Angel Season Five - Episode Thirteen - Why We Fight
Why We Fight
Written by Drew Goddard and Steven S. DeKnight
Directed by Terrence O’Hara
A much maligned episode which I LOVE - Here's why:
Part 1 (of 2)
I’m Angel! I kill the Bad Guys!
Yeah!! Woo Hoo! Yay! … um……. Yeah, okay ……Right. Ummm………..Right.
Ahh…yeah…..I’ll just go back to my desk now; I’ve got a few papers to sign… yeah.
So he does. He goes back to work and tries not to think of the heroic, Fantasy-Angel she showed him he was and should be. He tries not to think about the fact that he’s trapped here in the belly of the beast with no foreseeable escape. He’ll try not to think of his surrendered son . . . or her . . . But he does think of that fragile shoot of hope, miraculously germinated with her fleeting return and he’s worried for it. It’s getting no nutrition or encouragement. It’s stunted. It’s in danger of dying. But he wants to keep it alive, he’s trying to keep it alive, he’s trying to think of Cordelia’s visit as a gift, trying not to think that yet again he’s been kicked in the guts by the all powerful forces that drive the universe, trying not to let that feeling of hurt and abandonment overwhelm him, trying not to think of how his best friend is dead because of….no, don’t go there, too dangerous. She didn’t think he should be here at Wolfram and Hart but she had faith he could get out . . . if only he could figure out how. And so he sits and works and deliberately makes no sudden movements, he protects that pathetic sprout from further damage because it’s all he’s got and he knows his life depends on it.
But ‘Why We Fight’ opens in quite a different place and time; the Atlantic Ocean, 1943. It’s an X-File-esque beginning. A commotion takes place on a submerged submarine that has been caused by an unseen complication. The Captain of the ship is desperately trying to get his men to safety, another sailor is radioing for help. The men get to another compartment of the sub, seemingly to safety, but before the hatch can be locked the captain is grabbed from behind and injured badly. He calls for help. Sam Lawson, a handsome young ensign, is willing to oblige and goes to his captain’s aid dragging the injured man back towards the doorway to safety. Before he can get there a tug-of-war ensues; the unseen foe wants the Captain too. Lawson and another sailor are horrified by the sight and they are no match for their attacker’s superior strength. They fall back and are showered by blood as the captain meets his horrible fate. Lawson and his crewmate stumble to their feet, back away with terror and scramble into the next compartment of the vessel, sealing the hatch behind them.
Back in the present day its business as usual. Angel and his team are meeting in the conference room. Eve has apparently vanished and Angel wants confirmation that Lindsey is getting his just rewards courtesy of the Senior Partners. Gunn says it will be difficult to confirm; there is no conduit, no liaison, they are alone in this. Charles seems to be having some difficulty in recalling the proper protocol for establishing a new liaison. Considering that this kind of stuff has been second nature to him since the brain upgrade, we know this can’t be good. Oh, and nobody mentions Cordelia. Just sayin’.
Later, the elevator pings and the doors open; that handsome young officer from the submarine in 1943 steps out and he’s still, well, young and handsome. We’re savvy with the way things work in the Buffyverse. We know what this means. Fred returns to her lab. She is not alone. Lawson has beaten her there. He’s reading one of her reports. Fred tries to get his attention.
Lawson: Oh. Hi. I'm sorry. I was just trying to understand some of your equations here. I used to have a bit of a head for numbers. It's funny how you lose part of your mind when you stop using it.
He seems so nice, not dangerous at all. We know what he is and he doesn’t seem dangerous. He seems sad and . . . regretful, but not dangerous. Fred asks if she can help him with something but he assures her, no, Miss Burkle, he just came to talk. The fact that he knows her name alerts her to the risk his presence poses but he doesn’t try and hurt her, he just begins asking metaphysical questions. Is she happy working here? Does she enjoy what she does? Is she eager to start her day when she wakes each morning? Good questions. Fred edges to the door, answering only in a vague, non-committal way. He knows what she is up to, warns her not to try it because then he’ll have to stop her, which, one suspects, wouldn’t be very nice.
Fred: What do you want?
Lawson: Actually, I came to see your boss. Angel and I are... old acquaintances. I was friends with him back in the day, back when he was in his patriotic phase.
It’s New York, 1943. There are newspapers strewn across the floor. “Allies Strike Back” is the topmost headline. Angel is sitting, brooding, in his darkened apartment. The war is something he reads about, but it’s not his war. It doesn’t affect him. It’s just something that makes his disconnectedness from the world and the people who inhabit it even more apparent. This is not his ‘patriotic phase’, it’s his apathetic stage. Suddenly his door is kicked in. Men brandishing crossbows and stakes surround him. They want to talk. They have an ‘offer’ for him.
Seems the U.S. boys have managed to capture a prototype submarine. Trouble is, on the way back to friendly waters it hit a snag (we knew that, we saw a smidgen of the show). Now the sub is stuck in hostile territory, stricken, marking time until it is destroyed. Hmmm, that sub sounds like someone we know; Angel - Stricken in hostile territory, facing destruction unless he comes to his own rescue, which is, coincidently, what the men-in-black want Angel to do too with the sub.
It seems Angel’s visitors represent a relatively new government agency, “The Demon Research Initiative” and they’ve decided to coerce Angel into helping the cause.
Military Man: We need that sub, and we need you to deal with... what's on it.
They show Angel a file of the cargo manifest. They know what’s on that sub, they want it dealt with, but they still want the boat and the secrets it holds. Once he opens the file Angel understands. Something in that file makes him comply and cooperate.
There are a couple of points of interest here. Firstly, the existence of the government authorised Demon Research Initiative creates and corroborates the history of government involvement in the demon realm as explored in season four of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Secondly, that it is a further example of Angel being coerced into someone else’s agenda, a tendency that has proved habitual in his quest for redemption.
On the sub, Lawson has the surviving sailors gathered in relative safety. He is concerned about his men and determined to get them out of this in one piece. Amongst the Americans is a lone Nazi, the soul survivor from the takeover of the sub perhaps? A valuable asset for interrogation? Their objective is to survive where they are until help can arrive. They have two days of air and a faint hope that those ‘things’ won’t figure out how to get through to them. They think that the ‘things’ are a creation of the Nazi’s, more proof of Nazi monstrousness.
They hear screaming from beyond their safety zone. They realise that one of their crewmates is still alive back there, being tortured by God knows what. Lawson, showing foolhardy braveness wants to rescue him. The others blanch at the very notion. The unfortunate sailor is as good as dead, there’s nothing they can do for him and risking their own necks to rescue the lost won’t save any of them. Nevertheless, Lawson is determined. Guns are pointed; the survivors begin to turn on each other. And again we are vaguely reminded of Angel, his impulses echo through Lawson. A brave but reckless decision made, that put him and all his friends in danger to save the life of his seemingly unsalvageable son. Yet at least Lawson’s men knew what was happening around them, had the chance to protest against their sacrifice. Angel’s team had no such consideration.
The sailors are distracted by a metallic banging coming from the torpedo room. Lawson recognises the pattern of the sound as an SOS signal. With pistols drawn they open the torpedo hatch to find, much to their surprise, a man, Angel, looking a little like a drowned rat. They free him but are suspicious; how could a man get down to them with no assistance, no air, and no suit? Angel avoids the question asking for the man in charge. As a result of the captain’s demise, Lawson reluctantly accepts the position, but once Angel provides him with a particular security code, he relinquishes it to the new arrival without hesitation. The sailors are impressed. Angel seems like some kind of superhero, or at the very least, a super-soldier - just like Captain America. He re-enforces this conception when he shows no fear about confronting the monstrous killer at the other end of the boat.
Angel: …It's OK, Lawson. I know what I'm up against. Don't open up this door for anything other than me.
He knows precisely what’s at the other end of the sub, has done since he read the Initiative’s damn report. Angel displays no evident surprise when he finds Spike trying to force his way through the hatch door. Spike looks different. Gone is the light chestnut hair colour from his earliest days, but the bleach blonde hasn’t been adopted yet. Instead, his hair is jet black and slicked back - very villain-ish, and he’s wearing a very fetching ankle length leather jacket, with a swastika above the elbow - but he’s not a Nazi, he just ate one and took a shine to the coat. He feels better they got Angelus too; doesn’t feel so bad about falling for the old ‘free virgin blood party’ scam (see Spike vs. Dracula, IDW Publishing for a prelude to his capture). Spike and “Angelus” head through to the next compartment where they find two more vampires captured by the Nazis - Nostroyev and the Prince of Lies
“Angelus” forbids the consumption of the remaining crew. They will need the humans to sail the boat so that they can get off the bottom of the ocean. Nostroyev doesn’t want to play by these rules, doesn’t want to be told what he can and can’t do by Angelus. He wants to kill whomever he wants, when he wants. Angel can’t let that happen so he dusts the non-compliant vampire without hesitation. He has stamped his authority on both sides now:
Angel: We don't kill the humans 'til we reach land. Is that clear?
Spike: Heil Hitler.
But the rebellion is a symbolic display only. Angelus is in command and Spike falls into line, just as he’s always done (although the shot at Angel’s dictatorial tendencies is quite delicious nevertheless).
Back at the office Angel is doing some paperwork. Lawson arrives. They trade ‘pleasantries’, mainly about the ironic ease of access to this supposedly highly secured building. But they quickly get to the crux:
Lawson: Seems like you're doing pretty well for yourself. It's a far cry from all those years you spent in the gutters, eating rats.
Angel: You've been following my life. I'm touched.
Lawson: I just check in every decade or so. Imagine my surprise when I found out that Mr. Vermin-eater himself was suddenly fighting evil and running Wolfram & Hart. Mind explaining that one to me? Those two don't exactly go hand in hand.
Angel can’t explain it, it’s complicated. Lawson agrees.
Lawson: Find that's true about most things these days. I don't mean to sound like an old man, but... We used to live in simpler times, didn't we? Never thought I'd miss being on that sub. Things made a kind of sense.
Simpler times - good guys, bad guys, right and wrong, war, peace, man or monster - easy. Except it wasn’t really simpler - he’s just looking back with rose coloured glasses, doesn’t want to acknowledge other versions, other interpretation of events…
Back on the sub Angel has assumed total command. The sailors recognise his authority without question. He’ll get them through if they follow his lead. Angel makes the introductions this time and advises Lawson to put the other creatures to work, if he can use them. But Lawson doesn’t understand. He doesn’t understand why they’re working with them, or for that matter, why they’re being allowed to live when they are responsible for butchering the majority of the crew. It’s all very allegorical of Team Angel’s life at Wolfram and Hart, isn’t it? And here also we begin to see the difference (and similarities) between Lawson and Angel.
Lawson: I don't think we'll need 'em.
Angel: They're extra hands.
Lawson: They're monsters. And I don't know why we-
Angel: You don't need to know why. We gotta 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 didn't sign on 'cause I needed directions. Hell, growin' up, I used to make fun of the military boys. Always figured they wouldn't know how to tie their shoes if someone didn't give 'em the go-ahead. Then I saw pictures of what the Krauts were doing. Evil's spreading, sir... and its not just over there. It was on my ship, it killed my crew, and we gotta stop it! And I've been scared out of my mind since I signed on for this duty, but I can keep it together, I can even handle dying, if I know it's for a greater purpose.
Angel: We got a job to do. That job is gonna help us win the war. I don't need you to understand every detail, but just know we're fightin' on the same side. I need you to trust that I'm gonna get us all through this... safe and sound.
Lawson has a commitment; to his men, to his captain, to his ship, to his mission, to his country, to the cause. He is a quietly heroic character, the very best of humanity on display. But for Angel, at this stage of his existence, its not about a cause or a mission, it’s about a job that he’s been forced into doing and he just wants to get in and get it done and get out again. Simple as that. One wonders if a similar rationale was used for taking his team to Wolfram and Hart. He went there, accepted their proposal to achieve an end - a new life for Connor. It was never about the higher ideal of fighting evil from within the beast; that was just the ‘party line’ he adopted to explain the decision. Going to Wolfram and Hart was never about a mission or a cause. It was about a job. And the identity crisis he’s experienced this season is the consequence because he can’t be the ‘it’s just a job’ apathetic guy anymore, it just doesn’t jibe with the Angel he developed into or the Angel he wants to be.
Back in the present Lawson questions Angel’s motivation for any of it. Did he really care or was he there just to save his own ass? Well, yeah…that and that wayward ‘son’ of his. But Lawson is making some philosophical demands. He wants to understand; to know why they do what they do. Angel doesn’t have the answers he’s looking for. He’s not in the mood to talk anyway. Angel catches Lawson unawares and goes to stake him, apparently he’d promised as much should they ever meet again. But Lawson has something up his sleeve, something that makes Angel stop in his tracks.
He has Gunn and Fred and Wesley tied up, standing on unstable swivel chairs, gagged and wire tied around their throats. He doesn’t need Angel to understand every detail, but he does need him to trust that he’ll get them all through this safe and sound.
Angel: Whatever you want from me... this isn't the way to get it.
Lawson: Already getting it. The worry in your eyes, fear of what might happen next, which is right on the mark, 'cause I got a funny feeling there's gonna be blood spilled tonight. For old times' sake some.
Lawson is bitter and he wants to make Angel suffer. Unusual behaviour for a vampire? Not completely unheard of. . . We’ve seen this kind of thing before:
Drusilla: (pouring Holy Water on Angel) The lamb is caught in the blackberry patch. My mummy ate lemons. Raw. She said she loved the way they made her mouth... tingle. Little Anne. Her favorite was custard... brandied pears.
Angel: Dru...
Drusilla: Shhh! And pomegranates.They used to make her face and fingers all red. Remember? Hmm . . . Little fingers; little hands . . . Do you?
Angel: If I could...
Drusilla: Bite your tongue! They used to eat cake, and eggs, and honey. Until you came and ripped their throats out.
Back on the submarine Lawson has got the boat moving, slowly but surely. Spike is being obnoxious but obedient to his superior. Lawson makes the correct assumption that Angel’s confidence that Spike will do as he’s told is rooted in a pre-existing relationship. Lawson is starting to think, make connections, and wonder about this ‘super-soldier’ who miraculously arrived on the sub to save the day.
(Continued here...)