (Wesley’s assignment); the Fell Brethren (Spike, who’s also charged with retrieving the baby); the foul Senator Brucker (Gunn); Izzy, Angel’s racquet-ball playing chum and his companions, three unnamed Circle members (Illyria). Angel reassures Lorne that his job is to back up Lindsey slaughtering the demonic Sahrvin (“Harm’s Way”). After completing their assigned assassinations, they are to rendezvous in the alley north of the Hyperion. Again, back to the roots, where AI and the series both began.

Meanwhile, back at Wolfram & Hart, personal assistant Harmony is actually betraying Angel—literally and figuratively, she’s in bed with super-strong Hamilton, new liaison to the Senior Partners.

We see the assignments carried out. But there are surprises. Angel has chosen an indirect way of murdering Sebassis by poisoning his blood slave. That frees Angel to fire Harmony (who apparently gets out intact...with a pre-written reference, even!) and confront Hamilton, in whom he cannot seem to make a dent...until, opposed by both Connor and Angel and beating them both handily, Hamilton discloses in careless confidence that the source of his power is his blood, magically enhanced by the Senior Partners: “You cannot beat me. I am a part of them; the Wolf, the Ram, and Hart. Their strength flows through my veins. My blood is filled with their ancient power.” That’s all Angel needs to put the bite on him. Hamilton becomes an ex-Hamilton. And Lorne had an assignment unknown to the others: to see Lindsey doesn’t survive the night. Having shot Lindsey dead, presumably as a final act of loyalty to Angel and on Angel’s orders, gentle Lorne leaves for an undisclosed destination that’s not the alley behind the Hyperion.

Though other assignments go well, Wesley’s not so much. Vail proves the stronger sorcerer and fatally stabs Wesley. However, Illyria, arriving in time to give Wesley a final, comforting lie of Fred’s presence...or is it a lie?...finds that physical means are quite sufficient to knock Vail’s head off.

The Tarnished Hero

Angel, in these plans and events, does not entirely shine. Having formed the plan to take out the penultimate baddies, the evil-but never-before-heard-of Circle of the Black Thorn, because of a final vision given him by Cordelia, he(1) kills his helpless ally, Drogyn (2) poisons a minion to get at the master (3) probably traumatizes Lorne by requiring he shoot the unsuspecting Lindsey dead. As a Champion, Angel remains all sorts of shades of grey. There’s a lot of Angelus left in him still, it seems.

The Alley

It’s a much diminished Fang Gang who reconvene in the alley. Wesley is missing and dead, Lorne is absent, and Gunn is mortally wounded. They briefly take stock, then turn to face the ravening demon hordes (including a dragon) coming at them. Angel signed away the shanshu when the Circle wanted to assure themselves of his motives; Spike has expressed himself as content so long Angel doesn’t get it. Their lives and unlives are equally all on the line. Responding to Spike’s request for a plan, Angel says simply, “We fight,” and expresses a wish to kill the dragon: a proper Champion’s ambition. Then Angel says, “Let’s go to work.”

The last words of the last episode of Angel, the Series.

The appeals and ads and letter writing came to nothing. However, there are Jossverse movies in our future—Firefly, at least, and perhaps Buffy/Angelverse vampire TV movies, as well.

Even if our only work is waiting and hoping, let’s go to work.


Nan Dibble
7/12/04
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
Loose ends:



Who made/sent the killer cyborgs (“Lineage”).
How was the replica of Wesley’s father made so exactly, physically and psychologically, that even Wesley was convinced?
What became of Numero Cinco’s expectation that Angel would one day be fighting in a graveyard, in a mask?
In light of later events, what did the prophecy about the Cup of Perpetual Torment signify? Was it true or a hoax? If a hoax, who was behind it? What did it mean that Spike drank from it, not Angel? Why Mountain Dew?
Wouldn’t the mass execution of the Circle of the Black Thorn upset the Balance and entitle the Senior Partners to field more Evil in response? How about the earthquake/power surge/bloody eyes etc. supposedly set off by there being two souled vampires? Two active Slayers, per Bejoxa’s Eye? Oh, never mind. The Balance is upset whenever the writers find it convenient. And they never, never explain.
What was all that business about Feigenbaum?
Why would Cordelia give Angel a vision to “get him back on the path” that impelled a consciously suicidal mass attack on hitherto-unknown agents of the Senior Partners, rather than “helping the hopeless/helpless,” Angel’s original mission?
Did Buffy ever learn that Spike was back?
Theories above aside, what did Lindsey hope to accomplish and who is responsible for Spike’s reappearance and rematerialization?
To what extent was Illyria actually Fred?
And most important: how did they get out of that [expletive deleted] alley?