As a metaphor
for organized religion, Jasmine is first rate.
One gets involved and finds that the cares of one’s former sinful self are washed
away. You face life renewed, energized, as if all things have a purpose and
you, in and among them, have a purpose, too.
You start to get committed, serving your deity and you look up and realize the
horrors that have been committed in its name.
Heck -- all of that was outlined well enough pre-thrall, at the beginning of
the episode, where Wes says to Angel:
Wes: It's a spell. Think! Even before its birth, this thing controlled
Cordelia, caused her to do unspeakable things. It's evil! Remember? The rain of
fire, eternal midnight, the horrors done in its name ...
Jasmine: Must be rectified.
//THRALL!//
Oh, Jasmine, how could we ever have doubted you?
Simple. Don't look at what it says. Look at what it does.
All the stuff Wes just mentioned -- along with the signs of the Apocalypse with
rats and snakes and earthquakes and birds and all of that stuff -- was on the
rise.
These aren't harbingers of giggly joy.
Now, there's one way -- one single way -- that I would accept the evil that
preceded Maggoty Ann in her appearance in a glowy cloud of peace.
If all of the evil was focused on Cordelia, and all of the signs and so forth
were evil rising to crush her unborn child.
They weren't. The rise of evil in the face of its greatest vanquishing nemesis was
not to destroy it.
In fact, there's plenty of evidence that Wacky Pregnant Lady Cordy was just
kicking up all sorts of obfuscatory dust while sheltering the rise of history's
greatest nightmare.
So ignore what it says, and ignore how it makes you feel.
What does it make you //do//?
Blessed by Jasmine, Team Angel set forth and slew vampires and demons and
turned the tide of evil -- to the point even where the ebbing death rate made
the news -- and no credit to the diva ex machina.
But wait a moment.
They'd be doing that anyway.
In fact, no offense, but if someone hadn't been running around
distracting everyone by turning Cordy evil and blotting out the sun and
unleashing Angelus and so forth and so forth and so forth -- actually
increasing the incidence of demons and vampires in the city ...
There wouldn't be as much to fight.
So she “guides” them in doing the good that they'd be doing anyway, and in the
meantime stitches together a sort of figleaf of a backstory for herself.
She doesn't take up a single axe or dust a single vamp. But she does have a
power. Her thrall has a power.
It makes them feel like what they're doing is right.
Unquestionably so.
Again, an excellent metaphor for organized religion. That's absolutely a side
effect. Whether it be clothing the naked (probably good) or oppressing gay
people (probably less good), people in an organized religion feel like they
have all the answers and are beyond examination because they’re doing G-d’s
will.
And toward the end, where Fred's blood mingled with Jasmine's and she sees the
true, maggots-and-all face of the object of her adoration and worship ...
The Jasminions are convinced that she's evil.
Fred -- who they've known for a year, who they know isn't evil -- versus
Jasmine, who they've known for a week and about whom they know nothing but what
they've been told:
Jasmine: In
the beginning, before the time of man, great beings walked the earth. Untold
power emanated from all quarters -- the seeds of what would come to be known as
"good" and "evil." But the shadows stretched, and the
malevolent among us grew stronger. The earth became a demon realm. Those of us
who had the will to resist left this place, but we remained ever watchful.
Gunn: You're a
power that ... was?
Jasmine: But then
something new emerged from deep inside the Earth, neither demon nor god.
Wes: Man
Jasmine: And
it seemed for a time that through this new race, a balance might be restored.
SIDE NOTE:
This stated goal of hers, here, of restoring balance? That's not what you have
when you destroy all evil. Rather, good is sort of completely overbalanced, and
more than a little top-heavy.
Fred: I guess
we really let you down.
Jasmine: But
you didn't. It was we who failed you. We became little more than observers. I
could no longer bear to just watch all the suffering. I had to find a way back.
First I needed a miracle. And so I arranged one. Through you, Angel, and
through Darla, that is where my parentage began. Two vampires, creatures once
human, corrupted by darkness -- and you with a soul, a miracle already.
Angel: But
how?
Jasmine:
Through Lorne.
Lorne (and the
rest of the planet): Huh?
Jasmine: The
day Lorne sent Angel and human Darla into the trials to earn a new chance at
life.
Angel: I
failed.
Jasmine: No,
you earned that life. And there it is. * points to Connor *
(The rest of
the world): HIM?!
SIDE NOTE: So,
Angel's extended (three times) "perfect despair" GSI on Darla wasn't
angry hate sex. It was a nascent S2 Jasminian thrall. Roiiiiiight.
Jasmine: All
these events unfolded that I might re-enter this physical plane.
The rest of
the world: You're flyin' COACH!
Jasmine: I
know there's been chaos ...
Wes: All these
events we've witnessed these past months. All the madness; it was birth pangs!
Jasmine: But
the storm has passed.
Lorne: And
here comes the sun.
SIDE NOTE:
Now, Jasmine knows that the evil, chaos, destruction and ... expensive property
damage was largely her fault, but she lets the poetry of "birth
pangs" hang in the air like an overripe mango.
Angel: And
Cordelia ... will she wake up?
Jasmine: If we take hold of the world, strip away the thorns, win the battle
...
SIDE NOTE: Battle ... ?
Jasmine: ...
then yes. I think she will.
Fred: How do
we do that?
Jasmine: One
evil at a time. Much damage has been done in my name. There are demons, forces
of hate all over this city.
Fred: We're
going to destroy them.
Jasmine: We're
going to change the world.
Angel:
Finally.
Now, here's
where Illyria might've been somewhat useful if Joss had cared to put a button
on this backstory instead of letting it slink down a drainage pipe and go far,
far away.
Illyria:
"Something changed in Fred's memories when you shattered the window of
Orlon. I remember now ... the one you call Jasmine. She was the one we called, "Sack
of the Vile Falsehoods." I remember creating what you now call Australia
to escape her banality, the endless prattling tea parties 'Let's all be nice to
each other and braid our tentacles and shun the Demon God Tessa for she has
said a bad word about me and ate all the jam.' She was insufferable."
Yep. That
battle is gonna change the world. Vamps in a bowling alley, pockets of demons
here and there. Again, they aren't doing anything they wouldn't have done
anyway through the guidance of the Powers That Be.
Powers That Be: Jasmine, Jasmine, Nope, not ringing a bell. Oh, where's that
nice Cordy girl, we'll have her pass that along. Yoohoo! Cordy! Oh ... right
... * oops *
So ... eradicating all evil is going to bring about the balance you're hoping
to restore? People sitting around being good doesn't necessarily bode well for
the future. Without scarcity, without something to fight, the body and the mind
atrophy. There's something about the privation on this plane of existence that
...
Wait a moment.
Jasmine already knows this.
In the opening scene, when she leaves Angel and Connor with action Cordy, she
vanishes ...
... she goes shopping for a slinky blue thing. But she doesn't have any money,
so she just, what, thralls a store owner? Something ... worse?
[darkly] She's gotta maintain that thrall somehow, after all ... [/darkly]
HERETICS
Finally, we come to Fred's realization -- the same one had by the guy in the
food court.
The true face of Jasmine.
This is what I don't understand. Yes, he's a little nuts, talking about demon
maggot women and so forth, and needing to kill them.
But what happened to his face? What did she do to him?
That's ... not the effect of a healing, glowy deity.
I'd put the guy with the withered face in the burn unit or in ICU. I wouldn't
necessarily put him in the psych ward.
Obviously something happened to him.
When Fred sees the truth, she tries to destroy it in the most ham-fisted way,
but she probably felt like news of her heresy was spreading, and as it did, the
eyes trained on her were cold and suspicious.
[as in any organized religious situation, when someone starts raising too many
difficult questions]
To the closing scenes, where Team Jasmine resolves to kill Fred because she's
“gone evil.” And Jasmine's the only figure that's holding them back. But
really, just for information purposes. She needs Fred to be killed, no
question. Just:
Jasmine: She's
so determined to destroy everything we're trying to create. Which makes her
even more dangerous.
Angel: We have
to kill her. There's no other way.
Jasmine: It
may come to that. But first we have to try to help her get to the root of the
hatred that's infected her heart."
SIDE NOTE: In
other words, "Why isn't my thrall working on her any more?"
Hmm, well, obviously, the only people your thrall hasn't worked on are that guy
and Fred (and the vampires in the bowling alley -- not sure I understand that),
and the only thing they have in common is they mingled some of your blood with
their own.
Anyone who's gotten very involved with you wants to destroy you.
Maybe that's Joss' last metaphor for organized religion.
From Fred's final scene, where the cafe is cold and unsympathetic -- but it's
cold and unsympathetic to everyone (not just Fred), until a little broadcast ray
of sunshine.
Rise and shine, L.A.
Time for your morning thrall.