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Spike on AtS. (It's all about Angel...)
Some people say that Spike had no reason for being on AtS, except as a tool for the executives to up the ratings. This never made sense to me, and the more I think about it, the less sense it makes. Sure Spike was part of the reason AtS got another season, but I cannot think of a single character in the entire ‘verse who’d be more suited to AtS in every way. I will even go so far as to say that he makes *more* sense on AtS than on BtVS. On Buffy he stuck around because he loved Buffy - that was his connection. Without that (in S4) it was hard to see where he fitted in. Because Buffy is very different to Angel:
BtVS is about Buffy and The Scoobies. It is about a young girl/woman and her friends... and by extension any lovers. When in S5 family becomes an overriding theme the writers had to add a magically made-up sister, because Buffy’s only blood kin was her mother - her friends fill the role of family most of the time.
AtS is - by the very nature of its hero - different. Angel is a 250 year old vampire, and although the overriding theme is obviously redemption, family and history come a very, very close second. Even in the rather shaky S1 we have Spike and Penn popping up from his past, and several flashbacks to his life with Darla and Dru. Then come S2-4 and where would those be without Darla and Connor (and Dru to a lesser extent)? Angelus was a family man, and so is Angel... the story of those seasons all spring from his past and the consequences of that - how this impacts on his life now. His role as Darla’s childe/companion/partner and Connor’s father are pivotal. And then at the end of S4 he sells them all out to W&H for Connor’s sake...
“You gotta do what you can to protect your family. I learned that from my father.”
Connor, ‘Origin’
This essay is a look at what roles Spike took in S5 of AtS - looked at only from Angel’s side (Spike-centric, but not about Spike if you get my point). I know I’ve touched upon this before, but this is far more indepth. It’s in two parts, and as ususal I’ve got a million quotes:
Spike as Connor
In ‘Home’ a whole chapter of Angel’s life comes to its close. He lets go of Connor and his responsibility for him. And for around three weeks he is free of any family worries... until Spike appears! And Spike... Spike has Daddy issues to rival Connor's:
“It’s you! You’re the reason my life sucks!”
Connor (I forget which episode - any in S4 would probably do)
“You! This is all your fault!”
Spike, ‘Just Rewards’
To briefly quote![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
romanyg’s most excellent Spangel Manifesto:
‘Spike returns as the reluctant prodigal. He doesn't get the welcome, the coffee cake, the fatted calf. The fatted calf will always belong to Connor. Of course, none of them now have a clue as to Connor. Spike just knows that the calf is withheld.’
And Spike is rather resentful of that to say the least...
Because the thing is - Spike is the anti-Connor. Angel’s ‘crime’ as concerns Connor was losing him. He was stolen and used and abused throughout his 18 years - by Holtz, by Evil!Cordy, by Jasmine. He blames Angel, and Angel blames Angel:
Angel: “I mean, you were stuck in a - hell dimension. - Connor - I'm so sorry. I tried to get you back. I did. I tried to come after you. I would have done anything. I just... I just... I couldn't find a way in."
Connor: "I found a way out."
‘Tomorrow’
Connor: “You tried to love me. At least I think you did.”
Angel: “I still do.”
Connor: “But not enough to hang on, dad. You let him take me. You let him get me. You let him get me.”
‘Home’
But Spike... Spike was to a great extent Angelus’s creation. For 18 years (and OMG the parallels! This is fabulous!) he was under Angelus’s tutelage:
Spike: “You were my sire, man. My Yoda!”
‘School Hard’
And Angel acknowledges this:
Angel: “I taught you to always guard your perimeter. Tsk, tsk, tsk. You should have someone out there.”
Spike: “I did. I'm surrounded by idiots.”
He also knows what kind of monster he created:
Giles: “Well, he can't be any worse than any other creature you've faced.”
Angel: “He's worse. Once he starts something he doesn't stop until everything in his path is dead.”
But... Angel does not feel responsible for Spike in the same way, although he was the one doing the damage. Spike isn’t a lost little boy. And yet Angel still has to deal with the resentment:
Spike: Come on, hero. Tell me more. Teach me what it means. And I'll tell you why you can't stand the bloody sight of me.
Angel: Tell it to your therapist.
Spike: 'Cause every time you look at me... you see all the dirty little things I've done, all the lives I've taken... because of you! Drusilla sired me... but you... you made me a monster.
‘Destiny’
So we see Spike blaming Angel for who he is - just like Connor. Through neglect or teaching, they both think that Angel created them. But - then they go different paths:
Connor: I can't feel anything. I guess I really am your son... 'cause I'm dead, too.
‘Home’
Angel: I didn't make you, Spike. I just opened up the door... and let the real you out.
Spike: You never knew the real me! Too busy trying to see your own reflection... praying there was someone as disgusting as you in the world, so you could stand to live with yourself. Take a long look, hero. I'm nothing like you!
‘Destiny’
And here we touch on the other thing - Spike never needed Angel to ‘fix’ him or rescue him. Spike did that all by himself thank-you-very-much. Only... here’s the thing. To quotekita0610’s essay ‘A Century of Slash: Angel & Spike’:
From Drusilla’s affections to Buffy’s, from fighting on the side of good to gaining a soul, Spike, since Day One, has followed in “Daddy’s” footsteps. And has resented the hell out of it.
And Angel... Angel resents him for it too! Because as we saw in ‘Awakening’ Angel dreamt of Connor following in his footsteps... of wanting to be just like Daddy:
Connor: Is this what it feels like, being a champion?
Angel (smiles): Pretty much.
‘Awakening’
It was Connor who was supposed to choose to fight alongside him... not Spike.
Spike: So here we are then. Two vampire heroes... competing to wet our whistle with a drink of light, refreshing torment.
Angel: Is that what you think you are? A hero?
Spike: Saved the world, didn’t I?
Angel: Once. Talk to me after you’ve done it a couple more times.
‘Destiny’
It’s not easy for Spike to get Daddy’s approval... Apparently even dying to save the world isn’t enough.
There is of course also the issue of women... because in both cases Angel had ‘his’ woman taken over by his offspring. He never had a relationship with Cordy the way he hoped - it was Connor who looked after Cordy and slept with her:
ANGELUS: Is that my shirt?
CONNOR: Not anymore.
ANGELUS: Looks good on you, son.
CONNOR: (smirks) So did Cordy.
‘Soulless’
Connor taking Angel’s clothes (his identity) and his woman. And it’s repeated with Spike, but moreso - where Cordy was being used by Jasmine and probably wouldn’t have ended up with Connor if she’d had free will, Buffy fell for - and slept with, repeatedly - Spike! And she gave him Angel’s amulet (should be worn by a Champion)... his identity!
SPIKE: You can't keep her from me.
ANGEL: She's not mine to keep... or yours.
SPIKE: Says you. You got no idea what we had.
ANGEL: You never had her.
SPIKE: More than you, you poncy—
‘Just Rewards’
But as I said - Spike isn’t a confused child. Angel is forever having to handle Connor with kid gloves, desperately trying to save him:
CONNOR: Cordy... you swore you loved me. Where are you now?
ANGEL: Connor... you have to believe that there are people who love you.
‘Home’
Spike however gets the no-holds-barred treatment:
ANGEL: No. You're less. That's why Buffy never really loved you - Because you weren't me.
SPIKE: Guess that means she was thinking about you... all those times I was puttin' it to her.
‘Destiny’
And oh it’s brutal... but then it’s probably also very healthy. Because after getting all their major grievances out in the open, the two of them slowly come to accept each other - the last two remaining members of their family (not counting Dru).
Except of course for - Lawson! Oh! [has big epiphany] I am a brain-dead moron! ‘Why We Fight’ is all about Connor (Angel even calls Lawson ‘son’)! And the way he captures and threatens to kill Angel’s crew is such a blatant call-back to ‘Home’ that I cannot believe that I never saw it before:
Connor: You might not want to move. Everyone's rigged. Can't save 'em all, dad. Don't know who's gonna be first. Could be any one of 'em. Could be me. Could be her.
‘Home’
And would you believe it, but Lawson does *exactly* the same. One of the first things Angel says when he enters the sub is: "I need you to trust that I'm gonna get us all through this... safe and sound." Except of course they don't. So when Lawson says this:
Lawson: I do need you to trust that I'm gonna get us all through this, safe and sound. Easy now. That's double-ought wire wrapped around your crew's necks. Take a fella's head clean off with just a little tug. Best not go roughhousing. Something might get knocked over.
He is effectively echoing Connor's "Can't save them all dad!" Lawson is as suicidal as Connor and counting on Angel to keep his promise:
LAWSON: You sure you want to do that, chief?
ANGEL: Fairly certain I said I'd kill you if I ever saw you again.
And again we see the family ties - Angel let Lawson go the first time, just like he let Spike go (back then, and many times after that). The only reason he ended up killing Darla was because she threatened Buffy’s life. Family ties are deeply ingrained into Angel.
But - back to Connor and Lawson. We have a suicidal child(e), blaming Angel for destroying his life - for making him feel nothing. Dear Lord the parallels:
CONNOR: I didn't feel anything! I can't feel anything. I guess I really am your son... 'cause I'm dead, too.
‘Home’
LAWSON: I did all the terrible things a monster does—murdered women and children, tortured fathers and husbands just to hear 'em scream—and through it all... I felt nothing. 60 years of blood drying in my throat like ashes. So what do you think? Is it me, chief? Or does everyone you sired feel this way? [...] You gave me just enough, didn't you? Enough of your soul to keep me trapped between who I was and who I should be. I'm nothin'... because of you.
‘Why We Fight’
Connor feels that he cannot be human because of the part of him that’s a monster, thanks to Angel. Lawson has the opposite problem - just that tiny bit of soul, preventing him from being a monster like he should. And - knowing what they need - Angel kills them both:
CONNOR: There's only one thing that ever changes anything... and that's death. Everything else is just a lie. You can't be saved by a lie. You can't be saved at all.
ANGEL: I really do love you, Connor.
CONNOR: So what are you gonna do about it?
ANGEL: Prove it.
[cuts his throat, triggering the mindwipe]
ANGEL: You really want it to end like this?
LAWSON: Sounds like a plan. (searching Angel's eyes) Come on, chief. Give me a mission.
[Angel dusts him]
And then - Spike comes to see Angel. Spike, the one son who found the balance between monster and man without Angel’s help. The one that Angel finds himself almost leaning on, because - bizarrely - he can talk to him:
SPIKE: Know revenge is best served cold and all, but his must've been frozen solid.
ANGEL: I don't think that's what he was after.
SPIKE: No? Then what was he looking for?
ANGEL: A reason.
And will Spike find a reason? Would Connor if he had the opportunity again? Well - over the next few episodes both Connor and Spike make an informed choice to stay or go:
Connor: “This whole fighting thing, I'm not... I'm not really sure it's for me.”
‘Origin’
Spike: “It's what I want. I don't really like you. Suppose I never will. But this is important, what's happening here. Fred gave her life for it. The least I can do is give what's left of mine. The fight's comin', Angel. We both feel it... and it's gonna be a hell of a lot bigger than Illyria. Things are gonna get ugly. That's where I live.”
‘Shells’
In the end - when Angel takes down The Black Thorn - Connor does come to help him, fighting alongside his father just like Angel always hoped. And then - he sends him away.
Angel: You go home.
Connor: Huh?
Angel: This is my fight.
Connor: They'll destroy you.
Angel: As long as you're OK, they can't. Go.
‘Not Fade Away’
Because he finally can let go of Connor completely, let him have his own life. He doesn’t need or want his son to live out his own dreams anymore. (And I like to think that in a very real sense Connor is the shashu come true.)
And also Angel has Spike to fight beside him.
Spike: In terms of a plan?
Angel: We fight.
‘Not Fade Away’
Spike made Angel’s fight his own, and Angel let him take Connor’s place.
But that’s only one side of it.
Spike as Angel
To quoteromanyg again:
And Spike finally does what Angel never did: he willingly dies for the world. He becomes the champion that Angel struggles to be. [...] And Angel does acknowledge jealousy, fear, that he will be surpassed, that he isn't the saviour, but merely the heralder, the one who comes before.
We see Angel’s jealousy as soon as Spike appears:
SPIKE: Just because I got me a soul doesn't mean I'm gonna let myself be led around by—
FRED: E-excuse me?
WESLEY: Did—did you just say— Spike has a soul? You never said.
ANGEL: Didn't seem worth mentioning, you know.
GUNN: Seems to be a lot of that.
SPIKE: Or maybe Captain Forehead was feeling a little less special. Didn't like me crashing his exclusive club—another vampire with a soul in the world.
Much as Angel hates what he is, he likes his unique status. He is The Vampire With A Soul - with no one to compare him to, it’s not possible to judge him... But as soon as Spike shows up, suddenly there is a scale. And on that scale - well who’s more heroic? The vampire who was cursed with a soul, or the one who fought for it? The one who sacrificed his life for the world, or the one who took over an evil law firm?
No wonder Angel is so defensive.
It’s a classic case of ‘the grass is greener on the other side’:
SPIKE: You're my problem. You got it too good. You're king of a 30-floor castle, with all the cars, comfort, power, and glory you could ever want, and here I save the world, throw myself onto the proverbial hand grenade for love, honor, and all the right reasons, and what do I get? Bloody well toasted and ghosted is what I get, isn't it? It's not fair.
ANGEL: Fair?! You asked for a soul. I didn't! It almost killed me. I spent a hundred years trying to come to terms with infinite remorse. You spent 3 weeks moaning in a basement, and then you were fine! What's fair about that?!
‘Just Rewards’
So we have resentment reaching up to the sky... but also intimate knowledge of each other, and the fact that they’re only two who know what it’s like to be a souled vampire. Champions no less...
FRED: He just saved the world. Vampire with a soul fighting for the good of humanity. Ring anything? He's just like you, a champion.
‘Hell Bound’
And so comes a moment of bridging the gap:
ANGEL: You're starting to feel it, aren't you? How close you are now... to hell?
SPIKE: What if I am? Not like it's such a big, bleeding deal, is it? If a ponce like you could break out—
ANGEL: I never escaped from hell. All I got was a short reprieve. Not even sure how I managed that.
SPIKE: Oh, put your martyr away, Mahatma. Fred told me all about your great, shining prophecy. Pile up all your good deeds and get the big brass ring handed to you like everything else.
ANGEL: Except for one small catch. The prophecy's a bunch of bull. They all are. Nothing's written in stone or fated to happen, Spike. You save the world, you end up running an evil law firm.
SPIKE: Or playin' Casper with one foot in the fryer.
ANGEL: You think any of it matters? The things we did? The lives we destroyed. That's all that's ever gonna count. So, yeah, surprise. You're going to hell. We both are.
‘Hell Bound’
It’s the most wonderful instance of ‘Finally there’s someone just like me - I just wish it wasn’t you!’
Of course from this scene we also see how low Angel’s feeling. He is essentially formulating the same thought he had in ‘Epiphany’ (“If nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do”), but coming from the opposite side. Seeing only despair. Helping not because he wants to end people’s suffering, but because what else is he good for? “Some people can’t be saved,” he says and although he’s saying this about Spike, but obviously meaning himself, there’s also a whole new level of cynicism to him - people can’t change. It’s the same attitude that made him kill Hauser in ‘Conviction’. Compare and contrast with S1 Angel:
Wesley: "Well, I have faith in Angel. If anyone can convince him to testify..."
Cordy: "Wesley, you don't change a guy like that. In fact - generally speaking - you don't change a guy. What you see is what you get. Scratch the surface and what do you find? More surface."
[...]
Wesley to Angel: "That young man is very lucky he ran into you."
Angel: "He just needed a little guidance - a push in the right direction."
‘Five By Five’
The motto for ‘Angel Investigations’ was fluid: Sometimes it was ‘We help the helpless’, sometimes ‘We help the hopeless’. Angel isn’t helping the hopeless anymore.
The thing is, he has forgotten Doyle’s very first lesson:
Doyle: “You see this vampire, he thinks he’s helping. Fighting the demons. Staying away from the human’s so as not to be tempted. Doing penance in his little - cell. But he’s cut off. From every thing. From the people he’s trying to help. [...] It’s not all about fighting and gadgets and stuff. It’s about reaching out to people, showing them that there’s love and hope still left in the world. It’s about letting them into your heart. It’s not about saving lives; it’s about saving souls. Hey, possibly your own in the process."
‘City Of...’
It’s a lesson Spike never needed - reaching out to people comes naturally to him. Not to groups at large, but individuals. He chooses to save Fred in ‘Hellbound’ without a second thought, and does not for a moment regret his choice. He saved the girl - his friend - and that’s what matters. It’s doing something ‘faster and more clever’ (‘Every night I save you’). Doesn’t matter if he makes it... as long as he can be useful. Saving the world or saving one girl - its all the same. Give him a mission and he’ll grab it with both hands - it’s being useless that he can’t cope with.
And Angel... To quotethe_royal_anna’s essay on Damage (which always leaves me gasping because of her insights):
And this is it: the bleak, endless cycle Angel fights against. He is the victim that dares to be the champion. But is he driven by the blood in his heart or the blood on his hands?
[...]
We don't stop being human when we lose our hearts; nor when we lose our heads. And every last vestige of humanity can be drained from us, but as long as somebody, somewhere cares, we are not dust.
Spike, I think, gets that. But Angel?
And of course - who cares about Angel? Who does he care about? The people he loves (Buffy, Cordy, Connor) are all out of reach. (“Poor little lostSlayer Angel, she’s got no one to love!”)
NUMBER 5: But still the demon did not want my heart.
ANGEL: He didn't want mine, either.
NUMBER 5: Of course not, amigo. Who would want that dried-up walnut of a dead thing?
Anyway, we see another Spike-Angel parallel in ‘Lineage’ where they both try to comfort Wesley by telling of how they killed their parents. It’s so sweet in a very disturning way. And then comes ‘Destiny’...
EVE: The keyword here is "champion." Spike gave his life to save the world. That gives him the cred. But when he died and became a ghost, case closed. Now that he's back, all bets are off, kids.
Two vampires, both alike in dignity...
ANGEL: Like you're any different.
SPIKE: Well, that's just it. I am. And you know it. You had a soul forced on you—as a curse. Make you suffer for all the horrible things you'd done. But me... I fought for my soul. Went through the demon trials. Almost did me in a dozen times over, but I kept fighting. 'Cause I knew it was the right thing to do. It's my destiny.
[...]
SPIKE: Vampire with a soul. Nobody knows what side he's gonna fight on... when the big show comes down. Except we already know what side you're on, don't we? Already made your choice. Traded in your cape and tights for a nice comfy chair at Wolfram & bloody Hart.
Damn I love that fight - so brutal, words cutting so much deeper than the blows. And Spike’s “You’re not gonna to win this time!”
And Angel doesn’t...
ANGEL No. He beat me to the cup.
GUNN You mean the fake cup? The make-believe, fairy-tale cup? So what?!
ANGEL No, you don't... He won the fight, Gunn... for the first time. Doesn't matter if the cup is real or not. In the end, he... Spike was stronger. He wanted it more. [reality bends to desire]
GUNN Angel, it doesn't mean anything.
ANGEL What if it does? What if it means that... I'm not the one?
And here we have Angel’s self doubt in full bloom. Ripe for the treatment he gets in ‘Soul Purpose’. A nightmare, where he’s been *replaced* in every way by Spike: Spike The Champion saving the world, Spike with a curse-free soul getting the girl, Spike being given the Shanshu (because he [Spike] doesn’t want it)... and then the clincher - Angel wakes up to Spike saving him:
SPIKE: No need to thank me. Just helping the helpless.
Spike is him - the hero he used to be! The dream is coming true! Because intertwined with Angel’s dreams we see Spike becoming Angel of S1 - complete with 'link' to the PTB and saving damsels in distress in dirty alleys.
But - Angel realises that he’s being played. And over the course of the next few episodes we see him slowly come to terms with Spike being a younger version of himself. And - I think - also proud that Spike doesn’t take the easy way out. Spike sets himself up as very separate from Angel and W&H, and although their paths cross Spike is clearly his own man.
‘Damage’ of course provides the main push in bringing them together - the two of them bond over their shared fate, and (for the first time since Hellbound) really reach out to each other. But this time they’ve done a lot of work on their issues, and they can take comfort from the fact that there’s someone who understands.
SPIKE: She's...one of us now. She's a monster.
ANGEL: She's an innocent victim.
SPIKE: So were we... once upon a time.
ANGEL: Once upon a time.
(Also Angel without hesitation helps Spike. Compare to ‘Hellbound’ when he was deeply sceptical of Fred’s spending on Spike’s behalf, this time he obviously doesn’t even consider the money angle when reattaching Spike’s hands:
Lilah (to Lindsey): "That's an expensive operation. The shaman alone's a quarter mil? I guess they like you. They really, really like you."
‘Dead End’)
Then in ‘You’re Welcome’ he gets a chance to discuss the situation with Cordy - how far he’s fallen, how he thinks he’s no longer The One.
ANGEL: You're wrong about the Powers. They're not in my corner anymore. It looks like Spike is their new champion.
CORDELIA: Spike? Spike who?
ANGEL: Spike. He's got a soul now. And he saved the world. And he's out there on the streets. You know, helping the...helpless.
CORDELIA: OK, Spike's a hero, and you're C.E.O. of Hell, Incorporated. What freakin' bizarro world did I wake up in?
ANGEL: I'm sorry.
But that episode also sees him take back some of what he lost. And the thing is - Spike didn’t take them, Angel let them go. Who Angel is, is not dependent on Spike - only on himself. He needs to find out what he’s fighting for:
CORDELIA: I naturally assumed you'd be lost without me, but this?
ANGEL: I am lost without you.
CORDELIA: You just forgot who you are.
ANGEL: Remind me.
CORDELIA: Uh, no. That's for you to figure out, bubba. I can tell you who you were. A guy who always fought his hardest for what was right, even when he couldn't remember why. Even when he was miserable, which was, let's face it, a not small portion of the time. He did right. And that gave him something. A light, a glimmer.
And Angel finds it:
SPIKE: You took me on and lost, remember, old man?
ANGEL: Touch Cordelia again... get ready for our very last rematch.
He didn’t fight for the cup as well as he could have. But Cordy? Oh yes. Angel needs to learn that you can’t fight for abstracts, but for people. And that knowing who you are will give you strength:
ANGEL (to Lindsey): Doesn't matter what you try. Doesn't matter where I am or how badass you think you've become. 'Cause you know what? I'm Angel. I beat the bad guys.
God I love this show. Because Angel’s words are a wonderful echo of Spike’s in ‘Hellbound’ - finding a purpose, grabbing his idendity:
SPIKE: And guess what I want to do now, you prissy Son-of-a-bitch?”
Different words, same meaning. He might as well have said: “I’m Spike. I beat the bad guys.”
Of course in ‘You’re Welcome’ (or at some point thereafter) Angel also gets the vision from the PTB, finally giving his work at W&H some meaning. And in ‘Why We Fight’ we have the two of them just being together, looking out over the world which is full of sunshine... where they can never go.
‘Smile Time’ gives us Puppet!Angel - and as someone said (I *really* can’t remember who, or I’d link you), the puppet form helps Angel enormously - it makes everything clearer and more immediate and he acts rather than thinks: He finally beats up Spike f.ex., and that is a good thing. He dares to date Nina. He’s finding himself again - and as he does so, he is able to let go of his jealousy.
All of which leads us to ‘A Hole In The World’. Which starts off with the beautiful Cavemen/Astronauts argument, apparently showing how very, very different our two vampires are. And then we get Angel offering Spike a solo gig:
Angel: I'll give you the resources you need to go anywhere: cars, gadgets, expense accounts. You fight the good fight, but... in style. And, if possible, in Outer Mongolia.
Of course there’s a good bit of wanting rid of Spike continually annoying him, but there’s more to it than that. He’s trying to protect him, because he knows far too well what happens to people he cares about - and what’s happening to himself. He’s trying to protect him by sending him away like he did Connor - only he’s giving Spike a choice. Also (and that’s an important point!), he’s naturally assuming that ‘figthing the good fight’ is what Spike does these days. That’s the life he’s offering to fund.
But then we get the business with Fred, and with it Angel’s (apparently) sudden and full acceptance of Spike as fellow champion (except - as I pointed out above - he’s already there):
DROGYN: The power to draw back Illyria lies in there. It requires a champion who has travelled from where it lies to where it belongs.
ANGEL: You got two of those right here.
The way the two of them just snap together in this (and the next) episode is one of the most wonderful things I’ve ever seen. And how Spike is just there, pretty much reading Angel’s mind, replying to things he hasn’t even voiced and backing him up at every point is a joy to behold:
SPIKE: Can't even get drunk. Why would anyone ever make a bottle this small? It's inhuman. Thousands would have died if we'd saved her.
ANGEL: Yeah.
WESLEY: I watched it gut her from the inside out. Everything she was is gone. There is nothing left but a shell.
ANGEL: Then we'll figure out a way to fill it back up.
SPIKE: The thing only took over her body. Just a tip of the theological.
ANGEL: It's the soul that matters.
SPIKE: Trust us. We're kind of experts.
SPIKE: Any thoughts on how we're supposed to track Fred or Illyria or whatever the hell that thing was?
ANGEL: We just do it, that's all.
SPIKE: Back in the lab, she was standing right there in front of me, but there was no scent. Nothing. It's like she wasn't even there.
ANGEL: I know.
And then Spike decides to stay:
SPIKE: My first official parley as a very loosely affiliated member of the... what are we? Tell me we're not Scoobies.
‘Underneath’
Of course ‘Underneath’ is full of moments with Spike and Angel behaving in the same way - from shying away from the sunshine in the holding dimension to their identical stances watching Hamilton walk away - he even mentions them in the same breath:
HAMILTON: I'm looking forward to working myself into the mix. Angel, Spike... Welcome to the team.
And then in ‘Time Bomb’ we get Angel saving Spike’s life and taking a stake for him... Darn it, but it’s almost as though he cares... *g*
But best of all is of course ‘The Girl In Question’ which is a rollicking Spike’n’Angel ride, with some of the most fabulous lines ever - unable to stop arguing over *everything* (‘Anything you can do I can do better’/I can do anything better than you!’):
ANGEL: I helped save the world, you know.
SPIKE: Like I haven't.
ANGEL: Yeah, but I've done it a lot more.
SPIKE: Oh, please.
ANGEL: I closed the hellmouth.
SPIKE: I've done that.
ANGEL: Yeah, you wore a necklace. You know, I helped kill the mayor and, uh, and Jasmine and—
SPIKE: Do those really count as savin' the world?
ANGEL: I stopped Acathla. That saved the world.
SPIKE: Buffy ran you through with a sword.
ANGEL: Yeah, but I made her do it. I signaled her with my eyes.
SPIKE: She killed you. I helped her! That one counts as mine.
ANGEL: My point is I'm better than this. OK? We're better than this. What the hell could Buffy see in him?
The point of course being that The Immortal is them. TGiQ isn’t about Buffy at all - it’s about Spike and Angel’s eternal rivalry, always feeling that the other one gets all the breaks:
ANGEL: Oh, he's got her, Spike. He's got Buffy. Why is this always happening to us?
That line could be spoken by either of them about the other... because they’ve both had her in a way the other hasn’t and they are forever resentful of that:
ANGEL: Hey, ours is a forever love.
SPIKE: I had a relationship with her, too.
ANGEL: OK, sleeping together is not a relationship.
SPIKE: It is if you do it enough times.
Angel had *one* night. Spike had *one* ‘I love you’. Also look at ‘I Will Remember You’ and ‘Something Blue’ - both ‘perfect days’ (one following the other!) when our vampires got what they otherwise never did from Buffy: Angel lots and lots of sex, Spike an over-the-top romantic relationship.
And then they try to move on:
SPIKE: So, what? We just have to live with it? Get on with our lives?
ANGEL: 'Fraid so.
SPIKE: Fine. No problem. I was plannin' on doin' that anyway.
ANGEL: Yeah, me, too.
SPIKE: Actually, I'm doin' it right now. As we speak, I'm movin' on.
ANGEL: Movin' on.
SPIKE: Oh, yeah.
ANGEL: Right now.
SPIKE: Movin'.
Whilst standing firmly still. And of course, so is Buffy - dating the biggest Spike&Angel metaphor there’s ever been. Can’t you see boys? She’s still waiting for you! *squishes them both*
And then in ‘Power Play’ comes the big reveal - what has Angel been up to?
ANGEL: I know I've spent years fighting to get somewhere... to accomplish something... and now that I'm close to it... I don't like what I see, what I am.
NINA: You're a hero.
ANGEL (softly): Oh, that word.
NINA: You're my hero.
ANGEL: I may not always be.
Wah! *loves Angel to tiny little pieces* To quotethedeadlyhook’s very excellent essay Dude Where’s My Soul? (although she has a rather more bleak outlook than me):
He [Angel] decides his real unique gifts are for ruthlessness and big-picture artistry - the same things that made Angelus legendary. Essentially, Angel turns himself into the "weapon" he originally thought Wolfram & Hart would be, throws himself and his team's into the fray because he's come to believe that only the ends really matter. He takes his team into a huge battle against forces no one else could challenge because, as he tells Number Five, "we can... because we know how."
Finally - what task does Angel give Spike when they dismatle the arcitects of the apocalypse? He sends him to save a baby boy from a horrible destiny ("And on the eve of his 13th year, he will be prepared for the rites of Gordabach... it's a ritual sacri—”) , returning him to his parents! Making Spike replay a replica of his biggest failure (Connor), changing the outcome. Along with signing away the shanshu he has now helped to turn Spike into himself, but a version without the big defeats and compromises. A him that can be saved, one that still has a shot at redemption. Handing over the reigns, instead of fearing they’ll be taken away.
Not a usurper. A legacy.
(ETA: When speaking of (signing away) the shanshu here, I mean that Angel gives Spike his *destiny*, rather than the (possible) reward. When they fight in 'Destiny', it's not just for a reward, it's for who gets to be The Champion. (Does that make sense? It's going with the Connor-is-the-shanshu thought. Otherwise, it's perfectly straightforward and Spike gets to be a 'real boy' one day.))
I’m trying to think of a way to end this - how to find the words. Angel finally grasping his destiny with both hands, and Spike the first to volunteer... But I can't.
Instead I think I’ll have to quotethe_royal_anna’s post on ‘Not Fade Away’, because she’s said it all far better:
Spike making his peace with William. I love that he can be a good man and still be a bad poet. And a magnificent poet. Because only Spike could be both at once, and because this is a poem lived, and breathed, and worn with a grace nobody else could match.
[...]
And then, Angel making his peace with Angelus. How long have we watched, and waited, while he struggled to come to terms with what he was, with who he is? His story matters. Hamilton tells Angel he would have been nothing if he hadn't been made a vampire. And at last we see Angel acknowledge that, acknowledge that redemption is not about escaping from his story, but grabbing his story with both hands. It's your story, Angel. Tell it.
[...]
Angel is so often referred to as dark. I only know this. That light is never more brilliant, more strong, more welcome than light in a pitch-dark alley in the face of an impending army hell-bent on destruction.
And nothing made me long for the Season 6 that might have been more than this, grown-up Spike and Angel in an alleyway having a grown-up conversation, that relationship that has been everything from abusive to affectionate, suddenly instinctive, understated, accepted. And my Spike-and-Angel unit that I loved became Spike and Angel, team. No hyphens.
Although I also love David Fury’s thoughts (From this interview):
FURY: ...the last beat of the episode would be Angel and whoever was left of his crew about to launch into the apocalypse. My thought on that is, that's the perfect way to end the show. The point of Buffy was always girl power and showing that power. The point of Angel was always that the fight never ends. He'll always fight. It's an eternity of fighting. You can't ever win but the fight is worth fighting. That was a perfect 'going out' scene - you know, the Butch Cassidy/Sundance Kid sort of we're going up against impossible odds and probably die? That's the perfect way to end the series, and anybody who says otherwise is dumb.
[...]
Unlike Buffy who ended up with her three friends and were able to end in that way, in Angel's case, everybody that he's ever been close to dies, which is really Angel's story - that he will always outlive the people he cares about. He has gone on and on, he has seen people he loves die, which is another reason that he and Buffy realized they couldn't be together. [...] But the fact that he was side-by-side with Spike was kind of a wonderful turnaround in the mythology of the series.
Interviewer: There's Butch and Sundance right there.
***
And the last words are of course theirs. Our boys:
SPIKE: In terms of a plan?
ANGEL: We fight.
SPIKE: Bit more specific.
ANGEL: Well, personally, I kind of want to slay the dragon. Let's go to work.
The End
BtVS is about Buffy and The Scoobies. It is about a young girl/woman and her friends... and by extension any lovers. When in S5 family becomes an overriding theme the writers had to add a magically made-up sister, because Buffy’s only blood kin was her mother - her friends fill the role of family most of the time.
AtS is - by the very nature of its hero - different. Angel is a 250 year old vampire, and although the overriding theme is obviously redemption, family and history come a very, very close second. Even in the rather shaky S1 we have Spike and Penn popping up from his past, and several flashbacks to his life with Darla and Dru. Then come S2-4 and where would those be without Darla and Connor (and Dru to a lesser extent)? Angelus was a family man, and so is Angel... the story of those seasons all spring from his past and the consequences of that - how this impacts on his life now. His role as Darla’s childe/companion/partner and Connor’s father are pivotal. And then at the end of S4 he sells them all out to W&H for Connor’s sake...
“You gotta do what you can to protect your family. I learned that from my father.”
Connor, ‘Origin’
This essay is a look at what roles Spike took in S5 of AtS - looked at only from Angel’s side (Spike-centric, but not about Spike if you get my point). I know I’ve touched upon this before, but this is far more indepth. It’s in two parts, and as ususal I’ve got a million quotes:
In ‘Home’ a whole chapter of Angel’s life comes to its close. He lets go of Connor and his responsibility for him. And for around three weeks he is free of any family worries... until Spike appears! And Spike... Spike has Daddy issues to rival Connor's:
“It’s you! You’re the reason my life sucks!”
Connor (I forget which episode - any in S4 would probably do)
“You! This is all your fault!”
Spike, ‘Just Rewards’
To briefly quote
romanyg’s most excellent Spangel Manifesto:‘Spike returns as the reluctant prodigal. He doesn't get the welcome, the coffee cake, the fatted calf. The fatted calf will always belong to Connor. Of course, none of them now have a clue as to Connor. Spike just knows that the calf is withheld.’
And Spike is rather resentful of that to say the least...
Because the thing is - Spike is the anti-Connor. Angel’s ‘crime’ as concerns Connor was losing him. He was stolen and used and abused throughout his 18 years - by Holtz, by Evil!Cordy, by Jasmine. He blames Angel, and Angel blames Angel:
Angel: “I mean, you were stuck in a - hell dimension. - Connor - I'm so sorry. I tried to get you back. I did. I tried to come after you. I would have done anything. I just... I just... I couldn't find a way in."
Connor: "I found a way out."
‘Tomorrow’
Connor: “You tried to love me. At least I think you did.”
Angel: “I still do.”
Connor: “But not enough to hang on, dad. You let him take me. You let him get me. You let him get me.”
‘Home’
But Spike... Spike was to a great extent Angelus’s creation. For 18 years (and OMG the parallels! This is fabulous!) he was under Angelus’s tutelage:
Spike: “You were my sire, man. My Yoda!”
‘School Hard’
And Angel acknowledges this:
Angel: “I taught you to always guard your perimeter. Tsk, tsk, tsk. You should have someone out there.”
Spike: “I did. I'm surrounded by idiots.”
He also knows what kind of monster he created:
Giles: “Well, he can't be any worse than any other creature you've faced.”
Angel: “He's worse. Once he starts something he doesn't stop until everything in his path is dead.”
But... Angel does not feel responsible for Spike in the same way, although he was the one doing the damage. Spike isn’t a lost little boy. And yet Angel still has to deal with the resentment:
Spike: Come on, hero. Tell me more. Teach me what it means. And I'll tell you why you can't stand the bloody sight of me.
Angel: Tell it to your therapist.
Spike: 'Cause every time you look at me... you see all the dirty little things I've done, all the lives I've taken... because of you! Drusilla sired me... but you... you made me a monster.
‘Destiny’
So we see Spike blaming Angel for who he is - just like Connor. Through neglect or teaching, they both think that Angel created them. But - then they go different paths:
Connor: I can't feel anything. I guess I really am your son... 'cause I'm dead, too.
‘Home’
Angel: I didn't make you, Spike. I just opened up the door... and let the real you out.
Spike: You never knew the real me! Too busy trying to see your own reflection... praying there was someone as disgusting as you in the world, so you could stand to live with yourself. Take a long look, hero. I'm nothing like you!
‘Destiny’
And here we touch on the other thing - Spike never needed Angel to ‘fix’ him or rescue him. Spike did that all by himself thank-you-very-much. Only... here’s the thing. To quote
kita0610’s essay ‘A Century of Slash: Angel & Spike’:From Drusilla’s affections to Buffy’s, from fighting on the side of good to gaining a soul, Spike, since Day One, has followed in “Daddy’s” footsteps. And has resented the hell out of it.
And Angel... Angel resents him for it too! Because as we saw in ‘Awakening’ Angel dreamt of Connor following in his footsteps... of wanting to be just like Daddy:
Connor: Is this what it feels like, being a champion?
Angel (smiles): Pretty much.
‘Awakening’
It was Connor who was supposed to choose to fight alongside him... not Spike.
Spike: So here we are then. Two vampire heroes... competing to wet our whistle with a drink of light, refreshing torment.
Angel: Is that what you think you are? A hero?
Spike: Saved the world, didn’t I?
Angel: Once. Talk to me after you’ve done it a couple more times.
‘Destiny’
It’s not easy for Spike to get Daddy’s approval... Apparently even dying to save the world isn’t enough.
There is of course also the issue of women... because in both cases Angel had ‘his’ woman taken over by his offspring. He never had a relationship with Cordy the way he hoped - it was Connor who looked after Cordy and slept with her:
ANGELUS: Is that my shirt?
CONNOR: Not anymore.
ANGELUS: Looks good on you, son.
CONNOR: (smirks) So did Cordy.
‘Soulless’
Connor taking Angel’s clothes (his identity) and his woman. And it’s repeated with Spike, but moreso - where Cordy was being used by Jasmine and probably wouldn’t have ended up with Connor if she’d had free will, Buffy fell for - and slept with, repeatedly - Spike! And she gave him Angel’s amulet (should be worn by a Champion)... his identity!
SPIKE: You can't keep her from me.
ANGEL: She's not mine to keep... or yours.
SPIKE: Says you. You got no idea what we had.
ANGEL: You never had her.
SPIKE: More than you, you poncy—
‘Just Rewards’
But as I said - Spike isn’t a confused child. Angel is forever having to handle Connor with kid gloves, desperately trying to save him:
CONNOR: Cordy... you swore you loved me. Where are you now?
ANGEL: Connor... you have to believe that there are people who love you.
‘Home’
Spike however gets the no-holds-barred treatment:
ANGEL: No. You're less. That's why Buffy never really loved you - Because you weren't me.
SPIKE: Guess that means she was thinking about you... all those times I was puttin' it to her.
‘Destiny’
And oh it’s brutal... but then it’s probably also very healthy. Because after getting all their major grievances out in the open, the two of them slowly come to accept each other - the last two remaining members of their family (not counting Dru).
Except of course for - Lawson! Oh! [has big epiphany] I am a brain-dead moron! ‘Why We Fight’ is all about Connor (Angel even calls Lawson ‘son’)! And the way he captures and threatens to kill Angel’s crew is such a blatant call-back to ‘Home’ that I cannot believe that I never saw it before:
Connor: You might not want to move. Everyone's rigged. Can't save 'em all, dad. Don't know who's gonna be first. Could be any one of 'em. Could be me. Could be her.
‘Home’
And would you believe it, but Lawson does *exactly* the same. One of the first things Angel says when he enters the sub is: "I need you to trust that I'm gonna get us all through this... safe and sound." Except of course they don't. So when Lawson says this:
Lawson: I do need you to trust that I'm gonna get us all through this, safe and sound. Easy now. That's double-ought wire wrapped around your crew's necks. Take a fella's head clean off with just a little tug. Best not go roughhousing. Something might get knocked over.
He is effectively echoing Connor's "Can't save them all dad!" Lawson is as suicidal as Connor and counting on Angel to keep his promise:
LAWSON: You sure you want to do that, chief?
ANGEL: Fairly certain I said I'd kill you if I ever saw you again.
And again we see the family ties - Angel let Lawson go the first time, just like he let Spike go (back then, and many times after that). The only reason he ended up killing Darla was because she threatened Buffy’s life. Family ties are deeply ingrained into Angel.
But - back to Connor and Lawson. We have a suicidal child(e), blaming Angel for destroying his life - for making him feel nothing. Dear Lord the parallels:
CONNOR: I didn't feel anything! I can't feel anything. I guess I really am your son... 'cause I'm dead, too.
‘Home’
LAWSON: I did all the terrible things a monster does—murdered women and children, tortured fathers and husbands just to hear 'em scream—and through it all... I felt nothing. 60 years of blood drying in my throat like ashes. So what do you think? Is it me, chief? Or does everyone you sired feel this way? [...] You gave me just enough, didn't you? Enough of your soul to keep me trapped between who I was and who I should be. I'm nothin'... because of you.
‘Why We Fight’
Connor feels that he cannot be human because of the part of him that’s a monster, thanks to Angel. Lawson has the opposite problem - just that tiny bit of soul, preventing him from being a monster like he should. And - knowing what they need - Angel kills them both:
CONNOR: There's only one thing that ever changes anything... and that's death. Everything else is just a lie. You can't be saved by a lie. You can't be saved at all.
ANGEL: I really do love you, Connor.
CONNOR: So what are you gonna do about it?
ANGEL: Prove it.
[cuts his throat, triggering the mindwipe]
ANGEL: You really want it to end like this?
LAWSON: Sounds like a plan. (searching Angel's eyes) Come on, chief. Give me a mission.
[Angel dusts him]
And then - Spike comes to see Angel. Spike, the one son who found the balance between monster and man without Angel’s help. The one that Angel finds himself almost leaning on, because - bizarrely - he can talk to him:
SPIKE: Know revenge is best served cold and all, but his must've been frozen solid.
ANGEL: I don't think that's what he was after.
SPIKE: No? Then what was he looking for?
ANGEL: A reason.
And will Spike find a reason? Would Connor if he had the opportunity again? Well - over the next few episodes both Connor and Spike make an informed choice to stay or go:
Connor: “This whole fighting thing, I'm not... I'm not really sure it's for me.”
‘Origin’
Spike: “It's what I want. I don't really like you. Suppose I never will. But this is important, what's happening here. Fred gave her life for it. The least I can do is give what's left of mine. The fight's comin', Angel. We both feel it... and it's gonna be a hell of a lot bigger than Illyria. Things are gonna get ugly. That's where I live.”
‘Shells’
In the end - when Angel takes down The Black Thorn - Connor does come to help him, fighting alongside his father just like Angel always hoped. And then - he sends him away.
Angel: You go home.
Connor: Huh?
Angel: This is my fight.
Connor: They'll destroy you.
Angel: As long as you're OK, they can't. Go.
‘Not Fade Away’
Because he finally can let go of Connor completely, let him have his own life. He doesn’t need or want his son to live out his own dreams anymore. (And I like to think that in a very real sense Connor is the shashu come true.)
And also Angel has Spike to fight beside him.
Spike: In terms of a plan?
Angel: We fight.
‘Not Fade Away’
Spike made Angel’s fight his own, and Angel let him take Connor’s place.
But that’s only one side of it.
To quote
romanyg again:And Spike finally does what Angel never did: he willingly dies for the world. He becomes the champion that Angel struggles to be. [...] And Angel does acknowledge jealousy, fear, that he will be surpassed, that he isn't the saviour, but merely the heralder, the one who comes before.
We see Angel’s jealousy as soon as Spike appears:
SPIKE: Just because I got me a soul doesn't mean I'm gonna let myself be led around by—
FRED: E-excuse me?
WESLEY: Did—did you just say— Spike has a soul? You never said.
ANGEL: Didn't seem worth mentioning, you know.
GUNN: Seems to be a lot of that.
SPIKE: Or maybe Captain Forehead was feeling a little less special. Didn't like me crashing his exclusive club—another vampire with a soul in the world.
Much as Angel hates what he is, he likes his unique status. He is The Vampire With A Soul - with no one to compare him to, it’s not possible to judge him... But as soon as Spike shows up, suddenly there is a scale. And on that scale - well who’s more heroic? The vampire who was cursed with a soul, or the one who fought for it? The one who sacrificed his life for the world, or the one who took over an evil law firm?
No wonder Angel is so defensive.
It’s a classic case of ‘the grass is greener on the other side’:
SPIKE: You're my problem. You got it too good. You're king of a 30-floor castle, with all the cars, comfort, power, and glory you could ever want, and here I save the world, throw myself onto the proverbial hand grenade for love, honor, and all the right reasons, and what do I get? Bloody well toasted and ghosted is what I get, isn't it? It's not fair.
ANGEL: Fair?! You asked for a soul. I didn't! It almost killed me. I spent a hundred years trying to come to terms with infinite remorse. You spent 3 weeks moaning in a basement, and then you were fine! What's fair about that?!
‘Just Rewards’
So we have resentment reaching up to the sky... but also intimate knowledge of each other, and the fact that they’re only two who know what it’s like to be a souled vampire. Champions no less...
FRED: He just saved the world. Vampire with a soul fighting for the good of humanity. Ring anything? He's just like you, a champion.
‘Hell Bound’
And so comes a moment of bridging the gap:
ANGEL: You're starting to feel it, aren't you? How close you are now... to hell?
SPIKE: What if I am? Not like it's such a big, bleeding deal, is it? If a ponce like you could break out—
ANGEL: I never escaped from hell. All I got was a short reprieve. Not even sure how I managed that.
SPIKE: Oh, put your martyr away, Mahatma. Fred told me all about your great, shining prophecy. Pile up all your good deeds and get the big brass ring handed to you like everything else.
ANGEL: Except for one small catch. The prophecy's a bunch of bull. They all are. Nothing's written in stone or fated to happen, Spike. You save the world, you end up running an evil law firm.
SPIKE: Or playin' Casper with one foot in the fryer.
ANGEL: You think any of it matters? The things we did? The lives we destroyed. That's all that's ever gonna count. So, yeah, surprise. You're going to hell. We both are.
‘Hell Bound’
It’s the most wonderful instance of ‘Finally there’s someone just like me - I just wish it wasn’t you!’
Of course from this scene we also see how low Angel’s feeling. He is essentially formulating the same thought he had in ‘Epiphany’ (“If nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do”), but coming from the opposite side. Seeing only despair. Helping not because he wants to end people’s suffering, but because what else is he good for? “Some people can’t be saved,” he says and although he’s saying this about Spike, but obviously meaning himself, there’s also a whole new level of cynicism to him - people can’t change. It’s the same attitude that made him kill Hauser in ‘Conviction’. Compare and contrast with S1 Angel:
Wesley: "Well, I have faith in Angel. If anyone can convince him to testify..."
Cordy: "Wesley, you don't change a guy like that. In fact - generally speaking - you don't change a guy. What you see is what you get. Scratch the surface and what do you find? More surface."
[...]
Wesley to Angel: "That young man is very lucky he ran into you."
Angel: "He just needed a little guidance - a push in the right direction."
‘Five By Five’
The motto for ‘Angel Investigations’ was fluid: Sometimes it was ‘We help the helpless’, sometimes ‘We help the hopeless’. Angel isn’t helping the hopeless anymore.
The thing is, he has forgotten Doyle’s very first lesson:
Doyle: “You see this vampire, he thinks he’s helping. Fighting the demons. Staying away from the human’s so as not to be tempted. Doing penance in his little - cell. But he’s cut off. From every thing. From the people he’s trying to help. [...] It’s not all about fighting and gadgets and stuff. It’s about reaching out to people, showing them that there’s love and hope still left in the world. It’s about letting them into your heart. It’s not about saving lives; it’s about saving souls. Hey, possibly your own in the process."
‘City Of...’
It’s a lesson Spike never needed - reaching out to people comes naturally to him. Not to groups at large, but individuals. He chooses to save Fred in ‘Hellbound’ without a second thought, and does not for a moment regret his choice. He saved the girl - his friend - and that’s what matters. It’s doing something ‘faster and more clever’ (‘Every night I save you’). Doesn’t matter if he makes it... as long as he can be useful. Saving the world or saving one girl - its all the same. Give him a mission and he’ll grab it with both hands - it’s being useless that he can’t cope with.
And Angel... To quote
the_royal_anna’s essay on Damage (which always leaves me gasping because of her insights):And this is it: the bleak, endless cycle Angel fights against. He is the victim that dares to be the champion. But is he driven by the blood in his heart or the blood on his hands?
[...]
We don't stop being human when we lose our hearts; nor when we lose our heads. And every last vestige of humanity can be drained from us, but as long as somebody, somewhere cares, we are not dust.
Spike, I think, gets that. But Angel?
And of course - who cares about Angel? Who does he care about? The people he loves (Buffy, Cordy, Connor) are all out of reach. (“Poor little lost
NUMBER 5: But still the demon did not want my heart.
ANGEL: He didn't want mine, either.
NUMBER 5: Of course not, amigo. Who would want that dried-up walnut of a dead thing?
Anyway, we see another Spike-Angel parallel in ‘Lineage’ where they both try to comfort Wesley by telling of how they killed their parents. It’s so sweet in a very disturning way. And then comes ‘Destiny’...
EVE: The keyword here is "champion." Spike gave his life to save the world. That gives him the cred. But when he died and became a ghost, case closed. Now that he's back, all bets are off, kids.
Two vampires, both alike in dignity...
ANGEL: Like you're any different.
SPIKE: Well, that's just it. I am. And you know it. You had a soul forced on you—as a curse. Make you suffer for all the horrible things you'd done. But me... I fought for my soul. Went through the demon trials. Almost did me in a dozen times over, but I kept fighting. 'Cause I knew it was the right thing to do. It's my destiny.
[...]
SPIKE: Vampire with a soul. Nobody knows what side he's gonna fight on... when the big show comes down. Except we already know what side you're on, don't we? Already made your choice. Traded in your cape and tights for a nice comfy chair at Wolfram & bloody Hart.
Damn I love that fight - so brutal, words cutting so much deeper than the blows. And Spike’s “You’re not gonna to win this time!”
And Angel doesn’t...
ANGEL No. He beat me to the cup.
GUNN You mean the fake cup? The make-believe, fairy-tale cup? So what?!
ANGEL No, you don't... He won the fight, Gunn... for the first time. Doesn't matter if the cup is real or not. In the end, he... Spike was stronger. He wanted it more. [reality bends to desire]
GUNN Angel, it doesn't mean anything.
ANGEL What if it does? What if it means that... I'm not the one?
And here we have Angel’s self doubt in full bloom. Ripe for the treatment he gets in ‘Soul Purpose’. A nightmare, where he’s been *replaced* in every way by Spike: Spike The Champion saving the world, Spike with a curse-free soul getting the girl, Spike being given the Shanshu (because he [Spike] doesn’t want it)... and then the clincher - Angel wakes up to Spike saving him:
SPIKE: No need to thank me. Just helping the helpless.
Spike is him - the hero he used to be! The dream is coming true! Because intertwined with Angel’s dreams we see Spike becoming Angel of S1 - complete with 'link' to the PTB and saving damsels in distress in dirty alleys.
But - Angel realises that he’s being played. And over the course of the next few episodes we see him slowly come to terms with Spike being a younger version of himself. And - I think - also proud that Spike doesn’t take the easy way out. Spike sets himself up as very separate from Angel and W&H, and although their paths cross Spike is clearly his own man.
‘Damage’ of course provides the main push in bringing them together - the two of them bond over their shared fate, and (for the first time since Hellbound) really reach out to each other. But this time they’ve done a lot of work on their issues, and they can take comfort from the fact that there’s someone who understands.
SPIKE: She's...one of us now. She's a monster.
ANGEL: She's an innocent victim.
SPIKE: So were we... once upon a time.
ANGEL: Once upon a time.
(Also Angel without hesitation helps Spike. Compare to ‘Hellbound’ when he was deeply sceptical of Fred’s spending on Spike’s behalf, this time he obviously doesn’t even consider the money angle when reattaching Spike’s hands:
Lilah (to Lindsey): "That's an expensive operation. The shaman alone's a quarter mil? I guess they like you. They really, really like you."
‘Dead End’)
Then in ‘You’re Welcome’ he gets a chance to discuss the situation with Cordy - how far he’s fallen, how he thinks he’s no longer The One.
ANGEL: You're wrong about the Powers. They're not in my corner anymore. It looks like Spike is their new champion.
CORDELIA: Spike? Spike who?
ANGEL: Spike. He's got a soul now. And he saved the world. And he's out there on the streets. You know, helping the...helpless.
CORDELIA: OK, Spike's a hero, and you're C.E.O. of Hell, Incorporated. What freakin' bizarro world did I wake up in?
ANGEL: I'm sorry.
But that episode also sees him take back some of what he lost. And the thing is - Spike didn’t take them, Angel let them go. Who Angel is, is not dependent on Spike - only on himself. He needs to find out what he’s fighting for:
CORDELIA: I naturally assumed you'd be lost without me, but this?
ANGEL: I am lost without you.
CORDELIA: You just forgot who you are.
ANGEL: Remind me.
CORDELIA: Uh, no. That's for you to figure out, bubba. I can tell you who you were. A guy who always fought his hardest for what was right, even when he couldn't remember why. Even when he was miserable, which was, let's face it, a not small portion of the time. He did right. And that gave him something. A light, a glimmer.
And Angel finds it:
SPIKE: You took me on and lost, remember, old man?
ANGEL: Touch Cordelia again... get ready for our very last rematch.
He didn’t fight for the cup as well as he could have. But Cordy? Oh yes. Angel needs to learn that you can’t fight for abstracts, but for people. And that knowing who you are will give you strength:
ANGEL (to Lindsey): Doesn't matter what you try. Doesn't matter where I am or how badass you think you've become. 'Cause you know what? I'm Angel. I beat the bad guys.
God I love this show. Because Angel’s words are a wonderful echo of Spike’s in ‘Hellbound’ - finding a purpose, grabbing his idendity:
SPIKE: And guess what I want to do now, you prissy Son-of-a-bitch?”
Different words, same meaning. He might as well have said: “I’m Spike. I beat the bad guys.”
Of course in ‘You’re Welcome’ (or at some point thereafter) Angel also gets the vision from the PTB, finally giving his work at W&H some meaning. And in ‘Why We Fight’ we have the two of them just being together, looking out over the world which is full of sunshine... where they can never go.
‘Smile Time’ gives us Puppet!Angel - and as someone said (I *really* can’t remember who, or I’d link you), the puppet form helps Angel enormously - it makes everything clearer and more immediate and he acts rather than thinks: He finally beats up Spike f.ex., and that is a good thing. He dares to date Nina. He’s finding himself again - and as he does so, he is able to let go of his jealousy.
All of which leads us to ‘A Hole In The World’. Which starts off with the beautiful Cavemen/Astronauts argument, apparently showing how very, very different our two vampires are. And then we get Angel offering Spike a solo gig:
Angel: I'll give you the resources you need to go anywhere: cars, gadgets, expense accounts. You fight the good fight, but... in style. And, if possible, in Outer Mongolia.
Of course there’s a good bit of wanting rid of Spike continually annoying him, but there’s more to it than that. He’s trying to protect him, because he knows far too well what happens to people he cares about - and what’s happening to himself. He’s trying to protect him by sending him away like he did Connor - only he’s giving Spike a choice. Also (and that’s an important point!), he’s naturally assuming that ‘figthing the good fight’ is what Spike does these days. That’s the life he’s offering to fund.
But then we get the business with Fred, and with it Angel’s (apparently) sudden and full acceptance of Spike as fellow champion (except - as I pointed out above - he’s already there):
DROGYN: The power to draw back Illyria lies in there. It requires a champion who has travelled from where it lies to where it belongs.
ANGEL: You got two of those right here.
The way the two of them just snap together in this (and the next) episode is one of the most wonderful things I’ve ever seen. And how Spike is just there, pretty much reading Angel’s mind, replying to things he hasn’t even voiced and backing him up at every point is a joy to behold:
SPIKE: Can't even get drunk. Why would anyone ever make a bottle this small? It's inhuman. Thousands would have died if we'd saved her.
ANGEL: Yeah.
WESLEY: I watched it gut her from the inside out. Everything she was is gone. There is nothing left but a shell.
ANGEL: Then we'll figure out a way to fill it back up.
SPIKE: The thing only took over her body. Just a tip of the theological.
ANGEL: It's the soul that matters.
SPIKE: Trust us. We're kind of experts.
SPIKE: Any thoughts on how we're supposed to track Fred or Illyria or whatever the hell that thing was?
ANGEL: We just do it, that's all.
SPIKE: Back in the lab, she was standing right there in front of me, but there was no scent. Nothing. It's like she wasn't even there.
ANGEL: I know.
And then Spike decides to stay:
SPIKE: My first official parley as a very loosely affiliated member of the... what are we? Tell me we're not Scoobies.
‘Underneath’
Of course ‘Underneath’ is full of moments with Spike and Angel behaving in the same way - from shying away from the sunshine in the holding dimension to their identical stances watching Hamilton walk away - he even mentions them in the same breath:
HAMILTON: I'm looking forward to working myself into the mix. Angel, Spike... Welcome to the team.
And then in ‘Time Bomb’ we get Angel saving Spike’s life and taking a stake for him... Darn it, but it’s almost as though he cares... *g*
But best of all is of course ‘The Girl In Question’ which is a rollicking Spike’n’Angel ride, with some of the most fabulous lines ever - unable to stop arguing over *everything* (‘Anything you can do I can do better’/I can do anything better than you!’):
ANGEL: I helped save the world, you know.
SPIKE: Like I haven't.
ANGEL: Yeah, but I've done it a lot more.
SPIKE: Oh, please.
ANGEL: I closed the hellmouth.
SPIKE: I've done that.
ANGEL: Yeah, you wore a necklace. You know, I helped kill the mayor and, uh, and Jasmine and—
SPIKE: Do those really count as savin' the world?
ANGEL: I stopped Acathla. That saved the world.
SPIKE: Buffy ran you through with a sword.
ANGEL: Yeah, but I made her do it. I signaled her with my eyes.
SPIKE: She killed you. I helped her! That one counts as mine.
ANGEL: My point is I'm better than this. OK? We're better than this. What the hell could Buffy see in him?
The point of course being that The Immortal is them. TGiQ isn’t about Buffy at all - it’s about Spike and Angel’s eternal rivalry, always feeling that the other one gets all the breaks:
ANGEL: Oh, he's got her, Spike. He's got Buffy. Why is this always happening to us?
That line could be spoken by either of them about the other... because they’ve both had her in a way the other hasn’t and they are forever resentful of that:
ANGEL: Hey, ours is a forever love.
SPIKE: I had a relationship with her, too.
ANGEL: OK, sleeping together is not a relationship.
SPIKE: It is if you do it enough times.
Angel had *one* night. Spike had *one* ‘I love you’. Also look at ‘I Will Remember You’ and ‘Something Blue’ - both ‘perfect days’ (one following the other!) when our vampires got what they otherwise never did from Buffy: Angel lots and lots of sex, Spike an over-the-top romantic relationship.
And then they try to move on:
SPIKE: So, what? We just have to live with it? Get on with our lives?
ANGEL: 'Fraid so.
SPIKE: Fine. No problem. I was plannin' on doin' that anyway.
ANGEL: Yeah, me, too.
SPIKE: Actually, I'm doin' it right now. As we speak, I'm movin' on.
ANGEL: Movin' on.
SPIKE: Oh, yeah.
ANGEL: Right now.
SPIKE: Movin'.
Whilst standing firmly still. And of course, so is Buffy - dating the biggest Spike&Angel metaphor there’s ever been. Can’t you see boys? She’s still waiting for you! *squishes them both*
And then in ‘Power Play’ comes the big reveal - what has Angel been up to?
ANGEL: I know I've spent years fighting to get somewhere... to accomplish something... and now that I'm close to it... I don't like what I see, what I am.
NINA: You're a hero.
ANGEL (softly): Oh, that word.
NINA: You're my hero.
ANGEL: I may not always be.
Wah! *loves Angel to tiny little pieces* To quote
thedeadlyhook’s very excellent essay Dude Where’s My Soul? (although she has a rather more bleak outlook than me):He [Angel] decides his real unique gifts are for ruthlessness and big-picture artistry - the same things that made Angelus legendary. Essentially, Angel turns himself into the "weapon" he originally thought Wolfram & Hart would be, throws himself and his team's into the fray because he's come to believe that only the ends really matter. He takes his team into a huge battle against forces no one else could challenge because, as he tells Number Five, "we can... because we know how."
Finally - what task does Angel give Spike when they dismatle the arcitects of the apocalypse? He sends him to save a baby boy from a horrible destiny ("And on the eve of his 13th year, he will be prepared for the rites of Gordabach... it's a ritual sacri—”) , returning him to his parents! Making Spike replay a replica of his biggest failure (Connor), changing the outcome. Along with signing away the shanshu he has now helped to turn Spike into himself, but a version without the big defeats and compromises. A him that can be saved, one that still has a shot at redemption. Handing over the reigns, instead of fearing they’ll be taken away.
Not a usurper. A legacy.
(ETA: When speaking of (signing away) the shanshu here, I mean that Angel gives Spike his *destiny*, rather than the (possible) reward. When they fight in 'Destiny', it's not just for a reward, it's for who gets to be The Champion. (Does that make sense? It's going with the Connor-is-the-shanshu thought. Otherwise, it's perfectly straightforward and Spike gets to be a 'real boy' one day.))
I’m trying to think of a way to end this - how to find the words. Angel finally grasping his destiny with both hands, and Spike the first to volunteer... But I can't.
Instead I think I’ll have to quote
the_royal_anna’s post on ‘Not Fade Away’, because she’s said it all far better:Spike making his peace with William. I love that he can be a good man and still be a bad poet. And a magnificent poet. Because only Spike could be both at once, and because this is a poem lived, and breathed, and worn with a grace nobody else could match.
[...]
And then, Angel making his peace with Angelus. How long have we watched, and waited, while he struggled to come to terms with what he was, with who he is? His story matters. Hamilton tells Angel he would have been nothing if he hadn't been made a vampire. And at last we see Angel acknowledge that, acknowledge that redemption is not about escaping from his story, but grabbing his story with both hands. It's your story, Angel. Tell it.
[...]
Angel is so often referred to as dark. I only know this. That light is never more brilliant, more strong, more welcome than light in a pitch-dark alley in the face of an impending army hell-bent on destruction.
And nothing made me long for the Season 6 that might have been more than this, grown-up Spike and Angel in an alleyway having a grown-up conversation, that relationship that has been everything from abusive to affectionate, suddenly instinctive, understated, accepted. And my Spike-and-Angel unit that I loved became Spike and Angel, team. No hyphens.
Although I also love David Fury’s thoughts (From this interview):
FURY: ...the last beat of the episode would be Angel and whoever was left of his crew about to launch into the apocalypse. My thought on that is, that's the perfect way to end the show. The point of Buffy was always girl power and showing that power. The point of Angel was always that the fight never ends. He'll always fight. It's an eternity of fighting. You can't ever win but the fight is worth fighting. That was a perfect 'going out' scene - you know, the Butch Cassidy/Sundance Kid sort of we're going up against impossible odds and probably die? That's the perfect way to end the series, and anybody who says otherwise is dumb.
[...]
Unlike Buffy who ended up with her three friends and were able to end in that way, in Angel's case, everybody that he's ever been close to dies, which is really Angel's story - that he will always outlive the people he cares about. He has gone on and on, he has seen people he loves die, which is another reason that he and Buffy realized they couldn't be together. [...] But the fact that he was side-by-side with Spike was kind of a wonderful turnaround in the mythology of the series.
Interviewer: There's Butch and Sundance right there.
And the last words are of course theirs. Our boys:
SPIKE: In terms of a plan?
ANGEL: We fight.
SPIKE: Bit more specific.
ANGEL: Well, personally, I kind of want to slay the dragon. Let's go to work.
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We'll never know and that's a huge tragedy. Very nice meta, I love the comparisons between Angel's "sons" and of course, there's one son that he had to destroy - Penn - which maybe made him work at his other "sons" just a little bit harder.
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*cries for S6*
Very nice meta
Thank you! :)
there's one son that he had to destroy - Penn
Ah darn it, knew I should have mentioned him! And there was also James. But I'm too tired to add more now...
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I particularly loved the parallel you drew between IWRY and Something Blue.
I can't remember where I first saw someone point it out, but I was so pleased. And of course neither day is 'real'...
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This essay particularly captured a lot of my thoughts of season 5 and much more eloquently than I could ever put it. You've helped renew my love of BtVS and Ats. Really good essays.
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I'm so glad you like them though. And do follow the links! Actually you should go read everything by
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::sneeze::
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When speaking of (signing away) the shanshu here, I mean that Angel gives Spike his *destiny*, not the (possible) reward. When they fight in 'Destiny', it's not just for a reward, it's for who gets to be The Champion.
Because I also love Connor as Angel's shanshu.
in addition to the episode in which he won a life for Darla only to have it denied to her directly for some reason that eludes me at the moment
She'd already been given life once (when W&H brought her back). So, Angel had won a life 'for' her, but it was unused. And hey presto - Connor! :)
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Heeeeeee! You are so right. I love the way that Angel and Spike eventually make peace with each other, and how it works as a parallel for Angel making peace with himself. Both of these peacemaking efforts evolve gradually as the season progresses, and both strike just the right tone.
And I completely agree: Spike fits better on AtS than he ever did on Buffy. On both shows, he played a sort of shadow-self to the main character, but Angel wears the shadow much better. Spike is the embodiment of everything Angel both likes and loathes about himself, and his presence made S5 shine.
Have you read my fic Shanshu Blue? It's a meditation on Angel and his seven sons... :)
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Best. Fight. Ever.
how it works as a parallel for Angel making peace with himself.
Beautiful. And there are people who can't see why Spike's there. It's very odd...
And I completely agree: Spike fits better on AtS than he ever did on Buffy.
Ah, but I love him on Buffy. Love his development, and more than anything love the Spike/Buffy love story (my favourite love story *ever*!). I'm just so pleased with what they did with him on ATS that I feel like I had my cake *and* ate it! :)
Spike is the embodiment of everything Angel both likes and loathes about himself, and his presence made S5 shine.
*nods*
It's a meditation on Angel and his seven sons... :)
And yet again I am in awe of your writing! Although what about James? (Presuming Angelus sired him...)
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Thanks for reading my fic. I'm glad you liked it! :)
Although what about James? (Presuming Angelus sired him...)
I thought about including James, but decided against it for a few reasons:
(1) It's never made clear that Angelus sired him. Angelus does call James and Elizabeth "children" at one point, but he could just as easily be referring to their relative youth.
(2) James doesn't appear to have the same kind of familial/mentorship relationship with Angelus as Penn or Spike. James' main relationship is with his girlfriend, Elizabeth. Their association with Angelus and Darla could be nothing more than a gang of evildoers who enjoy hanging out together.
3) Unlike Lawson or Penn, who each display some depth of character outside their symbolic roles, James is a pretty one-dimensional subsitute for Spike. He has the epic love going back hundreds of years (à la Spike and Dru). He's broken up about his love being killed (the way Spike--and Angel--are concurrently broken up over Buffy's death). He becomes temporarily invincible, the way Spike did when he had the Gem of Amarra (which is explicitly mentioned in this episode). He fights Angel on a subway, which is where Spike killed his last slayer. The character is even named for the actor who plays Spike! The writers couldn't have Spike trying to kill himself with grief, crying that he just couldn't live without Buffy, because Spike made a promise to stick around and take care of Dawn. So they subsituted a new guy, instead. Even when they're on separate shows, Spike is still a mirror for Angel.
(4) I'm not sure the actor's eyes are blue. *g*
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I'm just greedy - I want it all! As I wrote in my (yet again amended) user info: 'Buffy belongs with Spike, and Spike belongs with Angel. And hey presto - threesome!'
Thanks for reading my fic. I'm glad you liked it! :)
Your fic is crack like in it's wonderfulness. I doubt there's a single pairing you couldn't make me read (except for Spander - and don't try!).
I thought about including James, but decided against it for a few reasons:
Very good reasons all! Oh and it's often assumed that Buffy is derived from 'Elizabeth', so there's another Spike/Buffy parallel.
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Thank you. :) And I'm always looking at everything from every angle - and *hopelessly* positive.
Spike persuading Angel not to send Illyria back to the Well and kill everyone in her path in Shells.
You mean this bit (which is from the very end of AHiTW):
DROGYN: This is a place of madness. I'll prepare the spell. Your choice.
ANGEL: To hell with the world.
(follows Drogyn)
ANGEL: Spike...
SPIKE: This goes all the way through to the other side. So, I figure, there's a bloke somewhere around New Zealand standing on a bridge like this one, looking back down at us. All the way down. There's a hole in the world. Feels like we ought to have known.
Because I'm not sure that Angel would have followed through on it. Also... he's no different to Buffy in The Gift:
GILES: If the ritual starts, then every living creature in this and every other dimension imaginable will suffer unbearable torment and death... including Dawn.
BUFFY: Then the last thing she'll see is me protecting her.
as he finally seems to get the worth of individual people in the abstract, rather than just ones he likes or loves
I think that came in 'Damage', but it never got tested until AHiTW. And as for Wood's mother, then I think he was very pissed off that someone he trusted had tried to murder him. I'm not saying that he wasn't brutal, but there was a reason. He ain't a saint exactly.
And as for Angel... well then I think he fell (or began falling for real) in 'Conviction'. ("What happened to mercy?"/"You just saw the last of it!")
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ILLYRIA: We cling to what is gone. Is there anything in this life but grief?
WESLEY: There's love. There's hope...for some. There's hope that you'll find something worthy... that your life will lead you to some joy... that after everything... you can still be surprised.
*sigh* I think I'll watch some s5 now. :)
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Me too! :)
The Doyle quote....*sighs* It totally made me think of this conversation:
*nods* And poor, poor Wesley!
*sigh* I think I'll watch some s5 now. :)
*Such* a great season! Next up for me is Lineage and I can't wait!
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Angel had *one* night. Spike had *one* ‘I love you’. Also look at ‘I Will Remember You’ and ‘Something Blue’ - both ‘perfect days’ (one following the other!) when our vampires got what they otherwise never did from Buffy: Angel lots and lots of sex, Spike an over-the-top romantic relationship.
So true.
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Thank you! :) It sorta wrote itself, which was nice if disconcerting.
So true.
I'm looking forward to re-watching TGiQ v. much. :)
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I'll probably reference this as I continue writing my stories.
Now that's a compliment! (And I've sadly not had the time to keep up with your stuff. *sigh*)
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Just looking at the “Spike as Connor” title made me know I would love this.
And Spike... Spike has Daddy issues to rival Connor's: I love that! I've always found Spike and Angel's relationship so completely compelling because there's so many different facets to it. On one level, they have the greatest sibling rivalry relationship I've ever seen onscreen (and the most fun--who saved the world the most?), and then you can flip it around and it's totally parent-child. Awesome.
But Spike... Spike was to a great extent Angelus’s creation. For 18 years (and OMG the parallels! This is fabulous!) he was under Angelus’s tutelage: Yet another thing I never thought of, and I adore it!
Through neglect or teaching, they both think that Angel created them. Pithy and so true.
From Drusilla’s affections to Buffy’s, from fighting on the side of good to gaining a soul, Spike, since Day One, has followed in “Daddy’s” footsteps. And has resented the hell out of it. That’s a fantastic quote.
It was Connor who was supposed to choose to fight alongside him... not Spike. I think you’re so right that that’s what Angel most resented about Spike in S5, even if he didn’t really realize it himself.
There is of course also the issue of women... because in both cases Angel had ‘his’ woman taken over by his offspring. Brilliant. And again something I’d never considered. Also, the bit about Buffy giving Spike Angel’s amulet—his identity—is so great.
And oh it’s brutal... but then it’s probably also very healthy. Because after getting all their major grievances out in the open, the two of them slowly come to accept each other I agree. I think “Desinty,” is really the turning point in their relationship that season—they really needed to get all that out there, to force each other to confront all those things, and from then on, you can really see that affection they try to fight…but it’s still there and growing more apparent all the time.
‘Why We Fight’ is all about Connor (Angel even calls Lawson ‘son’)! And the way he captures and threatens to kill Angel’s crew is such a blatant call-back to ‘Home’ that I cannot believe that I never saw it before: I can’t, either! Yay for you for seeing it! Now I need to go back and re-watch that episode with those thoughts in mind.
I really love the parallels you draw between Connor and Lawson—especially about the bits of monster/soul Angel passes on to them.
And then - Spike comes to see Angel. Spike, the one son who found the balance between monster and man without Angel’s help. Oh, that’s just beautiful.
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Spike made Angel’s fight his own, and Angel let him take Connor’s place. Love that.
But as soon as Spike shows up, suddenly there is a scale. And on that scale - well who’s more heroic? And you can see that thread of fear about the scale running through all the way to the end. Even in their little fights—Astronauts vs. Cavement may be about what happens to Fred…but it’s also about whose approach is right, Spike’s or Angel’s (does that make sense?). And who saved the world the most in “The Girl in Question” and what counts and what doesn’t? Yeah, it’s silly, but it’s still there.
It’s a lesson Spike never needed - reaching out to people comes naturally to him. Not to groups at large, but individuals. And it’s so sad to watch Angel try to do the same thing…and it just comes so hard for him. Poor guy.
The people he loves (Buffy, Cordy, Connor) are all out of reach. That’s what’s so tragic about S5, I think.
Damn I love that fight - so brutal, words cutting so much deeper than the blows. Me, too. It’s a scene I watch again and again. And even though I wince at the physical violence on the screen (I think the only more violent moments in the Buffyverse are Angelus beating Faith almost to death in S4 and Buffy beating Spike in the alley in “Dead Things”), it’s the words that just rip. Such brilliant writing and brilliant acting as well.
Because intertwined with Angel’s dreams we see Spike becoming Angel of S1 - complete with 'link' to the PTB and saving damsels in distress in dirty alleys. I’ve always loved that parallel. And the fact that, despite that, Spike is still Spike—like when he tells off the girl for being alone in a dark alley at night, pretty much just comes right out and says she’s an idiot…which Angel would never have done. Hilarious.
The scene at the end of “Damages” is one of my very, very favorites. That pure understanding. Gives me goosebumps.
Spike didn’t take them, Angel let them go. The opposite of Buffy and Faith in “Empty Places” and “Touched.” Wow.
He didn’t fight for the cup as well as he could have. But Cordy? Oh yes. Angel needs to learn that you can’t fight for abstracts, but for people. Yes! I love that. Also, I love Cordy calling him on all those things. They had such a gorgeous relationship.
I love those moments you point out in “A Hole in the World” when Angel acknowledges Spike as a champion without any hesitation.
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But best of all is of course ‘The Girl In Question’ which is a rollicking Spike’n’Angel ride, with some of the most fabulous lines ever - unable to stop arguing over *everything* I really love many parts of that episode. Of course, if you view it as a reflection of either one of the boys’ relationship with Buffy, it’s deeply disturbing and completely misses the mark. But if you view (as I believe you’re supposed to) as one more examination of their relationship, it’s just so much fun.
TGiQ isn’t about Buffy at all - it’s about Spike and Angel’s eternal rivalry, always feeling that the other one gets all the breaks: Well, there you go. Apparently, we agree. (Can you tell I’m writing this as I read?)
That line could be spoken by either of them about the other... because they’ve both had her in a way the other hasn’t and they are forever resentful of that…Angel had *one* night. Spike had *one* ‘I love you’. Also look at ‘I Will Remember You’ and ‘Something Blue’ - both ‘perfect days’ (one following the other!) when our vampires got what they otherwise never did from Buffy: Angel lots and lots of sex, Spike an over-the-top romantic relationship. Okay, I have nothing to say about that except that I read it and started bouncing and flailing and being ludicrously happy. Ludicrously.
And of course, so is Buffy - dating the biggest Spike&Angel metaphor there’s ever been. Can’t you see boys? She’s still waiting for you! *squishes them both* And there you go again! *flails some more*
He sends him to save a baby boy from a horrible destiny ("And on the eve of his 13th year, he will be prepared for the rites of Gordabach... it's a ritual sacri—”) , returning him to his parents! Making Spike replay a replica of his biggest failure (Connor), changing the outcome. Along with signing away the shanshu he has now helped to turn Spike into himself, but a version without the big defeats and compromises. A him that can be saved, one that still has a shot at redemption. Handing over the reigns, instead of fearing they’ll be taken away. I will love you forever and ever and ever for pointing this out.
And more [Bad username or site: “the_royal_anna” @ livejournal.com] quotes! *scurries off to read her thoughts on “Not Fade Away”*
And I’d never heard that quote from David Fury before, but he is so incredibly right. And he verbalizes everything I love so very much about “Not Fade Away.”
Okay, again with the longness and the flail and the incoherence, but I love this so much. I’ll be adding it to my memories so that when I finish watching an episode of S5 I can come read this and be reminded of just why I love it so much. You’re brilliant.
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Me too. And then I read/write lots and lots of fic too, because I need more! :)
But if you view (as I believe you’re supposed to) as one more examination of their relationship, it’s just so much fun.
Exactly! (You made me go back and re-read my TGiQ post which was a lot more insightful than I remembered. Check it out if you want my take! *g*)
Okay, I have nothing to say about that except that I read it and started bouncing and flailing and being ludicrously happy. Ludicrously.
*beams*
And there you go again! *flails some more*
::laughs:: And I'm actually in the middle of writing the Buffy/Immortal fic to end them all. (Capt. Jack is The Immortal. Buffy/Jack is the most PERFECT pairing EVER.)
I will love you forever and ever and ever for pointing this out.
Aw thank you. *blushes* But it is one of my favourite things. *loves Angel*
*scurries off to read her thoughts on “Not Fade Away”*
Anna is the Meta Goddess!
And I’d never heard that quote from David Fury before, but he is so incredibly right. And he verbalizes everything I love so very much about “Not Fade Away.”
So perfect it makes me flail. *loves Fury*
Okay, again with the longness and the flail and the incoherence, but I love this so much. I’ll be adding it to my memories so that when I finish watching an episode of S5 I can come read this and be reminded of just why I love it so much. You’re brilliant.
Now you're making *me* flail. Thank you! And it's wonderful to be reminded exactly why I wrote this in the first place.
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Thank you. Although it's still fun to play around with in fic. :)
but it’s also about whose approach is right, Spike’s or Angel’s (does that make sense?)
Oh yes. And of course Angel *can't* take Spike's approach anymore, because he has too much power, and has become all kinds of shades of grey.
And it’s so sad to watch Angel try to do the same thing…and it just comes so hard for him. Poor guy.
I KNOW! And then they go and die. *pets him*
it’s the words that just rip. Such brilliant writing and brilliant acting as well.
*nods* Also BRILLIANT retcon/Fill-in-the-Blank of their past. (That first meeting with the hands in sunlight? Makes me flail every.single.time. No fic ever came close!)
which Angel would never have done. Hilarious.
*loves Spike*
The scene at the end of “Damages” is one of my very, very favorites. That pure understanding. Gives me goosebumps.
Oh yes. Same here.
The opposite of Buffy and Faith in “Empty Places” and “Touched.” Wow.
I hadn't thought of that. Nice.
Yes! I love that. Also, I love Cordy calling him on all those things. They had such a gorgeous relationship.
They did! I *adore* them so much and they had the most amazing vibe!
I love those moments you point out in “A Hole in the World” when Angel acknowledges Spike as a champion without any hesitation.
I *live* for moments like that.
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And I am finally replying! Might have to keep it fairly short though, sorry.
I love that! I've always found Spike and Angel's relationship so completely compelling because there's so many different facets to it.
Same here. My favourite relationships are always those where you can just put the characters in an empty room and stand back and watch them.
Yet another thing I never thought of, and I adore it!
It only came to me as I wrote. I was chuffed to bits. :)
That’s a fantastic quote.
The post is fantastic too. Go read!
I think you’re so right that that’s what Angel most resented about Spike in S5, even if he didn’t really realize it himself.
*nods* Because with Spike there's also all the rivalry involved ("Everyone's got a soul now...")
Brilliant. And again something I’d never considered. Also, the bit about Buffy giving Spike Angel’s amulet—his identity—is so great.
Thank you. :)
I think “Desinty,” is really the turning point in their relationship that season
*nods* And it was important that Spike won, because it changed things fundamentally.
I can’t, either! Yay for you for seeing it! Now I need to go back and re-watch that episode with those thoughts in mind.
I have... uh... three posts about 'Why We Fight' from my rewatch. (In my memories here.) It's ALL meta, that episode - seriously, it kinda floored me! *loves*
Oh, that’s just beautiful.
*smiles*
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Just two thoughts--
One, how does Faith fit into the whole Connor/Lawson dynamic? She wanted Angel to kill her too, but isn't. He's able to save Faith in a way he wasn't able to do for the others.
Also, in regards to TGiQ, I will disagree about the Immortal being them (though the inverse of the Spike/Buffy and Buffy/Angel relationship, with IWRY and SB mirrors (sex vs. romance) is a good catch). I felt that it was more about how it wasn't "All about Buffy." In the end, when the dust settles, so to speak, all that's left is Spike and Angel. They always have each other at the end of the day. There's a revolving door of women--some stay longer than others--but neither Spike or Angel are cookie dough. They're ready to be eaten. Also, Angel is able to be himself 100% with Spike. There is nothing (past deeds, making "I" statements in regards to Angelus, Barry Manilow) that he would ever have to hide from him.
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Thank you. :)
One, how does Faith fit into the whole Connor/Lawson dynamic? She wanted Angel to kill her too, but isn't. He's able to save Faith in a way he wasn't able to do for the others.
That's a very interesting question, but after having pondered it I think Faith is more a straight mirror for Angel, rather than someone he guides in a fatherly way. Yes she tries to get him to kill her, but I see this as a sort of echo of Angel's fight with Buffy in 'Angel' (BtVS 1.7) - yes Faith deliberately provokes it, and Angel just plays along with the cards he's been dealt, but there is a similarity. Actually - mulling this over - the main way in which Faith is different from Spike/Lawson/Connor is that Angel isn't responsible for her, or what she's done. He sees her more as an equal, a fellow sinner seeking redemption, someone he can hopefully help. As put here:
Angel: "And you can't possibly know what she's going through."
Buffy: "And of course, you do? - I'm sorry. I can't be in your club. I never murdered anybody."
Also, in regards to TGiQ, I will disagree about the Immortal being them
I was thinking about this quote by
The episode ends with Angel and Spike speaking of moving on while resolutely standing still; meanwhile, in Italy, Buffy is with her Spangel metaphor boyfriend, the perfect placeholder until the real guy (whichever one that might be) shows up.
That is - from a S/B or B/A perspective Buffy is perfectly safe. However, I very much agree with you re. Spike & Angel always having each other, and understanding each other. (I wrote about TGiQ here if you're curious. *g*)
Thank you lots for such an interesting comment, I rarely try to think deep thoughts at 6.30 am, but this was the exception! :)
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The comparison between Spike and Connor sounds so right and so original, never developed in the other meta.
I'm a meta addict, somebody please stop me!
I think that the relationship between Spike and Angel is very important, crucial to Angel.
As you say, Spike provides a scale, a confront. Angel needs to confront with him to grow up as a hero, or at least as a man.
I really see a dynamic "big brother/little brother" in their relationship, and also a "father/son" dynamic, "negative/positive" and so on. They really are a couple, in every sense of the word.
As a Spike-fan, I was a little disappointed by his "funny-funny" characterization in the first episodes of Season 5. I really think about the executives, who wants to put in the show a comic relief with Spike.
But the exploration of Angel's ambiguity with the eyes of Spike (Destiny, Damage) was simply priceless.
Also, they are artists, two faces of the same coin: Spike and the cavemen (the passion, the art that became a way to express the poet's feelings, the romantic age); Angel and the astronauts (the illuminism, the art the elaborate feelings into forms of perfection)
Really, stop me!
This two are killing me! >O<
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*beams* Thank you!
The comparison between Spike and Connor sounds so right and so original, never developed in the other meta.
Ah, but there are vids! I shall hunt them down for you when I have a moment.
I'm a meta addict, somebody please stop me!
Um... no can do. 95% of this LJ is meta.
I think that the relationship between Spike and Angel is very important, crucial to Angel.
As you say, Spike provides a scale, a confront. Angel needs to confront with him to grow up as a hero, or at least as a man.
I really see a dynamic "big brother/little brother" in their relationship, and also a "father/son" dynamic, "negative/positive" and so on. They really are a couple, in every sense of the word.
*nods a lot* And this is why it's so fascinating. I love multi-layered relationships.
As a Spike-fan, I was a little disappointed by his "funny-funny" characterization in the first episodes of Season 5. I really think about the executives, who wants to put in the show a comic relief with Spike.
It mirrors Cordy in S1 - and it leads to a similar grasping of self (Cordy against the ghost in her home, Spike against the ghost at W&H). They are at a loose end, unsure who they are now.
But the exploration of Angel's ambiguity with the eyes of Spike (Destiny, Damage) was simply priceless.
Mmmmmm.
Also, they are artists, two faces of the same coin: Spike and the cavemen (the passion, the art that became a way to express the poet's feelings, the romantic age); Angel and the astronauts (the illuminism, the art the elaborate feelings into forms of perfection)
They go together so, so well. <3
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Ah, but there are vids! I shall hunt them down for you when I have a moment.
If you know where these are without too much bother, would be interested!
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SO GOOD.
Ruiner by
The parallels are INSANE. I mean, OFF THE SCALE. *goes away to curl up into ball of DADDY ISSUES OMFG!*
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Thanks! That's gonna merit more than a few watches . . .
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(Re. icon, then one of the great things about the Angel comics is that it gives us Spike & Connor friendship - to the degree that Angel [grumpily] calls them 'Hollywood's Newest It-Couple'. <3)
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Ruiner by
UN-BE-LIEVABLE.
I remembered that it was good, but it is AMAZING. And the visual parallels are off the scale!
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This vid is great! I still think that Spike is most a companion and - can be - a teacher for Angel. His years as Angelus' creature are over, he needs to understand that and move on. Connor is and will always be Angel's son and truest love of all.
I love Angel and all his disfunctional, patriarchal relantioship with other characters.
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It's interesting to me because season five of AtS is where I first met Spike, and now watching it again, after all the rest of both shows, where it's "meant" to be, I'm wondering how much of my generalized dissatisfaction with Spike on BtVS is my sense that he *doesn't* really belong on that show. As you note (did you? I've been meta surfing and it's all starting to run together), he fits much better on AtS than he ever did on Buffy, despite the fact that him being on AtS (on a story level) is all about Angel (and him being on BtVS, on a Watsonian level, is all about Buffy). Also, I am so much happier with where he ends up on AtS than with leaving him with the "Chosen" ending. I feel like Chosen was a good *character* moment for Spike, but as a story I feel like it fit the narrative of BtVS better than it fit Spike, if that makes sense?
But then, AtS just gets my vote all over for taking a hockey stick to the shins of the hero narrative and leaving it on its back, wondering what happened.
I'm feeling like AtS really could have used either Spike or Faith as a full-time character for most of its run? Either could have fit in well and would have given the team a bit more leavening. I do generally like the whole Angel team, but they often need a little . . . something.
But then, I have this generalized desire to reel every outlier character from BtVS over onto Angel: Foster's Home for Sunnydale Rejects. Faith on AtS! Anya on AtS! Dawn on AtS!
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:)
It's interesting to me because season five of AtS is where I first met Spike, and now watching it again, after all the rest of both shows, where it's "meant" to be, I'm wondering how much of my generalized dissatisfaction with Spike on BtVS is my sense that he *doesn't* really belong on that show.
Could well be. And I love S5 of AtS for being the culmination of everything that came before? I love Spike's development on BtVS, but when I look at him, those years are just a part of his whole life, which ultimately fits into the overall narrative set by Angel. Buffy is about growing up, Angel is about family. Completely different focus. And Spike was introduced, from the bat, as family.
As you note (did you? I've been meta surfing and it's all starting to run together), he fits much better on AtS than he ever did on Buffy, despite the fact that him being on AtS (on a story level) is all about Angel (and him being on BtVS, on a Watsonian level, is all about Buffy). Also, I am so much happier with where he ends up on AtS than with leaving him with the "Chosen" ending. I feel like Chosen was a good *character* moment for Spike, but as a story I feel like it fit the narrative of BtVS better than it fit Spike, if that makes sense?
Oh it makes PERFECT sense, and this is an argument I've tried formulate numerous times when people argue that he should have stayed dead because it was a much more 'fitting' ending. But much like I wouldn't have wanted Buffy to stay dead (no matter how neat and symbolic her ending), so I don't want my stories tied up with a neat ribbon... The fight always goes on.
But then, AtS just gets my vote all over for taking a hockey stick to the shins of the hero narrative and leaving it on its back, wondering what happened.
Indeed. And here is
I'm feeling like AtS really could have used either Spike or Faith as a full-time character for most of its run? Either could have fit in well and would have given the team a bit more leavening. I do generally like the whole Angel team, but they often need a little . . . something.
Shadowkat actually touches on this in her post and I think the problem is that too often the sidekicks become enablers. Take Ten for example. There's all this talk about how 'he needs Companions', but most of the time the Companions are just enablers. (Adelaide apart, but then she's not a Companion.) This is actually my problem with Wilf - he's a HUGE enabler. Sure he points out a truth or two, but he does it within a framework of enabling. Compare and contrast with River in AGMGTW, who manages to be loving and yet at the same time call the Doctor on his behaviour. Which is (again) Spike's role, and could have been Faith's. Maybe. Faith might come at it from a different angle, in that she'd be out to save Angel.
But then, I have this generalized desire to reel every outlier character from BtVS over onto Angel: Foster's Home for Sunnydale Rejects. Faith on AtS! Anya on AtS! Dawn on AtS!
LOL. Well I've written Anya on AtS, and I'm sure Dawn could be added. :) (Dawn was supposed to have been in TGiQ, but the actress couldn't make it, so they had to use Andrew instead.)
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That is good, thanks. V. much agreed in not being interested in redemption narrative as redemption narrative, but rather as a well-done story about character change/growth. I think, for me, though, that point about 'whose story is it really?' takes on more and more importance the more baldly the story sells itself as a redemption narrative for the very reasons she brings up in the beginning about how personal the issue of morality really is. I think I actually come to the opposite conclusions from her about Faith vs. Spike's redemption stories. Faith's story (on AtS, because Faith's story on BtVS is so thoroughly just about Buffy that I feel like you can hardly call it Faith's story) anyway, I feel like Faith's redemption, no matter how much it is guided and influenced by Angel, and no matter how sketchily done, is, ultimately, Faith's redemption story, and so I'm willing to cut it some slack for sloppiness. Whereas Spike's redemption story may be a lot more painstakingly worked out and more convincing in its evolution but, within the confines of BtVS, where most of it takes place, and where some people would like to confine it, I'm not convinced that it isn't, ultimately, Buffy's story about Spike. If it ends with "Chosen," it's Buffy's story about Spike . . . and that's a lot more problematic, no matter how willing a player Spike became in it.
Community did sum it up perfectly: "You should be proud of how much I've changed you!"
If I ever watch Avatar: The Last Airbender again, I'm going to be paying special attention to the character of Zuko, because he has a redemption narrative on the scale and complexity of Spike's and yet it is, very thoroughly, his own. I actually like Spike better than Zuko and find him a lot more interesting to watch, but I think Zuko just might be one of the best-done redemption narratives I've ever seen. (Avatar, in general, just does so many heroic tropes so amazingly well. It's actually a bit un-engaging in its pristine-ness, but you have to admire the form.)
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Like, I don't want to accuse shadowkat of this, but look at how things inevitably get framed as soon as you bring in the idea of redemption: as she rightly points out, House, Dexter, and Angel are not shows about a redemption narrative (well, AtS is about the idea of redemption, but it's not a redemption narrative). BUT, I think they're also not not shows about redemption. "Redemption" is such a limiting framework, and as AtS does such a good job of showing, a bit of a fantasy. When is a character "redeemed"? It isn't about one, sparkling moment, it's about what a character does from day to day and the impact of those actions. Is House, the character, (at least in the early seasons) someone who needs to be "redeemed"? I don't really think so. He needs to become more maturely House, he needs to come to terms with some demons, he needs to learn how to live more comfortably with his own capacities and limitations in a way that has has less negative impacts on the people around him, he needs to learn to make healthier connections with other people . . . but I'm not sure that's really a redemption story of the sort people are looking for. I also don't think it was out of the realm of possibility for what that show could have been about. I'd argue that the first three seasons really were accomplishing that, and that, freed from the big network pressure to keep producing season after season of a hit show, that that's what the show could have been (it didn't necessarily have to be that, and could equally have been about House falling further and further down the hole and dragging everyone else down with him, which is closer to what we got because, I guess, you can sustain that story longer). But, anyway, I don't know that House, as he began, was really someone who needed redeeming, but that is what people go looking for and I think it skews the story.
Maybe this is what I'm so liking about AtS--that the idea of looking for a redemption narrative is what skews the story is what the story is about.
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Reason #1,253 why Dollhouse is amazing is that it does something I think I have literally never seen before, outside of maybe Ayn Rand, which doesn't count because she is actually insane. Ultimately the most nuanced, understanding, mutually supportive, and flat-out redemptive relationship on that show is between Adelle and Topher: the corporate ice queen and the mad scientist computer geek. And the the thing is, they are both the character than on any other show we would start to care about when either the protagonist or Affiliated Nice Character takes an interest in them and proves that, underneath that callous exterior, they really can care. And there's nothing inherently wrong with that story, but it is a problem when it is the only story. It puts the emphasis in certain places. It skews our ideas about what those characters are about and what they can be and what is or ought to be important to them. It is a certain type of character growth: one in which a character is forced to see or develop another side of themselves and then is left to integrate that into who they were before. Which, again, there's nothing inherently wrong with that; that's a good type of character growth to have. But what happens with Adelle and Topher is quite different: they value in each other what they would value in themselves, and this is a nuanced valuation of realistic character traits, not the caricatured "you're so evil--I love it!" that can go on amongst villains. And I think it's something that most protagonistically-drawn characters get as a matter of course (My sister has a very good insight: that we tend to like the characters that other characters like. When one character values something in another, we are lead to see that value.) So Adelle and Topher actually do help each other to redemption, but it is in the opposite way from what we would expect for their stock character types: they help each other to become better versions of what they wanted to be from the beginning . . . and through that they come to realize different sides of themselves. Character growth through strengths, rather than through weaknesses. Again, both are good sorts of growth to have, but I think in the end the difference may come down to this: that characters who begin in or are more closely associated with the protagonist camp are encouraged and supported far more in the former kind of growth, where antagonists are always faced with the latter, and the development of their strengths seems not to matter, or is left to them alone.
(Adelle and Topher reminds me slightly of that conversation(s?) Anya and Andrew had in "Chosen," right before the end. But far, far better developed and absolutely central to the show, rather than an afterthought between two peripheral characters.)
THINKING ABOUT OTHER THINGS NOW. *determined*