Angel: Season 5 - Angel of Redemption

And so at last, we come to the final televised season of the Buffyverse. Like Season 6 of Buffy, Angel Season 5 was full of firsts; the first season Angel existed without its parent show, the first time Cordelia wasn't a regular on either show, and the first show with both Angel and Spike appearing together in the opening credits. Oh, and for the first time, our heroes are knowlingly working for the bad guys.

Taking place about three weeks after the Season 4 finale (another first; all other seasons of both shows would have 3 months occur between seasons, since the first few years of Buffy all took place over the course of a school year), Angel and his team are still adjusting to working for Wolfram and Hart. Angel is the president, Wes heads up the mystical division, Fred is in charge of the science division, and Lorne heads the entertainment division. As for Gunn, his life is sent in a whole new direction when an intricate knowledge of the law is downloaded into his mind. After a season of questioning his purpose in the group, Gunn becomes more than he ever imagined he would (or could) become when he is W&H's newest hotshot attorney.

The premiere is about how the group plans to continue fighting for good while being the leaders of an organization that is a physical manifestation of evil. It shows Angel and co. defending one of Wolfram and Hart's scumbag clients who threatens to destroy the whole city if he is found guilty at his trial. The lesson of the episode (or anti-lesson?) is that, sometimes, to serve the greater good, you have to work with your enemies. This sounds like a terrible moral, but unfortunately, it is not necessarily false. Angel is about the trials and tribulations of adult life, and Season 5 is the season that is about the harsh realities of letting go of your idealism when "the real world" sets in. The episode ends with Angel trying to reassure the rest of his friends that, no matter what happens, they are still on the side of good. And then Spike reappears.

Last year, when Angel was given Wolfram and Hart, he received a strange medallion from the higher-ups to use against the First in Sunnydale (though it is never stated, it's likely that the Senior Partners wanted the First out of the way just as much as Buffy, since they wanted the apocalypse to occur on their terms). To use it, it had to be worn by a champion, a hero (with a soul), but someone who was more than human. Angel intended to use it, but Buffy convinced him to give it to Spike so that Angel could set up a second line of defense in LA in case the attack in Sunnydale failed. The amulet concentrated the sunlight through Spike, taking out the First's entire army of ubervamps, but it also killed Spike (and destroyed Sunnydale). However, someone went to the crater formerly known as Sunnydale and mailed the amulet back to Angel. Upon opening the package, Spike reformed, but as a ghost.

As I said, for the first time in the history of the Buffyverse, Angel and Spike appear together as regulars in the opening credits. The last time they both appeared together in multiple episodes was Season 2 of Buffy, and back then, Spike was evil the entire time, and Angelus was present for about half, so here, we get to see two vampires with souls interacting. Strangely enough, despite the inclusion of souls, the way they act together is similar to how they interacted without souls; they constantly bicker and take shots at each other. When one was evil and the other good, they had meaningful arguments. Now, they act like an old married couple, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I surprised a lot of people by saying the best couple ever featured in the Buffyverse was Angel/Spike (for most people, there are only two choices, Buffy/Angel and Buffy/Spike). They bring out the worst in each other, but when they work together in a fight, they are a force to be reckoned with.

For the first third of the season, Spike is a ghost, forced to remain in the W&H offices, due to being tied to the amulet (which itself is tied to W&H). Also, these episodes are fairly episodic. Angel almost didn't get picked up for a fifth season, and there were many stipulations from the WB Network that came with the renewal. Spike was one of them; he was one of the most popular characters on Buffy, and the network was hoping to capitalize on his popularity. The two other main ones were a decreased budget and a less serialized approach to storytelling. Fortunately, Joss Whedon, being the genius that he is, makes the lack of a larger story arc INTO the season's story arc, but more on that later.

In the first few episodes, the lack of an overall storyline (or so we think) is completely offset by good individual stories ("Hell Bound", "Lineage"), and amazing humor ("Life of the Party"). But the eighth episode, "Destiny" was the first truly astounding episode of the season. Spike is recorporealized (another strange package arrives in the mail, containing a spell that gives him his body back), which allows for a phenomenal fight between Angel and Spike. Throughout the episode, we see flashbacks to when Angelus, Darla, Spike, and Drusilla were traveling Europe (though Darla isn't present in this episode), which show the origins of the rivalry between Angel and Spike. In the present, the presence of two vampires with souls, both of whom are "champions", throws the universe out of whack, since it creates ambiguity for the Shanshu Prophecy. The episode reintroduces that story, which will become important in the rest of the series, and reintroduces Lindsay McDonald, who left at the end of Season 2 in order to find himself. Now, he has returned to get back at Angel, the man he believes is responsible for ruining his life. Lindsay lost his hand because of Angel (though he eventually got a new one), spent two years of his life struggling at work to find a way to deal with the problem Angel posed his company, only to see Angel be given the keys to the kingdom.

As part of a sick game to mess with both Angel and Spike (and a great callback to Season 1), Lindsay introduces himself as "Doyle" to Spike, claiming that he receives visions from the Powers That Be. He sends Spike on missions to help the helpless, setting him up in a small apartment. Eventually, these activities are found out by Wolfram and Hart, and Wes and Gunn pay a visit to Spike, encouraging him to stop what he's doing. Sounds eerily familiar.

Meanwhile, things just get worse at W&H; it is becoming harder and harder for Angel to justify and rationalize his actions. No matter what is said or done about the greater good, the bad acts Angel and co. are performing are beginning to take a toll. The 100th episode sees the return of Cordelia, and serves as a way to set Angel back on track for the rest of the season (though the full extent of how is not revealed until the end of the season). From here on out, the group becomes much more wary of the things they do for Wolfram and Hart. However, it is a different event that ultimately causes the team to break away from Hell, Inc.

Sadly, it is an immense tragedy that prompts this, but in a sense, only a tragedy could do it. Fred dies. Yeah. The sweetest character on the show is killed when Gunn is blackmailed into accepting a package into the building. And this is the last straw for Wes. For the first time since Season 3, he was happy this season (he doesn't fully remember the time since Connor due to a deal Angel made at the end of Season 4), and he was made even happier when Fred finally reciprocated his love. But what's worse for him is that Fred's body continues to walk around. Fred was killed when the essence of Illyria, an ancient demon, entered her body and took it over as its own. Though at first Angel, Spike, and Wes have to fight Illyria, she/he becomes an eventual ally. And though it hurts to see Fred's body without Fred's soul in it, Illyria is a great character. She is a powerful fighter, and her/his inability to understand the world they are living in is humorous to watch (also, the line, "I wish to keep Spike as a pet" never ceases to be hilarious).

So how do all these stories fit together to create the season's arc? As I said, it was brilliant; since Angel and the team now act on Wolfram and Hart's terms, they are no longer heroes. They are taking things only on a case-by-case basis, and acting in such ambiguous ways that they are no longer on the side of good. Adding insult to injury, the one who tells them this is Lindsay. Vowing to undo any wrong they may have done at W&H, the team decides to take out the most powerful W&H assets once and for all.

Since this is a show about redemption, which Angel describes as an unending quest, it ends a little more ambiguously than its parent show. In one way, this fits the tone of the show. In another way, I WANTED TO SEE WHAT HAPPENED NEXT!!! When the series finale aired, I was watching it with the guy that got me into the Buffyverse, and we both yelled out, "NNNOOOOO!!!!" simultaneously when the final fade to black happened.

Before I end this post, I have to talk about the episode, "Smile Time". Across both shows, there has been a musical episode, a silent episode, and an opera episode (sort of). But this one was completely something else. The story involves Angel getting turned into a puppet. No bullshit. It sounds silly, but the plot worked, the jokes were hilarious ("You're a wee little puppet man!"), and I haven't seen puppets acting so bad since Avenue Q (though I'm only putting it that way to bring up the play, since I saw this episode first). Joss Whedon's father wrote a lot of stuff for the Muppets, and doing a show with a puppet was always a dream of Joss' (along with the musical episode), and he pulled it off beautifully.

So that's it. After 12 seasons, 8 years, and 254 episodes, the Buffyverse came to an end on May 19th, 2004. Sadly, unlike Buffy, Angel did not have the benefit of knowing for sure that its fifth season was the last one. They ASSUMED that it would be the last one; the opening scene of the season is reminiscent of the teaser of the pilot. But nothing was for sure. This year, ratings increased; in Season 4, they started going down, but they were at an all-time high in Season 5. I'm pretty sure that the only show on The WB ahead of Angel in ratings was Smallville, which was decreasing in ratings (or so I heard). And so, by the time the writers wrote the episodes in which Fred died and Illyria arose, they believed that they'd be back for Season 6, and began setting up plotlines for the next year. And then they were canceled. So the writers had to squeeze the sixth season into about six episodes. Needless to say, it did feel slightly rushed, but at the same time, they were still great. Adam Baldwin (Jayne from Firefly) showed up as a Wolfram and Hart tough, Connor returned and was REDEEMED (this is the character who sent Angel to the bottom of the ocean and tried to blow up himself, Cordelia, and an entire mall; many people believed he was unredeemable, but Joss pulled it off), and Angel and Spike dealt with their feelings about Buffy.

And so, after 12 great seasons, the Buffyverse came to an end. Or did it?

Up next: "Season 8" and "After the Fall"...