Chapter two starts with Angel on his way to Santa Monica. It's the next 'evening.' He tells Wes about killing Burge's son last night. Wes offers to accompany him, but Angel's not feeling it. Wesley says he'll stay behind and "haunt the fort."
Angel feels bad about turning down Wes's companionship, but he just doesn't know where his loyalties lie, and he needs to warn Connor about the coming war. He figures Burge will want to take revenge by going after what Angel cares about most.
Nina is all hostile at first, and Angel calls her his ex, but then she gets all "let's eat bloody things together" on him. Seriously, she needs some animal tranks. But Connor is not there. He's in Westwood, looking into the whole KR'PH thing.
In Westwood, a huge, roiling mess of a dominance battle is going on between the would-be demon lords, and there's a bunch of humans caught in the crossfire. Angel jumps into the fight to save them, thinking about how he let Connor down with the whole getting him stuck in hell thing. Angel needs to get over it.
Connor joins in the fight and they cover each other's backs and talk. Angel tells him the score and he gets it immediately. He's still cool Connor of season 5, as far as I can tell. Awesome. He asks Angel where he's been and why he's being all stupid re above. They stop fighting to talk and are surrounded. Luckily Gwen comes in at this point and fries the demon horde. She wants them to check out the crime scene with her because there's a new player in town and "he's out for blood."
Cut to Gunn, the vampire. SO messed up that he would become what he hates most. He's got George on a bed surrounded by some kind of blood-drawn mystical trap. This is where we hear George's name. Gunn tells him that he's one of the good guys. George is understandably hesitant to acknowledge that to be true. "Trust the vampire who kidnapped me, done." Gunn doesn't like being called a vampire.
We find, in what will continue to be a theme with the last standers, that Gunn blames Angel for his situation. Says he was a fool to ever trust a vampire, claims he was getting vamped while Angel was playing "dragon-whisperer." But he says even with this "disease" he's going to do what's right. Then he starts amping up into a rant about Angel thinking he's so good because of his soul, but maybe he never was that great of a man anyway, and then "he gives up. On everything. On us. But it's fine." Then he just whales on poor George while shouting that he's going to save everyone. Okay. Anger issues much? Talk about prior traits being amplified when vamped.
When he says Angel gave up on everything, on us, I wonder if he's referring to something specific that happened after the battle. Maybe Angel saw what happened to Gunn and couldn't stake him, but also told him to get lost because he was a vampire? I guess we'll find out more later. I've read some of this already, but I don't remember much.
Gunn apologizes for beating the crud out of George, then leaves him, carrying the yellow orb he stole from KR'PH. He walks into a room, tendrils seem to grab the orb and take it to something. What the hell? Looks like a group of demons stuck together, overflowing another bed (are they in a hotel too?) with treasures beneath them/it. I assume they're/it's alive because of the tendril, but what the hell it is, no clue. But Gunn's plan to save everyone must involve this monstrosity, and it definitely doesn't include Angel.
Angel, Gwen and Connor take in the scene. We find out the yellow thing is the Eye of Ramras. It's a token of power. It amplifies the power you have already, hence the George being able to force the gladiators to fight moment from last issue. And that's how a low level demon like KR'PH was able to rise so high. He was on Angel's to-do list, but someone beat him to it. Gwen says it was vamps, judging by all the dead girls with ruptured necks. Although I don't know that they've shown anyone but Gunn being a vampire in his crew. Wouldn't think he'd work with vampires. He may have convinced some humans to join him. IDK.
Angel says he doesn't know who did this, but he lies. Apparently the fact that it's a vampire combined with the (we soon find out) Sanskrit drawings on the arena wall make him think he has the answer. He sends Connor off to find his dragon, whose name we aren't supposed to be able to make out yet, and heads to Beverly Hills...
...to find Spike! Or is it Hugh Hefner? He's in a big estate, surrounded by greenery, fountains of some sort of blood or demon brew, and bikini babes, of both human and demon persuasions. He's lounging about in silk pajamas, on some sort of plush throne-like chair, being waited on as he tells a highly biased version of the season 5 ending battle. It involves himself as hero and Angel as a blubbering coward.
He picked a bad time to tell this story though, as Angel makes an appearance. One of Spike's girls, Spider, says Angel reeks of magic, so I guess she's more than human. Angel tries to talk to Spike, but a bodybuilding type lady bars his path and says no one touches the Lord of Beverly Hills. Angel says, "it's officially hell."
Spike is not happy to see Angel either, claiming he rose from the ranks of "prisoner to prisoner with benefits to protector back to prisoner with benefits to Lord." And he doesn't want to lose that because of Angel. He's given up on the good fight and is just enjoying his creature comforts here. Bad Spike. Seriously. They get into an argument. Spike joins the ranks of those who blame Angel for the choices they all agreed to. Bad Spike.
Angel gets the upper hand since Spike is drunk (he says). I think he might just be soft at this point. Angel tells Spike a demon lord was killed by something that drained people's blood, and the inscription on the wall was in Sanskrit, so where is she? Ohh. I get it now. Time for our last hero to join the fun.
Illyria: "Your presence is irritating my pet. Perhaps your dismemberment will soothe him." The end.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Angel After the Fall - Issue #1 SPOILERS FOR BUFFY THRU SEASON 8, ANGEL THRU SEASON 5
Our first words reprise the beginning of Angel the series. "It all started with a girl." Only this girl is actually Fred, and Angel is giving us a voiceover recap of season 5 while he jumps in between some nasty looking demons and a threesome of humans. He tells us how he wanted to channel the evil resources of Wolfram and Hart (W&H) into something positive, how it was his worst choice ever, how it changed him, it killed Fred, and led to him taking a stand.
Which led to his current situation, which he characterizes as him trying to make up for that stand he took. As he fights, it looks like the demons get the upper hand, but then arrives The Dragon. The one last seen flying ahead of a demon army, coming down the streets of Los Angeles towards the alley where our four surviving heroes stood, wounded but ready to fight. Angel says he and the dragon realized neither of them wanted to work for W&H anymore, and they teamed up. The dragon takes out the rest of the demons here with little effort and a lot of flame.
Angel tells the human survivors to take his car and go to an address immediately. The woman, who was once a lawyer, asks him why this is happening, saying she didn't deserve it. Angel says he doesn't know, but tells us differently. And then we find out exactly what was the cost of Angel's last stand: Wolfram and Hart sent L.A. to hell.
After that, the demons divided up the city, and Angel was left to lick his wounds back at the W&H office. He's been headquartered there ever since. He returns there now, sending the dragon to the parking garage, reflecting on how it wasn't the worst punishment he could get from W&H. So it seems he's still waiting for the shoe to drop, to find out what else they have planned for him and why they kept him alive. And we have no news yet on the others, aside from Angel's comment that there were losses on both sides of the fight.
As Angel walks through the building, he's attacked by a demon, Burge, Lord of Downtown L.A., and his son. They're annoyed about Angel's having killed 6 of the kid's men. Burge wants Angel (and all) to respect the boundaries of his turf and not hunt within them. His son is just pissed Angel took out his guys and wants to kill him. As they're having this mostly one-sided conversation, someone asks if there's a problem. Shock number 2 of the story is here: Wesley!
Funny the one person we knew was dead would show up before we find out the fates of the ones left standing at the end of season 5. Apparently Wes is in the Lilah position now. His contract with W&H didn't end with his death, and they've brought him back to what? Watch over Angel? Run the L.A. office? Something else nefarious? We don't know yet.
At this point he argues for Angel's life to Burge, claiming that W&H don't condone his actions and will take away his TV privileges, but that he was left alive for a reason, and Burge would do well to leave him that way. "Angel's fate isn't up to you." Burge agrees to leave it for now, but won't abide any other attacks on his holdings or his men. Angel needs to stay inside tonight. His son isn't happy and tries to kill Wes, which doesn't work 'cause he's all ghostly now.
For some reason Angel has a stake in his hand at this point. Not sure why or if he had it on him or grabbed a piece of broken furniture. He gets nostalgic with it, but Wes doesn't follow. They talk about the night's 'rounds' and we cut to the address Angel gave the humans as a refuge.
Santa Monica. They approach a hotel, arguing whether they should have trusted the guy on the dragon. They enter to see a large group of people, humans and demons, all armed. Then the air turns electric as Gwen! enters the picture. As she appears in front of them, holding them in place with her juju, Nina! approaches from the rear, giving them a good smell. She's all feral and gross, and the lawyer asks if she's hungry or bi-curious when Nina gives her a lick. Apparently the sun and moon are both out all the time in this hell, and it's keeping the werewolves constantly in flux.
And then who would appear but Connor! He's running this place; calls the group his family.
Angel is getting his wounds tended to by a creepy Cronenbergian demon bug thing. Ew. He and Wes talk some more. It's obvious things are strained between them. Wes is being stoic but depressive. Angel doesn't trust him because of his contract with W&H. Angel tells Wes he didn't fight back against Burge because he knew it would escalate to fullout war with demons using human targets. So Angel's pretty much spent the last couple of months just saving small groups of humans under attack and sending them to Connor for protection.
He asks Wes if that's what W&H wants, but Wes says he doesn't know. Angel doesn't know whether to believe that or not. Wes says he would give anything to get out of his contract and move on, but knows no way to do it. So he says he wants Angel to stop being so gunshy about having damned the city to hell and start trying to take some control back before someone else does.
Cut to KR'PH, Lord of Westwood, Dark Overseer of Everything West of Beverly Hills. He's a creepy dude that looks like a skeleton covered with a blue protoplasm, with glowing red eyes and a glowing yellow globe in the center of his chest. He's in the UK-LA Sporting Field? -- some arena, surrounded by scantily-clad slave girls and demon bodyguards, trying for some human gladiator action. The humans are ex-cops and bouncers dressed vaguely like Roman gladiators. (Shout-out to DeKnight?) They're not excited to fight one another.
KR'PH tells the Splenden Beast beside him (looks like a giant, floating fish with hair) to brain-yell them into action. The fish claims to be a telepath, but he can't control other people. KR'PH uses his yellow globe to amp up the fish's power and tells him to do it or the humans will start dying. So the Splenden--look, we find out later his name is George, so let's go with that--George complies.
Then he senses others approaching the arena, angry others. We see a group of hooded figures approaching with weapons. They knock out George and fall upon the demons. KR'PH is fine at first, but as more of his bodyguards bite it, he starts shrieking about making a deal. Then we see who leads this band of merry men: Gunn! Yay, Gunn is alive! But surprising really.
He grabs the yellow globe from KR'PH's chest and the demon is down. "Chalk that up to a win for Team Gunn!" His teammates are all what? Apparently they were together before he came in and took over and then dressed them like his old gang. Anyway, the only ones besides them left alive now are the slave girls. Gunn tells them it's okay, that the last couple of months were just a bad dream. Then he hits on them. Ew.
Back at W&H, Burge's son is outside with 6 humans. He's an eye for an eye type I guess. He's going to kill them while Angel watches, having agreed (in their minds) to stay in the building. Angel ruminates on what to do. Wes told him everything he has been doing is wrong, but Angel doesn't know if that's Wes talking or W&H. But ultimately he can't stand by and watch this happen, so he stakes Burge's son in the eye, killing him. And war is declared.
"Of course, this might be exactly what Wolfram & Hart wants. That's fine. Let them think they're in charge. Wolfram & Hart has taken away everything I had. Everyone I cared about. Everything I was. But that's how I'm going to win. They think they've changed me." As the last bit of voiceover occurs, we see Gunn, in full vamp face, killing all the slave girls. Man.
Which led to his current situation, which he characterizes as him trying to make up for that stand he took. As he fights, it looks like the demons get the upper hand, but then arrives The Dragon. The one last seen flying ahead of a demon army, coming down the streets of Los Angeles towards the alley where our four surviving heroes stood, wounded but ready to fight. Angel says he and the dragon realized neither of them wanted to work for W&H anymore, and they teamed up. The dragon takes out the rest of the demons here with little effort and a lot of flame.
Angel tells the human survivors to take his car and go to an address immediately. The woman, who was once a lawyer, asks him why this is happening, saying she didn't deserve it. Angel says he doesn't know, but tells us differently. And then we find out exactly what was the cost of Angel's last stand: Wolfram and Hart sent L.A. to hell.
After that, the demons divided up the city, and Angel was left to lick his wounds back at the W&H office. He's been headquartered there ever since. He returns there now, sending the dragon to the parking garage, reflecting on how it wasn't the worst punishment he could get from W&H. So it seems he's still waiting for the shoe to drop, to find out what else they have planned for him and why they kept him alive. And we have no news yet on the others, aside from Angel's comment that there were losses on both sides of the fight.
As Angel walks through the building, he's attacked by a demon, Burge, Lord of Downtown L.A., and his son. They're annoyed about Angel's having killed 6 of the kid's men. Burge wants Angel (and all) to respect the boundaries of his turf and not hunt within them. His son is just pissed Angel took out his guys and wants to kill him. As they're having this mostly one-sided conversation, someone asks if there's a problem. Shock number 2 of the story is here: Wesley!
Funny the one person we knew was dead would show up before we find out the fates of the ones left standing at the end of season 5. Apparently Wes is in the Lilah position now. His contract with W&H didn't end with his death, and they've brought him back to what? Watch over Angel? Run the L.A. office? Something else nefarious? We don't know yet.
At this point he argues for Angel's life to Burge, claiming that W&H don't condone his actions and will take away his TV privileges, but that he was left alive for a reason, and Burge would do well to leave him that way. "Angel's fate isn't up to you." Burge agrees to leave it for now, but won't abide any other attacks on his holdings or his men. Angel needs to stay inside tonight. His son isn't happy and tries to kill Wes, which doesn't work 'cause he's all ghostly now.
For some reason Angel has a stake in his hand at this point. Not sure why or if he had it on him or grabbed a piece of broken furniture. He gets nostalgic with it, but Wes doesn't follow. They talk about the night's 'rounds' and we cut to the address Angel gave the humans as a refuge.
Santa Monica. They approach a hotel, arguing whether they should have trusted the guy on the dragon. They enter to see a large group of people, humans and demons, all armed. Then the air turns electric as Gwen! enters the picture. As she appears in front of them, holding them in place with her juju, Nina! approaches from the rear, giving them a good smell. She's all feral and gross, and the lawyer asks if she's hungry or bi-curious when Nina gives her a lick. Apparently the sun and moon are both out all the time in this hell, and it's keeping the werewolves constantly in flux.
And then who would appear but Connor! He's running this place; calls the group his family.
Angel is getting his wounds tended to by a creepy Cronenbergian demon bug thing. Ew. He and Wes talk some more. It's obvious things are strained between them. Wes is being stoic but depressive. Angel doesn't trust him because of his contract with W&H. Angel tells Wes he didn't fight back against Burge because he knew it would escalate to fullout war with demons using human targets. So Angel's pretty much spent the last couple of months just saving small groups of humans under attack and sending them to Connor for protection.
He asks Wes if that's what W&H wants, but Wes says he doesn't know. Angel doesn't know whether to believe that or not. Wes says he would give anything to get out of his contract and move on, but knows no way to do it. So he says he wants Angel to stop being so gunshy about having damned the city to hell and start trying to take some control back before someone else does.
Cut to KR'PH, Lord of Westwood, Dark Overseer of Everything West of Beverly Hills. He's a creepy dude that looks like a skeleton covered with a blue protoplasm, with glowing red eyes and a glowing yellow globe in the center of his chest. He's in the UK-LA Sporting Field? -- some arena, surrounded by scantily-clad slave girls and demon bodyguards, trying for some human gladiator action. The humans are ex-cops and bouncers dressed vaguely like Roman gladiators. (Shout-out to DeKnight?) They're not excited to fight one another.
KR'PH tells the Splenden Beast beside him (looks like a giant, floating fish with hair) to brain-yell them into action. The fish claims to be a telepath, but he can't control other people. KR'PH uses his yellow globe to amp up the fish's power and tells him to do it or the humans will start dying. So the Splenden--look, we find out later his name is George, so let's go with that--George complies.
Then he senses others approaching the arena, angry others. We see a group of hooded figures approaching with weapons. They knock out George and fall upon the demons. KR'PH is fine at first, but as more of his bodyguards bite it, he starts shrieking about making a deal. Then we see who leads this band of merry men: Gunn! Yay, Gunn is alive! But surprising really.
He grabs the yellow globe from KR'PH's chest and the demon is down. "Chalk that up to a win for Team Gunn!" His teammates are all what? Apparently they were together before he came in and took over and then dressed them like his old gang. Anyway, the only ones besides them left alive now are the slave girls. Gunn tells them it's okay, that the last couple of months were just a bad dream. Then he hits on them. Ew.
Back at W&H, Burge's son is outside with 6 humans. He's an eye for an eye type I guess. He's going to kill them while Angel watches, having agreed (in their minds) to stay in the building. Angel ruminates on what to do. Wes told him everything he has been doing is wrong, but Angel doesn't know if that's Wes talking or W&H. But ultimately he can't stand by and watch this happen, so he stakes Burge's son in the eye, killing him. And war is declared.
"Of course, this might be exactly what Wolfram & Hart wants. That's fine. Let them think they're in charge. Wolfram & Hart has taken away everything I had. Everyone I cared about. Everything I was. But that's how I'm going to win. They think they've changed me." As the last bit of voiceover occurs, we see Gunn, in full vamp face, killing all the slave girls. Man.
Buffy Season 8 - Issue #9 SPOILERS FOR BUFFY 1-8 ENTIRE & ANGEL THRU AFTER THE FALL
No Future for You Part 4.
We start with Faith thinking about and flashing back to Mayor Wilkins. She knows now that he was the evil scumbag everyone thought he was, but she can't feel it. It didn't feel like he was exploiting her at the time and even now, so she gets how girls can get sucked into bad relationships like that. She's remembering him asking her to call him Richard, saying she's a daughter who would make him and his departed wife proud, and thanking her for helping him with his plan and making it fun. Faith thinks that it's hard to remember that time in her life and not feel loved. I would guess it's probably the only time in her life she can say she felt that way.
But anyway, she is under attack from Lady Genevieve right now. Gigi is feeling betrayed by Hope (heh), but doesn't kill her right away. They start a slayer conversation instead, meaning they fight, banter, and talk. Faith drops her accent, which is another betrayal, and kicks Gigi into the greenhouse. They fight there amid the plants and statuary, under the eyes of a sculpted girl who looks not a little like Buffy. Nice symbolism of the other slayers being always under Buffy's shadow.
After getting past the betrayal and the America vs. Britain stuff that feels frankly a little tired, they get on the subject of Roden. It's obvious that's what Faith wants to talk about, after her thoughts on the Mayor.
Cut to Giles and Trafalgar, as the dwarf's special hammer gets eaten by Roden's magic. He says they'll need darker magic than his to get past the defenses. Cue Willow calling Giles' phone.
Except it's not Willow, it's Buffy, and she's still in a foul mood. "You're working with her and you didn't even tell me?" I wonder if something happened after season 7 and before season 8 between Buffy and Faith. Maybe Faith's starting out in Cleveland was less a tactical move and more a personal one, on either her part or Buffy's. Because it seems Buffy is more bent out of shape than at least I would expect after their End of Days reconciliation. But at any rate...
Giles is wanting Willow's help to get to Faith, but Buffy fills him in on what just happened to her last issue. Now he's really worried that Faith is still stuck there. Buffy won't put Willow on until he explains himself. And he refuses. See, this is where Giles has gotten annoying lately. He used to be so good at giving Buffy support when she needed it, letting her handle things when she could, helping her from the background but following her lead. But now, he goes behind her back to do what's best for her without telling her he's doing it (LMPTM) and tries to "fix" these problems in her slayerdom without her being aware they exist. I know it's just more of the killing Ben thing, where he doesn't think heroes should have to deal with the dirty stuff, but it's just not right in this situation. He tells her to be the leader and make the decisions, then he keeps information from her that she needs to lead. Argh!
Anyway, Buffy is hurt by his refusal, and she bails, leaving Will the phone, to go have some, as Xander puts it, alone time. "What other kind is there?" Well, Buff, that's a bit more self-pitying than I think is warranted at this point, even after what I said previously, but I get it. I do appreciate that Buffy, Giles, Faith and the others are still strong, complex and nuanced characters in the comics.
Back to Faith and Gigi fighting and arguing over Roden, who is conspicuously absent from this fight. Gigi says he trusts her to win and he adores her. Faith doesn't try to argue that point because maybe he does, but she knows he's using her too. She tells Gigi, "Part of you knows something ain't right...'cause you've never deserved to be loved by anybody." Hey, slayers fighting each other are always fighting themselves, I guess.
Gigi keeps monologuing about blood and birthrights, saying the nightmares will die when she kills the rest of "your" kind, and Faith kicks her hard, telling her to "wake the #^%* up." Sad really. The slayer dreams can fill you with hope that you can fight the darkness, or they can fill you with dread at the amount of darkness out there. Either way, it's a lot to handle when it just hits you from the blue. For every nameless slayer pretending to be Buffy, you get another like Gigi. It has always been that way for the slayer, but with so many slayers now, with the potential for sisterhood and comradery, one could hope it wouldn't be so devastating. Did Buffy and her cohorts not have time to deal with this, or did they make a mistake to concentrate on building defenses and training the actual recruits before finding the rest?
Faith's kick sends Gigi flying back towards a tree that has her double-bladed battleax stuck in it, so Faith sees it coming when Gigi lands against the ax and dies.
Roden steps in now to claim the victor. He says his orders were to "train the slayer to end all slayers" and obviously now Faith could play that role. (Who plays it at the end of the season?) Faith is so not into Roden's deal, but he is observant and he offers her the chance to make Buffy go away forever. He holds up a guidebook with the Twilight symbol on it and says it will show them the way to end Buffy. Faith takes the book and nails him with it.
Roden magicks her across the greenhouse and then calls up a fist from the earth to squeeze her to death, saying, "Girls like you are supposed to shuffle off this mortal coil when you're young and fresh." That kind of echoes the Beljoxa's Eye thing about Buffy's resurrection and the balance of the world.
As Faith is dying, she sees Giles coming up behind Roden. Willow must have broken through. Giles shoves some gardening shears into Roden's back, releasing Faith. Roden magicks Giles and calls him the kennel master and says all his bitches will die. Lovely. Faith tosses Giles the Twilight book, and he uses it to create a containment field not around, but within Roden. Grossness ensues. And it's over.
Later, in Giles' flat, Faith is wearing a Lil' Devil T-shirt! They share a moment about how depressing it is to do wetworks, and Giles acknowledges that he generally tries to keep that side of himself from his charges (meaning Buffy). But Faith has seen it and understands. They both can feel the bond they have now.
Giles tries to give her the passport and 'discharge' they agreed upon in the beginning, but she refuses. This is cool. After all that happened with Gigi, she wants to find girls like her who haven't gone too far from redemption and "help walk a few bad girls back from the brink." Awesome. I think it means she's taken the next step, making the change that Angel made in season 3 Buffy, from regretting his past actions and trying not to make the same mistakes to actively trying to help others. Faith had already rededicated herself to fighting evil, but other than Angel in season 4 of Angel, she hadn't made it personal, about saving other people rather than focusing on herself.
Giles, having possibly burnt his last bridge with Buffy and wanting to continue dealing with the slayer situation, asks if he can join her. He wants to be not a mentor, but a partner. On those terms, and after hearing he and Buffy aren't on speaking terms, Faith agrees. Maybe these crazy slayer/watcher kids can make it work. (Not that way. Gross.)
Epilogue. A female lieutenant, Molter, has come to talk to Twilight. He's all in costume (is this the first time we see him?) and floating in the air. She tells him his plan failed and Summers lives. He claims Roden and Genevieve were actually the targets. Molter thought they were his soldiers. Twilight says this was about manipulating their enemies into fighting each other. The goal apparently is "bringing the age of magic to a close." Molter still doesn't think it's a victory because Buffy is still out there, but Twilight says she can have the day, "night falls soon enough."
EVEN MORE SPOILERS
Okay. So first off, nice calling her Summers and talking about her having the day. They're not the same, but related by sunlight. Second, we know Twilight is Angel. So it seems he planned for Buffy to learn of Roden and Gigi's threat and neutralize it, all while having his minions think he's aiming for her. His general plan has been supposedly to gather all of Buffy's enemies in one place to make it easier to deal with them, make them visible and fightable, as opposed to scattered and hard to find and predict. So this fits I guess. He must have recruited Roden as a potential enemy, set him up to find the most dangerous anti-Buffy slayer and thereby bring her to his and then Buffy's attention by aiming her right at Buffy.
I guess it hangs together. Still not sure it's a great plan. But it's interesting to see the parallels with what Giles was doing. He too was trying to help Buffy in ways he thought she wouldn't approve of to make things ultimately better for her. Do they think they're cleaning up her mess? The problem is that she doesn't know what is happening around her. Maybe she can't handle all this herself, but she should be able to delegate to her chosen lieutenants knowingly, rather than having them take on those tasks in total obscurity. I think, anyway.
But it is interesting that Twilight's goal is to end the age of magic. That is what happens at the end. Was it really Angel's goal all along or did he just think it would come to that? Or the opposite? I can't remember all of how the end went down, that's part of the reason for my reread, but I'll be watching for clues as I go.
We start with Faith thinking about and flashing back to Mayor Wilkins. She knows now that he was the evil scumbag everyone thought he was, but she can't feel it. It didn't feel like he was exploiting her at the time and even now, so she gets how girls can get sucked into bad relationships like that. She's remembering him asking her to call him Richard, saying she's a daughter who would make him and his departed wife proud, and thanking her for helping him with his plan and making it fun. Faith thinks that it's hard to remember that time in her life and not feel loved. I would guess it's probably the only time in her life she can say she felt that way.
But anyway, she is under attack from Lady Genevieve right now. Gigi is feeling betrayed by Hope (heh), but doesn't kill her right away. They start a slayer conversation instead, meaning they fight, banter, and talk. Faith drops her accent, which is another betrayal, and kicks Gigi into the greenhouse. They fight there amid the plants and statuary, under the eyes of a sculpted girl who looks not a little like Buffy. Nice symbolism of the other slayers being always under Buffy's shadow.
After getting past the betrayal and the America vs. Britain stuff that feels frankly a little tired, they get on the subject of Roden. It's obvious that's what Faith wants to talk about, after her thoughts on the Mayor.
Cut to Giles and Trafalgar, as the dwarf's special hammer gets eaten by Roden's magic. He says they'll need darker magic than his to get past the defenses. Cue Willow calling Giles' phone.
Except it's not Willow, it's Buffy, and she's still in a foul mood. "You're working with her and you didn't even tell me?" I wonder if something happened after season 7 and before season 8 between Buffy and Faith. Maybe Faith's starting out in Cleveland was less a tactical move and more a personal one, on either her part or Buffy's. Because it seems Buffy is more bent out of shape than at least I would expect after their End of Days reconciliation. But at any rate...
Giles is wanting Willow's help to get to Faith, but Buffy fills him in on what just happened to her last issue. Now he's really worried that Faith is still stuck there. Buffy won't put Willow on until he explains himself. And he refuses. See, this is where Giles has gotten annoying lately. He used to be so good at giving Buffy support when she needed it, letting her handle things when she could, helping her from the background but following her lead. But now, he goes behind her back to do what's best for her without telling her he's doing it (LMPTM) and tries to "fix" these problems in her slayerdom without her being aware they exist. I know it's just more of the killing Ben thing, where he doesn't think heroes should have to deal with the dirty stuff, but it's just not right in this situation. He tells her to be the leader and make the decisions, then he keeps information from her that she needs to lead. Argh!
Anyway, Buffy is hurt by his refusal, and she bails, leaving Will the phone, to go have some, as Xander puts it, alone time. "What other kind is there?" Well, Buff, that's a bit more self-pitying than I think is warranted at this point, even after what I said previously, but I get it. I do appreciate that Buffy, Giles, Faith and the others are still strong, complex and nuanced characters in the comics.
Back to Faith and Gigi fighting and arguing over Roden, who is conspicuously absent from this fight. Gigi says he trusts her to win and he adores her. Faith doesn't try to argue that point because maybe he does, but she knows he's using her too. She tells Gigi, "Part of you knows something ain't right...'cause you've never deserved to be loved by anybody." Hey, slayers fighting each other are always fighting themselves, I guess.
Gigi keeps monologuing about blood and birthrights, saying the nightmares will die when she kills the rest of "your" kind, and Faith kicks her hard, telling her to "wake the #^%* up." Sad really. The slayer dreams can fill you with hope that you can fight the darkness, or they can fill you with dread at the amount of darkness out there. Either way, it's a lot to handle when it just hits you from the blue. For every nameless slayer pretending to be Buffy, you get another like Gigi. It has always been that way for the slayer, but with so many slayers now, with the potential for sisterhood and comradery, one could hope it wouldn't be so devastating. Did Buffy and her cohorts not have time to deal with this, or did they make a mistake to concentrate on building defenses and training the actual recruits before finding the rest?
Faith's kick sends Gigi flying back towards a tree that has her double-bladed battleax stuck in it, so Faith sees it coming when Gigi lands against the ax and dies.
Roden steps in now to claim the victor. He says his orders were to "train the slayer to end all slayers" and obviously now Faith could play that role. (Who plays it at the end of the season?) Faith is so not into Roden's deal, but he is observant and he offers her the chance to make Buffy go away forever. He holds up a guidebook with the Twilight symbol on it and says it will show them the way to end Buffy. Faith takes the book and nails him with it.
Roden magicks her across the greenhouse and then calls up a fist from the earth to squeeze her to death, saying, "Girls like you are supposed to shuffle off this mortal coil when you're young and fresh." That kind of echoes the Beljoxa's Eye thing about Buffy's resurrection and the balance of the world.
As Faith is dying, she sees Giles coming up behind Roden. Willow must have broken through. Giles shoves some gardening shears into Roden's back, releasing Faith. Roden magicks Giles and calls him the kennel master and says all his bitches will die. Lovely. Faith tosses Giles the Twilight book, and he uses it to create a containment field not around, but within Roden. Grossness ensues. And it's over.
Later, in Giles' flat, Faith is wearing a Lil' Devil T-shirt! They share a moment about how depressing it is to do wetworks, and Giles acknowledges that he generally tries to keep that side of himself from his charges (meaning Buffy). But Faith has seen it and understands. They both can feel the bond they have now.
Giles tries to give her the passport and 'discharge' they agreed upon in the beginning, but she refuses. This is cool. After all that happened with Gigi, she wants to find girls like her who haven't gone too far from redemption and "help walk a few bad girls back from the brink." Awesome. I think it means she's taken the next step, making the change that Angel made in season 3 Buffy, from regretting his past actions and trying not to make the same mistakes to actively trying to help others. Faith had already rededicated herself to fighting evil, but other than Angel in season 4 of Angel, she hadn't made it personal, about saving other people rather than focusing on herself.
Giles, having possibly burnt his last bridge with Buffy and wanting to continue dealing with the slayer situation, asks if he can join her. He wants to be not a mentor, but a partner. On those terms, and after hearing he and Buffy aren't on speaking terms, Faith agrees. Maybe these crazy slayer/watcher kids can make it work. (Not that way. Gross.)
Epilogue. A female lieutenant, Molter, has come to talk to Twilight. He's all in costume (is this the first time we see him?) and floating in the air. She tells him his plan failed and Summers lives. He claims Roden and Genevieve were actually the targets. Molter thought they were his soldiers. Twilight says this was about manipulating their enemies into fighting each other. The goal apparently is "bringing the age of magic to a close." Molter still doesn't think it's a victory because Buffy is still out there, but Twilight says she can have the day, "night falls soon enough."
EVEN MORE SPOILERS
Okay. So first off, nice calling her Summers and talking about her having the day. They're not the same, but related by sunlight. Second, we know Twilight is Angel. So it seems he planned for Buffy to learn of Roden and Gigi's threat and neutralize it, all while having his minions think he's aiming for her. His general plan has been supposedly to gather all of Buffy's enemies in one place to make it easier to deal with them, make them visible and fightable, as opposed to scattered and hard to find and predict. So this fits I guess. He must have recruited Roden as a potential enemy, set him up to find the most dangerous anti-Buffy slayer and thereby bring her to his and then Buffy's attention by aiming her right at Buffy.
I guess it hangs together. Still not sure it's a great plan. But it's interesting to see the parallels with what Giles was doing. He too was trying to help Buffy in ways he thought she wouldn't approve of to make things ultimately better for her. Do they think they're cleaning up her mess? The problem is that she doesn't know what is happening around her. Maybe she can't handle all this herself, but she should be able to delegate to her chosen lieutenants knowingly, rather than having them take on those tasks in total obscurity. I think, anyway.
But it is interesting that Twilight's goal is to end the age of magic. That is what happens at the end. Was it really Angel's goal all along or did he just think it would come to that? Or the opposite? I can't remember all of how the end went down, that's part of the reason for my reread, but I'll be watching for clues as I go.
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