"Different Paths in Brotherhood"
"DIFFERENT PATHS OF BROTHERHOOD"
While reading an old review by someone named Tchaikovsky about the Season Five "ANGEL" episode, (5.08) “Destiny”, I noticed that the reviewer discussed a lot about the relationship between the two vampires - Angel and Spike - as "brothers", whether they were souled or not. When recalling that particular season, I remembered one particular thing about it. There seemed to be a strong focus on the topic of brotherhood.
In the relationship between Angel and Spike, viewers had two vampires with the potential to be close "brothers" when they first met in London 1880. However, their feelings for one female vampire - namely Drusilla - fragmented that sense of brotherhood. After his disappointments with his former object of desire, an English debutante named Cecily, and his mother Anne, whom he had transformed into a vampire; Spike (or William Pratt) saw the female vampire as his destiny, someone to love and worship.
I am not sure what Angel (aka Angelus) saw in Drusilla. Perhaps he viewed her as something or someone to completely control, perhaps? As the son of an Irish merchant, Liam never really had any control in his relationship with his father, until the moment he killed the latter after becoming a vampire. Despite his rejection of his grandsire, the Master, Angelus found himself controlled by Darla via her usual subtle way - by making him believe that he was in control of their relationship. And perhaps, deep down, Angelus knew this. Perhaps this is why he had decided to betray William by having sex with Drusilla. Perhaps he wanted to make the other male vampire realize that he was in control and that William’s idea of Drusilla being his destiny was nothing more than an illusion.
Due to Drusilla’s mental state, Angelus was not only Spike’s grandsire, but also acted as the latter’s sire and mentor. Yet . . . the night Angelus slept with Drusilla also marked the beginning of an antagonistic relationship and rivalry between the pair. That antagonism intensified following their reunion in Season Two of "BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER". When Angel lost his soul in (2.14) "Innocence" and became Angelus again; he resumed a sexual relationship with Drusilla. Crippled from his last encounter with vampire Slayer Buffy Summer, Spike found himself crippled and unable to do anything about it. Until he healed and formed a partnership with Buffy to deal with the threat of Angelus and Drusilla. At this point, Spike and Angel’s antagonistic relationship had lasted some 118 years.
Ironically, after Spike had reappeared in Los Angeles in Season Five of "ANGEL" as a regular character, the two vampires slowly began to form another bond. Before that could happen, they had to deal with another rivalry - for the heart of Buffy Summers. After all, Spike had witnessed Buffy and Angel’s reunion kiss in the second to last episode of ”BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER”, (7.21) “End of Days”. And in the following episode, (7.22) “Chosen”, Angel learned several things - namely that Buffy and Spike had formed some kind of relationship, Spike had a soul and Buffy had chosen the blond vampire as her personal champion. The two vampires’ resentment over Buffy spilled over when Spike’s non-corporeal form appeared at the end of the "ANGEL" episode, (5.01) “Convictions”. Yet, following their fight over the Cup of Destiny in "Destiny", the pair managed to reconnect as "brothers" in episodes like (5.11) "Damage" in which they bonded over shared experiences in becoming vampires, and in episodes like (5.20) “The Girl in Question” and (5.22) “Not Fade Away” in which they literally fought together as partners. Angel and Spike finally realized that they need each other in their fight against Evil and the Wolfram and Hart law firm. Besides, with the Fang Gang slowly disintegrating, perhaps Spike became the only person that Angel could truly depend upon.
In contrast to Angel and Spike’s relationship, Season Five marked the final destruction of the friendship between Charles Gunn and Wesley Wyndam-Price, Angel's fellow demon-hunters in Los Angeles. It is interesting that back in the series’ second season, they were close friends and partners in a detective agency they had just formed with Cordelia Chase. Many of the series’ fans would occasionally recall the secret handshakes, the ”I got your back” declarations, and the manner in which they had fought together against demons.
But in the end, their relationship was destroyed by Wesley’s kidnapping of Angel’s son Connor and a woman - namely one Winifred "Fred" Burkle. I am not saying that she is to blame for their past or present estrangement. But Connor's kidnapping by an old vampire hunter (in which Wesley had unwisely participated) their views of Fred, and their personal demons - Charles’ insecurity (which was fed by Fred’s comment about him being the gang’s muscle) and Wesley’s secretive nature and whore/Madonna view of women - eventually brought about a complete destruction of their relationship. Temporarily.
Their friendship resurrected when both men finally decided to forgo a romantic pursuit of Fred in late Season Four. But Angel’s decision to allow the Senior Partners, the evil overlords of the Wolfram and Hart law firm, to erase their memories of Connor and any other memories linking to the vampire’s son eventually set their friendship on the path of destruction once more. Angel's decision led to the Fang Gang becoming employees of the law firm, Charles’ decision to become an attorney by supernatural means and the resurrection of Wesley’s desires for Fred. Wes and Fred eventually began a romantic relationship by mid-Season Five. But their romance, along with Charles' new law career culminated in disaster when the latter made a pact with the Senior Partners to revive his diminishing legal abilities in exchange for signing the release of an ancient curio stuck in Customs. This curio resulted in the death of Fred and the resurrection of a demon called Illyia in Fred’s body. A grieving Wesley decided to seek revenge with the attempted murder of Charles. Although both men eventually assisted Angel in the latter’s battle against the Senior Partners and the Circle of Thorn in the Season Five finale, (5.22) "Not Fade Away", their friendship never returned to the state it had been during Season Two and late Season Four.
I find it amazing that two different male relationships ended on such divisive paths. Angel and Spike’s relationship - which began on a rocky foundation saturated with resentment and rivalry over two women - managed to reconnect into a strong brotherly bond. On the other hand, Charles and Wes’ friendship began on a strong note and ended in complete ruin before the series ended. And to think all of this happened during Season Five.