Angel

ANGEL : Okay. I’ve been silent about this for three episodes, but I’m having serious metaphysical problems with the whole being damned thing, and it’s been exacerbated beyond my ability to overlook it with the Angel/Spike We’re Both Going to Hell chat (which, by the way, was nicely written. "I always liked your poetry." "Yeah, but you like Barry Manilow." Heh.) Here’s the thing : Before Spike was Spike, he was William, and before Angel was Angel or Angelus, he was Liam (Sure sign you may be transformed into a vampire : You don’t have a last name. Don’t believe me ? What’s Drusilla’s last name ? Harmony’s ? Darla’s ?) And William was a benign individual, loved his mum, wrote poetry, etc. Then, if we go with Whedon-verse myth, his soul went off into happyland and a demon set up shop in his body. Now his soul’s back and, except for when he was being controlled by the Source of All Ev—(sorry, wrong show) by the First, he’s done nothing but good. So why in the world would this benevolent soul be dispatched to hell to suffer eternal torment ? Even the bad guy, Dread Pirate Nitwit, said "Your soul damns you." WHY ? It makes no sense that the soul of William No-surname should be taking the big dive when it’s done nothing to merit it. What, it’s killed ? So has Buffy, and she floated in peace for three months. For that matter, Liam may have been a wastrel, but that was only for a couple of decades...and the soul of Liam has done tons more good than evil. Why is HE condemned to burn ? If one is trying to comprehend the cosmology, it just doesn’t track. Yes, bad things happen to good people, but after you die is when it’s all supposed to be sorted out. Instead in the Whedon-verse it apparently just gets worse.

Theological concerns aside, I liked what they did with the episode, even if Kathleen did embarrass herself drooling during the nude Marsters sequences. (She will likely claim she didn’t. She lies.) The concept of Spike (or any vampire) being haunted by the dead is nothing new, and it almost seemed as if they tried to make up for the lack of novelty by ratcheting up the gore level so you wouldn’t notice. Nice try. But I sat throught the episode where Willow got turned into fingerfood for a Gollum knock-off, so it takes a lot to faze me. Having Spike faced with that decision point, the classic self-sarcifice moment, was very nicely done, however. And apparently he’s picking up a few tricks from Patrick Swayze. If he’s going the poltergeist route, then he can do something other than stand around, which was my major concern. Honestly, though, the best Spike moment was in the trialer for next week with him giving the thumbs up to Angel who apparently was "getting some." "Good on you !" Can’t wait for that.