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EPISODE 3.04 CARPE NOCTEM
Written by: Scott Murphy Directed by: James A. Contner Trading Places
Episodes in which one
character switches bodies with another have become a staple in Science Fiction
and Fantasy. They are generally used to allow one person an opportunity to walk
in the shoes of another, to show the reality of that other person’s life.
This might be a way of making the person moving to the new body
re-examine his or her own life and ambitions in the light of the experiences
of another. Or it may be to show
that something he or she has always wanted isn’t perhaps so desirable after
all. In “Carpe Noctem” we see
Angel switch places with an elderly man called Marcus who is on the brink of
death. Is this not the epitome of
mortality? There is a famous
painting by the Venetian Giorgione of an old woman whose face is pitted and
scarred with age. And in her hand
she holds up a scrap of paper with the inscription “Col Tempo” –
“With Time”. The meaning is
clear: with time you too will be like me.
In this episode, Angel
now does more than see his future as a mortal.
He can feel it. He can
actually feel his heart beating and know
that his life depends upon it continuing to do so.
How does this affect this view of immortality? It's an interesting
question.
But oddly this is an episode that shows no real interest in it. Indeed the whole emphasis is
on Marcus and what he experiences in Angel’s body rather than on Angel and
what he experiences in Marcus’ body. This
poses an interesting question: why should we be interested in what this one-off
character does? Isn’t it more
important to see what the lead character in the series makes of his
circumstances? The answer to this puzzle is to be found in the way that Marcus reacts to his new physical form. He does not try to walk in Angel’s shoes by grappling with the problems Angel does in trying to help others. Rather he behaves as he himself wants, without regard to anyone else. With a powerful and immortal body he finds himself free from almost any constraints and as a result can indulge any wants and needs he has. The fact that his behavior is so markedly different from Angel, when the latter had exactly the same opportunities available to him, tells us something about Angel. The comparison helps us see who he now is. Not So Broody Angel
The episode begins with
Fred making assumptions about how Angel spends his leisure time:
As
it turns out, she is wrong. He wants
to go the see a Chalton Heston double bill: Soylent Green and Omega
Man. It is no surprise that Angel apparently likes Charlton Heston,
himself a throwback to an earlier age. He
is an archetype of a very
traditional form of masculinity – the strong, silent type: very Angel.
But the important thing is not that Angel wants to go and see his movies,
it’s that he wants to go with other people.
His first words are to enquire whether the others have seen the special
offer. And he seems genuinely put out when only Fred shows a
willingness to accompany him: “You
may not know this, Fred, but
certain friends and co-workers have been
known to accuse me of being the
quiet, stay-at-home, sulky one. Some people just don't know how
to have fun anymore.” And
when he is out with Fred he behaves with exemplary consideration: “He opened every door for me, and he
paid for the tickets, and he even bought a jumbo popcorn and every few minutes,
he'd go like this [She cocks her hand to one side, as if tilting a popcorn tub.]
Because he wanted to let me know it was okay for me to have some…. And he walks on the street side, and not the
building side. It's old fashioned, but kinda chivalrous, you know?…And even though we didn't talk a lot, it was
okay. It was still comfortable. I mean it wasn't that awkward kind of quiet. You
know that awkward kind of quiet?” And
it’s not only with Fred. One of
the major problems for Angel Investigations in early season 2 was that no-one
was talking to one another. But here we see Cordelia in vintage form,
laying things on the line for our hero:
That is the way that friends are supposed to be able to talk to one another, rather than continually walking on eggshells in case an unpleasant topic might cause friction. There
may be a degree of exaggeration in the term “emotionally stunted” but Angel
is not only quiet with Fred on their “date”, he is also very noticeably
reluctant to open up to her about what he really feels and more importantly
doesn’t feel for her. Indeed here
we have the two sides of Angel: the strength and the inherent reserve.
But the important point about this is that even though he is still at
times reluctant to share his feelings with others, Angel has friends and behaves towards them accordingly –
with respect and consideration. That
is why they are friends. Me, Myself
and I
And
this is where we come to Marcus. The
difference between them is made clear at once: Angel: “I'm a private investigator, I work with a team.” Not
only has Marcus never worked with anyone; it quickly becomes clear he doesn’t
care about anyone else either. So
much was obvious from the start when the young men whose bodies he used were
just discarded without any thought. As
he leaves Woody to die in the hotel room, Marcus’s only thought is for what a
great time he has had: “It’s
been nice.”
And
Marcus’ behavior is equally self-centered as FakeAngel.
Whereas real Angel was genuinely considerate of Fred all he is interested
in is using her for his own purpose. When
he first sees her he is all smooth charm: FakeAngel:
Have I ever told you you're a very beautiful woman? Fred:
“Ohhh, ahhh, no-ooo...” FakeAngel:
“You like olives?
Tell
you what. I got some work I have to finish up here. Why don't you go put on
somethin' pretty, we'll go out on the town.” Fred: “Really?” FakeAngel:
“And that's just for starters.” It doesn’t take a
genius to work out what would come next. But
then we don’t need to for when Lilah comes in poor little Fred is immediately
forgotten and the very same chat up line that so flattered Fred is used on her: “Have I
ever told you, you're a very beautiful woman?” FakeAngel
is of course being equally insincere and we soon see what he is really after
when he grabs Lilah and starts kissing her.
This is the fate Fred so narrowly avoided. But
perhaps most instructive of all is what happens when the vampire instinct within
Angel kicks in. When FakeAngel
bites Lilah, it is clearly involuntary. After
all he knows nothing about being a vampire and as he says himself:
”Sorry, I
just ...It felt like the thing to do.” But then he does find
out what it means to be a vampire and he is seemingly quite comfortable with the
fact. Indeed, more than comfortable.
When inhabiting Woody’s body, Marcus’ idea of enjoying himself was
alcohol and escorts. But when
FakeAngel goes to the nightclub, he doesn’t seem interested in drink, dancing
or sex. He seems to be looking for
a victim to kill. When he finds a
woman he doesn’t look as if he wants to enjoy her company.
He can’t even wait to get her somewhere private.
He simply takes her to the nearest deserted place and with few
formalities sinks his teeth into her. And
I don’t think this is the work of the demon within him.
This seems to be Marcus’ free will.
It’s not only the fact that his behavior here is quite consisted with
what he did to the men whose bodies he took over.
We can see the real Marcus in the following exchange between himself and
RealAngel: RealAngel: “I don't think you really
know what you're getting into.” FakeAngel:
“Oh, I know what I'm getting into. You're the one who doesn’t seem to know
what you had. Far as I can tell you
were the world's worst vampire. Vampires don't help people, you moron, they kill
them. Here let me show you.” The
fact that Marcus is so completely self-centered is in itself, of course, wholly
unimportant. But what becomes
important about it is the fact that, by contrasting Marcus’ behavior with that
of Angel, we see how different the latter is.
We see in particular the connection he has forged with Wesley, Cordelia,
Fred and even Gunn. Theirs is now a
genuine friendship. Moreover we see
the importance of that friendship. We
see it in Wesley’s reaction when FakeAngel begins his little “talk” with
him. When Wesley thinks there may
be something wrong he is genuinely concerned: “It's all right, whatever it is, you know I'm here for you.” Then we see Cordelia’s fussing over
him to make sure that he puts Fred right about the “date” they had.
As she says herself: “Right.
Listen, all I'm trying to tell you is, this thing with Fred is going to go bad,
unless it's nipped in the bud.” And then despite her insistence that
Angel bite on the bullet himself, she does the job for him because she knows how
hard he would find it. So when
Angel eventually gets round to delivering the bad news, Fred knows - Fred:
“Is this about how you're not like other men, what with that curse Angel:
“Uhhh, yeah.” Fred: “Cordelia explained it to me.
She said you'd probably just screw it up.” But
of course the real demonstration of the importance of friendship lies in the way
that Wesley, Cordelia, Gunn and Fred all turn up at the retirement home to foil
FakeAngel’s attempt to kill RealAngel. As
Fred pointed out, in “Omega Man”, Charlton Heston - that other
strong, silent archetype - was so lonely because he was the last man on
Earth: “Omega
being the last letter of the Greek alphabet, so it's a metaphor.” Even
the Charlton Hestons and the Angels of this world need friends.
It’s no wonder that, in one of the episode’s more obvious excursions
into metaphor, Angel tells Marcus: “And
I'll tell you why you have a weak heart, Marcus. You never use it.” You cannot deny the
relevance of this theme to Angel. Much
of the last half season 2 was about his need to make a connection with humanity
and to start to do so by understanding and appreciating his co-workers.
And here we see the success that he has been enjoying. The interesting thing is that there are clear reminders that
Angel is not comfortable sharing his feelings or being too open.
And it is nice that the writers seem to be saying that you don’t
actually have to be especially touchy-feely to make and keep friends.
It is enough that you behave with respect and consideration.
But that aside there isn’t much else to this episode beyond the simple
demonstration of the friendships between Angel and the other members of Angel
Investigations and the way in which those friendships are important to him.
The problem with this is that it is all a little bit obvious.
The need for Angel to make friends has already been fully dealt with
in season 2 where the writers spent so much time showing us why Angel
became so blinkered he cut himself off from Wesley, Cordelia and Gunn, the
effects that this had on him and his realization of the need to change. Another one of the
problems with this episode is that Marcus as a character is too self-centered
and too devoid of moral sense to make a
very satisfactory counterpoint to Angel. Even
at his worst Angel, in the period between "Reunion" and
"Reprise", would never have behaved like Marcus, revelling in power for
the sake of it, treating people like playthings and totally disregarding their
lives. We have no sense therefore
of Angel being different to they way he was or indeed how different. We simply have a sense that he was not Marcus and as Marcus
is actually evil that is not saying much. And then there are the
metaphysics which, I will admit, bothered me far more while watching the episode
than now in retrospect. Once you
start talking about switching bodies in connection with Angel you immediately
raise the question – switching what? Is
it soul, demon or both. As I have
already said it seems reasonably clear to me that there was nothing of either
Angel or Angelus left in FakeAngel. The
impulse to bite Lilah seems to me more in the nature of a physiological
reaction, perhaps like a gag reaction in a human.
It wasn’t under conscious control.
The rest was under conscious control but entirely that of Marcus.
The implication therefore is that whatever makes up Angel’s conscious
mind and moral direction (for good or bad) transferred with him to Marcus’
body. I don’t think that is too
problematic for me to accept. Plot
One of the things I like
about the plot is that it isn’t immediately obvious from the start what the
nature of the evil is. Woody’s
body literally implodes after mysterious lights issue from his mouth and eyes. We subsequently learn that others have shared his fate.
But what is the cause? And
that is the first point of interest. This
involves some actual detective work and the nice thing here is that Angel
Investigations actually behaves like a detective Agency.
Gunn talks to people in the hotels where the victims died, Wesley talks
to his contact in the Coroner’s office (much more satisfactory than relying on
the internet to get into Coroner Office records) and Angel and Cordelia go and
talk to the staff and customers at the same health club where they were members.
Of course that leaves us with the question how they found that out (or
even thought to look), especially since the police do not seem to have made the
same connection. But shortcuts of
this nature are inevitable in hour long detective stories so we can’t be too
critical. Once Angel and Cordelia
arrive at the gym it becomes easy to guess that the mystery will somehow center
there. And indeed the solution to that mystery comes relatively
easily and quickly as Angel finds his way to Marcus’ door by means of
something of a coincidence – the fact that Marcus was spying on the users of
the gym while he was there. But
then this episode was never really about the solution of that mystery. It was simply part of the set-up so that the episode could
then shift to the real heart of the story as FakeAngel took over RealAngel’s life, leaving him to rot in the
retirement home. And this shows how
invidious advance publicity can be for an episode.
If you knew “Carpe Noctem” was about body switching then what happens
when Angel turns up at Marcus’ door is easily predictable.
If you didn’t then it would have been a major surprise because, as I
have already said, there is nothing in the earlier scenes that would have given
the game away. Indeed the seeming
mismatch between Angel and the frail, elderly man would have given no hint at
all of any danger. There
are nevertheless one or two things about this scenario which do bother me.
I have said in earlier reviews that
I do have a problem with the conceit that ordinary humans can perform magic of
great power. This is not only an
example of the world of the supernatural being too accessible.
More problematically, if anyone can switch bodies at will then the whole
concept of witches as being individuals specially versed in magic beyond
ordinary humans becomes somewhat redundant.
Beyond that I do have some difficulty with the nature of the spell here.
Why does it necessarily seem to involve such catastrophic damage to the
host for Marcus? That it does seems
simply to be writers’ fiat and I would much have preferred some sort of
rationalization since the death of Woody and the others was a key plot point.
Without them there would have been no investigation and no story.
But most seriously of all, once Marcus did start casting a spell why did
Angel not react? He was
investigating something potentially dangerous.
In the course of that investigation he came across someone who started to
put a spell on him and all he can do is say: “You
might want to think twice about trying to cast a…” He was standing at
arm’s length and could have stopped him at any time.
The others might not have recognized what Marcus was doing but he knew. However, it is only when
the switch is made that we come to the central problem of the plot.
It necessarily revolved around the need to stop Marcus. Whether Angel and
the others succeeded or failed could only be judged according to whether they
achieved this or not. But in order for such a plot to work we needed a
real sense as to why this was important - in fact the more important and the
more urgent it was to stop Marcus, the better. Now, of course the situation created by Marcus was obviously wrong. It was wrong on principle.
You cannot have one person stealing the life of another.
It was wrong from the point of view of the continuation of the series.
You could not have the story of Angel’s redemption permanently
interrupted in this fashion. But
these general considerations give us no clear sense
of a particular reason or a particular need to stop Marcus.
It was never an issue that was discussed but my
assumption (later borne out by Marcus’ researches) was that a vampire body
wouldn’t perish in the same way as Woody’s had.
So Angel was not going to meet the same fate as all the others.
Of course Marcus was elderly and we were eventually alerted to the fact
that he had an ailing heart. That
did create some sense of urgency. But
the threat was a non-specific one. RealAngel
could have suffered a heart attack at any time but equally it could have been
long delayed. And even if he did
suffer a heart attack it was survivable. This
threat on its own didn’t create the sort of dramatic focus an episode needed. It was only when
FakeAngel discovered the truth about his vampirism and started to really hurt
people at the nightclub that we began to get any sense of why it was important
to stop him. But even here the female victim escaped with a flesh wound
and the three male rescuers were just battered about. Nothing particularly nasty or serious happened.
And here the writing (and indeed I think DB’s performance) didn’t
help matters. There was just too
much exuberance, too much joie de vivre and not enough menace.
I think we needed to see fake Angel as a danger, someone that needed to
be stopped. And for that I think he
needed to actually kill. I have
written before about the fact that ANGEL needs an edge; it needs a dark side. This is a perfect illustration of that. In Angelus’ pursuit of Jenny in the BtVS episode “Passion” or indeed in
his attempt to kill Rebecca in “Eternity” we got a clear sense of his
enjoyment. But it was a malicious
enjoyment of fear and suffering. That
is what was so dark and twisted about it. That
was what made it so effective because that was what created the idea that here
was someone exceptionally dangerous. FakeAngel on the other hand behaved more like a drunk
hooligan throwing his weight about. And
the way he shifted from one target to another simply added to this sense of a
lack of discipline. First it was
the woman, then the would be rescuers and even after he had overpowered these he
didn’t kill anyone but just ran off looking for RealAngel. Once he had found out the truth wouldn’t he have wanted to
kill RealAngel as soon as possible? Why
delay? Indeed, if there was going to be any dramatic heart to this episode then it must surely be the race between Wesley and the others on the one hand and FakeAngel on the other. The latter wanted to kill RealAngel the former to save him. Now the way that Wesley figured out what had happened and Cordelia supplied the information needed to find RealAngel was an intelligent piece of plotting. It contrasts markedly with the way that the same people failed entirely to pick up the clues that there was something not quite right with Angel. You might have thought his obvious uncertainties about his co-workers and (big clue here) that he ate burritos might have warned them something was wrong. But once Wesley did work out the truth, the rest of the plot fell a little flat. RealAngel was an old and sick man so you could not credibly have much of a chase or much of a physical confrontation. And the sense of a race against time (which should have been the essence of this part of the plot) was altogether lost when we see Wesley and the others leave the Hyperion in one scene and simply enter the Retirement home in the nick of time a few minutes later. A few intercut scene where they tried to find the home or got caught in traffic or met some obstacle – any obstacle – to slow them down would have worked much better. And then there was a fairly obvious trick that got scant mention. Clearly Wesley and the others had to stop FakeAngel without killing him. Given the fact that he was so much stronger then they that could have posed a problem. So, the writers could ahve streeded the danger that, in trying to overpower FakeAngel, the other members of the team might have had to kill him to protect themsleves, thus dooming RealAngel. But without any mention of this, no real race againts time and a disappointingly lame final confrontation there was little or no tension to keep us interested.Indeed it is very odd that FakeAngel was so easily overpowered when he himself had so quickly disposed of three men. Cordelia and Fred seemed to beat him off quite easily with baseball bats and one blast with a tazer was enough to finish him. Riley didn’t have the same luck in “The Yoko Factor”.
Humor
Thematically this episode may have been bland; in terms of plot it was certainly flawed. But if it does have a redeeming feature it was the comedy. One of the aspects of ANGEL as a series that continues to surprise me is how effective the use of humor can be. In “Carpe Noctem” we didn’t get the same range of comedy as we did, for example, in “Disharmony”. But what we do get is of very high quality and comes from two sources. First of all we have FakeAngel’s attempts to fit in to strange surroundings. He doesn’t know who he is supposed to be or who his co-workers are. So he doesn’t really know how he should be reacting. So he gets something wrong but is unconscious of the fact and behaves as if everything was perfectly normal, leaving Cordelia and the others to scratch their heads. Eating the breakfast burritos as if that was the most natural thing in the world was a good example of this. Then there is the sheer incongruity of seeing some very unusual behavior from Angel. It is true that he is now no longer the same brooding presence he once was and, for example, at the start of this episode he was pretty animated. But there are still some things that you would never expect to see from him such as ogling Cordelia or doing the mystery dance with Lilah. This depiction of a "fish out of water" is a classic situation comedy vehicle for humor and works so well here because of the strength of the character observation on which it is based. A lot of it is at Angel’s expense and rely for its effect on the way that all human dignity and pride can be undermined by the absurdities in the human condition . My own favorite comes when Cordelia tells FakeAngel that there is no room in the workplace for romance with Fred. Not knowing who Fred is FakeAngel jumps to the wrong conclusion: “Romance
with Fred. So I'm a ...(looks at his clothes)...oh yeah, obviously.” We are long used to gay
jokes about Angel but what works here is the fact that Marcus sees him through
fresh and unbiased eyes. Despite
that he still gives added credence to the long standing jokes about Angel.
Indeed one of the strengths of this episode was the way so much of the
humor was self referential. Together
with its own mythology the show has now created its own series of standing jokes
which the writers can use almost at will to play with the audience.
So here we had not only the gay jokes but visual jokes such as the black
leather trousers of evil, jokes
about Angel’s ability to have sex and his predilection for blondes: Wes: “This isn't like him.” Cordelia: “What? It's totally like him! Doing the mystery dance with some cheap blonde.” Fred: “Brunette. She was a cheap brunette.” Cordy: “You're right - this isn't like him.” Here I have to add that
Angel’s mystery dance with one particular blond will not remain a
secret much longer and when Cordelia finds out…. Overview (C+)
Nothing very significant happens in this episode. There are no great character developments and the only thing that it has to say about the direction of the series as a whole is scarcely new. Yes, making a connection with others is important and no-one should just be living for what they pwersonally need or want. I don’t think we especially needed this episode to see that Angel had re-established friendships with Wesley, Cordelia and the others or indeed how important those friendships were. All in all therefore this seems a classic filler episode. And in this role it had one great advantage. It was quite enjoyable. The plot may have been aenemic. There was little to surprise us or grab our attention and keep us wondering what is going to happen next. Indeed there was precious little to make us care very strongly what was going to happen next. But there was a good deal of fun to be had in seeing Angel held up to (harmless) mockery and seeing someone who looks like him act in such un-Angel like ways and deriving such enjoyment out of it. But none of it really makes too much of an impact and so, while the episode itself was a very pleasant way to spend an hour, it is doubtful if it will last long on the memory. |
