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EPISODE 1.18FIVE BY FIVE
Written by: Jim Kouf Directed by: James A. Contner
The Theme of Redemption ANGEL, as a series, is all about redemption; in particular the journey made by the titular hero in search of his own. But that journey must be a long one. If it were ever to be accomplished then the show essentially loses its whole raison d'etre. At the same time, however, the theme is simply too important to be ignored. One of the most natural ways of dealing with it would be to show the redemption, or attempted redemption, of others and allow Angel's own journey to finds its reflection in that. The danger here is, of course, that redemption will become trite. Someone will undergo an epiphany which will turn their lives around 180 degrees and allow them set out into a new life. Far from adding anything to Angel's own journey of redemption this would simply serve to cheapen it by making it too easy. If someone else can achieve redemption in the course of a single episode, then why couldn't he? What I like about "Five by Five" is that it doesn't go for that easy fix. Indeed it's not so much about redemption itself as the state of mind which convinces a person that he or she needs to be redeemed in the first place. It shows the desperation that people can sometimes feel about their lives and the way this desperation eventually presents them with a choice - self destruction or change. Redemption comes when they seek change; but in "Five by Five" we are not there yet. And this is perhaps where we see the irony in the title. In voice communication over two way radios the signal quality is reported on two scales; the first is for signal strength, and the second for signal clarity. Both these scales are from one to five, where one is the worst and five is the best. The listening station reports these numbers separated with the word 'by'. "Five by five" therefore means a signal which has excellent strength and perfect clarity - the most understandable signal possible. By extension the same term has come to mean 'I understand you perfectly' or even more generally just that the situation is perfect. It has long been a favorite phrase of Faith's and is often used to indicate the way she is on top of things. In the BtVS episode "Revelations" we have the following exchange:
But significantly Faith never uses the phrase in this episode, perhaps because she is aware that things aren't "good" and that she isn't on top of things.
Comparing Faith and Angel In "Five by Five" we see Faith -
At one level this is behavior that is no longer just borderline psychotic. There is no purpose to it, no advantage for Faith. Worse than that the best that can be said for a lot of the forgoing behavior is that it is a way of getting her noticed by people she would rather avoid – the police. Half killing Lee is entirely gratuitous. It provoked by a relatively insignificant comment:
In response to this she grabs him by the neck and slams his face repeatedly on the table screaming: "How do you look now?" And although in the end Lindsey and Lilah seemed almost to enjoy the sight of a colleague being beaten to a bloody pulp, the could just as easily have concluded that the slayer was too much of a loose cannot to let live. Yet this is a consideration that didn't even enter on Faith's mind. This is someone on edge and barely in control of herself - just waiting for the smallest thing to set her off. How then do you account for her actions? More than that, how do you do so in a way that is consistent with the way “Five by Five” ended. Here we saw Faith having set up a confrontation with Angel, and finding she cannot kill him, begging him in turn to kill her? The essence of this episode lies in the way the writers show us how Faith’s earlier actions were the product of the same state of mind that led her to the sobbing mess she was in the rain outside her borrowed apartment. It is in this context that the flashbacks become crucial. I was never terribly impressed by Angel's "We're a lot alike, Faith" speech in the BtVS episode "Consequences".
This seemed to show little if any understanding of either Angel or Faith. The real problem for them was never that they had lost their faith in other human beings. But in the flashbacks to Borsa in 1898 we are shown valid parallels between Faith and Angel just after he was cursed. Through these parallels we begin to understand Faith and how she looks at herself. As we do her state of mind becomes clearer, actions become explicable and so too does the ending of the episode. And the flashbacks work principally because they allow us to compare Faith and Angel at the same stage in their lives – before their search for redemption had actually begun. Angel in LA2000, while not quite the complete work, has long since left behind any doubts as to what he should be trying to do. He knows he wants redemption and believes that he can achieve it. Angel in 1898 was different. He had just had his soul restored and was clearly suffering the torments of Hell. That little speech he gave to Darla when he said "Funny. You would think with all the people I've maimed and killed I wouldn't be able to remember every…single…one. “ , was chilling. And here we see the first parallel between Angel and Faith. She too is in pain and the torture scene with Wesley is proof of that. Although she wanted to provoke Angel she also had a score to settle with Wesley. As she said: “Did you ever wonder if things would have been different - if we'd never met. What if you'd had Buffy and Giles would have been my Watcher? You think you'd still be here right now? Or would Giles be sitting in that chair? Or is it just like fate? You know, there is no choice. You were gonna be here no matter what. You think about that stuff - fate and destiny? I don't. Not that any of this is your own fault. Since this may be the last chance we will have to unload on each other, I feel that it is kind of my duty to tell you that if you'd been a better Watcher, I might have been a more positive role model. Face it Wesley; you really were a jerk. Always walking around as if you had some great big stake rammed up your …English Channel. “ This is a very revealing passage. She still doesn’t blame herself for anything. She blames fate; she blames Wesley. But, as Angel mockingly points out why blame anyone if she was happy with the way she was? The answer is unwittingly provided by herself. When Wesley calls her a “piece of sh**” she reacts angrily. I think she does so because Wesley is echoing what she thinks of herself deep down. No she isn’t happy – not at all. But what could Faith do to make the pain stop? Here we come to the second parallel between Faith in LA 2000 and Angel in Borsa 1898. When Angel regained his soul he did not know how to react to the change. At that point he was poised between two worlds - the darkness and the possibility of something else. The problem was that he was in no position to make a rational choice between the paths open to him, or indeed any choice at all. He may not have been borderline psychotic but he was teetering on the brink of a complete mental breakdown. And his first instinct was to cling on to what he thought he knew and understood, even if that was the very thing that had caused him so much pain. Our very first scene with Angelus and Darla in Borsa (before he was cursed) emphasized how close they were and how much they shared. After Angel's soul was restored, and in spite of how he now felt, he went straight back to her - not to blame her for what she had done to him but for comfort and reassurance. He even said to her "I am like you." But her reply was: "You're not like anything. Get away from me. Get out! “. But even with that rejection Angel continued to struggle with his identity. When he met the small group of passers by on the street he seemed to be operating at a purely instinctual level. At first all he was conscious of was the fact that he was hungry. But one thing did resonate with him. The woman called him a monster. It was a cry he took up and repeated over again. I think that this showed he was still struggling with his identity as a vampire. Although rejected by Darla he continued to play the part of what he thought he was – a monster. That is why he attacked the strangers. He didn’t care what the consequences for him were of doing so in circumstances where he might easily have been killed by a mob. I don’t think he was consciously suicidal. I don’t think I would even argue that he was subconsciously suicidal. Rather it seems to me that he took actions which involved the risk of death because the subconscious need to find an identity he could live with was more important to him than the risk of his death. But the truth for Angel in Borsa 1898 was that he now had a soul; he was no monster. He tried his best to make himself into one, even to the extent of dragging the female passer-by into an ally and trying to bite her. But he couldn’t make himself do it. In the end he had to give up saying: "I can't. Oh god, I can't." Just like Angel in Borsa 1898, Faith too was faced with two different directions for her future. She had got a glimpse of what life for her could have been when she switched bodies with Buffy. She had a home, family, friends, a decent man to love and a career as slayer where people value her and are grateful to her. But that is all gone. She is desperate, friendless and in pain. The only thing she sees left for her is to continue to play the part that she has been playing all along – that of a homicidal monster. So she lashed out in all directions trying even harder to convince herself she really was bad. Hence her attack on Lee, where her need to prove herself a badass was far more powerful than any thought that she was running a risk in doing so, and the other behavior referred to at the beginning of this review. But the interesting thing is that she seems to have killed no-one, not even the man who tried to pick her up at the bus station. That itself indicates, I think, that things were not quite as she pretended.
The Contract And it is at this point that the stories of Faith and Angel intersect. When Faith first heard Angel's name from Wolfram and Hart all she saw at first was a further opportunity to strike back at what she saw as the cause and source of her pain - Buffy.
She is so anxious to kill Angel that she doesn’t even wait for Lindsey to finish the sentence. So, it seems to me that her first attempt to kill him was a straightforward and genuine one. But when he caught the arrow she fired at him from ambush she was genuinely impressed and this seems to have set her on a very different pattern of behavior. That little scene with the gun in Angel’s office illustrates her change of attitude. After Angel deliberately fires a blank bullet at Faith’s leg we have the following exchange:
She then shoots him with a real bullet. But instead of trying to take advantage of the situation she escapes. That is because she doesn’t want simply to kill Angel anymore. For her, he is on the opposite end of the spectrum from where she believes herself to be. His little tortured soul means that he has to do the right thing. But just as Angel as a newly ensouled vampire in Borsa 1898 felt compelled to act out the role of a killer in order to prove he was still a monster; so Faith felt compelled to show that she was still a rogue slayer by taking on the “soul boy” in LA 2000. But merely fighting him would not be enough. She wanted to get him mad enough to try to kill her out of anger (rather than in self-defense). That is why she confronted him in his office. That is why she went after Wesley and Cordelia. She wanted to prevent him from completing his own redemption by reawakening the darkness inside him. By doing so she would confirm her own darkness. So, while I do not think she deliberately courted her own death her survival was certainly less important to her than reaffirming her sense of identity as a monster. But all that happened was that a situation she thought she had under control turned out to be under Angel’s control instead. He turned up not full of anger and hatred but cold, calculating determination. He fought her only to defend himself and not to kill her. That was an eventuality she had never planned for. It meant utter failure for her. That was what led to her breakdown. All she had left was to repeat her mantra mindlessly. "I'm evil! I'm bad! I'm evil! Do you hear me? I'm bad! Angel, I'm bad! All of these parallels between Angel and Faith are very well conceived and executed and are very effective in shedding light on Faith’s state of mind and motivations – which are the key to this episode. But they are not themselves sufficient because there is one very important difference between the Angel on the one hand and Faith on the other. Angel committed his crimes as a soulless monster. It was just that his soul had to pick up the pieces afterwards. Faith’s soul on the other hand was responsible for her actions; it had a choice Angel’s didn’t. I am, therefore, really glad that the writers had enough understanding of the two characters to realize this difference existed. So, we get the character of Marquez. As Wesley says of him: "He may be a ruffian, but he's already got a soul, and therefore - deep down inside - an urge to do what's right." Later Wesley says much the same about Faith: “She's not a demon, Angel. She is a sick, sick girl. If there is even a chance she can be reasoned with..." In drawing this parallel, the writers are making the point that no matter how hopeless a cause Faith may seem she can still be reached: redemption is possible. But she has to decide to chose it. It is in this context that the parallel between Faith and Marquez is important. I suggested at the beginning that I for one would have been very disappointed if Faith had undergone any form of quick or easy redemption. But the important point about “Five by Five” is that she has not opted for redemption. She has merely been brought to the same point of despair that Angel had where even death is not the way out for her. It is only now that we come to the next step. And in Marquez we see the difficulty of the next step. He has to decide whether he testifies against his former associates or not. Angel tries to persuade him to do so but he is unwilling. As he told Marquez: “You're gonna have to face your demons sometime." That is what Faith has to do. But it is by no means certain that she will do it. In reply to Angel, Marquez says “What if I don't want to face my demons?" The reply is "Then you'll have to face mine." In other words, “I will force you to testify.” And, while it is not made explicit, it may very well be that that is what happens. Marquez testifies not because he sees the light but because the consequences of not doing so are more immediately painful. Thus, although Marquez, has the possibility to be redeemed, he is not. The writers may, therefore, be telling us that in facing the choice between the path of redemption and the easy attraction of her old life, Faith may pick the latter. Through all of these parallels I think we can read Faith’s actions in a way which is both consistent with her as a character and believable in the context of the plot. And for me that is perhaps the most difficult as well as the most important test that “Five by Five” passed.
Development of the Plot One of the strongest things about “Five by Five” is the way in which the strong character and thematic development is integrated into a powerful and moving story. From the beginning the plot plays out perfectly well as: psycho ex-slayer, out for revenge, tries to kill Angel. Looked at this way, the name of the game for Angel is to protect himself and the others and ultimately to kill or incapacitate Faith. So, what started out as a wild and uncontrolled Faith out for a bit of fun took on a very serious tone as Wolfram and Hart contacted her and set up the confrontation with Angel. The first stage in that confrontation took us completely by surprise as Faith launched her ambush but was low key enough. It amounted to no more than the two opponents sizing one another up. This led to a more serious confrontation at Angel’s Offices. But it was here that we began to get the impression that things were not quite as simple as they first appeared. Faith clearly wanted something more than simply to kill Angel. She seemed to be trying to goad Angel into trying to come after her. This was much more interesting than a simple and straightforward physical confrontation. It created an air of uncertainty. What did Faith want? Did she have a hidden agenda? She seemed to be provoking Angel. But what could she gain from that? All of this helped created a heightened feeling of suspense and uncertainty about what would happen next. This idea that Faith had some sort of hidden agenda was strengthened by the next twist when she kidnapped Wesley. She was of course angry with Wesley but it was certain that Angel was her real target and it seemed obvious that her abduction of the ex-watcher was ultimately aimed at bringing him to her. And the impression that Faith was working to some plan served to ratchet up the tension. Things were getting ever more serious and a bit more is at stake. But there was still yet another twist. All of the individual elements are there in plain sight: Angel’s past, Faith’s pain, the way she wants him “in the game” and is willing to use Wesley to achieve this. But it is only in the final scene that we make sense of it all. It started to come together about a third of the way through the fight with Faith when I realized Angel was holding back – why? Then, when Faith actually did break down, everything just fell into place. Each stage in the development of the plot in LA 2000 had played perfectly sensibly as psycho Faith going on a vengeance kick. Yes, Faith had a plan. That plan was not simply to kill Angel but to force a confrontation with him as an attempt to find some sort of resolution to her own feelings of being lost and out of control. But Angel wasn't simply reacting to this plan. He had one of his own. From the perspective of Faith’s breakdown at the end, the same scenes in which we saw her trying to goad him into coming after her in retrospect took on a subtly different meaning. In reality it was Angel who was using her desperation to force a confrontation with him to try to reach her. The difference between them was that his plan wasn't about killing her or getting revenge. It was about helping her. It was the ultimate plot twist because as it was unfolding I for one didn’t even realize it was a plot twist. That was really elegant. And another good thing is the pace with which all of this happens. “Angel” has developed a tradition of a gentle, usually humorous opening scene. Yet, just as in “Somnambulist”, here we move straight into action. Marquez is attacked by the demons who have killed his friends and they in turn are ambushed by Angel and Wesley in a quite exhilarating scene full of running, cars, swishing axes and gore (or is it goo). Great stuff. And the plot never really stops. There is great economy in using Marquez’s decision to give evidence as a means of foreshadowing Faith’s possible redemption and to give Wolfram and Hart the push towards enlisting Faith’s help. Indeed economy is one of the great virtues of this episode. It is very focused and nothing is wasted. As a result time passes quickly. All of the important action is concentrated around a light little triangle of Angel, Faith and Wolfram and Hart. Only insofar as they relate to the interaction between these three does anyone else get a significant look in. From the time Angel sabotages the Wolfram and Hart murder case onwards the tension between these three principals mounts. Faith’s attack on Angel is followed by a meeting of the Fang gang in which nerves are jangling all round; most notably between Angel and Wesley with Angel putting his foot down hard on the ex-Watcher. Then you have the parallel plotting with Faith on the one hand trying to get Angel “into the game” and Angel trying to find out what Wolfram and Hart are up to on the other. Highlights here are the two tense confrontations between Angel and Faith and between Angel and Lindsey. And then in the final few scenes the pressure builds and builds. The torture scene is particularly effective as Faith’s mood becomes wilder and more unpredictable as she ratchets up the pain on Wesley. The climax is reached in the fight between her and Angel but in wonderfully appropriate metaphor the weather breaks just as Faith herself does and the rain comes down. At the end this gives us a striking visual tableau of Angel cradling Faith in the rain while Wesley drops the knife he had brought to kill her. And of course, the real villain in all of this is not Faith but Wolfram and Hart. And what an effective villain they made. The scene between Lilah and Lee especially showed not only their ruthless disregard for others (“tell them that's our drop-dead offer, and you make sure that they understand we mean literally not figuratively”) but the professional rivalry between what should have been colleagues. The calmness with which both Lindsey and Lilah looked on as Faith took out some of her frustrations on Lee was very interesting. I did get the impression that assassination may be one of the ways promotion blockages were handled in that firm. Indeed Lilah’s attitude in this whole thing was worthy of note. She seemed genuinely intrigued and attracted by Angel in “the Ring”. She even tried to help him. But here she was calmly contemplating killing him. This was behavior that was truly soulless and offered a useful counterpoint to Faith’s struggle as well as being quite chilling in its own right.
Overview (A) “Five by Five” is a very fine example of the way in which character exploration and thematic development can take place in the context of a fast moving action adventure story. Normally the importance of a guest star lies in what his or her story can help us find out about Angel. But Faith is different. Faith has an importance in the Angelverse that fully justifies using this episode to try to understand where she is in her life at the moment and to ask how that life can be turned around. And I thought that the writers did this very well. But as well as that we have been given an insight into Angel’s state of mind at a similar stage of how own journey towards redemption. And the best thing about this is that it is an entirely unexpected picture. This is not a man who turned away from evil instantly, but rather one who was frightened and confused by the sudden change in him. And this new perspective is not only fascinating in itself, it is also far more realistic. In one or two respects it is difficult to square what we saw of Angel in Borsa with what we learned earlier about the events which took place there. There are, for example, some inconsistencies in the time line. Remember that, as long ago as the episode “Angel” we learned that Darla was with Angel in Budapest “at the turn of the century”. And the impression was certainly given by Uncle Enyos in “Innocence” that Angel had stalked the gypsy girl in the same way he had stalked Drusilla. This episode suggests otherwise. But these are comparatively minor problems. In comparison with, say, “Somnambulist” the basic plot is a little one dimensional. The story in “Somnambulist” blends action adventure and detective story elements so very expertly and changes and develops as it progresses. This is a more straightforward story about a confrontation between the two main protagonists. But where “Five by Five” really scores is in the sophistication with which this confrontation is handled. This isn’t a simple good vs. evil tale. All in all this is one of the best.
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