Those wacky visions.
Doyle gets a vision that Buffy might need a little help down Sunnydale way, and
indeed, Angel sort of helped. Not, y'know, much, but some. Enough. That is,
they did, ultimately, win. And Angel comes home ...
OK, I get it. Joyce pointed out a few realities about Buffy's life. That she
needed a chance to become cookies on her own, instead of in the glow of Angel's
60W EZ-Bake. I get it. We all get it. He slunk off into the shadows. And
Buffy was fine with that. Until Xander opened his big broad octagon mouth and
said Angel had been there.
At which point Buffy flew into a hissy fit, leapt into -- what, she has a car,
now? -- and confronted Angel in his office that she knew where to look for him
at.
Fine and fair enough. I mean, no vision of this visit, and no vision of the
incredibly random Mohra demon attack that actually made Angel useless to the
Powers in terms of being their champion. But Buffy comes in, this regenerative,
unkillable Mohra bleeds all over everyone and suddenly this demon no one's ever
heard of is going to become legion.
Except that he doesn't. I suppose it's easy enough to believe he's simply
lying. He's a demon, after all, and they've been known to lie.
But it's worrisome enough to Angel that he tracks down a couple refugees from
the Mardi Gras who dismiss him contemptuously and -- here's what's most
interesting to me -- release him from his fealty.
No, he didn't "gain his reward" (has that been defined as such at
this point?) He's simply not that cool anymore. He's just some guy.
And that's not good enough.
Apparently, the Powers didn't get the damn' memo, and Doyle gets a Vision.
Idiot that he is, he goes to Angel with it, and idiot that he is, he
doesn't want to bother Buffy with it. Yes! I'll take on the badass Mohra demon!
After all, I have no superstrength and I'm mortal now!
And then Cordy keeps it to herself where Angel's gone, and scolds Buffy for
wanting to have it all, the Slayer stuff and the great boyfriend and
everything.
Um, Pot? Kettle is on line one, something about you being black?
In other words, jealous, much?
Cordy finally tells Buffy where to find Angel's corpse (even though I'm not
sure when Doyle told her -- must've been on the way back to the office) and she
runs to him, and they fight, and they're both hurt, and they realize with
horror that if they don't put things back the way they were, they won't have
their own shows.
So using some logic that is as twisted as S4, Angel decides he has to go back
to being a vampire. Because otherwise, he might die, or he and Buffy might both
die.
But WAIT A MINUTE! Isn't that the freaking point? Even without Liberace
demons flying at us from every direction, everyone dies. Angel gets this
second shot at being Liam, of living out his life as a reasonably successful
graphic designer and coming home every night to his hot chick Slayer. And being
happy. Until he dies. Or until she does. Which is WHAT LIFE IS!
The drive to be a vampire again, to want to be able to protect her, is really
arrogant, and she needed to call him on that. I mean, she's a big tough grrl,
Slayer strength and everything. And heck, it's not like she hasn't died before.
What's the big whoop?
Also, she does call Riley on exactly this same thing later -- that his
trying to stay physically strong even tho it's killing him is not a
turn-on for her.
I think a lot of the pain comes in because we see that Angel and Buffy can
be happy together. And they reject that for some Higher Calling. Which is
grand. And noble. And incredibly stupid.
Also, the Powers That Be seem like petulant thugs who insist on having their
own way about everything. They still send Visions despite there being no clear
recipient. I mean, maybe Doyle was supposed to go straight to Buffy, but they
didn't say. Initially, he went to Angel because they told him to. The Powers
seem to need Angel to be a vampire, but to me, that isn't good enough --
especially after that whole "You've been released from your fealty"
thing.
"I Will Remember You" features a monster-of-the-week and a guest
appearance by Buffy. In its temporal-foldiness it is the standalone to end all
standalones. Even the existence of the Mohra demon and its mystical plot-device
properties is forgotten as the closing credits roll.
Emotionally, it's heartbreaking. As storytelling, it explores an alternate
reality, which is an long-standing convention in speculative fiction. It's
extremely well-acted, and everything about it is beautiful. Hell, just those first
few notes of the Buffy-Angel love theme that we hadn't heard for far too long
was just heart-ripping.
What disappoints me about it is that the writing is just so tortured. It
might've been stronger if neither of them really had a choice in Angel staying
mortal, or if they'd been able to come up with a much better reason for Angel
to stay a vampire and reject a love he and Buffy so desperately needed in their
lives.