EPISODE 5.02

Just Rewards

Written by: David Fury & Ben Edlund

Directed by: James A. Contner

Soulmates: Angel and Spike

The introduction of Spike to ANGEL was a matter of considerable controversy.  There were those who saw it as a cheap ratings stunt delivered at the expense of dropping Cordelia from the show.  There were also those who worried that the intrusion of another vampire with a soul might distract from the focus on Angel himself.  And then there were those who thought that the development of Spike as a character had been the bought at the expense of distorting some of the basic concepts of the Whedonverse, in particular its distinction between the souled an unsouled.  In fact a lot of people thought all three things.

But there were others who did find Spike an attractive character (in different ways).  They thought he was interesting enough to deserve to tell his own story.  And often they complained that others were too inflexible and unimaginative in their understanding of the Whedonverse’s approach to souls.

No doubt this is a debate that will be played out in the course of the season.  But the truth is that, from a thematic point of view, the introduction of Spike has one great strength.  There are many points of comparison between him and Angel.  They are both vampires with a long history of great brutality.  Both eventually came by a soul.  The mere possession of that soul did not, though, immediately turn them into crusaders against evil (or as “champions” the latest Angelspeak would have it).  In fact the mere possession of a soul didn’t even turn them into decent people.  Rather it led them on a journey of self-discovery and in the course of that journey a certain blonde slayer had a major influence.  These similarities, however, simply served to highlight the differences between them.  Angel had his soul thrust upon him as punishment.  This soul (as was intended) led him not only to fully understand the evil nature of what he did, but also the difference between that evil and good.  It was only because of that, that he later moved on (thanks mainly to Buffy’s example) to the idea of redemption – paying for the evil through doing good.  This clear difference between good and evil is best observed in the duality of his own nature.  Both demon and human exist within Angel, continually at war with one another, each pulling him in different directions.  Spike, on the other hand, sought his soul out as a way of seeking an answer to his personal woes.  Even without it he had begun to do good things for purely selfish reasons.  And possession of a soul did not change the basic dynamic within him.  Good and evil, right and wrong were never matters that drove him; rather it was always a matter of what suited Spike at the moment.  It is little wonder that we never see in ensouled Spike the same duality of nature we saw in Angel.

There is, therefore, much scope here for a comparison between Angel and Spike, a comparison that will I think help to illustrate not only the differences in character between them but perhaps even more interestingly thematic issues, especially in the present context.  If a major theme of this season is to be the way in which decisions can have both good and evil consequences and the difficulty that this poses in choosing between different courses of action, then the different perspectives Spike and Angel have can be very illuminating.  It is hardly unexpected therefore that the first episode in Season 5 in which Spike plays a major part features very strong comparisons between his position and that of the eponymous hero of the piece.  What is surprising, though, is that this comparison is not intended to illustrate anything about the nature of evil; rather it is all about the idea of control.

Whose in Charge?

When Fred introduces herself as head of Wolfram and Hart’s Science Department she provokes the following exchange:

Spike: “Wolfram & Hart. Heard of that. Thought it was a law firm.”

Fred: “It is, among other things."

Spike: “Also heard they represent the worst evil in the universe.”

Angel: “It did, among other things, but now I'm in charge.”

Spike: “Are you now?”

Spike’s question in purely rhetorical, intended to cast doubt on Angel’s confident assertion.  And the truth of his doubts is soon borne out.  As part of his drive to lead Wolfram and Hart away from its former path of evil, Angel tries to prune some of its less savory activities.  He tells one unfortunate associate to pass some bad news to a client:

“You tell Mister Hainsley that Wolfram & Hart is under new management and out of the grave-robbing business. Now, run along and go argue your case.”

Now, Angel does have power in the sense that, as Spike so delicately put it, he can “delegate the dirty work to spineless, low-level flunkies.”  But his attempt to neutralize Hainsley actually shows the limits of that power.  Or rather, it shows where the real power lies.  When Angel decides to confront the necromancer personally, Wesley points out

“Your style's not gonna cut it with a necromancer. We should probably avoid an eye-for-an-eye escalation here.”

He’s right.  Hainsley himself warns Angel:

"Vampire should think twice before messing with a man who wields power over all things lifeless."

So, whereas Angel can quite handily defeat the knife wielding Butler, he is helpless against Hainsley himself who can manipulate him at will.  Indeed, in order to prevent Hainsley from killing him Angel has to rely on the support of the Senior Partners:

“What I want is to turn you inside out, like a shirt. I could dust you right now, boy. Wouldn't even need a stake.  But that would be too big an insult for the senior partners to overlook. Seems that they've got plans for you.”

Not only that but when Angel does strike back, it is through the mechanisms available to him courtesy of the same Senior Partners. 

“I just froze all your bank accounts, terminated your paper assets, and turned your books over to a very motivated contact we have at the I.R.S. 5 minutes from now, you'll have nothing but this house. 10 minutes from now, that'll go into foreclosure.”

They were the ones who gave Gunn the knowledge needed for the idea in the first place and it was their law firm that implemented the plan.  This was what they allowed Angel to do, just as they allowed him to negotiate with Grox'lars to stop them eating babies, to close down the Interment Acquisitions Division and to sack members of staff.  What sort of control is that?  It’s no wonder Spike warned him:

Spike: “I'm not the prat here. I know you, Angel. What do you think you're doing? Made some devil's bargain to take over this company. Thought you'd use it to fight the evil of the world from inside the belly of the beast. Trouble is you're too busy fighting to see you and yours are getting digested.

Angel: “Not gonna happen.”

Spike: “Oh, you think you're in control here? Guess again, mate. You're no more in control than I am.”

Spike himself knows what not being in control is like.  Fred’s first guess at the reason for his presence:

“Maybe he's here for a reason. You know, some higher purpose or something he's destined for. Sent to us by the powers that be to help us or…”

simply provokes the angry question:

“Who gave them the bloody right to do that? Can't a man die in peace without some high almighty deciding it's not his time. Let's have a little more fun with him, eh? You think that saving the sodding world would be enough to earn me a rest. You'd think….”

And even his presence in the world is full of limitations.  He can’t hit anything.  He can’t even leave LA:

“Every time I got as far as the city limits I kept popping back here like my insides are getting yanked.”

He doesn’t even have control of his presence on the earthly plane, constantly fading in and out.  As Wesley later puts it, Spike position is unenviable:

“trapped between realms, with no control over his fate, not able to touch anything, affect anything. Unable to fight.”

The amulet is Wolfram and Hart’s and Spike is tied to the amulet.  It is almost as if he is someone else’s property.  At first sight, his and Angel’s positions are very different and you can certainly see why he is jealous:

“Sitting in luxury's ample lap. Top of the world. Looking down on... well, everyone. It's good to be king, isn't it?”

But this feeling of power is an illusion and, as we have seen,  in reality control is just as big an issue for both of them, an issue very neatly symbolized by the power over both of them that Hainsley has.  He was complete master of their movement – raising or pinning Angel at will and able to prevent Spike from leaving his presence.  And just as physically both vampires were puppets to Hainsley, in terms of their control over their own destinies they were also puppets in the hands of others:

Spike: “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?!”

In these two defining moments of their unlives, Spike and Angel were merely acting out agendas others had set for them.  What happened to them was, therefore, not of their choosing but of others.  And this is where the unfairness lies.  If they had themselves chosen their paths neither could have complained about what happened to them, they would have got their “just desserts”.  But without the element of control, there is no fairness and justice in their fates.  It is no wonder, Hainsley says:

“Control. That's all anyone really wants, isn't it?”

Which brings us very nicely to the turning point of this episode thematically.  Wesley knows how to destroy the amulet and as Spike is tied to it, this would result in Spike’s destruction as well.  He and the others do seem genuinely motivated in part by a concern for Spike and what is best for him.  Angel too does not react out of petty jealousy or rivalry but takes his responsibility very seriously.  But in all of this Spike is symbolically a bystander, seemingly powerless to prevent whatever decision is to be taken.  Again the theme of lack of control is obvious.  Of course, there is one way in which he can prevent his destruction.  That would be to co-operate with Hainsley in his trap.  Not only would that change him from a ghost back into a real live vampire but would give him everything that Angel had.

Spike is presented with what at first seems a choice.  But it's not really.  As he said himself:

“What choice did I have? Bloody exorcism? Letting you and yours banish me to oblivion? No, thanks. Necro here's gonna give me my body back... after I take yours for a test drive, fix his little problems. And here's the kicker: I go in, and you go... pfft! Off to never-never-come-back land. And then... yours very truly will be running the show. Your cars, your fancy digs, everything—everyone—I deserve...will be mine.”

But then just because he has a choice between co-operating with Hainsley or not, doesn’t mean he would be in control.  He would in fact still be acting out Hainsley’s agenda when Spike as Angel was going to:

“show up to work bright-eyed and bushy-tailed tomorrow morning, when you'll reverse the seizure of my personal assets and reinstate the Internment Acquisitions Department.”

So, in the scheme of things as conceived by Hainsley, Spike ends up as dead or a puppet.  Not much of a choice either way, is it?   But what Spike and Angel between them did was to seize control of the situation.  By being honest with Angel and by working with him, Spike is instrumental in defeating Hainsley.  And in doing so he wins Angel’s trust.  This obviously makes it inconceivable for Angel to destroy Spike.  It would be going too far to say that Spike thereby took back control of his own fate.  After all, the very last scene reveals in what a parlous state that was.  But he did ensure that we wasn’t going to end up dead or spending the rest of his existence dancing to Hainsley’s tune and his actions were the deciding factor in Angel’s decision not to destroy the amulet.  To that extent he reasserted control over his life and earned the benefits that his actions gained.  In other words he did get his just desserts.

Getting our Just Desserts

The technique of point and counterpoint, a structural analysis through comparison, has always been a favorite of mine.  It seems to me to cast a clear light on a theme or issue without the danger of anvilling.  I am therefore well disposed to this episode because of its employment of that technique.  We can readily understand the point the writers are trying to make without them hitting us over the head with it too obviously.

And the idea itself has its attractions.  “Just Desserts” is on the face of it a nice companion piece to “Conviction”.  There we saw Angel and the others begin to convince themselves that they really were in control of the situation at Wolfram and Hart when the objective evidence pointed clearly in the opposite direction.  Here we are reminded that there is nothing inevitable about the Senior Partners’ plan succeeding.  They may create situations where the former members of Angel Investigations are faced with choices of the Senior Partners’ making, situations where the decisions actually made seem forced and all  lead inexorably down the path mapped out by the self-same Senior Partners.  But there are always alternatives, choices which lead down different paths.  And this is a useful reminder of that fact.

There was another interesting aspect to the theme.  Now and again we are reminded of the hand of fate and the way that it touched not only Spike, but Angel too.  The way in which the latter’s life in particular has played out has always raised questions about the extent to which life is ultimately outside our control with potentially devastating consequences.  At first the Whedonverse seemed to take an almost deterministic view of Angel’s path.  Increasingly, however, it now seems wedded to the idea that fate is ultimately in our own hands and that redemption is just a matter of making the right choices.  This is an approach that I find more attractive in human terms because it leaves room for hope. This was in fact more than amply demonstrated by the very effective way that the writers and JM conveyed Spike’s sense of frustration and anger at his helplessness in the face of those controlling him. More importantly, however, a more deterministic approach – saying that you may be damned whatever you do – renders almost pointless any attempt to live life according to concepts of right and wrong.  Again, if we look at Spike, if his fate and that of Angel were really outside their own control what would be the point of helping Angel at all?

Having said all that, however, I am bound to add that ultimately the episode lacked impact.  In terms of the basic dynamic within Wolfram and Hart, it added little.  As I have already said it did make us take a second look at the way the dynamic might pan out.  But if anything it was way too early to deal with the issue of wresting control from the Senior Partners.  At the moment the effectiveness of the set up depends on us buying into the notion that Angel and the others will be forced to make choices that leave the Senior Partners with the advantage.  Reminding us at this early stage that they may not do so does seem to undermine the development of this storyline.  And here we do see the downside of Spike as a character.  He is, for the time being anyway, an outsider and what happens to him must therefore be seen as essentially tangential to the real story – how Angel and the others cope with the Senior Partners’ plans.  Placing the focus so strongly on Spike in this episode can illuminate the significance for them of the battle to control Wolfram and Hart but (as moonlight is reflected sunlight) the importance of that theme pales in comparison with what seems to be the real point of the story – the significance of control for Spike.