Angel - Season 2 impressions (episode 19)

[thalia_seawood]

Belonging

A summary can be found here.


This episode starts the Pylea arc. I'm not a big fan of the Pylea arc, but there are scenes I really enjoyed plus we gain some interesting insights. Since I find the Pylea plot rather meh, I will focus on the things I liked.

- The opening scene in the restaurant made me laugh. My favorite moments:

Cordy: "I feel a little guilty."
Angel: "Don't. - I mean, nineteen dollars for a - sashimi couscous appetizer is money well spent. How was it anyway? Pretty good? I mean, it ought to be pretty..."
Cordy: "It's delicious but that's not what I feel guilty about."
Angel: "Oh. (Sees Wesley looking at him) I 'm not cheap, I-I'm just old. (Slipping into a slight Irish accent) I-I remember when a few bob got you a good meal, a bottle *and* a tavern wench.

Wesley: "The Haklar demon. In fact Angel's informant will lead us to the demon's feeding grounds where we manly men will gather round and kill it to death."
Wesley holds out his fist and Gunn bumps it with his own. Angel, just a beat too slow, puts his fist out as well. The others obligingly repeat the gesture.

From this point onwards things just go horribly, horribly wrong with Angel falsily accusing a woman to be a Voltar witch and Cordelia throwing up.

When I was about seven years old, I got violently sick over the floor of a very elegant restaurant so I sympathize with Cordy.

- My favorite scene in this episode is Wesley talking to his father on the phone. Here's full quotage, because this scene tells us *a lot* about Wesley.

Wesley: "Yes, mum. Yes, well, put him on. - Right. You too. - Hello father. Happy Birthday. - How are you? - Good. - No! It's going quite well actually. - Yes. I have news. - I've been put in charge of our group. - Yes, as their leader. No, it's a permanent position. Well as permanent as these things... - (the smile on Wesley's face fades away into nothing) - No, I certainly won't be fired. - Ah. Well, yes, I was that one time, yes. - Again... No, you're right. I see how... - Yes, I'd forgotten, thank you. - Yes. - Ah, just recently. Uhm, it's going quite well so far. - - No, I think this time... - I hope it will be different. - No. No, you're right. I see how... - I just thought you'd be... I thought you'd want to know, that's all. - Right. Well - again, happy birthday. - Okay."
Hangs up and looks down at the desk.

Not only is it obvious that his father has a very low opinion of Wesley, it's even worse that Wesley accepts this bad opinion. He doesn't stand up for himself, he doesn't say "screw you" and hang up the phone, instead he's polite right until the end! His father puts him down and he says "thank you" and "you're right".

So we can assume that Wesley has been treated as a disappointment all his life. He's so used to his father's bad opinion that he doesn't know how to disagree with him.

In this light, I find Wesley's relationship with Angel fascinating.
Even when Angel went dark during the mid season 2 episodes, Wesley doesn't stand up to him more than once. He rather avoids Angel giving him time to think, as he says. I now wonder if Wesley is simply becoming distance because he doesn't know how to argue with someone who has become a father figure in a way.

Another theory I have:
Drusilla and Spike can be considered as Angelus's children and I think it's safe to say that Angelus wasn't your average loving daddy.

Now I get the feeling that Angel is a positive father figure for Wesley most of the time. Wes has come a long way since he started working for Angel. Being a part of Angel's team has made him more self-confident.

Along similar lines, I see Angel's kindness towards Fred as making up for what he did to Dru. Here I'm already on season 3 territory, however.

- Another moment I enjoyed was Angel showing up at the studio and basking in the artificial sunlight.
This moment and also this line Director: "Lose the robe, princess." are some nice foreshadowing for what will happen on Pylea.

The interaction between Angel and Cordelia is interesting. Once again, I get the "Angel has an interest in Cordy" vibe. He definitely tries not to notice her skimpy outfit and starts arguing with the director of the commercial when Cordy is treated like shit. Cordelia is not impressed by Angel's actions; she just wants to get her job done - even if it's humiliating.

- Two more scenes that made me smile:

Angel: "Exactly! He's also got her wearing this - flimsy swimsuit that covers like (twists the ax handle between his hands as he looks up at the ceiling) nothing."
For a moment all three guys' eyes unfocus, then they glance at each other.
Wesley: "Appalling."
Gunn: "Disgusting."
Angel: "Right."

Wesley: "We managed to kill the Haklar just as it was about to devour a group of power walkers."
Angel: "Horrible."
Cordy: "I know. I saw it in my stupid vision, remember?"
Angel: "No, not the Haklar, the power walkers. I mean, walking I get, but power walking? Why not just run for a shorter time? - Weird. - Plus one of them hit him."
Cordy: "A power walker did that?"
Wesley: "Apparently she felt that I disrespected the Haklar's culture by killing it."

Also liked the tidbit that Angel used to be a big Bonanza fan.

- Gunn is torn between his old team and his new team at Angel Investigations.
I don't blame him for leaving: After all, he used to play an important role in his old team. So when some of his friends are killed, it makes sense that he goes back to his old team.

- Winifred Burkle is mentioned for the first time.

- Have to say I didn't really care for the "Lorne's cousin appears" plot. This is just a personal matter of taste, but Lorne doesn't grab my attention so far.

- I found it much interesting to see Wesley trying to get used to his leadership role. He still has problems taking charge, e.g. there are several times where he would need to make a decision quickly, but doesn't or when Angel just decides to do his own thing.

Wesley: "Perhaps a diversion. I-I have some flares maybe the light will distract him long enough for us to be able to..."
Landok: "Enough of your words!"
Landok jumps out of the car and charges into the maze of stacks.
Host: "Patience not really a virtue with my people."
Angel gets out of the car and walks towards the stacks, sword in hand.
Wesley: "Angel, what are you... What are you... (Wesley gets out as well and looks after them) We don't have a plan."

- The spell that moves Landok back to his own dimension also takes Cordelia away... and leaves us with a cliffhanger.

Comments

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

I don't care much for Pylea as a plot, but it does, as you say, have moments. I think it could have been condensed to a couple episodes instead of stretched over 4, and just kept the best bits, I would have liked it more.

I do like "Belonging" a lot, though, and I start to like Angel again in this arc; he is really tempted by the idea of living in a world where everything is black and white, and the great deeds of a champion are always valued. You COULD see this as processing some of his guilt over the wine cellar incident and his treatment of Darla, though that's a stretch (the wine cellar incident was NOT ambiguous). Probably better to accept that the writers ditched that for a while, and are laying some groundwork for an arc where Angel discovers the pros and cons of living in a world of moral absolutes (something he'll never run into again, from season 3 on).

And of course, I think the "Wesley coming into his own as a leader" aspect of this arc is the best part :). I have a hard time watching Wesley's phone conversation -- particularly in light of later episodes that give it more contxt. That said, I've read fic where Wesley's father was horribly physically abusive to him, and Wesley talks openly about hating him -- none of which fits with this scene to me. Not that a victim couldn't try to reconcile with his abuser, but that's just not the vibe I get. What hurts about this scene is that he's so optimistic and "head boy"-ish at the beginning of the call, like he's been away long enough that he really thinks he's going to get a positive response from his father, and you realize with the way his face changes that he was just kidding himself and he KNEW he was kidding himself.

[thalia-seawood.livejournal.com]

For me this was also the episode where I started to reconnect with Angel. I disliked the last episode to rebuilt my connection to him.

I think it could have been condensed to a couple episodes instead of stretched over 4, and just kept the best bits, I would have liked it more.
Word! Two Pylea episodes would have been perfect.

Re. Wesley: Fandom tends to have a thing for physical, at times even sexual abuse. No doubt this is an important theme, but I've seen it trivialised in fanfiction way too often.
Oddly enough physical/sexual abuse take the forefront, verbal abuse doesn't play much of a role.
However, I don't think it's necessary that Wes was abused in a physical way. The impression I get is that he was always told that he's not good enough. And he tries so hard to be perfect again and again and again.
Buffy and the Scoobies dislike him right away when he comes to Sunnydale as a Watcher. But what they dislike is his perfect Watcher facade. Behind this facade, he's very insecure. He hopes he will succeed, but has been told too often that he will always be a failure. He must have felt awful when things started to go very wrong so shortly after his arrival. :-(

[chelsearoad.livejournal.com]

I just finished watching Season One of Angel.

I can't read your essays on Angel til I finish watching all of the seasons .

[thalia-seawood.livejournal.com]

No problem. :-)
I also wrote entries for Angel - Season 1 and they are spoilerfree.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Well, as you know, I wasn't fond of the Pylea arc, either, but I agree it has its moments. kathyh and I used to joke someone should make a "best moments of Pylea" vid which would save us rewatching the episodes for said moments.

Wesley and his father, and Wesley and Angel: I think one of the reasons why Wesley's loyalty to Angel runs so deep is because Angel was, other than Cordy who had a crush on him in Sunnydale, the first person who accept him, in a very matter of fact way in Parting Gifts, who invited him to stay and then gave approval, and yes, in some ways Angel is the positive replacement father, not that I think Wesley consciously sees him as such. The non-confronting of father figures as a Wesley MO ties beautifully with a major, major decision he'll make in season 3, btw.

Re: Angel's interest in the Cordelia: yes, that was the first episode where I began to fear the writers would go in that direction.

Angel and Fred and Angel and Dru: more about that in later episodes.

Gunn is torn between his old team and his new team at Angel Investigations.

I'd like that plot better if it didn't get recycled a couple of times. It took the writers a loooong time to come up with another conflict for Gunn. That said, I loved what they did come up with in later season 4 and in season 5.

[thalia-seawood.livejournal.com]

I agree that Wesley doesn't consciously see Angel as a positive father figure, it's very much something that happens beneath the surface. If you asked him about Angel, he would call him a very good friend.

I'd like that plot better if it didn't get recycled a couple of times.

They also didn't give this conflict much time: Gunn has some doubt in one episodes, leaves in the beginning of the next and is back with the team before this episode is over. :-) Not very exiting.