Chief Seattle Review S5 E1 (Spoilers)
Linda
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Episode Title "Conviction"
As I have said before in these reviews, we often find the theme of an
episode of ANGEL illustrated in a vignette that is, in terms of the plot,
essentially irrelevant to the story. The teaser of Conviction is just such
a vignette. We see a blonde girl menaced in a dark alleyway. Heroic music
swells and the lone (but not caped) crusader leaps into action, heroically
saves the day and dispenses sage advice to the confused and frightened
victim. In many ways this scene, superficially at least, echoes the very
first scene of ANGEL. In City of there is another such ambush in a dark
alley with the helpless saved and the evildoer vanquished.
But this time there are.complications. These arrive in the form of a
Wolfram and Hart SWAT team, personal assistants, lawyers and sundry other
hangers-on, uh employees. They quickly turn a simple and straightforward
rescue into something else:
Notary: This is to confirm that you have been rescued by Angel, C.E.O. and
President of Wolfram and Hart, and this is to indemnify Wolfram and Hart
Lawyer: If we can just get a couple pictures of you two, that would be
great. (to Angel in an aside) Now, uh, the vampire that you terminated, he
actually did work for one of your clients. So, but, hey! First week, no one
will squawk, ok?
Blonde: You run a law firm?
Angel: No. I mean... well, sort of. Well, just lately.
Notary: I need you to initial here concerning your immortal soul.
Blonde: You did this for publicity?
The counterpoint between the teaser in Conviction and that in City of
illustrates two important points for our purposes. First of all things now
are more complicated than they were at the time of the series premier and
secondly Angel is not in control of them. His simple rescue has been
transformed into a public relations stunt on behalf of his erstwhile
enemies, a stunt that is no doubt intended to boost their image among some
of their clients at least and perhaps to be used as a lever with other
clients. And because of this Angel's actions now look self-serving. More
than that, although he has the nominal title of CEO there is a very real
question mark over who is really in charge. It wasn't only the tracking
device. One of the lawyers draws the boundaries for him:
Really would prefer it if you didn't leave a rescue scenario until we had a
chance to control the scene. Of course, that is your decision, sir, but
The title, the cars, the coffee all look more like ways of controlling him
rather than signs of his power.
All in all this was a far better illustration of the ambiguity of the
situation that the former members of Angel Investigations now find
themselves in than the rather clunking piece of expository dialogue we hear
between Wesley and Fred at the start of Act I:
Wesley: Well, I'm still stuck back at, "Why on earth are we here?"
Fred: What, because we're crusaders against evil and now the law firm that
represents most of the evil in the world has given us its L.A. branch to run
however we want, probably in an attempt to corrupt, divide, or destroy us,
and we all said yes in, like, 3 minutes?
The possibilities and dangers of the situation Angel and the others find
themselves in is illustrated by Eve:
Eve: OK, let me tell you how this works.
Angel: I thought I was in charge.
Eve: Of the Los Angeles offices of a multi-dimensional corporation. Now, I'm
stressing that last word because that's what we are. We're a business, and
we have a bottom line. Now, you could take your new client list and start
hacking away from the top down. A lot of our clients are demons, and...
almost all of them are evil.
Angel: Almost?
Eve: Things are always more complicated than they seem, champ. You can shut
this place down, but... then...well, then you wouldn't have it anymore. If
the place closes down, the connections dry up. Evil goes next door. This is
the catch. I'm explaining the catch so you don't have to stand around
wondering what it is. See, in order to keep this business running, you have
to keep this business running. And that means keeping your clients most of
them, anyway happy.
And this is really what Conviction is all about. BTW the name of the
character is a piece of anvilling I could have done without. And the
temptress who presents him with an apple before outlining the Senior
Partners' Faustian bargain is too obvious either to be clever or amusing.
But I digress. Without exception each new series of ANGEL has begun with an
episode that foreshadows the key issue that must be faced in the following
episodes. Season 5 will, I think, be no exception to this rule. The focus
of this episode is not Fries and his attempts to save himself. This is
simple the McGuffin. There are no great issues thrown up by his actions.
His motivation is straightforward and easily understood, indeed almost comic
book:
Fries :Either you get me off, or I drop the bomb.
Wesley: Bomb?
Fries: Let me put it this way: If they bring in a conviction, bye-bye,
California. I say the magic word, the only people left standing are gonna be
the ones that are already dead.
The nature of his threat is also without mystery or subtlety. The real
focus is on the means of preventing Fries from destroying LA and in this
context Fries is reduced to the status of a bystander. Even the obvious
moral dilemmas posed by Fries use of his own son are downplayed. The
writers could have chosen to give Angel a choice between saving Fries son
and saving LA. But they didn't. Instead the concentration is on Wolfram
and Hart, the means available to it for the purpose and whether those means
can be used for good.
Fries is, of course, one of Wolfram and Harts clients and it's their job to
get him off. LA is only their concern insofar as the threat to it might
have personal implications for them and their clients (and source of income)
and would, in any event, be unnecessary if they do their job. Angel and
the others on the other hand have a rather different approach: ensuring no
harm comes to LA because it would be wrong and at the same time seeing Fries
gets his just desserts. We can, therefore, assume that there is a
difference between the priorities of Angel and the firm of who he is CEO.
Obviously someone needs a quick run-down on the concept of a conflict of
interest. Be that as it may, however, this is where the real issue lies in
Conviction illustrated once more by Eves words:
Come on! Isn't anybody excited? This is a crazy time of fun. The most
powerful evil around has given a pivotal position over to its sworn enemies.
You're not scared, are you?
What the Senior Partners have handed over is power. As Eve pointed out to
Gunn, when Angel Investigations were safely ensconced in the Hyperion people
like Fries were:
getting away with it while you were all sitting around your hotel waiting
for the phone to jangle.
Now they have first and foremost the inside track. But for their connection
to Wolfram and Hart they wouldn't even have been aware of the danger let
alone been able to do anything about it. But being aware of the danger is
but the first step. Also available to Angel and Co are the resources of the
firm -
Meticulous records kept on all clients and others (including judges);
A limitless range of flash cars and other forms of transportation in which
to make house calls;
A team of heavies to do wet work;
The full range of laboratory facilities for research;
A complete range of legal and other technical skills as well as innovative
ways of passing them on.
The question is can these resources be used for Angels purposes? As we have
already seen, in the teaser Wolfram and Hart's resources were put fully at
Angels disposal but ended up subverting him - by turning the good he was
trying to do into a cheap publicity stunt for Wolfram and Hart and
controlling him. Can they not also subvert and control him and the others
now in this much larger issue? Throughout this episode Angel, Wesley and
the others keep on coming back to the trustworthiness of the firm. But in
the end Wolfram and Hart seemed to serve them more than adequately. Its
records enabled Fred to determine the true nature of the bomb that Fries
referred to. They also allowed Angel to track down Spanky and thereby
determine the identity of the vessel containing it. The Practical Science
Division was put to use designing the antidote. Gunn was given the
information he needed to compromise Fries trial and the knowledge of how to
use that information effectively. And crucially the warning given to Angel
by Harmony and the ability to use the company helicopter were instrumental
in foiling Hauser's ambitions to cause mayhem at the school.
And here we see the significance of Hauser. As I have already said Fries
was never Angels real antagonist here; it was Hauser. He represented the
evil in Wolfram and Hart. Fries was simply selfish. His attitude was best
summed up by his reaction to Angels comment that he would be convicted
because he was guilty:
Of course I'm guilty. What the hell are you changin' the subject for? The
point is, when Holland Manners was running things, this would've never got
to trial. Now, I bring a lot of money into this firm, more than most, and I
don't do that so I can be handed over to the frickin' law.
Being guilty was neither here nor there. What mattered was simply what he
wanted. And when it came to looking after his own interested he let
nothing stand in his way, not the deaths of millions of people and not even
the safety of his own son. He had no agenda other than that; if Angel
didn't interfere with him, he wouldn't threaten anyone. We are, I think,
intended to believe, however, that Hauser was different because of his
exchange with Angel at the end:
Angel: Agent Hauser, I'm honestly beginning to suspect that you're not part
of the solution.
Hauser: You really think you can solve the problem? Come into Wolfram and
Hart and make everything right? Turn night into glorious day? You pathetic
little fairy.
Angel: I'm not little.
Hauser: That's exactly what you are. You're minuscule. A dust mote on the
shelf of that great institution. Now, you think I'm just a trigger-happy
jerk who follows orders, but I am something you will never be. I'm pure. I
believe in evil. You and your friends, you're conflicted. You're confused.
We're not. That is why you are gonna lose, because we possess the most
powerful thing in the world... conviction.
In showing us the debate between members of the former Angel Investigations
team about the true nature of Wolfram and Hart, the writers seem to be
suggesting that it was capable of being used for both good and evil. At one
point Knox says:
We've contained more plagues than we've ever designed. I'm not all about
destruction here.
So Angels destruction of the true believer in evil within the firm, his
success in protecting not only Fries son but all the innocent bystanders
Hauser had intended to kill and the achievement of the main goal of
containing the threat from the bomb through use of the firms resources looks
as though it was intended to reaffirm the triumph of Angel and the others in
using Wolfram and Hart for good. The conviction of the title refers to the
conflict between Hauser's conviction in evil and - we must presume that of
the Senior Partners as well - and the struggle to test whether that
conviction is matched by the former Angel Investigations team. Angels own
verdict on this struggle is:
Fred: Is this gonna be our lives now? Fighting our own employees, our own
clients? Are we really gonna do any good?
Angel: Yes, we are. We're gonna change things. We came to Wolfram and Hart
because it's a powerful weapon, and we'll figure out how to wield it.
But this cannot be taken at face value. We had already seen the corrupting
effects of Wolfram and Harts power on Lorne and Angel in the way they
reacted to the trapping of power, be that access to showbiz or a lot of
really cool cars. But here we began to see the more insidious effects that
the use of the firm's resources to fight evil had. Take Fred, for example.
At the beginning we see the following exchange between herself and Knox:
Knox: I want you feeling 100% secure running this lab.
Fred: Yeah, that'll never happen in this lifetime. Uh, evil aside, I'm not
sure that I'm much of the running-things type. I'm more the
running-away-from-things type.
Yet under pressure to find an antidote she reacts very differently:
Y'all are tired, I know. I just want you to understand that in a few hours a
virus is gonna start spreading in this city that'll kill every person in it,
and when blood starts streaming out of our noses, eye sockets, and
fingernails, I'll have the intense satisfaction of knowing that I'm dying
with the only people in the world that actually deserve it! Now, focus,
people! Work the damn problem!
As Knox says in answer to this outburst she is indeed the boss. Is this the
effect of power?
Or, take Gunn. He had simply seen himself as muscle and perhaps a little
superfluous muscle at that, given Angels pre-eminence in that field. Now he
has knowledge and skills that no-one else on the team can bring to bear.
Not only that; it is his knowledge and skill that effectively save the day
when perhaps nothing else could. But he got this knowledge and skill as
part of a deal with the Senior Partners, presumably when he met with the
Conduit in the White Room:
Eve: So you're not backing out?
Gunn: You don't know me or you wouldn't ask that question.
Eve: I can see why the senior partners chose you. Have fun.
You'll feel like a new man.
There are reasons why deals like these are known as Faustian pacts. Gunn
isn't stupid and he knows the nature of the Senior Partners, he knows they
are not giving him something out of the goodness of their hearts and he
knows there is a reckoning to come. We can be quite sure of this because of
the way he deliberately conceals his deal from the others:
Gunn: Look, it's me here. They didn't evil me up. All I got stuck in my head
was the law. And for some reason, a messload of Gilbert and Sullivan.
Eve: Standard. Great for elocution.
Angel: How can you possibly know they didn't do anything else?
Gunn: 'Cause I saw the man in the white room. He does a lot of scary things,
but lying ain't one of them.
If that were true he wouldn't have lied about it. He is only fooling
himself.
And then there is Angel himself. He only bought into this whole deal in the
first place to save Connor. And the thing that really engages his attention
this time is the plight of Fries son. When he first finds out what Fries
did he can hardly contain himself:
Angel: His son. He took a lethal virus, and he stuck it inside his son.
Eve: Hits you where you live, doesn't it? Of course I know. You lost your
son. Well, gave him up.
It is this that is the key to understanding Angel's actions at the end of
this episode. When Hauser and the others arrived at the school, everyone
had been evacuated. Even when Hauser tried to kill him Angel has succeeded
in immobilizing him. The important point was not that he killed Hauser but
that he did so unnecessarily. Not only that but when Hauser claimed that
conviction was the most powerful force in the world Angel countered by
saying that mercy was more powerful. This was not a philosophical debate.
Hauser was saying that conviction was his motivation and Angel was saying
that mercy was his. Mercy was simply more powerful because Angel intended
winning. The mercy here was clearly meant in the sense of an act of
compassion - for the boy. But Angel had none left for Hauser, hence his
parting comment that the surviving SWAT team member saw the last of it. To
that extent what we saw here was less an Angel mainly concerned to protect
the helpless and more an angry and vengeful father.
But perhaps not even that is the worst of it. Consider the outcome of the
episode itself. I can do no better than to record Lorne's description of
that outcome:
Of course, saving the day meant getting the scumbag who was ready to
sacrifice his own son off on a technicality and then returning said son to
said scumbag.
There were mitigating circumstances and given the situation it may well be
that nothing better could have been hoped for. But the fact remains that
this outcome was far more in keeping with the Senior Partners' agenda for
Wolfram and Hart as outlined by Eve than Angel's. And yet Angel and the
others seem to conclude from this outcome that they can use Wolfram and Hart
for good and escape corruption seems. It's not so much that this confidence
seems somewhat misplaced at the moment. Rather it is all of a piece with
the fact that Angel and the others seem entirely unconscious of (or perhaps
it is simply unwilling to admit) the obvious. They seem almost willfully
deluding themselves and that seems to be the most sinister thing of all
because their own conviction that they are on the right path when they are
so obviously not leads me to suspect that the Senior Partners' plan is
working.
There are some quite obviously holes in the development of this theme, not
least concerning Agent Hauser. One of the basic premises for the whole
Whedonverse over the last eight years is the distinction between the human
and the demon soul. The latter rejoiceth in iniquity. Because of greed or
selfishness the human with a soul on the other hand is quite capable of
doing evil. But his or her instinct is to do good. So I find Hauser's
speech that he is evil out of conviction very jarring. Moreover it does
tend to undermine the theme as I have tried to outline it. The reason why
it is wrong to kill humans but right to kill demons is this distinction
between the redeemable and the irredeemable. To the extent that the writers
blur the distinction between the human and demon souls they are undermining
the rationale for this difference. In effect it becomes harder to argue
that Angel was wrong to kill Hauser so casually; yet I think he was clearly
intended to be seen as wrong in this behalf.
Over and above that, however, the episode does seem to me to hang together
thematically pretty well. What I liked especially was the way that the
episode was, at first sight, a success for Angel and Co. when the more you
examined the reality the less justified that confidence became. The great
danger with the present storyline is that it seems so predictable. Indeed
it was predictable from the moment Lilah made her offer in the season 4
finale and it was hard to see how the issue of Wolfram and Harts attempts to
corrupt Angel and the team was to be avoided in the season 5 premier. I
would, of course, be very surprised if there were not twists and turns
ahead. But until these begin to manifest themselves, it is important to
deal with this potential for corruption in a way which maximizes interest.
Making you think about where the dangers lie is certainly one way of doing
this. And that is certainly what the writers did here. Another is to make
the potential seem as real, as interesting and as threatening as possible.
And relating this to established character flaws is again a very effective
approach in this respect. For example we already know the insecurities Gunn
feels about his ability to contribute to the team. At the same time, while
the dangers of his actions are obvious, they are not imminent. So his
actions here are both in character and realistic. So too are those of Fred.
She is clearly an obsessive personality who can get so locked into things
that she can lose her judgment. Angel's sensitivities over his son, his
ability to obsess and lack of control of his anger are equally well
established. Not least of the strengths here is that, while we can
recognize the foolishness - indeed in Gunns case the recklessness - of their
actions we never lose sympathy for the characters because we understand why
they are behaving as they do. But I have to say that for all that the
general theme remained predictable and that is a weakness.