Chief Seattle review of "The Trial"
Linda
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1. Its good to be back.
2. During my enforced break I read a number of arguments in favor of
the A, B, C system of marking episodes and they have persuaded me to
revise my marking system and adopted it instead.
The promise of humanity
"To Shanshu in LA" ended with two major revelations. The first was the
prophecy that Angel would become human. The second was that the
creature that Wolfram and Hart had brought back to Earth was none other
than his sire, Darla. There seemed on the face of it no connection
between the two beyond the fact that Darla was intended to prevent
Angel from fulfilling his destiny by tearing him from The Powers That
Be. But the connection was there.
It was first hinted at very subtly in "Dear Boy" when we discovered
that Darla was human after all. There we saw the very different
perceptions of each other that now lay between the former lovers. To
Angel, a person's humanity meant having a soul and, among other things,
feeling remorse for past misdeeds. To Darla being a vampire meant
power. This was a theme that was taken up and expanded upon
in "Darla". In this episode we saw how both Angel and Darla regarded
not each other but themselves. We first saw the parallels between
Angel in China 1900 and Darla in LA2000 as both struggled unwillingly
to cope with what they were. But the parallels between them simply (and
very cleverly) serve to emphasis the real contrasts between the two.
Angel's struggles are about the moral implications of being a vampire -
what it means to exist just to fulfill your own needs regardless of the
cost to anyone else. Darla's are all about the weakness of being
human, the possibility of disease and the certainty of old age and
death. Through the contrasts between these two individuals and their
very different preoccupations we begin to see the differences between
two worlds - human and vampire. In the latter we see not only strength
and the power but also the total lack of feeling to restrain it. Take
what you want without remorse. Live now for the pleasure of the
moment, that is all that matters. On the other hand being human means
not only physical weakness but also being subject to the constraints of
the human soul. You cannot simply indulge yourself. You feel
impelled to do what is right. If you do wrong then you pay for it in
feelings of guilt and self-hatred.
Angel is both vampire and - because of his soul - human. There is a
tension within him between the vampire side of his nature and the human
side. The instinctive temptation that Angel feels towards satisfying
his blood lust is commonplace for the series. This is something that
was shown not only by "Darla" but also "the Shroud of Rahmon". In
those episodes we saw it in the gratuitous violence he used towards
Lindsey and in the way he drank from Kate. But there is far more to the
dichotomy in Angel than how he operates on the instinctual level, the
extent to which his human soul remains in control of his actions. Here
the writers are interested in exploring a much more fundamental issue:
does Angel really want to be human?
In both "Five by Five" and "Darla" we saw his initial attempts to
cling onto his identity as a vampire even after his soul had been
restored. And we have long known that Angel didn't always feel
comfortable in human society. In AYNOHYEB we have already seen
evidence of his distance from humanity throughout most of the 20th
century. And way back in "City of.." Doyle warned him that he had to
make a connection with humanity as a way of saving his soul. Otherwise
his craving for blood would grow until:
"One day soon one of those helpless victims that you don't really care
about is going to look way too appetizing to turn down. And you'll
figure hey! what's one against all I've saved? Might as well eat them.
I'm still ahead by the numbers!"
In both "Angel" and "Blind Date" he spoke somewhat wistfully about the
simplicity of life as a vampire. And then in "Guise will be Guise" he
admits for the first time his own ambivalence about being a vampire.
It is here that we see the source of his obsession with Darla, as
revealed by the following conversation between himself and the Tish
Megev in "Guise will be Guise":
Magev: "You blame her."
Angel: "I suppose I do."
Magev: "You want to punish her."
Angel: "A bit..."
Magev: "At the same time you want to thank her."
Angel: "Thank her?"
Magev: "For the gift she's given you."
Angel: "Gift?"
Magev: "You're deeply ambivalent."
Angel: "Yeah, well, I am and I'm not."
Indeed in the course of this episode Darla's situation focuses yet more
sharply the ambivalence he feels towards being a Vampire. He cannot
reconcile himself to the idea of her death as a human, despite the fact
that disease and death is the common inheritance of all mortals. On
the other hand he is clear and explicit in his determination that she
should not become a Vampire again and at one point he expressly
threatens to kill her if she were to revert to being a Vampire. This
is based on his clear understanding of what she would become as such.
In effect she is making Angel question more deeply than ever before
just how human he was and, more importantly, whether he actually wanted
to give up being a Vampire.
What is it to be human?
And ironically the answer to these questions is found in Angel's own
dogged determination to save Darla. Why should he care about her? A
vampire wouldn't. Vampires don't really care about anyone else. This
was hinted at in the confrontation between Lindsey and Angel in the
former's apartment:
Angel: "Do you love her, Lindsey? Is that what this is? Heh - look
at
you. A few short months with her and you go all schoolboy. I
was with her for *150* years."
Lindsey: "But you never loved her."
Angel: "I wasn't capable of it and neither are you."
And later Angel warns the hapless lawyer:
"If I were to do it - if I turned her, how long do think it would be
before she hunted you down and had you for breakfast?"
But this idea was even more powerfully developed by the flashback to
the French barn in 1765. During this season of ANGEL the writers have
been at pains to show us just how close Angelus and Darla were. Yet
here she cold bloodedly sacrifices him for herself. In doing so she
wished him well
"I hope you survive this, Angelus. If you do, maybe we meet again in
Vienna."
But a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.
The counterpoint between the self-centeredness of the vampire and
Angel's attitude to Darla is quite pointed. He really does care for
her does care for Darla. And here it is important that his need to
find her has undergone a significant shift. In "Dear Boy" and "Guise
will be Guise" it was almost reckless, an expression of his inner
turmoil over her. But in "The Trial", almost the whole of the teaser,
while it did have its humorous angle, was intended to show Angel was
relaxed and controlled (or in Cordelia's words "calm and homey") about
his search for Darla. Even the lie he told his friends was quite
calculated.
The reason why he wanted to find Darla was that he was concerned about
her and wanted to help her. He may not have loved her but they had
been together for almost 150 years and he really did think that he knew
her.
Darla: "What do you care?"
Angel: "This isn't you, Darla."
Darla: "You know, just because we had a thing for 150 years, don't
presume you know me!"
In particular Angel continued (despite all evidence to the contrary) to
identify with her, as suggested in the following conversation between
himself and the Caritas MC:
MC: Look, you're a big hunk of hero sandwich. You wanna save the
girl. I can see why. But you're missing the crucial point here.
Things fall apart. Not everything can be put back together,
no matter how much you want it."
Angel: "She's not gonna die."
MC: "Why do you care *so* much? She had more than most of us,
already 400 plus years."
Angel: "As a vampire. Before that she was... She... She never had a
chance."
The words used here echo very strongly the words Angel used about his
own human past in "Amends":
Angel: "A demon isn't a man. I was a man once."
Jenny: "Oh, yes, and what a man you were. A drunken, whoring
layabout, and a terrible disappointment to your parents."
Angel: " I was young. I never had a chance to..."
He can see in her both the same wasted opportunities for self-
fulfillment as he sees in himself and the same potential for her as a
human being. All she needed was time:
"The point is, you were undead for 400 years, you've only been human
again for a few months. Why not give it some time."
And of course the discovery that she did not have that time sharpened
immensely his concern, not so much because she would die but because
she would do so without an opportunity to come to terms with her
humanity and to begin to fulfill the potential she had.
I think that here the writers are suggesting that the defining
characteristic of humanity is to have a connection with other people.
It is to feel that they are important simply because of their humanity
and that some individuals are especially important to us because of a
personal connection. This need not be a connection based on romantic
love. It can be based equally on friendship, on compassion for someone
weak and vulnerable like a child or even on of a history of shared or
common experiences.
The Trials
At some point there had to be a reckoning between the two conflicting
aspects of Angel's identity, the vampire and the human. And it came
in "the Trial" in a very interesting way. From the very start Angel
is warned about what these will cost him but he doesn't hesitate:
MC: There is one way. It.it's a bit of a quest and it will probably
kill you."
Angel: "I'll take it."
MC: "Alright, big fella, you asked for it. You're about to face the
hell and the high water."
In accepting the challenge he makes a choice. Rather than take the
easy way out by "making her" he risks his own life and hers. This is
itself a rejection of what it means to be a Vampire. But more
important than that is the reason why he risks himself - to help
another who is desperate and in pain. By undertaking these trials he
is being asked to prove the strength of his commitment to her. In
other words he is being asked to prove the strength of his own
humanity. And here we have a very interesting use of metaphor. The
challenges that Angel faces are outward and visible expressions of the
sort of person that he is.
Dungeon Master: "He's quite remarkable."
Darla: "Yes, he is."
There are in effect four elements to these Trials. The first is proof
of his faith - his ability to trust others. This is obviously not
something that Vampires are very big on. Darla is the one who asks the
obvious question:
"Angel, some green horned lounge singer asks you to do something and
you just do it? Why?"
But the unquestioning way that Angel accepts the challenge proves that
he does have faith. And the culmination of the Trials is, of course,
the ultimate test of humanity: the willingness to sacrifice oneself
for others. It is one thing to risk your life for something or someone
you value. It is another thing entirely to accept your own death in
exchange for the life of another. And the important point here is that
Angel was explicitly given the choice:
Angel: "What are you waiting for?"
English Suit: "For you, sir. I can't proceed without your
permission. You've earned a choice. Accept your death so she may live
or..."
Angel: "Or what?"
English Suit: "Leave. Refuse the challenge and walk away. No one
will stop you. Our doors are all open to you. You've done that
yourself."
In making the choice to accept death Angel was first of all coming to
terms with the idea of mortality, turning his back on the
greatest "gift" of being a vampire. And he was doing so in the name of
compassion for the fear and anguish of another human being. Yes, it
was a wholly irrational decision. One could go further and say that it
was unjustifiable. But the interesting this is that (unlike the risk
Buffy took to save Angel in GD2) the writers did not try to skate over
this problem. They confronted it head on and indeed made a virtue out
of it:
English Suit: "Do you mind if I ask you a question? - Isn't the world a
better place with you in it? You can save so many people. It seems -
she can barely save herself. You know better than anyone the world can
be a very bad place. Take yourself out, put her in - how long will it
be before she stumbles, before she falls?"
Angel: "I don't know."
English Suit: "No, you don't. Are you still ready to give her life
when she can promise you nothing?"
Angel: "Yes."
There is no arguing with the logic of the English Suit here and
significantly Angel doesn't try to do so. I think that the writers are
saying that when it comes to protecting others that we care about human
beings react beyond logic and beyond reason. By agreeing to the
sacrifice in this way Angel was reaffirming his essential humanity.
Darla's Redemption
And the ironic thing about it is that he was at the same time helping
Darla to discover hers. And it is in this context that I have to
comment on the second and third elements of the Trials. In the fight
with the ugly yellow demon Angel's strength and speed are not enough.
What is really required is courage and intelligence. He needs courage
to cope with the fear of a seemingly unkillable creature and
intelligence to devise a way to defeat it. The third element of the
Trials tests his willingness to face pain and his ability to endure it
by running through a corridor covered in crosses and to put his hand
into a holy water font.
If I have any criticism to make of this aspect of the trials it is
that for the most part the subject matter of the tests was not really
what I take to be determinative of humanity. Even a soulless demon can
show courage, intelligence and endurance. Insofar as the Trials
themselves (as opposed to his reason for undertaking them) are intended
to be demonstrations of Angel's human qualities they are a little
lacking. But I suspect that these particular aspects of the trial were
intended to have another purpose.
As Angel started on his way through the Trials Darla had nothing to
loose. She was going to die anyway. From that point of view Angel's
failure would hardly have mattered. On the other hand few would know
better than she just what he was capable of. She could therefore have
been expected to regard his progress with hope and expectation.
Instead as she saw the sort of thing he was going through her principal
thought seems to have been for him and not for her own prospects. When
the English Suit asks her:
"Oh, I have no feelings about this contest one way or another, Miss. Do
you?"
the answer is obvious. There were several references in this episode
to Darla being a prisoner. Darla feels imprisoned. She was brought
back as a helpless human without her say:
"It wasn't my will to be here in the first place. I never asked for
this life."
Then she discovers she has a matter of months to live. It is a prison
from which she feels she has to escape, at any cost. If she wants back
to the only existence she has ever been happy with, indeed if she
wants to continue to exist at all she must become a Vampire again. To
this end she is even prepared to risk an assignation in a dingy alley
with a looser vampire who doesn't know what he is doing and can't in
any event be trusted. She is that desperate. But she is looking at
this only from her own selfish narrow point of view, without
considering the meaning of that choice for everyone around her.
Angel's example changes all that. The physical trials that he was
prepared to go through for her were material manifestations of his
commitment to her as another human being, something that she could see
and feel. Indeed her recognition of his humanity manifests itself in
the name she calls him after the completion of the trials. Having
insisted on referring to him as Angelus at every turn she now calls
him "Angel", thus recognizing the essential difference between the
two. And it was this that broke through her feelings of being
imprisoned. In that final scene between them in the Royal Viking Motel
Angel half-heartedly considers making her as the only option now left
to them. I don't think he was serious about this. Certainly if he
were it would have been contrary to the entire theme of the piece. But
that is not the important point. The point is that it is Darla who
firmly turns her back on the possibility:
Angel: "Maybe it would be different. We don't know. Maybe, uh...
because, you know, I have a soul - if-if I did bite you..."
Darla: "No."
Angel: "We don't know what it would do to you."
Darla: "Angel, I've seen it now. Everything you're going through,
everything you've gone through. I felt it. I felt how you care. The
way no one's ever cared before - not for me. That's all I need from
you."
Angel: "That's not enough."
Darla: "It is."
Angel: "How could the powers allow you to be brought back and dangle a
second chance and take it away like this?"
Darla: "Maybe this is my second chance."
Angel: "To die?"
Darla: "Yes. To die the way I was supposed to die in the first place."
This was Darla's acceptance of her own humanity. The symmetry is
perfect. By emerging from the Trails with his own humanity
strengthened Angel restores Darla's. This is a triumphant vindication
of the early premise of the show:
"It's about reaching out to people, showing them that there's love and
hope still left in the world. .It's about letting them into your heart.
It's not about saving lives; it's about saving souls. Hey, possibly
your own in the process."
The first thing that strikes me about the writers treatment of this
theme is how it takes ideas which have been explicitly laid out in the
previous history of the character or implicit in it and develops them.
As I have previously mentioned Angel's lack of connection to humanity
was one of the major issues for his character from the start and his
need to make a connection lay at the heart of the basic premise of the
series. The promise of his humanity to come was a major revelation of
the finale of season 1. And the theme we have seen throughout the
Darla arc was his ambivalence to being a Vampire. This episode takes
all of these disparate threads and weaves them together in a way which
establishes solid character development. Not in the sense that there
is a clean break from the past. We cannot say that Angel is now no
longer conflicted. Nor can we say that Angel post "The Trial" is a
different character to the pre-trial one. That would be both contrived
and unbelievable. What we can say is that in the crucible of this
episode Angel has been asked some very serious questions and the way he
has answered them tells us now more about who he is and who he wants to
be. That self knowledge much produce change for him but in a way which
represents continuity with the character's past. And that is important.
The Plot
For most of its length, the plotting isn't the real strength of this
episode. It suffers from two basic problems. In terms of structure it
is a classic "problem solving" story. At the very beginning the
writers throw to us an entirely new piece of information that has been
withheld until now - the fact that Darla was dying. There is no
difficulty about this in itself. It is, I think, precisely the sort of
information you would expect Wolfram and Hart to withhold. It strongly
reinforces the arc elements of this episode. In "Darla" the following
exchange occurred between Holland and Lindsey:
Holland: "Lindsey, you don't understand our friend at all. We know
there is no prospect for physical intimacy here. So you needn't
torture yourself."
Lindsey steps closer: "Then what do you expect him to do?"
Holland: "What he will do. What he must do. Save her soul."
From that point onwards it became clear that, notwithstanding Darla'
confidence to the contrary in "Dear Boy" Wolfram and Hart did indeed
have some deep laid plan that even now was still hidden. It would make
perfect sense for them to precipitate some sort of crisis by doling out
information to Darla or Lindsey as and when it suited them. Indeed
this was a feeling that was enhanced by the ending of the episode. It
was in fact one of the strengths of this episode that it continued the
slow striptease of Wolfram and Hart's long term strategy, revealing
little as yet but drawing us in with promise of further interesting
developments to come.
But the immediate effect of the revelation that Darla was dying was
that Angel became engaged in a search for a way to save her. The good
part about this was that, after we learned that the illness was real
(and for the reasons I have already mentioned that was no real
surprise) the writers seemed to have left Angel without an obvious
means to save Darla. It was very quickly made clear that the one
obvious course of action open (to "make her") would have been regarded
by Angel as a greater defeat than her dying. But at the end of the day
a situation like this will only create dramatic tension to the extent
that our sympathies are engaged. And Darla is about as unsympathetic
character as you could imagine. She is clever, determined, selfish
and ruthless. In short she is the sort of character it becomes easy
to want rid of and Angel's preoccupation with saving her then becomes
annoying. I think we are supposed to feel the pathos of her situation
when we see her singing karaoke in "Caritas" and the MC says:
"Someone get my heart. That girl's ripped it right out."
But I am afraid that this scene just left me cold.
In this context the slow pacing of "The Trial" really didn't help.
Well over half the episode was taken up with exposition. This would
not in itself a problem but for the fact that exposition itself was
comparatively limited. Darla was dying, she wanted to be a Vampire
again and Angel wanted to find a way of saving her without going to
that extreme. Indeed several of the scenes (eg between Angel and Gunn
in the hotel room) felt as though they were padding and others
(the "Caritas" karaoke) felt drawn out.
Another weakness in the plot is the supernatural means needed to save
her. Just as in "the Judgment" in many ways the medieval imagery and
trappings jar with me when set against the background of contemporary
LA. And the dungeon-like settings have been overdone in all too many
previous series. I would, therefore, have preferred a more modern look
and atmosphere for the trials. But another problem with them is that
they have an unmistakable "deus ex machina" feel to them. Angel goes
to Caritas MC, he gives Angel the right address to go to and we have a
potential solution to the problem. There is no thought involved. In
terms of plotting this just strikes me as a little banal.
So, up to this point there is comparatively little in the actual
plotting to sustain interest apart from a wonderfully funny scene
between Darla and the looser vampire she wanted to "make her". A major
part of the whole Darla arc has been the mythology of the vampire who
chose a mortal
"someone they can sire, someone who, too, can walk those lonely nights,
hunting with them, feeding with them, joining with them?"
Here the writers poke a little fun at that whole mythology in a very
light way which doesn't descend to heavy parody and end up ruining the
myth.
In discussing the trials themselves I think we have to recognize that
such a set up has one inherent problem and a serious one. No-one will
believe that the hero will die. And given that he will inevitably
succeed in his trials Darla too will be saved (for all that matters).
It was at this point that my expectations in plot terms fell to their
lowest point. In fact as it turned out this aspect of the plot was a
triumph and in a way that was very typical of the Whedonverse. The
trials themselves threw up one or two very interesting curves. The
ugly yellow demon who could put himself together after been cut in
half, the hidden key to the door certainly provided interest for the
viewer. But the crux was the sudden appearance of the death trap at
the end. The choice given to Angel was a stark one - your life for
Darla's. It was inconceivable that Angel would have come this far
simply to walk away. Equally it was inconceivable for him to die. The
resolution of the dilemma was, therefore, the one I expected. The
willingness to make the sacrifice was itself the test. So, everyone
was off the hook. As an ending it seemed cheep and shallow.
In fact it was anything but. The revelation that Darla could not be
saved and that Angel had gone through the whole thing for nothing was
shocking enough. But what made it worse was Darla's own last minute
redemption. Finally just when you could begin to believe she deserved
a second chance it was suddenly and unexpectedly snatched away from
her. And the furious violence of Angel's reaction to the discovery was
a very moving demonstration of his frustration, especially at the end
where the pounding of the fists on the pillar became slower and slower
as if despair were gradually taking over.
And then as if this were not shock enough we had the ultimate twist in
the reappearance of Wolfram and Hart in the capture of Angel by Lindsey
and Darla being made by Drusilla. And it is in this scene that we can
see the importance of Angel's earlier insistence that this was not an
acceptable option. Here we can see the scale of the defeat he must
feel. In other words far from giving us a trite "feel good" conclusion
the writers have worked out the worst possible way that it could end
and given us that. Good for them. It seems now that the whole arc is
ready for its climax. Are Wolfram and Hart finally going to reveal
their hand? We will have to see.
Overview
A : The real strength of this episode is the character study. There
could hardly be a more central issue for Angel than the conflict within
him between Vampire and human. In exploring this issue the writers
have used the "only connect" theme and given it a new lease of life.
By showing Angel making the connection with Darla they reinforce his
humanity in a way which not only preserves consistency with the
character as already established but at the same time clearly shown
real development. Moreover this development is very carefully placed
in the context of an ongoing story arc where the struggle between
Angel's humanity and identity as a Vampire is central. In this
respect "The Trial" succeeds not only as a stand alone episode but
also makes a significant contribution towards shaping the overall
pattern of the Darla arc. The weaknesses were essentially plot
related. The set up for the next stage in the revelation of Wolfram
and Hart's master plan worked very well, with just enough being
revealed to interest us but not so much given away that it helps up see
what will happen next. It is the immediate task of finding a cure for
Darla that is the problem, partly because Darla's fate is something
that it is difficult to care about and partly because just too little
of real interest happens until late on. But when something does happen
then it gives this episode a very hard kick that will, I am sure, last
in the memory. Indeed the strength of the ending was such that it more
than compensated for the weaknesses there were in the plotting of the
earlier parts of the episode. Because of its subject matter this was
inevitably a very serious episode. There wasn't that much light
relief. But once again in this respect the Cordelia/Wesley interaction
proved one of the highlights. The way they can be at one another's
throats one minute and combine to make a very formidable team the next
is a constant delight.