Angel - S05E10|♡Uncut Reaction &Review♡
Soul Purpose
A mystery man (Christian Kane) approaches Spike to claim responsibility for making him corporeal and offers to guide him in his quest to overthrow Angel.
Link to the reaction:
Comments (8)
When Fred said, "Just a shell." That hurt. Also a drunk Restless, hahaha
Spike met Doyle, but never heard him called Doyle.
Fun fact: This episode was directed by David Boreanaz (I believe his directorial debut actually). This was also a good opportunity to direct an episode where he wouldn't have much action scenes, because behind the scenes, David was also recovering from knee surgery, IIRC. So that's why Angel's scenes were mostly sitting or lying in bed, or standing for short scenes and walking with a limp (cause in the episode he's under the effects of the parasite demon).
I agree, even though it was a dream sequence, seeing a fake Buffy just didn’t hit right. And they clearly just used some clips of her voice from season three BtVS. Imagine how much more impactful that scene would’ve been if they could actually get SMG to return. But I do like the correlation of her saying “I killed my goldfish” right after showing us the dream sequence of Fred pulling an empty goldfish bowl out of Angel, and saying it was his soul.
You're the first person I've seen comment on that scene in this episode, which I always found intriguing myself. Regarding Angel's dream with Buffy and Spike having sex, I always wondered why they brought up those specific lines of dialogue from Buffy episode "The Prom". When she says: " Can you say jumping the gun? I killed my goldfish." when just a few minutes earlier in the Fred dissection dream, Fred removes a fishbowl from Angel's body and says thats his soul, and that the fish (soul) is dead. The way I interpret those scenes is that is how Angel subconsciously imagines his soul to be, or at least because of that convo with Buffy in Prom episode, because in a way he may have internalized Buffy having been responsible for killing his soul (or the ensouled Angel) when they slept together in S2 of Buffy and he became Angelus. Which also ties in with how Buffy viewed herself in that whole scenario back in the S2 episode "I only have eyes for you". She blamed herself for "killing" the person she loved and she couldn't forgive herself, until the end of the episode and from then on was able to move past that trauma in order to do what needed to be done and kill Angelus.
I think by sending Spike to save Angel, Lindsey wants it to sink in that Spike is the new "hero." The probability that Spike would say something snippy like "just helping the helpless" was pretty high. Lindsey just doesn't wanna kill Angel but make him suffer. I think it's kind of hilarious that he went to find himself and discovered that this is in fact his calling. Man said "I searched my soul and found that I want to be a comic book supervillain for Angel in particular." Definitely feels like he's playing on Eve's feelings for him, and it feels at least in this episode like she may not have even been involved in all of this supernatural stuff until she fell for him because he needed someone to do the dirty work and be on the inside of the building. Even though it's based on a lie, seeing Spike in season 1 vampire street vigilante mode is pretty cool. I think he hit pretty much every checkmark of things you are not supposed to say to a survivor the first time. The end shot was a pretty cool way to plant those "who can you trust?" seeds.
This episode did a lot to convey Angel's deepest emotions and state-of-mind. Throughout the season, he's been very grouchy, cold, and standoffish. Without Cordelia there, he doesn't have anyone to share his personal feelings with, so he's bottling everything up inside. He was starting to crack even before Eve put the bug on him. Angel has spent the entire series fighting the good fight and helping people, but now he feels like he's being replaced by Spike. Not just as a hero, but as a lover as well. Spike beat him in Episode 8, Spike was able to give Buffy what he never could, and Spike even rescues him in this episode. I think that was Lindsey's plan there: Have Angel doubt himself even more by being saved by the one person he dislikes the most. I have to admit, I was a bit turned off by Angel's grumpy demeanor the first time I watched Season 5, to the point where I was actually rooting for Spike to beat him in Episode 8, but this episode made me sympathetic to Angel's plight and got me back on his side again.
Best reactor ever. I just love your insights and commentary on Buffyverse and firefly.