3/11: Birthday

[Queen E]

Oh dear. Here's where it kicks off...

[beccaelizabeth]

So this is a classic. And one big grey area.
It looks like it's Cordy being selfless and a champion and stuff. And yet, what does it lead to?
Deals with demons: Never a good idea.
So why does Cordelia take this one? All that time with Angel and Lorne and everyone fuzzying up the definitions, how much of a problem is it to be 'demonised'?

Skip we met guarding Billy in hell. Billy, who got let out to save Cordelia from visions that were killing her. And now it's Skip who turns up to save her?
On the one hand, good guy, guarding a bad guy. On the other, reason to have issues.

Angel chose to be a demon so he could be a champion and save the world a lot. Back when he got turned human and turned it back. That got referenced with the they don't turn back time... much.

Doyle was part demon and a champion. And he got mentioned a lot. That's Cordelia's model.

But what is she giving up? Fame and fortune and all that shiny stuff? Or something more subtle?

The fame and fortune thing was bait for a Cordelia she hasn't been for years. Her alternate life didn't include an alternate family, or friends, or loves. So she chose the people she loves, keeping them safe, over being stared at by millions once a week. If that's really TPTB offering her swaps, that's kind of a no brainer, surely? And if TPTB couldn't predict Doyle because they aren't about love, what kind of beings are they? Love's what this is all about.

Just it might be using love as a hook.

If the scans all say the visions have fried Cordy's brain already, but she wasn't losing any function, then TPTB and mystic stuff is already keeping her safe. What changed? Just one vision too many?

And what about last time she chose to keep the visions? Being a princess, and a really hot guy, but she chose to keep them. Same choice. Same outcome.
Groo, part demon, could have survived the visions if those are the rules.
Was it selfless to keep them?

Cordy seems to have reduced her usefulness to just being the messenger, being the one with the visions. Like when Angel reckoned he couldn't save the world as a human it devalues the contributions of humans. But Cordy has a lot less excuse. Wes and Gunn and Fred now all bring something unique and useful, help save the world a lot. Cordy though? Skip says some about her self image matching and that meaning she's self confident. But if that were so, she wouldn't have taken the fame and fortune choice.

And that moment is the biggest clue Skip is a lying liar who lies. He takes her to see Angel, yes. But he takes her at the one and only moment Angel be saying bad things about her, and doesn't have her stay to hear the whole of it. He's cheating.

She falls for it.

Because she doesn't really value herself, Cordelia, individual human type person. She thinks it's the visions that make her special. And everything about that Birthday present world is set up to make her think that too. Wes with one arm, Gunn scarred, Angel insane? Like she could walk away from that? But how is it the logical outcome?

... interesting though if Angel got the visions from Doyle. Who was his last kiss for if Cordy wasn't around?

So anyway... I love this episode. It looks like Cordelia does the right thing. She'll take the pain and give up a whole life she could have had and give up being human to save the world.

But becoming less human is never the right call in this 'verse.

So... good intentions... but she should have believed in herself more.

And even that conclusion can be argued either way.