Power Play
RL delays, yada yada yada, FML.
Wrote this up over a week ago, and I am now just getting around to posting...
First, can I say how much I love Lindsey?
+ So, vamps sense other vamps. I love the "diversity on staff" comment from the Senator followed up with Gunn's dry "How commendable" comment. Oh, irony!
+ Alexis...I love your acting. From the beginning (if I recall correctly, and will check out as I go through the seasons in reverse), he always seemed to play extra sensitivity to Angel. He looks devastated that Angel is brushing him off here.
SPIKE: Bloody helpful. You're wrong about Angel. Not that I don't think the sod could end up being a megalomaniacal bastard. It's just that if he did... I'd know it. I'd feel it.
ILLYRIA: You'll have proof soon enough. A corrupted ruler on such a path sees treachery and betrayal all around him. He cannot suffer intimates and will eventually turn against them.
SPIKE: Guess I don't have to worry about that, 'cause Angel and me have never been intimate. Except that one...
+ Ah yes, go ahead and sing--sing! sweet Spangel heart o' mine.
ILLYRIA: He will murder one of you.
DROGYN: He already has.
+ Funny, since he really does get killed. Thinking Angel killed Fred clearly wasn't enough for the Black Thorn...
+ Jeebus, Wes has severe kicked puppy/tail between legs syndrome.
+ Oh. Spike has Wes' number...literally. Spike's also in the inner circle--not just one of the four people closest to Angel, cause duh, but they've all banned together.
SPIKE: You coming then?
+ Love that Spike's the one to challenge Angel to tag along to the "meeting."
+ Now, here's a bit of interesting foreshadowing...
ANGEL: Do I really have to explain this to you people? We're in the business of business. Oil, software, worldwide wickets. The product doesn't matter. It's the game that matters. Get to the top, be the best, have the most, win.
You're still missing the point.
You want to know the truth? The truth is there's only one of us who ever understood how things really work. Lorne.
You didn't judge. You didn't spend your life obsessed with good and evil. You do that, you get swallowed, lost in the minutia. Good, bad, Angel, Angelus-- None of it makes a difference. I wish it did, but, you know, an ant with the best intentions or the most diabolical schemes is just exactly an ant. There is one thing in this business, in this apocalypse that we call a world that matters: Power. Power tips the scale, power sets the course, and until I have real power, global power, I have nothing. I accomplish nothing.
[It] Isn't pretty. Isn't fun. You think it's Wolfram & Hart getting to me here, and maybe you're right, because they've shown us what power is. From day one, they've been calling the shots, and all we've done is get shot at. I have a chance to change that.
I can't worry about that... the small stuff.
We're done here. I have to take this.
Angel's entire bit of dialogue in this scene, I now realize, are huge red flags to what occurs at the end of this ep and what happens in the series finale. The world is an ever going apocalypse, as we learned from Holland Manners in s...2 was it? The only thing that matters in the end is who has the power? And in NFA, Angel's Avengers, for "one, shining moment," get to make Wolfram & Hart it's bitch. Awesome sauce.
+ Wes refuses to believe Angel's changed. "Could be a ploy..." he's the only one to believe. I think that no matter what, both Wesley [and Faith] will forever never give up on Angel no matter what he does. And this is all after it's alluded that Angel may have had a hand in Fred's death. I think that's the power of Wes' man love for Angel right there.
+ I think we see the "real" Angel with Nina. It's clear we see he's been playing an act at the end, but he doesn't put on a show for her. Also, I adore how Nina isn't hung up on "normal," and I think she would have been good for Angel. Not that I'm bitter about getting screwed out of s6 or nothing...
DROGYN: It is a test, a task of some sort. You must collect those crystals. And the fruit.
ILLYRIA: Why?
DROGYN: Old one... you have no right to walk this Earth. Your time is past. You belong to the Well.
ILLYRIA: Truly. I wish now I had never been brought out of it.
DROGYN: Do you?
ILLYRIA: I don't know. I play this game... it's pointless and annoys me... and yet, I'm compelled to play on. Does that not--
+ More forshadowing. Endless apocalypses, but they trudge on for the good fight even though there can never truly be an end on the horizon. Until...
+ Wes believes they can bring Angel back. "Regardless of his actions" and that Angel would do the same for any of them. Unless of course it concerned Connor and losing him and stuff...But I mostly agree. Still, BIG statement coming from Wes since they now all believe Angel did in fact set Fred's death in motion. But Wes makes them believe.
+ Angel looks remorseful at what he has to do to Drogyn.
+ Cordelia explicitly puts him "on the path to who the real powers" were. Just wanted to stress that, because I am still not sure what folks (who hated Angel's plan for NFA) wanted Angel to do with this bit of intel.
"Heroes don't accept the way the world is...we don't walk away from that."
+ Spike looks forward to getting his hands dirty.
+ I think this is a HUGE contrast to "Chosen." I'll hold those thoughts until I actually rewatch that, though.
"We can show them they don't own us."
To me, that's commendable. They were going to have to stop the apocalypse at some point anyway. Might as well head them off at the pass. Additionally, as far as they knew, the only sacrificial lambs would be them and them alone--those who volunteered for the job. Angel doesn't give an order to his team--they voted. Very diplomatic.
Spike looks around at the others, scoffs, and raises his hand. Wes smiles, and gives affirmation. Gunn's hand goes up slowly next, and damn do I wish we could have seen his face, and then Lorne, though we never see it.
+ We close on Hamilton, who looks orgasmic, frankly, at the "fight" going on in Angel's office.