At
one level this is behavior that is no longer just borderline psychotic.
How do you account for it? More
than that how do you do so in a way that is consistent with the way “Five by
Five” ended? And if you cannot do so what then becomes of the whole
episode? Doesn't it just fall apart
in your hands? It is in this
context that the flashbacks become crucial.
I was never terribly impressed by Angel's "We're a lot alike,
Faith" speech in the BUFFY episode "Consequences".
This seemed to show little if any understanding of either Angel or Faith.
But in the flashbacks to Borsa in 1898 we are shown parallels between
Faith and Angel just after he was cursed. Through
these parallels we begin to understand Faith.
Her actions become explicable and so too does the ending of the episode.
And the flashbacks work principally because they allow us to compare
Faith and Angel at the same stage in their lives – before their search for
redemption had actually begun. Angel
in LA2000, while not quite the complete work, has long since left behind any
doubts as to what he should be trying to do.
He knows he wants redemption and believes that he can achieve it. He is, therefore, irrevocably on the right road.
Angel
in 1898 was different. He had just
had his soul restored and was clearly suffering the torments of Hell.
That little speech he gave to Darla when he said
"Funny.
You would think with all the people I've maimed and killed I wouldn't be able to
remember every…single…one. “
was
chilling. And here we see the first parallel between Angel and Faith.
She too is in pain and the torture scene with Wesley is proof of that.
Although she wanted to provoke Angel she also had a score to settle with
Wesley. As she said:
“Did
you ever wonder if things would have been different - if we'd never met.
What if you'd had Buffy and Giles would have been my Watcher? You think
you'd still be here right now? Or would Giles be sitting in that chair? Or
is it just like fate? You know, there is no choice. You were gonna
be here no matter what. You think about that stuff - fate and destiny?
I don't. Not that any of this
is your own fault. Since this may be the
last chance we will have to unload on each other, I feel that it is kind of my
duty to tell you that if you'd been a better Watcher, I might have been a more
positive role model. Face it
Wesley; you really were a jerk. Always walking around as if you had some
great big stake rammed up your …English Channel. “
This
is a very revealing passage. She
still doesn’t blame herself for anything.
She blames fate; she blames Wesley.
But, as Angel mockingly points out why blame anyone if she was happy with
the way she was? The answer is
unwittingly provided by herself. When
Wesley calls her a “piece of sh**” she
reacts angrily. I think she does so
because Wesley is echoing what she thinks of herself deep down.
No she isn’t happy – not at all.
But
what could Faith do to make the pain stop?
Here we come to the second parallel between Faith in LA 2000 and Angel in
Borsa 1898. When Angel regained his
soul he did not know how to react to the change. At that point he was poised between two worlds - the
darkness and the possibility of something else.
The problem was that he was in no position to make a
rational choice
between the paths open to him, or indeed any choice at all.
He may not have been borderline psychotic but he was teetering on the
brink of a complete mental breakdown.
And his first instinct was to cling on to what he thought he knew and
understood, even if that was the very thing that had caused him so much pain.
Our very first scene with Angelus and Darla in Borsa (before he was
cursed) emphasized how close they were and how much they shared.
After Angel's soul was restored, and in spite of how he now felt, he went
straight back to her - not to blame her for what she had done to him but for
comfort and reassurance.
He even said to her
"I am like you."
But her reply was:
"You're not like anything. Get away from me. Get out! “.
But even with that rejection Angel continued to struggle with his
identity. When he met the small
group of passers by on the street he seemed to be operating at a purely
instinctual level. At first all he
was conscious of was the fact that he was hungry.
But one thing did resonate with him.
The woman called him a monster.
It was a cry he took up and repeated over again.
I think that this showed he was still struggling with his identity as a
vampire. Although rejected by Darla
he continued to play the part of what he thought he was – a monster.
That is why he attacked the strangers.
He didn’t care what the consequences for him were of doing so in
circumstances where he might easily have been killed by a mob.
I don’t think he was consciously suicidal.
I don’t think I would even argue that he was subconsciously suicidal.
Rather it seems to me that he took actions which involved the risk of
death because the subconscious need to find an identity he could live with was
more important to him than the risk of his death.
Just
like Angel in Borsa 1898, Faith too was faced with two different directions for
her future. She had got a glimpse
of what life for her could have been when she switched bodies with Buffy.
She had a home, family, friends, a decent man to love and a career as
slayer where people value her and are grateful to her.
But that is all gone. She is
desperate, friendless and in pain. The
only thing see sees left for her is to continue to play the part that she has
been playing all along – that of a homicidal monster.
So she lashed out in all directions trying even harder to convince
herself she really was bad. Hence
the behavior referred to at the beginning of this review.
But the interesting thing is that she seems to have killed no-one, not
even the man who tried to pick her up at the bus station.
That itself indicates, I think, that things were not quite as she
pretended.
The
Contract
And
it is at this point that the stories of Faith and Angel intersect.
When Faith first heard Angel's name from Wolfram and Hart all she saw at
first was a further opportunity to strike back at what she saw as the cause and
source of her pain - Buffy.
Faith:
"Who am I supposed to kill?"
Lindsey: "Please understand that we would never
advocate the
killing of another human being. His name is Angel. He's somewhat
of a private..."
Faith: "No problem."
Lee: "Don't you want to know anything more?"
She
is so anxious to kill Angel that she doesn’t even wait for Lindsey to finish
the sentence. So, it seems to me
that her first attempt to kill him was a straightforward and genuine one.
But when he caught the arrow she fired at him from ambush she was
genuinely impressed and this seems to have set her on a very different pattern
of behavior. That little scene with
the gun in Angel’s office illustrates her change of attitude.
After Angel deliberately fires a blank bullet at Faith’s leg we have
the following exchange:
Faith:
"You didn't shoot to kill. We're gonna have to up the stakes, get
you in the game a little."
Angel: "What's the game exactly, Faith? Boredom?
Revenge?"
Faith: "Dude, I'm getting paid. They hate you almost as much
as I do."
Angel: "Ever occurred to you this might be more fun for me?"
Faith: "You think? Because what if you kill me and you
experience that one true moment of pleasure? Oops! I'd get off on
that. Go ahead. Do me. Let's take that hell ride together.
Come on, Angel, I'm all yours! I'm giving you an open invitation.
Jeez, you're pathetic! You and your little tortured soul, got to
think everything through. Well, think fast, lover. You don’t' do
me, you know I'm gonna do you!"
She
then shoots him with a real bullet. But instead of trying to take advantage of
the situation she escapes. That is
because she doesn’t want simply to kill Angel anymore.
For her he is on the opposite end of the spectrum from where she believes
herself to be. His little tortured soul means that he has to do the right
thing. That is illustrated by the
fact that when he tried to live like the monster Angelus had been his soul
wouldn’t let him. He stumbled
away from the woman he had tried to kill with the words "I can't. Oh
god, I can't." But just as
Angel as a newly ensouled vampire in Borsa 1898 felt compelled to act out the
role of a killer in order to prove he was still a monster; so Faith felt
compelled to show that she was still a rogue slayer by taking on the “soul
boy” in LA 2000. But merely
fighting him would not be enough. She
wanted to get him mad enough to try to kill her out of anger (rather than in
self defense). That is why she
confronted him in his office. That
is why she went after Wesley and Cordelia.
She wanted to prevent him from completing his own redemption by
reawakening the darkness inside him. By
doing so she would confirm her own darkness.
So, while I do not think she deliberately courted her own death her
survival was certainly less important to her than reaffirming her sense of
identity. But
all that happened was that a situation she thought she had under control turned
out to be under Angel’s control instead.
He turned up not full of anger and hatred but cold, calculating
determination. He fought her only to defend himself and not to kill her.
That was an eventuality she had never planned for.
It meant utter failure for her. That
was what led to her breakdown. All
she had left was to repeat her mantra mindlessly.
"I'm evil! I'm bad!
I'm evil! Do you hear me? I'm bad! Angel, I'm bad!
All
of these parallels between Angel and Faith are very well conceived and executed
and are very effective in shedding light on Faith’s state of mind and
motivations – which are the key to this episode.
But they are not themselves sufficient because there is one very
important difference between the Angel on the one hand and Faith on the other.
Angel committed his crimes as a soulless monster.
It was just that his soul had to pick up the pieces afterwards.
Faith’s soul on the other hand was responsible for her actions; it had
a choice Angel’s didn’t. I am,
therefore, really glad that the writers had enough understanding of the two
characters to realize this difference existed.
So, we get the character of Marquez.
As Wesley says of him:
"He
may be a ruffian, but he's already got a soul, and therefore - deep down inside
- an urge to do what's right."
Later
Wesley says much the same about Faith:
“She's
not a demon, Angel. She is a sick, sick girl. If there is even a
chance she can be reasoned with..."
In
drawing this parallel, the writers are making the point that no matter how
hopeless a cause Faith may seem she can still be reached: redemption is
possible.
But
there is another really interesting thing about the parallel between Faith and
Marquez. I suggested at the beginning I for one would have been very
disappointed if Faith had undergone any form of quick or easy redemption.
But the important point about “Five by Five” is that she has not
opted for redemption. She has
merely been brought to the same point of despair that Angel had where even death
is not the way out for her. It
is only now that we come to the next step.
As Angel told Marquez:
“You're
gonna have to face your demons sometime."
That
is what Faith has to do. But it is
by no means certain that she will do it. In
reply to Angel, Marquez says “What if I don't want to face my demons?"
The reply is "Then you'll have to face mine." In other
words, “I will force you to testify.” And,
while it is not made explicit, it may very well be that that is what happens.
Marquez testifies not because he sees the light but because the
consequences of not doing so are more immediately painful.
Thus, although Marquez, has the possibility to be redeemed, he is not.
The writers may, therefore, be letting us see another potential parallel
and thus telling it is Faith’s choice and she may make the wrong one.
Through
all of these parallels I think we can read Faith’s actions in a way
which is both consistent with her as a character and believable in the
context of the plot. And for
me that is perhaps the most difficult as well as the most important test that
“Five by Five” passed.
Development of
the Plot
Another
thing that I really like about “Five by Five” is the way that all of the
quality character exposition and development is used in the story.
All of the individual elements are there in plain sight: Angel’s past, Faith’s pain, the way she wants him in the
game and is willing to use Wesley to achieve this.
But it is only in the final scene that we make sense of it all.
It started to come together about a third of the way through the fight
with Faith when I realized Angel was holding back – why?
Then, when Faith actually did break down, everything just fell into
place. Each stage in the
development of the plot in LA 2000 had played perfectly sensibly as psycho Faith
going on a vengeance kick. But from
the perspective of Faith’s breakdown at the end, each scene took on a subtly
different meaning. It was the
ultimate plot twist because as it was unfolding I for one didn’t even realize
it was a plot twist. That was
really elegant.
And
another good thing is the pace with which all of this happens. “Angel” has developed a tradition of a gentle,
usually humorous opening scene. Yet,
just as in “Somnambulist” here
we move straight into action. Marquez
is attacked by the demons who have killed his friends and they in turn are
ambushed by Angel and Wesley in a quite exhilarating scene full of running,
cars, swishing axes and gore (or is it goo).
Great stuff. And the plot
never really stops. There is great
economy in using Marquez’s decision to give evidence as a means of
foreshadowing Faith’s possible redemption and to give Wolfram and Hart the
push towards enlisting Faith’s help. Indeed
economy is one of the great virtues of this episode.
It is very focused and nothing is wasted.
All of the important action is concentrated around a light little triangle
of Angel, Faith and Wolfram and Hart. Only
insofar as they relate to the interaction between these three does anyone else
get a significant look in. From the
time Angel sabotages the Wolfram and Hart murder case onwards the tension
between these three principals mounts. Faith’s
attack on Angel is followed by a meeting of the Fang gang in which nerves are
jangling all round; most notably between Angel and Wesley with Angel putting his
foot down hard on the ex-Watcher. Then you have the parallel plotting with Faith on the one
hand trying to get Angel “into the game” and Angel trying to find out what
Wolfram and Hart are up to on the other. Highlights
here are the two tense confrontations between Angel and Faith and between Angel
and Lindsey. And then in the final
few scenes the pressure builds and builds.
The torture scene is particularly effective as Faith’s mood becomes
wilder and more unpredictable as she ratchets up the pain on Wesley.
The climax is reached in the fight between her and Angel but in
wonderfully appropriate metaphor the weather breaks just as Faith herself does
and the rain comes down. This gives
us a striking visual tableau of Angel cradling Faith in the rain while Wesley
drops the knife he had brought to kill her.
Wolfram
and Hart
The
real villain in all of this is not Faith but Wolfram and Hart.
And what an effective villain they made. The scene between Lilah and Lee especially showed not only
their ruthless disregard for others (“tell
them that's our drop-dead offer, and you make sure that they understand we mean
literally not figuratively”) but in the professional rivalry between what
should have been colleagues. The calmness with which both Lindsey and Lilah
looked on as Faith took out some of her frustrations on Lee was very
interesting. I did get the
impression that assassination may be one of the ways promotion blockages were
handled in that firm. Indeed
Lilah’s attitude in this whole thing was worthy of note. She seemed genuinely intrigued and attracted by Angel in
“the Ring”. She even tried to
help him. But here she was
calmly contemplating killing him. This
was behavior that was truly soulless and offered a useful counterpoint to
Faith’s struggle as well as being quite chilling in its own right.
Overview
9/10.
“Five by Five” is a very fine example of the way in which character
exploration and development can take place in the context of a fast moving
action adventure story. In
comparison with, say, “Somnambulist” the basic plot is a little one
dimensional. The story in
“Somnambulist” blends action adventure and detective story elements so very
expertly and changes and develops as it progresses.
This is a more straightforward story about a confrontation between the
two main protagonists. But where
“Five by Five” really scores is in the sophistication with which this
confrontation is handled. This
isn’t a simple good vs. evil tale. It
is a series of mirrors in which we see in Faith and Angel as reflections of one
another and nothing is quite what it seems on first impressions.
And in all of this the acting performances were outstanding.
Special credit has to go to both DB and particularly ED who gave her best
performance to date. You really did
get a sense of wildness and desperation that was barely under control.
In one or two respects it is difficult to square what we saw of Angel in
Borsa with what we learned earlier about the events which took place there.
There are, for example, some inconsistencies in the time line.
Remember that, as long ago as the episode “Angel” we learned that
Darla was with Angel in Budapest “at the turn of the century”.
And the impression was certainly given by Uncle Enyos in “Innocence”
that Angel had stalked the gypsy girl in the same way he had stalked Drusilla.
This episode suggests otherwise. But
these are comparatively minor problems.
All in all this is one of the best.
Review
Revised and Rewritten Sunday August 06 2000
