Angel 5.11 Damage

[thebratqueen]

Oh my god how much did I love that episode? I want to have its babies. I want to write sonnets, and express my love in song. I want to marry it. In fact my name is now "Mrs. TBQ Damage" or maybe something else. I'm still working on it to make it pithy. But oh my GOD how much did I love this ep?

Andrew!! ANDREW!!! Not only saying "VamPYRE" but doing the little pose! How much do I love Tom Lenk?

Steve DeKnight so loves me. And if he's not an Angel/Wes shipper I will bite myself. (And if he's not the one who wrote the dark scenes, and the Angel/Wes heavy scenes, I will also bite myself. I'll wager dollars to donuts that Ultimate Drew took care of the Andrew stuff.) And look! Wes had a job! And he was good at it! And Angel relied on him!

See I'm not saying Angel has to rely on him, I'm fine for a plot development of Angel isolating himself from everybody, but there's a difference between Angel doing it and the writers doing it. The writers for some reason have been lazy and not noticing when Wes has fuck-all to do. That's different from Angel purposefully isolating him. But enough of that rant.

(Angel kept saving Spike! Which I am so fine for as total proof of slashdom because look who saved Angel in the end! It's canon, god-damn it!)

(I'm fine)

(Slightly hyper. Did I mention my deep and abiding love for this ep?)

I love how the concept of a psycho Slayer got explored on Angel. Because frankly that's more an Angel thing to do. Take a concept and give it its darkest spin (and, if you're smart, give that concept to DeKnight to write for you). I call a teeeny bit of no way on the fact that W&H didn't *know* about all the Slayers (what exactly is Wes's department doing in its spare time again?) but on the other hand the necessary exposition was bad enough on the things they did know so I suppose they had to throw that in there to explain why Andrew was talking.

Spike's continued reason for not talking to Buffy continues to be lame. But on the other hand can I just point out that he had more chemistry with Andrew than he's had with anybody else on the show so far? And I sadly include Angel in that statement?

See, here's the thing. I'm fine for Spike being there. I'm even fine for him doing what he's doing. But the thing that's not fine is the fact that he hasn't connected with any of the other characters yet. For the most part he's had no scenes that didn't hinge on us giving a shit about him. We've not seen why the characters give a shit about him. They just do because they're supposed to, and they're supposed to because the script says so.

Now granted that Angel's the only one with any history with Spike, so it makes sense that Spike and the rest of the gang aren't bosom buddies - and I'm even fine for it being in-character that neither Spike nor the rest of the gang would care to hang out after hours to bond. But all the scenes with Spike and Angel so far boil down to "Spike snarks at Angel about stuff". Which is nice when it's actually funny (note that I have to qualify that) but it doesn't give Spike a niche. We didn't actually need a snarker on this show. We weren't lacking for one. The only one we ever did sort of have was Cordy, and she never snarked like Spike did anyway.

So thus far the only person Spike can interact with is Angel, all his interactions are snarking, and all of Angel's interactions are "Spike, go away." This doesn't do anything for the show.

Now look at Spike's scenes with Andrew. They've got a history, they've got a communication patter, the two of them can talk about stuff and actually talk about it, and suddenly Spike's a person again and not "Snarky line #47". He needs this. If he's going to stay on the show he needs somebody he's actually doing stuff with and not simply being there to be there.

Since Andrew (much to my sorrow) isn't hanging around, I nominate Harmony. She's the Andrew of AtS anyway, plus she and Spike also have the history. She should be bopping around with him, chattering away, and giving Spike somebody he can interact with. Otherwise James really could be replaced by a cardboard cutout of himself and the episodes wouldn't suffer any.

Which isn't to say (watch how I bring this back to the ep) that James can't act. Because Lord he did in this one. I'm just saying finally! It's nice to see plotlines involving Spike that deal with Spike, it's nice to see Spike having emotions, and it's nice to get that scene with him and Angel at the end where Spike's soul actually does something in terms of giving him empathy.

And, of course, I loved Angel at the end too. Nice look from Boreanaz (though I credit Jefferson as well). Calm, sympathetic, and a little paternal. You could see Angel finally getting a sense of fellow-feeling and maybe even pride that Spike was starting to get it.

Speaking of Angel and Spike, I find it interesting that Steve and Ultimate Drew apparently cast their votes for Angel being better at the Champion job than Spike is. Angel may be corporate guy now, but he actually cares enough to pay attention to the details and do the job right. Spike just barrels on through.

(Sidenote: How did Spike know to be there? I'll assume "vision" from Lindsey but why would Linds send him on this case? Wouldn't he worry about his ace in the hole getting staked before he could do all that Lindsey needs him to do? Though I guess we could fanwank that by saying that Linds wasn't worried about Spike vs. a Slayer since Spike's killed two already.)

What else, what else.... Foreshadowing was nice. Not too heavy-handed. Just the right tone so that later on people won't be saying "Damn, that came out of nowhere!"

Best line of the ep: Danny! I'm gonna need a whip!

Interesting directing choice to have Wes in a good deal of the Angel shots, especially at the end. On the one hand this makes obvious sense since Wes as former Watcher would certainly be having reactions to everything that's going on, but OTOH it makes me wonder if those were hinting at more too. Or maybe this show just loves me.

Speaking of which - notice Angel guiding Wes into his office for no obvious stated reason whatsoever. I'm not commenting. I'm just noticing the canonical alone time together. Draw your own conclusions as to why. *cough*

The background story for Dana was great, but I have to admit at pre-cringing in anticipation of James making this his sob story to tell at cons. ("I had to shower each night and remind myself I'm not a child murderer") Yeah, I know I'm a bit of a bitch. But I'd be less so if James didn't give me the impression of having rehearsed his sob stories right down to the exact moment he sheds a few manly yet sensitive tears. OTOH not going to see James at cons anymore makes this the world's easiest to avoid problem.

And, unless there was any doubt, I also love Dana. Not only because she was a kick-ass variation on the Slayer theme (and let me just say that while I roll my eyes at Buffy and her gang not anticipating this eventual outcome, I also find that to be in-character for them) but most importantly because she took off Spike's coat.

Now all they have to do is lose it. "Sorry, Spike. Couldn't find the coat. But on the upside we did get your hands so there's that to consider."

Mmm... Mrs. TBQ Damage.