What the heck are those kooky, crazy,
Powers-That-Be up to? Let's explore.
First, we meet Angel. He slays the vampires and rescues the damsels, but the
damsels are looking especially nummy these days.
So enter Doyle. Doyle tells him that he's on the road to redemption, but he's
hardly there yet. And that the PTB have sent Doyle to Angel because he's got
potential as a champion (they do not articulate it that far). And they give him
a mission: Tina.
Let's look at this: The PTB seem equipped with varying levels of omniscience.
Do they care about Tina (Doyle says they want to help people, but we can
explore what they think that means as the series continues)? Or do they
know that if they send Angel after Tina that he will run into Cordelia?
Because if that's the case, the whole series is in play. Because if they
need for Angel to run into Cordelia so Doyle can hand the visions off to her
and she can become a higher being and return, sleep with Angel's son and give
birth to Jasmine, then Jasmine could be their ultimate attempt at manifestation
on this plane and the PTB could be in complete support of the, y'know, eating
people for the "greater good."
Or is time as malleable as Skip says? Where Angel never meets Cordy and the
whole Jasmine arc is in the toilet?
Or ...
Is, as I've suggested elsewhere, Skip's manipulation of events the manifest
activity of a rogue PTB, bringing about Cordy's ascension so it can
hitchhike back with her, possess her, and try to effect by force of will the
PTB's apparent "helping people" agenda worldwide?
Oy, it's enough to make you go cross-eyed.
But in that Angel's hooking up with Cordelia is a direct result of his hanging
out with Tina, we have to assume it's in the mix.
In that it is the only tangible good that came out of that contact -- along
with destroying a powerful, predatory vampire and putting W&H on notice --
we have to take that into consideration.
Angel tracked down past crimes by Russell Winters, but he was unable to save
Tina.
Now, let's explore free will.
If Angel is sent to Tina and Tina is entirely on her own in fleeing Angel, then
the PTB seem genuinely concerned about individual lives and this was just an
unfortunate series of events.
If Angel is sent to Tina simply to hook up with Cordy, and Tina's death is
merely incidental to the grand scheme of things from the PTBs' perspective,
then they aren't significantly better than, say, the gods of Mount Olympus, who
intervene or not depending on their whim (this seems reflected in the whole
fashion scheme of the Oracles, but I digress), and he's just their errand boy.
Already, however, we have an interesting parallel. Evil, in the form of The
Senior Partners, have a direct conduit to W&H. The powers of presumable
good, the PTB, as introduced in "City Of," have a conduit -- Doyle --
but no agency. In identifying Angel as their champion to face off against the
evil represented by W&H, now have an agent.
So let's for the moment assume Doyle is right -- that no one could've foreseen
that Tina was going to run away. The PTB were actively focused on helping her,
they sent Angel to help her. Angel failed, but did manage to track down a
powerful villain and neutralize him.
It's the impression we're left with. But I'm going to maintain a shred of doubt
-- because my free will allows me to.
Cordy, of course, is terrific. Bright, bubbly, motivated, schmooze-worthy, an
actress through and through -- and with a long learning curve
when it comes to vamps. She got stuck in a room with an evil vampire in
"City Of," and we find her in exactly the same situation a number of
times, including "Offspring" and -- if I'm remembering the situations
correctly, "Parting Gifts" and "Somnambulist" and
"Disharmony" and "Eternity."
This girl just doesn't seem to want to learn.
Winters was hilarious, however, when she said he was a vampire. "What? No
I'm not." Much with the funny.
I liked Doyle. I wish things had happened differently. Maybe a few guest
appearances could've kept Glenn Quinn on the straight and narrow.
His "bedtime story" at the beginning was a good introduction to the
series for the folks just tuning in, and explained exactly what people had just
seen in that alleyway.
Nice Batman references, btw, with the stakes in the sleeves and Doyle's
"batcave" comment.
Angel also seemed very resourceful in his mousework in this eppy. He got quite
a bit less tech-savvy as the series progressed -- probably because he relied
upon Cordy to take over that aspect of the knowledge, he forgot he'd ever
developed any himself. Later on, he seems mystified by "chatty
rooms," for example.
It was a good intro, capably managed, it introduced the major players
admirably, and he was able to pull a win of some sort or another out of
the screwup he made of his first mission.
If, that is, he was ever meant to save Tina in the first place.
G-d, I hate that nagging doubt.