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shadowkatEssay written in 2005. Was on geocities but am saving it here, because geocities is about to go kaput.
How Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel the Series Subvert the Traditional Function of The Fatal in Their Narratives
by shadowkat, 2003
[1]This essay focuses on the roles of the fatal and how the traditional view of the fatal is subverted in the cult television shows Buffy The Vampire Slayer (Btvs) and Angel The Series (Ats). It also deals with the functions of fatales in other popular culture mediums including comic books, pulp fiction, and film noir. Film noir, according to Dale E. Ewing Jr. in his essay Film Noir: Style and Content, was first coined by French critics in an attempt to describe the dark nihilistic films coming out of Hollywood in the 1940s and early ‘50s, which had strong underpinnings in both the literary gothic tradition and hardboiled mystery novels. (73) While other scholars have briefly touched on how Btvs (most notably Thomas Hibbs essay Buffy the Vampire Slayer as Feminist Noir) and Ats (Slain’s essay Are you Noir or Have you Ever Been ), are influenced by the noir genre, they do not directly address how the series subverts or expands on noir themes. So I will only briefly mention them here as additional sources the Buffy scholar can consult regarding the relationship between Btvs and Ats with the noir genre but not as support for anything in this essay. Of the two essays, I highly recommend Slain’s Are you Noir or Have you Ever Been, which does an in depth analysis on how Angel the Series fits the noir model.
[2] Introduction: What is the fatal and their overall function in the narrative?
French critics first coined the term “fatal” to describe the female antagonist/romantic foil in hardboiled 1930s and 1940s films. Later, this term enveloped the male antagonist/romantic foil in gothic fiction and fantasy. The fatal is defined as “an irresistibly attractive character who leads the protagonist (hero/heroine) into danger”.
(Marling 1, Mills 1) This character is often the protagonist’s romantic interest or foil. Traditionally the protagonist’s involvement with the fatale “may range from mild flirtation to passionate sex, but in the denouement s/he must reject or leave the fatal, for the revealed plot shows the fatale to be one of the causes of the crime or horror”. (Marling 1). In very few cases does the hero end up with the fatale or share the fatale’s fate.
[3] Fatales in popular fiction and cinema have a wide range of roles – anything from provider of uncomfortable truths, damsels, romantic foils to unpredictable villains. They can often serve the purpose of being the hero/heroines one true confidante – the one person the hero can reveal their sins to without feeling ashamed, because the fatale has often done something far worse. The fatale may also free the hero/heroine to express their best or worst qualities and is often sought out romantically by the hero/heroine when the hero/heroine is at their lowest emotional point.
[4] Examples of famous fatales include: Phyllis in Double Indemnity , Brigid O’Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon, Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, and Rita Hayworth’s characters in Gilda and The Lady from Shanghai. More recent television fatales, again mostly female, include: Xena from The Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Juliette the female vampire and club owner in Forever Knight, and Lilah in Angel The Series. Recent male fatales in genre television would be Ares in Xena Warrior Princess, Spike and Angel respectively in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Without exception all of these characters had at some point engaged in romantic flirtation with the hero, some may have even consummated that in a passionate relationship only to be rejected by the hero and cast off in some manner towards the end.
[5] Fatal as Sex Object
The fatal must be sexually attractive to the hero/heroine and more often than not the writers/filmmaker will focus attention on the blatant sexuality of the fatale. If female – we’ll see lots of leg, bust, etc. Example in Double Indemnity – the filmmaker focused the camera on Phyllis’ ankle bracelet. When she enters the first frame, we watch the camera slowly pan up from her ankle to her face, emphasizing that piece of naked flesh which in 1940s cinema was quite risqué. (Davenport 1: “Dangerous Because of Her Sexuality”) Today it would be a naked breast or she would be exposing her bare back. In the Robert Mitchum film classic Out of The Past – the camera spent time focused on Kathie Moffet’s (played by Jane Green) bust. We the viewers saw her from the perspective of the hero, in Out of the Past – the private dick, Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum), in Double Indemnity, the crooked insurance salesman, Walter Neff ( Fred McMurray). In Ats, the character of Lilah, a wicked female attorney who continuously is shown tempting Angel, the show’s anti-hero detective, into doing nasty deeds – is often seen wearing outfits that emphasize her legs. We see her through the eyes of the male protagonists – first Angel then his friend and colleague, Wesley. Lilah usually wears a short skirt, an open shirt, or tight slacks. The camera will pan her length emphasizing her curves and physical appeal. In Btvs – Spike, a vampire who has fallen in love with a vampire slayer and was once amongst the show’s principal villains, is often seen wearing nothing but a silver necklace around his neck. His chest is repeatedly and often blatantly emphasized. Adorning jewelry is often used to heighten the effect or show him as decidedly wicked, just as it is used on Phyllis, the temptress in Double Indemnity, as the camera focuses on her ankle bracelet. When Angel, a vampire, was the fatal in Btvs, he often had his shirt off, an elaborate tattoo emphasized on his shoulder to demonstrate his wickedness and unsuitability for the heroine. Like Spike, Angel was bare-chested whenever Buffy came into his living quarters. In Innocence S2 Btvs, shortly after Angel has slept with the heroine and lost his soul, we see him with nothing but a sliver chain and black leather pants. His pants were tight often leather, and the camera repeatedly emphasized how “hot” he was in comparison to the other male leads. Buffy’s other male friends, Xander, OZ, and Giles, humans, seldom if ever had their shirts off or wore jewelry or tattoos. The rare moments that Xander is shown shirtless are for comic effect – in Go Fish S2 Btvs, where he wears a speedo, in Nightmares S1 Btvs, where he finds himself in nothing but boxers in front of his peers, and in First Date S7 Btvs where he is hanging above the seal to the Hellmouth. The heroine is not shown lusting after “good” friend Xander, rather she’s shown lusting after the dark twisted vampire fatales.
[6] The fatale’s dark sexuality psychologically expresses the protagonist’s own fears of sexuality and their need to control or repress it. (qtd. in Davenport : “Dangerous Because of Her Sensuality” ) The more exposed s/he is, the more tempted and repressed the hero. In Season 2, Btvs – we see this need to control or repress sexuality in how the fatal literally turns on the heroine after they make love, while in Season 6, the need for control is shown by the brutal sexual acts between the two characters culminating in sexual violence by season’s end. In Btvs’ sixth season viewers noted and often complained that Buffy, the heroine, remained fully clothed or covered in her scenes with Spike, while Spike is either nude or bare-chested. The most we saw of Buffy was her bare shoulders or ankles. Spike, we often saw everything but his rear end and genitalia, which were cleverly obscured by camera angles. (Smashed, Wrecked, Gone, Dead Things, and As You Were S6 Btvs) In film, the femme fatal is often the nude party while the male is fully clothed. An example is Body Heat, where we glimpse the wicked female, Kathleen Turner’s, breasts and naked form, but very little of the hero, William Hurt. The fatal is shown free in their nakedness, unabashed, seductive, almost as if they are taunting the hero. Asking what the hero is so afraid of. When the fatal and hero/heroine become sexually involved – the fatal is often the seducer, the betraying party and the one who pays for the act. The fatale takes on the sins while the hero remains pure. (Davenport 1: “The Femme Fatal is Punished”; Blazer 4)
[7] Subversion of the Fatale’s Role in The Narrative
In Buffy The Vampire Slayer (Btvs) and Angel The Series (Ats) the writers subvert the idea of the fatal – they follow it up to a point then do the opposite from the standard formula. This is in part because Btvs is a satire of the traditional horror and noir genres. Satires by their very nature invert and subvert the rules, simultaneously making fun of and honoring the genre they are based on. Instead of having the fatal die a villain, the writers of Btvs and Ats often attempt to redeem him or her. The fatal may even evolve from fatal to being an anti-hero, as is seen by the character of Angel jumping from fatal status on Btvs to anti-hero status on Ats, a pattern that was previously set by the pop culture series Hercules: the Legendary Journeys and Xena Warrior Princess. In those two cult television dramas, the femme fatale left Hercules and started her own series as the hero. Buffy the Vampire Slayer has begun this evolution with another character – Faith and may be doing it with Spike as well.
[8] Female/Femme Fatal vs. Male/Homme Fatal
Angel The Series (Ats) in keeping with the classic tradition in which it is based (film noir) does not always subvert the fatal. In some ways it has played out both the traditional and subverted versions, updating the genre that it bases itself upon in the process. But as I will explore in the sections that follow, the way it does subvert this classic formula is in the way it rewards the fatal for keeping her power and punishes her when she lets it go. Flipping traditional gender themes and roles in noir films on their head as seen through the development and paths of the following female characters: Cordelia, Darla, Lilah, Gwen, and Fred.
[9] Buffy The Vampire Slayer (Btvs) plays out the same formula but in regards to the homme fatal, which has a somewhat different path in visual narratives than the femme. In Btvs, after the fatal becomes sexually involved with the heroine and turns wicked, instead of killing them, the writers start the process of redeeming the fatale. While the femme fatal is rarely allowed to live or be redeemed, the homme fatal not only gets to live, he also gets a second chance with the heroine and the possibility of being redeemed through her acknowledgment of his good deeds. This appears on its surface to be a classic subversion of the traditional role of the fatal – but if you look over the homme’s role as fatal in classic literature, specifically romantic and gothic works, (Marling 1) you’ll notice the homme fatal often has a more positive fate than the femme fatal of noir fiction. Possibly because the fatal role was in a sense created with the female in mind and as a reaction against female empowerment?
[10] Examples of classic homme fatals include Mr. Rochester and Heathcliff of the Bronte Sisters novels. Or the fate of poor Mr. De Winter, the brooding lead and possible murderer, in Daphne DeMaurier’s classic Rebecca. All three men survive and are at some point reunited with their ladyloves. The only one that appears to be somewhat doomed is possibly Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. The film director, Alfred Hitchcock played around a bit with homme fatales as well – in Spellbound, we have the amnesia victim, Gregory Peck, who could be a murderer and leading poor Ingrid Bergman astray. We learn later that he’s just misunderstood and she helps him get to the root of it, in effect saving him. Or Cary Grant’s character in Suspicion whom poor Joan Fontaine becomes convinced is trying to kill her. Both characters are redeemed in the end by their ladyloves.
[11] This not always the case of course, there are instances in popular culture and literature, especially science fiction, neo female noir, and horror, where the male fatal cannot be redeemed and dooms the female heroine. Some of these aren’t true fatales so much as villains and include such characters as the Cardassian villain of Star Trek’s DS9, GulduKat, who seduces the female heroine Kira as well as the audience, yet remains to his dying day a sadistic if somewhat seductive villain. Others include Count Dracula, who seduces the lovely Mina Harker in Bram Stoker’s classic, or David Hanover, a seductive serial rapist, in Lizzie Borden’s Love Crimes. I will explore these themes in greater depth through the characters of Spike and Angel in Part II of this essay. Two characters who are in many ways subversions of the male fatal noir and gothic character arcs mentioned above.
[12] Through exploring the paths of the male and female fatales in Ats and Btvs – I hope to examine how the fatal works in the overall narrative structure and what if anything the evolution/subversion of the role implies about our own changing views regarding gender and gender politics. The last part will be more implicit since my knowledge of gender politics outside of purely personal experience can be placed in the space of what amounts to a thimble.
[13] Part I: The Subverted Role of Femme Fatal in Angel The Series
Darla and Lilah – The Subversion of the Traditional Femme Fatale
In Angel the Series , Darla and Lilah follow similar arcs, moving gradually from the role of antagonist, to sex partner, to informant, to damsel, to death. Their redemption, if it comes at all, is through their deaths or damsel status. They end the same way as most of the traditional femme fatales do –either killed by someone else or by their own hand.
[14] Lilah: Femme Fatal as Working Class Icon or The Girl Can Take Care of Herself
Lilah’s arc is the same as the femme fatales in the classics – most notably Jane Greer (Kathie Moffett) in the 1947’s Robert Mitchum classic Out of the Past – she becomes romantically linked to the hero, but at the same time kills her opponents and threatens his life. Both women are smart, savvy, and shown as sexual predators. They don’t need men to protect them. Actually someone should probably protect men from these tigers.
[15]Several of Jane Greer’s scenes from Out of the Past can be paralleled with Lilah’s in Angel the Series. Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum), the anti-hero, first encounters Kathie in a café just as Angel first encounters Lilah in a lounge area above a gladiator pit (The Ring, Ats S1) or Wes encounters her in a bar where she seductively whispers in his ear (A New World Ats S3). Later in Out of the Past, Kathie slaughters two men, just as Lilah slaughters Linwood in the S4 Ats episode Deep Down. (Mills 4) In most of Out of the Past we remain uncertain about Bailey’s fate as we remain uncertain of Wesley’s in the beginning of Season 4 Ats. Will they wind up with the fatal, doomed? Of course not, the femme fatal is doomed to failure. Both Kathie and Lilah meet nasty ends.
[16]Lilah is introduced in typical femme fatal fashion, a workingwoman, a high paying job, working for a larger company, and will literally do anything to get what she wants. She’s the independent woman with power, which in the 1930s and 1940s was looked at with fear and disdain. (Cobb 212; Davenport: “Film Noir & Femme Fatale: Introduction”) Michael Mills in his essay “High Heels on Wet Pavement”, describes Kathie Moffet from Out of the Past as the “real deal”, her sexiness is derived from “sheer cunning” (3), not from the mere presentation of her body, but from her actual attitude and independence. According to Mills, Kathie was the perfect on-screen persona of the post-war desolation angle (4), just as Lilah can be seen as the perfect on-screen persona of the post-modern femme fatal – the female attorney who kills to get to the top of the corporate ladder. Both are smart, savvy, independent women, who cunningly use the male anti-hero to further their own ends. John Blazer echoes this view in “No Place for a Woman: the Femme Fatale”,
…the dominant image of the fatal is one against the traditional family and woman’s place in society. Noir films create the image of the strong, unrepressed woman, then attempt to contain it by destroying the femme fatale or converting her to traditional womanhood. (3-4)
In noir, workingwomen do not succeed; their jobs and solo enterprises are seen as nefarious. For example in James M. Cain’s Mildred Pierce, the single working woman pushes her way through the depression, makes a success of herself, only to find herself back-stabbed by a scheming daughter and ex-lover. Lilah in Ats, is a successful woman who has literally slaughtered her way to the top of the lawyer food chain. Her associates, Lindsey and Gavin, are depicted as relatively tame in comparison, poor deluded saps who either finally see the light and get the heck out of dodge or end up beheaded zombies. (Dead End S2 Ats and Habeas Corpses S4 Ats) Lilah ends up joining the good guys, her law firm slaughtered, her home in ruins, and wounded by the Beast. (Cavalry Ats S4) A somewhat reluctant helper, providing information and unwanted advice, she is eventually murdered by the Gal Friday-turned-fatale, Cordelia. Lilah’s end comes in typical fatale fashion, without fan fair and without redemption. In noire neither the hero nor the fatal are redeemed. The most the hero may expect is to get out of the experience alive. Such is the case for Wes and Lilah’s romance. Lilah is killed. Wes grieves for her, his grief though appears to be more for his inability to save her than for any real relationship he had with her. She almost brought him to ruin, he pulled out of it and hoped he could pull her out as well. His inability to do so, motivates him to go and try to save others, leaving Lilah a decapitated corpse. (Salvage S4 Ats) The girl who could take care of herself – is shown falling victim to that very conceit. Left alone in the Hyperion with the newly evil Gal Friday and the newly evil anti-hero, she is quickly and efficiently dispatched by them both. (Cavalry S4 Ats)
[17] Lilah’s ending is in some ways a commentary on the typical ending of fatales – in 1940s and ‘30s films they often met this type of end. Walter Neff, the insurance salesman at the end of Double Indemnity discovers the calculating Phyllis isn’t the submissive helpless woman she pretended to be, like in “his pre-war fantasies”, she is justifiably and rather fatally punished. “Phyllis is put in her place, although rather fatally, just as men returning home from World War II may have wished women in the workplace would remain in the home.” (Davenport: “Reasoning Behind the Femme Fatale”) In Ats, Wesley discovers that Lilah is not the strong, man-eating, lawyer she pretends to be and Gal-Friday Cordelia justifiably and rather fatally punishes her. (Cavalry S4 Ats) It’s Lilah’s momentary weakness and willingness to trust that proves fatal to her in Ats while it is Phyllis’ calculating independence that proves fatal in Double Indemnity. One is a commentary on modern audience’s views regarding successful women and one is a commentary on the pre-war audience’s fantasies.
[18] Darla: Femme Fatale as Damsel – Can I Save Her From Herself?
Dashielle Hammett who created the pulp fiction version of the femme fatale in his works, The Maltese Falcon and That Dain Curse amongst others, had fatales that the hero frantically desired to save from their own worst impulses. ‘If I can just save her, purge her of her demon addiction, perhaps I can save my own soul.’ This being noir, it never quite works out that way. Usually the hero ends up on the verge of losing his soul to the fatale and escapes just in the nick of time. In Ats, the vampire Darla, Angel’s sire and first lady love, is brought back from the grave as a human being by the evil lawyers, Wolfram & Hart. (To Shanshue in LA Ats S4) Angel frantically tries to save the human Darla in the hopes that by doing so, he may somehow redeem himself or his feelings for her. In Btvs, he had killed her to save Buffy (Angel, S1 Btvs). In Ats, he is faced with the prospect of having her die of syphilis, the disease she had as a human when the Master sired her ages ago. (Darla, Ats S2) Darla, fearing death, requests that Angel turn her into a vampire and even goes hunting for another vampire to sire her when he refuses. Angel kidnaps her, trying to keep her from giving up her soul for eternal life a second time. (The Trial, Ats S2) In That Dain Curse, Gabrielle Dain belongs to a cult, uses drugs, and has small, pointed ears and teeth. In one scene she actually drinks blood from one of her victims and in another is shown addicted to morphine.(Marling 1) The hero kidnaps and imprisons her to cure her of delirium tremens and lust, just like Angel kidnaps and attempts to imprison Darla. Gabrielle Dain has killed numerous people and the hero is desperately attempting to save her from her own worst impulses. Raymond Chandler creates a similar fatale in The Big Sleep, Carmen Sternwood – who almost fatally distracts his hero Philip Marlow. In Ats, Darla poses a similar threat to Angel’s well being.
[19]After under-going a series of dangerous trials, Angel succeeds in convincing Darla to not become a vampire and this time just die a normal death, her soul intact. Just as Darla decides to do this, Angel’s worst crime comes back to haunt him, his immortal daughter Drusilla is brought by Wolfram and Hart to sire Darla in front of Angel’s eyes. (The Trial, Ats S2) He can do nothing but watch. Crushed by his failure to save Darla, he spins out of control and in a sense briefly succumbs to Darla and Drusilla’s will. He assists them in their revenge on the lawyers that used them. Locking them in a room with their human prey. (Reunion – Redefinition Ats S2) He also half-rapes, half-seduces a sex-obsessed vampire Darla. Knocking her through a window and engaging her in violent sex, which they both assume will cause him to lose his soul, instead he ends up impregnating her with one. (Reprise Ats S2) This horrible act ironically frees them both. Unlike Gabrielle Dain or Carmen Sternwood, Darla is in a sense redeemed through her sexual relations with the anti-hero. By succumbing to her charms – Angel hits rock bottom, takes Darla with him, and they both eventually break free of their addictive cycle. If Philip Marlow had succumbed to Carmen, he’d have been shot and killed by the end of The Big Sleep. (Marling 1) Angel succumbs to Darla and ends up rejoining the world and his friends. Angel leaves Darla, saves his friend Kate from suicide, rejoins his friends, and works to do good again. (Reprise- Epiphany S2 Ats) Darla, several episodes later, discovers herself impossibly pregnant with a human child. (Offspring, Ats S3). Re-ensouled by the child, Darla finds herself back on the path of redemption, slowly breaking her dependency on human blood and showing her remorse for past sins. She eventually stakes herself so that her child can live in the episode Lullaby Ats S3. Her death or sacrifice unlike Gabrielle Dain or Carmen Sternwood’s signifies her redemption. Yet it is not through her love of the anti-hero that she is redeemed so much as it is through the love of her child. She does not sacrifice herself for Angel nor does she declare her love for him. No, the only thing she admits to ever loving is the unborn child she carries. She sacrifices her life for his and by doing so, is redeemed. This is another clever yet subtle inversion of the theme, the femme fatale is not saved by the hero, nor is she punished for her addictions and sexual perversions, instead she is saved by her love of her child.
[20] In classic noir films – the good mother was often the redemptive choice for the anti-hero. At the end of the film, the hero would leave the fatale behind and fall into the arms of the good mother. For example in Fritz Lange’s Metropolis, workers are seduced by the fatale robot Maria into destroying their city, yet eventually fall back into the arms of the pure good mother Maria, who reunites them with their boss. In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the Frederic March 1931 version, Muriel the pure “good mother” is contrasted with the evil Ivy who unleashes Hyde with her poison ring. (Ursini 224-225, 228). The good mother is in short the sunlit maiden that the anti-hero contrasts with his evil dark seducer, the fatale. In contrast, the sexual relationship between the fatale and the hero, which is an impossibility at the beginning of the film, turns into a possibility at the end and the means to mutual destruction. (Davenport – “Film Noir and Femme Fatal: Introduction”) The hero is only saved by the fatale’s death and the good mother’s acceptance.
[21] In Angel the Series – the sexual interaction between Darla and Angel ironically leads to both characters salvation – with Angel breaking his dark cycle and Darla regaining a soul. The fatal, Darla, literally becomes the good mother, who kills herself in front of Angel’s eyes to save their child, handing him a purpose to continue his good works as well as an example on how to pursue them.(Lullaby Ats S3) Love = Sacrifice = Redemption, she seems to say. This is a subversion of the classic noir view, where the fatale views family, children and husbands as a cage, an anathema. She rebels against the concept of the family and remains independent of it, accepting death over that alternative. Darla similarly accepts death over family, but not as a means of remaining independent of it nor as a negative view of it – but rather as a means of ensuring it, honoring it. If she lived, her child would die. By dying, she honors the families she once devoured as a vampire. In a sense she does the opposite of the classic fatale, she sacrifices her life to ensure children and family. Ironic, since her existence as a vampire was the antithesis of that – as a soulless vampire, Darla despised family and marriage and sought to destroy it. Ensouled she chooses the reverse. Or rather her son’s soul enables her to choose the reverse.
[22] Cordelia: Flipping Fatal and Gal Friday
The character of Cordelia starts out her role on Angel the Series as the gal Friday, the charming secretary who keeps the anti-hero in line. Thelma in The Philip Marlow novels. She never sleeps with the hero. He barely acknowledges her existence sexually, way too enthralled with the sexy femme fatales wandering about. She acts in some ways like a perky sidekick. Offering advice, keeping him focused on the mission and saving him from his darker impulses whenever necessary.
[23]Cordelia is a major subversion of the femme fatal concept in that she started out as the innocent good girl Friday, whom until fairly recently the hero would never think of sleeping with, and over time slowly became the “femme fatale”, evil and wicked, pushing a male hero towards a dark path. It is interesting to note by the way, that it wasn’t until Cordy began to move towards this path, that she became sexually alluring to the male characters. Prior to S4 Ats, Cordelia really isn’t shown as a sexual entity, oh we have the bikini scene at the start of the Pylea Arc in Season 2 (Belonging S2 Ats) and the relationship with the Grooslauge. (Couplet, The Price, A New World S3 Ats) But we don’t see her having sex with anyone or wearing sexual outfits until she has turned to the dark side. It’s not until Apocalypse Nowish S4 Ats that Cordy is seen having sex with another character – in this case the hero’s son, a virgin lad, who appears to be seducing her when it is actually the other way around. Also in Awakenings S4 Ats, we get the first scene of Cordelia and Angel truly making love – an act while pure fantasy causes the loss of Angel’s soul. Just as her act with Angel’s son causes a sizable rift to occur between father and son.
Throughout the first three seasons, Cordelia is compared to the fatales Lilah and Darla.
[24] Lilah and Cordelia : The Independent Woman and Gal Friday
Cordy – who wishes to be her own independent woman, a working gal, is seen at first envying Lilah then grateful she didn’t go down Lilah’s path. As she states to Lilah in Billy S3 Ats: “I used to be you, but with better shoes.” Lilah is everything that Cordelia could have become – self-absorbed, financially successful, anything for fame, fortune and the almighty dollar. Lilah in some ways is Cordelia, Btvs Season 1, and completely and utterly alone. Lilah exudes sex appeal while Cordelia seems almost awkward with it in Ats, a major change from Btvs where Cordy flaunted it. Lilah is Cordelia’s foil, her dark side.
[25]By season 4, the dynamic begins to shift slightly, Lilah becomes more and more dependent on the Angel Investigations team to save her and Cordelia becomes more and more adrift from them. (Habeas Corpses, Cavalry S4 Ats) Cordy no longer wants saving, if anything she is starting to take over Lilah’s manipulative role. It is now Cordelia who is manipulating the gang and Lilah who is running from the Beast and vampires. The final shift occurs when Cordelia literally murders Lilah and metaphorically takes Lilah’s former place in the story. Lilah must die in order for Cordelia to take over her role as the femme fatale – the seductive dark female – complete in her dark gown and sexual damnation. (Cavalry S4 Ats)
[26] By having the Gal Friday take over the Sexy Independent Femme Fatale role, the writers have effectively inverted the classic noir formula. Cordelia is punished not by being the independent, resourceful woman, but by buying the hero’s mission hook line and sinker. Classic noir - the woman is punished for being independent and resourceful and rewarded for following the hero. (Covey 319; Davenport - “Reasoning Behind the Femme Fatal”) Here it is the reverse, by giving up her own life to be part of his. In Season 2 and 3 Ats, Cordelia is given two chances to pursue a life separate from Gal Friday and the Visions. The first is in Pylea where Groo offers to remove her visions and take them on himself. (There’s No Place Like Plrtz Glrb, S2 Ats) She turns him down, not wishing to give up her role at Angel Investigations. The second is in Birthday S3 Ats, where Cordelia, dying of visions, is given a choice to either pursue her own career path as an actress or become half-demon and keep the visions. She sacrifices herself to the second path as all good Gal Fridays should. In return for this sacrifice – she is shaded in white light, glows, elevates and appears to ascend to a higher place. (Birthday – Tomorrow Ats S4) But the audience and the character are misled. The writers have not rewarded her, they’ve punished her for choosing to kow-tow to the hero. By choosing to kow-tow to the hero’s mission, giving up her own hopes and dreams – Cordelia ends up becoming the very thing she hated, the fatale and her fate is to be engulfed by her own child, all semblance of her former self twisted and gone due to her faithful following of the mission. (Inside Out Ats S4)
The Ats writers don’t stop with the independent woman archetype, they continue this theme with the good mother.
[27] Darla and Cordelia: The Good Mother - Flipping Fatal and The Good Mother (Genteel)
Cordelia is shown early on in Season 3 as a better mother than Darla. When she attempts to help Darla, comforts her, Darla goes for Cordy’s jugular. (Offspring, Ats S3). After Darla dies for her child, it is Cordelia who changes the child, Connor’s, diapers and holds him and rocks him. Cordelia becomes his surrogate mother. (Dad – Couplet S3 Ats) Connor is kidnapped when Cordelia is away on vacation. (Loyalty – Sleep Tight S3 Ats) And when Connor returns, it is Cordelia who wipes his pain away. She is dressed in white robes and literally glows when he sees her – the good mother personified, holy and nourishing. (A New World S3 Ats.) Darla by contrast is a vampire, dressed in dark clothes, seen in S3 drinking the blood of innocent children, violent. (Offspring-Quickening S3 Ats) Her child eventually changes her into a better person, one willing to stake herself to save his life. (Lullaby S3 Ats.) Cordelia starts out wonderful, but once impregnated, becomes the embodiment of evil. Cordelia’s motherhood changes her into a blood drinking, evil monster, who kisses the Beast and desires an innocent girl’s blood in order to have her child. (Apocalypse Nowish - Inside Out S4 Ats.) Unlike Darla, Cordy doesn’t sacrifice herself to have her child – she sacrifices someone else.
[28]The irony is that Cordy requests the blood of an innocent to have her child while Darla, a vampire, takes her own life to have hers. The two archetypes, gentile good mother and fatal are flipped. Cordelia seduces the virginal son, Connor, in order to give birth to a child or god. (Apocalypse Nowish Ats S4) Angel pseudo-rapes Darla, and accidentally impregnates her – to give birth to Connor. (Reprise Ats S2) Cordelia and Connor’s sex is shown as almost romantic, under the sheets, not rough, soft, passionate, while Darla and Angel’s sex is rough and violent. Both Darla and Cordelia technically sleep with their surrogate children. Angel is Darla’s vampire child – the one she gave birth too ages ago with her blood. (Becoming Part I, Btvs S2, The Prodigal Ats S1, & Darla Ats S2) Connor is Cordelia’s surrogate child, the one she adopted from Darla’s ashes. (Lullaby Ats S3) By sleeping with their sons, they become impossibly and mystically pregnant. And their pregnancies change them to reflect the souls of their children. Darla becomes the good mother, Cordelia the femme fatale. Cordelia is in a sense punished for wanting to protect her family at all costs while Darla is redeemed for it.
[29] In case the audience doesn’t catch the significance of this comparison, the writers bring Darla back to attempt to convince her son Connor to go against Cordelia’s wishes and not sacrifice an innocent life. In Inside Out Ats S4, Darla, the evil vampire who had eaten millions of innocent lives, resurfaces in an attempt to tell her son not to spill innocent blood for his unborn child. His soul ironically made it possible for her to attempt to convey this message to him, just as it is his child’s soul that makes it possible for Cordelia to kill the innocent girl when he refuses to do so himself. Cordelia tells him Darla is lying to him and he believes her, he allows himself to succumb to the fatale and by doing so, is punished in classic noir fashion. But the twist is that the fatale was the gal Friday, the good mother…while his vampire mother is the one attempting to save him and in classic good mother/Gal Friday fashion – fails.
[30] Flipping Damsel/Gal Friday and The Fatal: Fred and Gwen
Winifred (Fred) is introduced as a fairly self-sufficient heroine in the Pylea arc, quirkily brilliant, she successfully aids Angel in escaping from the Pylean world. (Over The Rainbow, Through The Looking Glass, There’s No Place Like Plrtz Glrb, S2 Ats) She’s not so much a damsel in that three-episode arc and as a fellow comrades in arms. Fred risks her life attempting to save Cordy from demon slaveholders and Angel risks his in saving Fred. Fred in typical Gal Friday fashion returns the favor by saving Angel. She also forms an odd attachment to him, which starts out as a romantic infatuation and gradually becomes friendship. Her arc with Gunn is quite different, they grow from friends to lovers – Gunn sees Fred as the Innocent Girl, the Gal Friday, and the sidekick, who can kick ass by his side. He, also in typical hero fashion, swears to protect her no matter what – to the extent of breaking up with her in Double or Nothing Ats S3 to prevent the soul-collector from taking her soul instead of his. Up until Season 4 Ats, Fred like Cordelia fits the typical Gal Friday role model – she sneers at the fatal Gwen, who unlike Fred wears spandex and slinks across the screen cat-like in hot red skin-tight clothes. (Ground State S4 Ats, Long Day’s Journey, S4 Ats) Fred wears far less form fitting outfits and her hair is less free-flowing and wild, brown and straight down her back. Gwen’s is a dark unruly mass of curls highlighted with neon red.
[31]Gwen in looks and deeds practically screams the fatale archetype. Get too close to me and, zap, you are dead. She’s a bit like the comic book fatales Catwoman and Electra, lady thieves, who threaten to take the male hero down with them. Catwoman threatens on numerous occasions to bewitch and destroy the besotted Batman. A lady thief with devilish ways and a black spandex costume, Catwoman slinks across the Gotham city rooftops in Frank Miller’s nourish Batman Year One. Or the lady Electra described in Frank Miller’s Daredevil comics as an assassin who shadows her lover, the anti-hero vigilante, Daredevil, believing wrongly that he killed her industrialist father. Gwen equally has a tragic past, cursed with a talent that makes it impossible for her to touch people without killing them, she lives in an isolated cavernous compound with luxurious works of art that she has stolen. (Ground State S4 Ats and Long Day’s Journey, S4 Ats) She wears long gloves and engages in witty repartee. But one touch of her hand and she stops your heart.
[32] Gunn learns this the hard way in Ground State S4 Ats – where Gwen’s touch literally kills him for ten minutes. It also inevitably brings him back to life. She can stop and jump-start his heart as if it were no more than an electrical battery. Fred holds the same power, but in a far more metaphorical sense. Gunn’s love for Fred, leads him to stop his heart and kill Professor Seidel – an act he comments on several episodes later in Sacrifice S4 Ats– about having to turn off his emotions in order to kill for her and how she so easily did it before he even gave thought to it. It is Fred who leads Gunn to commit murder in Supersymmetry S4 Ats. Just as it is Fred who almost leads Gunn to attack and kill his best friend Wes in Soulless S4 Ats. Fred, the gal Friday, has in effect become the traitorous fatale leading Gunn to commit acts he’d prefer not to. Like Walter Neff of Double Indemnity, once he does commit the murder, he becomes persona non-gratis with his ladylove, she stops being the submissive Gal Friday he thought he loved.
[33] Gwen in contrast appears on the surface to be leading Gunn astray, but isn’t. In the episode Players S4 Ats, we believe Gwen has an ulterior motive regarding Gunn, one that will lead to his downfall. The opposite of what we believed about Fred. But, in fact, Gwen merely wishes to find a way to connect to others. She does set Gunn up in the episode – using him as a distraction to steal a valuable electronic device. When he catches her – she tells him it is a type of covert mechanism, designed to monitor skin temperature and body waves and being developed by arms dealers to sell to the highest bidder. The owner is using it for evil ends. Her client’s ends, she claims, aren’t so evil. Gunn, purely by accident, discovers that she’s not stealing the device, called LISA, for another client but for herself. It’s not for money or as a weapon, but as a means to short-circuit and monitor her own powers. To make it possible for her to connect with another human being without killing them. Gwen’s nefarious purpose is to keep herself from taking lives – Gunn by helping her, inadvertently saves lives as well. Instead of taking the hero down with her, Gwen uplifts him. After the episode, Gunn returns to AI reinvigorated, appreciative of life, no longer feeling lost. While after Supersymmetry S4 Ats, when he killed Seidel for Fred, he is anything but invigorated. He’s lost and feels disconnected from everything.
[34] Fred becomes the fatale leading Gunn to do horrible acts while Gwen becomes the redemptive damsel leading Gunn to re-connect with his humanity. Gwen is the self-sufficient, independent woman with her own gig and own place. Fred is the sidekick who must be part of the group and whose mission is in effect someone else’s. It’s really not until Fred is forced to break away from AI and set her own course – that Gunn and Fred end up re-bonding on some level. Their best and most insightful talk may actually be in Sacrifice S4 Ats, where Fred informs Gunn that it is better to feel pain than to be an empty shell and admits to feeling pain with him for killing Seidel. “It eats at me inside, too,” she declares. “We killed Seidel,” not just you, she tells him. (Sacrifice S4 Ats) Fred has not taken the path of other fatales completely, she takes responsibility for the crime; she doesn’t shirk it off or the pain of remorse that comes with it. She is punished for the crime but not in typical fatale fashion, her fate is not her death, but rather the loss of the love she once had with Gunn. Fred’s mistake may in a sense have been the lack of independence in dealing with Seidel – the lack of caring for others, instead she uses them and their mission to suite her desires for vengeance – an act she pays dearly for with the dissolution of relationships dear to her. (Supersymmetry – Sacrifice S4 Ats) Gwen in contrast is rewarded for her actions and her fierce independence, her fate a night of love with Gunn. (Players S4 Ats)
[35] Angel The Series Subverts the Noir Structure to Empower the Femme Fatal
In Angel the Series, like most noir series, the femme fatale (always female since the male is the hero) is initially set up as sexually alluring, aggressive, manipulative, anti-family, and her goal appears to drag the male hero into her dark orbit much like a spider. If this were the typical noir film or series, the fatale would be killed after she got the male and her death would free him from his own darkness. She would be punished for her power and the hero would be left atoning for his sin of being with her. (Davenport “The Femme Fatal is Punished”) But as explored above, Ats cleverly subverts this formula so that it is when the fatal either gives up her independent life and the power of that life, as seen with Lilah in Calvary S4 Ats or when the fatal decides to embrace motherhood as seen with Darla in Lullaby S4 Ats, that she dies. In the case of Lilah, she dies when she loses her power; in the case of Darla, she chooses her own fate, staking herself, because of her power.
[36]The writers further subvert the fatale’s role with the female characterizations of Fred, Cordelia, Lilah, and Gwen. As described in the sections above, Cordelia and Fred start out as “girl Fridays” or “innocent” characters – representing all that is wholesome about womanhood. They are in essence sidekicks. Lilah and Gwen start out as fatales, the alluring wicked female who if the guy isn’t careful could led him to his doom. By mid-season, Fred is depicted as the female who leads the character Gunn into committing murder to save/preserve her innocence. And in fact causes a potentially violent love triangle to erupt between herself, Wes, and Gunn. Cordelia is an even better example – she comes back from a mystical realm plotting and planning the hero’s downfall. Previously the hero’s confidante and virtuous love, she manipulates him into losing his soul and sleeps with his son. Meanwhile, we discover the sexy Gwen, the red-spandexed thief in Ats, is just misunderstood – all she wants is some sort of connection. She appears to lead Gunn to do a nefarious deed, but in a classic twist merely seduces him into connecting with her and stealing the means to do so. Gunn’s actions with Gwen, which entail stealing a potential weapon from nefarious arms dealers and helping a woman whose never been able to connect to actually connect, are far more positive than his actions regarding Fred, which entailed murder and violence. (Supersymmetry S4 Ats and Players S4 Ats.) Same with Lilah, Lilah wishes to let Angelus out of his cage in order to kill the Beast and save the world, Cordelia wishes to let Angelus out of his cage so he will join her in plotting the world’s destruction. When Angelus does get out – Lilah fears he will kill them all. Cordelia applauds the idea and kills Lilah, taking her place.(Calvary, Ats S4)
[37] Ats successfully subverts the traditional view of the fatale by turning the fatale into a heroine and the heroine into a fatal. The female empowerment theme gains new life by the subversion, because the fatal survives when she has power, it’s when she gives up her power that she is doomed. The reverse of the themes in classic noir films where the fatal is punished because of her power or in spite of it, only being redeemed when she allows herself to either be domesticated by the hero or gives herself up to his power. Impulse, a Neo Noir Film starring Theresa Russell, is an example of the traditional view of the femme fatale’s redemption. In this film, the working girl steals money for a better life but because of the love of a good man, returns it, joins his mission, and allows him to domesticate her, in effect giving up her power to him. (Covey 319) In Ats, it’s when the fatal embraces her own power – as Darla does when she stakes herself to save her child (Lullaby S3 Ats) or Gwen does when she lives her own independent life and takes action to find a way to connect to others within the structures that she created, that she is redeemed. (Players S4 Ats)
How Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel the Series Subvert the Traditional Function of The Fatal in Their Narratives
by shadowkat, 2003
[1]This essay focuses on the roles of the fatal and how the traditional view of the fatal is subverted in the cult television shows Buffy The Vampire Slayer (Btvs) and Angel The Series (Ats). It also deals with the functions of fatales in other popular culture mediums including comic books, pulp fiction, and film noir. Film noir, according to Dale E. Ewing Jr. in his essay Film Noir: Style and Content, was first coined by French critics in an attempt to describe the dark nihilistic films coming out of Hollywood in the 1940s and early ‘50s, which had strong underpinnings in both the literary gothic tradition and hardboiled mystery novels. (73) While other scholars have briefly touched on how Btvs (most notably Thomas Hibbs essay Buffy the Vampire Slayer as Feminist Noir) and Ats (Slain’s essay Are you Noir or Have you Ever Been ), are influenced by the noir genre, they do not directly address how the series subverts or expands on noir themes. So I will only briefly mention them here as additional sources the Buffy scholar can consult regarding the relationship between Btvs and Ats with the noir genre but not as support for anything in this essay. Of the two essays, I highly recommend Slain’s Are you Noir or Have you Ever Been, which does an in depth analysis on how Angel the Series fits the noir model.
[2] Introduction: What is the fatal and their overall function in the narrative?
French critics first coined the term “fatal” to describe the female antagonist/romantic foil in hardboiled 1930s and 1940s films. Later, this term enveloped the male antagonist/romantic foil in gothic fiction and fantasy. The fatal is defined as “an irresistibly attractive character who leads the protagonist (hero/heroine) into danger”.
(Marling 1, Mills 1) This character is often the protagonist’s romantic interest or foil. Traditionally the protagonist’s involvement with the fatale “may range from mild flirtation to passionate sex, but in the denouement s/he must reject or leave the fatal, for the revealed plot shows the fatale to be one of the causes of the crime or horror”. (Marling 1). In very few cases does the hero end up with the fatale or share the fatale’s fate.
[3] Fatales in popular fiction and cinema have a wide range of roles – anything from provider of uncomfortable truths, damsels, romantic foils to unpredictable villains. They can often serve the purpose of being the hero/heroines one true confidante – the one person the hero can reveal their sins to without feeling ashamed, because the fatale has often done something far worse. The fatale may also free the hero/heroine to express their best or worst qualities and is often sought out romantically by the hero/heroine when the hero/heroine is at their lowest emotional point.
[4] Examples of famous fatales include: Phyllis in Double Indemnity , Brigid O’Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon, Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, and Rita Hayworth’s characters in Gilda and The Lady from Shanghai. More recent television fatales, again mostly female, include: Xena from The Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Juliette the female vampire and club owner in Forever Knight, and Lilah in Angel The Series. Recent male fatales in genre television would be Ares in Xena Warrior Princess, Spike and Angel respectively in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Without exception all of these characters had at some point engaged in romantic flirtation with the hero, some may have even consummated that in a passionate relationship only to be rejected by the hero and cast off in some manner towards the end.
[5] Fatal as Sex Object
The fatal must be sexually attractive to the hero/heroine and more often than not the writers/filmmaker will focus attention on the blatant sexuality of the fatale. If female – we’ll see lots of leg, bust, etc. Example in Double Indemnity – the filmmaker focused the camera on Phyllis’ ankle bracelet. When she enters the first frame, we watch the camera slowly pan up from her ankle to her face, emphasizing that piece of naked flesh which in 1940s cinema was quite risqué. (Davenport 1: “Dangerous Because of Her Sexuality”) Today it would be a naked breast or she would be exposing her bare back. In the Robert Mitchum film classic Out of The Past – the camera spent time focused on Kathie Moffet’s (played by Jane Green) bust. We the viewers saw her from the perspective of the hero, in Out of the Past – the private dick, Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum), in Double Indemnity, the crooked insurance salesman, Walter Neff ( Fred McMurray). In Ats, the character of Lilah, a wicked female attorney who continuously is shown tempting Angel, the show’s anti-hero detective, into doing nasty deeds – is often seen wearing outfits that emphasize her legs. We see her through the eyes of the male protagonists – first Angel then his friend and colleague, Wesley. Lilah usually wears a short skirt, an open shirt, or tight slacks. The camera will pan her length emphasizing her curves and physical appeal. In Btvs – Spike, a vampire who has fallen in love with a vampire slayer and was once amongst the show’s principal villains, is often seen wearing nothing but a silver necklace around his neck. His chest is repeatedly and often blatantly emphasized. Adorning jewelry is often used to heighten the effect or show him as decidedly wicked, just as it is used on Phyllis, the temptress in Double Indemnity, as the camera focuses on her ankle bracelet. When Angel, a vampire, was the fatal in Btvs, he often had his shirt off, an elaborate tattoo emphasized on his shoulder to demonstrate his wickedness and unsuitability for the heroine. Like Spike, Angel was bare-chested whenever Buffy came into his living quarters. In Innocence S2 Btvs, shortly after Angel has slept with the heroine and lost his soul, we see him with nothing but a sliver chain and black leather pants. His pants were tight often leather, and the camera repeatedly emphasized how “hot” he was in comparison to the other male leads. Buffy’s other male friends, Xander, OZ, and Giles, humans, seldom if ever had their shirts off or wore jewelry or tattoos. The rare moments that Xander is shown shirtless are for comic effect – in Go Fish S2 Btvs, where he wears a speedo, in Nightmares S1 Btvs, where he finds himself in nothing but boxers in front of his peers, and in First Date S7 Btvs where he is hanging above the seal to the Hellmouth. The heroine is not shown lusting after “good” friend Xander, rather she’s shown lusting after the dark twisted vampire fatales.
[6] The fatale’s dark sexuality psychologically expresses the protagonist’s own fears of sexuality and their need to control or repress it. (qtd. in Davenport : “Dangerous Because of Her Sensuality” ) The more exposed s/he is, the more tempted and repressed the hero. In Season 2, Btvs – we see this need to control or repress sexuality in how the fatal literally turns on the heroine after they make love, while in Season 6, the need for control is shown by the brutal sexual acts between the two characters culminating in sexual violence by season’s end. In Btvs’ sixth season viewers noted and often complained that Buffy, the heroine, remained fully clothed or covered in her scenes with Spike, while Spike is either nude or bare-chested. The most we saw of Buffy was her bare shoulders or ankles. Spike, we often saw everything but his rear end and genitalia, which were cleverly obscured by camera angles. (Smashed, Wrecked, Gone, Dead Things, and As You Were S6 Btvs) In film, the femme fatal is often the nude party while the male is fully clothed. An example is Body Heat, where we glimpse the wicked female, Kathleen Turner’s, breasts and naked form, but very little of the hero, William Hurt. The fatal is shown free in their nakedness, unabashed, seductive, almost as if they are taunting the hero. Asking what the hero is so afraid of. When the fatal and hero/heroine become sexually involved – the fatal is often the seducer, the betraying party and the one who pays for the act. The fatale takes on the sins while the hero remains pure. (Davenport 1: “The Femme Fatal is Punished”; Blazer 4)
[7] Subversion of the Fatale’s Role in The Narrative
In Buffy The Vampire Slayer (Btvs) and Angel The Series (Ats) the writers subvert the idea of the fatal – they follow it up to a point then do the opposite from the standard formula. This is in part because Btvs is a satire of the traditional horror and noir genres. Satires by their very nature invert and subvert the rules, simultaneously making fun of and honoring the genre they are based on. Instead of having the fatal die a villain, the writers of Btvs and Ats often attempt to redeem him or her. The fatal may even evolve from fatal to being an anti-hero, as is seen by the character of Angel jumping from fatal status on Btvs to anti-hero status on Ats, a pattern that was previously set by the pop culture series Hercules: the Legendary Journeys and Xena Warrior Princess. In those two cult television dramas, the femme fatale left Hercules and started her own series as the hero. Buffy the Vampire Slayer has begun this evolution with another character – Faith and may be doing it with Spike as well.
[8] Female/Femme Fatal vs. Male/Homme Fatal
Angel The Series (Ats) in keeping with the classic tradition in which it is based (film noir) does not always subvert the fatal. In some ways it has played out both the traditional and subverted versions, updating the genre that it bases itself upon in the process. But as I will explore in the sections that follow, the way it does subvert this classic formula is in the way it rewards the fatal for keeping her power and punishes her when she lets it go. Flipping traditional gender themes and roles in noir films on their head as seen through the development and paths of the following female characters: Cordelia, Darla, Lilah, Gwen, and Fred.
[9] Buffy The Vampire Slayer (Btvs) plays out the same formula but in regards to the homme fatal, which has a somewhat different path in visual narratives than the femme. In Btvs, after the fatal becomes sexually involved with the heroine and turns wicked, instead of killing them, the writers start the process of redeeming the fatale. While the femme fatal is rarely allowed to live or be redeemed, the homme fatal not only gets to live, he also gets a second chance with the heroine and the possibility of being redeemed through her acknowledgment of his good deeds. This appears on its surface to be a classic subversion of the traditional role of the fatal – but if you look over the homme’s role as fatal in classic literature, specifically romantic and gothic works, (Marling 1) you’ll notice the homme fatal often has a more positive fate than the femme fatal of noir fiction. Possibly because the fatal role was in a sense created with the female in mind and as a reaction against female empowerment?
[10] Examples of classic homme fatals include Mr. Rochester and Heathcliff of the Bronte Sisters novels. Or the fate of poor Mr. De Winter, the brooding lead and possible murderer, in Daphne DeMaurier’s classic Rebecca. All three men survive and are at some point reunited with their ladyloves. The only one that appears to be somewhat doomed is possibly Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. The film director, Alfred Hitchcock played around a bit with homme fatales as well – in Spellbound, we have the amnesia victim, Gregory Peck, who could be a murderer and leading poor Ingrid Bergman astray. We learn later that he’s just misunderstood and she helps him get to the root of it, in effect saving him. Or Cary Grant’s character in Suspicion whom poor Joan Fontaine becomes convinced is trying to kill her. Both characters are redeemed in the end by their ladyloves.
[11] This not always the case of course, there are instances in popular culture and literature, especially science fiction, neo female noir, and horror, where the male fatal cannot be redeemed and dooms the female heroine. Some of these aren’t true fatales so much as villains and include such characters as the Cardassian villain of Star Trek’s DS9, GulduKat, who seduces the female heroine Kira as well as the audience, yet remains to his dying day a sadistic if somewhat seductive villain. Others include Count Dracula, who seduces the lovely Mina Harker in Bram Stoker’s classic, or David Hanover, a seductive serial rapist, in Lizzie Borden’s Love Crimes. I will explore these themes in greater depth through the characters of Spike and Angel in Part II of this essay. Two characters who are in many ways subversions of the male fatal noir and gothic character arcs mentioned above.
[12] Through exploring the paths of the male and female fatales in Ats and Btvs – I hope to examine how the fatal works in the overall narrative structure and what if anything the evolution/subversion of the role implies about our own changing views regarding gender and gender politics. The last part will be more implicit since my knowledge of gender politics outside of purely personal experience can be placed in the space of what amounts to a thimble.
[13] Part I: The Subverted Role of Femme Fatal in Angel The Series
Darla and Lilah – The Subversion of the Traditional Femme Fatale
In Angel the Series , Darla and Lilah follow similar arcs, moving gradually from the role of antagonist, to sex partner, to informant, to damsel, to death. Their redemption, if it comes at all, is through their deaths or damsel status. They end the same way as most of the traditional femme fatales do –either killed by someone else or by their own hand.
[14] Lilah: Femme Fatal as Working Class Icon or The Girl Can Take Care of Herself
Lilah’s arc is the same as the femme fatales in the classics – most notably Jane Greer (Kathie Moffett) in the 1947’s Robert Mitchum classic Out of the Past – she becomes romantically linked to the hero, but at the same time kills her opponents and threatens his life. Both women are smart, savvy, and shown as sexual predators. They don’t need men to protect them. Actually someone should probably protect men from these tigers.
[15]Several of Jane Greer’s scenes from Out of the Past can be paralleled with Lilah’s in Angel the Series. Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum), the anti-hero, first encounters Kathie in a café just as Angel first encounters Lilah in a lounge area above a gladiator pit (The Ring, Ats S1) or Wes encounters her in a bar where she seductively whispers in his ear (A New World Ats S3). Later in Out of the Past, Kathie slaughters two men, just as Lilah slaughters Linwood in the S4 Ats episode Deep Down. (Mills 4) In most of Out of the Past we remain uncertain about Bailey’s fate as we remain uncertain of Wesley’s in the beginning of Season 4 Ats. Will they wind up with the fatal, doomed? Of course not, the femme fatal is doomed to failure. Both Kathie and Lilah meet nasty ends.
[16]Lilah is introduced in typical femme fatal fashion, a workingwoman, a high paying job, working for a larger company, and will literally do anything to get what she wants. She’s the independent woman with power, which in the 1930s and 1940s was looked at with fear and disdain. (Cobb 212; Davenport: “Film Noir & Femme Fatale: Introduction”) Michael Mills in his essay “High Heels on Wet Pavement”, describes Kathie Moffet from Out of the Past as the “real deal”, her sexiness is derived from “sheer cunning” (3), not from the mere presentation of her body, but from her actual attitude and independence. According to Mills, Kathie was the perfect on-screen persona of the post-war desolation angle (4), just as Lilah can be seen as the perfect on-screen persona of the post-modern femme fatal – the female attorney who kills to get to the top of the corporate ladder. Both are smart, savvy, independent women, who cunningly use the male anti-hero to further their own ends. John Blazer echoes this view in “No Place for a Woman: the Femme Fatale”,
…the dominant image of the fatal is one against the traditional family and woman’s place in society. Noir films create the image of the strong, unrepressed woman, then attempt to contain it by destroying the femme fatale or converting her to traditional womanhood. (3-4)
In noir, workingwomen do not succeed; their jobs and solo enterprises are seen as nefarious. For example in James M. Cain’s Mildred Pierce, the single working woman pushes her way through the depression, makes a success of herself, only to find herself back-stabbed by a scheming daughter and ex-lover. Lilah in Ats, is a successful woman who has literally slaughtered her way to the top of the lawyer food chain. Her associates, Lindsey and Gavin, are depicted as relatively tame in comparison, poor deluded saps who either finally see the light and get the heck out of dodge or end up beheaded zombies. (Dead End S2 Ats and Habeas Corpses S4 Ats) Lilah ends up joining the good guys, her law firm slaughtered, her home in ruins, and wounded by the Beast. (Cavalry Ats S4) A somewhat reluctant helper, providing information and unwanted advice, she is eventually murdered by the Gal Friday-turned-fatale, Cordelia. Lilah’s end comes in typical fatale fashion, without fan fair and without redemption. In noire neither the hero nor the fatal are redeemed. The most the hero may expect is to get out of the experience alive. Such is the case for Wes and Lilah’s romance. Lilah is killed. Wes grieves for her, his grief though appears to be more for his inability to save her than for any real relationship he had with her. She almost brought him to ruin, he pulled out of it and hoped he could pull her out as well. His inability to do so, motivates him to go and try to save others, leaving Lilah a decapitated corpse. (Salvage S4 Ats) The girl who could take care of herself – is shown falling victim to that very conceit. Left alone in the Hyperion with the newly evil Gal Friday and the newly evil anti-hero, she is quickly and efficiently dispatched by them both. (Cavalry S4 Ats)
[17] Lilah’s ending is in some ways a commentary on the typical ending of fatales – in 1940s and ‘30s films they often met this type of end. Walter Neff, the insurance salesman at the end of Double Indemnity discovers the calculating Phyllis isn’t the submissive helpless woman she pretended to be, like in “his pre-war fantasies”, she is justifiably and rather fatally punished. “Phyllis is put in her place, although rather fatally, just as men returning home from World War II may have wished women in the workplace would remain in the home.” (Davenport: “Reasoning Behind the Femme Fatale”) In Ats, Wesley discovers that Lilah is not the strong, man-eating, lawyer she pretends to be and Gal-Friday Cordelia justifiably and rather fatally punishes her. (Cavalry S4 Ats) It’s Lilah’s momentary weakness and willingness to trust that proves fatal to her in Ats while it is Phyllis’ calculating independence that proves fatal in Double Indemnity. One is a commentary on modern audience’s views regarding successful women and one is a commentary on the pre-war audience’s fantasies.
[18] Darla: Femme Fatale as Damsel – Can I Save Her From Herself?
Dashielle Hammett who created the pulp fiction version of the femme fatale in his works, The Maltese Falcon and That Dain Curse amongst others, had fatales that the hero frantically desired to save from their own worst impulses. ‘If I can just save her, purge her of her demon addiction, perhaps I can save my own soul.’ This being noir, it never quite works out that way. Usually the hero ends up on the verge of losing his soul to the fatale and escapes just in the nick of time. In Ats, the vampire Darla, Angel’s sire and first lady love, is brought back from the grave as a human being by the evil lawyers, Wolfram & Hart. (To Shanshue in LA Ats S4) Angel frantically tries to save the human Darla in the hopes that by doing so, he may somehow redeem himself or his feelings for her. In Btvs, he had killed her to save Buffy (Angel, S1 Btvs). In Ats, he is faced with the prospect of having her die of syphilis, the disease she had as a human when the Master sired her ages ago. (Darla, Ats S2) Darla, fearing death, requests that Angel turn her into a vampire and even goes hunting for another vampire to sire her when he refuses. Angel kidnaps her, trying to keep her from giving up her soul for eternal life a second time. (The Trial, Ats S2) In That Dain Curse, Gabrielle Dain belongs to a cult, uses drugs, and has small, pointed ears and teeth. In one scene she actually drinks blood from one of her victims and in another is shown addicted to morphine.(Marling 1) The hero kidnaps and imprisons her to cure her of delirium tremens and lust, just like Angel kidnaps and attempts to imprison Darla. Gabrielle Dain has killed numerous people and the hero is desperately attempting to save her from her own worst impulses. Raymond Chandler creates a similar fatale in The Big Sleep, Carmen Sternwood – who almost fatally distracts his hero Philip Marlow. In Ats, Darla poses a similar threat to Angel’s well being.
[19]After under-going a series of dangerous trials, Angel succeeds in convincing Darla to not become a vampire and this time just die a normal death, her soul intact. Just as Darla decides to do this, Angel’s worst crime comes back to haunt him, his immortal daughter Drusilla is brought by Wolfram and Hart to sire Darla in front of Angel’s eyes. (The Trial, Ats S2) He can do nothing but watch. Crushed by his failure to save Darla, he spins out of control and in a sense briefly succumbs to Darla and Drusilla’s will. He assists them in their revenge on the lawyers that used them. Locking them in a room with their human prey. (Reunion – Redefinition Ats S2) He also half-rapes, half-seduces a sex-obsessed vampire Darla. Knocking her through a window and engaging her in violent sex, which they both assume will cause him to lose his soul, instead he ends up impregnating her with one. (Reprise Ats S2) This horrible act ironically frees them both. Unlike Gabrielle Dain or Carmen Sternwood, Darla is in a sense redeemed through her sexual relations with the anti-hero. By succumbing to her charms – Angel hits rock bottom, takes Darla with him, and they both eventually break free of their addictive cycle. If Philip Marlow had succumbed to Carmen, he’d have been shot and killed by the end of The Big Sleep. (Marling 1) Angel succumbs to Darla and ends up rejoining the world and his friends. Angel leaves Darla, saves his friend Kate from suicide, rejoins his friends, and works to do good again. (Reprise- Epiphany S2 Ats) Darla, several episodes later, discovers herself impossibly pregnant with a human child. (Offspring, Ats S3). Re-ensouled by the child, Darla finds herself back on the path of redemption, slowly breaking her dependency on human blood and showing her remorse for past sins. She eventually stakes herself so that her child can live in the episode Lullaby Ats S3. Her death or sacrifice unlike Gabrielle Dain or Carmen Sternwood’s signifies her redemption. Yet it is not through her love of the anti-hero that she is redeemed so much as it is through the love of her child. She does not sacrifice herself for Angel nor does she declare her love for him. No, the only thing she admits to ever loving is the unborn child she carries. She sacrifices her life for his and by doing so, is redeemed. This is another clever yet subtle inversion of the theme, the femme fatale is not saved by the hero, nor is she punished for her addictions and sexual perversions, instead she is saved by her love of her child.
[20] In classic noir films – the good mother was often the redemptive choice for the anti-hero. At the end of the film, the hero would leave the fatale behind and fall into the arms of the good mother. For example in Fritz Lange’s Metropolis, workers are seduced by the fatale robot Maria into destroying their city, yet eventually fall back into the arms of the pure good mother Maria, who reunites them with their boss. In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the Frederic March 1931 version, Muriel the pure “good mother” is contrasted with the evil Ivy who unleashes Hyde with her poison ring. (Ursini 224-225, 228). The good mother is in short the sunlit maiden that the anti-hero contrasts with his evil dark seducer, the fatale. In contrast, the sexual relationship between the fatale and the hero, which is an impossibility at the beginning of the film, turns into a possibility at the end and the means to mutual destruction. (Davenport – “Film Noir and Femme Fatal: Introduction”) The hero is only saved by the fatale’s death and the good mother’s acceptance.
[21] In Angel the Series – the sexual interaction between Darla and Angel ironically leads to both characters salvation – with Angel breaking his dark cycle and Darla regaining a soul. The fatal, Darla, literally becomes the good mother, who kills herself in front of Angel’s eyes to save their child, handing him a purpose to continue his good works as well as an example on how to pursue them.(Lullaby Ats S3) Love = Sacrifice = Redemption, she seems to say. This is a subversion of the classic noir view, where the fatale views family, children and husbands as a cage, an anathema. She rebels against the concept of the family and remains independent of it, accepting death over that alternative. Darla similarly accepts death over family, but not as a means of remaining independent of it nor as a negative view of it – but rather as a means of ensuring it, honoring it. If she lived, her child would die. By dying, she honors the families she once devoured as a vampire. In a sense she does the opposite of the classic fatale, she sacrifices her life to ensure children and family. Ironic, since her existence as a vampire was the antithesis of that – as a soulless vampire, Darla despised family and marriage and sought to destroy it. Ensouled she chooses the reverse. Or rather her son’s soul enables her to choose the reverse.
[22] Cordelia: Flipping Fatal and Gal Friday
The character of Cordelia starts out her role on Angel the Series as the gal Friday, the charming secretary who keeps the anti-hero in line. Thelma in The Philip Marlow novels. She never sleeps with the hero. He barely acknowledges her existence sexually, way too enthralled with the sexy femme fatales wandering about. She acts in some ways like a perky sidekick. Offering advice, keeping him focused on the mission and saving him from his darker impulses whenever necessary.
[23]Cordelia is a major subversion of the femme fatal concept in that she started out as the innocent good girl Friday, whom until fairly recently the hero would never think of sleeping with, and over time slowly became the “femme fatale”, evil and wicked, pushing a male hero towards a dark path. It is interesting to note by the way, that it wasn’t until Cordy began to move towards this path, that she became sexually alluring to the male characters. Prior to S4 Ats, Cordelia really isn’t shown as a sexual entity, oh we have the bikini scene at the start of the Pylea Arc in Season 2 (Belonging S2 Ats) and the relationship with the Grooslauge. (Couplet, The Price, A New World S3 Ats) But we don’t see her having sex with anyone or wearing sexual outfits until she has turned to the dark side. It’s not until Apocalypse Nowish S4 Ats that Cordy is seen having sex with another character – in this case the hero’s son, a virgin lad, who appears to be seducing her when it is actually the other way around. Also in Awakenings S4 Ats, we get the first scene of Cordelia and Angel truly making love – an act while pure fantasy causes the loss of Angel’s soul. Just as her act with Angel’s son causes a sizable rift to occur between father and son.
Throughout the first three seasons, Cordelia is compared to the fatales Lilah and Darla.
[24] Lilah and Cordelia : The Independent Woman and Gal Friday
Cordy – who wishes to be her own independent woman, a working gal, is seen at first envying Lilah then grateful she didn’t go down Lilah’s path. As she states to Lilah in Billy S3 Ats: “I used to be you, but with better shoes.” Lilah is everything that Cordelia could have become – self-absorbed, financially successful, anything for fame, fortune and the almighty dollar. Lilah in some ways is Cordelia, Btvs Season 1, and completely and utterly alone. Lilah exudes sex appeal while Cordelia seems almost awkward with it in Ats, a major change from Btvs where Cordy flaunted it. Lilah is Cordelia’s foil, her dark side.
[25]By season 4, the dynamic begins to shift slightly, Lilah becomes more and more dependent on the Angel Investigations team to save her and Cordelia becomes more and more adrift from them. (Habeas Corpses, Cavalry S4 Ats) Cordy no longer wants saving, if anything she is starting to take over Lilah’s manipulative role. It is now Cordelia who is manipulating the gang and Lilah who is running from the Beast and vampires. The final shift occurs when Cordelia literally murders Lilah and metaphorically takes Lilah’s former place in the story. Lilah must die in order for Cordelia to take over her role as the femme fatale – the seductive dark female – complete in her dark gown and sexual damnation. (Cavalry S4 Ats)
[26] By having the Gal Friday take over the Sexy Independent Femme Fatale role, the writers have effectively inverted the classic noir formula. Cordelia is punished not by being the independent, resourceful woman, but by buying the hero’s mission hook line and sinker. Classic noir - the woman is punished for being independent and resourceful and rewarded for following the hero. (Covey 319; Davenport - “Reasoning Behind the Femme Fatal”) Here it is the reverse, by giving up her own life to be part of his. In Season 2 and 3 Ats, Cordelia is given two chances to pursue a life separate from Gal Friday and the Visions. The first is in Pylea where Groo offers to remove her visions and take them on himself. (There’s No Place Like Plrtz Glrb, S2 Ats) She turns him down, not wishing to give up her role at Angel Investigations. The second is in Birthday S3 Ats, where Cordelia, dying of visions, is given a choice to either pursue her own career path as an actress or become half-demon and keep the visions. She sacrifices herself to the second path as all good Gal Fridays should. In return for this sacrifice – she is shaded in white light, glows, elevates and appears to ascend to a higher place. (Birthday – Tomorrow Ats S4) But the audience and the character are misled. The writers have not rewarded her, they’ve punished her for choosing to kow-tow to the hero. By choosing to kow-tow to the hero’s mission, giving up her own hopes and dreams – Cordelia ends up becoming the very thing she hated, the fatale and her fate is to be engulfed by her own child, all semblance of her former self twisted and gone due to her faithful following of the mission. (Inside Out Ats S4)
The Ats writers don’t stop with the independent woman archetype, they continue this theme with the good mother.
[27] Darla and Cordelia: The Good Mother - Flipping Fatal and The Good Mother (Genteel)
Cordelia is shown early on in Season 3 as a better mother than Darla. When she attempts to help Darla, comforts her, Darla goes for Cordy’s jugular. (Offspring, Ats S3). After Darla dies for her child, it is Cordelia who changes the child, Connor’s, diapers and holds him and rocks him. Cordelia becomes his surrogate mother. (Dad – Couplet S3 Ats) Connor is kidnapped when Cordelia is away on vacation. (Loyalty – Sleep Tight S3 Ats) And when Connor returns, it is Cordelia who wipes his pain away. She is dressed in white robes and literally glows when he sees her – the good mother personified, holy and nourishing. (A New World S3 Ats.) Darla by contrast is a vampire, dressed in dark clothes, seen in S3 drinking the blood of innocent children, violent. (Offspring-Quickening S3 Ats) Her child eventually changes her into a better person, one willing to stake herself to save his life. (Lullaby S3 Ats.) Cordelia starts out wonderful, but once impregnated, becomes the embodiment of evil. Cordelia’s motherhood changes her into a blood drinking, evil monster, who kisses the Beast and desires an innocent girl’s blood in order to have her child. (Apocalypse Nowish - Inside Out S4 Ats.) Unlike Darla, Cordy doesn’t sacrifice herself to have her child – she sacrifices someone else.
[28]The irony is that Cordy requests the blood of an innocent to have her child while Darla, a vampire, takes her own life to have hers. The two archetypes, gentile good mother and fatal are flipped. Cordelia seduces the virginal son, Connor, in order to give birth to a child or god. (Apocalypse Nowish Ats S4) Angel pseudo-rapes Darla, and accidentally impregnates her – to give birth to Connor. (Reprise Ats S2) Cordelia and Connor’s sex is shown as almost romantic, under the sheets, not rough, soft, passionate, while Darla and Angel’s sex is rough and violent. Both Darla and Cordelia technically sleep with their surrogate children. Angel is Darla’s vampire child – the one she gave birth too ages ago with her blood. (Becoming Part I, Btvs S2, The Prodigal Ats S1, & Darla Ats S2) Connor is Cordelia’s surrogate child, the one she adopted from Darla’s ashes. (Lullaby Ats S3) By sleeping with their sons, they become impossibly and mystically pregnant. And their pregnancies change them to reflect the souls of their children. Darla becomes the good mother, Cordelia the femme fatale. Cordelia is in a sense punished for wanting to protect her family at all costs while Darla is redeemed for it.
[29] In case the audience doesn’t catch the significance of this comparison, the writers bring Darla back to attempt to convince her son Connor to go against Cordelia’s wishes and not sacrifice an innocent life. In Inside Out Ats S4, Darla, the evil vampire who had eaten millions of innocent lives, resurfaces in an attempt to tell her son not to spill innocent blood for his unborn child. His soul ironically made it possible for her to attempt to convey this message to him, just as it is his child’s soul that makes it possible for Cordelia to kill the innocent girl when he refuses to do so himself. Cordelia tells him Darla is lying to him and he believes her, he allows himself to succumb to the fatale and by doing so, is punished in classic noir fashion. But the twist is that the fatale was the gal Friday, the good mother…while his vampire mother is the one attempting to save him and in classic good mother/Gal Friday fashion – fails.
[30] Flipping Damsel/Gal Friday and The Fatal: Fred and Gwen
Winifred (Fred) is introduced as a fairly self-sufficient heroine in the Pylea arc, quirkily brilliant, she successfully aids Angel in escaping from the Pylean world. (Over The Rainbow, Through The Looking Glass, There’s No Place Like Plrtz Glrb, S2 Ats) She’s not so much a damsel in that three-episode arc and as a fellow comrades in arms. Fred risks her life attempting to save Cordy from demon slaveholders and Angel risks his in saving Fred. Fred in typical Gal Friday fashion returns the favor by saving Angel. She also forms an odd attachment to him, which starts out as a romantic infatuation and gradually becomes friendship. Her arc with Gunn is quite different, they grow from friends to lovers – Gunn sees Fred as the Innocent Girl, the Gal Friday, and the sidekick, who can kick ass by his side. He, also in typical hero fashion, swears to protect her no matter what – to the extent of breaking up with her in Double or Nothing Ats S3 to prevent the soul-collector from taking her soul instead of his. Up until Season 4 Ats, Fred like Cordelia fits the typical Gal Friday role model – she sneers at the fatal Gwen, who unlike Fred wears spandex and slinks across the screen cat-like in hot red skin-tight clothes. (Ground State S4 Ats, Long Day’s Journey, S4 Ats) Fred wears far less form fitting outfits and her hair is less free-flowing and wild, brown and straight down her back. Gwen’s is a dark unruly mass of curls highlighted with neon red.
[31]Gwen in looks and deeds practically screams the fatale archetype. Get too close to me and, zap, you are dead. She’s a bit like the comic book fatales Catwoman and Electra, lady thieves, who threaten to take the male hero down with them. Catwoman threatens on numerous occasions to bewitch and destroy the besotted Batman. A lady thief with devilish ways and a black spandex costume, Catwoman slinks across the Gotham city rooftops in Frank Miller’s nourish Batman Year One. Or the lady Electra described in Frank Miller’s Daredevil comics as an assassin who shadows her lover, the anti-hero vigilante, Daredevil, believing wrongly that he killed her industrialist father. Gwen equally has a tragic past, cursed with a talent that makes it impossible for her to touch people without killing them, she lives in an isolated cavernous compound with luxurious works of art that she has stolen. (Ground State S4 Ats and Long Day’s Journey, S4 Ats) She wears long gloves and engages in witty repartee. But one touch of her hand and she stops your heart.
[32] Gunn learns this the hard way in Ground State S4 Ats – where Gwen’s touch literally kills him for ten minutes. It also inevitably brings him back to life. She can stop and jump-start his heart as if it were no more than an electrical battery. Fred holds the same power, but in a far more metaphorical sense. Gunn’s love for Fred, leads him to stop his heart and kill Professor Seidel – an act he comments on several episodes later in Sacrifice S4 Ats– about having to turn off his emotions in order to kill for her and how she so easily did it before he even gave thought to it. It is Fred who leads Gunn to commit murder in Supersymmetry S4 Ats. Just as it is Fred who almost leads Gunn to attack and kill his best friend Wes in Soulless S4 Ats. Fred, the gal Friday, has in effect become the traitorous fatale leading Gunn to commit acts he’d prefer not to. Like Walter Neff of Double Indemnity, once he does commit the murder, he becomes persona non-gratis with his ladylove, she stops being the submissive Gal Friday he thought he loved.
[33] Gwen in contrast appears on the surface to be leading Gunn astray, but isn’t. In the episode Players S4 Ats, we believe Gwen has an ulterior motive regarding Gunn, one that will lead to his downfall. The opposite of what we believed about Fred. But, in fact, Gwen merely wishes to find a way to connect to others. She does set Gunn up in the episode – using him as a distraction to steal a valuable electronic device. When he catches her – she tells him it is a type of covert mechanism, designed to monitor skin temperature and body waves and being developed by arms dealers to sell to the highest bidder. The owner is using it for evil ends. Her client’s ends, she claims, aren’t so evil. Gunn, purely by accident, discovers that she’s not stealing the device, called LISA, for another client but for herself. It’s not for money or as a weapon, but as a means to short-circuit and monitor her own powers. To make it possible for her to connect with another human being without killing them. Gwen’s nefarious purpose is to keep herself from taking lives – Gunn by helping her, inadvertently saves lives as well. Instead of taking the hero down with her, Gwen uplifts him. After the episode, Gunn returns to AI reinvigorated, appreciative of life, no longer feeling lost. While after Supersymmetry S4 Ats, when he killed Seidel for Fred, he is anything but invigorated. He’s lost and feels disconnected from everything.
[34] Fred becomes the fatale leading Gunn to do horrible acts while Gwen becomes the redemptive damsel leading Gunn to re-connect with his humanity. Gwen is the self-sufficient, independent woman with her own gig and own place. Fred is the sidekick who must be part of the group and whose mission is in effect someone else’s. It’s really not until Fred is forced to break away from AI and set her own course – that Gunn and Fred end up re-bonding on some level. Their best and most insightful talk may actually be in Sacrifice S4 Ats, where Fred informs Gunn that it is better to feel pain than to be an empty shell and admits to feeling pain with him for killing Seidel. “It eats at me inside, too,” she declares. “We killed Seidel,” not just you, she tells him. (Sacrifice S4 Ats) Fred has not taken the path of other fatales completely, she takes responsibility for the crime; she doesn’t shirk it off or the pain of remorse that comes with it. She is punished for the crime but not in typical fatale fashion, her fate is not her death, but rather the loss of the love she once had with Gunn. Fred’s mistake may in a sense have been the lack of independence in dealing with Seidel – the lack of caring for others, instead she uses them and their mission to suite her desires for vengeance – an act she pays dearly for with the dissolution of relationships dear to her. (Supersymmetry – Sacrifice S4 Ats) Gwen in contrast is rewarded for her actions and her fierce independence, her fate a night of love with Gunn. (Players S4 Ats)
[35] Angel The Series Subverts the Noir Structure to Empower the Femme Fatal
In Angel the Series, like most noir series, the femme fatale (always female since the male is the hero) is initially set up as sexually alluring, aggressive, manipulative, anti-family, and her goal appears to drag the male hero into her dark orbit much like a spider. If this were the typical noir film or series, the fatale would be killed after she got the male and her death would free him from his own darkness. She would be punished for her power and the hero would be left atoning for his sin of being with her. (Davenport “The Femme Fatal is Punished”) But as explored above, Ats cleverly subverts this formula so that it is when the fatal either gives up her independent life and the power of that life, as seen with Lilah in Calvary S4 Ats or when the fatal decides to embrace motherhood as seen with Darla in Lullaby S4 Ats, that she dies. In the case of Lilah, she dies when she loses her power; in the case of Darla, she chooses her own fate, staking herself, because of her power.
[36]The writers further subvert the fatale’s role with the female characterizations of Fred, Cordelia, Lilah, and Gwen. As described in the sections above, Cordelia and Fred start out as “girl Fridays” or “innocent” characters – representing all that is wholesome about womanhood. They are in essence sidekicks. Lilah and Gwen start out as fatales, the alluring wicked female who if the guy isn’t careful could led him to his doom. By mid-season, Fred is depicted as the female who leads the character Gunn into committing murder to save/preserve her innocence. And in fact causes a potentially violent love triangle to erupt between herself, Wes, and Gunn. Cordelia is an even better example – she comes back from a mystical realm plotting and planning the hero’s downfall. Previously the hero’s confidante and virtuous love, she manipulates him into losing his soul and sleeps with his son. Meanwhile, we discover the sexy Gwen, the red-spandexed thief in Ats, is just misunderstood – all she wants is some sort of connection. She appears to lead Gunn to do a nefarious deed, but in a classic twist merely seduces him into connecting with her and stealing the means to do so. Gunn’s actions with Gwen, which entail stealing a potential weapon from nefarious arms dealers and helping a woman whose never been able to connect to actually connect, are far more positive than his actions regarding Fred, which entailed murder and violence. (Supersymmetry S4 Ats and Players S4 Ats.) Same with Lilah, Lilah wishes to let Angelus out of his cage in order to kill the Beast and save the world, Cordelia wishes to let Angelus out of his cage so he will join her in plotting the world’s destruction. When Angelus does get out – Lilah fears he will kill them all. Cordelia applauds the idea and kills Lilah, taking her place.(Calvary, Ats S4)
[37] Ats successfully subverts the traditional view of the fatale by turning the fatale into a heroine and the heroine into a fatal. The female empowerment theme gains new life by the subversion, because the fatal survives when she has power, it’s when she gives up her power that she is doomed. The reverse of the themes in classic noir films where the fatal is punished because of her power or in spite of it, only being redeemed when she allows herself to either be domesticated by the hero or gives herself up to his power. Impulse, a Neo Noir Film starring Theresa Russell, is an example of the traditional view of the femme fatale’s redemption. In this film, the working girl steals money for a better life but because of the love of a good man, returns it, joins his mission, and allows him to domesticate her, in effect giving up her power to him. (Covey 319) In Ats, it’s when the fatal embraces her own power – as Darla does when she stakes herself to save her child (Lullaby S3 Ats) or Gwen does when she lives her own independent life and takes action to find a way to connect to others within the structures that she created, that she is redeemed. (Players S4 Ats)