EPISODE 3.03

THAT OLD GANG OF MINE

Written by: Tim Minear

Directed by: Fred Keller

Divided Loyalties

One of the major failings of season 2 of ANGEL was its lack of interest in properly integrating Charles Gunn into Angel Investigations. When we saw him in “First Impressions” Gunn was recognizably the same individual we first met in “Warzone”.  The picture we get here is of someone carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.  He has feelings of responsibility for those he thinks of as his people – those who live in his neigborhood, the poor, and the vulnerable.  And because of his feelings of responsibility and because these are so narrowly defined he is suspicious of outsiders, accepting help from them but only on his terms.  So far so good.  But from that point on, little  Gunn does makes sense in terms of the character we saw in “Warzone” or “First Impressions”.  And the most startling example of this is in “Redefinition” where he behaves as if, like Cordelia and Wesley, he is adrift without his own sense of purpose.  His words in the teaser had a ring of truth to them:

“Hey this was just a side gig for me alright.  The extra cash was nice but Angel wants to go all commando…no skin off my nose.”

But his subsequent actions tell a different story and the explanation for his change of heart when he later turns up at Caritas is just weak:

“Hey I got a rep to maintain alright.  I can’t have you all seeing through my brusque and macho exterior”.

Whatever happened to his responsibilities for his neighborhood?  Has he lost those ties so soon?  Even later  in “Thin Dead Line”, Gunn approaches his former friends as an outsider – one who had abandoned them and now belonged to a different world but who wanted to help “for old times sake.”

Still less was there any explanation as to why this singular and difficult individual suddenly becomes a team player in the reformed Angel Investigations.  During Angel’s descent into darkness he was a peripheral figure who hardly seemed to take an interest in what his (essentially nominal) boss was up to.  But when he suddenly abandons his leadership role with his former gang to become a member of the post-"Reunion" team Gunn quickly bonds with Wesley in particular and soon settles down under his leadership.  Indeed such was his loyalty to his new friends that despite the fact that he had himself deserted his former associates he felt able in "Epiphany" to lecture Angel on the subject of his own abandonment of Wesley and Cordelia.  And he was apparently totally unconscious of the irony.

It was only belatedly in “Belonging” and “Over the Rainbow” that we again began to get a sense of someone caught between two worlds – his old gang who were suffering and his new found friends.  When he arrives back from George’s funeral pyre he is concerned about Cordelia who had gone missing.  But he is caught in a dilemma:

“Last night... I lost one of my crew.  I shoulda been there, but... I'm sorry. Wes said the trip might be one way and... I just can't. I know that makes me... I don't know what it makes me. I just figured I owed it to you to tell you face to face. I wish you luck. I hope you find her.”

There is of course no doubt that his crew does need him.  But so too do Angel and the others.  As he later said when Angel called him:

“Sounded like the captain of the Titanic gettin' ready to go down with the ship.”

Here we can finally see Charles Gunn as someone who has divided loyalties: to his former gang and to Angel Investigations.  This raises the question: who (if anyone) has first call on those loyalties.  This is an issue that needs resolving because Angel, Wesley and Cordelia need to know whether they can rely on Gunn or whether they would take second place to a call from his former colleagues.  But “Over the Rainbow”  does not resolve this question.  Gunn  went with Angel to Pylea because that was where he perceived the most immediate need layband for no other reason.  But in "That Old Gang of Mine"  the same dilemma returns to confront him and the writers have another opportunity to address issues they really should have resolved before.

That Old Gang of Mine

The first intimation of Gunn’s problem comes when he is called to the scene of Merle’s murder.  Only he would not call it a murder.

Gunn “Hey guys, what are we doin’?”

Wesley: “Examining the crime scene.”

Gunn: “Yeah, I see that.  But what’s our interest?”

Wesley: “Someone killed Merle.”

Gunn: “No, right….I get that.  Look, I didn’t have a beef with Merle alright.  I’m even sorry he got dead.  But come on.  Is this really the kind of thing that we should be spendin’ our time on?  I mean he was what he was right.”

Angel: “What’s that supposed to mean.”

Gunn: “Nothin’.  It means what it means.  Somebody killed a demon.  Hello, we do that everyday.”

There is obviously a gulf of understanding separating Angel and Wesley on the one hand and Gunn on the other over Merle.  To the former, the important fact was that he was harmless.  To the latter, the important fact was that he was a demon.  But  this difference between Gunn and the others only assumes its true significance because of what Gunn does next.  He goes and finds his old gang.  It is obvious from the start that this is the first time he had seen them since  George’s death in “Belonging”.  Rondell’s later confirmation of the fact was unnecessary.  He was attacked by a gang member who didn’t recognize him, just one of a new influx of members who do not know him except by reputation.  But at the same time the connections between him and his old gang are real.  When Gio sticks a home-made crossbow in Gunn’s face there is immediate recognition:

Gunn “Nice rig.”

Gio: “I’m glad you like it.”

Rondell: “He should.  He built it.”

And with Rondell the personal connection remains as strong as ever.  The mutual respect and affection remains clear

Rondell: “There’s people alive today because of something you started.”

Gunn: “No man, something we started.”

Rondell: “You got that right.”

But over and above all of this there is something else; the idea that Gunn’s feelings of responsibility for the lives of his old gang haven’t disappeared.  After all why did Gunn choose now to return to his old haunts?  The answer here must lie in a combination of two things – the dreams about Alonna and the unsettling questions raised by his discussion with Angel and Wesley immediately afterwards.   Alonna had been the victim of vampires - just as vampires and other demons had also threatened Gunn’s gang.  Gunn had lived in a world of “them and us”.  He felt a special bond, a responsibility for those who belonged to him.  Everyone else, even those in the human world, were outsiders.  And that went double for demons.  So when Gunn was faced with the juxtaposition of such a vivid reminder of his responsibilities to the victims of vampires as his dream of his sister and the troubling questions posed for him by Wesley’s evident sympathy for Merle.  This sympathy and the difficulty that Gunn had in sharing it  raised questions in his own mind about whether even now Angel Investigations or that old gang more closely reflected his own core beliefs - the person Charles Gunn really was.  Both his reawakened feelings of responsibility and renewed questions of loyalty to Angel Investigations prompted him to return to his roots. But when he does so we see a vulnerability in Gunn, a feeling that he really isn't comfortable with what he did to his old gang.  And this in turn suggests that he might even now reforge his older and perhaps stronger links with his former comrades:

Gunn: “What you got to say Rondell.  You think I turn my back on you all to hook up with one of them."

Rondell: “Hell, I don’t know.  I never even seen your back in months bro’.  I  don’t know   which  way it’s   facin’.”

Gunn: “That’s no answer.”

Rondell: “Truth?  I ain’t  heard word one from you since we spread what was left of George in the river.  Some of us were even startin’ to wonder if you were still in this world”.

By showing us this, the writers were reaffirming the existence of Gunn’s divided loyalties rather than (as they did for most of season 2) conveniently forgetting about them.  That is all to the good.  There is, however, a problem with doing so.  They  then had necessarily to find a convincing explanation as to why, in the face of all established characterization, Gunn had abandoned his responsibilities in the aftermath of “First Impressions.”  The conversation with Rondell continues as follows:

Gunn: “I didn’t mean to disappear on you all.  I didn’t plan it.  I guess after George…"

Rondell:  “You were gone way before George.  It was Alonna man.  Things, they were never the same after Alonna.

Gunn:  “I couldn’t keep my own sister safe.  What could I do for the rest of you?”

In other words Gunn could no longer face up to his responsibilities and tried to escape them/  But for me this explanation doesn’t altogether work.  In "First Impressions" we see someone for whom responsibility is becoming an ever more crushing burden, leading to violent and irrational behavior and even to the suggestion of self-destructive tendencies.  It is perfectly possible to believe that someone like that would (as was also suggested in that episode) start to doubt himself.  I find it less credible that he might flee from responsibility altogether.   And even if he did, surely such an action would have left all too visible marks – of guilt and remorse.  Indeed one might ask, if Gunn truly did believe that he had failed Alonna and would fail his other friends then why would he assume other responsibilities of an equally serious kind with Angel Investigations?

But in the end these reservations are probably less important than the fact that the writers have now finally addressed the issue of Gunn’s relationship with his old gang,  Moreover they have done so in a way which is clearly intended to create a conflict within Gunn about where his loyalties really lie in order to force upon him a choice between that gang and Angel Investigations.

This bring us back to Merle. 

Let’s Not be Speciesist About This

In the exchange quoted above between Wesley and Angel on the one hand and Gunn on the other, we see the latter’s instinctive reaction to Merle’s death.  Demons may or may not be evil but they deserve no sympathy and no consideration.  There is therefore a gulf of understanding between him and the others.  On the other hand when he went to see Rondell and his old gang it is clear that they do share a common view on this matter.  Gio's challenges Gunn on a very sore point:

“I heard that you were this big time Alpha Vamp killer.  And now you’re workin’ with one.  What’s up with that?”

The fact that Angel has a soul is of no importance.  The fact that he is a vampire is.  This is not a crew that would have any qualms about killing Merle or any other demon.  And this fact initially serves to reinforce the bond between Gunn and his former gang because the same attitudes we see in them were obviously formed by the same circumstances.  They were all on the margins of society – alone and vulnerable.  For them it was too often a case of kill or be killed.

But while Rondell and his gang kept that simple faith, for Gunn things were no longer quite so absolute.  And in the dilemma he now found himself in we see the crucible of this episode.  The pull of his past told him that Gio and the others were right – the only good demon was a dead demon.  But perhaps Wesley’s words had made some impression on him:

“Charles, things are not always as simple as going out and slaying the big, bad ugly.  There are in this world shades of grey.”

Perhaps it was the fact that he could see the good a vampire with a soul could do.  Perhaps in the end he just thought of the waste in killing a creature that could do no harm.  For whatever reason he started questioning his own assumptions.  And so, shortly after taking the Rondell line with Wesley we see him reflecting Wesley’s uncertainties in discussing the death of the demon bookie with Rondell:

  Gunn: “But did it attack anybody.”

  Rondell: “No, we got away clean.”

  Gunn: “I mean before you broke in.”

  Rondell: “No man, we didn’t give it a chance to.”

Arguing both sides of a case with people who would disagree with him is the classic sign of a man caught in a dilemma he cannot resolve.  And in such circumstances, the hapless victim does the only thing he can, tries to avoid having to make a choice at all costs.  So, he doesn’t come right out and express opposition to Rondell and instead leaves him with the impression he is on his side.  Equally he doesn’t come right out and tell Wesley that it was his gang that was doing the killing.  Instead he steals an arrowhead that might incriminate them. 

But sitting on a fence is a very uncomfortable position and in the end you have to come off it.  After his talk with Rondell he knows that he has to be honest with Wesley; perhaps he even knows but cannot admit that Wesley is right and Rondell wrong.   So he goes looking for him.  But even when he finds him at Caritas he cannot bring himself to take an irreversible step by betraying his gang.  That is why he doesn’t want the Host reading him.  That is why he can’t bring himself actually to go over to Wesley.  It is only when Rondell and the gang show up that the decision is made for him.  And so poor old Charles Gunn is brought to the point where evasion and obfuscation are no longer possible as Rondell and Gio on the one side face Wesley, Fred and Cordelia on the other.  Each think they know the real Gunn.  Yet each have very different expectations of him.  He has now to disappoint one or the other. And when the Host is threatened and Gunn says he is “Ok”  the gulf between him and Rondell becomes obvious:

            “He’s not ‘Ok’.  Look at him.”

With both the Host and the other members of Angel Investigations now under direct threat, the time has come when Gunn must declare himself.  And he does:

Gunn: “You lost the mission bro’”

Rondell: “What?”

Gunn: “What you been doin’. This ain’t right.  None of this is right.  This isn’t what we’re about.”

But even now he cannot turn his back on his old gang.  Even now he used the words “what we’re about.”  Even now he tries to reach his friend to change his mind rather than side with Wesley and the others against him.  But it is all to no avail.  Instead the choice put before him is that, having settled in his own mind what is right and what is wrong, he must decide which is more important – doing the right thing of showing loyalty to his former friends.

And the really interesting thing about this aspect of the episode is the writers’ choice of issue to settle this question.  Instead of some anonymous demon (or Merle or even the Host) they picked Angel as the key to Gunn’s dilemma.  At the very start the tension between them was suggested when Angel starts riding Gunn over being late:

Angel: “Usually doesn’t take you two hours to answer a page…is all.”

Gunn: “’Scuse me but did somebody put you back in charge? ‘Cause if they did they forgot to tell me about it.”

And he is clearly uncomfortable when challenged about working for a vampire.  More interesting still he cannot bring himself to talk to Angel about Rondell and the others.  So when Angel asks him what is wrong all he will say is he needs to see “the boss”.  So there is no friendship and no personal loyalty to get in the way here at all.  Gunn had already been goaded into killing the baby eating demon by Gio taunting him that he really wanted to be a vampire like his sister.  Now there was Angel in full vamp face, a living (if not exactly breathing) reminder of the thing that had killed her.  But in the end he couldn’t kill him.  And it wasn’t because Angel had a soul.  It was because it would have been wrong:

Gunn “You think I won’t kill him because he’s my friend.  That ain’t why.  Truth is he could never be my friend.  It’s on account of what he is.  Not his fault really.  It’s the way it worked out.”

Rondell: “He ain’t your friend.  I am.  And you’re gonna choose that over me.”

Gunn: “Looks like.  It’s about the mission bro’.  He’s got it and you don’t.”

In the final analysis, Gunn had to choose what counted most.  The call of friendship and comradeship for Rondell and the other gang members was still very strong.  And friendship for and loyalty to Wesley and the other members could not in the final analysis resolve the dilemma posed for Gunn by these older and perhaps stronger ties.  In the end what did was “the mission”.  Of all the members of Angel Investigations, Angel himself was the one Gunn could not relate to on a personal level.  But he had the mission.  He was the mission.  And before that ties of friendship and loyalty had to bow their head.

There is a great deal to be positive about here.  As I have already said the writers simply had to resolve the hanging question of where Gunn’s true loyalties lay – his former gang and all they stood for or Angel Investigations.  Resolving that dilemma on the basis of who needs him most is no resolution at all.  That will change as circumstances do.  On the other hand it would not have been credible for him to choose Angel Investigations on the basis of personal loyalties.  There was too much history there – especially with Alonna  - for that.  So, turning the issue into one of right and wrong, the mission or a killing spree was, I think, an intelligent move.

Yes, it was done in a heavy handed way.  But then the point about this episode was never to address moral issues of whether killing harmless demons was right or wrong.  The fact that

all demonstrated that this episode started out from the proposition that what Gunn’s old gang was doing was unambiguously wrong.  The fact that Gunn realized this well before the end and that the most crucial decision he had to make came after he told Rondell he was wrong also demonstrates that the real issue here was not how people should treat demons generally or harmless ones specifically.  I think we could have worked this out with less anvilling but I don’t mind that so much because this was not I think intended to be some heavy piece of moralizing along the “speciesism is bad” lines.  The writers were simply establishing the moral baselines from which to illustrate their real point.

And they did pull off a neat trick in that while they were very clear that what the former Gunn gang did was wrong we never saw them as evil or themselves monsters (well except for Gio).  It was, I think, readily understandable how someone in their situation  could start on a general war against anyone seen as the enemy.  Indeed even Gunn who eventually realized the error in that line of thought shared the same impulses.  And there was a convenient scapegoat in Gio who is an Iago type figure.  His influence could further explain the gang’s excesses.

But above all I could believe in the dilemma.  I could see how Gunn might be torn and how he could react the way he did.  Indeed the fact that his ties to the old gang seemed so natural throws into sharp focus the absurdity of his behavior in “Redefinition” and later.

And finally there was the resolution of the dilemma.  This could have been a piece of phony sentimentality along the lines of “I can’t let you hurt my friends.”  To be honest that was what I was expecting.  So it is refreshing that the writers took a different approach.  It is all the more interesting that that, in doing so, they shone a very harsh and unsentimental light on the relationship between Angel and Gunn.  And I thought that this was a masterstroke.  First it was not only believable, it had actually been foreshadowed.  In “Shroud of Rahmon”, under the influence of the shroud, the rivalry between Gunn and Angel escalates until it erupts into violence:

Angel: "Try holding up your corner, Les."

Gunn:  "Who died and made you corner monitor?"

Spiny: "Are you two gonna get married or what?"

Gunn:  "Same old story.  Vampires always pushing people around.  Think the world is theirs."

Ugly:  "From what I've seen of this world they can have it."

Bob:  "Well, I visited Topkapi once." 

Gunn:  "Nothing but take, take, take - take your blood, take your sister!"

Because of what happened to his sister (and indeed because of a long history of warfare) Gunn still hates and fears vampires, even one with a soul.  He would never have taken easily to anyone trying to boss him around but above all finds it impossible to accept  a vampire trying to do so, a fact of which we have already been reminded.  And with that, suddenly the fact that, in “Epiphany” Gunn was far more hostile to the returning Angel than either Wesley or Cordelia who had more reason to be angry, becomes that much more credible.

And of course there were continual reminders throughout this episode that Angel was not just an ordinary superhero but that he retained some very vicious instincts.  His treatment of Merle in the first scene was a case in point.  True this was played for laughs but underneath the humor there was a serious point.  Angel didn’t seem at all sorry for his treatment of Merle and was more interested in making a fool out of him (and indeed the others) than apologizing.  Then there was the way he saw the hand of someone who enjoyed killing in the work of the former Gunn gang.  There was some very interesting lighting here which turned his face very cold and hard.  And of course who could fail to notice the return of the black leather pants of evil.  Not the red leather pants of moral ambiguity mind you.  But the actual black leather pants of evil as patented by Angelus.  And because of all of this I thought the last scene between Gunn and Angel was especially appropriate:

Gunn:  “No matter what else I think I proved that you could trust me when I could have killed you and I didn’t”

Angel: “No, you’ll prove that I can trust you when the day comes that you have to kill me and you do.”

I thought that was an especially powerful scene because of all the members of Angel Investigations Gunn is the one who would be least likely to let sentiment get in the way of doing what needs to be done.

All in all this  episode gives us an entirely new perspective on the Gunn/Angel dynamic.  We will have to watch the exchanges between them more carefully in future to try to guess just how their difficult relationship does develop.  That can only add interest.  But above all, by stripping away the personal element so that it does not become a factor in Gunn’s decision to make his choice in favor of Angel Investigations, the real meaning of his choice is made clear. 

Crazy Fred

I will be brief with Fred because I found the sub-plot about her more of a distraction and an annoyance than anything else.  Normally I would say that it was intended to illustrate a further stage on her path to rehabilitation.  She is now out of her room and that is a step forward when compared to “Heathrob”.  But she is still afraid of her own shadow and at the beginning of this episode she is not reacting at all with the other members of Angel Investigations.  Instead she talks to herself and reads her books.  So the fact that Cordelia takes her out to Caritas and that she seems quite willing to go (albeit with some hesitation) and sing karaoke seems intended to be another step forward.  And of course the most significant moment came when she fooled Rondell and Gio into thinking she would kill Angel.  As a plot device to raise tension this was a complete failure,  It was incredible from the start that Fred would have bargained Angel’s life for her own.  Not only did she have a big old crush on him but she had already demonstrated her courage in Pylea, especially with the Angelbeast.  But that was not, I think, the point.  The point was that she had enough wits about her to pull off the deception so successfully.  She might have been a little crazy but obviously not so crazy that she could not plan logically enough to do this.

The real problem with this is that the Fred we saw in “That Vision Thing” actually seemed to have passed the stage she reached here already.  There she was able to baby sit for Cordelia when she was ill, she seemed quite at ease walking home with Gunn and she was certainly able to grasp the “science” behind the visions.  So what was this sub-plot about if it wasn’t about Fred’s continued development?

Plot

This was an episode that started out very much like a standard murder mystery.  The fact that Merle’s attackers were carefully hidden and that he was linked to the second victim initially suggested the plot would turn on detective work to unmask the killer.  But this mystery didn’t survive Act 1 when we saw Gio kill the demon in the sewer with his crossbow and then saw the arrowhead embedded in a wall in the second victim’s apartment.  I suppose that could have been a red herring but there is only a purpose in having one of those to point away from the real killer and there were no other candidates.  I have to say though I loved the tongue in cheek way that Cordelia suggested Angel was a suspect and his offended rebuttal.

But the very resolution of this mystery reveals very clearly to us where the real story now lies.  And that story lies in how Charles Gunn resolves the dilemma facing him.  The problem here of course is that, if the resolution of the dilemma becomes too predictable, then the interest in the plot largely disappears.  Fortunately, however, this is never really a problem because it is never obvious what Gunn will decide to do.  Stage by stage we were taken through his voyage of self discovery.  This is what creates the sense of movement in the plot, the idea that we are being carried along behind Gunn as he tries to decide what to do.  We saw his initial comfort with the idea of killing demons; his discovery of his friends’ involvement and the self-questioning that prompted in him.  At each stage we asked what comes next because it was never obvious.  It is, as I have already said, perfectly believable that would sympathize to some extent with his former friends’ actions.  And in any event the pull of his past is real.  Even if he were to accept they were wrong could he disown them?  It wasn’t so much that we were asking what was the right thing to do as we were trying to predict what he would do.  There is a difference between the two.  And given the track record of this show it was never out of the question that he could have created a serious rift between himself and the other members of Angel Investigations that could have compromised his position with the team.  Indeed the fact that he did seriously overstep the line by stealing evidence to hide his gang’s complicity in murder and was on the receiving end of a sharp rebuke for Wesley for that shows just how real a possibility this was.  And in this context not the least of the virtues of the episode was that it made me at least care about Gunn’s success in resolving his dilemma.  It became important that he lied to Wesley and that this would have consequences for him.  And it also became important that he finally did the right thing.

If creating a real dilemma was one key to the success of this episode then the timing of the resolution of that dilemma was another.  As I have already said the moral choice Gunn had to make was a straightforward one.  So the writers could not keep Gunn in a state of paralysis over the choice for very long.  The audience would simply have become impatient waiting for him to make up his mind.  Yet once matters had become resolved in Gunn’s mind the tension in the plot also disappears.  So, this is where the scene in Caritas comes into its own.  First of all Gunn is put on the spot not once but twice.  As I have already said, when he arrives at the bar he has already probably decided that Rondell is wrong and that he will have to tell Wesley all about what he has been doing.  Of course he has trouble bringing himself to do that but ultimately he has no choice.  The bar is invaded, customers are shot, the Host is threatened.  This forces a resolution of sorts.   Not only is the involvement of Rondell and the  gang in murder revealed to Wesley, but his complicity in it as well.  And once that happens Gunn is left with no choice but to openly declare his real views on the matter.  But this is a development which resolves nothing.  Instead it simply creates a further level of complication with Wesley, Cordelia and Fred held as hostages and Gunn and Rondell at odds with Gunn in particular still feeling very unsure about  where he does stand.  He is caught in a classic dilemma.  Does he obey the dictates of his own conscience or swallow his doubts for the sake of fellowship?  You can see the pressure mounting on him and his judgment and resolution becoming more and more uncertain until he cold bloodedly shoots the demon baby eater.

Up until this point things were working really well with the tension buiding to Gunn's initial declaration and then even further until it was released by the shooting.  Then Angel entered the scene and  the tension just vanished.  As I have already indicated for me the confrontation between Gunn and Angel worked thematically.  But in terms of drama it was anticlimactic.  Lets face it no-one would ever believe that Gunn would actually go through with killing Angel.  The fact that the reason he gave for not doing so was something of a surprise helped rescue the scene from being a total  waste but the denouement was just too predictable.  And things were not helped by Fred and Cordelia.  For the reasons I have already given Fred’s intervention also fell flat.  And the scene between Cordelia and the three sisters who cast the sanctuary spell at Caritas should have really ratcheted up the tension to the point where we were wondering would the spell be lifted in time or at all.   But the slightly weak humor worked against this.  And when the spell was lifted and battle joined, it was truncated far too early to give any sense of our heroes fighting for their lives. 

On the plus side there were serious efforts made to keep our interest with a lot of twists and turns.  Merle’s death right at the start was a shocker.  The shapeless demon who made the strange sucking noises was very amusing and the timid creature who kept on going “Oh God, Oh God” then turned into a huge and ferocious killer was also a big surprise.  But these last two were really only for decorative effect.  Much more effective were the revelation about Gunn’s real attitude to Angel and the way  Wesley treated him afterwards.  I expected the sympathy but not the cold,  hard dressing down he got.  That was sharp and all the better for being unexpected. 

There were also a number of significant plot holes.  For example, how in a residential building did a death by such violence as we saw in the case of the demon bookie escape the notice of the police and the other residents?  And why would anyone have a sanctuary spell that only worked with demon violence when Caritas was frequented by humans as well?  Indeed if there was such a spell why doesn’t everyone who knows about demons have it, especially Angel Investigations?  It would make the Hyperion impregnable.

Overview (B)

 This episode had the courage to tackle a big problem in the Angelverse head on and resolved it fairly satisfactorily.  And for that it deserved high marks.  The relationship we saw between Gunn and his former gang here preserved continuity with past episodes such a “WarZone” instead of simply ignoring them.  But at the same time the writers were able to offer an explanation of sorts for his absence from them and create a dynamic whereby he was caught in a dilemma between his old friends and his new colleagues.  The explanation wasn't I have to say entirely credible but at least there was one and it wasn't totally implausible. Importantly the resolution of that dilemma seems to place Gunn firmly in the Angel Investigations camp without in any way downplaying the ties of the past.  And this in turn meant that Gunn himself was able to reclaim a lot of the identity he lost over the course of season 2.  Indeed one important dimension has been added.  The potential for tension between him and Angel has been further strengthened and that can only be a good thing.  In all of this the “racism is bad” metaphors were a little heavy handed and if these had been the real focal point of the episode I would have marked it down on that ground.  However as these were merely a means to a much more interesting end I think we can ignore them.  The plot itself was well structured, and kept us wondering what Gunn would do next and how things would be resolved.  The pressure cooker type approach of forcing all the protagonists together in Caritas and then allowing the tension to build until it spills out in violence generally worked very well as a way of bringing things to a conclusion, although as I have already said there was quite a serious failure at the end to turn build up of pressure into the requisite explosion.