Angel Season Five - Episode Twelve - You're Welcome (part 2)
Part 2 of 3
Spike is busy playing video games when Lindsey comes-a-calling. Spike is not thrilled to see him, gives him a veiled threat to his well being if he persists on arriving uninvited. Spike gets himself a beer, but makes a point of not giving one to his guest. Spike doesn’t like Lindsey which is quite the opposite of Angel and his authentic emissary of the Powers That Be. Angel and the real Doyle became close friends, allies and confidantes, but not Spike and the false Doyle - there’s no friendship there. Lindsey tries to win some point by sympathising with Spike over the loss of his hands. He knows what that feels like all too well having had a hand chopped off (in A1.22 - To Shanshu in LA) and then reattached courtesy of Wolfram and Hart (A2.18 - Dead End), though he doesn’t confide the similarity of medical provider. Lindsey encourages Spike to get out on the streets again, the ‘Powers’ are counting on ‘their’ champion, there are helpless to help. Spike doesn’t want the pep talk, says he was planning on going out anyway, that he’ll jump at the first sign of a vision. Good boy, that’s what Lindsey likes to here. What he doesn’t want to hear are complications. Eve rings to give him the heads up about Cordelia, her vision and the fact that all the clues lead straight to him. It’s not great news; it necessitates a change of plan…
In Angel’s apartment Cordelia watches an old video of an advertisement she and Doyle made for the fledgling Angel Investigations:
Doyle: If you need help, then look no further. Angel Investigations is the best. Our rats are low-
Cordelia: Rates.
Doyle: It says rats. "Our rates are low, but our standards are high. When the chips are down, and you're at the end of your rope, you need someone that you can count on, and that's what you'll find here, someone who will go all the way, who'll protect you no matter what. So don't lose hope."
It’s a two-way message. When they made it, it was for the helpless that needed to be told that there was someone who cared, who could help them. But tonight as they watch it says so much more. On one level it is about Cordelia - when you’re at the end of you’re rope (and Angel has certainly nearly exhausted his personal length) she is someone he can count on, who will go all the way, protect him and not lose hope. In Destiny, Buffy turned away, said she couldn’t trust him because of the situation he was in, but Cordelia, where Angel is concerned, is more steadfast. She won’t give up on him. She is his Champion. For Angel the message is a reminder of what he was; what was special about him and what he did, pre-high-tech gizmos, pre-money, pre-endless resources and pre-Shanshu promise. It’s a reminder that he can be this man again, if he doesn’t lose hope. It all comes back to hope.
Cordelia and Angel talk properly now. He tries to explain the reason for going to Wolfram and Hart. Cordy pre-empts him with a lot of talk of corruption, of being seduced by fancy facilities, money, manpower and a penthouse with a really spectacular view and she means spectacular. But when he throws Connor into the explanation mix, then she begins to understand. Cordelia alone gets told the truth:
Angel: Connor.
Cordelia: Where is Connor? Why did Gunn ask-
Angel: They don't remember him. It's part of my agreement to take this job. The senior partners altered reality. They gave Connor a life, a real family, and a childhood. Something I could never give him. He's got no memories of us. And no one remembers him - Except me and you….and Eve, for some reason.
Cordelia is appalled. She lays it on the line:
Cordelia: So, not only did you strike a deal with your worst enemy to give up your son, you let them rape the memories of your friends who trust you?
Angel tries to rationalise the decision saying that Connor was about to kill her and himself, that it was the only way to help him. Although she doesn’t argue with him, the silence is quite glaring never the less. It wasn’t his only option. He could have let Connor and Cordelia die, accepted their fate as a consequence of the series of events since his son’s miracle birth, or, alternatively, as a consequence of his up-bringing (as suggested by Lila in A4.22 - Home) or at the end of the day, if he was that set on giving his son a ‘normal’ life he could have brokered a different deal that didn’t involve wiping his friends memories. Home shows most pointedly that Angel turned Wolfram and Harts offer to his advantage. He accepted the deal on his conditions, the condition that Cordelia would receive the best medical care and that Connor would be given a new family, new memories, all traces of the past removed, and that no one, beyond Angel himself, would have any memory of his son (oh, and he’ll take that bauble and file for Buffy too). These were not Wolfram and Hart’s stipulations; they were 100% Angel’s. In hindsight the deal and accompanying provisos look increasingly like yet another ‘quick-fix’ solution that hasn’t gone quite as planned, sure he made some sacrifices, his son, his autonomy and he did act out of love for Connor, but he also took liberties that he had no right to take and presented his team with the deal done, fate accompli, no questions, no considerations, no debate, no choice.
Angel doesn’t want the uncomfortable truth. Besides, they’re all doing fine here at Wolfram and Hart. They’re doing good work, making a difference. Cordelia wasn’t born yesterday:
Cordelia: Don't give me that, "everything's fine here" company line. I'm not buying it. Neither are you. And neither are the Powers That Be. Why do you think they woke me up, gave me that vision? They know you slipped the track, and they want me to help put you back on it.
But she’s wrong about the Powers, Angel tells her, they’re not in his corner anymore. Spike is their new champion. He’s the one working the streets, helping the helpless. He’s the one who saved the world. And Angel is running an evil law firm. What kind of freaking Bizzaro world is this?
Cordelia: I naturally assumed you'd be lost without me, but this?
Angel: I am lost without you.
Cordelia, his rudder, his truth teller, his confidant; She knows him better than anyone, she understands his struggles, she has pushed him along when he didn’t want to go, she has physically shared his mission, was passionate about their mission and her very presence here makes the audience feel exactly what the loss of her company and influence has meant to Angel, how significant it has been all along. She tells him that he’s just forgotten who he is. He asks her to remind him, but that’s for him to figure out, she says:
Cordelia: …I can tell you who you were. A guy who always fought his hardest for what was right, even when he couldn't remember why. Even when he was miserable, which was, let's face it, a not small portion of the time. He did right. And that gave him something. A light, a glimmer. And that's the guy I fell in- That, um... the guy I knew. I see him around here, then maybe I'll start believing.
If she sees that guy around, maybe then she’ll start believing all his propaganda about the good work they’re doing and that life is just fine and dandy too. “Let me know if you do”, Angel asks sadly, an admission that that guy, that champion that Cordelia described, really is gone, lost.
Cordelia: Do you ever wonder... Do you ever think about if we'd met up that night and had a chance to-
Angel: All the time.
His reply is swift and honest and pulsates with unfulfilled possibilities, what might have been had they ever managed to get their timing right. His ‘all the time’ speaks volumes. Cordelia is the girl he thinks about, the one he misses, needs and wants. It’s quite affecting, the understated romantic poignancy of it all.
Lindsey and Eve are not so unlucky in love. Eve is incredulous that Lindsey can be so calm about the sudden change of events and the threat of exposure. But Lindsey takes a more optimistic view; the fact that Cordelia is awake means that the Powers are taking an interest, that they matter. But we also discover that envy is an unrelenting taskmaster and that Lindsey is a slave to his. The motivation behind his slow and considered attack on Angel is jealousy. He resents the fact that this ‘Euro-trash vampire’ has been given everything he once worked for. He forgets that he used to be Wolfram and Hart's golden boy, was moving up the ranks with exceptional speed until he chose to walk away, chose not to be a part of the Wolfram and Hart machine after he had his blinkers removed by Angel (in the afore mentioned A2.18). But hearing that Angel had been handed the reigns he once coveted must have burned beyond endurance and so reignited the flame of hatred and envy. Despite his denial to Eve, Lindsey’s world really does revolve around Angel.
The next day Wesley and Cordelia hit the books ‘old-school’ style. No extra help, no divisional involvement, just the two of them trawling through a myriad of mystical texts looking for answers just as they did in the old days. She turns Wesley’s head, at least momentarily, and reminds him of the way it used to work, before Wolfram and Hart were part of the team. With that nod to the past, so comes acknowledgement of past events that were none too pleasing, that have, for the most part, been swept under the carpet, forgotten. Cordelia apologises for her part, her body’s deeds acting under the volition of another, she just wanted to tell him that before…
And then they find the images, the symbols they’ve been searching for. They are a form of protection rune used to cast concealment spells that guard the bearer from being seen by higher powers, mystics, seers or modern surveillance devices. Handy magic. Cordelia remarks that somebody really wants to stay hidden and…we see Lindsey entering the building, walking past security cameras and laser beams without detection. He is able to walk up unnoticed behind a particular demon, stab him in the back and retrieve a crystal from its throat.
In Contrast to Lindsey who seems to know the place like the back of his hand, Cordelia is kind of lost in the hallways of Wolfram and Hart. She describes it as a rat maze, complete with rats. She turns to see Spike walking towards her. She smiles and greets him like an old friend, perfectly willing to accept his change of motivation, though not without a classic Cordelia comment:
Cordelia: Well, well. I heard you weren't evil anymore, which kind of makes the hair silly.
But Spike isn’t there to trade witticisms. He strides purposefully towards her, adopts his game face, grabs her by the shoulders and bites down on her neck. But then, almost instantaneously, he steps back and looks at her with a puzzled expression. A second later Angel punches Spike and a small scale scuffle breaks out. Angel full of wrath and warning in a ‘nobody messes with my Cordy!’ kind of way. Spike tries to explain:
Spike: She's evil, you gormless tit.
Cordelia: Excuse me? Who bit whom?
Angel: Did you call me a tit?
Cordelia: I thought he had a soul.
Spike: I thought she didn't.
Cordelia: I do.
Spike: So do I.
Cordelia: Well, clearly, mine's better.
[Ahhhh, that trio could have made magic together given but the opportunity!]
Cordelia: And you called this guy the big hero?
Spike: You called me a hero?
Spike is clearly chuffed to have been identified as such by Angel. It is all he wants, Angel’s good opinion and recognition that he’s done good. But Angel’s not so ready to admit it in front of the boy just yet. He withdraws the compliment saying that he didn’t know that Spike was eating people again. In frustration Spike gives Angel a Liverpool kiss sending them both reeling in pain but gives the opportunity for further explanation. It was a taste test. Spike needed to know if what his source said was true. This is interesting because it means that Spike doesn’t trust Lindsey, the source of his information. Secondly, he says that Cordelia didn’t taste evil or demon-y at all. But she should, shouldn’t she? She is, after all, part demon and has been since Birthday (A3.11). Something isn’t right here…
Continued here...
Spike is busy playing video games when Lindsey comes-a-calling. Spike is not thrilled to see him, gives him a veiled threat to his well being if he persists on arriving uninvited. Spike gets himself a beer, but makes a point of not giving one to his guest. Spike doesn’t like Lindsey which is quite the opposite of Angel and his authentic emissary of the Powers That Be. Angel and the real Doyle became close friends, allies and confidantes, but not Spike and the false Doyle - there’s no friendship there. Lindsey tries to win some point by sympathising with Spike over the loss of his hands. He knows what that feels like all too well having had a hand chopped off (in A1.22 - To Shanshu in LA) and then reattached courtesy of Wolfram and Hart (A2.18 - Dead End), though he doesn’t confide the similarity of medical provider. Lindsey encourages Spike to get out on the streets again, the ‘Powers’ are counting on ‘their’ champion, there are helpless to help. Spike doesn’t want the pep talk, says he was planning on going out anyway, that he’ll jump at the first sign of a vision. Good boy, that’s what Lindsey likes to here. What he doesn’t want to hear are complications. Eve rings to give him the heads up about Cordelia, her vision and the fact that all the clues lead straight to him. It’s not great news; it necessitates a change of plan…
In Angel’s apartment Cordelia watches an old video of an advertisement she and Doyle made for the fledgling Angel Investigations:
Doyle: If you need help, then look no further. Angel Investigations is the best. Our rats are low-
Cordelia: Rates.
Doyle: It says rats. "Our rates are low, but our standards are high. When the chips are down, and you're at the end of your rope, you need someone that you can count on, and that's what you'll find here, someone who will go all the way, who'll protect you no matter what. So don't lose hope."
It’s a two-way message. When they made it, it was for the helpless that needed to be told that there was someone who cared, who could help them. But tonight as they watch it says so much more. On one level it is about Cordelia - when you’re at the end of you’re rope (and Angel has certainly nearly exhausted his personal length) she is someone he can count on, who will go all the way, protect him and not lose hope. In Destiny, Buffy turned away, said she couldn’t trust him because of the situation he was in, but Cordelia, where Angel is concerned, is more steadfast. She won’t give up on him. She is his Champion. For Angel the message is a reminder of what he was; what was special about him and what he did, pre-high-tech gizmos, pre-money, pre-endless resources and pre-Shanshu promise. It’s a reminder that he can be this man again, if he doesn’t lose hope. It all comes back to hope.
Cordelia and Angel talk properly now. He tries to explain the reason for going to Wolfram and Hart. Cordy pre-empts him with a lot of talk of corruption, of being seduced by fancy facilities, money, manpower and a penthouse with a really spectacular view and she means spectacular. But when he throws Connor into the explanation mix, then she begins to understand. Cordelia alone gets told the truth:
Angel: Connor.
Cordelia: Where is Connor? Why did Gunn ask-
Angel: They don't remember him. It's part of my agreement to take this job. The senior partners altered reality. They gave Connor a life, a real family, and a childhood. Something I could never give him. He's got no memories of us. And no one remembers him - Except me and you….and Eve, for some reason.
Cordelia is appalled. She lays it on the line:
Cordelia: So, not only did you strike a deal with your worst enemy to give up your son, you let them rape the memories of your friends who trust you?
Angel tries to rationalise the decision saying that Connor was about to kill her and himself, that it was the only way to help him. Although she doesn’t argue with him, the silence is quite glaring never the less. It wasn’t his only option. He could have let Connor and Cordelia die, accepted their fate as a consequence of the series of events since his son’s miracle birth, or, alternatively, as a consequence of his up-bringing (as suggested by Lila in A4.22 - Home) or at the end of the day, if he was that set on giving his son a ‘normal’ life he could have brokered a different deal that didn’t involve wiping his friends memories. Home shows most pointedly that Angel turned Wolfram and Harts offer to his advantage. He accepted the deal on his conditions, the condition that Cordelia would receive the best medical care and that Connor would be given a new family, new memories, all traces of the past removed, and that no one, beyond Angel himself, would have any memory of his son (oh, and he’ll take that bauble and file for Buffy too). These were not Wolfram and Hart’s stipulations; they were 100% Angel’s. In hindsight the deal and accompanying provisos look increasingly like yet another ‘quick-fix’ solution that hasn’t gone quite as planned, sure he made some sacrifices, his son, his autonomy and he did act out of love for Connor, but he also took liberties that he had no right to take and presented his team with the deal done, fate accompli, no questions, no considerations, no debate, no choice.
Angel doesn’t want the uncomfortable truth. Besides, they’re all doing fine here at Wolfram and Hart. They’re doing good work, making a difference. Cordelia wasn’t born yesterday:
Cordelia: Don't give me that, "everything's fine here" company line. I'm not buying it. Neither are you. And neither are the Powers That Be. Why do you think they woke me up, gave me that vision? They know you slipped the track, and they want me to help put you back on it.
But she’s wrong about the Powers, Angel tells her, they’re not in his corner anymore. Spike is their new champion. He’s the one working the streets, helping the helpless. He’s the one who saved the world. And Angel is running an evil law firm. What kind of freaking Bizzaro world is this?
Cordelia: I naturally assumed you'd be lost without me, but this?
Angel: I am lost without you.
Cordelia, his rudder, his truth teller, his confidant; She knows him better than anyone, she understands his struggles, she has pushed him along when he didn’t want to go, she has physically shared his mission, was passionate about their mission and her very presence here makes the audience feel exactly what the loss of her company and influence has meant to Angel, how significant it has been all along. She tells him that he’s just forgotten who he is. He asks her to remind him, but that’s for him to figure out, she says:
Cordelia: …I can tell you who you were. A guy who always fought his hardest for what was right, even when he couldn't remember why. Even when he was miserable, which was, let's face it, a not small portion of the time. He did right. And that gave him something. A light, a glimmer. And that's the guy I fell in- That, um... the guy I knew. I see him around here, then maybe I'll start believing.
If she sees that guy around, maybe then she’ll start believing all his propaganda about the good work they’re doing and that life is just fine and dandy too. “Let me know if you do”, Angel asks sadly, an admission that that guy, that champion that Cordelia described, really is gone, lost.
Cordelia: Do you ever wonder... Do you ever think about if we'd met up that night and had a chance to-
Angel: All the time.
His reply is swift and honest and pulsates with unfulfilled possibilities, what might have been had they ever managed to get their timing right. His ‘all the time’ speaks volumes. Cordelia is the girl he thinks about, the one he misses, needs and wants. It’s quite affecting, the understated romantic poignancy of it all.
Lindsey and Eve are not so unlucky in love. Eve is incredulous that Lindsey can be so calm about the sudden change of events and the threat of exposure. But Lindsey takes a more optimistic view; the fact that Cordelia is awake means that the Powers are taking an interest, that they matter. But we also discover that envy is an unrelenting taskmaster and that Lindsey is a slave to his. The motivation behind his slow and considered attack on Angel is jealousy. He resents the fact that this ‘Euro-trash vampire’ has been given everything he once worked for. He forgets that he used to be Wolfram and Hart's golden boy, was moving up the ranks with exceptional speed until he chose to walk away, chose not to be a part of the Wolfram and Hart machine after he had his blinkers removed by Angel (in the afore mentioned A2.18). But hearing that Angel had been handed the reigns he once coveted must have burned beyond endurance and so reignited the flame of hatred and envy. Despite his denial to Eve, Lindsey’s world really does revolve around Angel.
The next day Wesley and Cordelia hit the books ‘old-school’ style. No extra help, no divisional involvement, just the two of them trawling through a myriad of mystical texts looking for answers just as they did in the old days. She turns Wesley’s head, at least momentarily, and reminds him of the way it used to work, before Wolfram and Hart were part of the team. With that nod to the past, so comes acknowledgement of past events that were none too pleasing, that have, for the most part, been swept under the carpet, forgotten. Cordelia apologises for her part, her body’s deeds acting under the volition of another, she just wanted to tell him that before…
And then they find the images, the symbols they’ve been searching for. They are a form of protection rune used to cast concealment spells that guard the bearer from being seen by higher powers, mystics, seers or modern surveillance devices. Handy magic. Cordelia remarks that somebody really wants to stay hidden and…we see Lindsey entering the building, walking past security cameras and laser beams without detection. He is able to walk up unnoticed behind a particular demon, stab him in the back and retrieve a crystal from its throat.
In Contrast to Lindsey who seems to know the place like the back of his hand, Cordelia is kind of lost in the hallways of Wolfram and Hart. She describes it as a rat maze, complete with rats. She turns to see Spike walking towards her. She smiles and greets him like an old friend, perfectly willing to accept his change of motivation, though not without a classic Cordelia comment:
Cordelia: Well, well. I heard you weren't evil anymore, which kind of makes the hair silly.
But Spike isn’t there to trade witticisms. He strides purposefully towards her, adopts his game face, grabs her by the shoulders and bites down on her neck. But then, almost instantaneously, he steps back and looks at her with a puzzled expression. A second later Angel punches Spike and a small scale scuffle breaks out. Angel full of wrath and warning in a ‘nobody messes with my Cordy!’ kind of way. Spike tries to explain:
Spike: She's evil, you gormless tit.
Cordelia: Excuse me? Who bit whom?
Angel: Did you call me a tit?
Cordelia: I thought he had a soul.
Spike: I thought she didn't.
Cordelia: I do.
Spike: So do I.
Cordelia: Well, clearly, mine's better.
[Ahhhh, that trio could have made magic together given but the opportunity!]
Cordelia: And you called this guy the big hero?
Spike: You called me a hero?
Spike is clearly chuffed to have been identified as such by Angel. It is all he wants, Angel’s good opinion and recognition that he’s done good. But Angel’s not so ready to admit it in front of the boy just yet. He withdraws the compliment saying that he didn’t know that Spike was eating people again. In frustration Spike gives Angel a Liverpool kiss sending them both reeling in pain but gives the opportunity for further explanation. It was a taste test. Spike needed to know if what his source said was true. This is interesting because it means that Spike doesn’t trust Lindsey, the source of his information. Secondly, he says that Cordelia didn’t taste evil or demon-y at all. But she should, shouldn’t she? She is, after all, part demon and has been since Birthday (A3.11). Something isn’t right here…
Continued here...