What I'd Do With #9 - Angel Seasons 6 & 7
Well, I was bored and sick and not much to do so I pulled up this half finished WIDW and finished it off. Anything that doesn't make sense I blame on sickness - because I never, EVER, not make sense when I'm not sick. Really.
Here's a _very_ rough outline of where I'd go with S6 and 7 of Angel, assuming we could do one, and assuming it follows off from my own revised Season 5.
I'll assume for the purposes of this discussion that at the end of Season 5:
a) Wesley dies. I love him, but I can't think of a way to get him back to the cast from the finale that isn't a cheat, and it's high time the Buffyverse had another important death.
b) Lindsey is still here, part of the team (although perhaps only a part time one).
c) Lorne leaves for good, to another city entirely. There may be an opportunity for a guest shot, but he's out of the series for the most part.
The rest of the cast remains the same.
Season 6:
I'm not going to attempt to write a way out of the cliffhanger here (maybe a pitched battle with some last minute help from a group of Slayers who've been watching things over. They won't stay around for the whole season, but they help Angel & Co get out of the immediate jam, maybe put some magic on them that lets them evade magical scrying on the part of the Senior Partners. Lindsay could also provide this - he's used it before.
Season 6 would be sort of 'on the run' and 'regrouping'. The team no longer works for W&H, and they don't have the Hotel anymore, so they're left without a base of operations, and the SP still really pissed at them. Angel starts getting the visions (he said it was a one-shot deal, but he was wrong) of people to help, which they do while they're on the run, and getting more info about another coming apocalypse. I'll leave the exact details a little iffy. They'll have a couple different 'bases of operation' throughout the season. An abandoned building or sewers at first.
W&H still exists in LA and other areas, appearing suddenly again like they did after being destroyed in S4. The new LA branch CEO would be one of the major baddies of the season... maybe someone we've seen before but I can't think of anybody who would work. (About the only 'classic' villain left is Drusilla, and she's a bit too crazy to be a CEO. Having Wesley brought back like Lilah was, in that role ('my contract doesn't expire at death') _might_ work, but there's a good chance it'd come off cheesy - although he might be good as a semi-willing assistant to the actual CEO). There is Ethan Rayne, last seen in the hands of the Initiative, he might work. Other than that, though, it'd be a new character. We could always use Jewel Staite, who plays Kaylee from Firefly. ;)
Since Angel and company are on the run in this season, it might also be prudent to include a 'frame Angel for crimes he actually committed' plot from W&H.
We'd add a new female cast member here (since we only have one). A Slayer is an obvious choice (not Buffy, though), but I'm iffy on the idea. Likewise with Willow, or any other Buffyverse transplantees (Faith is the only one I'd consider as a maybe, but I think she's better off as just the occasional guest appearances). Not Eve, either, she'll probably get killed off fairly early in the year, and Harmony will just be on her own with nothing to do with the gang (or maybe even working for the new W&H). Since we lost Wes, someone who has some ability to do research might work well. Perhaps an occult bookstore owner that the gang goes to from time to time for research and gets drawn in because the _real_ vampires and demons and such and getting involved is just so much cooler to her. They could also crash at her place for a little while. We could always use Jewel Staite, who plays Kaylee from Firefly to play her. ;) Or someone else. Anyway, we'll hereafter refer to her as 'Research Girl'.
Among longer term missions - it's been shown a number of times that W&H cultivates 'special' people... Gwen, and that abused girl with telekinetic powers, and so on. Some of them are sent to hunt down Angel and his team, leading them to question where they come from. So they go on a rescue mission to infiltrate and destroy the training centers, possibly with Gwen's help.
At some point a W&H representative would make an offer, that they'd 'forget' about the murder of the Blackthorns, and clear up Angel's legal problems, if Angel and his group simply kill Illyria. Illyria is an Old One, and W&H don't _like_ the Old Ones, because they're so much more powerful, and would be more than willing to take over the world themselves and leave W&H with nothing, which is bad for the heroes as well as the villains. Angel & Co refuse of course (although perhaps considering it), but that offer reminds them that Illyria's something they fear, and they start working on plans to use her and destroy W&H.
I rather liked my idea of 'The Powers That Be aren't the be all and end all of goodness' from Lindsey's plot, so I think I'll work that here. They won't be destroyed, but more or less at the end of Season 6, Angel's gang will encounter them and essentially say, 'You say you couldn't, wouldn't do anything to help us avert this aside from giving us hints. Great. As usual, the deck's stacked against us. Every other week there's an apocalypse that might destroy all that is good in the world, and you tell us we can't take down the evil until the final battle. A battle that never comes. It seems the only time there'll ever be a final battle is if we lose. Otherwise, there's always another. Well, screw you. It's time for the good guys to have an Apocalypse. The final battle begins now.' (With some prior ironically intended comment, perhaps by the Research Girl, earlier in the episode about how Apocalypse actually, literally comes from a greek word meaning a 'lifting of the veil', and so isn't intrinsically bad)
Season 7:
Season 7 would be an all-out offensive against the Wolf, the Ram, and the Hart. Illyria knows them, and she has knowledge of other dimensions, which may be enough to find them. The truth is, Wolfram & Hart aren't eternal, unkillable, they're just extremely well-hidden and well-connected. They never come out, and they've amassed power across dimensions, but physically, if you faced them on neutral ground, they can be taken out (Evil itself can't be defeated, but they can). The heroes will be pro-active here, seeking out and finding information about the dimension W&H are hiding in, with some of the plotlines taking place in some of these dimensions (this would be a good spot for a Lorne appearance - if they decide to temporarily go back to Pylea), while at the same time preventing the latest evil Apocalypse (because they never did stop it, they just decided they were fed up with the help offered by the PTB).
Other threads we _might_ like to explore is a more literal version of the 'unveiling' - Angel and Co actively seeking to reveal the existence of the supernatural to the world. I'm really mixed on this idea though because it's very easy to come off badly, and lose all sense of the fantasy that 'this could be our world, we just don't know about it'. I think it _could_ be done well, but I'd have to see proposals on the arc. I confess, I can't think of a good way, just think it might be something worth exploring. I kind of like the idea of gathering together forces in the city that know about stuff, featuring opportunitys to see Anne again and other little used characters.
At some point in the two seasons we will need to deal again with the 'new Watchers Council' (made up of robots and such), maybe set up a conflict between them and the Slayer Army (even if Buffy doesn't appear, Faith or other slayers could make a guest appearance)... pointlessly fighting over who fights evil the most, and over recruiting Slayers not yet found. And/or the Watchers Council might be yet another group determined to take out Illyria. Angel and co. just can't win, which is as it should be. ;)
These two seasons sets things up for the Buffyverse movie, where someone decides to unite all the demons and such on Earth, left scattered with W&H's death, to conquer the world, and the surviving Buffy/Angel gang lead an army of slayers to beat the demons off the Earth once and for all (until the time of Fray). Maybe Illyria leads the demon army, having taken out her competition and seeing an opportunity to raise her army back (this would especially have some nice resonance with the whole 'if you kill Illyria, we'll take the heat off you' offer in S6. Maybe try to set up something up in the two seasons where it suggests that if Wesley hadn't died, she might have been truly redeemed but because he did, she gradually fell). Especially if she takes some resources from W&H's own dimension, detailing all the demons they own in one contract or another, maybe even taking possession (which, as it turns out, reunites her with Wesley).
Character Arcs:
Angel: There was that 'What if...'? episode that suggested if Angel had the visions, he'd go mad... but it was later revealed Skip was showing Cordelia these things to pave the way for Jasmine, so it doesn't have to be the case. Still, we could toy with the idea of the visions being too much for him. This could potentially lead to the meeting with the Powers. We can also toy with the idea of him having a powerup from feeding off Hamilton. Also, Angel believes that Spike is now the person spoken of in the Shanshu prophecy - I'm not sure I'd want to go down the road that he's right (a prophecy doesn't seem like something you can 'sign away'), but it's probably good fodder to explore him believing it, and still being a hero.
Spike: Still enjoying being a thorn in Angel's side, they start to develop a more brotherly relationship. They annoy each other, make fun of each other, but underneath there's grudging respect. Maybe at some point we can pull out the 'For some mission Spike has to remove his soul' plot... Like a place they have to get into that doesn't allow people with souls. Angel can't lose his again, because that went so well last time... The only other option is to temporarily remove Spike's soul so he can get in... he doesn't have the chip, but he truly believes that the demon within him has changed, and will _want_ both to help the team and get the soul back at the end of it. Whether that turns out to be the case, well, we'd see.
Gunn: Starts off the season extremely injured, maybe even permanently so, so has to figure out what to do with himself when he's not the 'muscle', and when his lawyerly skills aren't helpful (since they're no longer lawyers, and they're what got Fred killed). Perhaps he takes on an 'Oracle' (from Batman) role - not hacking, but being the central organizing force, telling who to be where, keeping everyone up to speed on what's going on, and so on. He's also their in to Gwen.
Illyria: On an on again and off again attempt at understanding and becoming part of Humanity. Like Spike when he first got the chip, starts to find pleasure in simple destruction of the evil monsters - a way to assert her power. Since Wes is gone, Linsdey is assigned to be the one to be her 'mentor'... in part because he didn't really know Fred, and so doesn't have the baggage, but also because he redeemed himself. He's not fond of the assignment, and Spike also interacts with her quite a bit because they have a similar 'tell it like it is' type mindset. Gunn mostly avoids her, Angel treats her as a tool. She eventually starts reverting, so by the time they take down W&H once and for all, she's prepared to pick up the pieces, and they're unaware. Fred would also show up a few times, as Illyria using the knowledge and appearance of Fred to help get along in the world - mostly when she interacts with the average everyday person, she's putting on a 'Fred mask' which unnerves everyone (except Lindsey).
Lindsey: As mentioned above, he's the 'humanity coach' to Illyria. He knows more about the secret projects than the other characters, which gives him a use among the others, and he's a half decent fighter. The main source of friction would be that he thinks he should be in more of a leadership position of the group, or at least that Angel shouldn't be. We can also deal some with his feelings for
Eve.
Research Girl: Going from someone who helps the team a few times to a full member of the team. Everyone else in the team seems to have a darkness to their origin now - Angel, Spike, and Lindsay started evil, and redeemed themselves. Illyria was an evil Old One that killed off a good person and is now sort of somewhere in the middle. Gunn started good, but it was mostly a matter of survival with him, and he had darkness added onto him after. So, to balance this, she'd be something of a more pure good character - she joins the team to help out solely because it's right, and maybe a _little_ because she's an adrenaline junkie and likes the thrill of danger. She could maybe be a love interest at some point, of course, since this season wouldn't otherwise have much chance in that regard. I don't know who though. (I kind of hate to automatically move for the new female character into a 'love interest' role, but I think love interest has always been a strong part of any of the Whedon series, so at least one has to be there). Another option is to make her start out relatively rich, from an inheritance or something, which can give us a plot about losing it later.
Wes: The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of him being a forcibly resurrected assistant to W&H. He can't really help Angel and his team, except, early on, before he's taught the penalty for going against W&H's interest, warning them that they have to formally break their contract with W&H (I envision an exchange something like, "I figured killing off much of the senior management would have served to get me out of my contract" "Angel, this is Wolfram & Hart. Most of the time when a Wolfram & Hart employee kills a superior, they're not trying to get _out_ of their contract, they're looking for a promotion." "Looks like you got one." "Yes, it seems I did.")- otherwise, if they die, the afterlife clause comes into play. They didn't realize this was part of their deal when they signed on, but there are ways in place they can formally break it, so long as they haven't 'died in service'.
Of course all of this is just early, tentative thoughts - were production actually started we could see where things went and what elements were working, what weren't, and I would have hopefully had access to the creative genius of Joss Whedon and other Angel writers for ideas of other elements to include. But as a rough outline, this works for me, instinctively.
This and all my WIDWs are in my 'Memories' section. As usual, comments and alternative ideas more than welcome.
Here's a _very_ rough outline of where I'd go with S6 and 7 of Angel, assuming we could do one, and assuming it follows off from my own revised Season 5.
I'll assume for the purposes of this discussion that at the end of Season 5:
a) Wesley dies. I love him, but I can't think of a way to get him back to the cast from the finale that isn't a cheat, and it's high time the Buffyverse had another important death.
b) Lindsey is still here, part of the team (although perhaps only a part time one).
c) Lorne leaves for good, to another city entirely. There may be an opportunity for a guest shot, but he's out of the series for the most part.
The rest of the cast remains the same.
Season 6:
I'm not going to attempt to write a way out of the cliffhanger here (maybe a pitched battle with some last minute help from a group of Slayers who've been watching things over. They won't stay around for the whole season, but they help Angel & Co get out of the immediate jam, maybe put some magic on them that lets them evade magical scrying on the part of the Senior Partners. Lindsay could also provide this - he's used it before.
Season 6 would be sort of 'on the run' and 'regrouping'. The team no longer works for W&H, and they don't have the Hotel anymore, so they're left without a base of operations, and the SP still really pissed at them. Angel starts getting the visions (he said it was a one-shot deal, but he was wrong) of people to help, which they do while they're on the run, and getting more info about another coming apocalypse. I'll leave the exact details a little iffy. They'll have a couple different 'bases of operation' throughout the season. An abandoned building or sewers at first.
W&H still exists in LA and other areas, appearing suddenly again like they did after being destroyed in S4. The new LA branch CEO would be one of the major baddies of the season... maybe someone we've seen before but I can't think of anybody who would work. (About the only 'classic' villain left is Drusilla, and she's a bit too crazy to be a CEO. Having Wesley brought back like Lilah was, in that role ('my contract doesn't expire at death') _might_ work, but there's a good chance it'd come off cheesy - although he might be good as a semi-willing assistant to the actual CEO). There is Ethan Rayne, last seen in the hands of the Initiative, he might work. Other than that, though, it'd be a new character. We could always use Jewel Staite, who plays Kaylee from Firefly. ;)
Since Angel and company are on the run in this season, it might also be prudent to include a 'frame Angel for crimes he actually committed' plot from W&H.
We'd add a new female cast member here (since we only have one). A Slayer is an obvious choice (not Buffy, though), but I'm iffy on the idea. Likewise with Willow, or any other Buffyverse transplantees (Faith is the only one I'd consider as a maybe, but I think she's better off as just the occasional guest appearances). Not Eve, either, she'll probably get killed off fairly early in the year, and Harmony will just be on her own with nothing to do with the gang (or maybe even working for the new W&H). Since we lost Wes, someone who has some ability to do research might work well. Perhaps an occult bookstore owner that the gang goes to from time to time for research and gets drawn in because the _real_ vampires and demons and such and getting involved is just so much cooler to her. They could also crash at her place for a little while. We could always use Jewel Staite, who plays Kaylee from Firefly to play her. ;) Or someone else. Anyway, we'll hereafter refer to her as 'Research Girl'.
Among longer term missions - it's been shown a number of times that W&H cultivates 'special' people... Gwen, and that abused girl with telekinetic powers, and so on. Some of them are sent to hunt down Angel and his team, leading them to question where they come from. So they go on a rescue mission to infiltrate and destroy the training centers, possibly with Gwen's help.
At some point a W&H representative would make an offer, that they'd 'forget' about the murder of the Blackthorns, and clear up Angel's legal problems, if Angel and his group simply kill Illyria. Illyria is an Old One, and W&H don't _like_ the Old Ones, because they're so much more powerful, and would be more than willing to take over the world themselves and leave W&H with nothing, which is bad for the heroes as well as the villains. Angel & Co refuse of course (although perhaps considering it), but that offer reminds them that Illyria's something they fear, and they start working on plans to use her and destroy W&H.
I rather liked my idea of 'The Powers That Be aren't the be all and end all of goodness' from Lindsey's plot, so I think I'll work that here. They won't be destroyed, but more or less at the end of Season 6, Angel's gang will encounter them and essentially say, 'You say you couldn't, wouldn't do anything to help us avert this aside from giving us hints. Great. As usual, the deck's stacked against us. Every other week there's an apocalypse that might destroy all that is good in the world, and you tell us we can't take down the evil until the final battle. A battle that never comes. It seems the only time there'll ever be a final battle is if we lose. Otherwise, there's always another. Well, screw you. It's time for the good guys to have an Apocalypse. The final battle begins now.' (With some prior ironically intended comment, perhaps by the Research Girl, earlier in the episode about how Apocalypse actually, literally comes from a greek word meaning a 'lifting of the veil', and so isn't intrinsically bad)
Season 7:
Season 7 would be an all-out offensive against the Wolf, the Ram, and the Hart. Illyria knows them, and she has knowledge of other dimensions, which may be enough to find them. The truth is, Wolfram & Hart aren't eternal, unkillable, they're just extremely well-hidden and well-connected. They never come out, and they've amassed power across dimensions, but physically, if you faced them on neutral ground, they can be taken out (Evil itself can't be defeated, but they can). The heroes will be pro-active here, seeking out and finding information about the dimension W&H are hiding in, with some of the plotlines taking place in some of these dimensions (this would be a good spot for a Lorne appearance - if they decide to temporarily go back to Pylea), while at the same time preventing the latest evil Apocalypse (because they never did stop it, they just decided they were fed up with the help offered by the PTB).
Other threads we _might_ like to explore is a more literal version of the 'unveiling' - Angel and Co actively seeking to reveal the existence of the supernatural to the world. I'm really mixed on this idea though because it's very easy to come off badly, and lose all sense of the fantasy that 'this could be our world, we just don't know about it'. I think it _could_ be done well, but I'd have to see proposals on the arc. I confess, I can't think of a good way, just think it might be something worth exploring. I kind of like the idea of gathering together forces in the city that know about stuff, featuring opportunitys to see Anne again and other little used characters.
At some point in the two seasons we will need to deal again with the 'new Watchers Council' (made up of robots and such), maybe set up a conflict between them and the Slayer Army (even if Buffy doesn't appear, Faith or other slayers could make a guest appearance)... pointlessly fighting over who fights evil the most, and over recruiting Slayers not yet found. And/or the Watchers Council might be yet another group determined to take out Illyria. Angel and co. just can't win, which is as it should be. ;)
These two seasons sets things up for the Buffyverse movie, where someone decides to unite all the demons and such on Earth, left scattered with W&H's death, to conquer the world, and the surviving Buffy/Angel gang lead an army of slayers to beat the demons off the Earth once and for all (until the time of Fray). Maybe Illyria leads the demon army, having taken out her competition and seeing an opportunity to raise her army back (this would especially have some nice resonance with the whole 'if you kill Illyria, we'll take the heat off you' offer in S6. Maybe try to set up something up in the two seasons where it suggests that if Wesley hadn't died, she might have been truly redeemed but because he did, she gradually fell). Especially if she takes some resources from W&H's own dimension, detailing all the demons they own in one contract or another, maybe even taking possession (which, as it turns out, reunites her with Wesley).
Character Arcs:
Angel: There was that 'What if...'? episode that suggested if Angel had the visions, he'd go mad... but it was later revealed Skip was showing Cordelia these things to pave the way for Jasmine, so it doesn't have to be the case. Still, we could toy with the idea of the visions being too much for him. This could potentially lead to the meeting with the Powers. We can also toy with the idea of him having a powerup from feeding off Hamilton. Also, Angel believes that Spike is now the person spoken of in the Shanshu prophecy - I'm not sure I'd want to go down the road that he's right (a prophecy doesn't seem like something you can 'sign away'), but it's probably good fodder to explore him believing it, and still being a hero.
Spike: Still enjoying being a thorn in Angel's side, they start to develop a more brotherly relationship. They annoy each other, make fun of each other, but underneath there's grudging respect. Maybe at some point we can pull out the 'For some mission Spike has to remove his soul' plot... Like a place they have to get into that doesn't allow people with souls. Angel can't lose his again, because that went so well last time... The only other option is to temporarily remove Spike's soul so he can get in... he doesn't have the chip, but he truly believes that the demon within him has changed, and will _want_ both to help the team and get the soul back at the end of it. Whether that turns out to be the case, well, we'd see.
Gunn: Starts off the season extremely injured, maybe even permanently so, so has to figure out what to do with himself when he's not the 'muscle', and when his lawyerly skills aren't helpful (since they're no longer lawyers, and they're what got Fred killed). Perhaps he takes on an 'Oracle' (from Batman) role - not hacking, but being the central organizing force, telling who to be where, keeping everyone up to speed on what's going on, and so on. He's also their in to Gwen.
Illyria: On an on again and off again attempt at understanding and becoming part of Humanity. Like Spike when he first got the chip, starts to find pleasure in simple destruction of the evil monsters - a way to assert her power. Since Wes is gone, Linsdey is assigned to be the one to be her 'mentor'... in part because he didn't really know Fred, and so doesn't have the baggage, but also because he redeemed himself. He's not fond of the assignment, and Spike also interacts with her quite a bit because they have a similar 'tell it like it is' type mindset. Gunn mostly avoids her, Angel treats her as a tool. She eventually starts reverting, so by the time they take down W&H once and for all, she's prepared to pick up the pieces, and they're unaware. Fred would also show up a few times, as Illyria using the knowledge and appearance of Fred to help get along in the world - mostly when she interacts with the average everyday person, she's putting on a 'Fred mask' which unnerves everyone (except Lindsey).
Lindsey: As mentioned above, he's the 'humanity coach' to Illyria. He knows more about the secret projects than the other characters, which gives him a use among the others, and he's a half decent fighter. The main source of friction would be that he thinks he should be in more of a leadership position of the group, or at least that Angel shouldn't be. We can also deal some with his feelings for
Eve.
Research Girl: Going from someone who helps the team a few times to a full member of the team. Everyone else in the team seems to have a darkness to their origin now - Angel, Spike, and Lindsay started evil, and redeemed themselves. Illyria was an evil Old One that killed off a good person and is now sort of somewhere in the middle. Gunn started good, but it was mostly a matter of survival with him, and he had darkness added onto him after. So, to balance this, she'd be something of a more pure good character - she joins the team to help out solely because it's right, and maybe a _little_ because she's an adrenaline junkie and likes the thrill of danger. She could maybe be a love interest at some point, of course, since this season wouldn't otherwise have much chance in that regard. I don't know who though. (I kind of hate to automatically move for the new female character into a 'love interest' role, but I think love interest has always been a strong part of any of the Whedon series, so at least one has to be there). Another option is to make her start out relatively rich, from an inheritance or something, which can give us a plot about losing it later.
Wes: The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of him being a forcibly resurrected assistant to W&H. He can't really help Angel and his team, except, early on, before he's taught the penalty for going against W&H's interest, warning them that they have to formally break their contract with W&H (I envision an exchange something like, "I figured killing off much of the senior management would have served to get me out of my contract" "Angel, this is Wolfram & Hart. Most of the time when a Wolfram & Hart employee kills a superior, they're not trying to get _out_ of their contract, they're looking for a promotion." "Looks like you got one." "Yes, it seems I did.")- otherwise, if they die, the afterlife clause comes into play. They didn't realize this was part of their deal when they signed on, but there are ways in place they can formally break it, so long as they haven't 'died in service'.
Of course all of this is just early, tentative thoughts - were production actually started we could see where things went and what elements were working, what weren't, and I would have hopefully had access to the creative genius of Joss Whedon and other Angel writers for ideas of other elements to include. But as a rough outline, this works for me, instinctively.
This and all my WIDWs are in my 'Memories' section. As usual, comments and alternative ideas more than welcome.