JUDGMENT: We Are the Champions

[William the Bloody]

A fresh new season, a fresh new thread... ahhh... that springtime freshness!

[Patti - S'cubie Cutie]

Erin, I never post since I am your beta, but I wanted to thank you for a full season of Angelphile goodness, and for this excellent start to a new season. Keep them coming please!
*hug*

[Queen E]

Patti said:

Erin, I never post since I am your beta, but I wanted to thank you for a full season of Angelphile goodness, and for this excellent start to a new season. Keep them coming please!
*hug*

*hug* You are the best beta! I wouldn't sound half as good without you...sometimes the words and thoughts don't always mesh. Thanks for keeping me sounding like I know what I'm talking about!

Yay, Patti!

[Lola m]

Erin – you rock!

You know, I was thinking just like your opening paragraph (“we already know the other shoe will be dropping at any moment”) as I re-watched this ep. The opening scenes are just so . . . “hey, look at us all competent and cool rogue demon hunters”! (Well, we see a few cracks in Wes’ façade, but still.) It’s a fake-out, and yet not. It’s a true reflection of the gang’s strengthened relationship with each other, but it’s a false picture of the way the true story arc will go. There’s not gonna be much that is straightforward about even this episode, much less the rest of the season. Quite the opposite.

The Prio demon as mirror for Angel is the first and most obvious thing we notice – it’s brought up directly with dialog and visual comparisons, and I always remember the importance of the “demon of the week” to any ep – but I was glad to see you bring back the idea of Gunn as a mirror for Angel as well. This is the ep that brings us JAR as a regular cast member and introduces the members of the new Fang Gang to each other. Remembering the idea of Gunn as a reflection of, and comparison to, Angel is going to be important to remember in future eps this season.

The whole mirror analogy was a good one – it fits the opening scene and follows through nicely to the end, where, as you say:

On a deeper level, all of Angel’s efforts in this episode (and presumably since finding out about the prophecy, if the big board in Cordy’s living room is any indication) are to fix his lack of reflection; i.e., become human. The Fang Gang are trying to force a conclusion by “hunting” as many demons as they can in their lust to bring this prophecy to fulfillment.

We continue to have our push/pull between the Shanshu as reward, a carrot dangled that can make Angel forget the real mission and Shanshu as a way to connect with humanity (when leading into his first mention of the possibility of becoming human, Angel even leads into it by talking about the benefits of joining a gym because “you’re not alone”).

I loved all your mentions of the foreshadowing in this episode. I have noticed most of them in the past and in this re-watch, but you still managed to mention that I had never thought of. In particular, all the song connections you mention were new to me. I’d enjoyed them, but never really thought about them individually like that. The Connor foreshadowing is kinda chilling in hindsight, isn’t it?

Looking forward to your analyses of the season ahead (season 2 being one of my faves)! Off we go into that Big Wacky Variety Show We Call Los Angeles! It’s gonna be a heck of a party!

Lola

[Queen E]

Lola said:

Erin – you rock!

You know, I was thinking just like your opening paragraph (“we already know the other shoe will be dropping at any moment”) as I re-watched this ep. The opening scenes are just so . . . “hey, look at us all competent and cool rogue demon hunters”! (Well, we see a few cracks in Wes’ façade, but still.) It’s a fake-out, and yet not. It’s a true reflection of the gang’s strengthened relationship with each other, but it’s a false picture of the way the true story arc will go. There’s not gonna be much that is straightforward about even this episode, much less the rest of the season. Quite the opposite.

First of all, thank you so much for commenting in your awesomely intelligent way! You rock.

And absolutely this episode really sets the tone for the season; both in the cocksure attitude of AI, and the increasingly grey area they occupy and general sense of confusion. Neither the Fang Gang nor us can tell who is good and who is bad anymore. You really underline that with your true and false levels of reflection you bring up. The positive connection between Cordy, Wes, and Angel, the negative consequences of their "clarity" of mission. As Angel said at the end of Season 1, he misses the clarity; even if this is "good" clarity of purpose on one level, nothing is ever that clear. Just as a mirror reflection is dependent on the warp in the mirror, the kind of lighting, etc, so the right path is never as straight and clear as imagined.

The Prio demon as mirror for Angel is the first and most obvious thing we notice – it’s brought up directly with dialog and visual comparisons, and I always remember the importance of the “demon of the week” to any ep – but I was glad to see you bring back the idea of Gunn as a mirror for Angel as well. This is the ep that brings us JAR as a regular cast member and introduces the members of the new Fang Gang to each other. Remembering the idea of Gunn as a reflection of, and comparison to, Angel is going to be important to remember in future eps this season.

Exactly! And we'll get more of a sense of that in "First Impressions" (images again!) when we see both his "hit first, ask questions later" approach to Devak (sp?) and his never-quite-processed Alanna guilt. Both of them long for their original mission...

The whole mirror analogy was a good one – it fits the opening scene and follows through nicely to the end, where, as you say:
We continue to have our push/pull between the Shanshu as reward, a carrot dangled that can make Angel forget the real mission and Shanshu as a way to connect with humanity (when leading into his first mention of the possibility of becoming human, Angel even leads into it by talking about the benefits of joining a gym because “you’re not alone”).

To be undermined by the notion of showering with other guys. *grin* Perhaps that's why the Shanshu remains elusive throughout to Angel; the Shanshu represents the ultimate connection to humanity: actually being human. Angel, however, keeps getting lost in one obsession after the other, one soul, rather than all souls: Darla, Connor, Cordelia, finally to end up cutting himself off completely by hiding behind the resources of Wolfram and Hart.

I loved all your mentions of the foreshadowing in this episode. I have noticed most of them in the past and in this re-watch, but you still managed to mention that I had never thought of. In particular, all the song connections you mention were new to me. I’d enjoyed them, but never really thought about them individually like that. The Connor foreshadowing is kinda chilling in hindsight, isn’t it?

Looking forward to your analyses of the season ahead (season 2 being one of my faves)! Off we go into that Big Wacky Variety Show We Call Los Angeles! It’s gonna be a heck of a party!

Lola

With Lorne in the mix, definitely! *sigh* I love Lorne...

As I've been doing these analyses, I've decided that nearly everything has some heft, some weight, even things like the songs sung at Caritas. There are the more obvious ones, like Fred singing "Crazy" in "That Old Gang of Mine" but was shocked, on rewatching, how sexually oriented (not in a prudish way shocked) most of the choices were in this episode. Considering the next few episodes, with Darla as succubus, it makes perfect sense...not to mention her final, accidental "sexual healing" of Angel in "Epiphany."

Season 2 is a nummy treat in my opinion, too. But so hard to watch the Fang Gang so alienated from each other...

Thank you again for your always insightful comments. They make me work even harder!

[Riff]

And she does it again.

In the teaser, the young man at the gym notices that Angel doesn’t show up in the mirror: “No reflection. I’ll fix that” and smashes it to reveal a demonic ritual in progress. Angel’s cocky response resonates throughout the episode. On one level, his actions here are setting in motion his kill-first, ask-questions-never approach with the Prio demon, who serves as a mirror to Angel in a couple of ways. First, he is an “evil thing” who is committed to doing good. Second, he looks scary and acts scary, yet he is championing a pregnant woman who is due to give birth to a “benevolent.” He talks about “honor” and “the mission” constantly. He’s a Buddhist, if the shrine in his home is any indication (anyone else flash on Angel doing tai chi?). Not only does his mistaken killing of the Prio mean he’s killed his metaphorical “reflection,” but the killing itself leads to Angel finally “reflecting” on his approach to the mission.

Yes!

Angel is introspective and interested in the self. Do you remember the scene when Spike finds him reading Sartre? In French? ;D

I certainly got the impression that Angel recognises himself in the Prio demon. The most interesting thing is that this is an officially evil demon, the sort that can be killed on sight with a clean conscience; and yet it is now on a good path. If even an evil being can seek out redemption, then the moral maze has suddenly become even thornier.

Finally, we have our last glimpse of Faith until season 4; Angel’s best success of the first season, and his companion/mirror on the “rocky road” of redemption. Although he tells her about his “Mandy” horror to give her some perspective on her situation, it is really Angel who has regained his; at this moment, he remembers his mission to save “one soul at a time.” This will be one of his last moments of clarity for a long time.

Interestingly, it’s a clarity that Faith herself seems to hold onto. By the time she comes back in Season 4 the FG have all wandered from the “one soul at a time” mission statement.

In Season Two, perhaps, it is Lorne who slows down the slide that eventually finishes with Angel and Darla together.

With all the emphasis on reflection and mirroring, it’s no coincidence that numerous references to “looking” and “seeing” abound yet again in this episode. Darla says she “loves to see that boy.” Lorne is the big “see-er” in this episode: he tells Liz, the lizard demon who sings the Pointer Sisters’ song, what he can “see” in Liz’s aura and that he can see Liz is “feeling pretty zippy.” Lorne tells Angel he’ll “see” him around, and muses about how fabulous he would look in Angel’s coat.

In the conversation between Gunn, Wes, and Cordy, Gunn mentions seeing the two of them in bed, when he was sent to “keep an eye” on them in “To Shanshu in LA.” Wes says he can “see this is none of my business” during the amusing double entendre portion of the dialogue. Cordy’s vision is “obscure”; later, she tells Angel he can’t “see everything.” Jo’s unborn daughter is supposed to be a seer. During the battle before the Tribunal, Angel begs his horse not to make him “look stupid.”

Eetah. This is very much an episode about seeing/perceiving. Themes are unearthed which will eventually make all the characters, but Angel especially, reconsider the mission.

Appropriate to the introduction of both Caritas and Lorne, the episode features almost enough songs to make it a musical. The episode starts with a song. Darla listens to Chopin’s preludes and nocturnes in a dark office in Wolfram and Hart. We have the parade of love songs (both love gone right and wrong, which underscores the good and evil theme of the episode): “I Will Survive,” “I’m So Excited,” “Sexual Healing,” “Achy-Breaky Heart,” and “Mandy.” This is not an accident. We get our first real glimpse of Darla and two scenes later, Liz sings “I’m about to lose control and I think I like it”. This is followed by Mordar the Bentback claiming he needs “sexual healing.” Angel sings “Mandy,” a song about a love “sent away” (or, as some speculate, a lost dog; funnier when we hear Gunn call Angel “dog”), followed by Durthock singing about his achy-breaky heart. Love, sex, and heartbreak: Darla and Angel, Cordy and Groo, Wes and Virginia, all will love, almost love, lust, and lose in future episodes. When Wes brings up his new underworld contact, Merl, Cordy offers to “make with the chin music until he canaries.” Even Faith, from her prison cell, gets in on the action; she claims the food in jail is kind of “one-note,” a fitting description of the prison experience in general.

Normally I like musicals, but even a brief moment of “Achy-Breaky Heart” is enough to have me reaching for the remote control. ;D

You’re right – the songs do follow a definite theme. Love and desire will be both destructive and essential forces in the Angelverse from now on. We see the characters really begin to grow up this Season, but we also see them losing the certainty that can depend on a simple moral outlook.

*smiles* I’d completely missed the significance of Faith’s comment, but, thinking about it (and tottering precariously on the abyss of fanwankery ), her morality does become stable – one note, as it were. When we see her again in Season Four this makes her somehow both greater and lesser than the members of the FG.

Being anagogic, it makes sense that Lorne says the most prescient things, but, being Lorne, hides it under banter; nearly in code. “Who’s a little curt? Who’s a little Curt Jurgens in ‘The Enemy Below’?” “The Enemy Below” is a 50s-era film about the battle between the captain of a US destroyer in World War 2, facing off with a German U-Boat captain, played by Curt Jurgens. Jurgens is a Nazi soldier disillusioned with Hitler and the war, doing what he needs to so he can go home. Both characters mirror one another, like Angel and the Prio; in Season 5, we’ll see this taken further, with Angel further disillusioned and longing to go home.

Hmmm. And to some extent it also foreshadows Why We Fight. Ironically, the notion of the fight itself becomes rather difficult and a place that the characters become lost in.

I love that film, BTW.

Even better, Lorne describes Angel as a “hot ticket…one night only, two seats left, partially obstructed view.” Decoding this, you get the Shanshu prophesy in a nutshell: one night only (the deciding fight that will make him human), two seats left (fitting in with the “Chair of Judgment” of the Tribunal, there are 2 seats available to Angel: the good side and the evil side), and finally, partially obstructed view (no one knows which side he’ll be on).

*laughing* The Shanshu prophecy in a shell. I see, Erin. ;D

Of course, the Shanshu was supposed to happen as the result of some form of apocalyptic battle. Is that the battle at the end of NFA? An earlier battle? One we haven’t seen yet? In Fray it’s told that all the demons were banished from the world in an apocalyptic fight involving a slayer who disappeared in the process (it’s hinted that this is Buffy). I wonder how that works here? I’m assuming Fray is canon because Joss wrote it, and because Fray’s scythe actually appeared in BtVS Season Seven.

Angel Inc is definitely at the cusp of a new era at this juncture. We see Gunn’s slow integration into the Fang Gang, Cordy’s new ability to prioritize the needs of others over her own (leaving her acting class the moment she gets paged), Wesley’s increasing confidence in himself (kicking ass at darts and attracting the attention of women), Lorne’s debut, a glimpse of the Hyperion, and the first abuse of the word “champion.” The song, so long just “one note” (helping the helpless), is about to change into an opera of supernatural proportions.

Indeed it is, and that’s why we love AtS. It isn’t until later seasons that this grows to its full scale, but this season is very difficult for Angel. It’s all worth it, however, for the “new clothes” scene. ;D

[Queen E]

Riff said:

And she does it again.

Oops! Or maybe Yay!

Yes!

Angel is introspective and interested in the self. Do you remember the scene when Spike finds him reading Sartre? In French? ;D

I certainly got the impression that Angel recognises himself in the Prio demon. The most interesting thing is that this is an officially evil demon, the sort that can be killed on sight with a clean conscience; and yet it is now on a good path. If even an evil being can seek out redemption, then the moral maze has suddenly become even thornier.

Indeed. And it really throws the proverbial monkey stake into Buffy's and (by limited extention) the Council's kill all vampires approach. This may have been discussed to death, but since Buffy was so long-lived for a Slayer, the moral ambiguity we were shown in her arc was right in line with this. If Angel can be ensouled and set (eventually) on the right path by Buffy, and Spike can be set on the right path and (eventually) ensouled for the same reason, how many others could have been? Could Holden, for instance? Lawson? Penn? (I'm talking of only direct descendents of the Master here, since they were the only ones we really spent time with, but...

Interestingly, it’s a clarity that Faith herself seems to hold onto. By the time she comes back in Season 4 the FG have all wandered from the “one soul at a time” mission statement.

In Season Two, perhaps, it is Lorne who slows down the slide that eventually finishes with Angel and Darla together.

Yes, she does. She has to; she doesn't have a whole lot else to hold on to. No parents, no friends besides Angel, no watcher, and a mess of guilt. Wes particularly horrified her, methinks, because she feels responsible for his descent into darkness, for one, and because what he's saying lies so close to the surface in Faith.

Eetah on Lorne. He uses humor and insight to try to slow the downward spiral. And is consistently undervalued.

Eetah. This is very much an episode about seeing/perceiving. Themes are unearthed which will eventually make all the characters, but Angel especially, reconsider the mission.

Again and again and again...

Normally I like musicals, but even a brief moment of “Achy-Breaky Heart” is enough to have me reaching for the remote control. ;D

See? Obviously that demon was pure evil.

You’re right – the songs do follow a definite theme. Love and desire will be both destructive and essential forces in the Angelverse from now on. We see the characters really begin to grow up this Season, but we also see them losing the certainty that can depend on a simple moral outlook.

*smiles* I’d completely missed the significance of Faith’s comment, but, thinking about it (and tottering precariously on the abyss of fanwankery ), her morality does become stable – one note, as it were. When we see her again in Season Four this makes her somehow both greater and lesser than the members of the FG.

Yes, and its very appropriate that the fit doesn't hit the shan, so to speak, until Faith leaves to fight the less ambiguous First Evil...

Hmmm. And to some extent it also foreshadows Why We Fight. Ironically, the notion of the fight itself becomes rather difficult and a place that the characters become lost in.

I love that film, BTW.

I've not seen it, which is a failing on my part, since, at the very least, it would have added an extra dimension to my analysis, but...yes, I thought of "Why We Fight" as well. I didn't include it, because I think I can talk about it much more indepth when I actually get to that particular analysis. (The Enemy Below, that is).

*laughing* The Shanshu prophecy in a shell. I see, Erin. ;D

It's all about the shells, my friend. *grin* Just wait 'til Pylea, the shells will really start to fly.

Of course, the Shanshu was supposed to happen as the result of some form of apocalyptic battle. Is that the battle at the end of NFA? An earlier battle? One we haven’t seen yet? In Fray it’s told that all the demons were banished from the world in an apocalyptic fight involving a slayer who disappeared in the process (it’s hinted that this is Buffy). I wonder how that works here? I’m assuming Fray is canon because Joss wrote it, and because Fray’s scythe actually appeared in BtVS Season Seven.

The NFA battle is our most likely candidate, since someone would know (Wolfram and Hart, the Powers) whether it had been fulfilled already. But, when Season 6 starts, I think what we'll see is that the NFA battle is merely the opening shot...

As for Fray, which I just read, it's likely Buffy, but strangely, the one who "disappeared" in that battle was Spike. Perhaps Buffy was meant for the amulet all along...

Indeed it is, and that’s why we love AtS. It isn’t until later seasons that this grows to its full scale, but this season is very difficult for Angel. It’s all worth it, however, for the “new clothes” scene. ;D

To whit: "You have, like, a gay man's taste, and that's saying something." One of my favorite moments, especially with that little dance Angel does...

Thank you so much for commenting. I love this! Brilliant insights, wheee!