“Life of the Party”

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Episode 5 of Season 5

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“We're not okay.”

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Original US airdate: October 29th, 2003

Rewatched: July 5th, 2024

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• Writer: Ben Edlund

• Director: Bill Norton

• Guests: Sarah Thompson, Mercedes McNab, Jonathan Woodward, Leland Crooke

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This is, as far as I can tell, the one and only Angel holiday episode, with the gang celebrating a big blow-out bash at Wolfram & Hart. It keeps up the tradition set on Buffy of each even-numbered season having a Halloween episode, and as this season is the eighth consecutive season set in the Buffyverse, it’s time for Halloween mishaps.

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This is also a Lorne-centered episode, and it’s always a joy to hear him sing.

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The plot is basic. Lorne is trying to hold a great Halloween party, in keeping with Wolfram & Hart tradition, but because Team Angel isn’t really into the party, and may not be planning on coming, it looks like it’ll be a dud. Lorne is so desperate to throw a good party, and to run the entertainment division well (and thus help Angel), that he’s had his sleep removed by Wolfram & Hart. Lorne convinces Team Angel to come to the party, and convinces Angel to personally invite Archduke Sebassis (who will play a role later in the season, along with the Fell Brethren, who are also mentioned as party attendees). Despite the Archduke and Team Angel’s attendance, the party gets off to a slow start, with only Harmony dancing, and everyone complaining it’s not like last year’s bash. Lorne continues to work the room, trying to get the party started. And then weirdness ensues.

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It turns out removing an empath demon’s sleep means his will is done. Gunn is peeing everywhere because Lorne told him to mark his territory. Spike is the life of the party, because Lorne told him to think positively. Angel and Eve sleep together, because Lorne told them to get a room. Wes and Fred are drunk on half a beer and no beer respectively, since Lorne told them to loosen up and get drunk. And two guests, demons who pushed the envelope with Lorne, end up dead, killed by Lorne’s subconscious, which has become a massive hulk-like monster.

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Wesley and Fred return Lorne’s sleep and the day is saved. And it turns out that killing people at the party made it the best party ever.

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More than its events, this episode says a lot about Lorne. As much as I love Lorne (and Andy Hallett), he was never meant to be a member to Team Angel. He was great as a helper, a guide, a friend. But he kind of slid into being a member of the team without ever really deciding he wanted to fight the good fight. And now he’s at Wolfram & Hart, trying to keep fighting a fight his heart’s not into, despite the temptations of the other side. He’s under a lot of pressure to fit into Team Angel, and this episode shows the cost to him. And although he (along with Gunn) remains the least skeptical of Wolfram & Hart, which may reflect his history of working with both sides when he owned Caritas and creating a space for all demons to come, the stress of not falling to evil is still present for Lorne, compounded with the stress of trying to be someone he isn’t, namely a hero. The good fight is not the path for everyone.

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Although Lorne’s role in the team and at Wolfram & Hart is quite a bit different from the others’, the end of the episode has Angel telling the team (sans Lorne who is sleeping) that “we’re not okay… This place is trying to change us… We can’t ever forget that”, which reminds us that the entire team is fighting to stay good while working at Wolfram & Hart.

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Finally, two points on continuity. First, it seems odd that Wolfram & Hart would have a Halloween party, as this day (as mentioned by Spike this episode) is generally shunned by demons. However, perhaps the human element at Wolfram & Hart made it a thing, and the demons enjoyed a good party even on Halloween. Also, Lilah said that the Beast killed everyone who worked for Wolfram & Hart in LA, but some staff members remember last year’s party. Most likely, as Wolfram & Hart had to restaff fast, they raised some old staff from the dead (or they moved staff from other offices, whose employees may have been invited to the big LA bash).

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“The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco”

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Episode 6 of Season 5

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“What difference did we make?”

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Original US airdate: November 5th, 2003

Rewatched: July 13th, 2024

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• Writer: Jeffrey Bell

• Director: Jeffrey Bell

• Guests: Danny Mora

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What does it mean to be a hero? Angel is confronted with this question this episode.

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Angel is still feeling disconnected. A small wonder after losing Cordy and Connor, and taking over Wolfram & Hart. He no longer holds on to the belief that the Shanshu prophecy is true. Wesley discusses this with him in the episode, telling Angel that he needs hope, and the work needs to have meaning. But when Angel mentions he doesn’t really believe in prophecies anymore and mentions “the father will kill the son”, Wesley doesn’t recognize it. No wonder Team Angel is having trouble understanding where Angel is. They don’t remember Connor, so don’t realize the loss in Angel’s life. Spike, on the other hand, is very interested in the Shanshu prophecy, asking Wesley for details about it and whether it names Angel explicitly. Spike is starting to realize it may also apply to him. This episode will end with Angel reading the Shanshu prophecy, a sign he may be getting in the game again.

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How Angel gets back in the game is through Numero Cinco, who has been seen in the background for several episodes, delivering mail in his Lucha Libre mask. It turns out, he is a Lucha Libre wrestler who used to fight in the ring with his four brothers (each wearing a numbered mask, Numero Cinco wears his number 5 mask to this day) and outside the ring they fought evil. They went up against an Aztec demon who appears every 50 years on the Day of the Dead. It took out four of the brothers, and while Numero Cinco thought they had won, the demon is back. It turns out the demon takes the hearts of heroes. That it doesn’t take Angel’s or Numero Cinco’s this episode, despite having the chance, says that both don’t have their hearts in the good fight anymore.

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Numero Cinco is a bit like Angel in other ways, too. He was a champion, but he failed to fully save the day. He ended up alone, with no one needing his saving, and accepted a job at Wolfram & Hart. He is now determined not to be a hero. But, like Angel, Numero Cinco is still good at heart and helps Angel fight the demon at the end of the episode. He dies and Angel saves the day.

 

What is most important in this episode is the exchange that Numero Cinco and Angel have as Numero Cinco recounts his story.

Numero Cinco: I’m sorry, in case you haven’t noticed, I have retired from that life.

Angel: Wearing that mask doesn’t exactly hide your past.

Numero Cinco: It reminds me that only a fool would want to be a champion… In all the years we fought, we never lost, never quit, never compromised. We were the best… We were heroes. We protected the weak and we helped the helpless… I needed a job, they needed muscle. I knew that Wolfram & Hart was everything my brothers despised, but what did I care? Nothing mattered after I buried them… I should have died with my brothers.

Angel: But you didn’t. You got stuck with the hard part, the carrying on… You’ve quit. Tell me, why’d you stop caring?... Maybe you expect too much from people.

Numero Cinco: Is it too much to expect them to remember their past?... Why did we bother? What difference did we make?

Angel: You made a difference in the lives you saved. You did it because it was the right thing to do. Nobody asks us to go out and fight, put our lives on the line. We do it because we can, because we know how… Despite of the fact that there’s no shiny reward at the end of the day, other than the work itself.

Reminiscent of Angel’s talk with Kate in season 2, this exchange with Numero Cinco is a sign that Angel is back in the game. Combined with re-reading the Shanshu prophecy at the end of this episode, it is clear Angel is getting over his disconnect.

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As a final side note, Gunn talks in this episode about how happy he is about his law knowledge. How he’s happy to come to work every day and finally has a special power.

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“Lineage”

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Episode 7 of Season 5

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“Right now, I feel like a guy that shot his own father.”

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Original US airdate: November 12th, 2003

Rewatched: July 19th, 2024

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• Writer: Drew Goddard

• Director: Jefferson Kibbee

• Guests: Sarah Thompson, Jonathan M. Woodward, Treva Etienne, Roy Dotrice

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This episode is about fathers and sons, namely Wesley and his father, and a bit about what the decision to join Wolfram & Hart means for Team Angel.

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The episode starts with Wesley and Fred meeting with Emil, someone who Wesley bought weapons from after being kicked out of Angel Investigations in season 3 but who hasn’t been seen on screen up to now. Wes and Fred are hoping to infiltrate a weapons ring, but it goes wrong when cyborg ninjas attack and Fred is injured. Later, Angel is very angry Wes put Fred at risk, forgetting how strong and independent Fred can be, and that she can make her own decisions. She does later tell Wesley not to be patronizing when he tries to tell her she never should have been there, but still, it’s not a great moment for Angel (or Wes). However, I think Angel's particularly worried about Fred because of Cordy. However, both Cordy and Fred are strong women who chose to fight the good fight knowing the risks. In fact, especially for Fred, who has a family she could return to, the choice is fully her own.

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While trying to figure out why cyborg ninjas attacked them, Team Angel is visited by Wesley’s father, Roger. Roger mentions the Council is forming again and is coming to see if Wesley would be a good candidate to join. However, it is clear that Roger does not appreciate or understand his son, that he doesn’t like Wolfram & Hart, or Angel, or Lorne, or Spike, who he met in Vienna in 1963 when Spike killed his team. Roger knows best and nothing Wesley can do is good enough. However, at the end of the episode, Roger tries to steal an artifact that can rob Angel of his will and abscond with Angel for reasons unknown. The cyborg ninjas are also working with Roger.

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Wesley is able to save the day, threatening to blow up the cyborg ninja Angel Investigations had captured if the cyborg doesn’t talk, even if it means taking out himself and the whole building. Wesley then confronts his father, and when Roger refuses to give up his control of Angel, Wesley shoots him. In the end, it’s not actually his father, it’s another cyborg.

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First, this episode allows Angel to forgive Wesley a little bit more for Connor, which I do think has been slowly happening since Wesley pulled Angel from the bottom of the ocean. However, in this episode, Angel truly admits he understands that Wesley is a big-picture person, able to take a risk to save the day. Second, it is unclear who the cyborgs work for, except that they seem to be a force for the good. It is also unclear what they wanted Angel for, except for Cyborg-Roger’s claim that Angel has always been a puppet. Wesley and Angel end the episode discussing both these themes.

Angel: Great, like we don’t have enough to worry about. Now the good guys may be after us, too.

Wesley: We have to assume we’ve crossed some powerful forces when we took over this company.

Angel: They’re all trying to bring us down. The perception is that we’re weak.

Wesley: The perception is I’m weak. That’s why they went or me.

Angel: They’re wrong. You do what you have to do to protect the people around you. Do what you know is right, regardless of the cost. You know, I never really understood that. You’ve the guy that makes all the hard decisions, even if you have to make them alone.

Wesley: Right now, I feel like a guy that shot his own father.   

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Which brings us back to the main theme. Wesley ends the episode by calling his real father. The conversation does not go better than with Cyborg-Roger. But Wesley, for all his troubled relationship with his father, which we first experienced in “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”, now knows he could kill his father. Spike brings up killing his mother, and Angel killing his own father. The truth is, except for Fred, no member of Angel Investigations has a truly healthy relationship with their family. Gunn’s parents are never mentioned, and he killed his sister. Cordy’s parents are out of the picture as well. Lorne left his dimension to escape his family. There is even a one-off episode exploring familial abuse. Additionally, Angel’s vampire family is generally presented as dysfunctional as well, as is his relationship to the first vampire he sired. Finally, Angel’s relationship to Connor also was not functional. In fact, despite Team Angel often failing to be a good found family (except for Cordy and Angel), their relationships to each other are much healthier than with their birth families. Wesley is fully realizing that he can be more than his father’s son. He can be his own person.

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One final note at the end. Eve seems to be keeping tabs on Spike, who calls her on it, but she denies it. However, Spike also claims that Eve is hiding something. The question of Spike’s fate and Eve’s motives will remain open for now.

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“Destiny”

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Episode 8 of Season 5

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“Bit of both.”

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Original US airdate: November 19th, 2003

Rewatched: July 25th, 2024

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• Writer: David Fury & Steven S. DeKnight

• Director: Skip Schoolnik

• Guests: Sarah Thompson, Mercedes McNab, Juliet Landau

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This episode, which takes place in the present at Wolfram & Hart, and in England in 1880, explores Angel’s and Spike’s relationship, their similarities (and differences) and the question of which one is more the hero.

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In the past, we see Spike meeting Angel for the first time at the Royal London Hotel. Drusilla has brought her new creation home. Darla is evidently away. After having a fight with Angel, she left when the Master called for her, indicating her continued fealty to her sire. Angel at first seems a bit skeptical of Spike (still being called William), but then seems to delight in the idea of having another man around, telling him they’ll be the best of friends. As part of this friendship, they feed on a wedding. Later, the two are returning to the hotel with the bride, who is not yet dead, when Spike decides to go off in search of Dru. Later, when Spike returns to the hotel and sees Angel having sex with someone, he assumes it’s the bride (it has been hinted at before the Spike and Angel didn’t just kill but also rape, this is the clearest confirmation yet). It is, however, not the bride. Angel is sleeping with Dru. To make matters worse, Angel mocks Spike for loving Dru. Spike is naturally very jealous, a jealousy that is later seen in season 2 of Buffy, but it is interesting that Spike chooses to stay with Dru despite his issues with Angel.

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In the present, Spike receives a surprise package which makes him corporeal and makes all hell break loose at Wolfram & Hart.  Eve claims the issues are related to the Shanshu prophecy because now there are two hero vampires with souls. Gunn attempts to ask the big cat in the white room for advice, but only finds a howling abyss. The team asks Sirk, last seen in the season 4 finale, what to do. Wesley is on a leave of absence following the last episode. While the team is trying to figure it out, Spike sleeps with Harmony. Finally, Sirk sends Spike and Angel on a journey to Death Valley to find the cup of torment. The vampire who drinks from it will be the Shanshu hero. The two fight over the cup, with Spike winning and drinking from it. However, it turns out to be Mountain Dew. Although it ended up fake, it does make Angel question whether it means he’s not the one. His heart is finally in the fight again, and the reward might not be his to take at the end.

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Some final notes. It remains unclear who sent Spike’s amulet and the box that made him corporeal to Wolfram & Hart. At the end of this episode, after Eve returns home from a day of tumult at Wolfram & Hart (where Gunn, affected by hell breaking loose at the company, tried to strangle her), we see she is sharing an apartment (and most likely a relationship) with Lindsey, leaving the big question what he’s doing back in town and what this might have to do with events at Wolfram & Hart.

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But back to the main theme of our two heroes. Angel and Spike, in their fight to get to the cup first, take the time to talk through a lot of their issues.

Spike: Look at you. Thinking you’re the big savior. Fighting for truth, justice and soccer moms. But you still can’t lay flesh on a cross without smelling like bacon, can you?

Angel: Like you’re any different.

Spike: Well, that’s just it. I am. And you know it. You had a soul forced on you, as a curse, make you suffer for all the horrible things you’d done. But me, I fought for my soul, went through the demon trials, almost did me in a dozen times over but I kept fighting, ‘cause I knew it was the right thing to do. It’s my destiny.

Angel: Really? Heard it was just to get into a girl’s pants.

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[In response to Angel not being able to stand Spike] Spike: ‘Cause every time you look at me, you see all the dirty little things I’ve done. All the lives I’ve taken. Because of you. Drusilla sired me, but you, you made me a monster.

Angel: I didn’t make you, Spike; I just opened up the door and let the real you out.

Spike: You never knew the real me.

It’s clear from this exchange that Dru and Buffy stand between them, but also their past is in the way. Spike is most likely right that Angel looks at Spike and sees what he did. Angel made Dru, who made Spike, and then Angel taught Spike how to be evil. While neither of them is pining after Dru at the moment, they are both in love with Buffy, who may also love both of them back. They have a long history, and despite their similarities at this time, and their ability to work together against evil, true friendship will be hard to build.

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Once Spike has the cup, Angel asks him not to drink.

Angel: Wait. That’s not a prize you’re holding. It’s not a trophy. It’s a burden. It’s a cross. One you’re gonna have to bear until it burns you to ashes. Believe me, I know. So, ask yourself, is this really the destiny that was meant for you? Do you even really want it? Or is it that you just want to take something away from me?

Spike: Bit of both.

This exchange really hits the heart of Spike and Angel’s differences. Angel turned evil into an art, Spike was in it for the fun. Spike retained his ability to love despite being evil, Angel did not. Now that they are both good, this dichotomy still persists. Angel has turned penance into an art, and Spike sees it as more of a lark, which is not to say Spike isn’t good. He was already burned to ashes saving the world once. He’s more than shown he can be a hero. But he can accept his present without letting his past keep him from enjoying the moment. Spike lives much more in the moment, making the best of what he has. Angel is a very different person to that.

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So, which one is the Shanshu hero? This episode doesn’t tell us. The chaos at Wolfram & Hart is ended by the Senior Partners. Questions abound. But in the end, it may not matter. Both Spike and Angel are heroes. Who says the both can’t Shanshu?

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“Harm's Way”

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Episode 9 of Season 5

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“I don’t have anywhere else to go.”

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Original US airdate: January 14th, 2004

Rewatched: August 18th, 2024

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• Writer: Elizabeth Craft & Sarah Fain

• Director: Vern Gillum

• Guests: Mercedes McNab, Danielle Nicolet

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Much like Anya and Spike took over the role of Cordy within the Scoobies when Cordy left for LA, it seems that Spike and Harmony are now taking on her role within Angel Investigations now that she is in a coma. Spike and Harmony both share the ability to speak the truth to Angel, and both are positioned as slight outsiders (as Cordy was on Buffy, but not on Angel), and Harmony shares Cordy’s popular girl past. Spike has already featured in a few episodes. Now, it’s Harmony’s turn.

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Harmony is a young, unicorn-loving professional vampire in LA. But outside of her job, she doesn’t have much. In fact, she is very isolated and has no friends or friendly co-workers. This is a great allegory for those whose high school experience ranks as their glory days and aren’t able to connect once those days are over. In fact, Harmony’s death and re-birth as a vampire on graduation day highlight this allegory. She is really no longer the same person she was in high school.

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The main plot points revolve around Harmony failing to please Angel in the run-up to a big demon summit. She then goes out with Fred, hoping to bond, and meets the demon rights activist responsible for the summit. In a turn of events, the activist ends up dead in Harmony’s bed. Harmony panics, tries to cover up the murder, and then tries to prove her innocence. It turns out a jealous fellow vampire from the Wolfram & Hart steno-pool framed Harmony to take her job. Things all work out in the end and Harmony comes to a bit more acceptance of where she is, in part because she has managed to inspire homicidal jealousy in a co-worker, so she can't be in such a bad place, right?

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It should be noted that Harmony claims she can’t have killed the man found in her bed because she’s a right biter – she leans to her right when biting meaning her victim is bit on their left side. However, in “Harsh Light of Day”, we see Harmony bite Willow and she leans left… so this may not be the airtight evidence Harmony thinks it is.

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Finally, two non-Harmony plot points are worth mentioning. This episode begins with a new employee orientation video make for Wolfram & Hart which includes Angel. It makes viewers a bit nostalgic for the ad Cordy and Doyle made in season 1. Spike, now corporeal, plans to find Buffy and leave LA. However, by the end of the episode, he is back, deciding that once you go out in flames, sacrificing yourself to save the world, you can’t just show up a few months later as though nothing has happened.

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