Angel 5x04 Hellbound
Thu, Oct. 23rd, 2003 11:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterI am now the owner of Buffy S4 DVDs ^_^. Tower didn't have Angel S2 =(. But still. Hush! Restless! Commentary!
First impressions here:
Frankly, I was a bit disappointed. I think I expected too much after seeing the really awesome preview, and having it end up being the scheme of some insane ghost who didn't want to go to hell was much less creepy and interesting than I wanted it to be. I think I really liked the idea of Spike straddling hell and of W&H wanting Angel in the same position, but having it end up being a ghost made the threat much less frightening. Well, maybe it'll be a decoy like After Life and Spike being a ghost will turn out to have giant repercussions.
I was also bored by Spike in the ep. I think I haven't been as interested in Spike as I used to be once he got the soul, because now I know what rules he's playing by. For me, at least, there was never any real question as to what he'd go for - Fred or the circle - in the end, while there would have been had he been unsouled Spike.
On the other hand, even though he wasn't the main player, I thought Angel was fascinating here. I think Spike is Angel's Faith, the one person he is not willing to save. Although luckily for Spike, he had Buffy in S7 before Angel, unlike Faith, who dealt with the Scoobies before finally finding Angel and peace. Spike is too personal for Angel, too much like him to save. My favorite part of the ep. was the conversation between the two about hell and Angel's belief that not only is Spike going there, but that he himself is as well. So I think his "Some people can't be saved" wasn't as one-sided as his decision to abandon the lawyers in S2; he's talking about himself. And I guess he used to believe he could be saved after To Shanshu in LA because of the prophecy (I cheered when Fred finally brought it up), but thanks to events of S3 and S4, which no one else remembers, he's a lot more bitter, and he doesn't believe in anything really much anymore. He's abandoned his son, he's running an evil law firm, all his good intentions have gone down the drain, and he can't even tell his friends because he wiped their memories.
So yes, I think this is the real course of the season and Spike as ghost is a bit of a sideshow, designed in the end to bring out Angel's lack of faith and his world-weariness. Even though he tells Spike that they fight because what else can they do, he seems to not really believe in his own words at all. And in a way, he's stopped, and it shows in every episode, from shooting a human guy in the head to killing a human necromancer and abandoning scientist guy. Now he's locked up someone for life or eternity in a very creepy fashion and doesn't seem to think that much of it. He's regularly violating Buffy's rule of not killing people, and he doesn't seem to think much of it at all.
Other things: Still like the Spike and Fred interaction, especially Fred's condescension (sp). Also like a show of Gunn's personal link to the White Room, Wes's (hopefully) brotherly concern over Fred, talk of budgets and projections. And I really liked Angel and Spike's argument on the couch, culminating with an embarrassing admission from Angel.
First impressions here:
Frankly, I was a bit disappointed. I think I expected too much after seeing the really awesome preview, and having it end up being the scheme of some insane ghost who didn't want to go to hell was much less creepy and interesting than I wanted it to be. I think I really liked the idea of Spike straddling hell and of W&H wanting Angel in the same position, but having it end up being a ghost made the threat much less frightening. Well, maybe it'll be a decoy like After Life and Spike being a ghost will turn out to have giant repercussions.
I was also bored by Spike in the ep. I think I haven't been as interested in Spike as I used to be once he got the soul, because now I know what rules he's playing by. For me, at least, there was never any real question as to what he'd go for - Fred or the circle - in the end, while there would have been had he been unsouled Spike.
On the other hand, even though he wasn't the main player, I thought Angel was fascinating here. I think Spike is Angel's Faith, the one person he is not willing to save. Although luckily for Spike, he had Buffy in S7 before Angel, unlike Faith, who dealt with the Scoobies before finally finding Angel and peace. Spike is too personal for Angel, too much like him to save. My favorite part of the ep. was the conversation between the two about hell and Angel's belief that not only is Spike going there, but that he himself is as well. So I think his "Some people can't be saved" wasn't as one-sided as his decision to abandon the lawyers in S2; he's talking about himself. And I guess he used to believe he could be saved after To Shanshu in LA because of the prophecy (I cheered when Fred finally brought it up), but thanks to events of S3 and S4, which no one else remembers, he's a lot more bitter, and he doesn't believe in anything really much anymore. He's abandoned his son, he's running an evil law firm, all his good intentions have gone down the drain, and he can't even tell his friends because he wiped their memories.
So yes, I think this is the real course of the season and Spike as ghost is a bit of a sideshow, designed in the end to bring out Angel's lack of faith and his world-weariness. Even though he tells Spike that they fight because what else can they do, he seems to not really believe in his own words at all. And in a way, he's stopped, and it shows in every episode, from shooting a human guy in the head to killing a human necromancer and abandoning scientist guy. Now he's locked up someone for life or eternity in a very creepy fashion and doesn't seem to think that much of it. He's regularly violating Buffy's rule of not killing people, and he doesn't seem to think much of it at all.
Other things: Still like the Spike and Fred interaction, especially Fred's condescension (sp). Also like a show of Gunn's personal link to the White Room, Wes's (hopefully) brotherly concern over Fred, talk of budgets and projections. And I really liked Angel and Spike's argument on the couch, culminating with an embarrassing admission from Angel.