Angel Season 5 - episode 16 - Shells (part 3)
Part 3 (of 3)
ANGEL
The inability to save Fred has cut Angel deeply. He’s retreated into broody silence trying to make sense of it all. Trouble is Spike’s here now, yabbering on about little bottles of Jack, his inability to get drunk and the very sensible logic behind their decision not to save Fred. And Wes isn’t answering the phone and they guess that means she’s ‘gone’. Angel wants to know what that means - that she’s ‘gone’. What does that mean in this world, his world of beatable death, this world of vampires, world-saving, soul-having vampires and resurrected vampire slayers? In this world rules can be broken and the end doesn’t have to be the end.
So Angel determines to ‘get her back’. He doesn’t tell the rest of the team about the choice he had to make. He merely tells them that there was nothing they could do to save her. He doesn’t have time for blame, there’s a lot they might have done, like not going to Wolfram and Hart in the first place, and recriminations can wait. They have a job to do. They have to get Fred back, fill the shell up, pull her soul from wherever it’s residing and breathe Fred back into existence. It’s the soul that matters. After they get her back then they can entertain vengeance.
He attempts to get hold of Willow, who knows how to re-soul, who knows how to raise the dead, but they can’t contact her. She’s off who-knows-where and Giles is acting as goal stop; so long as Angel is with Wolfram and Hart then they get no access to Slayer resources. Yup, trust is still a bit of an issue. Angel is not deterred - sure they can’t access the one person who might help them but he’s adamant that nothing has changed - the plan is still workable. They’ll find Illyria and … and then what? He’s running on blind determination at the moment that doesn’t allow reality to speak. He doesn’t want to hear what it has to say.
Illyria makes its presence felt at the office and Angel goes to confront it. They ask it to stand down so they can… what? Contain it till they figure out how to get Fred back? Not surprisingly Illyria declines the offer and throws Angel out the window to boot. After Illyria has made its getaway and the team has regrouped it is Angel and Spike’s job to track Illyria. Spike wonders how they are supposed to accomplish this feat:
Angel: We just do it. That’s all!
Ok. No plan. Just determination and anger, which is all well and good but as Spike feels compelled to point out:
Spike: Back in the lab, she was standing right there in front of me, but, there was no scent. Nothing. It was like she wasn’t even there.
Angel knows it’s true. He smelt it too. Spike broaches the uncomfortable truth. He wants Fred back as much as any of them but “seeing her there, like that…maybe she really is-”
Angel won’t hear the next word. He cuts Spike off angrily:
Angel: No! I lost Cordelia because some thing violated her. It crawled inside and used her up. No way in hell am I letting that happen again!
So yes, he’s angry and upset about Fred and he genuinely wants to believe they can save her… but he’s thinking of his Cordy, he’s motivated by the unjust theft of Cordelia and he’s desperately trying not to let the past repeat itself. Angel only gives up hope of getting Fred back when Wesley tells him that every essence of Fred was destroyed during Illyria’s re-birth. He hears of Gunn’s part in the plot and then confesses the choice he had to make at the Deeper Well that condemned Fred to die. He tells Wes:
Angel: Look, I need you to bury it Wes. Everything you’re feeling, everyone you want to hurt. I need you to put it aside and focus on what has to be done.
Angel is a bit of an expert at this. He’s taking from experience; he’s sharing his personal survival strategy. The job to be done is not Fred now - that hope is gone but Illyria is still in need of restraining.
Angel, Wes and Spike confront Illyria. Angel is pretty much in mechanical ‘champion’ mode now that rescuing Fred is hopeless.
Angel: What you’re trying to do, raise your army, reclaim your world, innocent people would die. Like Fred. I can’t let that happen.
Illyria is intrigued that he would care, that this is his role in the world. She challenges him - would he defend Knox, the betrayer’s life? Angel’s response is sanctimonious, perfunctory, he knows it by rote:
Angel: You’re about as low as it gets Knox, but you’re part of humanity. That isn’t always pretty but it’s a hell of a lot better than what came before. And if it comes down to a choice between you and him, then yes, I would fight for his life, just like any human’s. Because that’s what people do. That’s what makes us-
Heroes? Champions? Angel never got to finish his stirring speech because Wes kills Knox. He extracts revenge. He is incapable of ‘sucking it up’ or pushing his feelings aside the way Angel advised him to. His passion for Fred, his devastation at her loss, his anger at her murderer all demands an equally passionate, devastating, angry response. It is the difference between Angel and the humans he lives with. So now Angel is becoming quite cavernous; he has many holes in his world and Fred is yet another that he has to try and live with.
SPIKE
With Fred’s loss, Spike’s initial inclination is to get drunk. It's an old habit, his safety net in times of crisis. He seems more accepting of the death than Angel who broods and decides to try and bend the rules to get her back. Spike is supportive. He goes along with the idea, he knows better than most that it can be done, and, conversely, is uniquely aware that perhaps it shouldn’t, but he’s certainly doing nothing to rock the boat of this fledgling partnership he has with Angel. He remains supportive until the futility of the plan becomes undeniably obvious. Illyria might look like a blue version of Fred but it don’t talk like Fred, act like Fred, and it certainly don’t smell like Fred! A vampire’s nose doesn’t lie. He tries to tell Angel but it’s no good. For Angel the past and present are mixed and repeating in some distorted, re-cast episode of deja vu and he doesn’t want to listen to what Spike, or his own nose are telling him.
After Gunn and the doctor’s role in the scheme have been revealed Spike is charged with getting information out of the doc. He may not be the obvious choice for such a duty but he is the only choice. Wesley, although practiced in the art of interrogation, couldn’t have done it because then the doctor would have ended up dead, more than likely before any information had been elicited from the reluctant source. He’s too close. Passion and vengeance inform his every move. Angel couldn’t have done it either because, well, the CEO of Wolfram and Hart interrogating a pigeon? It just wouldn’t be right, and, let’s face it, it’s never safe to let Angelus, who so loved to tease, maim and torture, tug at his leash of restraint either. So it falls to Spike, who never was one for the pre-show but who is a willing team player, to do the deed. He succeeds in getting screams, various bodily fluids and a name.
The duo becomes a trio as they take on Illyria. Spike understands Wesley’s need to kill Knox, he had it coming after all. One can’t help but observe that Spike and Wesley could bond on so many levels - they could commiserate with one another over ‘bots and demon lords who are unwelcome reminders of the dead women they love, of darkly seductive sexual relationships that exist for a cacophony of conflicting reasons and that don’t turn out at all the way you’d planned, and walking the fine line between good and evil, of trying not to be what you were, of redefinition, of unrequited love… Yeah, they have more in common than most would ever guess.
After the fighting is over and Illyria has voluntarily subsided Spike tells Angel that he’s not going away. Fred would have wanted him to stay, more importantly, he wants to stay:
Spike: It’s what I want. I don’t really like you. Suppose I never will but this is important, what’s happening here. Fred gave her life for it. The least I can do is give what’s left of mine
He knows a big fight is coming - he can feel it in his bones and he believes it is a fight worth fighting. So for Spike the loss of the first person who believed in him since involuntarily relocation to Los Angeles, the first person to believe in him since his beloved Buffy did, results in an epiphany. He chooses to stay, not because he has nowhere else to go, not because he wants a relationship with Angel, but because he wants to fight the good fight and LA is where the action is baby. He says he doesn’t like Angel but his actions belie the words. He plainly does like Angel very much and Angel is surprised, though clearly relieved when Spike says he’ll stay. Their relationship is not the issue here. Spike makes the decision to stay outside of his feelings for Angel, or for that matter, what he imagines Angel feels for him. Spike, unlike everyone else, does not finish up as a hollow shell. On the contrary, Fred’s death has filled him with conviction and purpose and the belief that the fight they wage is one worth digging in and getting dirty for.
End
ANGEL
The inability to save Fred has cut Angel deeply. He’s retreated into broody silence trying to make sense of it all. Trouble is Spike’s here now, yabbering on about little bottles of Jack, his inability to get drunk and the very sensible logic behind their decision not to save Fred. And Wes isn’t answering the phone and they guess that means she’s ‘gone’. Angel wants to know what that means - that she’s ‘gone’. What does that mean in this world, his world of beatable death, this world of vampires, world-saving, soul-having vampires and resurrected vampire slayers? In this world rules can be broken and the end doesn’t have to be the end.
So Angel determines to ‘get her back’. He doesn’t tell the rest of the team about the choice he had to make. He merely tells them that there was nothing they could do to save her. He doesn’t have time for blame, there’s a lot they might have done, like not going to Wolfram and Hart in the first place, and recriminations can wait. They have a job to do. They have to get Fred back, fill the shell up, pull her soul from wherever it’s residing and breathe Fred back into existence. It’s the soul that matters. After they get her back then they can entertain vengeance.
He attempts to get hold of Willow, who knows how to re-soul, who knows how to raise the dead, but they can’t contact her. She’s off who-knows-where and Giles is acting as goal stop; so long as Angel is with Wolfram and Hart then they get no access to Slayer resources. Yup, trust is still a bit of an issue. Angel is not deterred - sure they can’t access the one person who might help them but he’s adamant that nothing has changed - the plan is still workable. They’ll find Illyria and … and then what? He’s running on blind determination at the moment that doesn’t allow reality to speak. He doesn’t want to hear what it has to say.
Illyria makes its presence felt at the office and Angel goes to confront it. They ask it to stand down so they can… what? Contain it till they figure out how to get Fred back? Not surprisingly Illyria declines the offer and throws Angel out the window to boot. After Illyria has made its getaway and the team has regrouped it is Angel and Spike’s job to track Illyria. Spike wonders how they are supposed to accomplish this feat:
Angel: We just do it. That’s all!
Ok. No plan. Just determination and anger, which is all well and good but as Spike feels compelled to point out:
Spike: Back in the lab, she was standing right there in front of me, but, there was no scent. Nothing. It was like she wasn’t even there.
Angel knows it’s true. He smelt it too. Spike broaches the uncomfortable truth. He wants Fred back as much as any of them but “seeing her there, like that…maybe she really is-”
Angel won’t hear the next word. He cuts Spike off angrily:
Angel: No! I lost Cordelia because some thing violated her. It crawled inside and used her up. No way in hell am I letting that happen again!
So yes, he’s angry and upset about Fred and he genuinely wants to believe they can save her… but he’s thinking of his Cordy, he’s motivated by the unjust theft of Cordelia and he’s desperately trying not to let the past repeat itself. Angel only gives up hope of getting Fred back when Wesley tells him that every essence of Fred was destroyed during Illyria’s re-birth. He hears of Gunn’s part in the plot and then confesses the choice he had to make at the Deeper Well that condemned Fred to die. He tells Wes:
Angel: Look, I need you to bury it Wes. Everything you’re feeling, everyone you want to hurt. I need you to put it aside and focus on what has to be done.
Angel is a bit of an expert at this. He’s taking from experience; he’s sharing his personal survival strategy. The job to be done is not Fred now - that hope is gone but Illyria is still in need of restraining.
Angel, Wes and Spike confront Illyria. Angel is pretty much in mechanical ‘champion’ mode now that rescuing Fred is hopeless.
Angel: What you’re trying to do, raise your army, reclaim your world, innocent people would die. Like Fred. I can’t let that happen.
Illyria is intrigued that he would care, that this is his role in the world. She challenges him - would he defend Knox, the betrayer’s life? Angel’s response is sanctimonious, perfunctory, he knows it by rote:
Angel: You’re about as low as it gets Knox, but you’re part of humanity. That isn’t always pretty but it’s a hell of a lot better than what came before. And if it comes down to a choice between you and him, then yes, I would fight for his life, just like any human’s. Because that’s what people do. That’s what makes us-
Heroes? Champions? Angel never got to finish his stirring speech because Wes kills Knox. He extracts revenge. He is incapable of ‘sucking it up’ or pushing his feelings aside the way Angel advised him to. His passion for Fred, his devastation at her loss, his anger at her murderer all demands an equally passionate, devastating, angry response. It is the difference between Angel and the humans he lives with. So now Angel is becoming quite cavernous; he has many holes in his world and Fred is yet another that he has to try and live with.
SPIKE
With Fred’s loss, Spike’s initial inclination is to get drunk. It's an old habit, his safety net in times of crisis. He seems more accepting of the death than Angel who broods and decides to try and bend the rules to get her back. Spike is supportive. He goes along with the idea, he knows better than most that it can be done, and, conversely, is uniquely aware that perhaps it shouldn’t, but he’s certainly doing nothing to rock the boat of this fledgling partnership he has with Angel. He remains supportive until the futility of the plan becomes undeniably obvious. Illyria might look like a blue version of Fred but it don’t talk like Fred, act like Fred, and it certainly don’t smell like Fred! A vampire’s nose doesn’t lie. He tries to tell Angel but it’s no good. For Angel the past and present are mixed and repeating in some distorted, re-cast episode of deja vu and he doesn’t want to listen to what Spike, or his own nose are telling him.
After Gunn and the doctor’s role in the scheme have been revealed Spike is charged with getting information out of the doc. He may not be the obvious choice for such a duty but he is the only choice. Wesley, although practiced in the art of interrogation, couldn’t have done it because then the doctor would have ended up dead, more than likely before any information had been elicited from the reluctant source. He’s too close. Passion and vengeance inform his every move. Angel couldn’t have done it either because, well, the CEO of Wolfram and Hart interrogating a pigeon? It just wouldn’t be right, and, let’s face it, it’s never safe to let Angelus, who so loved to tease, maim and torture, tug at his leash of restraint either. So it falls to Spike, who never was one for the pre-show but who is a willing team player, to do the deed. He succeeds in getting screams, various bodily fluids and a name.
The duo becomes a trio as they take on Illyria. Spike understands Wesley’s need to kill Knox, he had it coming after all. One can’t help but observe that Spike and Wesley could bond on so many levels - they could commiserate with one another over ‘bots and demon lords who are unwelcome reminders of the dead women they love, of darkly seductive sexual relationships that exist for a cacophony of conflicting reasons and that don’t turn out at all the way you’d planned, and walking the fine line between good and evil, of trying not to be what you were, of redefinition, of unrequited love… Yeah, they have more in common than most would ever guess.
After the fighting is over and Illyria has voluntarily subsided Spike tells Angel that he’s not going away. Fred would have wanted him to stay, more importantly, he wants to stay:
Spike: It’s what I want. I don’t really like you. Suppose I never will but this is important, what’s happening here. Fred gave her life for it. The least I can do is give what’s left of mine
He knows a big fight is coming - he can feel it in his bones and he believes it is a fight worth fighting. So for Spike the loss of the first person who believed in him since involuntarily relocation to Los Angeles, the first person to believe in him since his beloved Buffy did, results in an epiphany. He chooses to stay, not because he has nowhere else to go, not because he wants a relationship with Angel, but because he wants to fight the good fight and LA is where the action is baby. He says he doesn’t like Angel but his actions belie the words. He plainly does like Angel very much and Angel is surprised, though clearly relieved when Spike says he’ll stay. Their relationship is not the issue here. Spike makes the decision to stay outside of his feelings for Angel, or for that matter, what he imagines Angel feels for him. Spike, unlike everyone else, does not finish up as a hollow shell. On the contrary, Fred’s death has filled him with conviction and purpose and the belief that the fight they wage is one worth digging in and getting dirty for.
End