|
|
|
|
EPISODE 5.10 Soul Purpose Written by: Brent Fletcher Directed by: David Boreanaz
Whose Destiny is it Anyway? “Soul Purpose” begins with a reprise of Angel’s impassioned speech to Spike late in “Destiny”. As the latter was about to drink from the Cup of Perpetual Torment the former makes one final attempt to stop him: “Spike... Spike, wait. That's not a prize you're holding. It's not a trophy. It's a burden. It's a cr..” But in this version he never gets to say the word “cross”. Instead he is interrupted by Spike:
As Spike drains the cup and is bathed in a warm light Angel watches with a pained expression before he then cries out in agony as he is burned to nothing. It’s all a dream of course, or rather a nightmare. But the changes made for this episode to this scene from “Destiny” were clearly there for a purpose. When you compare it to the original two things strike you. First of all we are faced with Spike’s judgment on Angel’s whole life as a vampire champion. It was a lie because, all the time he thought that saving others was his own redemption and now he was never going to achieve it. And secondly we see the idea that, without his destiny, Angel is nothing. Of course these were only Angel’s fears speaking and not reality. It was never therefore intended to be a firm prediction of the future. But at first sight this scene, coming as it does at the very start of the episode, does seems to pose the question: who is the real vampire champion? Is it Spike or is it Angel? However, the more we examine “Soul Purpose” the more it becomes clear that it is not about Spike supplanting Angel. Indeed it demonstrates pretty conclusively that he can’t. Rather it’s about the way Angel has changed and the ways those changes in himself have led to his present helpless state. This is a state very neatly symbolized by the fact that he is saved at the end by Spike who sums up his humiliation with the words: "Just helping the helpless." And the way that “Soul Purpose” explodes the idea that Spike can supplant Angel has all the simplicity of genius. What better way to see if one character can fill another’s boots than to put him in them. And so we have an extended homage to “City of…”. A mysterious character calling himself Doyle meets someone whom he describes as “feeling kinda lost.” Only “Doyle” (or as we know him Lindsey) isn’t acting on his own initiative, at least that’s his story. He tells Spike “I'm just doing what they tell me." We gather that the mysterious “they” are TPTB, because at this point “Doyle” uses the universal gesture of pointing upwards when referring to a higher power. He then describes himself in the following terms:
These visions are
Guided by this vision Spike saves a girl in a dark alley and later on two more people, this time using the very same hidden-stakes-in-wrist devices that we saw Angel use in the Series premier. Afterwards “Doyle” leads Spike back to a basement apartment, describing it in these terms: “Building's quiet. Windows don't get direct sunlight. You've got a sewer entrance for your daytime travel.” The references to the first meeting between Doyle and Angel are too close to be co-incidental. But to drive the point home, “Doyle” deliberately and favorably compares Spike to Angel, for example when he says that: “From what I hear Angel didn't save the girl on his first mission.” This prompts the following exchange:
Finally even Spike himself seems to swallowed what “Doyle” was telling him because when faced with a direct question about his identity he says: “I’m the Hero” But while on the surface the impression is being given that Spike is supplanting Angel, the underlying message is very different. This is because, while there similarities in the scenes between “Doyle” and Spike in “Soul Purpose” and between Angel and Doyle in “City Of”, the differences are much more fundamental. The key message that the real Doyle brought to Angel was this:
And yet Spike treats those he saves with indifference or even contempt.
His idea of getting into people’s lives is asking the women he saved if they would: “like to get a bottle of hootch and listen to some Sex Pistols records with him.” So, where does Spike figure in Angel’s crisis? Well, the clue comes in the fact that the real thrust of the story is to be found in Angel’s struggle with the parasite and the hallucinations it inflicts on him. These hallucinations are all about Angel and what he feels he has lost. Spike only features in two of them. In both cases he appears to have taken something away from Angel. But again first impressions can be deceptive. In the first scene Angel interrupts Spike apparently having sex with Buffy who says something about going with him to the Prom. This is a reference to the season 3 BTVS episode when Angel broke up with Buffy. But this was long before Spike came on the scene. So, he didn’t replace Angel. Rather the Buffy-Angel relationship ended because of Angel’s actions and it was Angel who ended it. The parallel here is a nice one. Whatever Angel has lost isn't because Spike has taken it away. He lost it because of the choices he himself made. This becomes even more significant when we consider Spike’s triumph in ending the Apocalypse in a later hallucination. The whole scene is a fantasy. Fred congratulates the victor:
She and the others gesture towards a window and we see a fairy-tale castle and a blue fairy floats into the rooms before spreading magic dust over Spike turning him human. And even the process of becoming human has a fantastical quality to it because of the way that Spike is referred to as becoming a “real boy”, thus picking up Pinocchio’s oft stated wish. In this we do not – indeed we cannot – get any idea of how Spike really sees himself or his destiny. The fantasy element is simply too strong for that. But we can gather its meaning when we realize that we see this whole scene from Angel’s point of view and its meaning lies in his reactions to what he sees. So, when he beholds LA burning he stands about ineffectively saying: “I have to do something. I have to get out there!” But he does nothing. And when Spike succeeds where he didn’t even try we see Angel's hand feeling for the non-existent beat of his own heart just as everyone else is listening to Spike’s. Angel allows evil to run uncontrolled outside the windows of his office while he and Wesley, Gunn, Fred and the others are reduced to by-standers. The destiny he longs for belongs to someone because that other person recognizes evil exists and goes out and does something about it. The implication is that it wasn't Angel because of Angel's own inability to do the same. And the clue here came in the last shot in which Angel, now transformed into a letter day version of Numero Cinco, sadly turns his back on the destiny that might have been his and pushes the mail truck along the corridor for the next delivery, nothing more than a servant of Wolfram and Hart.
A Leopard and Its Spots Perhaps the most important thing that Spike said in the entire episode was his verdict on Wolfram and Hart:
And we find the truth of this statement in the fact that Wesley and Gunn went to Spike to invite him to join Wolfram and Hart behind Angel’s back. We find the truth of this statement in the fact that Wesley contravened Angel’s explicit instructions about informing him about any business with the Senior Partners and anything with Runes on it. We find the truth of this statement in the fact that Wesley and Fred are now apparently doing the Senior Partner’s work for them in discovering information about the runes. Indeed at the end of this episode Angel, for the second time in this season, threatens someone with the vengeance of the Senior Partners if they attack him. But above all we find the truth of this statement in the indecision that grips Angel, Gunn and Wesley over what to do with Lucien Drake:
When Wesley talks of being in a gray area here Angel explodes: “Can we just get through one damn day without saying that?” Later, in a moment of clarity he grasps what should be done.
But while Gunn and Wesley disagree about what should be done about the cult, it turns out that neither wants that. Instead they see Wolfram and Hart’s role in the following terms:
It’s no wonder that when Fred says: “We didn't sell out. We're changing the system from the inside.” Gunn admits this sounds naïve. That is because it is naïve.
Sweet Dreams are Made of This And this is where the parasite is a perfect metaphor for the Evil Law Firm.
And the consequences would have been catastrophic:
Wolfram and Hart’s invitation to Angel and the others is an hallucination, deluding them that they are doing good when what is happening is moral paralysis, a paralysis we can plainly see in the indecision over what to do about Lucien Drake. What should be simple becomes complicated for no reason other than they are thinking about the Wolfram and Hart agenda. And there is little doubt but that this course of action will ultimately lead to a permanent vegetative state, though a moral not a physical one. The Wolfram and Hart illusions are attacking Angel’s moral sense so that ultimately he could no longer tell what the right course of action would be. Of course the permanent vegetative state that Lindsey and Eve had in mind for Angel was rather different. It was physical. In the end stage of the parasite’s toxin’s effect Angel sees himself sitting outside in a sunny, grassy meadow in a comfortable leather chair. Wesley tells him: “You can stay as long as you like. Stay forever.” When Angel says that: “But I'm not supposed to be here.” The others try to convince him otherwise: Lorne: “No fighting, Angel heart. Time to let freedom ring. Let yourself go.” Angel: “But I'm not finished.” Wesley: “You are if you want to be." Fred: “It'll be fine. Great, actually. All you have to do is stop caring. Just..." That this is the message that the parasite is communicating is made clear by the fact that Fred, Lorne, Wesley and Gunn all let out a scream in imitation of the one let out by the parasite itself when Spike rips it off Angel. I think we can now see for the first time the purpose that Eve and Lindsey are pursuing and it does have something to do with the Shanshu prophecy. As Eve says:
This implies that the Senior Partners see Angel as the unnamed Vampire Champion who will play a pivotal part in the coming apocalypse, just perhaps on their side. And to win him over to their side they intend to confuse and delude him to the extent that his sense of right and wrong is destroyed. Eve and Lindsey, for as yet unspecified reasons, want to replace him with Spike. Perhaps this is personal revenge on Lindsey’s part, although that doesn’t explain why Eve should want to risk so much to help him. And why would Lindsey send Spike to save Angel from the parasite, seemingly just in the nick of time? But anyway, it would appear that it is Eve and Lindsey who have been working to undermine Angel’s self-confidence by, for example, staging the race for the cup of Perpetual Torment and hoping that Spike would win it. The attack of the parasite is planned to be the second and perhaps decisive final round of this campaign. But the interesting thing about this is that, like the Senior Partners’ strategy, Lindsey’s plan is to confuse Angel, undermine his ability to tell right from wrong and therefore destroy his desire to do the right thing. That is why the end stage of the parasite attack is to convince him to stop caring. And it is easy to see that this too is the direction in which the Senior Partners are pushing Angel. When he has his one moment of clarity about what to do with Lucien Drake, all he gets is an argument from Gunn and Wesley and he gives in because he is tired. Eventually the Senior Partners are counting on wearing him down. And this too we see reflected in the parasite attack. The first parasite was referred to as Junior. It was a small one and was eventually discovered and destroyed before being replaced by its bigger brother (or sister?) And when the small one is replaced by a bigger one such resistance as Angel was able to muster was beaten down. It seems to me therefore that, by establishing these parallels between the attack by the parasites on the one hand and the Wolfram and Hart strategy on the other, the writers are allowing us to see, in the fever dreams Angel experiences, the fears and anxieties that Wolfram and Hart are exploiting to undermine his belief in himself. First and foremost is the way in which his sense of being worth something was entirely bound up with his sense of a destiny. When DreamWesley apparently follows him back to his apartment he refers to Spike's arrival on the scene as being “fortuitous”. That comment would make no sense if Angel’s loss of his destiny was caused by Spike taking it away. No, Spike’s arrival could only be fortuitous if it was a lucky accident after Angel had already become irrelevant. So again the focus is on what Angel himself has lost, not what someone else took away from him. And it is because of this “new situation” DreamWesley stakes Angel thus again emphasizing that without his destiny Angel does feel he is nothing. And this is the theme further developed when DreamFred visits. At first she removes all his internal organs saying: “You're a vampire. You don't need this stuff anyway.” In particular she produces his dried up little walnut of a heart, thus referring back to the debate over Angel’s heart in “Numero Cinco”. This emphasizes his difference to ordinary humans. Then she produces a license plate from his chest commenting: “Came up the gulf stream, huh?” This transparent reference to JAWS can have only one meaning. The license plate in that movie was removed from a soulless killer. So here too we are reminded of the fact that Angel was himself a soulless killer. In contrast to the powerful shark, however, his soul is a tiny goldfish – and a dead one too. Interestingly the fish metaphor is complete when Fred at the end wonders whether she can hear the ocean. In any event the meaning is plain, in fact a little too obvious for my liking. When weighed against the deeds of Angelus, Angel’s soul is a pathetic little thing which counts for nothing. He himself is empty, a void. It is therefore only his destiny that gives his life any meaning at all. And finally we have Angel’s encounter with DreamLorne who, in real life, uses the songs others sing to help them chart their path. Angel, of course, doesn’t sing so his willingness to do so here is itself a sign of his desperation. But even so he cannot produce a note and DreamFred chimes in “I told you he was empty.” In my review of “Destiny” I suggested that Angel lamented losing his fight with Spike because he realized that it meant his heart was not in the good fight. As he had pointed out to Numero Cinco, when the fight against evil has no personal meaning, you have to continue with it because it was the right thing to do. For Angel getting the cup from Spike was not something he really wanted because he saw his destiny is terms of continued suffering. But it was the right thing to do. The point was that he couldn't do it because he didn't want it enough. That also implies that his whole approach of doing the right thing because it is the right thing is doomed to a similar failure. For Angel there is now nothing left at all. As we have seen the events of season 4 had completely destroyed any sense he had a hope for the future. Now he is confronted first with his sense of failure to change Wolfram and Hart from within (hence his ineffective outburst over Lucien Drake). And worse still, he sees the hollowness of the lies he told himself and Numero Cinco. He maintains that, in spite of the lack of any personal meaning for him, it is still worthwhile to keep on fighting. But his loss to Spike shows him that ultimately it is not enough. There must be a reason to fight that means something to him (interestingly enough also the theme of "Unleashed"). And this is where the concept of destiny comes into it. The destiny referred to here is not, I think, necessarily the Shanshu prophecy. As I have already pointed out the only reference to that in “Soul Purpose” is in a scene with such a strong fantasy element that it cannot be intended to be taken literally. Rather, the destiny that Angel lacks is his sense of a meaning in the struggle with evil. It is being without that meaning that makes Angel nothing. And ultimately it is being without that meaning that makes him prey to Wolfram and Hart. So, his indecision before the DreamApocalypse mirrors his indecision in dealing with Lucien Drake. But there is another element here. Angel’s indecision in the face of the Apocalypse is reinforced by his friends who tell him
As we have already seen, DreamFred and DreamLorne reveal his emptiness. DreamWesley stakes him and DreamGunn snarls at him, revealing the eyes of the big cat that is the earthly form of the Wolfram and Hart conduit to the Senior Partners. Finally it is his friends who try to persuade him to stop caring and lie back and accept his own helplessness. His own friends are betraying him. But as we have seen this is not completely illusory. Fred and Wesley are working with Wolfram and Hart behind Angel’s back. Gunn and Wesley invite Spike to join them without Angel’s knowledge. And it is Wesley and Gunn in their enthusiasm for the Wolfram and Hart agenda that talk him out of doing the right thing over Lucien Drake. Just as with his own sense of emptiness, in the effect of the parasite's toxins we see reflected Angel's own genuine fears, the very concerns that are undermining and weakening him. In "Unleashed" we saw the idea that, no-one is an island and that, in order to fulfill your own potential or even in order just to survive in a hostile world, you need to connect to others. Nina found her salvation by finding in her family a reason to fight the werewolf within. In parallel, Angel had started out the episode disconnected from his friends. He closed the episode seeming to have re-established that connection. But here we see further evidence of the disconnection between Angel and his friends. Instead of rallying around Angel and trying to help him, Fred Gunn and Wesley spent a lot of time time mirroring the actions of their dream counterparts by trying to undermine him. Perhaps this is a sign that, until Angel fully restores that connection he has no real hope of re-finding his sense of mission. I have to confess that I am becoming more and more interested in the direction the season seems to be taking. The question posed at the start of the season was how would Wolfram and hart try to corrupt Angel and the others. Well, now I think we are getting a clear sense of the answer. And the answer is by calling into question what Angel's real purpose is and what the fight against evil really means to him. And the strength of this approach is that it has allowed us to examine this question both psychologically and morally. We can see how Angel’s own psychological needs and weaknesses drive his actions, and sometime lack of action. There has always been a dichotomy in Angel's character. We have seen him as "lurker guy", someone who tried to keep himself apart from the world, someone who clearly didn't trust himself and whose insecurities meant that he was all too easily influenced by others, by Whistler, by Buffy even by the First Evil. But we have also seen him a a Vampire with a Mission, someone who has all the answers and who will disregard anyone else in pursuit of what he thinks is right. We saw this in "Sanctuary", we saw it in his ill advised and ill fated attempts to help Darla up to and including "The Trials". But this apparent contradiction is resolved when you realize that, while he has no faith in what he is, he can and does believe in what he does. He believes in this Mission because it has overtones of an almost divinely-willed destiny, implied initially by Doyle and promised by the Shanshu prophecy. It is when he loses faith in this that he is lost. Then he only has memories of what a poor excuse for a man Liam was, of how uncertain was his reaction when he regained his soul and of the disaster that his weakness in the face of Buffy's immature certainties caused in "Surprise". That was why the loss of his sense of destiny in "Reunion" precipitated such a catastrophic collapse in his moral sense. That sense of mission was integral to his understanding of what helping people was all about. Without it there was nothing left but brutal war, waged by whatever means was available. And that is what we see here too. Angel's sense of destiny had become bound up in his connection to life. A collapse in that sense of destiny (caused partly by the destruction of the things connecting him and partly by the discovery that his communication with TPTB may have been a fraud) meant first of all he felt justified in being selfish and making a deal with Wolfram and Hart for the sake of Connor. But more importantly, because he no longer had a sense of mission he no longer had a frame of reference to judge what was the right thing to do. The classic example was when he could not take the Cup of Perpetual Torment from Spike. Even though he believed that it was what he ought to do, he couldn't because he only saw a cross in it. If Angel had from the bottom of his heart understood that this was what he had and why he had to do it , he would have taken it. It is because he is without that fundamental sense of what the purpose of the struggle is that he failed in his challenge to Spike and now suffers such an agony of self-doubt. It is this that we see explored here and the message is that the answers to Angel's internal struggles and his own search for meaning in life cannot be provided by TPTB or even his friends giving him a reason to fight against evil. For Angel the answers must come from within. So, while what we are seeing here seems to me to be entirely consistent with what we have seen of Angel to date, it does take the whole issue one stage further. In "Lineage" Roger accuses Angel of being a puppet. There is more truth in this charge than he would care to admit. He always seems to be following an agenda set by others - TPTB, Buffy, Wolfram and Hart whoever. Here we find clearly articulated the need for Angel to set his own agenda and not rely on a frame of reference provided by others. So yet again the writers have given the basic formula a twist. They have my interest.
|
