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EPISODE 3.01 HEARTTHROB
Written by: David Greenwalt Directed by: David Greenwalt
Moving OnIt would be almost impossible to overestimate the influence that Buffy has had on Angel. When he pulled himself out of the gutter in New York in 1996 it was for her. When in the course of season 2 of BtVS he started, no matter how hesitatingly, to contribute to the fight against evil it was to help her. It was Buffy in “Amends” who helped him eventually see he had a contribution to make to that fight on his own account. And when he left Sunnydale it was for her sake. Finally it was when he ordered her so peremptorily out of Los Angeles in “Sanctuary” that we saw the conclusive proof that he had indeed found a mission of his own. In five years there was hardly a significant event in his life – or unlife – that did not in some way revolve around her. So, if Buffy really were dead then it would not only be natural but necessary for Angel as a character and ANGEL as a series to deal with the fact that such a decisive influence on him had vanished. But then is there anyone who believes that Buffy really is dead at least in the permanent sense of that word? No, I didn’t think so. So, if Buffy’s death is really only a temporary phenomenon then there is no such change for the writers to deal with. I find it very interesting therefore that “Hearthrob” is so explicitly about moving on after Buffy. The implication is, I think, very clear. This is a statement from the writers that, whatever personal connection between Angel and Buffy might linger on at a personal level, the remaining connections between the two series are severed. What We Did for LoveThe major theme of
“Hearthrob” is what love means to us and how it affects us.
This theme is explored principally through the ways that Angel and James
respectively react to the loss of the great loves of their life.
But additional light on the contrast between these two is shown by the
relationship between two other couples - Angelus and Darla on the one hand and
Bobby and his girlfriend from the student party on the other. When we first see James and Elizabeth together, their love for one another is obvious. They are kissing and laughing: Darla:
“Young love.” Angelus:
“Give it a century.” James:
“A century? A mere hundred years?” Elizabeth:
“I would need a thousand to sketch the perfect plain of your face.” James: “And I would need ten
thousand just to name the color of your eyes.” As these words make
clear and as Angel himself said: “James lived for that woman.” And the truth of what he said is
revealed by James' reaction to Elizabeth’s death: Vampire lackey: “You want to be alone.” James:
“No. I want to die.” When he goes to the doctor and asks for "the cure", he is told that the price is a high one. It is only later when we find out what that price was that the true significance of his reply becomes obvious: “I've
already paid it.” The cure James sought would make him
temporarily invincible but would cost him his eternal life. But when James
lost Elizabeth, life held no meaning for him. There is, therefore, great symbolism
in the picture of James on the operating table.
Elizabeth’s death has literally ripped the heart from him and he has
nothing else to live for but revenge. Angel has obviously also just lost the
love of his life. And we are
reminded of that fact several times throughout this episode.
But his reaction is more low key, less dramatic.
I personally do not see in this a suggestion that Angel didn’t really love Buffy as much as
James loved Elizabeth and that it is therefore relatively easier for him to get
over her. True, the allegation finds an echo in
James own allegations: James:
“You loved someone? With all your heart?” Angel:
“Yes.” James:
“No. You didn't. If you had you wouldn't be standing here playing But this I think is to miss the point.
You cannot assume that the only way to gage love lies in the violence of
the reactions to its loss. In this
respect James’ concept of love for Elizabeth isn’t set up as some sort of
ideal. Far from it.
It is quite clearly shown as obsessional to the point of being unhealthy.
James himself is an idiot. His
idea of romance is self-indulgent. You can
see this is the flowery overblown language in which they talk of that
love. In
Marseilles in 1767 James almost gets himself and Angelus killed in order to get a
trinket for Elizabeth. As Angelus
somewhat wryly observes: ”This is where love gets you”.
And are we to believe that revenge and suicide is really a measure of one
person’s love for another? On the
contrary it seems clear to me that James’ extravagant actions after Elizabeth’s death are intended to
be seen as self-destructive. Nor is there any suggestion in the
episode that Angel’s love for Buffy is in any being trivialized.
That love is so deeply embedded into the canon of the show that the
writers don’t need to show breast-beating.
That is the point. They
trust that the audience will accept without question that it is there.
So they can use Angel’s quiet and understated acceptance of Buffy’s
death and his willingness to move on to counterpoint not the difference between
the love he and James felt but rather to counterpoint the individuals they were
and what they had to live for. Before he dies James says:
“You think you won 'cause
you're still alive? I lived, you just existed.” But
Cordelia has the perfect answer to that:
The
truth of these words is unarguable.
James lived only for himself and Elizabeth.
As we have seen, his whole reaction to her death shows that for him there was nothing
else. Throughout the episode he tries to contrast his love for
Elizabeth to Angelus’ lack of love for Darla and by extension Angel’s lack
of love for anyone. Now it is
certainly true that Angelus didn’t love Darla and the scene between them in
Marseilles makes that abundantly clear. When
he caught up with her in Vienna he neither blamed nor forgave her for
abandoning him to Holtz. There is
no suggestion he felt personally betrayed by her action. There was nothing between them but their sick little games
because his only interest lay in his own pleasure: Darla: “Of course when he finally
caught up to me in Vienna I had to pay for my sins. Again and again. Angel:
“Can you even begin to fathom the things we did? Of course not…you're in
love.” And
of course Angelus equally casually abandons Darla to Holtz much to James’ disgust.
But there is no real counterpoint here between the two couples.
We are not intended to see
James’ as having a true love for Elizabeth in contrast to Angelus' lust
for Darla. James' love is simply a different
form of self-centeredness. James’ whole concentration in the aftermath of
Elizabeth’s death is on what he has lost.
To the doctor he emphasizes that he has paid the price for
the cure. To Angel he insists that he
lived a full life with Elizabeth. The true counterpoint here is between James
and Elizabeth and Angelus and Darla on the one hand and Angel on the other.
The whole point about season 2 of the series was that Angel’s vampire
heritage meant that he saw the world as revolving about him and the only
antidote for this was to connect with humanity.
Well what we see throughout this episode – in great ways and in small
– was the way he was doing that. For
example when he came back from Sri Lanka his presents for Wesley, Cordelia and
Gunn were all perfectly judged, thus showing how well he did know them.
He seemed to understand Fred a little better than anyone else.
At the beginning of the episode none of the others seemed that keen on
talking to her. Gunn says in an
offhand way that she’s strong. Cordelia seems aware of the fact that she is hiding but that
is as far as her concern goes. But
Angel does talk with her. He tells
her: “You
just need to take some small steps. Like coming downstairs and hanging with us
for a little while.” And I think we can
assume that he did connect with her here because that is eventually what she
does – at the wrong moment of course. That is who Angel is now
and that is the significance of Cordelia’s words.
It’s not that Buffy’s “death” didn’t hurt.
Cordelia quite correctly identified the feelings of guilt Angel had over
Buffy’s death: “She was the love of your life and
she died. And you weren't there when it happened. You couldn't help her fight . . . you couldn't save her
. . . you couldn't die with her.” And Angel certainly
doesn’t contradict her analysis. Bobby,
the student hostage, claimed he loved his girlfriend.
But when he was offered his life if he chose to give her up there was
little hesitation: Elizabeth:
“Come on now, life's about choices. You or her, what's it gonna be?” Bobby: “Her . . . take her.
Oh God . . .". Elizabeth:
“Gee Bobby, you call that love?” Can we be in any doubt
but that Angel would willingly have sacrificed himself for Buffy in a heartbeat?
While his feelings of guilt may be both irrational and futile, they are
real for all that. The important
point though is that he was dealing with them.
In the teaser Angel had a cathartic encounter with some demon monks from
which he emerged tired and bloody but relaxed.
And there was some by-play about getting drunk in Las Vegas performing
the same function as that fight. This
was not intended to suggest that he could get over Buffy’s death quickly or
easily by superficial means. Rather
he was dealing successfully with that death because there is now more to
Angel’s life than her – something else to live for and to fight for.
The fight with the demons (or the alternative remedy) was no more than an
emotional release – a way of letting out suppressed feelings. It was in fact more a symbol of Angel’s success in coping
than the reason he coped. In contrast to Angel all James had was Elizabeth and his obsession with her. His life had no other meaning and no other significance. There is little doubt about who the real loser was here. It is very interesting
therefore to look at what the writers were able to do thematically here.
As I have already suggested this episode serves as a clear illustration
of how far Angel has moved on from his state of mind in season 2.
We saw in the “old” Angel the same obsessiveness we now see in James; the same
concentration on how things impacted on him.
In “the Trial” he lost something precious to him.
As a result he lost all hope for himself and for the future. In “Happy
Anniversary” for example Lorne chided him in the following terms: “If
the world were to end tonight, would it really, in your heart of hearts, be such
a terrible thing? Now, now, sweetie, is that a fun place to be?" In
the self-destructive thirst for revenge was he very different in “Reunion”
and “Reprise” from James? After
all in the later episode in particular the desire to kill the Senior Partners of
Wolfram and Hart was so strong that he was perfectly prepared to die in the
process. If he had been offered the same bargain as James he would
probably have taken it. But now in
the contrast between him and James we see very powerfully illustrated just how
far Angel has moved on and just what a gulf there now is between himself and
what he once was. And I think that
this contrast is a very clear and powerful way of articulating where Angel now is.
Moreover, because we find it in an episode that serves as a bridge between the themes of season 2
and season 3, it is one that works exceptionally well. But "Heartthrob"also shows us how far Angel has moved on in another sense. At one point he muses to himself: “In all
those years no one ever mattered, not like she did. And now she's gone.
Forever.” As I suggested at the beginning
of this review, in the years between his encounter with Whistler in Mew York
1996 and his departure from Sunnydale in 1999, everything he did was for Buffy.
Here too it was more a case of nothing else mattered, not just no-one else.
Even the aftermath of “Sanctuary” (when he did what he thought was
right even though it hurt her) served to illustrate the hold she still had on
him. He was the one who went to
Sunnydale to make peace with her and he was the one who effectively conceded to
her. The fact that Angel was
prepared to apologize to Buffy even though he knew deep down he was right and
she was wrong speaks volumes about how important she still was to him.
So
what we see in “Hearthrob” is
how Angel as a character is now
forced to stand completely on his own feet.
Not only does this reflect the new relationship between Angel and Buffy as
characters; it also now
seems to me to reflect the reality of the relationship
between the ANGEL and BtVS as shows. In concept
and theme they were different from day one but both shows were about one single
individual and the nature of the ties between the eponymous heroes was such that
they could not help but continue to be connected.
Obviously someone feels that connection must now be interrupted if not
severed completely. And by showing
not so much that Angel moves on but why he can move on the writers have I think
done that very well. And I think that there is another way
in which the writers' handling of Angel here is a positive.
Inevitably a great deal was going to turn on how the audience reacted to
Angel’s grief on a personal level.
The obvious course to take here would have been to show Angel turn in on
himself completely in a huge guilt trip. The
danger there is that (for all the reasons I have discussed)
this would have been too self-indulgent and too much like the Angel we
had seen before. And finally
it would simply have been too one-dimensional.
There is after all only so much you can do with grief.
In other words it would have been predictable, uninteresting and for that
reason shorn of much of its impact. What
we got was a reaction I didn’t expect. Angel
was able to move on in the same way a soldier picks up a standard dropped by a
fallen colleague. But he felt
guilty for that reason. This was a
reaction that was interesting not least because it was unexpected. But it was also believable.
It reflected the changes that Angel had undergone and because of that it
was ultimately a more adult and therefore a more admirable way of dealing with
grief. But at the same time it did
not minimize the grief and it paid due respect to Buffy as a character and to
her past with Angel. Cordelia
The other members of Angel Investigations don’t get much of a look in this week. I am suspending judgment on Fred at the moment although I begin to suspect that she is work in progress towards an LA version of Willow with some of her more annoying eccentricities carefully exaggerated. I hope I am wrong about that. In the two brief scenes with her, however, we were able to see another example of the theme of “moving on” manifesting itself as she took her first tentative steps from out of her cave…eh room. But
this episode did see a welcome return of the Cordelia last glimpsed in “To
Shanshu in LA” and “Judgment”. The
big smile and warm hug with which she greeted Angel was I thought a very
expressive moment. Cordelia more
than anyone else knows Angel and can reach him.
In “Parting Gifts” her
practicality helped her understand what her boss was so reluctant to admit and
allowed her to offer support for Angel who was much less well equipped to cope
with the loss of Doyle. And she was
not in the least put off by his
reluctance to open up to her. It was this that
ultimately laid the foundation for their friendship.
We see here a similar understanding of Angel and a similar persistence
and determination to help: Cordelia:
“And how are you?” Angel:
“I'm o… Cordelia:
“Don't tell me "okay", Angel, please, I know you and ever since you
came back from your grief-trip I can tell something's not right.” She understood what needed to be said and wasn’t shy about saying it. Moreover in her willingness to risk herself when Angel was getting the worst of the confrontation with James we see her physical as well as moral courage. In a straightforward, unselfconscious concern for a friend with her innate practicality and fearlessness we see the best of Cordelia. And the way these two strange and very difficult individuals rely on one another is in many ways quite endearing. There were hints in this episode that the relationship between them might turn to more than friendship. I hope not. I will readily admit that romance for the sake of it on a series like BtVS or ANGEL is for me a turn-off. I do, however, have to admit that the possibility of such a romance has its advantages. Firstly, if it is the writers' intention to show us that Angel really has moved on from Buffy, then what better way to do it than to have him move gradually towards another romance. Moreover, as we have seen from season 2, there is a clear link between oin the one hand Angel's mission and on the other his ability to forge a connection with others. It is only by doing the latter that he can really free himself from the legacy that over a hundred years of turning in on himself has done to him. That (together with his vampire legacy) was what made him self-indulgent and obsessive. The writers are clearly saying that, for Angel. forging this connection with others and putting their needs and wants first rather than his own selfish agenda is the best way to free himself from the malign influences of the past. And of course what stronger connection could Angel have with someone than a romantic entanglement. On the other hand it is the subversive possibilities of such a romance that makes me nervous about it. Angel's mission is to help those who need it, not those he personally cares about. Forging a personal connection must therefore be the means by which Angel learns how to identify and help others. But to the extent that he begins to care about one individual more than others there is a risk that his actions will be driven by those personal considerations rather than by the idea of helping people just because they need help. Such actions would be driven by self-indulgence in a way that would not be too dissimilar to his reaction to Darla in season 2. Ironically therefore any romantic connection with Cordelia might only serve to undermine the very idea that connecting with her and his other friends made Angel better able to save people's souls. Plot
It has to be said that the plot isn’t the strongest part of “Hearthrob”. First of all revenge thrillers are a dime a dozen. And they are perhaps the most predictable of storylines. Ultimately James had to fail. The only way to make such a story interesting is to throw in a few twists but here the plot was just too thin. The essence of it can probably be resolved into a handful of scenes: Angel kills Elizabeth, James finds out and visits the doctor and then the final confrontation. Add a little exposition and I don’t think I have missed out anything important there. Hence the fact that the plot had such a padded feel to it. The teaser is a good example. It was long and it was pointless. The dialogue was flat and uninteresting. If you are going to discuss why people worship demons you might at least have something interesting to say on the subject:
This dialogue is pointless and flat. Nor do we find very much in the teaser that provides us with much exposition and what little there was about Fred was clunky. At least the succeeding fight between Angela and the demon monks was entertaining. But even when Angel gets back to LA things don’t really start moving with much urgency. The flashbacks are overused and are somewhat repetitive. Too many of the scenes are either simply unecessary (such as where James kills the two vampire lackeys, the Host singing and the “old codger demon” at Caritas) or are simply longer than they need be and contain exposition that isn't needed for the purposes of theme or plot at hand (such as the scene between Angel and Fred). Another problem with the plot was some failry blatant contrivances. First of all way in which a Vampire can be made invincible is just a little too convenient for my tastes. And yet it has never been hinted at before? This smells of plot contrivance, although admittedly this “gift” comes with a built in price that means it is unlikely to be overused. And that does perhaps begin to explain why we have not heard of it before and why Angel did not think to use it, for example, when he went after the Senior Partners. After all you have to ask what is the point of a technique intended to make someone invincible if it will only last for six hours. As James found out what can you do in six hours? And secondly, I have to admit that I am beginning to find the apparent nonchalance of Los Angelinos to apparent life or death struggles by very strange creatures in all sorts of public places stretching my credibility a bit too far. I totally understand that Los Angeles is not really of this world but even so. But even a comparatively undemanding, and on the surface routine, plot like this can be entertaining and this one undoubtedly had its pleasures and strengths. First of all there was the way in which an apparently standard vision quest suddenly took the episode in an entirely new and unexpected direction because of Elizabeth’s death and its consequences. And even though we were immediately forewarned that James would seek revenge, quite how he was to get it was less than obvious. If the flashbacks to Marseilles 1767 did nothing else they should have convinced us that not only was James no physical match for Angel, he was clearly not the sharpest tool in the box either. Indeed one problem with the plot is that it is a little hard to understand why Angel took the threat so seriously, especially with the potential for Wesley and Gunn to help. So the visit James made to the demon doctor was all the more intriguing. What did he mean by cure? What was the reference to this price that he was prepared to pay? The answers to these questions are only revealed when James’ immunity to stakes and sunlight is revealed – by demonstration. And I thought that was a great twist. The shock and surprise for Cordelia and Angel entirely matched our own. And this was of course the prelude to a lengthy Terminator-style escape from a relentless and seemingly indestructible enemy through an ever changing backdrop of underground LA. It was very atmospheric, very tense and we were always wondering what was going to happen next, when would James appear and how would he be stopped. The one drawback came when Wesley revealed in advance that James’s invincibility was time limited. Admittedly the writers tried to hide the actual time limit. But I don’t think that worked very well because it was easy to guess that James would cross the threshold just before he killed Angel and Cordelia. Also on the credit side is what promises to be the creation of some very interesting set up concerning Cordelia and her visions. Here she really seems to be suffering: “These
visions . . . are killing me...it's getting worse every time.” This is a very nice piece of
continuity from episodes like “Dead End” in season 2 where Cordelia’s
physical pain was emphasized. I had
feared that this was simply intended to highlight her “nobility” in deciding
to keep the visions in “No Place Like Plrtz Glrb” and that the whole issue
might now be forgotten. But I am
glad to see that it hasn’t been and this does suggest that the writers have
some specific purpose in mind in showing us the pain that Cordelia is going
through. And
I am always in favor of careful set-up for any new storyline. But of course the moment
in this episode that made the most lasting impression was the closing shot of
Darla: “Life's
full of surprises.” You can say that again.
It is moments like this that justify remaining spoiler free.
ANGEL as a series has made a speciality out of delivering surprises.
But nothing, not Drusilla vamping Darla at the end of “The Trial” not
even Angel’s abandonment of the lawyers in the Wine Cellar in “Reunion”
matches this. The strength of this
as a surprise is that Darla’s pregnancy ought
to be a physical impossibility. That
may still be it’s Achilles heel in that if the explanation for the pregnancy
falls flat any story built on it will be in trouble.
But even that will not be able to detract from the stunning possibilities
opened up here. Make no mistake
about it. The “Previously on
Angel” scene of Darla and Angel in bed together make it pretty plain that this
is their child. And what Angel
makes of that is anyone’s guess. Overview
(B+)
Thematically for me this episode works. It is a bridge between seasons 2 and 3. It shows how the lessons of “Reunion” and “Redefinition” have been learned and the good intentions of “Epiphany” put into practice. This validates the season 2 arc as a genuine turning point and launches Angel in a new direction. And in forging that direction Angel as a personality is being reshaped before our eyes. This isn’t the goofy Angel of “Dead End”. He is as serious and as haunted a character as ever. But his response to his past is different. He learns, he changes and he copes. We don’t have a radically different character unrecognizable to the audience. But at the same time he has moved on and in doing so has become stronger and better able to deal with the demands placed on him. Buffy’s death was in many ways the ultimate test of this and the fact that he survived that test is the clearest possible proof of how far he has come. In terms of storyline the episode was less successful. The plot was too thin, took too long to get going and too much was padding. On the other hand, as I have tried to suggest, the central story of James’ pursuit of Angel did have enough strengths to sustain interest and I don’t think anyone could complain too much about an episode with that ending.
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