Tallgent's Thoughts on "Conviction"

If they're guilty, sure…

Yes, I know it's late. And it's all probably moot at this point anyhow. But I'm stubborn, I'm thorough, and I am still Tallgent doing what I love. So it's a new show, new title. I'm in new digs in beautiful Round Rock, Texas. But thankfully starting with "Just Rewards" it's the same old Spike.

So off we go into Angel: Season Five.

1. Not only was the opening teaser frickin' hilarious, but it gave me a hankering for some Brazil, Terry Gilliam Flava.

2. Knox gives me the creeps. There, I said it.

3. I dig on Gunn, `cause he's always struck me as a straight- shooter, but even a Gunn fan has his limits.

4. And I wonder if the Angel writers are Harvey Birdman fans. I can just imagine the dialogue:

"Genius, man. Making Birdman into a lawyer! So what are we going to do with Gunn…?

5. Jury's still out on Eve, but methinks there will be some Angel/Lilah-type chemistry.

6. I loved how they just slipped in the Sunnydale package early in the episode, because spoilers or no, you knew that was coming up later.

7. So many cars….I got nothing else, Angel has so many cars now!

8. So can I at least admit that I miss the Angelmobile? Never underestimate simplicity.

9. And I want that message on my answering machine. Pleeeease sell it on Buffystore!

10. And all the keys in the kingdom won't be able to mend the pieces of Angel's shattered conscience. Or his identity.

11. Which is why he needs to get by with a little help from his friends. Or in Spike's case a fiend…Former fiend…ex-enemy….Well, that crashed and burned.

12. In any case, Spike's back from beyond. Oh, Bollocks!

13. It's interesting how everyone achieved a sense of closure in "Chosen", but they didn't get an ending. The adventures were over, but living life was still in the future. In the case of Angel, however….

I think the teaser made it all too clear for poor Angel. This ain't his element any longer. Now he has to report to nameless, faceless (sometimes literally!) bureaucrats in a company in which he is the underdog. And though Angel has always been the underdog before, he was a specially bestowed underdog with the Powers on his side. Now his entire ideology and those of his friends is the decidedly unpopular viewpoint.

With such potential back-stabbers at his throat he has to ask himself was it really worth it? Taking the devil's bargain like he did? Joining with the most abominable evil on the face of the Earth that isn't a primary anything? Angel took a huge bite out of that apple, symbolically resonant as Man's first fall from grace. But Adam can be empathized based on stupidity and curiosity. Angel knows exactly what he's doing, and he's daring Wolfram and Hart perhaps and even the Powers to stop him.

It's a loaded fight.

Something else about the bookend to "Chosen", also. I mentioned the Lord of the Rings because of the Battle on the Hellmouth, an apocalyptic heir apparent to the last stand at Barad-dur. But philosophically LOTR came down to one simple statement: To use something inherently evil, even for good, leads to evil.

Angel's trying to prove that theory wrong. He could succeed, but it's unlikely. And as for Wolfram and Hart it could be their final triumph.

But they both can't be right.

Of course, W and H might already be winning. In his hard road toward knowledge and understanding about his destiny, Angel's learned some harsh lessons. The quality of mercy. The nobility of sacrifice. That the journey even after every hardship is worth it. And yet, when pus comes to shove, Angel's presence in a merciless place has taken away his concept of mercy, even if his enemies didn't show it.

There needs to be a clear separation between Angel and the evil he faces. That's what makes him a hero. But even heroes have their limits.

In "Conviction" we learn that Angel is hurting. He's bitter. He's not sure where he fits in anymore, or if he even did fit in. He's done his best to put what happened back in Sunnydale behind him. Where he was more than willing to lay his life on the line for his lady, and gets the slap in a lifetime of faces that his lady doesn't want him and may not even be his lady anymore to begin with.

True they were no longer lovers. But Buffy was ALWAYS his lady. Even if he didn't want to be her man.

So why the hell should he show mercy? Why the hell should he attempt to oppose evil constantly, day after day, and not have anything to show for it? Honestly, what good has he done?

So in the process of striving to be a champion he has forgotten what it means to be a hero. And the problem is the stalwart crew who has pulled him from the abyss are in their own existential dilemmas.

Wesley, for instance, is granted emotional and spiritual reprieve from his ordeal with Connor thanks to Angel's convenient mindwipe. Now he's got all this knowledge at his fingertips with vast volumes of supernatural history and…

He doesn't have the slightest idea what to do with it.

Whedon's dark brilliance comes through again. How can we relate with this? There are many ways. Information overload thanks to the internet. The accumulation of complete knowledge inhibits the humility to search for more and to ask "Why?" Or even something as simple as the Genesis story that is alluded to with Eve and Angel taking his bite.

The apple came from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. To eat of it is to gain that knowledge and all of its consequences. Simple enough. But what has the human race done with it? Have we striven to be better representatives of the planet or have we squandered it?

Wesley Wyndham-Pryce seemed so much more efficient scrambling for info from dusty texts. We have to remember that Wesley didn't have the Council to fall back on. Giles did. Sure it rarely came in useful, but it was a safeguard. But once Wesley was out, so went all of the inside sources to that knowledge. He had to scrap the stuff up on his own.

Now he's got it all at his fingerprints and he is frozen. He doesn't know what his place is at the law firm. He doesn't know who he is anymore.

Which is fine. The Scoobies also had their moments of existential confusion and they came out the better for it. I'm sure Wesley will come back into his own as well.

But what happens when you have a misrepresentation of who you really are. Do you fall under the seduction of becoming a "better" version of yourself? Do you let the nagging doubts dictate your life? Charles Gunn's life has gone through one tragic alteration to another, but not one quite so disconcerting as now.

Quite simply, this isn't his world. But he's quick to forget that at one time Angel Investigations wasn't his world either. But he adjusted. Naturally.

Succumbing to his own feelings of uselessness he has his entire personality altered. Shades of Xander here with his temporary military enhancement. But the key is temporary. Perhaps the supernatural enhancement was a catalyst, but the Xander Harris bravely battling the Ubervamps in "Chosen" was all him. He made himself into a fighter.

Gunn is taking an insidious shortcut. Because he is surrounded by lawyers, he feels the need to become one so he can battle on their terms. Which is fine and dandy. He wins the case in brilliant Sam Waterston style.

But who does he want to be? Charles Gunn or just plain old, reliable, courageous Gunn? And how far is he willing to go?

Sometimes the simplest declaration comes from the sweetest humor. Winifred Burkle had such an impossibly long department title that she just summed it up by saying "Fred."

Out of everyone in the old AI staff, Fred knows who she is. She knows the potential for corruption in a place like Wolfram and Hart. And she knows that she still gives a damn even if everyone in her department doesn't seem to.

She also knows that if she has to instill the wrath of a goddess into her staff for results, she'll do that too. Fred's not always the cute one. And if anyone can pull her friends out of their malaise, or even get unexpectedly sucked into it, it's Fred.

But I think Spike's arrival will bring some good old-fashioned altruism back into Fred's life. With Spike's dilemma, she has a chance to put her knowledge to good use. As others have pointed out, she can stop another victim from being trapped in a hellish dimension, something she's all too intimate with. And for once it's not about stopping an evil demon, but helping a redeemed man find some inner peace.

It's outside of W&H's concern, Eve makes sure her workmates know that. But Fred isn't doing this for W&H or even Angel. She's helping Spike because that's who she is. Someone who helps the helpless.

And then there's Harmony who in her own borderline brain- dead way is trying to find her place as well. Spike's bint wasn't good for her and neither was Buffy's arch-nemesis. But perhaps W&H undead secretary is her ticket to finding a purpose.

Something I really like is an examination of Cordelia's character change from self-absorbed diva to the mother figure that she had become for Connor until Jasmine irretrievably perverted it. We may see it from a humorous point of view. Exaggeration aside, Harmony isn't acting all that different from first season AtS's Cordelia. Recently uprooted and trying to make her way in the big city, it's still all about her. And perhaps seeing Spike in his situation will make her feel empathy for her former lover.

Hey, he's still her "Blondie Bear."

So many characters, so different a setting. Each one reevaluating their convictions to their cause trying to refortify what purpose they had signed on for in the first place. Angel knows why it happened but he doesn't understand why. He's forgotten.

So enter Sunnydale's champion to remind him…that is if Angel will take the time to listen and understand. And grow.

Should be a helluva season.

I have seen no new shows, save the John Larroquette one and that didn't last long. Poor guy. I loved him on Night Court and I wanted to like his own show set at the bus depot, but…So anyway, his new show stinks.

Smallville had a pretty okay opening episode but the transfer of powers to Jonathon was kind of a cop out. My friend and I both thought that to confront Clark on his own, completely vulnerable, with only the love for his son as his weapon, would have forced Clark to truly make a choice. Instead we get Clark vs. Jonathon: Kryptonian Karnage.

Also, how did Chloe grow a conscience so fast and why didn't we see it develop?

I have wiped my hands of Enterprise. Sorry

Shameless plug, but there's a very interesting forum up called www.sparklies.org. Lots of Spike lovers post there, including my personal favorite, Ramses, so I highly recommend it. If Ramses's thematic theories play out, I'm personally going to kiss her and fall down to genuflect, because she articulates so dang well what I hope might be the direction the show takes when the Buffinator shows up.

"Just Rewards" will be up later this afternoon. College football takes priority. I'm so male.

Tallgent