ANGEL
S5x08 –
Destiny
Review by Terry J. Aman
The goal of
this episode review is to figure out once and for all what Lindsey is up to.
Eve brought up the amulet again, after the other box o' Spike showed up in the mail.
I don't know if this is a mistake, since ...
OK, remember in "Fredless," where Team Angel was simply dumbfounded
at the concept of using detective work to track a piece of unmarked mail back
to a specific address? Well, I'll be honest with you. It's not easy to do.
But if a private investigator with limited resources can do it for the Burkles,
imagine what someone running a multinational and multidimensional
state-of-the-art turnkey operation should be able to accomplish.
That's not fair! you shriek. He's wearing tattoos.
OK, fair enough. But not once in the course of Angel trying to figure out what
the heck Eve is up to, he never had her followed? What, along with the
power of immortality, she can vanish into thin air?
Well, regardless of how clueless Angel has indeed proven himself to be in this
matter, Lindsey has sent him two pieces of mail -- Spike's essence and his
corporeality.
Let me step off to the side here for a moment and comment on this. Fred
exhausted and exceeded her quarterly budget, even having fired a packet of
staff people and, as far as I can tell, dimming her lights inexcusably. She
couldn't come up with any way, physical or mystical, to recorporealize Spike.
Lindsey, with access to, um, well, the demon essence he picked up in Nepal --
and forgive me, but how much money was he making as an associate? Because I
count at least two years of making it on his own with no more capital
investment than the crappy old truck he drove in with from Oklahoma to finance
this grand pathetic revenge against Angel -- sends a burst of light in a box
and viola!
But aside from the money. Aside from the motive -- OK, Lilah gave the amulet to
Angel, but Spike used it, and Lindsey, presumably, tracked it down and mailed
it to W&H -- well, even if Lindsey sent it, he couldn't know that
was gonna happen. And if he wanted Angel killed, there's easier and cheaper
ways to do it (blow up the limo, for instance).
But we must assume that the amulet -- which saved the world, btw -- originated
with Lindsey, mostly because of this episode.
Lindsey provided Part 2 -- the Incorporation.
That box was very much him. It was not the Senior Partners because Eve
said they didn't have a clue. It was a plan that they -- she and Lindsey
-- had had, which had worked perfectly.
So Part 3 is to turn Spike into Angel. Make him a champion. Make him the helper
of the hopeless. Groom him as the anti-Angel. From their conversation, it was
clear that Lindsey had more than half hoped Spike would dust Angel in
fighting him.
Spike's reactions throughout have been tough to read. He knows Angel is
fighting the good fight. He knows Angel does field work. He knows Angel is
nothing more nor less than the Angel he left "In the Dark" with a
better office.
So his incessant sneering betrays more than a little stupidity. Angel is
no one he should be staking. If he was paying any attention at all, he'd know
what Angel was up to. Consider that if Angel had made a single misstep --
ignored someone in trouble who came to him for help, had let a single thing
happen to an innocent person -- Spike would've been all over him about it. All
he could do is jeer at him for his comfy office suites and his fleet of cars --
both of which Spike availed himself of quickly enough.
Same with the Shoop, comes to that.
Spike's been the hero of his own story for so long he can't see past his own
corneas. Angel put him in his place right quick, denigrating his quest for a
soul as originating from lust for Buffy.
Lord knows he didn't have to travel halfway around the world to win his soul
back. Willow lives up the street and would be more than happy to curse him.
But I digress. (It's part of my charm) 
If Lindsey was building his own champeen, you'd imagine him doing it
sort of like the way he did it. But where did he get his access to information?
Where did he learn about Spike having a soul? By all public sightings, Spike
was tracking, stalking and eating people fully a month into his soulage,
triggered by the First. Even the Scoobs didn't get the scoop for a good long
while.
And it's not likely he had deeper or greater access to mystical
knowledge than Wesley did, so the box o' flash was a gimmick. A cheap-ass out
for the writers who had no idea how to resolve what they'd set in motion.
What -- I ask you -- what was Lindsey up to?
Another problem is the tear in the universe, evidenced by calls from a zillion
angry fax machines and a few employees who went a little nuts. I'd love for
this to explain why Gunn going dark, but it can't. Gunn was just one of many
who were affected by a temporary rage. The bloody eyes, the lashing out, that's
frightening, but it's not the end of the world. And again, it resolved itself
with no intervention on anyone's part.
We got very few insights in this episode. We could've seen that Angel, Dru and
Spike thing a century off, and they certainly had more history than that.
The writers and directors in that terribly inadequate commentary were
talking about how they, in the end, needed for Spike to win.
Well, no. No you didn't. The show is called "Angel," and there
shouldn't be a question that he's the Shoop guy. After all, he's faced all the
stuff he needs to to be eligible. Spike hasn't come close.
It was a good fight, but Angel should've won. Spike's the flavor of the month.
He shouldn't be besting Angel in a reasonably fair fight for something this
significant, even though it turned out to be meaningless.
What I would've preferred is the value in misdirection. Why is Eve so
excited about getting them off the
premises? She does nothing with that opportunity she made happen with
the assistance of Sirk. Instead, desert fight and swig-taking.
Yes, it's a lovely bit of self-doubt, a seed that needs planting for
"You're Welcome" to have the impact that it's meant to.
And the interaction between Angel and Spike is itchy and fun.
But they can't resolve the questions they raised.
P.S. -- For all the magic Lindsey was apparently able to pull from his bum, Eve
was doing some incredible things, too. Most significantly, she turned the White
Room into a howling abyss (unless that was also Lindsey, which means
that he, by all medical logic, ought to be wearing a Merlin hat when he's in
shot). She closed off Gunn's access to the Senior Partners [who were likely to
have been exactly as in the dark as their liaison left them] and she messed up
the phones and computers and gives herself a gold star for simulating a rift in
the universe.
Eve, honey, not even if you were capable of it.
And, forgive me, but Lindsey neither.
Just my take on the situation. I ... really don't believe this eppy. It felt
hastily flung together and left way more questions than could ever be
reasonably resolved.
It was still "Angel," tho, it had a good beat and I could dance to
it, so I've decided to be generous and give it a 9.
* sigh * I miss Wesley