Angel 5.10 Soul Purpose

[thebratqueen]

Ooo! Dream analysis! My favorite!

This is a brand new writer (Brent Fletcher, for those of you playing the home game) and let me secure my bitch creds right off the bat here by saying that the boy nailed the character voices better than Edlund does. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm down with the Tick and all but Edlund writes stereotypes. Brent actually threw some depth in. Though how much of that was him and how much was the home team making sure the script was up to preplanned spec the world may never know.

Anyway, I love how this ep really sums up the entire problem the gang faces this season. Spike says it himself, there's no moral compass. Watch how many layers of that there are in the ep. Spike thinks he's doing good but he's actually working for the bad guys without knowing it. The AI gang knows they're in an evil firm but every fight they fight is a grey one. Eve is supposed to be close to the Senior Partners but she's running her own gig - so who in the "enemy of my enemy" senario does that make the AI gang's friend? Her? The Senior Partners? Someone else?

Notice too Angel's fatal flaw. From "Home" he said that dealing with W&H would corrupt them. Well Angel's corrupted all right. He's so weighed down by doubt and depression that he's back to thinking of suicide again. Sounds like a great way to get rid of a champion to me. I find it ironic that he's basically being destroyed by the same tool that brought down Wes in "Soulless": he was too cocky in his assumption about where the mindgames would come from. He wasn't prepared for how subtle it could be.

The dream sequences were great and once again give us heavy doses of show symbolism and Angel's mindset. Yet again Angel's dreams start out with Wes in that place of his friend and left hand man (shut up, I amuse myself with my in-jokes) (oh, and see also: Awakening for what I mean by yet again) but at the same time Wes is, yet again, the guy Angel sees as the one who will put the final nail in his coffin. Back to Wes the betrayer, sure, but by the same token watch the symbolism spin. Wes stakes Angel but Angel wants to die. So does Angel view this as a favor? Wes putting him out of his misery? If nothing else Wes seems to act as Angel's conscience, and I watch the whole thing unfold and can't help but think back to what felt like (no spoilers here, just my speculation) some heavy-handed foreshadowing that came with Angel acknowledging that Wes's job was to make the hard decisions that nobody else could.

And while we're on Wes (heh) let's also notice his role outside of Angel's dream. He watches Angel's sickness with interest. He easily takes command and authorizes multiple things on Angel's behalf, he monitors Angel well enough that he knows he's never left the penthouse. Concerned friend, second in command in waiting, something more sinister? You make the call.

Also of note in the starring roles of his dreams was Fred as Jimminy Cricket #2, and Lorne as the person with whom Angel is once more discussing how life is nothing but pain and misery that goes on and on and on and never ends (see also: Anniversary).

I found David's directing style of favoring low camera angles and tight closeups to actually work well with all of this. It put us into Angel's point of view and added to the feeling of being disoriented and at a disadvantage. Some of the choices had a comic book feel to them but OTOH given the Spike storyline I'm not sure that was out of place. Blocking was an interesting one. Especially the scene of Wes and Gunn playing pocket pool while Spike sits with enough room between his legs for the Holy Spirit. Not exactly sure what David was going for there but okay.

Obnitpicky: It's good that this wasn't an ep that required a lot of Angel himself. David needs a strong director to reign him in and no way no how would David be his own best director. A mostly silent, suffering Angel was a good choice here. Though props for the acting he did when turning into Number Five.

Speaking of nitpicky, I know I'm going to be the only one to say this but I got a big squick over the use of Doyle's name. This is admittedly 100% me. I know why they're using it, I agree that Lindsey would use it, I get it, I'm just squicked by it. No idea why I assumed ME was going to treat Glenn Quinn's death the same way The Simpsons dealt with Phil Hartman's by quietly retiring any and all mentions of his characters but there we are.

Eve continues to neither be sexy nor interesting. I remain fascinated in a train wreck kind of way in wondering why Joss thought that the plot twist of the girl nobody trusted turing out to be the girl we shouldn't trust would be, well, a plot twist but there we are. I hold out hope that ep 100 (again no spoilers, just speculation) will provide a reveal that will make it all worthwhile. In the meanwhile please stop making the dishraggy girls have sex on my TV. Not even Christian could have made that scene hot.

Random comments:

Does the costume department smoke crack before dressing the girls? Other than Mercedes, that is, who's the only one who actually looks like she's dressed appropriately for the office?

Speaking of clothes, for the love of God and porn would they PLEASE retire Spike's coat? The lighting and film they use on Angel does not flatter that thing and it looks like a dead animal that's both misshapen and draped over his shoulders. Either retire it or quietly get him a better duster and tell everyone it's the same thing.

So... anybody heard from kita0610 yet? I'm assuming she hasn't stopped squeeing over her OTP.

Speaking of Angel dreaming about Spike having sex in his bed - seven years of SMG audio and those were the best quotes they could come up with? Seriously? No, seriously?

No, seriously?

Next week Andrew! Yay! He shall be there and be wonderful and have a crush on Wesley because how could he not?

Finally: I bet all the Angel/Fred shippers were in raptures to find out that Angel dreams about giving Fred a pearl necklace.

Thanks, I'll be here all week. Don't forget to tip your waitress.