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EPISODE 4.03 THE HOUSE ALWAYS WINS Written by: David Fury Directed by: David Fury
A Journey Into the Past “The House Always Wins” is set mainly in a Casino and features an unscrupulous owner, Lee DeMarco, who mystically takes people’s futures away from them in the course of a story primarily intended as a means of exploring our titular vampire’s loss of any sense of destiny. Doesn’t this sound familiar? Well, so it should. After all, “Double or Nothing” contained all of the same elements and aired only a few episodes earlier than this one. I find this repetition very strange. It’s not as if the idea of “futures trading” was so compelling that it demanded to be dealt with in a second episode. And the fact that the writers use the same basic plot elements to explore the same central issue – Angel’s feeling that he has no future – simply serves to accentuate the fact that we have been here before. And the comparison is a problem because, while not without its flaws, “Double or Nothing” at least had something intelligible to say in the context of the arc in which Angel lost Connor. Gunn losing hope for his future, selling it and then regretting the bargain when later he found he did have something to live for, is reasonably well thought out, helps throw light upon Angel’s state of mind and points to the way ahead for him. In “The House Always Wins” on the other hand, the idea that Angel has lost his sense of destiny is never adequately explained and is explored in a confused and confusing fashion. Comparisons with “Double or Nothing” therefore simply highlights its inadequacies. In "The House Always Wins", the idea that Angel has lost his sense of destiny is foreshadowed in the teaser during the fight between Connor and the Vampire. Vampire: “Nothing human can move that fast. What are you?” Connor: “Don't know yet. But I know what you are and what to do with you. That'll do for now.” The fact that Connor doesn’t know who he is important. He is the son of two vampires, but he is human. He should be impossible but he isn’t. He is connected with the Tro-Clon but doesn’t know how. He can therefore have no idea of why or how he was brought into being or the effect that this will have. In other words, he doesn’t know his destiny. And as we soon see, this is also true of his father. In a fairly heavy handed piece of exposition Gunn says as much: “And, frankly, man, when you're head's someplace else, we are into some serious floundering. I mean, you act like a guy with a clear agenda, always on the move, but—we don't know where we're going.” I assume that this is a reference to Angel's behavior in "Ground State" when he spent most of his time worrying about how he was going to get Cordelia back. But whether it is or not Angel quickly confirms the truth of what Gunn was saying by his next suggestion: Fred: “Um, Angel, where are we going?” Angel: “On a little retreat. The three of us.” Fred: “Oh, like a spiritual journey?” Only it’s not so much a “retreat” in the sense of a withdrawal to a place of peace in which to contemplate one’s future as a “retreat” in the sense of being a journey back into Angel’s past. Angel, Gunn and Fred all go to Las Vegas. Fred in particular assumes that the reason for this is to visit Lorne so that he can read Angel and give him some idea about his destiny. Angel, on the other hand, is entirely evasive about this: “I just thought we could all use a little getaway to decompress. I know I haven't had a vacation in a while. Not counting my recent ocean cruise.” And as we soon see, the only thing about Las Vegas that he is interested in is reliving his past there: Angel: “Wow. This place sure has changed.” Gunn: “Get out! You never told me you've been to Vegas before.” Angel: “Yeah, a few times. Been a while, though. Used to be dunes over there.” Gunn: “Oh, man, it has been a while. They tore down the Dunes ten years ago.” Angel: “Not the casino, I mean actual dunes. Bugsy used to call them bug piles.” Gunn: “Bugsy? Bugsy Segal?” Angel: “Yeah. Not one with words, I know, but the man—he had a mean backhand on the tennis court.” This is instructive. After all, what is the opposite of worrying about your future – recalling your past of course. And it was a past before he knew about the Shanshu Prophecies with his ambiguous role in the Apocalypse or his mission of saving souls or his complex relationship with Cordelia or Buffy or even his son. They were indeed less complicated times when he didn’t even have a Destiny (with a capital "D"), at least one that he was conscious of. This is a clear signal from Angel that he isn't really even sure he wants a Destiny in this sense. And this loss of a sense of identity is really driven home by the symbolism of what happened in the Las Vegas Casino where Lorne works. There Angel sees a girl called Vivian who has a big future as a restaurateur. Yet after a visit to a special roulette game called “Spin to Win” she becomes directionless. Indeed she nearly loses her future completely when she walks in front of a taxi cab. When Angel sees this he realizes that there is something wrong with “Spin to Win” and he goes to see if he can do something about it. Now, this is Angel’s mission – helping people. But in doing so, he is tricked into playing the Casino owner’s game and, as a result, loses his own destiny. He instantly loses all interest in helping Vivian or even his own friends. He is reduced to mindlessly playing the gaming machines in the casino. Even when Gunn needs his help he cannot summon up the interest to leave the slot machines. Angel knows who he is, who his friends are and why he is in Las Vegas: Gunn: “You... you know who I am, right? Angel: “Gunn.” Gunn: “That's right. And I'm your friend.” Angel: “I know. I'm not stupid.” But in spite of all of this he simply cannot summon the interest to do what he has been asked. We are clearly intended to see a parallel between this state of mind and Angel’s earlier purpose in leaving LA to go on vacation to Las Vegas in the first place. And therefore we are intended to understand that this is where Angel was psychologically when he took that decision – going through the motions, but without finding any meaning in what he is doing and being no real help to anyone.
Remind Me Why I'm Here ANGEL seasons now appear to be following a pattern. In both of the previous years, the themes for the main arcs were all foreshadowed in the first few episodes. So, in the season 2 episodes “Judgment” and AYNOHYEB we saw what Angel’s own redemption meant to him, how isolated from humanity he was otherwise and what the consequences of such isolation might be. In season 3, episodes from “That Old Gang of Mine” to “Fredless” concentrated on the importance in Angel’s world of his friends, especially Cordelia. All of these were important issues picked up in the respective seasons. In the present season, in “Ground State”, we saw Angel’s lack of focus on his mission and his concentration on Cordelia. And in “The House Always Wins”, as we have seen, the writers are clearly stressing his feeling of being directionless – without a destiny. We have therefore to conclude that this loss of a sense of mission is going to be an important issue in the coming season. This itself demands that the development be laid out before us in a careful, believable and interesting way. And here is where we hit the problems. Angel as a character must be about helping others. That is the reason he was contacted by Whistler. That is the reason he was released from the Hell Dimension. That is the reason why he went to LA. That is the reason why TPTB sent Doyle to help him with his visions. And that was ultimately the conclusion that Angel himself came to in "Epiphany". ANGEL the series is not, however, about those he helps. Nor is it about the mechanics by which he does so. Rather it is about the obstacles in Angel’s way in carrying out this mission. And the main obstacle here is Angel himself. It is noticeable that his principal antagonist in the series, Wolfram and Hart, are possessed of enormous physical resources with which to defeat Angel. But in general they avoid using these. Instead, they try to use his own psychological weaknesses against him. So, the fact that Angel loses a sense of destiny is far from incompatible with the overall purpose of the series. But this cannot simply be by writers’ fiat. I have quoted the following passage from "Epiphany" before and I make no apologies for doing so now because it is central to Angel’s mission: “But now I just wanna help. I wanna help because people shouldn't suffer as they do. Because, if there isn't any bigger meaning, then the smallest act of kindness is the greatest thing in the world.” If this really meant nothing to Angel then that is the end of the series. He cannot be relied upon to help anyone and we cannot take any protestation that he wants to do so at face value. The character truly is purposeless. So, if this statement is intended to mean something to him or us and if he falls short of its ideals there has to be a good reason and we have to know and understand that reason. In particular we have to see either a tension between Angel’s ideals and his ability to fulfil them or we have to see why Angel thinks he is fulfilling those ideas even though he isn’t. In short we need to understand his psychology. And here we don’t. In fact far from the writers explaining why Angel seems to have lost his sense of direction, the fact that he has done so seems completely at odds with what the series has said about his psychology so far. At the start of the episode Angel looks on as Connor tries to kill a vampire. Indeed, Angel feels it is necessary to intervene directly to help. Interestingly, though there seems to be no innocent human victim here to save. So, Angel’s focus is on Connor’s prowess as a fighter rather than on helping anyone: “That's it, Connor. No, don't go toe-to-toe. He's too big and faster than he looks. Wait for an opening. Stay sharp. You can do it. That's it.” And as we have already seen, shortly after that he simply abandons LA and all his potential clients to go to Las Vegas. In case we miss the point about this Wesley drives the point home: “Yes, we'll bloody well take Angel's clients if he's out of town.” In other words Angel has just forgotten about the helpless and there isn’t a word to indicate any tension between him and Gunn about this. And certainly there seems to be no internal conflict about it, indeed not even so much as a lingering doubt in the back of his mind. This comes in the episode after “Ground State”, an episode in which his entire attention seemed absorbed by his need for Cordelia. I think that the writers intended us to infer from this that Angel doubted his ability to function effectively without his “soulmate” (still hate the word). If that is the case they could have made a better fist of making the link between the loss of Cordelia and the loss of Angel's sense of destiny. There isn’t even a throw away reference by Angel to Cordelia throughout the episode and in fact Cordelia complains about the way he seems to be ignoring her: “But maybe there is something you could be worrying a little more about. Like, for instance, me. Remember me? The one stuck in misty magic land for like eternity. You've got to get me out of here, Angel. Please! Help me!” But if this is the writers' intention then, as I have already explained, it seems to me that for Angel to lose interest or faith in his mission simply because he no longer had Cordelia with him would be too self-indulgent and too self-centred to be completely believable. Angel had fallen into that trap once before over Darla and her redemption. He recognized his fault eventually and it was in this context that he made the commitment to helping others quoted above. He had an excuse then; he has none now. And even in season 2 Angel didn't simply turn in on himself and forget about everyone else. Instead he switched his focus from helping people to destroying evil. Here is is turning his back on the present all together and retreating into a dead past. Then, there is Connor. Now, there was a time when Angel spoke with great feeling about his son being his future. In “Double or Nothing” he says: Angel: “You think you know something about living, cause you have this really long past. And that's really all you have, in my case anyway. Then one day you wake up and you have something else...” Cordelia: “A future.” Angel: “I had a son...” Okay, so this is the son he has kicked out onto the streets without any help. This is the son he largely ignored in “Ground State”. Now we are expected to believe he is still worried enough about him to intervene, albeit surreptitiously, to help him in a fight with a vampire but not too worried as he later abandons him without so much as a backward glance to go on vacation. Is this consistent or believable behavior? I don’t think so. If Connor really was his future and if Angel really had doubts about that future would he be clinging to his son more tightly than ever? Why then deliberately embrace a meaningless past?
And the Point Is? It is almost as if the writers are saying that he hasn’t a destiny because neither his son nor the helpless mean anything to him. I am sure that is not what they really mean. They have simply left that impression because of the confused and frankly incredible situation they have created. And I think part of the problem is that they haven’t addressed the issue of what is meant by “destiny”. There is a phrase which keeps on being repeated: ”Have to play to win.” It is the slogan used to invite people to take part in the “Spin to Win” game. After she has been deprived of her destiny, Vivian uses the phrase when she is looking for quarters to feed to the slot machine. And it is a phrase Angel himself repeats when he is in a similar condition. But the idea of having to play to win seems to me to be the opposite of having a destiny pre-ordained. The latter can be interpreted as something that will come to you no matter what you do. But to say that you have to play to win suggests that you will make your own destiny. Take Vivian as an example. She had apparently a great future as a restaurateur. But that wasn’t a destiny that was just going to fall into her hands. She had to go to Paris to train and I am sure that whatever she achieved it would have taken hard work, determination, talent and courage. Or take Angel; his destiny was described as: “Among other things, he's positioned to be a major player in the Apocalypse.” But he clearly won’t be if his only idea of his destiny is reliving the past in Las Vegas. A loss of a sense of destiny must therefore relate to a loss of some important belief or quality in himself, which means he thinks he is unable to do what he should be doing. That is after all not only the meaning underlying the phrase “play to win”; it is also the significance of the mindless state that those without a destiny are reduced to. But if that is the case then firstly it raises the question: how can you trade a future in this sense? Is the person who buys Vivian’s destiny suddenly going to become a great chef without the talent, experience, hard work and determination she would have to show? But even more troublingly it emphasizes even more the question: why did Angel lose that sense of destiny before he got to Las Vegas? Why did he lose some belief in himself and why was he reduced to the state of aimlessness that led him to Las Vegas? And a coherent and intelligent answer to these questions is what is missing from this episode. Is it really believable that Cordelia became so important to him that her loss was responsible for his state of mind? Nothing in this episode comes close to justifying this proposition. That is why the central metaphor of “The Hose Always Wins” falls flat on its face and why there is nothing in it that even remotely begins to attract my attention. Indeed it is why there is an apparent contradiction on the face of the episode itself. When Angel arrived in the Casino we are expected to believe that he was already without a sense of his own future. But apparently he still had a destiny to steal. That cannot work unless his destiny was something objective, something quite separate from his own sense of having a future. But if that is the case then how can stealing his destiny in that sense turn him into the mindless creature we saw playing the slot machines? If that was what really happened then it shouldn’t make any difference to the way Angel feels; only to what actually happens to him. But not even this is the end of the mess. We see the usefulness of counterpoint when the writers place someone in similar situations on different occasions. In the first he reacts badly; in the second he reacts better. By understanding why that person reacted differently on the second occasion, we also see the change that he has undergone. And in that change we see the point the writers wanted to make. The situation in which our protagonist is placed on this second occasion, therefore, represents a fulcrum both dramatically and thematically. I have already referred to the first occasion in which Angel was asked to help his friends and failed to do so. Towards the end of this episode he was given a chance to redeem himself when he was brought to a room within the Casino where his friends were being threatened. In that room there was also a mystical ball which DeMarco used to steal people’s destinies. This time he does help them and in the course of the fight the ball is destroyed. After the fight, however, even when his Destiny had been restored, he seems to have undergone no change at all. His exchange with Gunn mirrors his earlier one when he was in his mindless state in front of the slot machines: Gunn: “Angel?” Angel: “You're my friend. I know. I'm not stupid.” When he had first been brought into the room, Angel’s main interest lay in remembering where he had seen the room before. And even afterwards that was also his preoccupation: “Oh, now I remember that room! Elvis and Priscilla's wedding reception, 1967. Yes. right. It's not that I was you know really invited. They just put me near the dais. I think somebody thought I was in the band. Probably because I was all drunk and surly. They had these little fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches." These words harked back to his earlier preoccupation with his past in Las Vegas, which as we have seen indicated his own confusion over his destiny. We are therefore intended to understand from them and from what he said to Gunn that Angel had no stronger sense of destiny now than he had before. His experience in Las Vegas, the way he had had been reduced to mindlessly playing slot machines and seen others in the same state, none of it had any effect on him. Angel does seem aware of the effect of the spell: "I don't get why or how I was able to fight when I had no reason to, no destiny." But doesn't seem to relate that (as we are supposed to) to his state of mind generally, even before he arrived in Las Vegas. Yet even more bizarre is Lorne's reply to the comment I have just quoted:
Insofar as I can understand this it seems to mean that Angel's destiny is so interlinked with those of his friends that, even without his own, he will still find a purpose in life protecting them. So, why then did he ignore their plight the first time they were in trouble? More to the point if this were really true then, while he had Connor, Gunn and Fred near him in LA why did he need to go on retreat and why did he become preoccupied with his past? In short why did Angel have a crisis over his sense of Destiny in the first place? Angel’s rescue of his friends was intended to be the fulcrum of “The House Always Wins”, but thematically at least this fulcrum was meaningless. That is to say from that point of view it was no fulcrum at all. The fact that there was no connection at all between the main theme of this episode and the dramatic moment at the heart of its plot, seems to me to say a great deal about the thematic substance of “The House Always Wins.”
The Plot The main problem with the plot of the episode is that it was so predicable. Someone is working in a new environment; he seems to be doing well but keeps on sending back unusual and cryptic messages. When his friends arrive, he behaves in a strange way. It turns out that he is being held against his will and is being exploited by his seemingly ordinary employers for their own nefarious purposes. This is an all too familiar scenario. In fact it was such an obvious one that the writers were basically wasting their time trying to pretend that Lorne being a prisoner was some sort of twist. As a result the elaborate misdirection of Lorne’s first conversation with DeMarco fell flat on its face: Lorne: “I'm kinda tired right now, Lee.” DeMarco: “Oh, right, of course. Who wouldn't be? The show you put on. When you're out there giving a hundred, a hundred-fifty percent. Ah, two hundred, easy. And that is why you are the king, baby. And I am just so lucky to have a talent like yours headlining at my casino. Look, I don't want to take up any more of your valuable time…” Clearly this was intended to make us believe that Lorne was a much valued act and his employer was incredibly grateful for him. But to me it just sounded completely false in view of what I knew was coming: Lorne: “Yeah, but, can't we just do this later?” DeMarco: “Ah, gee, I'd love to, Lorne. But you got another show to prepare for, and I've got things to do.” Lorne: “Yeah, but later would be just so much better.” The bodyguard punches Lorne hard in the stomach, and he doubles over in pain. DeMarco: “I think now is a good time. Or should we pink slip another girl from your act?” As the one attempt the writers made to work a decent twist into an otherwise highly predictable basic plot failed so miserably, there was an onus on them to make the story of Lorne’s rescue engaging in other ways. Sadly they don’t. Instead what follows is either a cliché or annoying or both. The annoying part is the stupidity with which everyone acts. Take Fred, for example. Lorne phones the Hyperion with the following message: “If I miracle-ear anything, I'll send up a smoke signal. Take care of yourself, and, um, make sure Fluffy's getting enough love.” The obvious question here is “who is fluffy” and why is Lorne referring to her? The answer to these questions was obvious enough: Lorne: “Well, every time you called me, I kept asking about Fluffy. Fred: “Oh, I thought you were just using some sort of show-business catch phrase I wasn't hip enough to get. Who's Fluffy?” Fred: “Fluffy. Fluffy the dog. The dog you don't have. The universally recognized code for "I'm being held prisoner. Send help!"” But Fred didn't seem to get it. On the one hand there is making an understandable mistake and on the other there is being “stupid” in an “unbelievable and annoying plot contrivance” sense. This is the latter. Of course Fred isn’t the only victim. When Lorne walks by the friends he hasn’t seen in months without so much as a flicker of recognition, Gunn mildly wonders why but no-one else seems interested. Then Lorne does the same thing again. This time Angel asks: “I don't get it. Lorne knows we're here. Why hasn't he contacted us by now?” But again stupidly no-one apparently suspects there is anything sinister about this. But then at least the stupidity is evenly shared out. When you are told to guard an important prisoner who you know wants to escape, and someone in a nervous and excitable estate whom you don’t know tries to get into see him in unusual circumstances, wouldn’t you be cautious? Yes, you would. If that visitor then comes out with a completely implausible story: “'Cause, 'cause he went through some sort of…of demon metamorphosis thing, and, and he spit out his entire skeleton like, like…like that, and then he just…he slithered away. Down the drain. In the sink. In the bathroom. Hurry!” would you fall for the obvious trap? I didn't think so. Angel’s investigation of DeMarco’s scam was essentially a separate sub-plot and was, perhaps for that reason, more successful. I liked the basic metaphor of a person gambling away their future, especially the “House Always Wins” angle. That seems to me to embed an important truth about gambling. Not only that but the only real suspense in the episode is over the reason why DeMarco is holding Lorne prisoner. So the reveal over the “Spin to Win” game both satisfies our curiosity and at the same time gives us an entirely believable explanation for Lorne’s connection to the deal. But even here there are problems. First of all I think that Angel’s reluctance to help Gunn was intended to be another twist. But, as with the earlier one, it was telegraphed and so lost any impact. The fact that Angel lost his Destiny in the game, that he was released by DeMarco and we see him mindlessly playing the slot machines in a manner reminiscent of Vivian meant that I wasn’t exactly surprised by his reaction. I also disliked the second example of Cordelia’s “Deus Ex Machina” intervention. It’s lazy and uninteresting plotting. But most troubling of all is the result of that intervention – Angel being brought to the control room in time to intervene in DeMarco’s planned murder of Gunn and Fred. Having already failed to help them once, Angel is now given a second opportunity and takes it. I have already explained my dislike for the lack of a thematic significance for this moment. I don’t like it from a plotting point of view either. As I have already said, Lorne's remark about Angel being motivated to help his friends explains nothing. He failed to help them before. Of course Angel was now confronted with a more direct threat to his friends. But when he failed to help Gunn earlier Angel knew then that he was in serious trouble. So I don’t think this explains his changed behavior. In other words, his decision to help his friend’s was just another example of writer’s fiat. Angel had to do it because that’s what heroes do.
Overview (C-) “The House Always Wins” is built around a nice little metaphor about gambling, although the more you think about the concept of futures trading linked to it the less sense that makes. It provides some nice examples of visual humor such as he billboards advertising Lorne’s act and the sight of Angel being whisked away behind the backs of Gunn and Fred. And for those who like cabaret, it also has a professionally done musical number, although this wasn’t to my taste and seemed to me to interrupt the flow of the episode unnecessarily. Otherwise the episode doesn’t have a lot to recommend it. Thematically it hits us over the head with the idea that Angel has lost his sense of destiny but seems confused as to exactly what this means and is to say the least unconvincing when it comes to the important questions such as why or how he did so. The plotting is predictable and relies too much on people doing stupid things for no good reason. Finally the ending is marred by having Angel decide to help his friends out in a way which I find inexplicable given what had happened to him.
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