Wolfram & Cast
This is not your grandsire’s podcast! In Wolfram and Cast, long time Angel fan Steven Youngkin host an Angel Podcast geared toward Buffy and Angel fans who have seen the entirety of both shows and want a more in depth discussion than a simple recap and review. Each episode of Wolfram and Cast will focus on one episode of Angel, but we will touch on greater themes and character arcs from the entire series, so a spoiler warning is in effect.
Wolfram & Cast
S1E18 ("Five By Five") -- Engaging the Eerie: A Deep Dive into Angel's Redemption and The Compelling Return of Faith
Prepare to be captivated as we embark on a thrilling analysis into the eerie world of Angel, the renowned spin-off of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This week, we're dissecting the fascinating 18th episode of Angel's first season, examining the return of fan favorites Faith and Darla, and the artful use of flashbacks that unravel Angel's evolution from vampire to vampire with a soul. We're unearthing the hidden symbolism, character dynamics, and intriguing powerplay that lends this series its timeless appeal.
The stage is set and the stakes high as we plunge headfirst into the gritty character arc of Faith. Under our microscope are the themes of redemption and responsibility, brought to light through the electrifying fight scene between Faith and Angel. We'll dissect the sharp dialogue, the strategic maneuvers, and the persistent tension between Angel and Lindsay that will have you on the edge of your seat.
Our in-depth discussion stretches from the iconic diner scene in the movie Heat to Angel's first season episode "Five by Five", exploring every twist, turn, and tension-filled confrontation. We're peeling back the layers of Faith's tragic character arc, examining the consequences of Buffy's actions, and analyzing Angel's complex transformation from vampire to vampire with a soul. Join us, and unravel the mystical world of Angel like never before.
Oh. But I need some time off from that emotion, Time to pick my heart up off the floor. Oh, I'm never gonna stand where I live, oh son, when it takes a stone and a brain air. But I'm showing you the door Cause I gotta have faith.
Speaker 2:I gotta have a hope for the end, cause I gotta have a hope for the end. Hello, welcome to Wolfram and Cast an angel retrospective. I am longtime fan Stephen Yonkin. In this podcast I'll be doing a deep dive discussion on the Buffy spin-off show, angel, one episode at a time, with spoilers for both series. I have chosen to focus on Angel because, as a fan of the show, I feel that even 20 plus years after the show premiered, it still has themes and ideas that are worth discussing. My co-host, carrie Mubarak, is out repenting for her sins from the time she was in the body of another woman and, while in that body, sucked with that woman's boyfriend. A person has to have a hobby, so you will have just my opinion to listen to. I look forward to her return in just a few episodes so she can let me know how carbon-dated Faith's outfit was in this episode.
Speaker 2:In this week's episode I will discuss the 18th episode of the series 5x5, which was directed by James A Cotner. James A Cotner directed 13 episodes of Angel in 20 episodes of Buffy, including Be, which Bothered and Bewildered Faith, hope and Trick and the Hush Light of Day. In addition, he won an Emmy as cinematographer for the TV series Crame Story. The episode was written by Jim Koff, who wrote two other episodes of Angel, the Shroud of Roman and the Thin Deadline. In addition to his TV work, jim Koff also wrote the movies Stakeout, rush Hour, national Treasure and Money Monster. He was nominated for a Hugo for writing an episode of Grimm, which he co-wrote with David Greenwald.
Speaker 2:The episode originally aired on April 25, 2000, and the IMDb description of the episode is Fed Up. With Angels Meddling in their Affairs, wolfram and Hart hire newly arrived Faith to take him out Like In the Dark. And I Will Remember you. 5x5 is a continuation of an episode that aired on Buffy. In this case it's actually part 3 of a four-part storyline On Buffy. The two episodes were this Year's Girl and who Are you. In those episodes, faith wakes from her coma and immediately goes after Buffy in the game. She is given a posh-miss gift from the mayor, a device that allows her to switch bodies with Buffy. Freaky Friday style. Posing as Buffy, she goes on a tear through Sunnydale and, among other things, sleep with Riley and sexually teasing Spike. Eventually, buffy manages to switch their bodies back and Faith flees the town. In addition to bringing in Faith and bringing back Darla, as well as our two favorite attorneys, lindsay and Lila.
Speaker 2:The episode gave us more angel-less flashbacks. This time it was showing us both pre and post-Curse Angeles In Slayers and Vampires, an oral history of Buffy and Angel. Tim and Nier comments quote I definitely love the idea of going into his past. At the time the Internet board said that we were ripping off Forever Night, which I think is funny because they're both vampire detective shows. So you're going to go to certain places with a guy who has a couple of hundred years under his belt and who has a violent past and is trying to redeem himself. Obviously there are similarities, but if you looked at our flashbacks over the course of season one, they were sort of a piece In the prodigal. The flashbacks took place before he was turned into a vampire and up until that moment, and then in 5x5, it was after he got his soul back, actually right before and right after he got his soul back. So we were telling the progression in the flashbacks, but in separate episodes, and I thought that was interesting.
Speaker 2:So the questions for this week's episode are one did we have too many fan favorites in one episode? And two did the show make good use of the flashbacks. To start off with, I have to comment that this is the best episode of the season and arguably one of the best of the entire series. On various boards on Facebook, talking about Buffy as well as Angel, many fans have commented oh, angel is nowhere near as good as Buffy. I would challenge them to watch this episode and still say the same thing, because this is the perfect episode to show the people who are fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer but are reluctant to watch Angel, because this has all of the same humor, all of the same sharpness of dialogue and it's just a bit of a shame that we're not going to be able to do this.
Speaker 2:And also, what this show does is it shows the series leaning into its new version of folks seen on the characters rather than the episodic victim of the week, that it was relying on the characters of Buffy, and I think that's the only thing that's been left out of the series is the fact that it's not only the characters that are in the series, but also the characters that are in the series, and the characters that are in the series but also the episodic victim of the week that it was relying on prior to this. Because, as I've mentioned in other episodes as well, as Tim the Near himself commented about in the episode Eternity, up until that point it was strictly an episodic victim of the week, where Angel tries to save someone in hopes of redeeming his past, so on and so forth. In Eternity, as Tim the Near commented, he started going away from that because the last part of that episode was focusing more on the gang and in fact they just rode off the victim of the week, the actress, entirely in the final scene by just saying she's done with you and focusing instead on Wesley and Cordelia's reaction to Angelus' appearance. This one, on the other hand, went whole hog into focusing on the gang. Yes, they brought in guest characters. They brought in Lindsay and Lila in Faith and the appearance by Darla in the flashbacks. But even there the quote yes, characters are ones that we're going to see repeatedly throughout the show.
Speaker 2:We'll see Faith return, not just in the following episode but in later episodes as well, and Lindsay and Lila make repeated returns throughout the series, lindsay especially as an antagonist to Angel, and then Lila being introduced in a more, I would say, interesting wave as we see her relationship with Wesley evolve. But even there, this is a very much of a coistered environment. It is strictly just the Angel gang. It is not some outsider who has brought in for Angel to save for one week and then they run on their way. Yes, he's in a sense trying to save Faith, as we see in the final scene, but, as I mentioned, she returns. She is a regular. She is somebody that we have known from her appearances on Buffy in Season 3. So we are familiar with her art, which I'll discuss more in a moment.
Speaker 2:In general, what this episode does so very well is it found. What Tim Menier called the Angel-ness in the story that he was referring to was needed for eternity and for this series to work. And they found the Angel-ness in this episode and they found it very well. And the biggest thing this episode did so well was its use of guest characters, and I want to go through each of them to show how well this episode does. First of all, darla what this episode did in just a couple of scenes. She wasn't in there a lot, she was just in like two scenes, two or three scenes in the episode, but it showed us why she was such a fascinating character and we have to look at her arc over the course of the series up until this point. It gets even more fascinating when she returns later on.
Speaker 2:But up until this point, let's just examine her arc In the original pilot. The one that was unerred was sold to the network and is available online. Many Buffy fans have seen it, in which one of the changes it had there was she was dusted at the end of that episode by Buffy. But in the revised pilot she did survive and she was shown to be one of the henchmen for the master, who for that season, was actually the intended big bad for the season. Eventually she was killed by Angel in the episode of her boy titled Angel, and she was killed off after we've learned that she was a former love interest of his. But, as with a show like this, never saying being killed is a reason for the character not to return.
Speaker 2:She was brought back repeatedly throughout the series and what we discover is the fact that, even in her own evil way, she had as much feelings for Angelus as Spike had for Drew. Throughout the series, fans have always talked about the Spike-Drew relationship, how he truly loved her, even though they were vampires. Well, the same thing can be said here as well that she actually did love Angelus. There was an affection she had for him. Yes, she was evil, it was twisted, but so was Spike's for Drew. Same thing here.
Speaker 2:She did have deep feelings for Angelus and what we realize later, as shown very well in the scene here in this episode, is the fact that she hated Angel. And throughout this episode I will differentiate Angelus was precursor, angel was post-curse. So the reason why she hated Angel was not even so much that he had a soul. No, that was secondary. The reason she hated him was because he was no longer the man that she fell in love with. He was no longer the person she cared for and protected and stood by and, well, killed with. And that's actually not too far different from what happens with a lot of relationships. When the person we fell in love with changes that you're not the man I met, you're not the woman I first started dating, you have changed for bad in our eyes. So that makes her reaction not that surprising and not that far different from mortal relationships, when the person has changed, has altered. Now what would have been interesting in retrospect is seeing all this was. It's actually a shame they didn't think of a way of trying to resurrect her or bring her back in some fashion in season two of Buffy, when Angelus proper did return and it would have been interesting to see how she would have reacted.
Speaker 2:One thinks that, instead of having Angelus team up with Spike and Drew and performing that toxic triangle which ultimately led to Angelus being defeated because of Spike's jealousy, and having Angelus acting in such a way that caused Spike to be more jealous and ultimately turning on Angelus In this case, if he had teamed up with Darla, if she had been resurrected like she is at the end of season one of Angel, that that would have been a deadly duo Because, remember, buffy was able to defeat Angelus ultimately because Spike turned on them, but, on the other hand, angelus and Darla being resurrected together, that would have been a duo that would have been more than formidable for Buffy and one thinks that would have definitely put the fear of God into her. Now, speaking of Angelus, we do get just one brief scene of Angelus. As I said, angelus is pre-cursed, angelus is post-cursed. We do get one brief scene of him returning, and even that brief scene was a much better use of him than he was in the entire final act of the episode Eternity, when she brings the Gypsy girl to him as a gift. It shows his danger, his charisma. Everything we liked about him and also what I really like about the flashbacks, as I'll discuss throughout this episode is that this provides a great thematic counterpoint to Faith's storyline. It's used not just to show us oh, this is how he became cursed and this is how he reacted after the curse. No, it was more than just plot points. It was used for an actual theme, similar to how they were used in the Semnamulist, which, as listeners might recall, was another episode that I loved greatly and for a similar reason.
Speaker 2:Now for our attorneys working from least to best, the least is Lee, our ultra-creepy attorney who was introduced to us in Sense and Sensitivity. Now, what's interesting here is when you watch his performance, it's actually less sing-songy in the line rings than he was in that episode. I mean less Sheldon Cooper-esque. Now in this one he's still annoying. It's actually more common-called how annoying he is, because it does allow Lila and Lindsay to look even more charismatic in comparison and more aware of the situation, because in his big scene with Faith, where Shabash is his face, in again and again and again by having him be so obnoxious and so obtuse to how dangerous Faith is. It lets us know that Lila and Lindsay, on their hand, are not taking her or Angel or anyone for granted, which, especially for Lindsay, allows for the later scene with Angel to have even more weight to it, because we've already seen that Lindsay is aware of who he's talking to and what she is capable of, which is also why Faith doesn't go directly against Lindsay, because he doesn't underestimate her and he doesn't disrespect her the way Lee does.
Speaker 2:Now the other attorney, lila and I'll get back to Lindsay in a moment Lila this episode was the first time she and Lindsay were together and already we see great chemistry, a great rivalry between the two of them, because they're both evil, they're both after dark ends for power, fame, wealth, whatever. And it also shows very quickly how ambitious she is, the fact that she is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve her ends. And in this episode I start to become reminded of other great villainous females from the 80s, such as Joan Collins from Dynasty and the alien leader Diana from the TV miniseries leader series V. In both of those characters these are very intelligent, very ambitious, attractive women who are willing to use whatever they have at their disposal, which is their intelligence, their sex appeal, etc. To further their own ads. And now we get to Lindsay Cushing came.
Speaker 2:I commented in City of in the pile episode that the moment you watch him you want to see more of him. As a reminder that episode, he didn't even have a name. When he handed Angel his business card it had the firm's name Wolfram and Hart on it and did not even have his name. He was an even knee opening credits. He was in the post episode credits listed as young attorney, so his character was nameless.
Speaker 2:But the producers obviously saw the same thing we as fans saw, which is an actor who made the character fascinating and charismatic, and his one brief scene they had with Angel at the end of there, even though he wasn't the focus of it it was Russell and Angel who were the focus we still liked him just enough that we wanted him back and this was a very welcomed return. And there was a twinkle in his eye throughout the entire episode that made you really like the character, even though you didn't want him to succeed, because he is the antagonist, he is the villain, but you like him. He was a villain you love to hate and that is why, also, they kept bringing him back. This was his return and Christian Kane made the most of it, because he also found the right humor in the lines as I go over when I talk about that scene with Angel in Lindsay's office, where there was almost a fun tension where they were trying to outpool each other, and it caused David to up his game because otherwise Christian, as the actor, was going to run over him with his performance and David brought his A game as well, so that you definitely wanted to see these two go against each other again and again and again, and it was shown in that scene and what made for a villain that we're lacking in other episodes, like such as the ring and all that which at best they were okay with Lindsay the villain and wonderful performance from Christian.
Speaker 2:Now, before I get to the MVP of this episode and many people could argue MVP's status for the others, but before I get to the true MVP, I have to talk about one of the regulars, because we get yet another advancement on his arc and each time we do it I have to draw attention to it because Alexis Denisoff makes so much use of it, and this episode does further Wesley's arc in the torture scene with Faith. This is the first time we see him without his glasses, in which that seems like a minor thing, but it's not. It's actually a major development, because up to that point the glasses were almost like a shield to make him look more Tweet, more British, more intellectual and less huff, less roguish. And this time, by having him without his glasses for that entire final act of the episode, it now started to separate him from the previous version, to let the audience know we're going to be seeing a different, tougher, more bitter Wesley. And we saw that because this was a character that was not cowering before Faith was not backing down. This was a man who was her former watcher but was willing to tell her off. Even as she was torturing him, was still having no problem calling her a piece of shit, very calmly, very coldly, the show she was not getting to him.
Speaker 2:Also, what is interesting is, in a sense, almost the turning point in this episode was when she confronts he and Cordelia in Cordelia's apartment and Wesley first tries to talk to her. So he talked her down and her reaction is to immediately knock Cordelia out and as she makes a comment to him. His reaction, without blinking, is to punch her ring the face. As I mentioned in the episode the Ring, where I had mentioned the difference between Angel and Wesley. Where Angel, with the bookie, was using non-violin, he was paying the bookie off. Wesley, on the other hand, had no problem resorting immediately to violence. And we see that here again. She punches out Cordelia. His reaction clocking her. Yes, of course, since she's a slayer, there's only so much damage he can do to her because he's mortal, she's a slayer. But even Faith is impressed with that and say, wow, you've got a pair of balls on you for that one. And she was actually impressed for a brief moment before kicking him across the room. But he earned her respect for just a brief moment. And it's also showing the fact that he is very willing to resort to violence almost as a first resort, not as a last resort, and we will see that again and again as he becomes even darker. Well, now that leads us to the MVP of the episode, ms Faith Lehey.
Speaker 2:I would bless her return and also introduction to this series. Now I have to be upfront. I am the big fan of Eliza Dushku. In fact, one of my cats is named after her is named Eliza, to show my fanship of her, and also I am a fan of Eliza's other work True Calling, dollhouse, bray and on and so on.
Speaker 2:That being said, I want to comment that she fit even better in Angel than she did even on Buffy, and on Buffy she was a great contrast to the title character. But here she fit in so perfectly that you wonder why it took them so long to bring her into the series. Because if you think about it, angel is a series about redemption, about characters atoning for their past. Well, of the Buffy gang, who needs to atone for their past more than face, I mean, this is a character that killed a man, this is a character who tried to bring on the end of the world. So, yeah, she has got a lot to atone for. And what this episode does so well is it puts her on that path of redemption. And that is the main thrust of this episode is that concept of getting us to realize what we have done wrong, to the point where we can start being redeemed, because until you can admit what you did was wrong, there is no hope for redemption. But before I get into weightier themes like that, I just want to comment on her performance.
Speaker 2:She brought in energy to the show that, admittedly, in other episodes it was lacking. And I think it's because we as fans are so familiar with her from her occurrences in the third season arguably Buffy's best season Because of her occurrence in that season. We got to know her well and so when she came on here she was like spike. She up the energy level of everyone around her and in this case she really caused everyone to up their game. What I always liked about her character is she basically has the second best character arc of the entire series, second only to Wesley. I would say it's actually even more tragic arc than Wesley's is because of what led up to her changes. Now, granted, wesley lost a lot of his life and would get to that up so years from now when we get to a hole in the world, but up to that point his is a fascinating arc, just like Willow's on Buffy's Face is even more fascinating because of how tragic it is and how so much of it was out of her control.
Speaker 2:Now let's just look over her life as we know it from the series. So I'm not discussing any spin off novels, any comic book adaptations, so I'm talking about just the episodes themselves. So, from what we know because the series doesn't go that far into her background in very little, if any, is said of her freeslayer life. But the impression we get is that she lived mostly on her own for most of her life. She's had an absent family because she doesn't talk too much, if anything, about her family, about sisters, parents, anything, and so as a result from her tone, from her attitude and from her street smarts, we get the impression she more or less has been on her own for years and in fact she may have lived even on the streets, because this is a girl who looked accustomed to being homeless and knowing how to survive on her wits, and also a girl that, because she had to live on the streets or live on her own, she's not unfamiliar with run-ins with the law, with the police. She knows how to handle herself. So that is also what will separate her from Buffy, who had more of a secluded or cloistered life before becoming a slayer.
Speaker 2:Well, continuing on with Faith, she is called. After Kendra is killed by Jerell, she is called and becomes a slayer, and she does learn how to fight and use her slayer abilities with her watcher and we're not really sure what type of relationships she had with her watcher good, bad, whatever but she did learn and unfortunately her watcher was killed. So once again she's on her own, not so much helpless, but with no one there to guide her, to protect her. Now, after her watcher is killed, she does end up going to Sunnydale and she does team up with Buffy in the game and remember, in Season 3, at the beginning, when she is first introduced, she's fighting on the side of good. She is not an evil person. When she shows up in Sunnydale, she is wanting to be a good slayer and defeat the demons, kill the vampires, etc. She has no problem teaming up with them and is not for any nefarious twisted purposes. It's because that's what she feels she should be doing is being a good slayer, and also because we sensed that, even for all of her street smartness or quipiness and all that, she is a good person at heart. As Wesley says in this episode, there is a good person there.
Speaker 2:Well, unfortunately, in Season 3, her first replacement watcher, gwendolyn Pears. Well, gwendolyn betrays her and almost tries to kill her, and thus this is teaching her that the people who act like they care for her can't be trusted sending that lesson out. And then she ends up accidentally killing the mayor's assistant, which is a mistake that Buffy could have made just as easily. But it was once again nothing nefarious. He came running out, she thought he was dangerous and she killed him and, as I said, that's a mistake that Buffy could have made just as easily. But the thing is, though, unlike Buffy in the episode Consequences, who was racked with guilt over what happened phase, on the other hand, because of all her years of living on the street, run-ins with the law, etc. Blocks out the guilt. And it's because of her background. And instead of the Scoobies all rallying around her trying to help her out and support her, nope, they all turn their backs on her and immediately they start treating her as evil.
Speaker 2:She is also betrayed by her next watcher, wesley. So her first one gets killed, second one tries to kill her. Third one tries to have her arrested and taken to the Watcher's Council to be tried and convicted, and who knows what would happen to her. And, as Angel points out in this episode, when that happens he ensures that she will never trust another living being ever again, because now she has been betrayed by everyone that she knows, and she also learns the fact that everyone is either evil or hypocritical, which is why she ends up turning to the mayor. And it's not for any power purposes, or, oh, he could offer her eternal life or anything. No, it had nothing to do with that. It had to do for one very simple reason the mayor was honest with her. The mayor was upfront with what he wanted from her, what he was asking of her, what his ambitions were, what her objective was. He never lied to her, he never betrayed her and also, more importantly, we do get the sense the mayor did care for her and, as a result, that was the first time she truly felt that somebody truly did care for her and, as a result, that's why she teamed up with him, even though, yes, she knew what he was going for was wrong, but it was still providing her with that affection that she never got from anyone else in her life.
Speaker 2:Thus the tragedy. Well, unfortunately, the person that she was opposing Buffy ends up knocking her into a coma for approximately a year, and she wakes up and what's the first thing she sees? Well, outside, the mayor being dead is the fact that Buffy is still in an elevated status. Buffy is still this person that everyone loves. She, on the other hand, even though she fought alongside Buffy, she's still scorned, and no one even bothered to check in on her. No one ever paid her a visit while she was in the hospital. As far as they were concerned, she was dead and gone and forgotten. So, as a result, that's what caused her to finally say screw it all. I'm a villain. They want to think of me as evil. I'll be evil, and so that's why she ends up becoming the way she is. That's why she does the things she does, and that's what makes her such an interesting addition to the Angel Universe. And we see that Angel slash Angelus is the same way in his transition, and so, as a result, when she becomes redeemed, it's all the more heroic because she is fighting back against all of these events that happened to her and, most importantly, she's not just seeking redemption from them. She has owned up to the harm she has caused. She has taken responsibility for that.
Speaker 2:Now, another thing I really liked about this, in addition to the characters, is, unlike the other crossover episodes I will remember you, the harsh light of day is the fact that this one truly does build upon the previous episodes. For those other two, for example for I Will Remember you if you didn't see Pangs well, pangs had zero impact on I Will Remember you, other than, oh, she heard the Angel was in Sunnydale so she came back to visit him. That's literally the only plot you need to know. And then the same thing about the Spike episode was oh yeah, there was a Gem of the Varra. Spike found it. It was brought over to LA to be given to Angel. Well, I just told you all you needed to know about the other episodes. I mean, they were good episodes, to be sure, but they weren't needed to fully appreciate what you saw on Angel With this one. On the other hand, it helps, I will admit, if you did see this year's girl, anne, who are you, not so much for plot purposes, because once again, faith wakes up for a coma. She shows up in LA.
Speaker 2:Now, granted, who are you does have an impact on why Buffy is so antagonistic towards her in Sanctuary. But, saying that aside, it also helps because you see the development of Faith. It does reestablish why she is acting the way she does in this episode the self-loathing and the feelings of guilt. Most importantly, what I loved about this is that there is no fat in this episode.
Speaker 2:Every scene has a purpose and even though this is part 3 of a 4-part storyline, this doesn't feel elongated. This doesn't feel as if they just put in filler scenes just to stretch out the length. No, every scene is needed. There is nothing I would have cut out of it. And also this hammers in heavily on the series's initial theme of redemption and, as I mentioned earlier, it discusses the idea of not just who can be redeemed, but who deserves to be redeemed. Does somebody like a Faith deserve redemption in spite of what she has done? Is she deserving of forgiveness? And in Sanctuary we see that even more so, that theme being played out.
Speaker 2:And now that leads us into the finals scene, the fight between Angel and Faith. This is among the best in this series, and why I say among the best, I don't just mean best fighting, which, it is the best scene of the episode. This is a scene where every camera shot, every movement serves a purpose. How Angel fought serves a purpose. The lines that Faith was saying, even though they sound like throwaway lines I kill me, kill me, I'm bad, I'm evil they all serve a purpose. There is a reason the characters are saying that this is strong, right. The camera angles, the use of the rain, angel sorry Wesley's grabbing and then dropping up the knife at the end Everything is beautifully handled, everything serves a purpose.
Speaker 2:And what I love especially with the fight is it's not just ooh. There are some really cool moves which admittedly I did like a number of the other fights. For that reason, this one it wasn't done because of some cool choreography, but it was much more character based because, as I'll mention when I get to that scene, as we see, angel's not on offense here. He never once goes on the offensive against Faith, even though she wanted him to. No, he's mostly on defense and mostly just trying to wear her down, trying to get her to burn up her energy so he can reach her, as Faith, on the airhand, is pure aggression and is going after not so much because she wants to kill him, but because she wants him to kill her. So she figures, if I fight him enough, if I punch him enough, if I say enough mean things against him, enough that maybe that would cause him to kill me, to put me out of my misery, and that makes for a fascinating fight.
Speaker 2:And before I get into the summary, I just also want to talk about the dialogue. As I mentioned, every scene is great and this is one where picking a favorite line of dialogue was tough because, unlike in the dark where that one, most of the great lines were given to Spike and that's because James Masters can spin out lines like that with no problem with this one all of the characters had great lines and I'll be referencing many of them. In fact, in some cases I had to fight the urge not just to replay the entire scene, especially once. I just want to draw attention to the Lindsay Angel scene, where I had to fight the urge not to just during this episode, not to just play their entire encounter. But it's such great dialogue and what is great about it was with other episodes the dialogue was great because it was funny, it was quippy, it had the Joss Whedon-esque spin on it, where it's not quite how people talk, it's a little bit more exaggerated, but it's a lot more intelligent, a lot more clever.
Speaker 2:But in this case, yes, it's quippy at times, but it also serves a theme, such as Cordelia's line of you don't change a guy like that. In fact, generally speaking, you don't change a guy. What you see is what you get. Scratch a surface and what do you find? More surface. I mean it's a great Cordelia as line. But it also sets up the theme once again of can we truly redeem anyone or is what you see what you get? And, as a result, what that does is it allows the dialogue to flow from the characters in the scene and not sound so writerish, such as like in the ring when Angel wakes up and says I expected a girl with a view which was too precious for him In this case. Here are the lines he says make sense for him, the lines Lindsay says, the lines Lila or Faith or whoever says. That all flow from the characters and it all serves to further the purposes of that scene and the episode as a whole. As a result, best episode of the season and one of the best episodes of the series. Which now leads me into the episode itself.
Speaker 2:The episode opens in the prologue with a man approaching three homeless men and I see that in quotes because they're around a fire and they've got hoodies on and we don't really see their faces and he starts to tough talk them in very cliched Latina lines. Well, it turns out that the homeless men were actually demons and they were finishing eating the real homeless gang members. And they start to pursue him. Who fires upon them missing, and we get the feeling that probably the bullets wouldn't have done anything to the demons anyways. Well, as he's running down the alleyway from them, trained to survive, whipping around the corner, coming extremely fast in a car, is Wesley looking fairly badass in his pursuit and Angel who's leaning out of the passenger side with a sword. We see him slice off the head of one demon and it's hard to say where. Not, he killed the other ones as well, but all we know is they don't appear in the next wide shot. So it's assumed he did a two for one with that slice. And the car does suddenly stop and he immediately kills the remaining demon spider and demon guts on Wesley. One other thing I do like about this series is the fact that we do see the effects of the killing, because we do see the demon guts, whereas Buffy was a little bit cleaner in their kills because of course, she killed mostly vampires who conveniently turned into dust.
Speaker 2:Well, anyways, angel immediately confronts the young man named Marquez and offers him a ride. Well, it immediately cuts over to a bus station where Gay off the bus, among other people arriving in LA for either on vacation or maybe to move there, whatever. But Gay off the bus is a young woman who shot in shadow and from behind to temporarily hide her identity for just a moment. Well, a very skinny man who is literally a pimp and up to no good and is out looking for new prey eyeballs her because she looks young, pretty, innocent, naive. When the camera reveals who it is, we see that, yes, she's young and very pretty.
Speaker 2:She's far from innocent, naive. It's Ms Lahane. And he approaches her and does his pitch hey, new in town, it's a dangerous town, I can help you out, need money, need a place to stay, etc. Using all the lines figuring she has no family, she has nowhere to go, she probably has very little money, so on, so forth, that he could take her in and then very quickly having her turn tricks for him. Well, she tries to ignore him, but still just keeping to herself. When she realizes after he mentions about the money and the place to stay, something clicks in her head. With that, she quietly and purposefully whispers.
Speaker 2:I'm cold you know, as if she's a weak woman. Well, as he starts to remove his leather jacket, she then drops the act and she proceeds to kick his butt left and right and it's hard for me to really feel sorry for the dude. So he is a skibie, he has it come. So actually I was. I was applauding fate for that and she ends up knocking him unconscious. She takes his jacket and wallet and says I think I'm gonna like it here. After she decides to stay at his place using his money and she walks off as we get to the opening credits.
Speaker 2:Well, now it flashes back to Romania, 1898, and we know the purpose of this, because this is where Angel is given his curse. And what happens is Angel and Darla enter the house. Angel is blindfolded and we can easily see by the way he and Darla are acting, that this is the Angel's version. This is pre-cursed. Well, she unfolds the blindfold and shows him his birthday present, which is most likely the day she sired him. Well, his birthday present is a gypsy girl, bound and gagged for him to feed upon. She looks unhappily, actually somewhat arousedly, as Angel, as Angel is, vamps out and starts to feed upon the girl. And, as I mentioned before, when I was talking about Darla, that we see why she was such a popular character and why the writers and the producers kept bringing her back, because, as I said, you can see in her face that she does care for Angelus and she was as much his lover as she was his fellow.
Speaker 2:Well, meanwhile it does cut over to present day at Angel investigations, and Angel is lecturing Marquez on trying to do the right thing. He explains that next time no one will be there for him, and especially since his friends were the ones that were being eaten by the demons outside the office. Cordelia is upset that Marquez is not the type of person she really wants to save, because, up to this point, all the people that she was saving were young women, were people being pursued by evil demons so good people in her mind. Marquez, on the other hand, is also not her type of people, and also because of the fact that he's a gang member out on the streets and all that that she is convinced is, somebody like Marquez is never going to change. He's never going to improve.
Speaker 2:So now that leads to, once again, the theme of the episode is hand people change and, more importantly, is everyone entitled to a chance to change because, as I mentioned, her line in that scene was that you don't change a guy like that, that, generally speaking, you don't change a guy. What you see is what you get. Scratch a surface when you find more surface. Well, wesley, on the other hand, takes a contrary point of view and mentions the fact that, well, angel was evil in his day. He was far worse than Marquez was and he changed. But Cordelia even writes off angels change because she said that was due to the curse. So in her mind, angel is would still be around if it wasn't for the curse that once again scratch a surface and you get just more surface. So, for Angel is, it took an extreme act, but for most people she's convinced what you see is what you get, and so does bring up the question of does it take an extreme act to accept repentance as a possibility? Do you have to do something that extreme, like to have a purse placed on you, or can you change on your own, just by realizing that there is a bigger world out there? Well, wesley does take the view that all creatures have a soul and therefore, somewhere deep down that they will have an urge to do what is right, that if you have a soul then you will eventually change. You will eventually do the right thing. And Angel, still talking to Marquez, explains that he'll have to face his demons sometime, which is a bit of a on the nose reference to the demons that Angel faces every day. Well, while he's trying to convince Marquez to do the right thing, it cuts over to an LA nightclub where faith is dancing in her same wild girl style that she did in the episode bad girls on Buffy and, just as a side note, appropriate song be played at the nightclub. It's a song living dead girl by Rob Zombie, so appropriate concern who's there? And also, as a side note, is the exterior of the nightclub. That we see was filmed at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center in Miami Florida. This was the same place that was first featured as club hell in the 1995 movie bad boys with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.
Speaker 2:Well, gained back to the bad girl. She is openly flirting with all the guys with her dancing in a sexy style, grinding against them, so on, and there's a young couple dancing. She cuts in on the couple dancing seductively, grinds against a guy right in front of his date, causing the girl to start to complain, say, hey, you're with my boyfriend. She says I didn't see your name written on him anywhere. And she is openly antagonistic towards the girl and she ends up starting a fight between them. This leads to a fight all around, with people punching each other and meanwhile she is dancing all by herself while this violence is erupting around her and she is managing, even here, to block out the violence and pain she is causing, which is how she is approaching life, which is going back to consequences. Yes, I did wrong, but I'm just going to block it out. If I ignore it, maybe it doesn't exist. And also, what we see in this scene is the dancing and the fighting mixing together, continuing her love of violence.
Speaker 2:Another treat exhibit in Buffy, where she admits in faith, hope and trick, that killing vampires actually turned her on, made her horny, as she said. And also what we see here is that her actions in this scene actually continue with her philosophy that she expressed in bad girls won't take have, where that philosophy is self justifying I wanted, I take it, I have it, and that's how she just buys everything in her life that I'm a slayer, I'm allowed to do this, I'm above law and so, as a result, nothing she does is ever wrong. So the fight in this club not her fault, she was allowed to do it. Well, speaking of the law, it cuts over to a courtroom where Wolfram and Hart are representing some client. We don't know who it does really matter, but what we do see are the attorneys representing this client, and it is the attorneys are Lindsay, who is giving the argument, and Lee Mercer. From sense and sensitivity and, as a note, this is the first time we've seen any of the lawyers from Wolfram and Hart returning because of this point every time there was a new attorney, it was a new attorney because, as I mentioned for that first episode, that was the original idea that Wolfram and Hart just kept on spitting them out episode by episode, so each time would be a new antagonist and they would all be faceless, as it were. Well, in this case, as I mentioned, lindsay is giving the argument, and the argument is giving is that the case should be dismissed because the DA's key witnesses are not showing up for whatever reason, and the DA is saying that it's Wolfram and Hart's fault that they're not showing up, that they're tampering in some way, and Lindsay is mock offended by it. And as he concludes argument, angel then walks into the courtroom with Marquez, who is a key witness for the prosecution, and this leads to a great stare down between Angel and Lindsay, where we feel detention immediately and once again. As I've stated repeatedly and as I will continue to state, in this scene Christian Cain shows more charisma, more energy, more excitement than all of the other attorneys, with the exception of Lila, did in all of their other episodes combined. All of the other attorneys are forgettable. Lindsay owns the camera because the camera loves him.
Speaker 2:Now it cuts back to the Wolfram and Hart office where Lindsay is talking to one of the higher ups could be a senior partner who knows on the phone and he explains that he didn't foresee the intervention Ie Angel and he agrees that Angel does need to be dealt with because he is now becoming a liability to the firm. At first they were just somebody he was paying attention to, but now this is somebody that could hurt them. And then he uses a great line, which is I hate failure when there is no one else to blame it on. Nice bad guy approach at that moment. That's when Lee enters the office and hands Lindsay a file which he thinks might be the solution to their problem. Well, lee then walks on the hallway when Lila stops him and we as fans see that it's a Wolfram and Hart reunion. We get Lee, we get Lila, we get Lindsay, we get the three hours. Well, this also allows Lila to use a great line, which is you call them back and let them know that that's our drop down offer and you make sure that we mean literally and not figuratively. Once you create dialogue and she talks to Lee about his idea for how to handle Angel, which is basically they're going to sick faith onto him. When he knew about her by reading the police reports, basically the impression we guys he's been keeping busy ever since she got to LA it was more than just kicking a pimp's butt and causing a bar fight. And with that he says that he'll make the contact because essentially he wants to credit for doing this, causing Lila to point out to him saying it's your people skills, you don't have any. So she says she'll reach out and great line. And well, she's not wrong, because Lee has zero people skills, whereas Lila is good.
Speaker 2:Back at Angel investigations, cordelia is on the phone talking to a possible client and she explains that they don't normally handle divorce cases because, well, that's not their motto, it's to help the helpless client tells her how much he's willing to pay them. Now she's quick to. Maybe he is hopeless at least hopeless enough that we can help him. Well, at that moment, wesley and Angel returned from the trial and they revealed that Marquez was very key because the DA won the case because of his testimony. And Wesley explains that Marquez was lucky he ran into Angel, and Angel is more, even more, sympathetic towards Marquez and says he just need a little guidance and a push in the right direction, which is a nice bit of foreshadowing because, as we see, that is the ultimately the approach he takes, with faith, trying to push her into the right direction as well. And Wesley not illogically predicts that Wolfram and Hartz are not going to forget that they will retaliate, not realizing they already are.
Speaker 2:Well, meanwhile, faith and Lila are walking down an alleyway outside of a club and Faith tries to bully Lila by demanding her watch, thinking Lila is just another mark or maybe a woman who is hitting on her. But Lila, not intimidated by Faith, instead addresses her by name, which causes Faith to put up her guard because she'd come and say I never told you my name? How do you know who I am? But that same moment a limo pulls up with Lee sitting inside and all three of them get into the car and they take off. Well, before we fight out more about that conversation between them, it cuts back to Romania, 1898. And Darula returns back to the same house where the Gypsy girl was in the first scene and she's looking for Angeles. And Angeles is now cowering in the corner talking basically to himself about the victims. Not everyone screams the children they usually scream.
Speaker 2:And what's interesting here is in Season 7, after Spike is given his soul and he's busy talking to himself and ranting and gibberish. Well, this is very similar to what we're seeing here with Angel right now, and we're seeing that basically what's happening here for both Spike and Angel is the reason why they're basically seeing gibberish and plucking to themselves is the fact that they have this huge tidal wave of realizing all of the harm they've caused, because when they were vampires, when they had no soul, yes, intellectually they knew the harm they were causing, but for them, they regarded humans as beneath them. It would be the same thing like if somebody said I just killed a fly. Okay, so I killed a fly, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. And to them, that's what humans were beneath them, as Spike described them as happy meals with legs. Because they were food. They were just victims. He cared nothing about them. In the same way why most humans don't lose too much sleep over a cow being killed or whatever, because it's food, it's what happens. It's the circle of life, as it were. But now, at this point, with the curse, they can't tune it out. They can't just ignore the slaughter, the blood that they've drank, the bodies that they've butchered. They now are forced to confront that every single death given to them, that is the true curse that Angel was given. Was this guilt, was this realization? Oh my God, the children screamed. All the people I have killed, all the lives I have ruined, all of this hitting him at once. That's why his mind is, for this moment, unable to handle it. Well, darla, talking to him, starts to realize that what happened to him, as he slowly reveals the curse.
Speaker 2:And what's interesting here is how Darla is reacting during this scene. She is truly concerned about him at the very beginning because she reacts as if he was injured in some fashion. And, once again, this is sincere affection for him, sincere feelings. It would be the same way any person would have. If the person you love has been injured or maimed in some fashion, you would be concerned and for her, him being given the soul is the same way as somebody else being deformed or maimed in some manner, and for her, a vampire being given the soul is just as destructive of an act because he is no longer the same man she loved. As a result, she is disgusted by him and she brings up a stake in friends to kill him unless he leaves, which is a very similar reaction.
Speaker 2:For when Liam changed into Angeles, the person who loved him also reacted you're not the person I love is father. His father also reacted with you're a monster, now you're a freak, and called him filthy disgusting similar reaction that Darla has to him now. Now they has a soul. So both times, when he was changed from mortal to vampire and then vampire to a vampire with a soul, a person that loved him and whom he loved rejects him. And now he has to be out on his own yet again. Well, he does stumble out on the street, rejected by all, because human society doesn't want him, because he's a vampire In vampire society. He does want him because he has a soul, so he has no one to turn to, which is also a similar thing that we see is happening with Faith. No one wants her Because the Scoobies have deserted her. She's got the law is looking for her. She is truly on her own, the same way Angel was after the curse.
Speaker 2:Well, speaking of Faith, it cuts back to present day. Wolfram and Hartward, lindsay, lyla and Lee I love the alliteration are talking to Faith, and Lindsay reveals that she has a felony arrest warrant issued for her in Sunnydale. One would assume it was made for the mayor's assistant because, keep mine, she was knocked into a coma. She was never arrested for it. And with that, lee Mercer then calls Faith a busy little beaver, which is a nice call back, because in the episode who Are you, faith, while in Buffy's body, also referred to herself as a busy little beaver. Well, lindsay goes on and he mentions that what he's most interested in is not her crimes, it's actually the fact that she is a slayer, thus making her more powerful. And he offers to erase her record in exchange for killing someone, which leads to a nice exchange between the two of them.
Speaker 1:I just had a perfectly good murder case go up in smoke, and you seem to have a certain expertise in that area. So to make a long story less long, I think if a service is rendered we can get you off. You don't know how many men have promised me that.
Speaker 2:I love Eliza's delivery of those lines because once again there's a wink in her eye where it's almost comical in the way she says it, a knowingness that makes the lines fun. They then reveal who it is they want her to kill and they say Angel and they attempt to describe him. But they only have to get past the first half of the sentence before she says sure, which surprises all of them. Now what is interesting here is Wolfram and Hart has got a lot of connections. They know a lot about everything through their psychics or whatever, just because they're very powerful. So it's actually a surprise that no one at Wolfram and Hart, or especially Lindsay and Lila, who are two very intelligent, well researched characters, that none of them knew that she knows who Angel is, that they actually did oppose each other in season 3. It wasn't like this was a mystery or she was a hidden character that you would think they would have known about. What happened in Sunnydale and also the fact that Angel was dating another slayer at the same time. Faith was there, so that they do have this chronological overlap. So her wanting to kill him shouldn't have come as much of a shock to them. And nevertheless it does, and she says that all she wants to know is how much she'll be paid and that's basically a hold over from her time with the mayor. Very mercenary. With that, lee very condescendingly and very ignorantly explains that the firm is in no way connected to her actions. Now, granted, he's less creepy, as I said, than he was in sense and sensitivity, but he is far more annoying here. And with that he basically says don't make us look bad, hereby completing under estimate who and what Faith is, which is a person who can snap his neck in two and then go have a snack immediately afterwards. Well, she quickly educates him on who she is because she grabs him and shoves his head onto the desk again and again and again, over and over, just like the Sceevy Pimp on the alleyway at the beginning of the episode. I can't say I wasn't rooting for her because, I'm sorry, lee is an annoying character, so he had it coming, so I was actually cheering her on as she is just slamming him again and again, saying how am I making you look now? And Lindsay and Lila meanwhile just sitting back watching this, not doing anything to stop this. It just means coming with Lila's saying she shows initiative and Lindsay pick up the phone and saying Jesse, I think you better make it three for dinner instead of four. What I love is the fact that you just naturally like both of them and you truly wonder why these two work brought in sooner, because hell, I could watch an entire series just of Lila and Lindsay battling each other.
Speaker 2:Well, the next day, angel and the team are walking through a hallway to meet the new client, the divorce client, for lunch and Cordelia, who hasn't told them why they're meeting with him, because they think it's maybe she had a vision, he needs help, so on, so forth. But she does reluctantly explain that it is just a boring divorce case. It's not a demon, it's not some creature tormenting him, no one's possessed or anything like that. And both Angel and Wesley are naturally resistant because, as they explain, it goes against our mission statement that they had for helping people who couldn't be helped. And this is a boring thing that all firms handle. This is nothing special. As Cordelia is trying to convince them, we see Faith slowly appear in the background and actually rewild this to watch, and she just quietly moves into the background where we see an entire crowd in the hallway. And then suddenly she does appear, but it's very slow. What I love was the overhead shot, because she picks up a crossbow to shoot at him and then the camera does an overhead shot so we can see clearly how close she is to Angel and how easy the kill shot can be while she fires and Angel whips around instantly.
Speaker 2:And this one I rewild and rewatched like three or four times just to admire how fast it was, because usually most of the time when someone's shooting a crossbow or arrow whatever at Angel, it's head on he's seeing it, so as a result it's not as impressive for him to grab it. In this case his back was to her. He didn't know she was there. It was almost like his spider sense kicked in where his vampire sense kicked in and he grabs it right when it's landing on top of his chest before it could go in, causing Faith to look excited and say that was so cool and as a fan I moved in. I was agreement with her on that. That was really, really cool.
Speaker 2:With that, cordelia Wesley and Angel are understandably concerned, because this was even more than one spike up here, because they realize how truly dangerous Faith is. Think of her job title Vampire Slayer. Her mission statement in life is to kill what Angel is, and she has the skills and the ability to do it. So, once again, just like Lindsay, was it underestimating her? Angel isn't underestimating her because he knows how truly dangerous and capable she is. Well, she immediately takes off after saying this is going to be fun and then dives through a window.
Speaker 2:Well, it cuts back to Angel Investigations and Angel has hung up the phone talking to Giles, who comments that she left Sunnydale a week ago and Giles had described her mental state as quote borderline psychotic. Wesley brings up a very good point here, which is the fact that if you know that a borderline psychotic who has already killed people has taken off from Sunnydale, you might want to drop Wesley and Angel a line saying we don't know if she's coming here, why she might be going south, she might be going north, from east to west, we don't know. But just in case she decides to hit the confines of Los Angeles, you might want to keep an eye out for a psychotic slayer who's capable of murder. And even Wesley makes that comment. Why didn't Giles even warn him? Well, angel tries to justify it by saying that Giles didn't realize Faith was coming for Angel and was more concerned about Buffy which, since Angel commented that that was a week ago Okay, I could see him not calling that day. But sometime over the following week you would think Giles would once again have picked up the phone and called Wesley and said hey, just laying you down.
Speaker 2:Well, angel wants them to try first of all to figure out where Faith might be hiding by tracking down police reports of her crimes a logical approach to the date, considering who she is. And then he says, after we figure out where she is going to hiding. And he's saying this for a simple reason that once again he knows how dangerous Faith is and he wants to keep them safe. Now Cordelia is all in favor of that, not so much out of cowardice, but once again because she knows how dangerous Faith is. But Wesley refuses to go through with it.
Speaker 2:And once again, this is another major step forward for Wesley because he's refusing to back down, he's refusing to go into hiding and in fact says we're a team, we need to stick together. And Angel's response of we're not a team, I'm your boss, and, as we'll see in the second season, that comes into play again in an even darker tone when he fires them and it's also reminiscent of how Buffy acted on more than one occasion when, instead of allowing the Scoobies to help her out and defend her and her sister in their own special ways, she kept on saying I'm all by myself. Into each generation there is one girl, and she would turn her back on people who could help her, people who had her best interests at heart. And Angel was ready to do the exact same thing. And at that moment then, wesley and Angel debate on whether or not to kill her, and Wesley's attitude is that not just that she's moral, but that she's sick, that she does need help, was Angel takes position of what happens happens, which leads to this dialogue.
Speaker 1:If you let emotion control you right now, one of you will certainly end up dead, and that's what the lady wants. That's not good enough. She's not a demon, angel. She's a sick, sick girl. If there's even a chance she could be reasoned with, there was last year. I had a shot at saving her. I was pulling her back from the brink when some British guy kidnapped her and made damn sure she'd never trust another living soul. Angel, it's not Wesley's fault that some British guy ruined your oh wait, that was you. Go on.
Speaker 2:And that realization that Wesley was a major factor in why Faith might be at this point beyond saving does stop Wesley, because he is now beginning to realize that he's responsible for what's been going on. As up to this point, wesley might have been able to block it out as well, saying, oh, I was doing what was best for the council or whatever. But now Angel's very honest line to Wesley is what caused him to realize oops, this was wrong. Also, as a side note, that the line from Angel was even longer, but it was edited from length because the original line was I seem to remember Trang with Faith. Once I had her in a safe place on the verge of facing herself in what she'd done. Later a watcher knocked me unconscious with a tire iron took her away and let her escape, which gave her the opportunity to put a poison arrow in my back Stares at Wesley for a moment. Then I nearly killed Buffy not that one should ever learn from the stakes, which actually I like the dialogue they went with better because it put more of the focus on Wesley by making him realize what she did, and also the focus on Faith by showing the effect it had on her. So by rewriting that. It allowed the focus to be where it was intended to be, not so much on her shooting an arrow into his back. It didn't make Angel the focus of it, it made Faith and Wesley the focus.
Speaker 2:It now cuts to Angel opening the closet that we'll see many more times in the future of his cash-a-weapons. But instead of grabbing something to fight her with, instead he shuts it without taking a single thing out and he slowly walks upstairs to the office and he sees Faith opening the window, blind to let in the sunlight, as it results restricts his movements in the world because of the light, and she pulls out a gun and tosses it to him and as she's about to say something, he immediately, without blinking, shoots her, though most notably, he doesn't shoot to kill, shoots where her gut would have been, so basically enough to injure her and, more actually, closer to her legs. Well, it turns out nothing happened because they were blanks and this was almost like a test from Faith, because she wants to see if he can be as murderous as she is. And for her she's disappointed because she was hoping that he would shoot her like in the head or in the heart or wherever. But she realizes he wasn't going to kill her, and the dialogue between the two of them is wonderful and full of tension, and she literally dares him to attack her. She's almost like calling him a chicken for not doing so, and she wants him to be as violent as she is to justify her attacking him, but, more importantly, to justify her belief that everyone is bad, everyone is evil, everyone is murderous. It's not just me, the entire world sucks. So it's okay if I'm bad, because everyone else is An angel, though refuses to take the bait and just stands there talking to her. But to prove how dangerous she is, she shoots him in the shoulder, and this time it's not a blank. Now, granted, the bullets don't kill him, because even though, as he made the comment, let me guess what in bullets and her response is that's a great idea, something that didn't even occur to her and makes me wonder why people had not thought of that before now. But anyways, she does enough to try to get him riled up, to get him to hate her, saying well, great, she shot me, so now I have to kill her. After she shoots him, she then says let the games begin, and she escapes through the window.
Speaker 2:Well, it immediately cuts over to Wolfram in a heart and Lindsay is going through the hallway and passes Angel who is strolling into the building in a suit and briefcase to blend in and a lawyer stops Angel and it has a nice bit of dialogue between the two of them because the lawyer doesn't recognize who Angel is, which is believable, because at this point Angel, yes, is a liability for the firm, but he's probably not up to the level where everyone in the firm knows who he is, so it's more than possible to dress like that. That's, somebody would just say he was another nameless attorney and Angel, very good at handling situations, is storing up names and relied on the fact that with so many names, it's easy to mention names like Frank and Luisa in contracts and rely on the fact that nobody knows who anyone else is. Well, after that attorney leaves he, then Angel, heads into Lindsay's office and Lindsay also walks in about a minute or so later and both of these guys trade out cool each other. This is the scene I was referring to in my opening commentary. One of my favorite scenes is this between them, because neither of them look put out by the other, angel doesn't look startled that oh, he's been caught. He just leans back and just stares at him and Lindsay, on the other hand, is not at all shocked at Angel, is there and doesn't look put out either.
Speaker 2:And what this reminded me of watching it again was the classic scene in the movie Heat, the diner scene between Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. Now, I'm not going to go so far as to say David Boreanus and Christian Keen are on their level, but it reminds me of this, where you have the antagonist and the protagonist confronting each other and they realize this is not going to be the scene where they defeat each other, but this is a scene where they feel each other out and size each other up to see who's the stronger, who's the more alpha of the two. And, as a note, this is really the first time both actors truly played off of each other outside, of course, city of and, as I mentioned being their dialogue in that episode was very brief, was just a brief moment. This was a lot longer and, as I said before, you could see why they made Lindsay his primary antagonist throughout the series, because they play so well off of each other. There is a tension, there is a connection between the two of them that is palpable and just like with faith.
Speaker 2:What we sense here from Lindsay is the fact that he knows how to handle Angel and he knows what not to do, what not to say, because he knows the way Angel is. Angel won't go directly after Lindsay, especially at this point, unless Lindsay is a direct threat, like if Lindsay brought up a steak or whatever, then he would be a danger. But here just tough talking him is not going to cause Angel to hurt him in any way, because he's not a physical threat. And what I also like here is what it also reminds me of, not just Heat, but the Superman comic, because, if you're as listeners know, superman's main arch villain was Lex Luthor. Not because Lex was as strong or had as special powers the same way Superman. No, lex was a human and Superman could have killed him or defeated him physically any time without blinking an eye. But Lex was smarter than Superman was. That's where he was superior. He was able to outthink Superman. He was able to stay two steps ahead and, once again, to know what to do, what not to do. Same thing here, physically, angel is far stronger, faster, more invulnerable, so on, than Lindsay is. Lindsay is just a human. Lindsay knows this, and he's smarter than Angel, he can outthink him, he knows what to say, what not to say, and also, what Lindsay also mentions is that there are mystical barriers and other preventions, that against vampires that surround the building. At that point, that's when Angel chooses to leave, having gotten the information that he wanted.
Speaker 2:Well, it cuts back over to Cordelia's apartment, and Wesley and Cordelia are walking through the hallway looking at face police reports to try and figure out where she's at. This is a side note. We're at Cordelia's apartment, and this is different from what it was in previous episodes, because in previous episodes, her apartment opened to the outside. There was no hallway for anyone to walk to to get to her apartment door, so they changed the building around again. They do mention the fact that the reason why she hasn't been arrested well, technically she was, but she managed to break a policeman's jaw with his own handcuffs Ouch, yeah, rather dangerous woman.
Speaker 2:Well, cordelia tries to enter her apartment, but Phantom Dennis slams the door shut on her, and it's clear that he's doing this to protect her because, as we realize, she has an unwelcome guest already inside, and Cordelia, though, is thinking that just because Dennis is jealous of Wesley, the same way, he was jealous of her date in expecting.
Speaker 2:Well, it turns out, nope, it was because he was trying to protect her.
Speaker 2:Because faith then comes from around the corner and she comments again about how she's disappointed in Angel, how he's not in the game and she wants to find something to make him as hateful as she is and she fears harming Wesley and Cordelia might be the way to do it.
Speaker 2:And Wesley tries to reach out to her by saying that in her heart she's not a bad person. Well, her response to that, as I mentioned in the beginning, was to punch out Cordelia, his response To punch out faith. And, as I mentioned before, this is a great use of Wesley and shows the further evolution of the character, because he tries to talk her down but also has zero issues responding with force. Well, if faith, while she's impressed with Wesley not cowering or being a wimp you know being rather tough there was does respond with kicking him hard across the world, at this point, while Angel and Lindsay stand around seeing which one of them can out cool each other, my spitty sentence tingling it must be time for our pop culture segment, where I find every pop culture reference in the episode, compile it in a supercut and make heads or tails of what they are talking about Pop culture reference. Sorry.
Speaker 1:Hey, as long as you don't go scratching at me or humping my leg, we're 5x5. You know I'm 5x5. Here B living entirely large. How are you? 5x5. Are you alright? 5x5. You sure you're okay? 5x5. 5x5. 5x5. 5x5. 5x5. 5x5. 5x5. 5x5. 5x5, boss, she's like this cleavagee slut bomb walking around going itch and I'm wicked cool and 5x5. 5x5? 5, what? 5? 5? What? See, thousand things. No one knows.
Speaker 2:First of all, one cleavagee slut bomb is my favorite band name, but now I played those, not because they are all references from the episode, because, ironically, in spite of the title of the episode 5x5 and as you heard throughout the series, faith or somebody, as Faith has said it numerous times in this episode she never uses that phrase once, though it is associated with her because she said it 5 times, twice in the episode Faith Help and Trick, once in Revelations, once after she became Buffy and this year's girl, and later on we'll hear her use it one more time in the episode release. Now, even though neither Willow nor Tara knew what 5x5 meant, it is an actual phrase and it was used by radio operators back in the 40s and what it essentially means is loud and clear and it was used in wartime conversation because what it did was it was used to refer to signal, clarity and strength. The first number is referencing the signal and the second is the clarity and on a scale 1 to 5, 1 being very bad, 5 being very good to say that something is 5x5. You're seeing that it is very good with the signal and very good on the clarity, so it's excellent reception. Now, faith is not the only person to have used it. It has been used in other pop culture sources, such as the novel the Blackboard Jungle and in the science fiction action movie Aliens, where one character at a point says that they're in the pipe 5x5.
Speaker 2:But now it's back to the episode. Well, we get another flashback to Angel's past and now, at this point, after being thrown out of the house by Darla, he is wandering through the streets of Romania and he is lost in the shovel. Not at all, the handsome, clean cut version that we saw Angel's was at the very beginning of the episode and he's begging for food from a couple who brush him off rudely. As I said, this is a man now who is without anyone to support him. As I said, humans shun him, vampires hate him. He's got no one to turn to. Well, the husband of the couple he begs for food from rudely throws him a coin disgustingly, and Angel rejects it and he lunges for the wife, screaming out of a monster as he vamps out, because, just like Faith, he wants the world to hate him. He wants to be the monster that everyone views him as because, and just like with Faith, it gives him a purpose, even if the purpose is to be hated and loathed at least it's a purpose he is not useless. And also, by having the world hate him, then it justifies the self loathing that he has, because he wants the world to hate him as much as he hates himself and he feels he is deserving of this loathing and fear. So might as well act the villain, the men drag him into the alleyway and beat him up before he easily tosses him aside because, after all, he is still a vampire. He has superior strength and speed. With that, he grabs the wife and drags her in the alleyway to feed on her, and you get the feeling that he's doing this not so much because he's hungry. Well, yeah, he probably is, but that wasn't the main reason.
Speaker 2:But once again it gets back to. He wants to be the monster that everyone describes him as and he does proceed to try to feed on her. Well, it cuts back to Cordelia's apartment and Angel enters and sees her lying there bruised from Faith's punch, and she tells Angel about Faith and the statement she was making about Angel and trying to get him back into the game. Well, it cuts over to Faith's apartment and Wesley, who is a lot more bean up because Cordelia just has a simple bruise from the one punch, but we get the feeling Faith was rapidly beating him up because he's being up and bloody and he's also gagged and tied with Faith looking on, and Faith, at this point, is in pure psychotic mode.
Speaker 2:Now, at one point though, during the torture scene, just as a side note, eliza Duskuk does use the phrase British Channel, which is incorrect, so they had to redoubt it to English Channel to fix the line. Well, anyways, wesley bravely hangs on with dialogue. That is typical of him, as we see later on with this line oh, is your watch your faith? I know the real you and even if you kill me, there's just one thing I want you to remember you are a piece of shit which, while love is a nice word because at first it sounds like once again he's trying to reach out to her I want you to remember you're a good person. It's him going into dark Wesley mode that we'll see much more of later. And, as I mentioned before, we see him without his glasses, which does have the effect of making him look tougher. But because of his line readings, because of his the way he carries himself, he still comes across as very intelligent, but he's a lot more rugged, a lot more tough.
Speaker 2:Well, the lie from him about what she really is does set her off, and she proceeds to start to move on to her next form of torture, which is breaking a sheet of glass and using the jargid shards to cut him. Well, it cuts back to Cordelia, back to Cordelia's apartment, and she and Angel are looking through the list of crimes on a map, trying to figure out where faith might be. And Angel, though, figures out that the first attack, the stevee pimp who had his walling keys stolen and is still in the hospital because of the attack, is where faith must be hiding out, because she's got a place to stay and she has money. Well, now it cuts back to faith, who has used the shard of glass on him because she's holding it now and is looking very bloody. Now, what is interesting here is the fact that, unlike Angelus, who, as I've mentioned in the past, truly got pleasure out of the torture, you don't see any joy here on her face. It's actually very empty, very solemn and once again she is doing this for the same reason.
Speaker 2:Angel attacked the wife in the alleyway because is what she is she is a monster who deserves to be destroyed. She is doing all of this to try to get Angel to come out to attack her and kill her, and we actually see that she is exhibiting some of the same guilt that Angel felt when the curse was placed on him. She's not gibbering, but there is now an emptiness on her, in her. And what is interesting is because we do see that, unlike Lindsay and Lila, who know the harm that they are causing, just don't care. They are practically vampires and of themselves, they have no soul. They know that. They have it, they are reeking, but it means nothing to them, whereas with faith she does have a soul, she does have a conscience, and this is getting to her. Well, she goes back to Wesley and is talking to him and she poses an interesting what if? Which is, what if Giles had been her watcher and Wesley had been Buffy's? And with that she says would Giles be sitting here being tortured now? Or was Wesley always fated to be there, no matter what, that he was going to be tortured, no matter what happened? Nice thing with that dialogue is. It's her working out the conundrum of who is ultimately responsible for her actions. Was it society? Was she always destined to be bad and torturing whoever she wound up with? Or was it her fault and that she would have done it, no matter who watched over her, who trained her? She was still going to do this, no matter what. So is it society at fault or is she at fault? Or, and also, was she always fated to be bad? Well, she continues with threatening him with fire while blaming him for her action with the line. If I had been a better watcher, I might have been a more positive role model, which is also a little bit of a nice haul back, because it goes back to the episode consequences, where Faith poses a similar question to Buffy, where she says people always say why can't you be more like Buffy? Why don't they ever say to you, why can't you be more like Faith? Because once again, she is moving her blame onto someone else outside of herself, saying the fact that it's all your fault, like in consequences, it's all your fault, all your friends fault for turning their backs on me. So what I did is not my fault. Same thing here it's all Wesley's fault for not being a better watcher. Well, she has tried to break Wesley in some fashion, but he refuses to give her what she wants. Well, before she can get much further, angel then proceeds to kick in the door.
Speaker 2:Now question here I'm assuming this is an apartment that was owned by, or rented by, the Ski V Pimp. Now, granted, he's in the hospital, but, as far as we know, he's not dead, he's still alive. So, because the owner of the residence is still alive, how is Angel able to enter the apartment? Because Faith isn't the owner and, as I said, the owner is still alive. So that means he would have had to have permission. It leads to a question Maybe the Ski V Pimp didn't actually own the place? Maybe he was a squatter, just as the same way Faith was, in which case, since it's abandoned, angel could enter. Or did the owner die because of his wounds? Because Cordelia said that he was in the hospital? Maybe he died. It doesn't really matter though, because it's not about to get to the scene I mentioned at the beginning. It's one of my favorites of the series, because Angel says that he's now ready for her. But before we get to that scene, we have one last flashback and that's back to Romania, and Angel is stumbling through the alleyway and it turns out that he never actually fed on the woman that he couldn't kill her. So what we're seeing here is now at this point, because he has a soul, he is capable of change. He is not the monster he once was. Well, now to see another monster and see if they can be changed.
Speaker 2:It now cuts back to the present and Faith is holding a knife to Wesley's throat in front to kill him just for the fun of it, and Angel is talking to her and she hesitates for just a second, giving Wesley a chance to kick his chair over, and Angel then kicks the knife out of her hand and this starts that fight that I mentioned at the very beginning, which was super well choreographed, and it's the best one the series has had yet, with some awesome stunt work from both of them. And, as I said before, angel is fighting defensively and is clearly not out to kill Faith, even though at the beginning of the episode he implied he would. And Faith realizes he's not trying to kill her, which angers her all the more, and she throws him all around the room with lines like I thought you were bad and you can't take me. No one can take me. And this is expressing not so much arrogance but pure self-hatred. Well, during the course of the fight, they both fall out of the window into the alleyway below, and she continues with her self-hatred lines You're going to die. Trying to get him to kill her and punish her. You don't know what evil is, which is truly how she sees herself. I'm bad. That goes for Angels. I'm a monster in Romania.
Speaker 2:And finally fight back. Once again, she wants to be punished because it's what she deserves, as I mentioned at the beginning. That's what I love about this scene is every line counts, every line serves a purpose and every action serves a purpose because, as I said before, angel is not fighting back, is allowing her to come at him. He's just fighting just enough to stop her from actually killing him. Well, it starts to rain and it's quite clear. This is redemptive rain, trying to wash away their sins. And now he comes at her with words Now, as much as all of the rain just is obvious that this was intentional, because it was originally scripted, but it was cut because of the budget. However, when they did go to shoot that scene, it started raining anyway, so maybe somebody knew how important the rain was.
Speaker 2:But anyways, angel is, now that she's wearing herself out, is now trying to talk her down. And he says to her I know what you want and I'm not going to do it. What he's mean there is she's not going to be treated like the monster she thinks she is. He's not going to treat her like that. And then also he says I'm not going to make it easy for you, not so much the killing him, but the redemption, because he, out of everyone, knows how hard of work redemption is and how much effort. So he's like a loud bird, is scammed by on the redemption.
Speaker 2:Well, meanwhile Wesley has freed himself and is grabbing a knife because he is still of the belief she can't be changed, she has to be put down like a wild dog. And he goes downstairs and faith is continuing to fight, screaming I'm evil and I'm bad, over and over again. But now it is getting to her as she breaks down, sobbing, trying out do you hear me? I'm bad, please. And she is begging him to hate her so that things are easier for her.
Speaker 2:And the acting by Eliza in this scene is wonderful, just incredible acting from her. But anyways, she is being stricken with the same soul curse. She is now finally realizing everything that she has done, all of the harm she has caused, and she's going through the same agonizing pains that Angel went through right after the curse was given and that spike went through after his soul was restored. And because of the pain she is now feeling, she is literally begging him to kill her Because she is convinced that she deserves it.
Speaker 2:Well, wesley approaches, obviously to attack her when he sees her sobbing and pleading for death and seeing now that this is a sick little girl that he mentioned at the beginning to Angel that this is not a monster, this is not a demon, this is someone who needs to be saved. And that is their mission statement. Not handling divorce cases like he and Angel were describing to Cordelia, but it's to help the hopeless, and that's what faith is. While she falls to her knees sobbing at Angel's arms and in a very quiet moment, wesley then drops his knife because he realizes she doesn't deserve death, she deserves redemption, the same as Angel does, the same as he does, the same as Cordelia does. They all deserve redemption, including faith, and that's where the episode ends. Well, now for the favorite kills and lines.
Speaker 1:The order of Taraka. I mean, isn't that overkill? No, I think it's just enough kill.
Speaker 2:Well, in this episode there was actually, despite the fact that we have a slayer and a vampire, there's actually only one scene of killing and that was in the prologue with the three homeless demons where Angel slices off their heads, two initially with the sword and then one immediately afterward. Now, note, I am not counting the gypsy girl, mostly because that was done all off screen. We only see him bite her. Yes, we realize later, because we know the mythology, that he did end up killing her and the old woman and gives him the curse, so on and so forth, but we don't actually see him kill the gypsy girl, so I'm not counting that. So now, as a result, the kill total is 27.5 for Angel, 1.5 for Wesley, 43 for all other characters, total of 71 so far. Now for the favorite kill. I'm actually going to say in this case none, because I can't see that the killing of the homeless demons was all that interestingly done the same way, like it was in a previous episode with the swinging of the sword and the staking and all that. Now, in this case, here he slices off their heads with the sword, and it also didn't serve any thematic purpose, so it was one that wasn't all that interesting, the fight between he and Faith at the end, even though that was obviously non-deadly, far more interesting and far more fun. Now for the favorite line. As I mentioned so many great lines in this episode, but the one I'm going to go with is in that final scene where Faith says you don't know what evil is.
Speaker 2:This is truly the turning point for Faith, because up to this point she had been able to distance herself emotionally from her actions. She was the same as Angel was when he was. Angel is the same way Lindsay and Lila are even now, which is yes, I know I'm causing harm, yes, I know I'm hurting others, but it's not my fault, it's all society's fault, it's all Wesley's fault, it's all whoever's fault. But now, at this point, she is accepting who she is, she is realizing the harm she caused and she is now viewing herself as a monster. And, as they always say, the first step to recovery is acknowledging you have a problem. So in this case, the first step to redemption is acknowledging that you have done something that needs to be redeemed and also that you are capable of being redeemed. That line didn't, and now, as a result, she is now on the same path that Angel, leslie and Cordelia are. That's it for this week's episode. In the next episode I will discuss the following show but an all new angel.
Speaker 2:I will continue my retrospective with the episode Sanctuary, where Buffy returns to Angel, sadly for the last time in series, but this is a far less loving of a visit than it was, and I will remember you. So join me as I discuss how just fight Buffy was in a reaction to seeing a girl who tried to help end the world terrorized her mother, slept with a boyfriend, took over her body and other petty offenses, and if it provides a strong ending for this four part story. So join me as Steven for the next episode of Wolfram and Cast. If you wish to reach out to us with any questions or comments, you can reach us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter at Wolframcast, or email us at Wolframcast at gmailcom. Feel free to write to us and we might read your comments or emails on the air. Please leave us a rating and review and be sure to press subscribe on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcast entertainment. But for now… who is this irresistible creature?
Speaker 1:who has an insatiable love for the dead, just a outlook of some kind… Waiting…, waiting. But I say I knew I had something that I didn't like, something I should've liked and wanted, toived it for 10 years… I didn't understand anything.
