To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

-William Blake

'Love is sacrifice'

'To sacrifice a loved one or pet, press the pound key'

-Edlund and Whedon-work

Hello everyone.

Oooh, guess what? I've seen Angel 5.1! To explain, I live in England, and the earliest I've ever seen an episode

of Buffy or Angel after it was broadcast in America is about six months. Until now. A certain board member named aliera has sent me across the Atlantic a copy of the fifth Season premiere of Angel, and so I've already watched it, less than a week after it aired on the WB. And complete with the WB's extraordinarily lengthy advert breaks. The thing with those breaks is, they let me write on my envelope. And notes lead to paragraphs, and paragraphs lead to dissertations...

So I'm feeling a little out of the loop of normal time at the moment. Maybe it's this feeling of timelessness that led me to the conclusion that 43 minutes of television held in microcosm eternity. Or maybe it was those funny mushrooms. Quick, maintain dignity, a title...

5.1- 'Conviction'

I've managed to remain largely unspoiled for this Season of Angel, but one evening that I was less successful than most was at the Board Meeting in London in July. Don't get me wrong, it was a fantastic (and lengthy) evening. But at one point, a certain yabyumpan, (who will remain nameless) offered the sides for 5.1. Between her and Rahael what could I do? In any case, discussing a certain element in one of the scenes, Rah contended 'It's very Miltonian. Very Blake-ian'. And the more I saw of the episode, the more those couple of sentences reverberated inside my head. There's a religious subtext very close to the text in this episode, and of course, justice, vengeance, Chosen people, the enemy, and all the usual Old Testament paraphernalia.

I was reading a preface to Milton's collected works the other day, and much was made at his time in history of the three events in Christianity which were considered to shape the whole elastic band of human existence. These were, I I recall correctly; The Fall, Jesus' birth, and Judgement Day. In this episode, there are definite aspects of each of the three, and the interplay of other religious themes, some of which have been expertly discussed by scroll, fresne and Valheru, amongst others, led me to attempt this review tracing through Christian history. Here's an attempt:

In the beginning...

If last Season was 'Before the Bang, Before the Word', then this Season of Angel also appears to be heading the wrong way up the temporal highway. At least for a minute or two. Asd in 'City of...' we start with a helpless girl in an alleyway, saved by Angel in cool Dark Avenger style-y. The words 'I help the helpless' are plastered all over the scene. Until it's rudely interrupted by the present. Angel's view of himself is suddenly overturned, and we are left with the comparison of him and the helpless blonde girl herself. Angel ends up gibbering at the bureaucracy of the salvage operation, as helpless as the girl in front of the vampire. People are crazy, times are strange, and temptation's on the way.

Falling Angel

It's very interesting how the apple which Eve gives to Angel is used. There's been a little talk about 'Lilah's' proximity to 'Lilith' as a name, and how Eve was a later wife. This certainly doesn't say much for the portrayal of early woman, if Lilah and Eve represent between them two of the first women to walk the planet. They are both seductresses, wily and disingenuous. The Lilith-Lilah connection I'm not sure about, but the Eve-Eve is irrefutable. Although there's also Eve-l, which shouldn't be discounted. U'd like to put in a word of praise for Eve, who's got rather short shrift. There's a touch more innocence about her than Lilah. Whereas Lilah was dangerous and powerful, there's just an element of simple charm about Eve which was one thing Lilah didn't possess. I think this could be a valuable weapon, that of primitive temptation.

Of course, her first mission is to challenge Angel as to whether he's afraid, and he responds by very deliberately, knowingly, taking a bite out of the Apple. Of course, the apple grants the Knowledge of Right and Wrong, and the ability to choose. Angel's decision is not dissimilar to his killing of Jasmine in 'Peace Out'- it establishes the possibility of free will, and demands the strength of character from his team that they can both acknowledge evil and fight it. It's simple to dismiss Angel's takeover of Wolfram and Hart as the wrong one, but Angel's apple makes the point that he goes in with his eyes open, aware of the imperfections in the world, outside the Eden of the Hyperion, in the big, bright jaguar-filled world of Wolfram and Hart.

The Chosen People

There's a lot of fascinating suggestions about Abraham's tribe in this episode, mainly covered by scroll and fresne. I think it's fair to say that the Abraham thing could have been levied at Angel since 'Amends', but a couple of aspects of this episode cement it. Remember that Angel survived in 'Amends' because of the Hope that the Powers that Be sent him. Then Doyle and Cordelia were chosen to bear visions from them. Angel was truly the God's chosen, so much so that, were Angehal not compromising the pun about heavenly messengers, his name might have changed. And now we see our chosen people, sans Cordelia, in a strange land. And how shall they sing the Lord's song?

A couple of little visual tricks do beautifully for this symbolism. At the beginning of the second act we see Angel, Wesley and Fred in the office, but shot through a trinagular pane of glass. The distance is exaggerated by the geometric non-tesselation with the television screen, and we are made to feel very much the outsider. They were chosen, but what are they doing here, controlling this office?

Also, we have the long, beautiful shot which has been commented on extensively. This connects all the members of the Gang. First we see Fred chatting to Wesley, who's then joined by Gunn, (cricket reference number two in both series, hooray and cf 'Graduation Day, One'), and then we see Lorne and finally Angel. They connect through the shot. And of course we see the bussle of the place. There seems to be little friction between the group. In particular, Wesley and Gunn are getting on like blood brothers. We wonder whether the whole section about Angel's child ever happened, and how Wesley, in his own mind, has ended up where he is today.

If Connor is forgotten by the rest of the one-time Angel Investigations though, he's certainly not by Whedon or Angel, and this fact is demonstrated neatly towards the middle of the episode.

The Immaculate Conception

Well, a vampire gave birth, a Miracle happened, (Angel's second), and Connor existed. He prematurely aged in a hell-dimension came back to earth alienated from his other-than-human Father, slept with his erstwhile near-lover, worshipped a demiurge and was killed to save his life. You're run-on sentences are getting much less pointless In this episode, we have all sorts of questions about Fathers putting sons in danger. And we're made to ask: for whom did Angel adjust Connor's life. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son

Connor's sacrifice left Angel spritely enough to crack jokes in Sunnydale, and he seems relatively upbeat if a little uncomfortable at Wolfram and Hart until he hears about Corbin Fries' son, having a virus plated on him. Fries would be so irritated by the world if he lost the trial that he'd use his son to destroy something he can't bear, the hope of Childhood. And what does Angel think? 'Was I saving Connor's life, or was I sacrificing him to make me view of a world come true?'.

Connor is certainly hinted as being both Isaac and Jesus in this episode. We get the wonderful, near-throw away line 'For goats, press one, or say goats'. But after we've stopped giggling, we get the darker, 'To sacrifice a loved one or pet, press the pound key'. This, Angel broods, is what he has done. Offered Isaac up as a ritual sacrifice to the Powers that Be. And unlike the Jealous God of the Old Testament, they have accepted.

The Second Coming

Meanwhile, towards the end of the episode, we get the return of a character whose last pose was Messianic, being burnt up in soulful sunlight, dying so that the world might live. Spike's return is of course a second coming, and he will be seen be some as Saviour of the Show, (and perhaps, by others, not so ;-)) Spike is some kind of a brother to Connor, and so we think about Connor as Jesus to Angel's Father God. 'Father, take this cup away from me'. You can't be saved by a lie The reluctant bastard Ishmael returns to be what Connor can't be. And Angel broods once more.

Judgement Day

Which leaves the end of time. It might have been for some parts of Los Angeles if Fries hadn't got off with murder. And yet he is saved, oddly, by a new spiffy-looking Gunn. But just exactly who is riding into judgement in the scene? With the Judge herself implacated as incompetent by some fancy legal trickery, we are left with a question of just who holds our souls in the balance, and decides whether we are good or bad. It's all to do with Conviction. Hauser is pure because he believes in something. And yet, as we've seen from the Merciful God of the Old Testament, there's one thing stronger than blood and thunder. The one thing that's stronger than conviction, and that's mercy. The irony as Angel shows his first signs of noir-ness in his new job is palpable and interesting. Just exactly who is the boss here? What is our mission, and who is our God? Where is the enemy?

Apocrypha

And here's the other stuff which didn't fit into the whole span of Time.

-Angel's answer to the question 'Who are you?', 'Doesn't matter', is an interesting, propbably unintended echo of the magnificent 'The House Always Wins', where, in a moment of passing interest, we get Connor's answer to the same question 'Don't know yet'. Does Angel's response hint not only at his own questionable identity in his new job, but also to where exactly Connor lies in all this?

-Science is being played with again, and people's moral neutrality as scientists in particular. Knox seems taken aback by the idea that he could be considered morally reprehensible for his actions, even going as far as to use the utilitarian argument that they've controlled more virii than they've let loose. Prepare for more puzzles about just how the morality of science fits into this heavily Religious Philosophical new show.

-The introductions see the Fang Gang more or less comfortable in their new environment. Lorne seems happiest of all, for the moment. The point where the girl sings to the empath is as undoubtedly a metanarration on 'American Idol' as the other classic metanarrations in this episode. We see the talentless singing to the talented, only to be told they're useless. The utter pointlessness of it all is amply demonstrated in those few seconds.

-There's an excellent piece of camerawork as Wesley is Gunn's doubling shadow as he walks out of his office at one point. Wes is the devil on the shoulder, the reflection in the mirror making him wonder whether his every move is right or wrong.

-There's a moment where it looks like Joss might break with tradition and give Harmony a moment of pathos, when she hears Cordelia is in a coma. Cordelia means more to her than anyone else, (except perhaps Spike), and she genuinely almost breaks down. Then, in a nod to Disharmony she goes back to her opportunism, reminding us she is a soulless vampire.

-Spanky was a very fun one-time character who I really enjoyed.

-There's a loss of innocence vibe going through the whole classroom scenario. Of course, the child isn't innocent at all, he's talking about the Punisher, but my mind sprung back, particularly after the Goat Sacrifice line, to 11 year old Isaac being sacrificed for Abraham's principled devotion to his God. One of the scariest of Yahweh's games, and weirdly unsquarable with the later God, to me as an agnostic at least.

-We see Fred getting angry at the science department, and at the same time there's Hauser subverting Angel's plans. Maybe Fred's method of leadership, straight out non-brooding anger, is shown to be the best option here. But then, like all Whedon episodes, we get the reversal where Angel's forceful commands ends in Hauser's death.

-Tradition is a word used towards the end, and a fascinating one. Angel has broken with his tradition, and yet Hauser's blind following of tradition, his refusal of upheaval, is equally as potentially damaging, as they almost take out a class of children. There is no easy answer to Tradition vs Innovation here, other than both can be dangerous.

-And so we wonder about Gunn. He has the most 'potential' of the bunch, a sly metanarration on his underuse in previous Seasons. He seems unperturbed by the operation, certain that it is 'still him'. But this sudden change, the medical one to Angel's philosophical, is going to be more complicated than it appears.

-And so to 'The Pirates of Penzance', and back to England, where the rain falls, and there's no Angel until January for all but the lucky few. To skip forward timelessly from 1890 to 1960, I'm singing in the rain.

Great episode, maybe a little behind 'Deep Down', but up there with 'Judgement' and 'Heartthrob'. Angel remains with a 100% excellent premiere rate.

Thanks aliera.

In nomine Patris, Filii et Spiritu, Amen.

TCH