To: "tea at the ford" <teaattheford@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, June 16, 2003 2:47 PM
Subject: watching the detectives: Spike and Angel unalone in the dark AtS
1.03itd

[Douglas Petrie wrote it, Bruce Seth Green  directed it, Spike and Oz are in
it. It's the first crossover of the first season. This isn't exegesis, it's
way too self-indulgent. Its rigour went mortis, and it uses a lot of outside
to make its mean. Instead it's a meditation, centred on AtS 1.03 In the Dark
but from the perspective of the now (after BtVS 7.22 Chosen and AtS 4.22
Home). Sadly, though the ep has plenty of funny, i don't hardly get to that.
Quotes are from Buffy dBase, unless they're from my transcription. How I
wish that marvelous resource had chosen to do all of AtS. Okay, let's ride.]

It's yet another blonde, in yet another alley. Menaced by a guy who's
outmenaced by Angel's timely intervention. Turns out, the blonde is AI's
first paying customer. But the scene is also a frame: look up, look way up,
and we'll call... Spike? Yep, that would be Spike the Antihero, in all his
wicked prechip glory, doing his most famous soliloquy, doubling as
voicesover commentary on the scene in the alley beneath him as Angel sorts
out the girl he rescued:

How can I thank you, you mysterious, black-clad hunk of a night thing? (low
voice) No need, little lady, your tears of gratitude are enough for me. You
see, I was once a badass vampire, but love and a pesky curse defanged me.
Now I'm just a big, fluffy puppy with bad teeth. No, not the hair! Never the
hair! (high voice) But there must be some way I can show my appreciation.
(low voice) No, helping those in need's my job, - and working up a load of
sexual tension, and prancing away like a magnificent poof is truly thanks
enough! (high voice) I understand. I have a nephew who is gay, so. (low
voice) Say no more. Evil's still afoot! And I'm almost out of that Nancy-boy
hair-gel that I like so much. Quickly, to the Angel-mobile, away! (natural)
Go on with you. Play the big, strapping hero while you can. You have a few
surprises coming your way. - The ring of Amarra - a visit from your old pal
Spike, - and, oh yeah, - your gruesome, horrible death.

It's a burlesque bit, and Spike plays it broad. He's got his red shirt on,
though he's not smoking. Spike's taking the high ground, by his reckoning,
and Angel's down beneath him in the alley. It speaks to their different
styles of negotiating the eternal. And the light one, the bright one's dark,
all dark, and the dark one's White, and when you see them together the whole
dynamic of the show, still borning, changes visibly into something else.
They have very different colouring, and yet, and yet, they're a matched set.

Natural enemies, infernal families. 120 years of dark history, and only one
cursed soul, lie between them. Now (in BtVS 4.03 The Harsh Light of Day, the
first half of this first crossover) Buffy's grabbed off the Gem of Amarra,
which Spike dug up and for which he staked Harmony, and sent it via Oz to
Spike's bitterest enemy, his grandsire, the formerlyBad Angel(us). It's a
darned good bauble to have, rendering the user unkillable: you don't just
see that kind of popcorn prize every day, and Spike's a busyBad, he has a
Slayer to kill. Spike's got father Issues with the Big Poofter, he's right
pissed at the Slayer who got away and gave away his prize to her ex-Champion
(Say, didn't the reverse of this setup just happen, four seasons down? Is
BtVS 7.22 Chosen in some way the other end of this loop we're looking at?
Bit of a hmm factor in play there, I'm thinking.)

Cordy and Doyle are looking good together in this ep, and they're pretty
funny as a duo. One of my favourite throwaway lines: deadbeat Doyle
explaining to Cordy in his Irish lilt that an invoice doesn't automatically
a salary make: "Because that's not money you're holding in your hand there,
darling, that's mail." Angel (also looking pretty good, he still had a neck
in those days before he began to train heavily, and i quite liked his stupid
hair) treats them both with a kind of grave respect that never quite
translates into taking their advice. But he likes their company, and he even
actually talks to Doyle at the end. He's pretty good with the blonde client
also, empathic, giving good advice, engendering trust. Maybe he can actually
pull this detective thing off:

Oz: You guys are like detectives?
Cordy: No, I'm an actress.
Doyle: And quite a captivating one at that.
C: And between my many gigs, I sometimes choose to help Angel.
O: Does he have a hat, and gun?
C: Just fangs.
O: Well, that works. Where is he?

Spike and Angel get to meet cute. It's the very essence of Spike, who can be
caught but won't be hunted, versus the planamania former scourge of Europe.
Master and man. Niceties answered, two by four altercation. Railroad spikes
vs the voice of reason. It's really the 1880 Yorkshire dialogue featured in
AtS 2.07 Darla (the next appearance on AtS for both James Marsters as Spike
and Douglas Petrie): they're caught in that dysfunctional family loop and
they just keep recycling it:

S: Hey, I had a plan!
A: You? A plan?
S: A good plan. Smart. Carefully laid out. - But I got bored. All that
watching, waiting, - my legs started to cramp. Enough with the hit'n'quip.
Just tell me where the damn ring is.
A: It wouldn't go with your outfit.

Lament of the chaotic demon everywhere: 'I was being patient, but it took
too long.' White Hat, he calls his grandsire, jeering. I always think that
Spike, free-range, chipped, or ensouled, hates Angel even more than he hates
Angelus. Is it the contempt factor add-on that does that?

Angel wins the first fight, but the next time they meet Spike, unpredictive
in all his incarnations, actually does have a plan, and Angel, caught in the
linear, living the Apollonian, walks right into Spike's trap. Watching the
detective. Don't get cute. Spike turns to face him, beautiful in chainlink,
bored into eternity, and drawls "Caught me fair and square, White Hat. I
guess there is nothing to do now but to go quietly and pay my debt to
society." Eternally unconcerned. No conscience weighing him down, see? "You
can't get wounded, cause you got no heart." (That one's Elvis Costello)

Marcus takes Angel down and chains him up. Marcus is a really scary guy.
Likes kids, though. First they have to set the terms of engagement:

S (bored:) Right, vampire with a soul. Cursey-cursed to walk the earth
trying to do good. That's not going to be a problem, is it?
Marcus: On the contrary. Creatures with souls have something to lose.
S: Souls, fingers, toes...

The ironies just get more delicious as time goes by, don't they? Spike, that
HighMaintenance boy addicted to the highwire act of risking everything he
has and is on a single throw, has by the end of BtVS 7.22 Chosen now taken
the soul he wanted and, with everything to lose, chosen in a moment to use
it to illuminate the darkness, close the hellmouth, and save the world.
While Angel, denied his assumed position as the Slayer's Champion, has by
AtS 4.22 Home lost everything he ever cared for. Redemption, caritas,
prophecy, good deeds, all lost as he turns slowly in his closed loop. But
Dinza, spider goddess of the lost (you know you're expecting me to cite
this, so wait for it), still isn't reeling Angel into her parlour: "I'd love
to keep you, but you have so much more to lose." (AtS 4.02 Ground State,
written by Mere Smith) So, I gotta say, even unsouled and spiteful Spike
lists souls before fingers and toes as a Significant Thing to Carelessly
Lose.<g>

A: You're an idiot, Spike.
S: You think? Because I'm not the one chained to the ceiling with hot pokers
in my side.
A: You hired a vampire. What do you think he is going to do with the ring
when he finds it, huh? Hand it over to you?
S: Oh, good Lord, why didn't I think of.? Oh, wait half a mo', I did. I
hired a guy who doesn't care about the ring, or anything else on God's green
earth except taking blokes apart one piece at a time. - It's called
addiction, Angel. We all have it. - I believe yours is named Slutty the
vampire Slayer. (music ends and Spike breathes a sigh of relief) Thank you!
- Speaking of little Buff, I ran into her recently. Your name didn't come
up. Although she has been awful busy jumping the bones of the first
lunk-head that came along. Good-looking fellow - used her shamelessly. - She
is cute when she is hurting, isn't she?
A: I think she's cuter when she's kicking your ass.

It's Parker he's talking about, not Riley. Curious how Spike is always so au
courant on the Slutty the Vampire Layer Thorn/HotPoker in his OwnSide.
Finally, something the two of them have in common. Think they'll bond over
it yet, toss the bottle back and forth across the room? Talk about what they
both might have yet to lose? Now this might have made a good addiction
metaphor, ya think?<g> And considering this is the first Angel's heard of
the Parker thing, he makes a pretty good comeback. One thing about both of
them, they loved her for the right reasons: for her strength, for her light,
and because she always tried.

So, Angel hangs in the stirrups, enjoying Marcus's tender attentions. The
Shadow of the Torturer, he who in torment uniquely offers the certainty of
ultimate peace. He tells Angel there is no hope for him in this world: "Most
things that live and breathe hate the dark and love the light.... We are
different though, aren't we? We hate the light of day, and it hates us back
in kind." 'Can we rest now, Buffy, can we rest?' Still Angel fights to give
something back to this world that will never accept him. While Spike in
contrast lives his unlife always unbound. And Marcus the vampire priest
performs his rituals of the Last Rites, the Last Confession, the Acts of
Contrition:

Marcus: You did terrible things when you were bad, didn't you? And now you
are trying so *hard* to do good. But Angel, there is nothing either bad or
good, but thinking makes it so. - Now I can make the pain go away, and as
you know, I can bring it back again. What do you want, Angel? I think I
know, but I'd like to hear it from you. The truth. I'll know if you're
lying.

Beyond good and evil. Devilish version. Thinking makes it so. Is it merely
the intentionality that matters? Not in the Jossverse, where the
consequences matter too. If only intention mattered, Angel would be absolved
of Angelus' crimes. But those don't weigh more lightly just because Angel is
not Angelus. Angel knows himself guilty and damned. So that's not the right
question. His own question is, why is he here? He questions purpose, not
guilt. And that's the part that Marcus doesn't get.

A: I want - - forgiveness.

I think it's the only time he ever says this. Because both the futility and
also the injustice of it are laid out very clearly the year before in the
conversation between Giles and Angel in BtVS 3.15 Amends (written by Joss
Whedon):

A: I've been seeing... I've... I've had dreams lately about the past.
It's... It's like I'm living it again. It's, it's so vivid, I... I need to
know. I need to know why I'm here.
G: Here? Back on Earth?
A: I should be in a demon dimension suffering an eternity of torture.
G: I don't feel particularly inclined to argue with that.
A: But I'm not. I was freed, and I don't understand why.
G: Knowing why you were back would give you peace of mind?
A: It might. (Angel sees an apparition of Jenny Calendar)
G: You think that's something you ought to have? Because, sir, to be blunt,
the last time you became complacent about your existence turned out rather
badly.

So Angel never asks anyone to forgive him. Not even Buffy, when he kneels
before her justice. He does tell Holtz later on (AtS 3.21 Benediction,
written by Tim Minear) that he's sorry, but he doesn't look for forgiveness
in return. The things that he or Angelus have done cannot be fixed. Even
Faith knows that level of despair:

F: Are you saying I got to apologize?
A: Think you can?
F: I don't know. - How do you say 'Gee, I'm really sorry I tortured you
nearly to death?'
A: Well, first off I think I'd leave off the 'Gee.' And secondly I think you
have to ask yourself: are you?
F: What?
A: Sorry.
F: And what if I *can't* say it? There are some things you can't just take
back, no matter how sorry you *are*, right?
A: Yeah, there are. I've got some experience in that area.
F: Right. And you've been doing this for a hundred years! I'm not gonna make
it through the next ten minutes.
A: So make it through the next five, the next minute.
F: I don't think I can.
A: Yes, you can.
F: God, it hurts. I hate that it hurts like this.
A: Oh well, it's supposed to hurt. All that pain, all that suffering you
caused is coming back on you. Feel it! Deal with it! Then maybe you've got a
shot at being free.
(AtS 1.19 Sanctuary, written by Tim Minear)

Some things you just can't take back. Suffering comes under the heading of
well-deserved. And Angel has now, seven years into his penance crusade, by
the time he makes his deal with Lilah in AtS 4.22 Home, given up all thought
of ever being free:

Faith (in the Orphic doctored flashbacks, watching Angel:) It wasn't even
his fault. God, does the guy have to pay for everything?
Angelus: Choices, little girl. The ones you make with your heart of
hearts.(Angel locks the door and feeds on the coffeeshop guy.)
(AtS 4.15 Orpheus, written by Mere Smith)

Then Angelus says to Faith, "You didn't think my hell was private, did
you?", and Angel, still kneeling by the body he drank, howls. And that's
what Angel's talking about, when he says to her later, on the balcony in the
dark, "we never stop fighting."

Marcus: Yes. That's the truth, - and you want to earn it. You're not the
type that takes the easy way out. Which is why I like you so much. In the
end you won't feel guilt - or remorse - or anything but pure darkness. In
the end - the ring, the past - none of it will mean anything anymore. You'll
be free. I promise.
A: And I promise (swings his legs up and drives the stake between his feet
towards Marcus chest) to kill you.

So he doesn't get to stop fighting. But Cordy and Doyle turn out to be the
wild cards. They actually turn detectives, in the interest of saving the
vampire. Spike's paid a little visit, looking for the easy solution to the
ring problem, and offers a trade. They find Angel's hiding place, but
Cordy's suspicious of Spike's ability to hold up his end of the bargain, so
Cordy (Cordy!) insists on an actual plan before they go in. In this plan, Oz
is the wheelman. He may live in the laconic but he's admirably
straightforward in the actual (and it seems to me that he really fits into
AtS seamlessly in a way he never did in BtVS) and his vanRescue here is a
great GilesWithChainsaw moment. Cordy and Doyle rescue Angel, Marcus makes
off with the ring, and there goes Spike's lovely plan, leaving him with
nothing but bravado on which to make his exit. Fortunately, he's never left
short in that department:

Spike: Son of a bitch! - I do the work, - I do the digging, - fight off a
Slayer, - drive to LA, fire the help, - and what do I get? - ROYALLY
SCREWED, is what! - Well that cinches it. No more partners. From now on I'm
my own man. A lone wolf. Sole survivor. Look out, here comes Spike! The
baddest mother. (a beam of sunlight from one of the bullet holes hits the
back of his head and his hair ignites) Ahh! (he ducks and puts his hair out
with his hands) I really hope they kill each other.

Here comes, there goes Spike. What a guy. Lucky he never got together with
Faith in the bad days. "You get the Watcher. You get the mom. You get the
little Scooby gang. What do I get? Jack squat. This is supposed to be my
town!" (BtVS 3.17 Enemies, also written by Douglas Petrie, recycling a bit
there). Oh yes, I am definitely looking forward to a full-on season-length
collision between the two vampires with soul.

And his own man is what he finally became, soul-having and all, late in the
seventh season. "A lone wolf", maybe Angel's real preference In the Dark but
never Spike's. "Sole survivor"? Soul survivor? Maybe, we'll see this
October. "Look out, here comes Spike", his natural epitaph once upon a time.
And off he goes, back to Sunnydale to deliver yet another high-'tude speech
from on high watching Buffy, interrupted by whatever fate is curious about
exactly what the soulless might still have to lose:

S (looking down on Buffy:) Watch your mouth, little girl. You should know
better than to tempt the fates that way. 'Cause the big bad is back, and
this time, it's... (Suddenly he's being electrocuted by commandos) Urrgh!
Aaaahhh!
(BtVS 4.06 Wild at Heart, written by Marti Noxon)

Spike remains in the dark. While Angel has earned his rescue by the real
White Hats:

I know you. We know you. We know you're a man with a demon inside - not the
other way around.
(Wesley to Demoned Angel in AtS 2.22 There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb,
written by Tim Minear)

He is not alone any more, he has made connection, and it changes his world.
He is no longer in the alley, or in the dark:

Connor (talking about Jasmine): I'm finally a part of something. And I
belong. I won't let anyone ruin that.
Angel: I know, son. (He makes pulp out of Connor's face, throws him down
onto the car, tosses him on the ground, gets into the car and says to Wes:
"Drive.")
(AtS 4.20 Sacrifice, written by Ben Edlund)

So, having saved the world, and especially small children, and even
satisfied the client for once, and having stood in the sun on the beach
without burning up, pale but surviving, he talks to Doyle on the balcony
about what really matters:

A: I'm not going to wear the ring.
D: That was the other. - You got a real addiction to the brooding part of
life. Anyone ever tell you that?
A: Once or twice.
D: Care to explain? - I mean this ring is your redemption. It's what you've
been waiting for.
A: Nah, it just looks like it.
D: Angel, man, think what you're saying.
A: I have. I've thought of it from every angle, and what I figure is I did a
lot of damage in my day, more than you can imagine.
D: So what, you don't get the ring because your period of self-flagellation
isn't over yet? I mean think of all the daytime people you could help
between 9 and 5.
A: They have help. The whole world is designed for them, so much that they
have no idea what goes on around them after dark. They don't see the weak
ones lost in the night - or the things that prey on them. And if I join
them, maybe I'd stop seeing, too.
D: And who'd look out for all the insomniacs?
A: I was brought back for a reason, Doyle, and as much as I would like to
kid myself, I don't think it was for 18 holes at Rancho. (Sun sets. He
smashes the ring.)
D: Oh, and that Rachel girl with the crazy boyfriend called. Said to say
thanks, and that she found a little faith. Said you'd know what that means.
A: I don't know about you, but I had a nice day. - You know, except for the
bulk of it, where I was nearly tortured to death.
D: Yeah, well, you stood up.
A: Oh, god. I was this close to telling him everything. I mean, one more hot
poker and I was giving him the ring, your mom, - everything. - How is your
mom?

Bit of Angelus in there. More than a bit. When Angel chooses, don't forget,
he's always choosing too. He may not be capable of love, but he understands
obligation. He understands loyalty. They make an accommodation, and they go
on. Fighting.

Jasmine: No. No, Angel. There are no absolutes. No right and wrong. Haven't
you learned anything working for the powers? There are only choices. I
offered paradise. You chose this (gesturing to the rioting around them).
Angel: Because I could. Because that's what you took away from us, choice.
Jasmine: And look where free will has gotten you.
Angel: Hey, I didn't say we were smart. I said it's our right. It's what
makes us human.
Jasmine: But you're. Not. Human.
Angel: Working on it.
(AtS 4.21 Peace Out, written by David Fury)

macha