EPISODE 5.03

Unleashed

Written by: Sarah Fain and Elizabeth Craft

Directed by: Marita Grabiak

Lone Hunters...

Anyone who has read even a few of my reviews will already know how much I like to play with counterpoint in them – comparisons and contrasts between characters and situations which illustrate or illuminate a theme or idea.  So, it will come as no surprise to you to see that in this review of “Unleashed” I will be exploring yet more such parallels.  And I will start with McManus and his final victim – Nina.  Gunn summarizes McManus’ career as a werewolf in the following graphic terms:

“He left his wife and kids a couple years ago, kept moving, staying in the middle of nowhere most of the time. First year or so, a few mangled bodies showed up here and there, but the last 6 months, guy was leaving corpses like bread crumbs.”

However, it’s Angel’s commentary on this that is most illuminating:

“Probably tried to control it for a while and just gave up. Thought he had to fight it alone, ended up with nothing worth fighting for.”

McManus’ dilemma was, of course, the same as was now faced by Nina.  She too has a family, a family that is very important to her.  Right from the beginning we see, in particular, the comfortable and easy relationship she has with her niece, Amanda.  But we get perhaps the best idea of just how close the family relationship is from the reaction of her sister ,Jill, and Amanda, to Nina’s sudden disappearance.  Jill starts by telling Nina of Amanda’s upset:

“Do you know she didn't want to go to school today. I had to lie, tell her I heard from you.”

Then she starts on her own worries:

“I called the police! I thought….You sleep all day. You've got bruises you don't remember getting. Just tell me. What's going on?”

And when Nina says that Jill can’t count on her all the time, the latter asks:

“Since when?”,

thus implying that, up to that point she thought that she could.  Fred put it best when she said of Jill:

“So she was yelling and furious, but that's good. It means, you know, she cares.”

But it is the very closeness of the relationship that gives weight to Nina’s worries. These are very real and are amply demonstrated by an earlier scene when, in a shocking visual, we see her rip Amanda’s throat out only for us to realize that it didn’t happen in reality.  This leads to the second shocking realization.  It didn’t actually happen but it was what Nina was thinking of doing.  She later confessed her own horror at this to Angel:

“I wanted to rip her throat out!”

Not only that, but she subsequently became a werewolf when she was alone in the house with Amanda.  The possibilities are too obvious to need further comment.  This realization of what she was capable of drove Nina to want to leave her family.

At first, she doesn’t even want to go back to the home she had shared with Jill and Amanda.  Then when she is finally persuaded to go in she can’t even explain the reason for leaving her niece alone in the middle of the night.  She is reduced to the most implausible of lies.  And then after the ugliness that was the reunion with her sister and her niece, she came away with her thoughts dominated by how ugly this could all get:

Nina: “If something happened to Amanda...”

Fred: “But it didn't, and it's not going to.”

Nina: “You don't know that.”

Here she is on the very point of making the same mistake that McManus did when he left his family.  What Nina is facing now seems overwhelming.  At one point she says:

“I should be in ceramic's class right now. We're learning raku. Seems like somebody else's life.”

Now she is a potential killer.  When Angel tries to comfort her she snaps back at him:

“Don't tell me what you know. You didn't wake up and find out you're a...monster. You don't know anything.”

But that doesn’t mean that she is beyond saving.  First of all she is still alive and that’s a start.  As Angel tried to convince her from his own experience, the monster inside her can be beaten:

Angel: “I'm—I'm a vampire.”

Nina: “Vampire?”

Angel: “But I have a soul. I'm…I'm not evil, and neither are you.”

Nina: “But vampires kill people, and they…”

Angel: “Can control themselves if they want to. I do it every day, and so can you. I'll help.”

And here we have the central message, it’s all a matter of wanting to control yourself.  When Spike points out the obvious dangers:

“I'm just saying, the girl's a killer. Maybe not tonight or tomorrow, but she will get out of that cage”,

Angel begs to differ:

“Not if she doesn't want to.”

But she cannot do it on her own.  As we have already seen, McManus tried.  He must have tried very hard because at first he had some success.  But eventually he failed  and he failed because, as Angel pointed out, he had no-one to fight for.  He had given up family and all thought of a normal life.  In his world there was no-one left but him and the monster.  So, it became easier to give into the monster:

“Look, if you separate yourself from the ones you love, the monster wins.”

On the other hand, not only does family itself give you others to fight for.  It helps you hold on to the very idea of a normal life and that means that you are fighting for yourself as well. 

In this sense the monster getting out of the cage is a metaphor.  When it is in the cage, it is under control.  But when it escapes…well, let's just say it can't be allowed to.  But to keep it under control you have to really want to.  When you retain your sense of who you are, of your own individuality as distinct from the idea that you are just a monster, then you are still in control.  Fred, as usual, puts things in a positive light:

“Nina, it's just 3 nights a month, not even days. Your life doesn't have to change...much.”

And as Angel himself says:

“At some point you'll be at the grocery store or with Amanda, and the whole werewolf thing, it'll just be a part of who you are.”

And so this is the central theme of “Unleashed” - that you cannot save yourself by simply thinking about yourself but must instead reach out and connect with others to do so.  And this theme is brought into even sharper focus by Spike.  Like Nina he too faces a threat from an unseen force that threatens to drag him away from the only life – or should that be unlife – that he knows:

“Look, something's trying to hold onto me... on the other side. If you don't do something soon, one of these times... I may not come back.”

Just like her, he is struggling to hold on to his own sense of identity, of self.  And also like her he is only holding on by his fingertips.

...And the Lone Wolf

In fact, compared with what is facing Spike, Nina may well have congratulated herself for having it easy.  It’s not just that Spike refers to what is waiting for him as “eternal fire and brimstone”.  It’s that he seems rather further on in the downward spiral than she is.  When Fred tries to encourage him to be patient Spike, tells her he doesn’t have much time left:

Spike: “There may not be a later, luv. It's getting worse.”

Fred: “Worse? You mean your…”

Spike: “My winking out of existence? Yeah. And I'm not talking about quick pops to the netherworld. They're lasting longer now.”

We can, in the way Spike fades in and out, see the heavy hand of symbolism.  His physical disappearances are, I think, intended to represent loosing his individuality; something that is being swallowed by the unseen force threatening him.  This seems intended to directly parallel what happened to McManus and what threatens to happen to Nina

And this gradual but seemingly inexorable slide towards oblivion is clearly being tied to his isolation from everyone in Angel Investigations.  From the start of the episode, Spike is desperate to attract Fred’s attention to his problem.  He is, however, having very little success.  It’s not that she is unsympathetic.  Rather, like everyone else in Angel Investigation, she is putting Nina’s problems first:

Spike: “Hey, I’m in a situation, remember? I'm a bloody phantom. And you and your serious girl spectacles were gonna help me with my bloody little problem.”

Fred: “I know, and I bloody will. I had some ideas.”

Spike: “What? What ideas?”

Fred: “They’re gonna have to wait till…”

Objectively of course, Spike has a strong case for saying that he is at least as deserving of immediate attention as Nina.  The consequences of his winking out of existence are, for him at least, much more dire than the consequences of Nina’s werewolf existence.  And he could disappear forever almost at any time.  So why doesn’t he get the help he clearly thinks he needs?  First of all he hasn’t actually told anyone except Fred.  And he refuses specifically to tell, for example, Wesley even though he is probably the person best placed to help.  He won’t do so because:

“Truth is I just don't want anyone else to know about my condition, right? Last thing I need is this getting back to Angel.”

The long history of rivalry between himself and Angel means he is unwilling admit to the latter that he needs help, even though he does.  How can Angel understand Spike’s fears when Spike won’t tell him what’s happening?

And it’s not only this stubborn refusal to ask for a favor from Angel that tells against Spike.  He can’t resist the opportunity to be smart, to prove that he knows best.  So he tries to spin a yarn to Fred about why he won’t speak to Wesley and he mocks Angel for letting Nina escape:

“Bloody shame, letting the girl run off like that. Somebody's slipping.”

He challenges his desire to help her:

“That's rough. 'Cause here on out, she's in the kill-or-be-killed club.”

And he takes every opportunity to contradict his plans, even making fun of their race against time:

“Tick-tock, tick-tock. The moon's a-risin', ladies and gents.”

But above all he really cares only about himself.  There is no trace of understanding about what Nina is going through or sympathy for her.  As far as he is concerned there is only one person who needs help here and that’s him:

“A lot of fuss over one girl. Other things to do around here—important things.”

So, when he does demand attention to himself it’s not on the basis that he is someone relying on a shared sense of connection with Angel and the others.  His whole attitude shows that he has no such sense.  Rather, it’s simply a matter of egotism – what Spike needs must be at the heart of everyone’s agenda and no-one else matters. 

It is hardly surprising therefore that Angel loses patience with him, saying:

“You know that whoosh thing that you do when you're suddenly not there anymore? I love that.”

And even Fred can’t resist having a little go at him when she tells him how easily Angel killed the McManus werewolf.  So his attitude simply serves to alienate everyone from him and actually gets in the way of securing help.  So, to complete the symbolism, just at the point when Spike has pushed everyone to the limit, he disappears completely. 

Spike, therefore, represents Nina’s future because what happened to him represents what will happen to her too if she bails on her own family.  Just as the unseen force swallows Spike physically, the monster within Nina would swallow her sense of identity, as indeed it already did in McManus’ case.  And just as Spike’s attitude here reeks of selfishness, we are I think being encouraged to see McManus’ decision and the decision that Nina herself nearly made as being similarly selfish.  That may seem an odd thing to say when, for example, Nina’s principal concern was not to put her sister and niece is danger.  But she didn’t have to hurt them.  She had the opportunity to control the monster.  She was, therefore, implicitly putting the danger to her own peace of mind (the fact that she was intimidated by the need to control the monster) ahead of the hurt and upset that we know she would cause her family by abandoning them.

Equally, however, we see through Spike the way that forging a connection with someone does help you save your own individuality.  Near the end he appears to Fred.  Only “appears” isn’t the right word.  He is in fact on the very verge of disappearing altogether, being now barely visible as the faintest of shadows.  But when Fred declares:

“Ok, then I'm going to help you. Well, I—I don't know exactly, but I am going to find a way to bring you back, really bring you back. I promise”,

then we see him become steadily more visible as his ties to at least one person in this world once again strengthen.  So, just as Spike’s disappearance represents the loss of individuality and identity his reappearance in solid form represents regaining it. The trigger for the former was Fred’s willingness to reach out to forge a link with Spike.  This, therefore, also represents the way in which the sense of a person’s identity and individuality can be regained.

Divided We Stand

But the real importance of this theme lies not in Spike or Nina.  Instead it lies in the way we can see parallels between their situations and that of each of the former members of Angel Investigations.  The episode begins with what at first sight looks like a scene of harmony:

Lorne: “Hey, uh, who wants some mu shu? I got beaucoup mu shu here.”

Fred: “I'll take some, thanks. Angel, this little picnic was such a good idea.”

Gunn: “Yeah, man. Why haven't we done this before?”

But almost immediately we learn that this is just a cover for some very serious discussions – discussions which quickly turn into arguments which show just how much this formerly close knit team has drifted apart and is now riven with distrust.  Angel’s “you were late” to Wesley sounded very like an accusation.   Wesley for his own part distrusts Fred’s judgment about Knox.  But above all there’s Gunn:

Fred: “It's...well, what they put in your head. All that law knowledge and whatever. Maybe you know something, more than the rest of us.”

Wesley: “The alteration to your mental capacity…”

Gunn: “My capacity's the same as it's always been. The good doctor just revved up some idlin' brain cells, set 'em in motion.”

Angel: “It's a legitimate concern. You gave them access to…”

Gunn: “I made a deal. We all did. Seems like I'm the only one who's willing to accept that. Everybody here got something out of this.”

It’s no wonder that Angel refers to part of the legacy of the Senior Partners to them as fear and mistrust.  Then, when the team are having trouble tracking down Nina, he is noticeably harsh and unsympathetic to them:

"We're useless. Is that what you're trying to tell me?"

What should have united them was their effort to save Nina.  And when they do work together they are very effective.  Fred carries out the analysis of the tire prints, helping to identify the car. Lorne realizes that, most likely, the victim was scared enough to run a red light. Gunn checks out the police cameras. Wesley finds the address through the DMV. Angel carries out the rescue.  But even here there is no sense of a shared responsibility for her, particularly where Angel is concerned.  Once she has been captured by Crane, for example, he appropriates the entire responsibility himself.  Before this there is a crucial scene in which, preoccupied by Nina, he locks horns first with Gunn and then with Lorne.  The former tries to console him by telling him he did everything that he could.  But Angel snaps back:

“You know what, Gunn? Don't need a pep talk right now. Just do your job.”

Lorne for his part, reminds him that he isn’t in this alone:

“You're fighting so many enemies around you, Angel, your punches are getting sloppy, and we've got the bruises to prove it. We're operating in unfriendly territory, champ. I don't want you to forget about the people covering your back.”

Immediately before this scene we saw Fred talking to Nina about the Grouchy One.  Nina, now realizing the burden that he has to carry, observes that he must be lonely.  Fred corrects her:

Fred: “Sometimes, maybe. But it's not like he doesn't have anyone. We all... we try to be there for each other.”

Nina: “Like a family."

Fred: “Yeah. A demon-hunting, helpless-helping, dysfunctional family.”

Angel isn’t in this case – or any other case for that matter – alone.  There are others helping him because they are all part of a family.  So, when he arrives to rescue Nina from Crane he doesn’t go alone.  Wesley and Gunn are with him and he needs them.  When armed men sneak up on him during the rescue , Wesley and Gunn are there literally watching his back.  Crane is quite callously prepared to let his men die for him and challenges Angel about whether he is prepared to see Wesley and Gunn make the same sacrifice.  Tellingly, though, it’s Gunn and not Angel who replies:

“I go, you're going with me.”

Unlike Crane’s men, Gunn is answering for himself.  He has decided that he is prepared to die for Angel.  And thus reminded of the importance of his little family, we see a transformation in Angel’s attitude.  At the start of the episode, we are confronted with the fact that Angel, Wesley, Gunn and Fred have each been leading separate lives, spending more time with relative strangers than with each other.  The only interest they have in a communal meal is as cover.  But at the end of the episode they are all together psychologically as well as physically.  We see once more the social interaction we expect from a tight knot group with small in-jokes and a little gentle one-upmanship.  Most tellingly of all they order the same Chinese food as they should have had at the picnic.  And not only is it the usual order, but it’s obviously given to a restaurant that they had used regularly when at the Hyperion and were now returning to for the first time since taking over Wolfram and Hart.  They are going to eat in Angel’s new penthouse where they have been invited for the first time, thus showing at one and the same time that something was seriously wrong with the group dynamics and that things were now back on track.  Oh yes and Angel was paying.  As Lorne so aptly put it:

            “Ladies and gentlemen, Hell just froze over.”

Only Connect

The idea that, no-one is an island and that, in order to fulfil your own potential or even in order just to survive in a hostile world, you need to connect to others, is a long established one for ANGEL.  In fact we can see an early manifestation of this idea in the series premier, “City of”, when Doyle warns Angel that if he keeps himself to himself he will end up snacking on those he is supposed to help.  But I suppose the most powerful statement of the idea was in season 2.  There, Angel concentrated on his own narrow concerns and, as a result, lost touch with his true mission.  But after “Epiphany” he realized that redemption wasn’t about him; it was about everyone else.   So, he became a more genuinely outward looking individual who understood the need to connect with humanity - above all the fellow members of AI.  After all that was why he stood down from leadership, because he wanted to regain their trust.  Viewed solely in the context of Nina’s struggle with the monster in her, the idea may not have that much significance for us simply because the series has gone over this ground before and because she is a peripheral character.  But here we see the strength of having parallel stories. Let me take you back to the resolution of the storyline in “Unleashed”.  The plot is the medium through which the theme is explored.  So, the turning point for one should be the turning point for the other.  In "Unleashed"  that turning point comes when  Gunn and Wesley stand by Angel.  It is in this moment that we see Crane's defeat and Nina's salvation.  So, the resolution involves no choice or decision on Nina's part; rather it relates directly to the way in which the members of AI relate to one another.  If Nina learns the need to connect with her own family it is only because she has seen the strength to be gained from Angel’s family rallying round him.  This I think demonstrates clearly that this is the “reconnection” of AI that is important here.  Gunn said that they had all got something from the Senior Partners and that “something” was preoccupying them at the expense of their connection with others.  The implication seems to be that these were the monsters within that every member of the team had to fight.  In Gunn’s case, it’s the source of his newly found sense of self-esteem.  He no longer doubts his ability to make a difference.  He now thinks of himself as more than just muscle and believes his newly found knowledge and skill was based on what had been there all along; the Senior Partners had just revved him up a bit.  But is this confidence perhaps build on sand? Fred had her interest in science fully satisfied and perhaps was beginning to make other connections as well.  How suitable are they?  And Angel here seems isolated and full of self-doubt.  Is he beginning to wonder how much good he is doing? Maybe we are here beginning to get a sense of where this season storyline is headed.  Perhaps we are seeing the enemy within.  That would certainly give the theme considerable “bite”. My principal problem here is that this aspect of the episode was underplayed.  In particular we see next to nothing of why Angel does feel so alone and uncertain.  For everyone, but in his case in particular, this uncertainty means that the relevance of Nina’s experiences to them must remain a matter for speculation.  For Nina we can see clearly how connecting with her own family is necessary.  She maintains her individuality not just for its own sake but because it is a way of helping to deal with the monster.  But until we see more clearly the nature of the monster within that Angel and the others have to deal with, it’s more difficult to see how maintaining the unity of a family can help.

But if the thematic treatment of Nina and AI was mostly successful, that of Spike wasn’t.  First and foremost the parallel between those two cases rested on the idea that each was fighting an enemy within them.  Spike wasn’t. Angel or Nina had to understand the way others could help them keep control of their own fates and behave accordingly.  They had actual choices to make and consequences turned on those choices.  Spike is at the mercy of an outside force.  He has no control and no choice to make.  You are not therefore comparing like with like.  And this shows because it is by no means obvious how forging a connection with Fred or anyone else can help Spike’s situation.  Are his disappearances caused by his lack of a connection?  If so how?  If not then why does he begin to reappear when Fred promises to help him? 

But even in its own terms the attempt to parallel Spike's experiences with those of Nina or Angel fails.  Forging a connection is not something that you have done to you.  It is something you must participate in.  Spike disappears when he is at his most selfish, self-pitying and argumentative.  Between this point and his final scene with Fred we see him just once when he was was, it is true, instrumental in uncovering Dr Royce’s treachery.  Having gone to so much trouble establishing Spike self-centeredness it would have been very difficult to swallow that this was an act of deliberate altruism without giving us a convincing reason for it.  And indeed Fred quickly realized that Spike’s assistance was entirely accidental.    Not only that, he still won’t tell Angel about his plight.  In other words he hasn’t changed his outlook and he has no reason to do so.  Fred’s help is therefore simply an act of kindness.  Of course in time one person reaching out to another when they don’t have to can lead to a change of heart in the beneficiary.  But here we see no evidence of such a change, indeed there is no time for it.    Until we do we cannot properly say that the two have forged a real "family" connection of the sort we see in Nina’s family or within AI.  I have to say, therefore, that to me Spike’s involvement thematically in “Unleashed” is an example of the use of a lazy sort of symbolism; something that looks good but is ultimately meaningless.