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Thoughts on Tonights ATS
Okay is it just me or do sci-fi writers have a thing for WWII, submarines and/or Nazis? I swear every single science fiction series that has been on television has done the WWII Nazi thing. Actually, what is it about grown men and submarines? Sigh. Oh well, it was at least better than doing the high school drag racing storyline, have to give Whedon kudos for not falling into that time-worn cliche, like every other teen drama on TV. Besides there's just something catchy about "Vampires on Submarines" - LOL!!
Interesting episode.
Why We Fight
When the episode begins, we see a man struggling to save his crew on a submarine that's being attacked by some unseen menace. The man is attempting to instill faith in the crew, give them a reason to keep fighting.
Then we switch to the present, where Angel and
his friends are meeting in a board room and Angel is trying to instill the same work ethic in his friends and failing miserably. They are tired. Losing faith. Wondering why they are even here. When they leave, Angel asks if they can meet again in few more hours and discuss more work, he's somewhat sheepish about it.
(Oh quick note on Gunn - he seems to be losing the mojo now that the white room is empty and EVE is gone, his lingo is reverting back to old Gunn and that is disturbing him. He may actually like the new Gunn. Wonder what he'll do to keep him? Which is another metaphor for the episode - what lengths are you willing to go to to survive or to win something?)
As they part ways - going into four different directions. Wes and Fred discuss Knox and how he screwed up on something major that Fred needs to stay late and fix. Again. Also, this round Fred staying late to fix Knox's mistake places her in Lawson's line of fire. (We've seen something regarding Knox making a mistake in at least three episodes now...Conviction, Life of The Party (I think that's the one) and Why We Fight. ) Wes seems to be somewhat pleased that Knox isn't doing so great and acknowledges it. The fact it keeps coming up leads me to believe that we should keep an eye on Knox.
In the process of the episode, Angel is put into a couple of situations he clearly does not want to be in. Each are manipulated by outside parties. The first is the submarine scenerio. HE doesn't want to help. But the US Govt. has not given him a choice. So he makes the best of a bad situation.
What's interesting - is what he does and why.
1. Angel discovers three vampires on board the submarine - headed by his old pal Spike, who freed the other two. Angel doesn't just stake them off the bat. He lets them live until he's given no other choice. And he doesn't stake either Lawson or Spike at the end of the episode, he lets both escape, actually gives them a head start on both the army and the sunlight, knowing full well they are killers with no conscience. Why? It's an interesting question. One Lawson keeps asking Angel throughout the episode. But Angel never provides an answer. He doesn't let the government capture them. He doesn't kill them.
And having just turned Lawson - he doesn't even deign to help him. Or put him out of his misery.
Even after Lawson saves the day. HE clearly only sired Lawson to save everyone's lives including his own. So why?
We know Angel is forced to do this - the govt. literally chains weights to his ankles and sinks him. And he's told the mission. To retrieve the sub and the Nazi secret weapons aboard. Perhaps this explains why he doesn't kill the vampires. It's really not the black and white decision Buffy had (if you'll excuse the terminology), it's murkier than that. Angel knows the vampires are the victims in this. The two governments are fighting over plans to use them as weapons. Yes they are killers, but so are the humans. Lawson declares the US govt would *never* do this, but we know better - as the guy who recruits Angel states -"I'm part of the demon re-con Intiative", Initiative...reminds me of Spike's line in an episode called the Initiative, BTVS S4, when he's been caught by some govt force and the neighboring vamp tells him that force is drugging them to experiment on them.
Spike says:"What group? The Nazis? Some major cosmetics company?" (We should have known that ME would followup on this line some day...little boys and Nazis...personally I would have preferred the major cosemetics company. LOL!)
At any rate - Angel states later in the episode that he's seen the govt's plans and knows the mission. While he doesn't say how he felt about it, Spike does and Angel has no compuction about Spike torturing or threatening the Nazi. You get the feeling that Angel knows the government is using him here - just as he knows they'd use Spike and the others. They are puppets. Puppet killing machines. Not unlike Steve Rogers/Captain America was in the comics - a man pumped up with drugs and chemicals and turned into a super-soldier killing machine for the government? Which in some ways is almost worse than what the vampires are doing or is it the same thing?
In case you miss the metaphor - they play it out again, when this time Angel turns a human being into a monster in order to save the day. Lawson has been stabbed by the Nazi. He's dying. And he's the only one who can get the submarine running again. While Angel could probably escape the sub, as could Spike, without too much damage, (not sure about this, knowing little or nothing about the effect of ocean pressure on vampires), the surviving soldiers under Lawson's care can't. Angel has a choice. He can either sire Lawson or pray he can figure it out without Lawson's help. The needs of the one against the needs of the many. So, he sires Lawson, aware of the consequences.
Lawson saves the day. And Angel once again has a choice - three in fact:
1. Stake Lawson.
2. Take Lawson under his wing.
3. Let Lawson go with a warning.
He picks choice three. Which Spike calls him on. "So you what force him out, give him maybe a few hours to swim it before the sun peeks out...you're still a dick." Angel agrees. Why choice three though? Why did the writers pick that choice?
Because - Angel couldn't kill Lawson, Lawson had saved the day after all and the government had used them both. He only killed the vampires in the submarine that went against his orders or killed people in front of him. Spike and LAwson helped and followed orders. Why didn't he take Lawson under his wing? Because he knew what Lawson was and that there was no way that he could change him - also he may have felt a little anger at the "humans" who did this. Or perhaps Angel didn't want responsibility for Lawson, didn't want to be Lawson's master, he wanted to forget?
Yet, it came back and got him in the end. As Spike points out at the end of the episode -"he came back, not surprised, just surprised it took him so long to do it..."
But...and here's the thing, the root that the writers are trying to get to, it's not about revenge, and it's not about whose the biggest dickhead, it's about the reasons we do what we do. Why do we fight for the things we fight for?
That's what Lawson keeps asking Angel. And it's what Angel is asking himself. Am I just a puppet to these people? Lawson wonders if the only reason Angel is on board that sub is someone forced him to do it - he doesn't appear to care about anyone on it including himself. Angel's friends wonder why are they at W&H, is it because Angel roped them in on his deal? Are they like the soliders on the submarine? As Spike states - "they'll bring anyone on these things..." Is that true? Is it that random? Is the reason known only to those manipulating the strings?
The reference goes back to Home and Jasmine and puppets. It goes back to that incredibly murky decision Angel made back in Home to save two lives, which no one even refers to any more: Cordy and Connor. Reasons - that no one but Angel knows about. Just as LAwson, Angel and the vampires seem to be unaware of the reasons the Nazis and US govt want to use them. Do the reasons have a meaning or a resonance, if you don't know what they are? And is Connor's life worth the bargain Angel made with W&H, apparently roping his friends Wes, Fred and Gunn into it along with him.
When Spike asks Angel at the end, why Lawson would return if it wasn't for revenge, Angel states something he's been asking himself over and over again - "he was looking for a reason". And Angel couldn't give it to him. What do you do when you can't find meaning in your life? When there's a hole where that meaning once was? Lawson used to see meaning in his life, when he was human, he felt the connection, he knew why he fought. Now? He's lost. There's no meaning. All he has is maybe part of a soul, maybe not even that. No connection. No feeling. He feels like a puppet with cut strings. It's empty. There's a hole. The hole in Angel's life at the moment is Connor and possibly Cordelia (who was always so good at telling him what it was all about, she'd become his touchstone, all of their touchstones), back then it may have been his vampire family, the loss of his vampire purpose - "evil". Why aren't Connor or Cordelia mentioned here? Because the absence of their names or even a mention helps demonstrate the hole in Angel's life. When we lose someone - it helps if others talk about them, help us remember, when we don't discuss it...the lack of a mention creates a hole or an emptiness inside us. A feeling of something missing but we don't know what.
Interesting idea to use WII and Nazis to explore this issue. Usually we don't ask why we fight in WWII - the reasons appear obvious. Nazis evil. Allies good. No gray there. OR is there? IF you search your history books, you'll find plenty. The Nazis weren't the only ones who committed wartime atrocities all in the name of "war" and "fighting", and often without much reason to back it up.
Oh - some notes on characters:
1. Angel: "Spike's not a nazi, he just likes wearing the jacket". If you get a chance take a gander at an old noir comic by Frank Miller called Sin City, the main anti-hero, Marv, collects and wears the jackets of each person he kills. Trading jackets as he goes, creating himself piece by piece. The jacket isn't about the victim, has zip to do with it. He just takes it because it's cool and shows he won. A hit man thing. The thing to remember about hit men, is they don't focus on the victim like a serial killer does, they just see them as a quick meal or deal and move on.
2. Spike to Angel: "You're still a dick" - almost friendly like. Get the feeling these two get each other on a deep level. Also that it was Spike, Angel confides in the end. Interesting.
This episode reminded me of a lot of 1940s noir films...very murky and the heroes not so heroic, yet their actions understandable.
no subject
A son who comes to hate Angel, holds his friends hostage, tells Angel that thanks to him his life was ruined, has too much good in him to be purely evil but too much anguish and confusion to be good. Angel took away this man's purpose much as Connor thought Angel took away his. He tells Angel he feels empty inside. "Is it just me, chief, or does everyone you sired feel this way?" His question of whether he has a soul because Angel sired him draws more parallels to Connor, a theme that is confirmed by Angel's line, "I don't think it works that way, son." With the sadness and world weariness in his voice as he delivers this line, I'm pretty sure Angel was thinking of Connor himself there.
"You gave me just enough, didn't you? Enough of your soul to keep me trapped between who I was and who I should be. I'm nothing, because of you."
And then the Father kills the Son. Again.
Re:
Particularly how Lawson threatens the lives of Angel's loved ones - forcing Angel to discuss things before killing him.
Angel's relationship and choices regarding Connor has had lasting consequences on his friends lives.
His choice to alter Connor's life - alterred his friends lives, literally "mind-raped them".
His choice to sire Lawson - causes Lawson to come back with the threat of chopping off his friends heads - another association to mind-rape or disconnection to the head and thought.
In both cases, when Angel realizes what the son is, he resists killing the son until it is almost too late, after the damage has already been done.
Re:
And both sons at the very end are so pyschologically troubled, they are practically begging/challenging Angel to go through with it and end their suffering.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2004-02-11 09:46 pm (UTC)(link)Are you kidding? You don't mess with people like Estee Lauder! I'd rather take on some Nazi's, thank you very much.
Seriously, though, nice analysis of the themes in Why We Fight.
But...and here's the thing, the root that the writers are trying to get to, it's not about revenge, and it's not about whose the biggest dickhead, it's about the reasons we do what we do. Why do we fight for the things we fight for?
It's also about how the things we do, in the name of some greater good or for other people, how those acts erode at what we are. What personal price are men willing to pay to get the job done? And does Angel even realize the cost to his soul? Do we ever realize this ourselves? How often do we rationalize our actions until we find we've become someone we don't even recognize anymore? A very murky issue, in times of war or corporate ladder-climbing.
I'm sorry he killed Lawson, but I'm not sure he could bear the burden of another tortured, kinda soulful vampire on his hands. Can you imagine Buffy killing a vamp if there was the possibility that he might still have some vestiges of his soul? I don't think so. I wonder if the fact that Angel kills Lawson means that he's still not ready to take a good hard look at what he's become? He's become Lawson in a way, hasn't he? Someone who does his job without any feeling or purpose or joy. Lawson's very pointed questions to Fred are about whether she enjoys her job. So, again -- why do we fight? Why do we do what we do? Especially when there is no joy or purpose in our efforts?
Angel just paid a huge price in You're Welcome -- Cordy's life. Does he realize that yet?
Very interesting issues. God, I hope they give AtS one more season.
punkinpuss
Re:
I think you nailed one of the major themes this season. Lawson tells Angel in one scene, that it's not always about why but how as well. "You don't win wars by doing the wrong thing, you win by doing what's right." A comment Soulless!Spike snarks at - with :" And let me know how that works out for you popeye." The scene is where, Lawson finds out about what the Nazis planned to do with the vampires. Angel knows as does Spike, when he finds out about it, that the US probably is planning on doing the same thing. Lawson refuses to believe this. "How" we fight is important to Lawson. This theme is a bit of a carry-over from BTVS, when Buffy tells Giles - that you can't do good by doing evil (LMPTM), that the ends don't justify the means. A view Angel is currently struggling with.
What I found really interesting - was how Lawson forced Angel to re-consider the situation: "How do you feel when it is your friends lives at risk? Are you willing to sacrifice them, the people that are trusting you and under your command and you care about? IS putting them at risk and sacrificing their souls for the mission - worth it?" A question that was asked in Peace-Out and Home, except in Peace-Out, Wes, Fred and Gunn willingly went to their doom for the world. In Home, I'm wondering if they really made that choice or if Angel did it for them? Did Angel do to his friends what he does to Lawson in Why We Fight?