Mmmm, Angel...

[elisi]

Caught the last 10-15 minutes of 'Reprise' yesterday on Sky One. From where Angel gets thrown out of the window, then goes into the Evil Lift with Holland Manners.

It's just one of those truly excellent bits of AtS. Here's the key moments:
Angel: "You're not gonna win."
Holland: "Well - *no*. Of course we aren't. We have no intention of doing anything so prosaic as winning.'"
Holland laughs and for the first time Angel turns his head to glance in Holland's general direction.
Angel: "Then why?"
Holland: "Hmm? I'm sorry? Why what?"
Angel: "Why fight?"
Holland: "That's really the question you should be asking yourself, isn't it? See, for us, there is no fight. Which is why winning doesn't enter into it. We - go on - no matter what. Our firm has always been here. In one form or another. The Inquisition. The Khmer Rouge. We were there when the very first cave man clubbed his neighbor. See, we're in the hearts and minds of every single living being. And *that* - friend - is what's making things so difficult for you. - See, the world doesn't work in spite of evil, Angel. - It works with us. - It works because of us."
(Lift finally stops and opens to the exact same scene they just left)
Holland: "Welcome to the home office."


And Angel is so lost! Of course when he comes home, he finds Darla. Which leads to one of those scenes that gives me goosebumps because it's *so* dark:

Angel: "Or maybe what you really want is this! (Pushes her up against the wall and gently brushes the hair back from her face) That may be - what you really want, isn't it?"
Kisses her softly, then, when she doesn't react, a little harder. Darla pushes him away.
Darla: "Don't play games with me."
Angel: "I'm not playing. I just wanna feel something besides the cold."
Pushes her back onto a table, lowers himself on top of her and kisses her again. Darla reaches up and pushes his jacket off his shoulders, kissing him back. Angel strips off his jacket with her help, still kissing her. Suddenly Darla begins to laugh and Angel pulls back the same time she pushes him and gets up.
Angel: "Why're you laughing?"
Darla continues to laugh, not answering him, and Angel hits her, sending her crashing through the glass doors leading to his bedroom. Angel slowly walks after her as she rolls over and looks up at him.
Angel: "Don't you feel the cold?"
Angel grabs her by the shoulders and pulls her up.
Darla: "What're you doing?"
Angel: "It doesn't matter. (Strokes the side of her face) None of it matters."
He kisses her again and she responds. They fall back onto the bed and strip off each other's clothes.

See it's nothing like 'Smashed', although on the surface it might seem like it. Buffy is reaching out to 'touch the fire' - to try to feel alive. Spike's claim that she 'came back less human' frees her to pursue the attraction she feels for him. It's majorly screwed up, but there is hope and fire amidst the lust and despair.

Now Angel and Darla... Angel doesn't reach out to feel the fire. He wants to 'feel something beside the cold' and Darla is - convenient. What he is trying to do, is to feel less - that is, to loose his soul. Because he can't find a reason to keep fighting, if he has already lost. Also he is very, very dangerous. When he throws Darla through the doors and slowly follows, it is one of the most chilling moments I've ever seen - his physical prescence is not always accentuated, but it is here. (It's also one of those moments that makes me want to run off and warn poor little 16-year-old Buffy, because this guy is *so* not boyfriend material!!!) And it makes me miss my show SO MUCH! *wail*

If anyone knows of an Angel icon where he looks all large and looming and scary, but *isn't* Angelus, I'd love to know! :) (The one I'm using is by glenien btw.)

Comments

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

God, yes. I love "Reprise." The series' themes were never stated clearer than there, and Angel's darkness never shown so completely for what it is other than here - a total lack of hope. I remember Toys and I having a big discussion about the following episode, where it almost plays like a retake on "Suprise/Innocence" on BtVS, only here, Angel's soul comes back after sleeping with Darla, not because of perfect happiness, but of perfect despair... which kind of suggests his dark arc in S2 was all about Angel losing his soul (hope?) by inches, on purpose, and that he needed to hit bottom before getting it back.

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

Really well said. One of my favorite Angel episodes! I have to say that I never really saw the Buffy/ Angel chemistry. But he really sparks with Darla here!

[owenthurman.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. Reprise could be the mission statement for AtS. And the Holland Manners and Darla scenes are so delicious. The writers and actors just spared no punches with the pain and despair and darkness.

Ahh. Delight.

Next in Epiphany we hear what Angel took home from all this (thx to BVDDB):

ANGEL: Well, I guess I kinda worked it out. If there is no great glorious end to all this, if nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do. 'cause that's all there is. What we do, now, today. - I fought for so long. For redemption, for a reward, finally just to beat the other guy, but... I never got it.

Yep. He hit bottom and now he's on his way back up.

[elisi]

Angel's soul comes back after sleeping with Darla, not because of perfect happiness, but of perfect despair...
Oooh that's a wonderful way of looking at it! There is also the mirror aspect of Buffy/Darla being given the brush-off and becoming very insecure.

And as owenthurman quoted below, in the end Angel explains his new understanding, which pretty much underpins the entire show (esp. NFA): "If nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do."

Ah, such a good show!

[elisi]

Re-watching the early seasons, I can certainly see why people love B/A, and there is a wonderful fascination with watching this *doomed* relationship unfold. But I far, far, far prefer Angel with Darla - there is just so much history there! *happy sigh*

[elisi]

The writers and actors just spared no punches with the pain and despair and darkness.
I know! And although S6 of Buffy is also very dark, it's a very different sort of darkness - one coming from within rather than from the outside. I also love what Angel says in... [runs off to look up episode] 'Happy Anniversary':

Angel: "You want to know what my problem is? I'm screwed. That's my problem. I can't win. I'm trying to atone for a hundred years of unthinkable evil. News flash! I never can! Never going to be enough. Now I got Wolfram and Hart dogging me, it's too much! Two hundred highly intelligent law-school graduates working fulltime driving me crazy. Why the hell is everyone so surprised that it's working? But no, it's 'Angel, why you're so cranky?' 'Angel, you should lighten up. You should smile. You should wear a nice plaid.'"

It's so seldom we see him explain *anything* and I love that little glimpse into his head. (Of course Lorne replies with "Oh. Not this season, honey.")

You quoted one of my alltime favourite bits, especially 'if nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do.' because that's the bottomline of the show from then on out (particularly re. NFA!). Ah, I want to re-watch it all like right now!

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

There is also the mirror aspect of Buffy/Darla being given the brush-off and becoming very insecure.

I'm trying to remember who pointed it out recently - maybe it was you? - that Darla's reaction as almost precisely like Buffy's initially: "was I not... good?"

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. I wasn't ever an Angel hater. I thought he and Buffy were fine, and I felt badly for her when he left. I still get teary-eyed when I watch "I Will Remember You"! Of course I also like Riley way back in the day, and sympathized with him.

I just wasn't very interested in Angel until he had his own show, and started to grow a personality. In retrospect, he and Buffy never seemed to make each other happy. I always remember Buffy's comment "When I kiss you I want to die". Darla and to an extent Cordelia both seemed to be able to tell him to get over himself, and seemed to have more equal relationships with Angel. There was a lot more grow-up/ kid to Angel & Buffy's relationship!

[elisi]

I think it was st_salieri... but yeah, the fact that a 400-year-old vampire (who used to be a prostitute) acts exactly the same way... oh it makes me so very happy. (Which is very odd, but you know what I mean!)

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

I love the scene (different episode, but it gets me teary) when Angel and Darla are on the roof talking. ::sigh:: Darla.

[elisi]

I just wasn't very interested in Angel until he had his own show
Oh I know exactly what you mean - Angel the Broody Hero I love! Angel the Love Interest is just a bit... dull. Also (as AOQ very astutely pointed out in his review of IWRY) Angel always took decisions on her behalf, which is just not how relationships work. He needs someone who he sees (and treats!) as an equal!

[elisi]

And at the end of The Trial when she accepts that she is dying... and then Lindsey shows up with Dru. *sniff*

[earth-vexer.livejournal.com]

When he throws Darla through the doors and slowly follows, it is one of the most chilling moments I've ever seen - his physical prescence is not always accentuated, but it is here.
Oh yeah, so true! I love the intensity of that scene.

If anyone knows of an Angel icon where he looks all large and looming and scary, but *isn't* Angelus, I'd love to know! :)
Hey that's a great idea! If I wasn't working my way through season 7 Buffy right now, I might have run off to make one. :)

[lillianmorgan.livejournal.com]

Because he can't find a reason to keep fighting, if he has already lost.
And yet the irony is that of course this act gives him the greatest reason and his only motivation he will ever need to keep fighting ::points to icon::
I don't really associate the scene in Smashed with the scene in Reprise. To me they're quite separate, but maybe there is a connection. (Or maybe that's because I prefer to view them within their own set of show connections.)
I'm sure I can find a scary Angel icon for you. Give me a few hours or so.
Don't you think it's odd too, that first Holland Manners gives him this speech and then an episode or five later it's Lindsey MacDonald given him a variation on the speech, but with the incentive, a push to keep going.
Lindsey: "The key to Wolfram and Hart: don't let them make you play their game. - You gotta make them play yours." (Dead End)
I find that so ironic that Lindsey says that, and Holland Manners too. You just don't know whether to believe them, and yet there is truth in their words.

[elisi]

I love the intensity of that scene.
Me too! *sigh* It makes me want to run out and buy DVDs rather than having tapes recodred off the telly...

I might have run off to make one. :)
You know you want to... ::tempts you::

[elisi]

::points to icon::
So true! I love how everything is so interconnected!

To me they're quite separate
To me too - although to an outsider they might seem similar, what with the violence and all! *g*

And thanks for the icons! Haven't had time to upload any yet...

You just don't know whether to believe them, and yet there is truth in their words.
It all so delicious and murky! Anyway I have to different plot bunnies regarding W&H ('Only a Girl' and the sequel to 'Maybe Someday'), so I still have it to explore!