The lackluster
followup to a blockbuster episode.
We've only witnessed Angel/us eat a handful of people, and sire even fewer.
Offhand I can only think of a few. He sired Dru, of course, and there's the
vampire he sired from "Somnambulist" (I can't remember his name
offhand -- Penn, was it?). And Holtz' daughter, as well as eating Holtz'
family. And I think he sired at least one of the vamps in
"Heartthrob." There's the woman we saw him eating after he lost his
soul in BtVS and he ate Jenny Calendar. He ate Buffy, of course, and Wesley,
and a little bit of Connor, and in "Orpheus," there was the guy in
the ice cream parlor who was already on his way out, as well as finishing off
Lilah. And he ate Hamilton, which was just fun. I'm sure he ate a few others as
well.
Lawson ...
I can't figure out if this was a storyline alluded to sometime in the series,
or if Joss was exploring a question he ultimately did not answer. To wit: What
happens when an ensouled vampire sires someone?
We don't know, beyond the absolutely stupid ace he slips up his sleeve. If
Angel had staked him in his office, he could've saved Team Angel without having
to listen to Lawson blather all night long. And tying up Fred and Gunn and Wesley
... Lawson said he hasn't checked in for awhile, so he shouldn't honestly have
a lot of clarity as to who these people are to Angel.
Now, I'm not going to say there weren't some absolutely delightful aspects to
this storyline: Fred wondering what they did before they got these jobs and Wes
seeming to recall lots and lots of Jenga. And then the exchange between Angel
and Spike:
Angel: I'm not
getting trapped at the bottom of the sea!
Spike: And I'm not getting experimented on by his government!
And naturally,
they were both wrong. Fun bits of continuity. Also fun: Rasputin's lover and
Camden Toy as the Prince of Lies, which was just an enormous amount of
fun back on the 'Tome (I believe was can credit Py for his
"Raspy-Waspy" comment, and the suggestion that the Prince of Lies
claimed his title when women would ask him if their clothing made them look fat
and he'd say "Oh, nooooo.")
There is a little continuity problem, of course, unless Prof. Walsh is a vampire
and was around in the '40s to start the Initiative -- so as, apparently, to
close the "vampire gap" with the Germans -- since I believe Walsh was
given credit in BtVS for starting the program. I don't believe she was ever
anything more exotic than a reanimated corpse, however, so no luck there. Also,
I believe we have now all gotten past the suggestion that Angel has never eaten
a person since he was ensouled.
And I think they did what they could, but Angel in 1943 looks way more like the
Angel of 2004 than the Angel of 1997. Darn that otter's blood, huh?
Lawson said he checks in every decade or so -- he tracks down his sire and up
until now, hasn't seen him doing much of anything. Sadly, he missed the whole
Sunnydale chapter of his life, and not one but two turns as Angelus.
The question, once raised, needs a satisfactory answer. If Joss felt compelled
to tie this up as a loose end, I'm afraid I was never aware of it.
Lawson describes his life since he was sired: He and Spike swam 20 miles in less
than eight hours, which isn't impossible but is impressive. He and Spike
could've hung out for awhile, I suppose, but there's no indication or
suggestion that they did so. Lawson "murdered women and children, tortured
fathers and husbands just to hear them scream," and got no pleasure from
it -- 60 years of blood drying in his throat like ash.
For saving the crew, for fixing the problem, Angel gives Lawon a pass. But he
doesn't know for sure what he's unleashing on the world. And -- after crashing
through the wall in Angel's office -- again (the maintenance crew must just be bored replacing that wall by
now -- people have crashed through it a
lot by now -- it's like the Mummy Hand in "Life Serial") -- and
getting staked, we're not sure ourselves. But despite his parting words
"If I see you again, I'll have to kill you," is there no purpose to
be found for Lawson in S5?
That's what he's searching for. As a human, Lawson allowed how there was a
difference between following orders and having a purpose. Joss doesn't include
something like that in an offhand way. Angel, for the past year or so (the time
sequence is difficult to gauge, in that most of S4, more or less, was taking
place in a much more time-compressed way than most seasons), hasn't had any orders
to follow. He's been flying a little blinder than usual, and while he just got
some bearings in "You're Welcome," he isn't at the Powers' beck and
call, exactly. Angel has had to explore why he's doing what he's doing, his
purpose, his mission, and sadly that entire discussion seemed absent from this
episode.
Course, he's not getting a lot of input from the other side, either. Along with
Lindsey, boiling in his own filth somewhere out there in the 'burbs, Eve has
gone missing. And the White Room is empty, so the Senior Partners aren't
bending his ear at all.
But by spending an entire episode dedicated to the question of why everyone's
doing what they're doing -- and not in any satisfactory or definitive
way answering it -- or even closing discussion on what's up with Lawson
(did he get some of Angel's soul or didn't he? Is he merely an unfulfilled
creature of the night or has he been infused with something along the order of
conscience?) -- this is what I would dismiss as a lost opportunity, except for a
few things.
Gunn's stumble during the meeting, establishing a new liaison -- and there's
some suggestion, with the upcoming appearance of Hamilton, that the Senior
Partners are adamant of maintaining contact, whether Gunn has loss access
through the White Room or not.
Why is Gunn doing the things that he's doing? He seems to have more orders than
mission right now, and losing that access seems to cripple him. His upgrade is
failing, and he's becoming a little lost. It's a little like Cordelia, whose
access kept her a vital member of the mission. Gunn feels that his access is
what's keeping him vital. But whether Team Angel has a stranglehold on the law
or not is not mission critical. It's strategy that they've found useful,
but they entered their current situation without even bothering about whether
they knew anything about the law or not. Fred wanted a state of the art lab,
Wesley was seduced by the books, Lorne wanted power lunches with pretty people
and Angel wanted to save Connor. Gunn ... was initially drawn in by an
afternoon in the White Room.
Of the five, Gunn is the one being cheated -- he's losing what initially
motivated him -- but Gunn could be an asset without the upgrade. Even more so.
Without all the legal strategy and Gilbert and Sullivan and demon languages
buzzing around in his brain, maybe he would have a better grasp on right and
wrong, rather than beneficial and expedient.
Whereas Cordy's continued access was mission critical, I'm not certain Gunn's
is, and that subtle distinction is about to turn around and bite someone in the
arse.
One of the biggest reasons why this episode seems as sterile and disappointing
as it ultimately does is that, while Lindsey's abduction and Eve's
disappearance is touched upon, not a single word is breathed about Cordelia. I
was leaping for the Special Features on this disc to see if there were any
outtakes -- and to be honest, it's not like this episode itself is packed to
the brim -- to see if anything was pulled out about Team Angel’s reaction to
Cordelia's death and their pain and loss, but it was just the featurette on the
100th episode itself, and while congratulations are indeed in order, that's
almost insulting. Someone should've said something. Even if it was a week ago,
unless Vail did a second sweep, the death and loss of Cordy is something that
should've been hitting someone really hard -- as hard as it was hitting all of us -- and that
omission is a punch in the gut.
I'll close by saying that following orders and pursuing the mission is a thread
that was touched on just a little too subtly in this episode. But it's about to
loom really, really large for Angel.
"Why We Fight" is about to come into sharp focus, whether we know it
or not. And the path it takes, the story it lays out, is a countdown to one of
the strongest finale episodes I've ever seen of anything.