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thedeadlyhookGod, what is it with penultimate episodes in this universe, anyway? Obviously it must be me, but.... suffice to say, if you have nothing but warm fuzzies for this episode, don't bother to read this. I have issues.
Let me get this out of the way first. If you've read my review of the penultimate episode of Buffy on the Just Stake Me site, then you already have an idea how much patience I have for last-minute plot advancement that swings so heavily on stuff that's only just been introduced. It's a narrative convenience that strikes me as cheaty and tiresome, not Ooh, gasp!, surprising and delighting, so I have this funny little bias there.
But weirdly enough, I actually didn't have trouble with the " Circle of the Black Thorn" reveal. The introduction of a secret society that turns out to be what they've been fighthing all along? I can deal with that.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
shadowkat67 has pointed out that the symbol of the Circle of the Black Thorn actually has appeared throughout the season - on the robots in "Lineage," on Illyria's coffin - so at least "Power Play" holds up well in that regard in comparison to "End of Days," the Buffy series' great attempt to convince me that the history of a newly introduced weapon is something we should spend a whole episode on. I'd argue that the symbol's presence was handled too subtly - a little more encroaching paranoia from seeing the repeating symbols everywhere might have been nice, and made the reveal seem less last-minute (as well as giving the gang a mystery to work on throughout the series' arc, rather than Wesley having to be shown what to look for), but that's neither here nor there. I can wish that the presence of the Black Thorns had been clearer, a sort of secret Masonic order whose influence is obvious if you look for it, but I suppose that can be taken as read. Insert image of the Stonecutters union here.
What I did find hard to deal with was the idea that Angel's had a master plan running ever since Fred's death. We've seen no hints of it. Angel only begun acting weird at the the end of "Time Bomb" and we're being asked to extend this to the whole second half of the season. It doesn't quite fit. There was too much running around after Lindsey, too much solitary brooding, too much goofiness. Machievellian Angel I'm finding hard to swallow.
Because, again, here we are in the realm of the lone-gun hero who makes the hard decisions. Angel makes the plan. Angel decides what to do, without consulting the rest of the "team." Yes, it's meant to be covert and they're supposed to be at each other's throats, so you could argue he wanted their responses to be real. But that still means that Angel's Shaft's Big Score-style scheme hinges on him making decisions for other people without their knowledge (just like the mindwipe) and asking them later, once things are well underway, to continue to play along. If I were to read this as a political allegory (should we ask Congress before declaring war?), I would really be tossing my cookies about now.
Also, asshadowkat67 points out, there is the Wild Bunch parallel. Clearly, this is the way Joss wants his characters to go out, in a suicidal blaze of glory. Only I'm not convinced that this is the only option these people have. Angel has not been shown to have been backed into a corner. He's not desperate, beaten down, at the end of his rope. He's just, apparently, kinda bored with playing Wolfram & Hart's game, so has decided to pick his time and place to end it, and his team with it. All for a goal that even he admits is going to be a temporary victory at best. Because he wanted to make Fred's death "mean something."
Of the many things that pissed me off about the end of Buffy, this episode managed to pick up and continue one of the most annoying of them - the insistence on the idea that there's only one type of power. Angel has convinced himself that the Senior Partners are eternal and unbeatable. They have lawyers! Offices around the world and in other dimensions! Actual planning and teamwork! Obviously, this isn't the sort of thing he can take down in a good, clean fistfight. (Although it never was, but I thought the point was that "if nothing we do matters, then the only thing that matters is what we do"... okay, not even gonna go there.) That being the case, Angel has decided that the best he can hope for is to thrown himself at the Black Thorn Circle kamikaze style, from the depths of hell I spit at thee, blee, blither, blah, and thus give evil a momentary black eye.
So again, here we see the everyday struggle to make this world a better place being rejected as being too small a goal, too petty. If it's not an apocalypse, it's "small stuff." And good vs. evil isn't put forth as a zero-sum game either - evil has default control. Evil is eternal. Good throws itself at evil like a crash-test dummy into a brick wall.
So, as you see, my objections aren't really with the episode. There was stuff in it that I liked, which I'll get to in a minute. My problems are with with the underlying philosophy, which I don't agree with. I don't buy the Gnostic universal view in which our world is shit and controlled by evil. Worse, in the Angel-verse, there doesn't seem to be any counterbalancing force of good. The "Powers That Be" were discredited last year as a benign source - they have their own agendas, not necessarily good (and I'm not even going to get into Angel receiving his info on What Is To Be Done from one of Cordy's visions here). We've not seen a genuine cosmic power interested in maintaining some sort of universal balance since Whistler. Evil has "conviction." Good has... what?
For myself, I like the idea of this world being one worth living for, of living in. It's one of the things that first drew me to Spike's character, his speech in "Becoming Part 2" about how he liked the world, felt it was worth saving. I like the idea of living redemption, not pointless suicidal death in service of someone's testosterone-fueled pride. I like the idea of helping people because it's a good thing, because a world of small kind acts makes the world a better place, and inspires others to be heroes, to stand up for what they believe in. Like Buffy's speech to Angel in "Amends," that "strong is fighting. It's hard, and it's painful, and it's every day. It's what we have to do, and we can do it together." Instead, Angel tells us, "heroes don't accept the world as it is." What's the difference between a fanatic and a hero then? You tell me.
Now, here's where I insert the following caveats that might salvage all this for me:
1. It's All About Power
Again? (Sigh) Are we going to say something different about power this time? I'd like to think so. There's a part of me that always found an implicit criticism for Buffy's default "whack it over the head with a sword" violent solutions in "Chosen," in the fact that the day was actually saved not by the new Slayers, but by Spike and the Power of Love, so it's not impossible to think that maybe we'll get something similiar here. And there is some basis for hope - the puppets in "Smile Time," for example, had positive power in their TV show through their lessons and songs ("Self Esteem," anyone?). That's influence, perception. And as Spike tells Illyria, her greatest power is really her ability to look like Fred. That's also a power of perception, of influence. So maybe Angel's big manly suicide mission will turn out to be a wet firecracker, a diverson for the real ending that will have a different message. I'd like that.
2. The Example of Last Season's Finale
I loved the Jasmine arc to bits, and the Season 4 finale was so full of surprises that I never saw coming that I refuse to let go of that hope, that something amazing could be pulled out to make all this work. It could happen.
3. Illyria
The wild card. Still so little known about her that anything is possible here. The damping down of her powers makes it harder to use her as a deus ex machina, so we'll have to see something different, something possibly not centered around physical strength. See point 1.
4. Lorne
I'm stupid, but I keep hoping they're gonna do something with Lorne. He's been very back-burner lately, so I'm wishing hard for a larger role in the finale. Notably too, his "power" is not a physical one.
There were other things that bugged, but I won't go into them at length (such as, ooh a woman president in 2008? She must be a demon! or Illyria getting beaten up - could not have Marcus just punched her once, like she did the demon at the amusement park, to prove how tough he is? Or is it really that important to show a girl getting her face smashed in like I didn't see enough of that last year on Buffy, or the fact that the "team" is now a men-only club, what is it with the encroaching sexism on this show?). For now, let's get on to...
Things I Actually Liked About Power Play
Spike
After a season in which the writers often seemed, from episode to episode, undecided on whether or not Spike was stupid, or funny, or funny because he was stupid, or some variant on that theme, we got a return to a Spike we haven't really seen since his initial reapparance. Here he is, tracking Illyria in the hallways of W&H, commenting on aspects of her new depowered status that no one else has picked up on yet, offering his own experiences as a ghost as a case in point. This is showcasing two huge facets of Spike's personality - his sharpness of observation and intuition, and more importantly, his empathy. Spike has always been a very empathetic character, with an uncanny ability to see the other guy's side of things, even viewpoints that in no way match his own (e.g., way back in "Becoming Part 2," we see Spike exhulting over the idea that "Dru bagged a Slayer!" but instantly sobering up once he realized the impact on his audience, Buffy.) One could argue that in a large sense, this is the whole point of Spike's character, that his ability to see the other guy's side of things can drive his actions to places that aren't entirely selfish (as opposed to, say, Buffy, whose unselfish job as Slayer can be somewhat limited at times by her inability to walk a mile in anyone's shoes but her own, see "Tough Love" for a good example). Spike makes alliances not out of self-serving ideas of power, but out of emotional connection - note too here he's unwilling to see Angel as pulling away from them all, going bad, as Illyria insists is the case. Spike is sure he'd "feel it" if it were true. And maybe he would, since Angel's "power play" does indeed turn out to have been a deception. (On that note, I've always wanted to see a good talking scene between Spike and Lorne... one more episode for that chance.)
Anyway, Illyria, Spike decides, is bored. He invites her out to a demon fight that Angel didn't have time for but Spike did, picking up the slack of Angel's abandoned street-fighting like I'd assumed was going to be his arc after "Soul Purpose," but for some reason wasn't. Now it is, if only for this episode, in a save-one-person mission that leads them to Deeper Well custodian Drogon (!) a character I'd honestly thought never to see again. And back to the office we go, and yes, Spike is a full member of the team here - there is no sniping, no funny looks, no suggestion that he's unwelcome. If anything, he seems to be seen as Angel's backup - a control group that can step in when the boss has gone off the rails. Lorne, Gunn, Wes, and Spike pull together as a four-man team of equals, and that too was very nice - they were effective to the point where I found it very hard to believe Angel could beat them all so easily. (I blame direction on that fight scene - little clumsy, there, folks.)
Spike and Illyria
As in "Time Bomb," the interaction between Illyria and Spike is marvelous stuff - by talking to her, trying to get a bead on her, inviting her out to fight demons to get out of the office, he's offering what amounts to a hand of friendship. This is a pretty generous gesture considering that Illyria has mostly thrown him through walls and put boots on his head. Spike apparently doesn't hold a grudge, and Illyria doesn't really seem to know what to make of that or him, especially in contrast to Wesley, who is currently avoiding her. Wesley can't let go of the past, of Fred's form, and how he felt about it. Spike can. Illyria is someone new - the "Blue Meanie," not Fred. You can extend this further, maybe, to saying something about Spike's new relationship with Angel as opposed to his old one with Angelus (I'll refrain from commenting on the "intimate" line), but it remains to be seen what Illyria will take away from this little lesson. Food for thought.
Illyria
The best moment in the episode, hands down, was of course the lovely scene with Drogon and Illyria playing video games on the couch. I enjoyed Drogon, Tolkein-esque character that he is, figuring out the rules of the game ("You're supposed to collect these crystals. And fruit."), and even more Amy Acker's pricelessly timed delivery of the line that seems to sum up everything about this season: "It's pointless and annoying... and yet I'm compelled to keep playing." If getting to this one line has been the sole point of the running gag of video games, I'd be satitsfied, but I also have some hope that this too, will be the series message - it's not so much that you have to play to win, but that you have to keep playing.
Lorne
Talking again. Part of the group and taken seriously. Sigh. My heart is happy. Although is it just me, or have all his shirts lately had polka dots? What's up with that?
A side note: there was some talk about our couch at the end of this ep about spinoff shows - what would you watch? My vote was for a Lorne show - I'd watch that every day, even if it were a celebrity talk show. Maybe particularly if it were.
More? I enjoyed seeing Spike in shirtsleeves. I was fairly unconvinced that everyone would agree with Angel's plan so easily (especially Gunn, given recent events), but... well, they've only got one ep left, I guess. Let's get on with it, huh?
Let me get this out of the way first. If you've read my review of the penultimate episode of Buffy on the Just Stake Me site, then you already have an idea how much patience I have for last-minute plot advancement that swings so heavily on stuff that's only just been introduced. It's a narrative convenience that strikes me as cheaty and tiresome, not Ooh, gasp!, surprising and delighting, so I have this funny little bias there.
But weirdly enough, I actually didn't have trouble with the " Circle of the Black Thorn" reveal. The introduction of a secret society that turns out to be what they've been fighthing all along? I can deal with that.
shadowkat67 has pointed out that the symbol of the Circle of the Black Thorn actually has appeared throughout the season - on the robots in "Lineage," on Illyria's coffin - so at least "Power Play" holds up well in that regard in comparison to "End of Days," the Buffy series' great attempt to convince me that the history of a newly introduced weapon is something we should spend a whole episode on. I'd argue that the symbol's presence was handled too subtly - a little more encroaching paranoia from seeing the repeating symbols everywhere might have been nice, and made the reveal seem less last-minute (as well as giving the gang a mystery to work on throughout the series' arc, rather than Wesley having to be shown what to look for), but that's neither here nor there. I can wish that the presence of the Black Thorns had been clearer, a sort of secret Masonic order whose influence is obvious if you look for it, but I suppose that can be taken as read. Insert image of the Stonecutters union here.What I did find hard to deal with was the idea that Angel's had a master plan running ever since Fred's death. We've seen no hints of it. Angel only begun acting weird at the the end of "Time Bomb" and we're being asked to extend this to the whole second half of the season. It doesn't quite fit. There was too much running around after Lindsey, too much solitary brooding, too much goofiness. Machievellian Angel I'm finding hard to swallow.
Because, again, here we are in the realm of the lone-gun hero who makes the hard decisions. Angel makes the plan. Angel decides what to do, without consulting the rest of the "team." Yes, it's meant to be covert and they're supposed to be at each other's throats, so you could argue he wanted their responses to be real. But that still means that Angel's Shaft's Big Score-style scheme hinges on him making decisions for other people without their knowledge (just like the mindwipe) and asking them later, once things are well underway, to continue to play along. If I were to read this as a political allegory (should we ask Congress before declaring war?), I would really be tossing my cookies about now.
Also, as
shadowkat67 points out, there is the Wild Bunch parallel. Clearly, this is the way Joss wants his characters to go out, in a suicidal blaze of glory. Only I'm not convinced that this is the only option these people have. Angel has not been shown to have been backed into a corner. He's not desperate, beaten down, at the end of his rope. He's just, apparently, kinda bored with playing Wolfram & Hart's game, so has decided to pick his time and place to end it, and his team with it. All for a goal that even he admits is going to be a temporary victory at best. Because he wanted to make Fred's death "mean something."Of the many things that pissed me off about the end of Buffy, this episode managed to pick up and continue one of the most annoying of them - the insistence on the idea that there's only one type of power. Angel has convinced himself that the Senior Partners are eternal and unbeatable. They have lawyers! Offices around the world and in other dimensions! Actual planning and teamwork! Obviously, this isn't the sort of thing he can take down in a good, clean fistfight. (Although it never was, but I thought the point was that "if nothing we do matters, then the only thing that matters is what we do"... okay, not even gonna go there.) That being the case, Angel has decided that the best he can hope for is to thrown himself at the Black Thorn Circle kamikaze style, from the depths of hell I spit at thee, blee, blither, blah, and thus give evil a momentary black eye.
So again, here we see the everyday struggle to make this world a better place being rejected as being too small a goal, too petty. If it's not an apocalypse, it's "small stuff." And good vs. evil isn't put forth as a zero-sum game either - evil has default control. Evil is eternal. Good throws itself at evil like a crash-test dummy into a brick wall.
So, as you see, my objections aren't really with the episode. There was stuff in it that I liked, which I'll get to in a minute. My problems are with with the underlying philosophy, which I don't agree with. I don't buy the Gnostic universal view in which our world is shit and controlled by evil. Worse, in the Angel-verse, there doesn't seem to be any counterbalancing force of good. The "Powers That Be" were discredited last year as a benign source - they have their own agendas, not necessarily good (and I'm not even going to get into Angel receiving his info on What Is To Be Done from one of Cordy's visions here). We've not seen a genuine cosmic power interested in maintaining some sort of universal balance since Whistler. Evil has "conviction." Good has... what?
For myself, I like the idea of this world being one worth living for, of living in. It's one of the things that first drew me to Spike's character, his speech in "Becoming Part 2" about how he liked the world, felt it was worth saving. I like the idea of living redemption, not pointless suicidal death in service of someone's testosterone-fueled pride. I like the idea of helping people because it's a good thing, because a world of small kind acts makes the world a better place, and inspires others to be heroes, to stand up for what they believe in. Like Buffy's speech to Angel in "Amends," that "strong is fighting. It's hard, and it's painful, and it's every day. It's what we have to do, and we can do it together." Instead, Angel tells us, "heroes don't accept the world as it is." What's the difference between a fanatic and a hero then? You tell me.
Now, here's where I insert the following caveats that might salvage all this for me:
1. It's All About Power
Again? (Sigh) Are we going to say something different about power this time? I'd like to think so. There's a part of me that always found an implicit criticism for Buffy's default "whack it over the head with a sword" violent solutions in "Chosen," in the fact that the day was actually saved not by the new Slayers, but by Spike and the Power of Love, so it's not impossible to think that maybe we'll get something similiar here. And there is some basis for hope - the puppets in "Smile Time," for example, had positive power in their TV show through their lessons and songs ("Self Esteem," anyone?). That's influence, perception. And as Spike tells Illyria, her greatest power is really her ability to look like Fred. That's also a power of perception, of influence. So maybe Angel's big manly suicide mission will turn out to be a wet firecracker, a diverson for the real ending that will have a different message. I'd like that.
2. The Example of Last Season's Finale
I loved the Jasmine arc to bits, and the Season 4 finale was so full of surprises that I never saw coming that I refuse to let go of that hope, that something amazing could be pulled out to make all this work. It could happen.
3. Illyria
The wild card. Still so little known about her that anything is possible here. The damping down of her powers makes it harder to use her as a deus ex machina, so we'll have to see something different, something possibly not centered around physical strength. See point 1.
4. Lorne
I'm stupid, but I keep hoping they're gonna do something with Lorne. He's been very back-burner lately, so I'm wishing hard for a larger role in the finale. Notably too, his "power" is not a physical one.
There were other things that bugged, but I won't go into them at length (such as, ooh a woman president in 2008? She must be a demon! or Illyria getting beaten up - could not have Marcus just punched her once, like she did the demon at the amusement park, to prove how tough he is? Or is it really that important to show a girl getting her face smashed in like I didn't see enough of that last year on Buffy, or the fact that the "team" is now a men-only club, what is it with the encroaching sexism on this show?). For now, let's get on to...
Things I Actually Liked About Power Play
Spike
After a season in which the writers often seemed, from episode to episode, undecided on whether or not Spike was stupid, or funny, or funny because he was stupid, or some variant on that theme, we got a return to a Spike we haven't really seen since his initial reapparance. Here he is, tracking Illyria in the hallways of W&H, commenting on aspects of her new depowered status that no one else has picked up on yet, offering his own experiences as a ghost as a case in point. This is showcasing two huge facets of Spike's personality - his sharpness of observation and intuition, and more importantly, his empathy. Spike has always been a very empathetic character, with an uncanny ability to see the other guy's side of things, even viewpoints that in no way match his own (e.g., way back in "Becoming Part 2," we see Spike exhulting over the idea that "Dru bagged a Slayer!" but instantly sobering up once he realized the impact on his audience, Buffy.) One could argue that in a large sense, this is the whole point of Spike's character, that his ability to see the other guy's side of things can drive his actions to places that aren't entirely selfish (as opposed to, say, Buffy, whose unselfish job as Slayer can be somewhat limited at times by her inability to walk a mile in anyone's shoes but her own, see "Tough Love" for a good example). Spike makes alliances not out of self-serving ideas of power, but out of emotional connection - note too here he's unwilling to see Angel as pulling away from them all, going bad, as Illyria insists is the case. Spike is sure he'd "feel it" if it were true. And maybe he would, since Angel's "power play" does indeed turn out to have been a deception. (On that note, I've always wanted to see a good talking scene between Spike and Lorne... one more episode for that chance.)
Anyway, Illyria, Spike decides, is bored. He invites her out to a demon fight that Angel didn't have time for but Spike did, picking up the slack of Angel's abandoned street-fighting like I'd assumed was going to be his arc after "Soul Purpose," but for some reason wasn't. Now it is, if only for this episode, in a save-one-person mission that leads them to Deeper Well custodian Drogon (!) a character I'd honestly thought never to see again. And back to the office we go, and yes, Spike is a full member of the team here - there is no sniping, no funny looks, no suggestion that he's unwelcome. If anything, he seems to be seen as Angel's backup - a control group that can step in when the boss has gone off the rails. Lorne, Gunn, Wes, and Spike pull together as a four-man team of equals, and that too was very nice - they were effective to the point where I found it very hard to believe Angel could beat them all so easily. (I blame direction on that fight scene - little clumsy, there, folks.)
Spike and Illyria
As in "Time Bomb," the interaction between Illyria and Spike is marvelous stuff - by talking to her, trying to get a bead on her, inviting her out to fight demons to get out of the office, he's offering what amounts to a hand of friendship. This is a pretty generous gesture considering that Illyria has mostly thrown him through walls and put boots on his head. Spike apparently doesn't hold a grudge, and Illyria doesn't really seem to know what to make of that or him, especially in contrast to Wesley, who is currently avoiding her. Wesley can't let go of the past, of Fred's form, and how he felt about it. Spike can. Illyria is someone new - the "Blue Meanie," not Fred. You can extend this further, maybe, to saying something about Spike's new relationship with Angel as opposed to his old one with Angelus (I'll refrain from commenting on the "intimate" line), but it remains to be seen what Illyria will take away from this little lesson. Food for thought.
Illyria
The best moment in the episode, hands down, was of course the lovely scene with Drogon and Illyria playing video games on the couch. I enjoyed Drogon, Tolkein-esque character that he is, figuring out the rules of the game ("You're supposed to collect these crystals. And fruit."), and even more Amy Acker's pricelessly timed delivery of the line that seems to sum up everything about this season: "It's pointless and annoying... and yet I'm compelled to keep playing." If getting to this one line has been the sole point of the running gag of video games, I'd be satitsfied, but I also have some hope that this too, will be the series message - it's not so much that you have to play to win, but that you have to keep playing.
Lorne
Talking again. Part of the group and taken seriously. Sigh. My heart is happy. Although is it just me, or have all his shirts lately had polka dots? What's up with that?
A side note: there was some talk about our couch at the end of this ep about spinoff shows - what would you watch? My vote was for a Lorne show - I'd watch that every day, even if it were a celebrity talk show. Maybe particularly if it were.
More? I enjoyed seeing Spike in shirtsleeves. I was fairly unconvinced that everyone would agree with Angel's plan so easily (especially Gunn, given recent events), but... well, they've only got one ep left, I guess. Let's get on with it, huh?