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
S1EP19 ("Sanctuary") -- Unveiling Angel: An Exploration of Buffy's Final Appearance and Faith's Redemption
Craving an in-depth exploration of the Angel series? We promise to delve into the character arcs, dramatic shifts, and emotional depth in the 19th episode, Sanctuary, directed by Michael Lange and written by Tim Minear and Joss Whedon. This podcast episode is a comprehensive dissection of the final appearance of Buffy in the series and the closure of the 4-part Faith storyline. We'll also touch on the emotionally poignant final scene between Buffy and Angel.
In our deep dive, we scrutinize the transformation of Faith and Wesley's characters, and the changing dynamics among the team. Faith's guilt and vulnerability, a side we've never seen before, are heavily discussed, along with Buffy's uncharacteristic behavior towards her. We also ponder over Angel's careful approach to Faith and the themes of forgiveness, redemption, and justice woven into the narrative. Our discussion extends beyond the confines of the episode and explores a thrilling new Buffy audiobook, featuring many original cast members and promising a new adventure.
Lastly, we express our heartfelt gratitude to our listeners. Your continued support and loyalty mean the world to us. Join us in this journey as we decode the intricate narrative layers of the Angel series and shed light on the dramatic and emotional depth of the characters we've all come to love. Bring your insights and let's discover the fascinating world of Angel together. Buckle up, it's going to be a thrilling ride!
Oh pirates. Yesterday rabbi sold out to the merchant ships, Minutes after day, to kai from the bottomless pits. But my hand was made strong by the end of the almighty we fought in this generation. Try, unfriendly, Won't you get to sing these songs of freedom, Cause all I hear are redemption songs.
Speaker 2:Redemption songs. I am longtime fan Stephen Youngin. 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. Thus, for each episode, I will go over what works, does it work? And all of the ideas and themes the show puts forth.
Speaker 2:In this week's episode, I will discuss the 19th episode of the series Sink Shory, which was directed by Michael Lange and written by Tim Menier and Joss Whedon. Michael Lange directed one other episode of Angel Judgment and four episodes of Buffy, clean band, candy, surprise pangs and bad girls. In addition, he directed over 240 other episodes of other TV series, including the OC, beverly Hills, 90210, the Larry Sanders Show, dawson's Creek and the X-Files. The episode originally aired on May 2, 2000, and the IMDB description of the episode is Angel attempts to reform faith as Kate, the Watchers' Council and even Buffy's summer pursuer. Sink Shory was the fourth part in a four-part story that began on Buffy with this Year's Girl and who Are you, and then extended on to Angel with the episode 5x5. The episode did have an epilogue of swords back on Buffy, with Angel making a guest appearance in the Yoko Factor where he met Riley and tried to make up with her following their final scene in Sink Shory. But unlike the previous four episodes, all of which did directly lead into each other plot-wise, the Yoko Factor is more focused on a different, non-face-centered storyline and was more of an epilogue than an additional chapter. In addition to wrapping up the face storyline, the episode also brought back Buffy one final time for the series, as we will discuss. Their final scene together in this episode is much different than their final scene in I Will Remember you, but is just as emotionally devastating. While Tim Minier wrote the majority of the episode, joss was responsible for that final scene.
Speaker 2:In writing it. Joss said the last scene between Buffy and Angel in the crossover where she comes to Angel. That stumped us for a long time and I finally realized when I was working on it that's because they need to fight now. They can't be just like oh, we're swell pals and we get along. They really are at different places in their lives and it's very difficult for them to see each other. So it really helped define how the shows are different and it ends up with Angel laying into Buffy a little bit and saying I've got my own show now and it's different from your show, so get off my show. That's basically what he's saying and the moment I wrote that scene I got very excited and I said I get it. Now I understand what Angel is and it's not Buffy, and I felt like the training wheels came off For the episode Eternity.
Speaker 2:I commented that the appearance of Angelus was more of a wasted gimmick than a satisfying return of a popular character. So the questions for this week's episode are one was the return of Buffy far more satisfying? And two did the episode make a satisfying advancement in Fade's character art? Well, before I get into that, just a couple of other side comments. First of all, I do need to mention the Slayer's audiobook that is out by the time you're listening to this episode. It's not the first audiobook involving Buffy the Vampire Slayer that has come out, but what is notable about this one is the fact it is the first one to bring back a wide group of original cast members from the beloved TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and reunite them for an all new adventure and, according to publisher Summary of the audiobook, a decade has passed since the epic final battle that concluded Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Speaker 2:The game changing spell that gave power to all potential Slayers persists, with new Slayers constantly emerging. Things are looking grim for the bad guys. Rebellious Vampire Spike is working undercover in Los Angeles with his old pal Clem when he meets feisty rookie Slayer Indira, who wants Spike to be her mentor. Stakes intensify as Cordelia Chase emerges from an alternate reality where she alone is the Slayer and Buffy Summers doesn't exist. Cordelia enlist Spike's help with a classic big bad terrorizing her world. His ex Drusilla, giles, anya, jonathan and Tara also return, but through the years and the vassals of the multiverse, not everyone is who they used to be.
Speaker 2:As a note, this is bring back cast members, including James Masters, james Leary, danny Strong, juliet Landau, anthony Head, emma Cawfield and Ember Benson and Charisma Carpenter to recreate their original character role, even if it's in an audio format. And also, what is notable about this is who wrote and directed this audio book. It was written and directed by Ember Benson and Chris Golden and is co-directed by KC Whalen At the time of the recording. The audio book has not come out yet, so I can't give any comments in terms of how good or bad it was, but obviously, with the reunion of this size and of these notable actors to come back and recreate their roles one more time, 20 plus years after the show ended, I can't deny that it is worth checking out and it is available on audiblecom as well as Amazon and anywhere else that you would get your audio books at Now.
Speaker 2:The other thing I just want to also comment is more than a bit of a thank you to listeners. As of the beginning of October, when this episode was recorded, the show has reached 1,300 downloads total for all the episodes. I do want to thank everyone for their royalty and listenership and it makes me feel very good that there are other listeners out there who are just as interested in the TV series Angel and have been making comments on Facebook posts as well as elsewhere. And my request is that if you are listening, and especially if you do enjoy this show, then please feel free to leave reviews and comments on Spotify and Apple Podcasts so that others can become aware of the show as well. And in fact, in regards to some comments that were made on episode 11, some Nambulist. A few comments that I just want to point out that were made on Facebook.
Speaker 2:This one from Adrienne Daly. She wrote I have to say I've just recently discovered this page and the podcast Been a season one, episode one this morning and I can't tell you how happy I am. I think I smiled the entire two plus hours. I could talk about and analyze Angel, the series all day, but I just don't have the people in my life do so. Love, love, love. The intelligent, in-depth, interesting and fun discussion. Can't wait to hear more. Thank you Still from Rachel Louise Bershal I apologize if I mispronounce anyone's names. Her comments about some Nambulist was Wanted more of Liam, though the season one episode each season would have done for me just wanted more information about his human life.
Speaker 2:One father-son relationship. Two brother and sister relationship. Questions needed to be answered for me were one Angelus was good at art, so question was Liam a would have been artist? Two how much worth was his family and what was his surname? I think they would have done more with Liam in Angel's seasons if David was good at doing the Irish accent. It wasn't good. I think they knew he wasn't great, so Joss stopped wearing the seances but still would have loved to have seen more. And finally, also from Carrie. The show does again, enough love. David really got a chance to shine and he was so funny. Team Cangell.
Speaker 2:And just in regards to all three of those comments, first of all, for Adrian, thank you for your very kind words. They are very much appreciated and I hope I continue to make you smile as you listen to these other episodes, even if now at this point I am speaking by myself. But I do hope I'm still providing the necessary in-depth commentary that you were tuning in originally to listen to. And for Rachel, I agree with you it would have been nice to learn more of Liam's backstory to help bring up the character, because, if you recall, in some Namuelist that's one of the things I liked about it was we did get for the first time pre-Angela's Liam, whereas before we never really saw it except in just a brief bit in Becoming, and it would have been nice to see that, which I agree with you. The downside is at least, by not seeing Liam, at least we didn't have to suffer through one of the worst Irish accents that I could imagine an actor giving, and that could have been a reason why Joss stopped writing Liam, because this way we didn't have to hear the Irish accent. And from Kerry I do agree with.
Speaker 2:David is very good at dry delivery, as I have complimented him in a number of episodes, such as the last one with the opening scene of Angel's dry delivery of the line, and I thought I knew Eternity. He does a very good job at providing those lighter bits of humor. It's when he tries to get more gag-ish that he doesn't quite work. It's the dry lines he does much better at Now. With those initial comments out of the way, now for answering the questions about the episode itself. First of all, in regards to this episode, while I did have a few issues with the episode, I do consider it to be a very strong ending to the four-part story. What they did quite well was they made Face Arc as interesting as Angels and Wesley's were, because one of the things they did in the previous episode, five by five with the flashbacks, and they did also here in this episode was they made it clear that her journey is harrow-el-ing Angels as well.
Speaker 2:This is a woman that also, just like Angelus, had caused a lot of harm and when she was bad that she never really felt any guilt about it. She may not have been quite as callous as Angelus was, because technically she always did have a soul, but she managed to tune out that side of her so that she never felt the guilt. And, as we see in this episode, when she is now confronting it, we see she's going through the same haunted looks that Angel had when the curse was laid on him and he's having to fully comprehend what all he did when he was evil. And this is why Angel is the best sponsor for her, because, just like for alcoholics, the best sponsor for an alcoholic is another alcoholic, because that's somebody who can truly relate to what the person is going through. Same thing here Angel is the one person who would most understand what faith is going through and she accepts that as well. That's why she's willing to listen to him in this episode. That's because she knows this is a guy who's on the same path I am, who knows what he's talking about when he says it's not going to be easy, you're never going to fully find redemption and it is a lifelong journey.
Speaker 2:And I have to give credit to Eliza, this is probably one of her strongest performances that she's given in either series, because there's a vulnerability to her that we never saw in Buffy and we'll never see again an Angel when she returns in Judgment and then in the season four, angel is storyline that. This one, it's not something. She's scared, she's raw, she is essentially she's got an open wound and she is trying to comprehend what's all happening to her. And I give credit to Eliza for allowing a lot of the scenes Like at the very beginning, to let her eyes do the talking, where you can see in her face, in her expression, without any words, the guilt that is waving over her to the point where she can't handle it. And also, what I give credit is by the way that she is reacting, that she gives almost hint that there is a lot that we don't know about her because we're not told everything that she did prior to becoming a slayer. That was her background.
Speaker 2:And once again, as I had mentioned in five by five, I am basing this strictly on Buffy as well as also the Angel TV series. So any spin off books like Go Ask Malice or any comic book adaptations I am not basing this on. I am basing on just what we saw on the TV screen so that in mind, we don't know what, what she was like before she was a slayer. Was she a troubled youth? Was she in and out of juvenile hall? And also, we don't know what all she did for the mayor, because, yes, we saw her kill the professor, we saw her do a few other things, but one would imagine in between the season three episodes the mayor had her do a lot more stuff for him. So who knows what more harm she was doing? And even on five by five in the previous episode we were given a hint that she was running swath throughout LA. So who knows how many other people she was attacking or mugging or do anything else to just for fun, just for kicks?
Speaker 2:So, just like we don't know truly all of the true horrors that Angel was created, because we're told he slaughtered hundreds of thousands of victims, obviously we only saw a small percentage of that same thing here with fate. There's a lot of her background that we don't know. So with her face in the first half or so of the episode and even in the second half, she's conveying everything we don't know about the guilt of it, which ultimately results in us rooting for Even though we know she's done all these bad things, even though we know how dangerous she is, we're still rooting for her, the same way we root for Angel. Yes, he did all these evil things, but there's a sincerity to the redemption and that's one of the things I wish the episode had covered a little bit more. What is the difference between justice and redemption? Can someone who's done a lot of harm be worthy of redemption?
Speaker 2:The episode takes a view on it, but I wish they had taken a little bit more time, which ultimately makes me wonder what the series would have been like if, let's say, eliza had become part of Team Angel, same way Lorne and Wesley and Fred and Gunn and Connor become in later episodes. It would have been interesting to see what it would have been like if Faith had been on there, because that's one flaw with the episode is it rushes her character arc very quickly, whereas Wesley's and the reason why I preach it so much and I will continue praising it throughout the series it's because his is given room to breathe. He's given five years to go through an extended character arc, so we're allowed to see the subtle changes in him throughout the series as he's come into terms with it Almost get the feeling that if Eliza had been able to join the show as a rager either do the choice or whatever. We would have also seen just as subtle of changes in her, a slow acceptance of her guilt and willing to accept punishment, etc. And that would have made for an even more interesting dynamic as Angels her guides her along and they help each other out. But, that being said, because Eliza never did become a rager on the show, as I mentioned, she has a cameo appearance in Judgment at the beginning of Season 2 and then she doesn't return again until Season 4 for the Angelus Arc. That as a result of that, the writers and also the director had to do what they could within 48 minutes to have her go through an arc of guilt and then acceptance at the end. Now, one other thing that I do like about it is the fact that the episode also lends additional complexity to Wesley. As I just mentioned, this is the single best character arc in the entire series and this provides a nice interesting dynamic, which is in the first part of the storyline.
Speaker 2:Over on Buffy Giles was also confronted with the retrieval squad and Giles the stronger of the two watchers, the cool watcher he gave in to them. He agreed with them to let them do what they needed to do, while Wesley, who is still perceived as the weaker of the two watchers, resisted them, as he explains later in the episode. He acted like he was going along with them just to keep them at bay, but in reality he decided not to do so. And what is interesting is his motivation for it. It's not so much because oh well, I suddenly forgive Faith for everything she did and for the hours of torture she gave me. No, in fact, he makes it very clear he doesn't forgive her and he does consider her dangerous. It's because he trusts Angel and that is what causes him to make that decision and in a way that moves his character forward, because he is willing to go against the watchers council, because of his loyalty to Angel and his trust in Angel's judgment and Angel's redemption, and likewise for Angel, as I mentioned, for his redemption.
Speaker 2:This now turns the focus of the show, because before now it was helping the hopeless in which somebody was in danger. They were being pursued by a demon or whatever. He would go in and save them. But now, with this episode, the show is very much fine tuning what his goal is. It's not to help people in danger. As he says early on in the episode, it's saving people's soul. We saw in the previous episode where he brought the gang member in to testify in the trial. So he was saving that guy's soul. But now with this one, with Faith, he is making it very clear. It's not so much she is in danger, this is a slayer. She can more than defend herself. That's not the point of why he was helping her. It was not to rescue her, it was not to save her the way it was with the other characters. No, in this case he was wanting to redeem her, to help her on her path, to get her soul back, as it were. And he was willing to do this even though everyone, all of his allies, buffy, cordelia, wesley, the watchers council all of them were saying no, she is beyond redemption, she cannot be saved. He was willing to stand up to each and every single one of them and say she has a soul, she can be saved. That is now changing the focus of his character, his hope for redemption, and it changes the focus of the series from this point forward, because that is the type of people he is trained to help Not the hopeless, but, his mind, the hopeful.
Speaker 2:And now for the one other criticism, and that's the use or in this case, complete non use of Cordelia. As we've seen in other episodes, in this one she is a complete afterthought. She has literally one scene at the very beginning. She has literally one scene at the beginning and then literally disappears from the entire rest of the episode, where she makes the excuse I'm getting out of town because faith is dangerous, and that's it. She's gone. And we don't see Charisma in any other scenes from that point on, which is sad because she's never given a final scene with Buffy or, in particular, with Sarah, because her final scene with Sarah was in the episode. I will remember you the one scene at the end where Buffy and Cordelia have almost a season 3-esque dialogue between the two of them, but that's it. It would have been nice to have one final wrap up between Cordelia and Buffy in this one.
Speaker 2:And then, finally, they had to make time for the action scene which, while well done I mean it was nicely staged and exciting, nicely edited between the different fronts it actually, oddly enough, it slowed the episode down because it wasn't the best part of the episode. The best parts were the quieter scene of the characters talking to each other. They had really good dialogue, as I will mention at various points in the episode. And having these characters confront not just faith but confronting themselves. And can we forgive her? Is she beyond help? And also, as I mentioned before, can you have justice and redemption? Can a person be redeemed? Those are discussions I wanted more of, and taking time out for a fairly elaborate action scene wasn't as interesting. It almost felt more of filler. But now I want to get to the big question that I had, which was Buffy.
Speaker 2:As I mentioned in my opening comments in the episode Inperity Angelus, I was disappointed in it because they didn't make good use of him. He wasn't that dangerous, he was barely on the screen. He just showed up, made snarky comments and then disappeared. And also how they brung back sort of made the curse part of it not as powerful, because hey, you can bring back Angelus with a feel-good drug as opposed to he has to find perfect happiness. So now the question is in this one was it good use of Buffy bringing her in? And I would say yes. It was a much more interesting use of Buffy and this one felt far less of a gimmick than a necessary element for the TV series to move forward.
Speaker 2:As Joss commented, their final scene together was needed because if you wanted Angelus, the series, to stand on its own, then there had to be a separation of the characters. I've read on Facebook boards about various fan-type wishlist episodes oh, I wish Buffy had come back in this episode, or I wish they had brought in all the slayers for this episode, or so on and so forth. No, for a spin-off show to work, it has to rise and fall on its own merits. You have to have a core group of characters that are separated from the mother's shell, from the original series. Otherwise it's always just going to be a spin-off and nowhere near as good.
Speaker 2:So you needed their final scene, as Joss said, where Angelus is an essence saying this is my show, I'm on my own now you go off to your show, you do your storylines, which is also, without going too deep of a rabbit hole, why I was not as interested in the Yoko factor and why at the beginning I described it more of an epilogue, because we got their ending here in this episode. We didn't need the wrap-up of Angel come back and saying okay, maybe I overreacted, or his apology, and all that and same thing at the end of the series when Angel makes one more appearance, which was once again not needed. Yes, it was fun at the time, but in retrospect, superfluous. But now, getting back to Buffy, on this episode, though, she was used very strongly, and I like the little tiny elements here, such as Angel's use of the phrase my town, referring to LA, which contrasts interestingly with Buffy's use of my city when she was referring to Sunnydale, because once again, this is saying not just my town, my city, but my show, which, as I said, this is them claiming ownership to their own series. And one very interesting thing that I liked about Buffy was the fact that we were seeing her through Angel's eye, because she was the guest on his show as opposed to being the star of her own show. So, as a result, we're getting his point of view of her, and because we're seeing it through his lens, through his point of view, well, to be honest, she doesn't come across as that positive of a character I know.
Speaker 2:A lot of times in Buffy she is not the best of leaders, she gets preachy, she doesn't trust her friends enough when she should, but in this one she is extremely self-centered and mean and, yes, she fights alongside faith, at the end in a way saving her and fighting off the Watchers Council retrieval squad. But she's not really a positive or heroic character because, first of all, she's not trusting Angel's judgment of faith. She's not trusting that maybe he knows what he's doing because, as I mentioned before, he's been down this path. If there's anyone who would understand the capability of being redeemed, it would be him. And she doesn't trust that when she should. And she's refusing to even listen to faith. Yes, faith did a lot of bad things.
Speaker 2:But her opening scene, when faith is trained to sincerely offer an apology, after Angel had talked to her in the previous scene saying you're going to need to apologize to others, not just to me but to others, including Buffy and when she sees Buffy, she does try to offer a sincere apology. It's not an act, it's not a reluctant one. No, you can tell by the look in her face Faith is sorry for what she did. Buffy not only doesn't accept it, she cuts her off in mid-sentence and says straight out if you even think of apologizing, I will beat you down. Not exactly heroic, responds by any means and layer on. In fact, when fighting with Angel, she straight out, refers to him as a murderer, so referring back to when he was Angel, so say, no, I don't forgive you for what you did as Angels.
Speaker 2:Whereas on the series she was willing to forgive him. And to make the pain even worse, in her final scene with Angel, she brings up Riley. Now, granted, yes, faith had accidentally revealed that to Angel, so he was aware of Riley, but still she does it in the way that it's meant to cut him. Yes, I love Riley, which is really interesting, considering on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the series, we never hear her say that to Riley. She never says I love you. In fact, riley even comments to Xander the fact that in his mind, she doesn't love him, which is what causes them to separate.
Speaker 2:And ultimately, what is interesting in regards to her actions towards faith and her unwillingness to forgive her is the fact that on Buffy, she was very willing to forgive Angelus and do whatever it could to return his soul, causing Xander at one point to even say in the end, you're willing to forget Ms Calendar's death, all so you can have your boyfriend back. I mean, this is a man who killed Jenny Calendar, tortured Giles, nearly killed her mother, stalked her, threatened her friends and oh, by the way, did I mention he nearly ended the world by having it all sucked into hell on nothing more than just whim. She was willing to forgive all of that. When Angel came back, she was willing to forgive him for all of that, but for faith. She's faith select with Riley, and that is potentially what we see as a line. She won't cross. Ending the world, that's fine. Sleeping with my boyfriend you're dead to me Now. Granted, their differences are a little bit more complex than that, as she discusses in her scene with Faith up on the roof, but still it does seem non-heroic that she is so unwilling to cut Faith any slack whatsoever, whereas, as I said, with Angel, she was more than willing to wipe away all of his sins. So now that leads us into the episode itself.
Speaker 2:Now the episode opens directly following the ending of the previous episode 5x5, and it has Angel and Faith writing down in his elevator into his apartment and Faith, as I mentioned before, is looking battle-scarred, not just physically but emotionally. She is worn out, she is haunted and, as I mentioned before, we see her path following and paralleling Angels, because that was a similar look that Angel had when the curse was first laid upon him was the fact that he also had this haunted, distraught look of trying to comprehend everything that he had done. She has the same look. This is not a woman that looks ready to get into a battle or fight anyone. Well, he leads her into his bedroom where he gently and quietly comforts her, puts a blanket around her like a little child and talks very quietly to her, very soothingly, and we see her interface. It all for bravado and cockiness is gone.
Speaker 2:This is not the Faith we saw in the previous episode or in the season 3 episodes, or even in the 2 episode of Buffy that she was on right before this. This is a much more vulnerable girl, but we see that she still does have violence within her, as we get a quick flash of her striking at Angel in the image, so that seeing that, yes, she is exhausted, but there's still a violent side to her. Now, what is notable about this scene is it's actually one of the shorter prologues that they've had in the series. It's actually under two minutes in length, and it uses a minimal bit of dialogue by allowing both of the characters to show the effects of the battle on them, especially on Faith, and writer, tim Menier, said that the script for this episode was difficult because quote it was Faith as we had never seen her before. It was sort of easy when it was evil Faith, which was a lot of fun. The problem was trying to make her turn realistic. Even though Menier does comment that this was difficult, he pulled it off quite well. Well, at that point.
Speaker 2:It then cuts to the opening credits for the series and the episode where we see the writing and directing credits. Now just one cute side note here is usually in episodes that Joss co-writes, his name, being the creator of the show and being Joss Whedon, is usually listed first in the episode, but in this one it is Tim Menier and Joss Whedon, and the reason why it's because Menier jokingly told the editor that his name comes first alphabetically. The editor didn't realize that was a joke and actually did that. So that's why we have in this episode not Joss Whedon and Tim Menier, but Tim Menier and Joss Whedon.
Speaker 2:Well, now it cuts to the next morning and Cordelia is going through the office and she is also still showing signs of Faith attacking her the previous night and Wesley looking still battle-scarred, and not just physically, because he obviously still shows the signs of being tortured for who knows how many hours by Faith, but also just emotionally and Cordelia, talk to each other quietly and actually bitterly, because what they're upset by is the fact that this woman who knocked out Cordelia and probably would have done more to her if Cordelia had resisted all and tortured Wesley for hours, that instead of having arrested or doing what they consider would be justice, he brought her back to Angel Investigations. As Cordelia said that she's sleeping on his bed. Well, that's when Angel enters and Wesley chews him out for taking it easy on Faith because of what all she did.
Speaker 3:Won't she find it difficult enjoying delicious jelly filled donuts? If she is one assumes bound and gagged? Wesley, we went through all this last night. Yes, you are right. The police would be ill-equipped to hold a slayer against her. Will I understand why you chose not to turn her over to them? I do not, however, understand why the woman who brutally tortured me last night this morning gets pastries.
Speaker 2:Now, what I like about that line from Wesley is the fact that it's very reminiscent of a similar chewing out that Giles gave to Buffy when Angel returned from hell, that Buffy was hiding him and then told Giles about Angel's return. As Giles come in in that episode in Revelations he said I won't remind you that the fate of the world often rests with the slayer. What would be the point? Nor shall I remind you that you have jeopardized the lives of everyone you know by housing a known murderer. But sadly I must remind you that Angel tortured me for hours for pleasure. You should have told me he was alive. You didn't. You have no respect for me or the job I perform In both cases. What is offending the characters is Angel and Buffy almost acting like it's more important to protect the torturer or slash criminal over the victim, and so they're willing to write off what that person had done in both cases torturing somebody that they viewed as a friend. Because, giles, I'm almost like a father figure to you. Buffy and Wesley viewed himself as Angel's friend and for both of them this other person tortured me for hours and you wrote it off. You're willing to let it go. That's an insult to me, you should be angry because of what happened to me.
Speaker 2:It leads into one of the themes of the series, and not just this episode, which is forgiveness and redemption, which is the question of is it morally right to help someone who is a known murderer? Should you punish them or are you coddling them by helping them? You know which is important justice versus redemption. And in this case you're with Wesley, as we've seen well, sadly enough, in a lot of real life situations, which is people have one view on the justice system. Oh yeah, we must read, we must help all the criminals, we must be, you know, willing to reach out and try to rehabilitate, and all that until they become a victim. Then at that point their point of view changes. It's now that I've been hurt, no, I want to punish this person, even if five minutes before they had a completely contrary point of view. But now it's I've been hurt, I want justice.
Speaker 2:And Wesley also echoes the previous episode's view of the inability to change, where he comments to Angel saying there is evil in that girl, angel, it doesn't matter what she wants or says she wants, you set her free, she'll kill again. That echoes Cordelia's line in the previous episode of scratch a man and scratch the surface and all you get is more surface, where Cordelia was also convincing in the previous episode that faith could never change. And that's the same thing here. Wesley, at this point, still has that view. It doesn't matter what you do, she is beyond redemption, she cannot be changed. And it's also clear that Cordelia is also clearly on Wesley's side, whereas she makes the only slightly snarky comment to Angel, which is Leslie sure, people always get a little funnier after they've been statistically tortured Whereas, quite clear, if she had found out that Angel had beat Faith down and locked her up in a cell, she would have been fine with that. But at that point then she takes off, not wanting to be in the scene, building as faith and after also once again making the comment Faith is unable to change.
Speaker 2:Now it then cuts to layer that evening where police are inspecting Faith's lair, her apartment that she had more or less commandeered from the person she had mugged, and they're dusting all the broken glass. Now get back to the timeline here on the events at this point of the episode. But if we go with the fact that the night before Angel had fought Faith out in the rain prior back to his place. So that would have been the middle of the night and then the next morning. That's when Cordelia and Wesley show up and they have their confrontation with Angel. Because when Cordelia is leaving, well, first of all they had made mention of bringing in donuts, a breakfast food, but we also see when she's leaving it is clearly daylight. So now when the police are there, the assumption is it's later that evening. So that means it sort of took them an entire day to go and track down Faith's place of residence and obviously a whole day after the fight occurred. But it does also beg the question of how did they figure out she was living there? Because maybe using the same logic that Angel had used in the previous episode, by looking at crimes that Faith was accused of and figure out, hey, she took his wallet, but still took him a little bit longer to figure out than Angel did.
Speaker 2:But now, getting back to the scene, also gathering up evidence is Kate, and she confirms that the owner of the place is the man that Faith mugged, though, as an additional comment, as I mentioned, 5x5, it's really hard for me to feel sorry for the victim and I put air quotes around it, considering the fact that, as a result, at the beginning of 5x5, if Faith hadn't clocked him and bugged him, the guy was ready to try to turn her into a street walker and, who knows, get her strung out on drugs etc. So now, like this was the most sympathetic of victims that she was fighting, it's hard for me to do anything more than shrug in terms of them being in the hospital. But at the scene is also another fellow detective who comments that he's the lead on the case and he confirms that Faith is rumored to have quote supernatural powers. Not sure how he heard about it, because the impression we get at this stage is that for most of the police they don't know about the occult, they don't know about the supernatural or vampires or anything like that. So not sure whether he got the knowledge of Faith having supernatural powers. As opposed to, she's just extremely strong and fast, which most people would just term as she's very athletic or she's in great shape. But anyways, as he's talking to Kate, he does comment that she is now seeking out, as he says, the weird cases.
Speaker 2:And one touch I have to give credit to Tim Menier on this is the detective refers to her as a Scali. Now I remember while I watched the episode the first time, the first thought I had in my head was Scali's a skeptic. Yes, she's the female in X-Files, but she's the skeptic. It's the guy who is the true believer. While I give credit to Tim Menier, he anticipates every single fan out there already knowing that and screaming that in their heads by having Kate comment that as well, where she even says that Malder was the believer and Scali was the skeptic. In the dialogue from the scripts where he is scratching his head and is a nice misogynist that he is, he says Scali is the chick, right? Kate responds yes, but she's not the one that wants to believe. And the cop and you want to believe, and Kate in a great line, oh, I already believe. That's the problem, which, just with one line, we now know where she's at on her progress here. There's no doubt she believes 100% in vampires, demons, everything else and that. And that's the problem is she would love to shut her eyes again and just go back to the days where it's just gangs on PCP to use a reference from Buffy the Vampire Slayer that she didn't know about vampires, she didn't know about demons. But now she can't close her eyes again and she realizes already this will become more and more of an obsession for her.
Speaker 2:Well, now it cuts back to Angel, who is walking down the steps with donuts. Now here's where I have to point out my problem. Here it's the timeline, with the exception of episodes where we have obvious flashbacks, like in five by five, where it cuts between Angelus, liam and present day. Now those, of course, yes, that's shown in two different eras. Usually most episodes would go chronologically this event, then this event, then this event. They don't jump around in the timeline needlessly.
Speaker 2:This one actually did because, as I mentioned, the order of the scenes that we saw were as follows Middle of the night, angel returns with Faith back to his place. Next scene the following morning, his discussion with Wesley and Cordelia. Third scene cops at Faith's place dusting for prints, looking for evidence. Fourth scene Angel walking down the steps. So, unless they're going to tell us that it took him a long time, after he talked to Cordelia, to go down the steps with the donuts, which point then? Well, donuts are not as fresh and I doubt she was wanting a jelly donut at this point.
Speaker 2:My guess is the scenes were shown out of order, because the correct order of the scene should have been Angel bringing Faith back immediately after the fight. Then what was shown third is actually second, which is Kate investigating the crime scene, which now means it's actually just possibly a few hours or possibly simultaneously. When Angel was bringing Faith back it was a little bit after the fight. Then the scene we saw second, which was Wesley confronting Angel in the morning and then after Cordelia leaves. Now it is Angel walking down the steps and meeting with Faith and this confusion. I can understand the scenes being shown in the order. They want to help break up the drama. So it's not as simplistic. But the confusion could have been easily fixed by simply doing an establishing shot of the Kate scene, by having that in daylight. Then that would have followed through. Then we would have had oh, they went there the next morning to Faith's apartment and dusting for prints and all that. Then that would have made sense that that was occurring simultaneously with the Angel scene as opposed to being in this weird order. But anyways, game back to the scene itself.
Speaker 2:As I mentioned, angel comes downstairs with donuts and finds the bed empty and made, no longer slept in and Faith is staying a distance away with a look of weariness but casual tenseness on her face. She still wound up, even though she still has that haunted look in her eyes. And we can tell the same thing. Angel can tell that it's all matter how he approaches her now, because if he approaches her too aggressively or too quickly, she will either slash out and strike at him, as we saw in the prologue, with the image she had in her head where she would stab at him, or she would run off and take off. Basically, it was almost a wounded and scared animal's reaction Fight back or run. Unless you approach her correctly and he does he approaches her slowly and talking very calmly to her, saying he wants to help, and that's when the camera pans down and we see why he's being especially careful, because we see she's holding a very big knife. Now. Granted, of course it wouldn't kill him, but still it's the fact that once again there's this danger in her, there's still this violence bubbling up inside of her. With that, he asks for it and she holds it first in a slow, threatening style, blade out, and then she slowly turns around and hands it to him Handle first.
Speaker 2:And while I like about this, this is once again a show don't tell approach to storytelling which in previous episodes I've said I appreciate so much more. You don't have to have verbal exposition in a visual medium that if, in some light, television give us the visuals, allow that to tell the story of the characters. And this does, because this shows her new trust of Angel, that she is willing to trust, at least at the beginning. And I give credit to Eliza for her performance Because, as I said before, she's had all of the bravado and fight dream from her and all of her line readings are just full of exhaustion. I just want to sleep, even though she did comments that she's been asleep for eight months, but still she's completely drained. Well, now it cuts to Wolfram and Hart and we get to see our two favorite attorneys talking to each other, where Waila is giving Lindsay a case update about Faith. We found her when she's with him. Is he dead?
Speaker 1:Well, he is a vampire. So technically, yes, he is dead, but not by her hand. She is his house guest. What that's right? The reason our little assassin hasn't made good on her contract is because she's roaming with the mark. We hired her to kill him. I believe I covered that with the assassin part.
Speaker 2:Which, once again, I always love their dialogue because Stephanie Romanoff and Christian Kane have such great chemistry together that, as I mentioned previous episodes, I could live with an entire show just about the inner workings of Wolfram and Hart, with them going at each other left and right, sometimes to me about a necessity, other times fighting each other, because both actors are just a lot of fun. Waila then brings up the rumor that it turns out that Angel used to date I mentioned this in the last episode we find out later that they had 30-some filing cabinets on Angel and none of those file drawers have to mention that he was dating a slayer in 5x5. It wasn't like he was keeping it a secret. They were served open about the relationship. Everyone on the Scoobies knew about how Buffy felt about Angel, so he would put somebody at Wolfram and Hart if they had 30-some filing cabinets on Angel that one of them would have said note used to date a slayer. And also, what I like about it was the fact that she says it's a rumor. Not, it turns out he was dating a slayer and it's the slayer who is running Sunnydale right now and fought alongside Faith. Now it's still just a rumor, as if they haven't confirmed it yet. They really need to talk to their psychics. Well, lindsay realizes that they need to fix the situation. As he had mentioned, faith made them look like a pair of fools. So now it cuts over to Lee, our other third attorney, who is looking far worse off than Wesley, which is interesting considering the fact that she tortured Wesley for hours and he's got cuts and bruises on him, but he's still in much better shape than Lee does, who has a neck brace on and it looks like his jaw is wired shut. Well, lee comes up with a solution for Faith kill her. So now we have first party that wants her dead.
Speaker 2:Well, now it cuts back to Faith, who is sitting on the bed and she's flashing back in her mind all that she's done in her past, which includes killing the mayor's assistant. I can understand why they include that scene, and because that was a turning point for the character, but at that point she was sort of the dangerous girl who was finding on the side of good. But then she joined up with the mayor when Buffy and the Scoobies turned their backs on her, as she viewed it. But the thing is though, as we saw in Buffy, she also did other bad things, such as killing the volcanologist that the mayor had her kill, which is, I would think, actually I'll detune them. That's even worse thing because the volcanologist was completely innocent and the only reason he was being killed was because he knew about the ascension. Otherwise, he was 100% harmless and, unlike the mayor's assistant, where she at least has the excuse of oh, I thought he was evil, I thought he was out to harm us and I just overreacted the professor never exhibited any harm to or threat to her whatsoever. He was a harmless professor. And when he asked, why are you doing this, her response was I never asked that before gutting him that she doesn't seem to be remembering, just the assistant.
Speaker 2:Well, she does start to get up and pack her clothes when Angel stops her, and what she's confused by is almost a similar thing in 5x5,. Which is why are you trying to help me? Why are you trying to be nice to me? Because in her mind, she doesn't deserve this treatment. I mean, she's got her energy back, but she is still facing all of the confusion. I'm bad, I'm evil, you should hate me. But now she's not lashing out trying to fight him on it. Her mind is seriously confused by it, because she doesn't feel that she deserves anyone's decency, including Angels.
Speaker 2:Well, that's when Angel reminds her that's her choice now, how to react to her actions, to go back into that darkness, that she has two paths to go on To try to run away from it. And he admits her you cannot outrun your past. Going from town to town is not going to save you. You will always be there. Your memories, your guilt will always be there with you. And that does cause her to pause and her leaving. And he uses a similar dialogue that he did in Consequences when he tells her that one can't go just a little evil, one can't just have a taste of the darkness, that once you have descended into it it will consume you entirely. And so he warns her about that, because, once again, if there's anyone who would know about that, it would be him. Well, she turns and punches him. But what is interesting is, unlike even in 5x5, or yes, he strikes back, even if it's in a defensive posture, this one, he refused to strike back at her at all, which is what causes her to pause again. And that's when she makes her first admission, which is that the descent made her feel empty.
Speaker 2:It now cuts to a nearby pub where Wesley is drinking and playing darts. He's doing very well at darts because, as we have seen in previous episodes, he's very good with projectiles. At that point he is then stopped by three members of the Watchers Council retrieval squad the same trio that we saw on Buffy when they were trying to come after Faith. Well, the four of them get a table together and are tongue into Wesley and they're discussing how they feel bad for Wesley being forced to resign from the Watchers Council. And they say that you were done wrong. It shouldn't have happened to you. You were a good watcher. You should be brought back. And they even make him an offer saying that he can return to England and be reinstated in full as a watcher.
Speaker 2:They say that yes, we realize that the Council was wrong in firing him because of what happened with Faith. And with that they show him a picture of Faith, which is interesting how they do it. They say, oh yeah, we have this thing we need you to do. They couldn't have just said Faith, no, they have to show him a picture of it. Which makes me wonder did they think he wouldn't know what Faith looked like? She was his slayer. He was her watcher and oh, by the way, did I mention he tortured her for hours. He pretty much knows what she looks like. And also, one funny thing is the fact that it's the same photo that Wolfram and Hart and the cops have on her For a woman who was going all around town attacking people and a woman who was going all around Sunnydale murdering and doing everything for the mayor. There's only one photo of her. It almost looks like it's an actor's headshot, and so it makes me wonder, knowing the photos of this woman, considering all the harm she was doing.
Speaker 2:Well, anyways, what Returiel Squad mentions is his assistance in giving them access to Faith. He doesn't actually have to capture her for them, they'll take care of that. He just needs to, in essence, open up the door so they can get in at her and they remind him again of all the evil actions that she has done, playing upon the statement that he made to Angel earlier that she can't be redeemed. Well, now it cuts back to Angel's place with Faith and he talking and Faith is trying to reform the Angel warrants her that it won't be easy, and he admits straight out because once again, he knows this. But one won't accept that she's willing to change. He knows that from personal experience and he saw that from Wesleyan Cordelia who weren't willing to forgive Because he's also worried people aren't going to believe that you have changed, that they're going to think once you're criminal, always a criminal.
Speaker 2:And as he says at one point, the truth is, no matter how much you suffer, no matter how many good deeds you do to try to make up for the past, you may never balance out the cosmic scale which is one of the key lines of the series. It is one of the thesis statements of the series, which is the fact that you can never truly be redeemed, which later makes the Shanshu prophecy all the more interesting, because the Shanshu prophecy almost admits there is a goal, there is an endpoint, whereas in this episode he makes it very clear there is no endpoint. It doesn't matter how much good you do, it will still never wipe out the slate of evil. And he goes further and says that no matter what she does, no matter where she goes, she will be haunted for the rest of her life for everything she's done. Which then leads to a nice cute quip, which I have to believe was a contribution by Jos, because the scene starts off with her saying so how does this work? Does making the audience and angel think that she's talking about redemption? But then she repeats the line again, says so, how does this work? And it's fluid that she's referring to the microwave, which is cute. It is a nice undercutting of the previous soliloquy from Angel. During their conversation.
Speaker 2:Angel then points out that part of the process is apologizing, not just to Angel, that's the easy part, but also to those she has harmed, such as Wesley. And he admits that that won't be easy because of what she did to Wesley. And he says that she has to first accept that she is sorry, because it's one thing to say you're sorry, it's another thing to mean it. And before she can truly apologize she has to first accept that, or else the apology will be useless, will be meaningless. And both of them do agree that there are some things they can't take back, no matter how repentant they are, then also says oh well, it's supposed to hurt. All that pain, all that suffering you caused, is coming back on. You Feel it. Deal with it, then maybe you've got a shot at being free Once again. He's pulling from what he went through after his soul was returned to him, and also what we see later in Season 7 would spike when his soul is returned. All of this pain, all of this suffering, psychic suffering, because they're realizing what they truly did to people.
Speaker 2:And what I like about this scene, though I wish they hadn't thrown in face-line about I've got to be the first layer in history to be sponsored by a vampire. I wish they had cut that line out because we were getting that. We understood. That's how he's acting. He's a sponsor to her Once again, the same way an alcoholic has their own sponsor when they join AA. That we didn't need to have her point that out to the audience. It was sort of on the nose, which was a shame, because the entire scene was done very well by Eliza and Dave and, as I mentioned in my general comments, it made me wish that actually she had joined the series, because this would have been such a great dynamic between the two of them.
Speaker 2:Well, faith then realizes that the other person she owes a major apology to is Buffy, and she points out the fact that Buffy went out of her way to be Faith's friend and then she paid her back with betrayal and she admits to having sex with Riley while in Buffy's body, and she boards this out entirely accidentally that she was not saying this to be mean to Angel by saying, oh, buffy's got a new boyfriend. No, it literally just slips out. And we get a nice reaction shot from Angel hearing about Riley, because this is the first time they've heard that Buffy has moved on, because, as he comments later in his fight with Buffy at the end of this episode, yes, she has the ability to move on, and in his head it doesn't surprise him. She's a teenage girl. Of course she's going to get a new boyfriend after the last one ends. He's not that naive or arrogant, but also this is just one, would say, a few months after I will remember you and he probably in his head remembers how quickly she fell back into his arms and now it's okay. Well, angel's gone, so now it's time to move on, even if in her mind, of course I will remember you never happened Because, remember, that day had been erased from everyone's minds except his, but still the same. That was just a few months going. At that point, at least for that version of reality, she was willing to fall back into his arms. But now, in this version of reality, no, outside out of mind.
Speaker 2:It cuts back to Wolfram and Hart with Lee, lila and Lindsay, and once get a nice camera angle here where we're looking at it from the assassin's point of view, as the three of them are talking to the possible assassin for faith and they want to make it very clear that they want faith killed. Because they're doing it from his point of view, it leads to a cute punchline where the scene is slowly shot from his point of view or its point of view, so that we don't see what the assassin looks like Is it human or what Until suddenly he leans over and gobbles up the coffee, which is actually a bit of a jump moment because it is a monster, demon and is money for the setup. And I think this is just a short enough scene so that we get the quick punchline without it telegraphing the joke. Well, now it cuts back to the pub and the trio. He and Wesley have syringe with the power sedative and they make it clear to him that they don't intend to kill her. They want her alive so that they can bring her the same way in consequences where Wesley was trying to do the same thing arrest her, have her taken back to England to stand trial by the watchers' council and Wesley agrees as long as they offer to give their word that no harm will come to Angel, which they're reluctant at first about because he is a vampire, but they do agree.
Speaker 2:Well, it cuts to that evening at Angel Place and Faith is flipping through the channels and, as I'll mention here in a moment for pop cultural references, that the two things that she is watching is the movie the Lost Weekend and then a 1940 Superman cartoon. Then she goes to a third one where we see a list of credits for a movie. Now I did pause it because I was just curious who were in the credits and it's people who are very much involved with Buffy and or Angel in one way or the other, because it lists, as the TV host, lisa Lastic, who in real life is the editor of Serenity, the Cabin in the Woods and the Avengers, and the character Rick Han is played by Philip Jeffrey Hoff, who appeared in Law and Order and Homicide, and Nick's secretary is played by Josh Charsen, who is the editor of the Agents of Shield and Buffy, and for female dancers we have Mayor Smith, who is a writer, and angel, and Golda Savage, an editor on Buffy, so it's nice that they have their side gigs as well. As she's seeing they're flipping through the channels on the TV. We get an overhead point of view shot of the creature going around Angel's ceiling, with Faith not sensing it. I guess slayers are not able to sense demons, just vampires, because we know from Buffy that Buffy can sense a vampire even in a crowded room. But here, even though Faith is sitting by herself in the living room, she has no idea that there's a creature literally right over her head. Well, faith might not be sensing it because she's distracted by the news report about LA police out looking for her and we see that giving the news conference about hunting her down is Kate.
Speaker 2:Well, angel tries to assure Faith that she is safe with him when at that moment, that's when the creature leaps down and attacks. And both Angel and Faith attack him, and it's a very short fight between the two of them, not too difficult for either of them, and especially with them teamed up and Faith does get the killing blow with a knife and she looks down at her hands and, whereas this is a woman, before they could handle killing, as I mentioned the volcanologist just with her knife she guts him and doesn't think twice about it. But now even though she was fighting out of defense against an assassin demon. So her fighting back is very much justified. But she is horrified by the blood on the knife and disgustedly throws it aside. It no longer has the same thrill for her that it used to because, as we remember from Faith, hope and Tricks she come in that she took joy in killing because she had mentioned then that slain made her hungry and horny. Now it does neither. There's no joy in it. And Angel then comforts her and hugs her protectively.
Speaker 2:And at that moment, appearing in the doorway is Arce Laier from Sunnydale, miss Buffy Summers. Well, at this point, while Buffy is trying to handle the fact that she has seen the man she loved in the arms of the woman who just finished sleeping with her current boyfriend, my spidey sense is tingling. It must be time for our pub culture segment, where I find every pub cultural reference in the episode, compile it in a supercut and make heads or tails of what they are talking about your spider sense pub cultural reference sorry the most startling novel of the decade, brought to the screen with uncompromising frankness, pulling no punches, knowing full well the storm that would cause.
Speaker 4:For this is a relentless, terrifying tale of five lost days and nights torn from a man's life, bearing his heart and soul the last weekend, starring Ray Milan well, the two things I want to talk about are actually the two programs that faith was watching in that previous scene.
Speaker 2:First one was the movie the lost weekend. Lost weekend was a 1945 best picture winner which started Ray Milan and Jane Wyman and was directed by Billy Wilder. It was about an alcoholic going through a four-day drinking bout and at the beginning of the movie he was 10 days sober when he fell off the wagon and it then the movie shows the horrors that he was going through, trying to get through the next four days. The movie was based on a 1944 novel of the same name and the director, billy Wilder, who also co-wrote the screenplay, was inspired because of Billy's experiences with novelist Raymond Chandler on the screenplay for the movie. The big sleep which caused Billy Wilder to start drinking again was that traumatic of an experience working with Chandler. Well, the movie was actually a bit controversial because, well as you could guess from the subject matter, it didn't treat liquor as all that positive. In fact, the liquor industry watched the campaign to undermine the film even before it came out. Allied liquor industries, a national trade organization, wrote an open letter to Paramount's pictures, a studio, warning them that anti-drinking groups would use the film to reinstate prohibition. Well, the liquor interests also allegedly enlisted gangster Frank Costello to offer Paramount five million dollars to buy the film's negative in order to burn it. Director Billy Wilder later commented that that they offered it to the wrong people because he had said that, well, if they offer him five million, I want to burn the negative. Well, the movie obviously came out. It was a huge commercial and critical success. In addition to winning the Oscars, it was made for a budget of just 1.5 million, which is 26 million in today's dollars, and it grossed over 11 million, which is the equivalent of 187 million today. So huge commercial hit. And critically, it was nominated for seven academy awards and won four for best picture, best director, ray Malan for best actor and also Billy Wilder for best adapted screenplay. And in 2011, the lost weekend was deemed culturally, historically or aesthetically significant by the United States Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the national film registry. In inducting it, the registry said that the film was an uncompromising look at the devastating effects of alcoholism and that it melded an expressionistic film noir style with documentary realism to immerse viewers in the harrowing experiences of an aspiring New York writer willing to do almost anything, for a drink. And just as a side note, almost 80 years later the movie is still harrowing and is still very, very much worth watching.
Speaker 2:Now, the other program that Faith was watching on TV was a Superman cartoon, and in particular it was one of the series of cartoons done by animator Max Fleischer. The Superman cartoons were made between 1941 and 1943 and it consisted of 17 animated superhero shorts and it was his first actual animated appearance. Now, as a side note, I couldn't tell from watching the episode which particular short that clip was from, but gained back to the shorts in general, though it was the first one in the series Superman, or sometimes it's known as the Mad Scientist. That one was released in 1941 and it was nominated for Best Short Subject Cartoons by the Academy Awards, though it lost to the cartoon short Led Me A Paw, a Pluto cartoon that was put out by Walt Disney, and as a piece of trivia, the voices of Superman and Lois were done by Bud Collier and Joan Alexander, who had also played those exact same characters in the radio version. So obviously they were familiar with the characters.
Speaker 2:And what is notable about these cartoons was it was the first time we saw Superman having the ability to fly, because, even though we now associate that with him, you know him flying everywhere. Well, prior to that, the comic book said that he could leap far distances, leap tall buildings in a single bound, but they never said he could fly, just leap far. Well, max Fleischer thought that leaping looked silly in a cartoon. He's wanting to do it in a still panel on a comic book page, but in a cartoon would look just goofy. So that's why he asked. Well, at that time they were known as Action Comics, later known as DC, but he asked them for permission to have Superman flying. The cartoons. And these cartoons, even 80 years later, are still highly influential, not just for the content like him having the ability to fly and other things but also just the general animation style, because the harsh look of the characters and rectangular images later influence the look of both Batman, the Animated Series, and Superman. The Animated Series in the late 1990s and the complete series once again is worth checking out, especially if you're a Superman fan, and they are available on DVD and Blu-Ray. A couple years back, when there was a streaming service, the DC Universe, it was available on there and the DC Universe was bought up by Warner Brothers, which puts out the Max Streaming service, but as of 2023, the Max Fleischer cartoons are not yet available on that streaming service. So for right now, other than possibly on YouTube, your best bet for watching them is to get them on DVD or Blu-Ray.
Speaker 2:Well, now time back to the episode. Angel is trying to explain to Buffy that he and Faith were attacked by the demon, and he explains that the reason why his shirt was unbuttoned was nothing salacious. It was simply because the demon ripped half of it off when he was being attacked and so, as a result, even though she's in his arms, it's not at all what it looks like. Little Buffy then explains that she was there in the first place because Giles had heard that Faith had tried to kill Angel, which, once again, as a side note, all this occurred within, like the previous evening when they were having the fight and Angel and Wesley were present. So who told Giles about this? Because remember last time we saw in 5x5, when Angel was sung to Giles, it was simply oh, warning you, faith is on her way somewhere. Giles didn't know where she was going, he was just warning in case she came to LA. So did he send Buffy over there, just in case she showed up. But Buffy was saying Giles knew that Faith had attacked him. So who knows? Because I doubt he had heard about Wolfram and Hart's hiring of her, since the Buffy series never had too much contact with the law firm. But nevertheless Faith then knows this Buffy, which causes Buffy to turn from being concerned about Angel to being filled with pure anger and faith.
Speaker 2:And one comment I want to give about this scene is the use of music. At the beginning, when she's talking to Angel about Giles and how I was sent here to help you, etc. The music is their love theme between the two of them, the soft, romantic theme playing gently in the background. And as she turns her head and knows his faith after Faith says Buffy, the music becomes much darker, much more menacing. This shows that Buffy's emotions have changed from I came here to protect you, I came here to help you, to let me at her. As the emotions in the scene intensify, angel making it clear that he is defending and protecting Faith, the music also swells and intensifies and becomes even more tense to reflect the escalating emotions in Buffy.
Speaker 2:Well, now Buffy, as I mentioned at the beginning, she has no intention to help Faith or forgive her. She wants Faith in jail now. And Faith tries to apologize, following Angel's advice in the earlier scene, and Buffy makes it very clear that she will not accept any apology. As I mentioned my opening comments, her line is you apologize to me and I will beat you to death. So even more hard line than Wesley was.
Speaker 2:Well, at that point, that's when Angel, in her scenes on Faith's behalf, makes it clear that he will protect Faith from everyone, including Buffy. And this statement angers Buffy all the more because in her head she's seen her former boyfriend, the guy she loved and the guy she forgave, is now protecting a woman that is her enemy, and she can't believe how betrayed she feels by Angel. Well, faith tries to leave the real man. Buffy attempts to go after her. When Angel stops her, without even thinking, she turns around and immediately hits Angel and he returns the punch. And this punch stuns her because, as far as I know, it might have been the first time he has hit her as Angel. Of course, as Angelists, they've had a number of knockdown fights, but this was the first time as Angel that he had hit her, and the look on her face is one of complete and utter confusion, and it's one of a woman that was betrayed, and not the look of a vampire. So there's a look of what the hell is happening here. My enemy is running off and the guy I love has just hit me to protect her. Well, angel immediately apologizes, but Buffy has no idea how to respond to this, because this was not at all what she was expecting when she decided to come to LA. Well, faith goes upstairs into the main office and that's when Wesley enters it and he confirms that she's alone and that Angel is downstairs. And one nice thing I like about it is the fact that we have a non-committal look here from Wesley, where we're not quite sure we're not. He's accepted the council's offer, because in the previous scene in the pub, he never formally agrees to it. We never actually see him agreeing to it, just them convincing him and him not outright rejecting it. So this leads to a little bit more of the mystery.
Speaker 2:Well, it cuts back to Wolfram and Hart, and Lindsay is pacing waiting with Lee to hear back on the results of the assassin. Well, lila enters in as she said, strike two, because she's confirmed that the assassin has failed, which makes me wonder how did she know the assassin failed. I mean, if it's one day, if it's a human assassin, then it might have been. Oh well, he has to check in with us or whatever. This was a demon who doesn't look like he's much Rwocky talkies or cell phones or anything like that. So was somebody watching them? Or was he worried? A body cam or something like that? Because they knew fairly quickly the assassin is dead. Well, nevertheless, it does lead to a nice summary from Lee in what is his best line in the entire series.
Speaker 3:This is getting ridiculous the first assassin kills the second assassin, sent to kill the first assassin, who didn't assassinate anyone, until we hired the second assassin to assassinate her.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry, I just love the rhythm of the use of the word assassin first assassin killed, the second assassin, so on. And what's just a nice pattern there which is make me think that had to be a weed and touch, because that is the style of dialogue Joss Whedon does very well. Well, lindsay then says that the problem was they're working outside of their strength, which was the law, because they're a law firm. He and Lila are two very intelligent lawyers. That should be the avenue they go at, and he says he knows exactly how to handle it, and by doing it on their own turf. Well, while we wait to see what exactly he means by it, it cuts back to Angel and Buffy, who are still arguing, and one nice that, like it was a little bit of makeup on Buffy, showing her that she still has a fat lip from Angel hitting her because it hasn't healed yet, even with her slayer abilities. And, as I mentioned before, what is offending her most is that he is protecting Faith, and Angel explains that he hit her to stop her from going after Faith because in his opinion, faith would just run. And just like what happened in consequences, where he was making progress with Faith, she was beginning to open up to him when Wesley cut in, and that's when all the work he had done just in those few minutes was undone immediately, and he was afraid the same thing was going to happen again, that he's making progress with her and Buffy was going to come in and ruin it all. And Buffy, though, on the other hand, is convinced that once again, faith is not sincere at her redemption, that this is just a con job. She's pulling on Angel. That's when Angel says, no, he can sense she's sincere because, as he points out that he can relate to her, which then leads to one of the harsh comments from Buffy were saying that I'm sorry I can't be in your club. I never murdered anybody, or that cutting remark is out of anger and hurt.
Speaker 2:Well, before they can continue discussion further, that's when Wesley walks down with Faith and he explains that, no, he was not agreeing to work with the Watchers Council. Because he says that they're coming in 20 minutes, because they're explaining this, for Faith to be drugged and they're expecting Faith to be drugged and for Angel to be gone. And he explains further that he only pretended to help them because he was afraid he wouldn't be able to shake them, and so this way, it bought him a little bit of time so that they could get Faith and Angel out of the place. So he is sure that the team does have the building surrounded, and Buffy confirms for Angel and Faith that these guys are killers, because she remembers them from when they had captured her while she was in Faith's body. Well, while they're talking, faith has slipped out and Angel really concludes that she's most likely gone to the roof. And Wesley explains to Angel that he was doing this, as I said in my opening comments, not because of Faith oh, he has forgiven her or he thinks she will be redeemed. No, he probably still feels that she can't be redeemed, but he's trusting Angel's judgment, so that's why he's going along with this.
Speaker 2:Well, now it cuts over to the police station and we see that Kate is talking to Lindsay and she makes it very clear that she thoroughly hates him and his clients. And, because of her knowledge of demons and vampires, it's quite clear that she's not talking about gangsters or that Tony or whatever. No, the clients are demons and vampires is who she's referring to. Well, lindsay, though using very persuasive skills, plays on her hatred of demons by saying that, though they may differ on many issues, they both share a common dislike because he has read her correctly by knowing about the fact that vampires killed her father, that she would now hate Angel. So he plays on that by saying that they have a mutual enemy in common, angel, as he makes it very clear that he knows what, not who, murdered her father, and that he completely understands any reaction that Kate would have had to, include taking any extra legal measures. What I like about this brief scene is that Lindsay does come across as convincingly sympathetic, though we know he's full of it and we can see in the look on Kate's face she knows he's full of it, but she's still willing to listen because she can tell he's going to offer her something that she wants or needs. And that's when he produces face head shots and he says oh, by the way, the girl you're looking for, the vampire, is housing her. So now she's got two reasons to go after Angel. One, he's a vampire and two, he's housing a known murderer. And what I like about this scene, as brief as it is, is because of the fact that it shows why Lindsay is a great antagonist, because he realizes that that's his strength he knows the law, he knows how to manipulate it. He knows how to manipulate people. That even if he doesn't have supernatural abilities like Angel, he is very intelligent. As I mentioned last episode, he is like Luther to Angel's Superman.
Speaker 2:Well, now it cuts back to Buffy and Faith through up on the roof, and Faith makes a reference to graduation day, part 1, when Buffy threw her off the roof at the end of the fight. What is interesting here is the fact that this encounter is much different, in that Faith, we can see, has zero desire to fight Buffy and once again she is sincerely apologetic towards Buffy. But Buffy though, on the other hand, is still extremely mad because she's sure that Faith is just going to run off again and leave it to Buffy to clean up her mess again, like she has in the past. And when Faith comments the fact that Buffy won't give her a chance, that's when Buffy yells at her and says that she's given Faith every chance and that Faith rejects her every turn and that Faith used Buffy's life against her, such as being with both Angel and Riley. And that's when Buffy says I've lost battles before, but nobody has ever made me a victim. So just two comments about that line. First of all one. She's made it very clear that it's the betrayal and repeated laughing rejection by Faith that is angering Buffy the most, not so much the acts but the fact that, no matter how much I tried, you still rejected me and threw it back to my face. But now the other comment about nobody has ever made me a victim, as you forgot, it's something about the guy who's downstairs. When he was evil, he sort of made it his mission to victimize her in every way possible, for all the acts I was mentioning before Stalking her, killing Jenny Callender, attacking her friends, so on that was all done for the sole purpose of victimizing her. Guess she has forgotten those little bits. Well, anyways, faith lashes back just as angrily and says that Faith doesn't understand her, or was like to be in a situation where you have zero control. And once again, I wish this scene had gone on, because it was a great scene between Sarah and Eliza and it was confronting some interesting points. Because we do see that her confession has rocked Buffy back, because she has seen Faith be cocky, alan, repentant, and this is a new sign to her that Buffy is not used to. And, as I said, this is a wonderfully well done scene. It allowed both actresses to deal with confronting the past pains that the other person had brought upon them, and for both characters there is zero posturing and it's just a cure for all emotions, and especially for Faith. Faith wants to make it better and Buffy's look shows that she sees that Faith isn't fakeness, this is not a con job, and that Faith is truly wanting to be redeemed. Well, this great scene is then cut short because when the operatives come through the door of the gun, and Wesley, an angel, adhered from the sewers below where Angel was going to escape through with another operative, comes through there and opens fire upon them and he pulls out a crossbow to point it at Angel. Well, now it cuts up back to Buffy and Faith who are racing across the roof to escape operative number one when the helicopter appears with operative number three and that operative from the helicopter opens fire upon both of them. Now, in regards to Buffy's scenes in this episode, as you can tell, she's in the final half of the episode.
Speaker 2:Production designer Stuart Blatt says that filming this episode was challenging due to scheduling problems with Sarah. Just a few days before shooting, they learned that Sarah would not be available to work outside on the night. The scene was supposed to be filmed, as he comment. We had to take our rooftop setting and split in the two and shoot everything on the rooftop, looking out towards city in one direction, with the real helicopter on the rooftop, and on the stage, recreate the exact rooftop, look in the other direction, shoot everything there and marry them seamlessly. It was one of the more impressive things we ever pulled off, which, as I mentioned in my general comments, while I still consider the action scene, oddly enough, to slow the episode down, I won't tonight. It was well shot, but anyways, the two members of the operations team opened fire on Buffy and Faith, forcing them to hide behind a skylight on the roof, and Buffy then decides to go after the guy with the gun. As she leaps him and fights him, and as she's fighting with Collins, the guy on the roof, smith, the guy in the helicopter, is unable to shoot them because Collins keeps on getting in the way and Smith doesn't want to accidentally shoot Collins.
Speaker 2:Well, down below with Angel and Wesley, the third operative, weatherbee is scoffing at Wesley for working with a vampire, which you really think about from an outsider's point of view, not a reasonable scoff. You're in the Watchers Council, which deals with Vampire Slayers whose mission in life is to kill vampires. So thus, by extension, watchers are supposed to be anti-vampire, and so having an ex-watcher working for a vampire does seem sort of contrary to their manifesto. But now, just like I'm surprised that Wolfram and Hart didn't have more of a file on Angel at this point, knowing about Buffy, one would think that the Council would have also had extensive files on Angel as well, if not, now it's just reports from Giles saying oh, by the way, he's done all of these good things. Yeah, we'll admit those several months when he tried to kill the world and towards me and kill my girlfriend, etc. But you would have thought Giles would have also reported in on the good things he did, and as well as Wesley calling into the Council. Same thing.
Speaker 2:But getting back to Weatherby and Wesley, wesley responds to Weatherby saying that he didn't violate his Watchers oath, it was to protect the innocent, and he yells for Angel to run to the roof and help Buffy and Faith. Weatherby, for whatever reason, drops the crossbow, the thing that would have killed Angel, and instead opens fire on Angel with bullets, which, yes, would hurt but wouldn't kill him. And if you have the weapon that would kill a vampire, you drop it to use the weapon. That wouldn't Real smart. Well, wesley then hides behind another pillar and throws a syringe with the sedative at Weatherby. And so we see his dart shooting skills do come into play, because in fact he even makes the comment of 180, which is a perfect score in darts. Well, he goes to Weatherby's neck. Well, he then walks over to Weatherby and to complete the stun, he clocks him and knocks him out. And once again, this is another step forward for Wesley in his character growth that he was willing to stand by Angel, even against the Council's wishes and also once again with the punch which is once again showing how much tougher he's getting.
Speaker 2:Well, back up on the roof, angel does run up the stairs to the roof where Buffy is still fighting Collins, and he gets to the floor right underneath the skylight where he sees the helicopter. He leaps through the window to go up to the helicopter, nicely, jumps onto the side of the helicopter on the foot railing and he pulls Smith out. And Smith falls to the roof, below my assumption, just due to the fact it wasn't that far above the roof that Smith was knocked unconscious from the fall, but he didn't get killed, so the fall wasn't failed, just hurt a lot. He then leans into the cockpit and, in vamp face, orders the helicopter down, and the pilot, very intelligently, decides to do so. Well, buffy, having knocked out Collins down on the roof, looks around for faith. And faith is gone.
Speaker 2:Well, the helicopter then lands and is immediately surrounded by cops who are all wanting faith, and Kate comes out and approaches Angel demanding him to turn her over. He doesn't even bar to speak, he doesn't even say I don't know which, technically, would have been the truth at that point. He doesn't even say that. Well, she immediately arrests him for aiding and betting a wanted felon, which, once again, is a side note. That is an actual law on the California Penal Code, part 1, title II, sections 32-33, for those of the legal mind, and it does say that you can't be charged as an accessory, as defined in that code. Every person who, after a felony has been committed, harbors, conceals or aids a principal in such a felony with the intent that said principal may avoid or escape from arrest, trial, conviction or punishment. Having knowledge that said principal has committed such felony or has been charged with such felony or convicted thereof is an accessory to such felony. And that is exactly what Angel is doing. He knows the crime she committed. He is hiding her for the sole purpose of trying to keep her from being arrested. So, yeah, what he did is textbook, and under the California Penal Code, if he was tried and convicted, he could have been fined up to $5,000 in one year in prison. Well, all the cops then walk away, though, makes me wonder why didn't she keep at least a couple of cops there to search the area, because she doesn't know where faith is, and you would have thought that faith party didn't get that far at that point.
Speaker 2:Well now Buffy and Wesley pull up to the police station and Kate is walking. Angel point out the fact that the cell she is going to put him in has an east window facing out into the sun, which will be in about four hours, so that is her way of trying to get him to talk, saying that is insane. You got four hours to tell me where faith is, or else you are a big pile of dust, and you can tell from Kate's delivery. She really doesn't care which happens to Angel. So Buffy is trying to stop Kate, and Kate orders Buffy to be removed, and Angel then quiets all of them when he knows instead, sitting in the police station is faith, who has just turned herself into authorities willingly, and she in fact faith approaches Kate and says she would like to make a confession, which now leads us to our epilogue and the final scene between Buffy and Angel, the one that was talking about at the beginning, the one that Jocelyn had written, because they are talking in another room in the station, privately, and Angel then says he didn't tell Buffy about faith because, in his opinion, that wasn't her business, and he explains that he is not sorry, though, for not telling her, because it was about saving someone's soul. This is why I was mentioning before about how this is now changing the thesis statement of the series, that it's no longer about helping the hopeless, it is about saving souls, and he points out that, though, as she said she came to protect him, she was really there just to get vengeance on faith, and so that's why he was especially protecting her, because he says I will not allow vengeance to be carried out in my city.
Speaker 2:And Buffy responds with the cutting remark that I was saying before about the fact that she's moved on with Riley and says that she loves him, and it's clear that she was saying this part about Riley just to hurt him In the tone of C. I moved on as well, and the line she says is I have someone in my life now that I love. It's not what you and I had, it's very new. You know what makes it new. I trust him, I know him and it does have the intended effect, because it does knock Angel back a little bit and his response, which is just his cutting. That's great, it's nice. You moved on. I can't. You found someone new. I'm not allowed to remember. I see you again. It cuts me up inside and the person I share that with is me. You don't know me anymore. Don't come down here with your great new life and expect me to do things your way. Go home.
Speaker 2:And, as I mentioned in the opening comments, what I love about this dialogue is it is both series lanes stakes. No pun intended to say this is my show, go back to your series. And so I'm thinking this is a big part of the reason why Buffy never returned in later episodes, because once again, we need to keep the series separate. We'll have cross-cross-eye crossovers later, as we have when Darla shows up in Angel and that's a follow-up on Fool for Love on Buffy, which aired right before it. But that's different. We're still keeping both series separated. This is the last time we see Buffy on the show, because now she has her own journey to go through on her series.
Speaker 2:And also, what I like about this scene is it is the poorer opposite of the closing scene. I will remember you because in that scene the final scene I'm not talking about back in the office after the day got rolled back, I'm talking about the scene where we have just one more minute and Buffy is saying that's not enough, it's never enough, etc. That scene was sad and tragic because it was the realization of two people coming to terms with the fact that they can never be together, no matter how much they love each other. This, on the other hand, is the bitter reality of two people realizing they have each moved on. Even though Angel says I haven't moved on, actually, yes, he has. He's moved on beyond Buffy and now has a new focus in life, not as her boyfriend, but as his own man, because, if you remember, ever since he met Buffy as we saw in the flashbacks, in becoming part one, she was his focus in life, because he cleaned himself up so that he could meet her. Then in the TV series, he was her sidekick, he was her defender. But now, at this point, no, he is now on his own for the first time since he had met Buffy or since the first time he had seen Buffy.
Speaker 2:As a result, what we get is we get two different phases of the relationship ending. I will remember you as the initial end of it. And the first true, raw pain where, as sanctuary, is the very realization that you can never go back. It doesn't matter who the person is, you can never return back to that relationship once it was over and have it the way it once was. And this is really really, really well acted by both Sarah and David. And it's even more painful than, in my opinion, than I will remember you, because of the rawness of it.
Speaker 2:Well, buffy then takes her jacket and leaves saying see, faith wins again as her final line to Angel. Well, wesley then approaches Angel and he says that Angel did the right thing, not yelling at Buffy, but saving faith or not turning his back on faith. And as they're speaking, the camera does a nice job of slowly going down the jailhouse way and slowly focusing in on faith in the prison cell. And that's when Wesley says in a voiceover I hope she is strong enough to make it Peace is not an easy thing to find. And as the camera pushes it on faith and she closes her eyes, accepting her faith and the work that it will take to get through it, and we see that she is willing to do what it takes to make up for her past and the episode ends.
Speaker 2:Well, now for the next segment, which is my favorite kills in lines. Well, in this episode, since I do believe that Colin survived the fall to the roof, we only see one kill and that was Faith killing the assassin demon that was sent to come after her, which now takes the total for kills to be 27 and a half for Angel, still one half for Wesley and 44 for all the other characters, give us a total of 72 deaths. And, just like in some of the previous episodes for favorite kill, I can't really say that I want to give it to any kill, I mean first of all one. There was only one, the assassin demon, and that one yeah, it gave us a nice gag line from Lee, you know, but the first is this first assassin killed the second assassin, that line.
Speaker 2:But the scene itself didn't have any real impact on the story or any ideas in there. It was just done just to provide a threat to the two of them for a brief scene and the main action was up on the rooftop and which, as I said, zero kills, in spite of all the bullets being shot by the retrieval squad, which shows that they've got all the aiming ability of the Star Wars Stormtrooper. But now for my favorite line, now this one. I'll admit there was a number of good ones, such as, like at the end of the episode about this is my town, because, as I mentioned, that one was signifying the new thrust of the shell or angels couple time referencing about I'm here saving souls. Once again, laying out the thrust of this is the main focus.
Speaker 1:But now the line though I do have to go with is the following the truth is, no matter how much you suffer, no matter how many good deeds you do to try to make up for the past, you may never balance out the cosmic scale.
Speaker 2:Which the reason why I went with this one is, once again, it's echoing the theme of the series redemption and, as I mentioned in my summary of the episode, is that anyone who thinks that a simple apology or few good acts makes up for a very brutal past they're naive. It is hard work, the redemption is lifelong, it is ongoing and, as he mentions in the line, there is no true balancing to the cosmic scale which we'll see later in later episodes Him also coming that even if you can never completely balance the scales, you still have to keep working at it, which is ultimately the main message of the series is I'll come back to again and again and again throughout the show which is this is an ongoing fight. You'll never be able to win all of the fights. There will always be another fight, there will always be another step towards your redemption, towards your atonement. Well, that's it for this week's episode. In the next show, I will discuss the following episode On an all new angel lost and alone.
Speaker 4:The young. The city has forgotten. Those who knew angel would rather die than trust him. You're going to get yourself killed. We're going to get you killed first. Get the impression you don't like me too much. An all new angel.
Speaker 2:I will continue my retrospective with the episode war zone, where we meet the next member of the AI team, as Angel teams up with a group of street youth who are fighting their own war against the undead. So join me as I discuss whether or not Charles Gunn fit in with the team of Angel Wesley and Gordelia and whether or not David Nabich should have been a reoccurring character. So join me steam for the next episode of Wolfram and Cast. If you wish to reach out to me with any questions or comments, you can reach me on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, at Wolframcast, or email me at Wolframcast at gmailcom. Feel free to write to me and I might read your comments or emails on the air. Please leave me a rating and review and be sure to press subscribe on iTunes, Spotify or wherever you get your podcast entertainment. But for now….
Speaker 3:I hope she's strong enough to make it. Peace is not an easy thing to find. Winner Win School Literally just one nation.
