Prophecies are tricky things...
Loyalty/Sleep Tight/Forgiveness are a fantastic trio of episodes, as good as anything in all of AtS. If I could I'd love to delve in deep and analyse it properly, but I really, really don't have the time at the moment. So for now all I'll focus on is the prophecy. You know the one: 'The father will kill the son.' Except of course Sahjhan says he changed it a little:
GUNN: You wrote the prophecies.
SAHJHAN: More a re-write.
FRED: "The father will kill the son."
SAHJHAN: Yeah. I flitted back and forth in time, changed the one that threatened me, polished some others. Flitted in a manly way. Just so we're clear.
The thing is, everyone sort of assumes that the whole thing was just false. But Sahjhan only claims that he *re-wrote* it. What did the original say? Well let's ask the Loa:
Wes: Is it true? Will Angel really kill his son as it says in the prophecies?
Loa: That the vampire will devour his child is certain.
'Devour' is an odd word. Could certainly be changed to 'kill' very easily. But it made me think of something else:
Male Oracle: There is one way. But it is not to be undertaken lightly.
Female Oracle: We swallow this day, as though it had never happened. Twenty-four hours from the moment the demon first attacked you, we take it back.
Angel: Then none of this happened and Buffy and I... What - what'll stop us from doing the exact same thing again?
Femal Oracle: You. You alone will carry the memory of this day. Can you carry that burden?
Angel *does* devour Connor - swallows up every memory of him that there ever was. Connor is erased from history, more thoroughly gone than if he'd been killed... and that's the sort of thing I find very interesting. Was any of it planned? Or did it all just join up pretty much seamlessly? Whatever the case, it is very satisfying.
GUNN: You wrote the prophecies.
SAHJHAN: More a re-write.
FRED: "The father will kill the son."
SAHJHAN: Yeah. I flitted back and forth in time, changed the one that threatened me, polished some others. Flitted in a manly way. Just so we're clear.
The thing is, everyone sort of assumes that the whole thing was just false. But Sahjhan only claims that he *re-wrote* it. What did the original say? Well let's ask the Loa:
Wes: Is it true? Will Angel really kill his son as it says in the prophecies?
Loa: That the vampire will devour his child is certain.
'Devour' is an odd word. Could certainly be changed to 'kill' very easily. But it made me think of something else:
Male Oracle: There is one way. But it is not to be undertaken lightly.
Female Oracle: We swallow this day, as though it had never happened. Twenty-four hours from the moment the demon first attacked you, we take it back.
Angel: Then none of this happened and Buffy and I... What - what'll stop us from doing the exact same thing again?
Femal Oracle: You. You alone will carry the memory of this day. Can you carry that burden?
Angel *does* devour Connor - swallows up every memory of him that there ever was. Connor is erased from history, more thoroughly gone than if he'd been killed... and that's the sort of thing I find very interesting. Was any of it planned? Or did it all just join up pretty much seamlessly? Whatever the case, it is very satisfying.