Angel - Season 1 impressions (episode 19)

[thalia_seawood]

Sanctuary

Click here for a summary.


- This episode is a good conclusion to Five By Five.

- In the beginning of the episode, we are confronted with one big problem, i.e. Angel is solely focusing on Faith and neglects Wesley and Cordelia. F
act is that Angel connects to Faith, he can see himself in her. By doing so he sympathises with the perpetrator and seems to overlook Faith's victims.
I get the impression that Wesley is more hurt by Angel failing to be there for him than by Faith torturing him. So I can understand his anger over Angel helping Faith, even though Angel is doing the right thing - for Faith anyway.

Angel: "Wesley, - we went through all this last night."
Wesley: "Yes, you were right. The police would be ill equipped to hold a Slayer against her will. I understand why you chose not to turn her over to them. - I do not, however, understand why the woman who brutally tortured me last night - this morning - gets pastries!"
Angel: "I don't really have anything else downstairs. - What do you want to do, Wesley? Let her starve?"
Wesley: "Certainly not. There are far more humane ways to deal with a rabid animal."
Angel: "She is not an animal."
Wesley: "No?"
Angel: "She's a person. In case you've forgotten - we're not in the business of giving up on people."
Wesley: "Don't you dare take the moral high ground with me after what she did. I believe in helping people. I do *not* believe in coddling murderers!"
Angel: "It wasn't too long ago that you were the one making the case for her rehabilitation."
Wesley: "It wasn't too long ago I had full feeling in my right arm!"
Angel: "She wants to change."
Wesley: "There is evil in that girl, Angel. It doesn't matter what she wants, or says she wants - you set her free - she'll kill again."

- Cordelia reacts to the whole situation by leaving, going on holiday to be precise.

- Eliza Dushku does a brilliant job in this 2-parter.

- Even when Faith is all down, you kind of expect her to resort to violence again. The scene where Angel talks to Faith all quietly and kind and then asks her to put the knife away, gave me the shivers.

- All conversations between Angel and Faith are extremely well written and performed. Therefore some quotage:

Angel: "Where are you gonna go? Back out in that darkness? (Faith hesitates then keeps walking) I once told you that you didn't have to go out in that darkness. (Faith slowly comes to a stop, her back to Angel) Remember? That it was your choice. Well, you chose. - You thought that you could just touch it. (Walks slowly closer) That you'd be okay. - 5x5, right, Faith? - But it swallowed you whole. - So tell me -(comes to stand behind her) - how did you like it?"
Faith turns and slugs him - hard. He doesn't retaliate, just slowly turns back to look at her.
Faith stares for a moment then looks anywhere but at him.
Faith hesitantly: "Help me?"
Angel: "Yeah."

- This scene has the additional twist that Faith brings up Buffy's new boyfriend without knowing Angel hasn't heard about Riley yet. The irony is that Faith hurts Angel by this - and at this time, he is the one person she feels close to and does not want to hurt.

Faith: "All my life there was only one person that tried to be my friend, - went out of her way when I had no right or reason to expect her to - and I screwed her. Not to mention her boyfriend, only - him literally."
Angel: "Faith, you and I never actually..."
Faith: "No, not you. The new one. (Angel stares for a moment then looks down) Oh, my god. - Angel, I'm so sorry I..."
Angel: "Now, there. You *can* say it. - That's good. (Turns away to leave) Good."


- In the meantime, Wesley gets an offer to return to the Council. He appears to be willing to go along. After all he must feel as if Angel doesn't care for him all that much and that Faith, an enemy, is more important to Angel than he is, despite of all the things he and Angel have accomplished together.
However, Wesley is still extremely loyal to Angel. You can see that he definitely cares for him, no matter what.

Wesley: "I have some conditions of my own. - Just one actually. - No harm must come to the vampire."
Weatherby: "Oh, don't be a ponce!"
Wesley pushes the syringe away: "That's it. Unless you agree to that you won't get any help from me."
Collins looks at Weatherby as he pushes the syringe back: "We have no quarrel with the vampire."
Weatherby: "Unless you count the fact that he *is* a vampire!"
Wesley: "He's a special case. He is reformed. - He has a soul. (The three goons look away from Wesley) In point of fact I've confronted more evil - slayed more demons (notices the waitress coming by and lowers his voice) slayed more demons - in short, done more good while working with Angel than I *ever* did while in the *Council's* employ."
Collins: "We'll make every effort."
Wesley: "No. Not every effort - no harm. I must have your word."

- Faith helps Angel defeat a demon and then her past catches up with her. This is the first time after her breakdown that she's in a fight - and she can't deal with it any longer. Oh, she can still fight and win, but seeing the blood on her hands brings up too many bad memories.

- Buffy makes an entrance at a *really* bad time. Angel hugging Faith must seems like a huge betrayal to her. Her view point is: Either Faith is just toying with Angel (as she did with all of Buffy's friends) and he's falling for her act or he's giving her a second chance when she doesn't deserve one after all she did.

- Angel is understandable annoyed by the interruption. He knows he's getting through to Faith, he knows she needs him and he can help her - and here Buffy just snows in and gets close to ruin it all.

- When they come to blows over Faith that's a bad thing. Even worse though is what they say to one another. I have to say Buffy wins the hurtful remarks contest with the final remark about the 'club of murderers'.

Angel: "You were about three seconds - from making her run - you know that. She's at a crucial stage."
Buffy: "She's playing you. She tried to kill you!"
Angel: "That was just - that was just a cry for help."
Buffy: "A cry for help is when you say 'help' in a loud voice."
Angel: "I know Faith did some bad things to you."
Buffy: "You can't possibly know."
Angel: "And you can't possibly know what she's going through."
Buffy: "And of course, you do? - I'm sorry. I can't be in your club. I never murdered anybody."

- I'm very happy Wesley doesn't betray Angel, but instead decides to go against the Council. Now he truly is a Rogue Demon Hunter.

- Lindsay asking Kate for help:
I'm not convinced Kate would so easily go against Angel. I think it would have been more in line with her character if she had contacted him first and asked him what's true about the story. But then I have to take into account that she tries to disconnect herself from Angel after the death of her father.

- Faith turns herself in. Impressive. I'm confident/hopeful we'll see her again later on.

- Buffy: "See? - Faith wins again."
This comment made me sad, because this time around it's not at all about Faith winning or trying to destroy the relationship between Buffy and Angel. She and Angel are no longer all that close - but it's not Faith's fault. It's just something that happens, when you decide to go separate ways. Realising this hurt and Buffy can't deal with this right now. So I believe Buffy needs someone to blame for her and Angel having an argument - and Faith is the ideal candidate.

- Once again I love the final scene with Wesley and Angel talking.
Wesley is remarkable: Despite the things Faith did to him, he's not only loyal to Angel, but also ultimately backs up his decision to help Faith. Wesley definitely is one of my favorite character in the Jossverse.

Wesley: "You all right?'
Angel: "For a taciturn, shadowy guy - I've got a big mouth."
Wesley: "Did you want to go after her?"
Angel: "Yes."
Wesley: "I don't know how much my opinion counts for, but - I think you did the right thing."
Angel: "Yelling at Buffy?"
Wesley: "No. - The other thing."
Angel shakes his head: "I didn't do it. - Faith did."
We see Faith sitting alone in a jail cell, leaning back against the wall.
Wesley voice over: "I hope she is strong enough to make it. - Peace is not an easy thing to find."
Blend into a close-up of Faith's face.
Angel v.o.: "She has a chance."
Faith closes her eyes.

Comments

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

I'm very happy Wesley doesn't betray Angel, but instead decides to go against the Council. Now he truly is a Rogue Demon Hunter.

One thing to notice about this occurence is that the enemy goes to Wesley to get at Angel, due to seeing Wesley as the weak link. File that away for future reference. /cryptic

I didn't watch these shows as they came out, but from what Selena says (and some things I've stumbled across online) it seems that Wesley was disliked by a lot of viewers up to this point in the series. So the writers could possibly have been playing against a lot of viewers' expectations that Wesley would chicken out. And then he turned around and showed his loyalty -- though, note that he immediately undermines the statement: "I trust you -- more than a gang of armed psychopaths, anyway".

- Faith turns herself in. Impressive. I'm confident/hopeful we'll see her again later on. Well, let me just say, that if I were watching this for the first time, my observation would probably be that the writers let the character live in case they should have future opportunities to write good storylines for her. /cryptic, once again.

Now if I may be really shallow -- I adore Buffy but she has the worst hair ever in this episode. I swear that was in Charisma Carpenter's contract. "Should Ms. Gellar ever appear on a crossover episode, she will have very awful hair and wear a questionable outfit in order to make sure everyone remembers *I* am the lead on this show"