Angel 5x10 Review: Hollow Men

“Soul Purpose”
Written by Brent Fletcher
Directed by David Boreanaz
 
The Story
We open David Boreanaz’ directorial debut on what appears to be Angel either losing a fight or having a nightmare. He pulls a stake out of his shoulder. Hmm, yes, nightmare. He’s dreaming of Spike drinking the Cup of Torment while he lies bleeding on the floor. In the dream, it’s real, and Spike is bathed in a pillar of light as Angel watches, and then Angel turns to ash, very painfully. Then he wakes up at his desk.
 
Meanwhile, Spike is at...a strip club. Where Lindsey finds him. He suggests that Spike might benefit from having a purpose instead of wasting his time at joints like this. Spike isn’t interested until Lindsey casually brings up the mysterious package that made Spike corporeal. Now he’s both interested and angry. Lindsey claims responsibility for the amulet and the re-corporealizing thing. Lindsey tries to be all mysterious with his answers, but Spike isn’t having it. Lindsey tells Spike to call him Doyle. (Wait, why is Spike not immediately suspicious? Does he not remember meeting the real Doyle in “In the Dark”? I guess maybe he didn’t get his name. And Spike doesn’t have photographic memory. Whatever.)
 
At W&H, Wes and Gunn are discussing what to do about some powerful sorcerer. Wes wants to assassinate him quickly, Gunn wants to plant a murderous apprentice in his ranks. They take their discussion into Angel’s office, where Angel feels distinctly out of the loop. And did Gunn just say “the Hades River”? Because that’s not a thing. There’s Phlegethon, Cocytus, Acheron, Lethe, and, of course, Styx, but no river in Hades is actually named Hades. Tsk tsk.

Wes and Gunn explain their ideas to Angel. Angel wants to know if they’re doing this because it’s right. He’s getting extremely fed up with operating in gray areas. Also, he looks like his frustration is starting to make him physically ill.
 
In the strip club, Lindsey tries to tell Spike that he’s in L.A. (which he hates) because he has a destiny. Spike slams him up against the wall by the throat. He’s done with that crap, especially because it was apparently all a big con. Lindsey changes tact, claiming he’s only following the orders of the jerk Powers who keep sending him horribly painful visions. He’s trying to recruit Spike into an Angel S1 setup. Spike isn’t interested in this gig at all. Lindsey says he just had a vision, and asks Spike if he’ll be able to live with himself if he doesn’t do anything about it.
 
Cut to some alley where a vampire is attacking a lady. Spike strolls up and kills the vampire after some brief banter. When the lady tries to thank him, he tells her she’s an utter moron and sends her on her disbelieving way. Lindsey finds him after that. Spike’s still skeptical it would’ve required a vision to find someone getting attacked by a vampire. Lindsey tries to get Spike to appreciate that he just saved a life, and also maybe he shouldn’t be such a jerk to people like that. He can do better next time! If he puts up with this long enough for there to be a next time, anyway. Spike says he’s been saving people since “long before [Lindsey] showed up.” Has he now. Lindsey points out that even if that is true, Spike’s never done it when there wasn’t anything in it for him. Typically he’s done it to score points with Buffy. Spike doesn’t appreciate that level of accurate and unflattering psychoanalysis from a stranger (or, well, anyone). Lindsey also mentions that Angel didn’t save the girl in his first mission, so Spike might be better at this.
 
Angel is still listening to Wes and Gunn, who are now shouting at each other about strategy. Fred joins them, a bit alarmed. Wes asks why they can’t just eliminate evil targets from their satellite. Because then you’d be Hydra, that’s why. Fred thinks it’s possible, but perhaps not ethical. Angel is slipping into some kind of serious funk, not paying attention anymore. He decides he wants to wipe the evil sorcerer and all of his minions out. He wants to get back to cut-and-dry good versus evil. None of this gray areas crap. Gunn notices that Angel isn’t entirely well. Angel brushes off his concern and comes up with a good compromise between Gunn’s and Wesley’s strategies. Fred encourages Angel to get some sleep. He reluctantly heads to his elevator.
 
Wes joins him in the penthouse and helps him get to his bed. Angel’s pretty sure he’s sick. Which isn’t a thing that happens to vampires. Wes tells him it makes sense, though; it’s really hard to face up to being irrelevant. Wes pulls out a stake. Fun, so now Angel’s hallucinating too.
 
Spike is fighting a few vampires, with lots of slow, dramatic kicks. He uses those spring-loaded wrist stakes to dust them both at once. He’s a bit nicer to this pair of would-be victims, and he’s starting to own the “hero” role.
 
Wes finds Harmony the next morning to have her run an errand to accounting. Eve finds him and makes him feel uncomfortable by congratulating him on finally doing things the W&H way. She’s looking for Angel about some piece of rock with ancient writing on it. Supposedly the Senior Partners are super interested in it. Wes will take care of it. Harmony tells him that she’s supposed to tell Angel about anything with runes and/or anything the Senior Partners are interested in, but Wes just walks away.
 
Angel is sleeping restlessly in his penthouse. Fred visits him. Are you hallucination Fred or real Fred? She says she knows what to do about his illness, then very creepily snaps a surgical glove. Suddenly, she’s in a lab coat and they’re surrounded by lab stuff. She tells him it’s okay, then cuts open his chest. She reaches in and pulls out various organs, which she tosses aside. His heart is literally a walnut. Also, she finds a lovely string of pearls in there, which she puts on. Then some raisins, which she eats. Then a bent license plate. She reaches in up to her elbow and pulls out a fish tank with a dead goldfish in it. His soul! She hands it to a dude in a bear costume to go flush. Angel has been incredibly bewildered the whole time. Fred’s diagnosis is that Angel is an empty shell. She listens to the ocean in his chest cavity. The camera descends through it until it comes up again in Angel’s eye. He’s still sleeping.
 
Gunn and Fred have brought Wesley reports of a vigilante roaming the streets and inviting the chicks he saves to get drunk and listen to the Sex Pistols. Fred wonders if it’s Angel, being crazy. But there’s a description. It’s Spike.
 
Lindsey shows Spike to a basement studio apartment with sewer access and basic utilities. It’s for him! Spike doesn’t want Lindsey’s charity, but Lindsey’s right about him having nowhere else to stay, so he very grudgingly accepts. He’s particularly unenthusiastic about the twin-sized bed.
 
Angel is having another dream/hallucination. This one is of Spike and Buffy having sex on the other side of his bed. Ew? Buffy’s facing away and her lines are all awkwardly dubbed in from episodes of Buffy S3, because they definitely did not get Sarah Michelle Gellar for this. Angel is horrified, confused, and jealous. Angel wakes up with hilarious bed hair and a great deal of confusion. He goes down to the office, having forgotten to put on shoes. Or a clean shirt. Fred and Gunn race off to some exciting event. There’s a refreshments bar near Harmony’s desk. In Angel’s office, everyone’s watching the world end like it’s a movie. Angel wants to go do something about it, but they tell him not to worry; Spike will handle it! Also, Angel has something on his shirt. An enormous blood stain, specifically. And not the kind that looks like it might’ve come from messy eating.
 
In reality, Angel has a horrifying parasite sucking on his stomach. Back in the dream, the whole cast is singing “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” to Spike, with a cake, for saving the world. He’s all modest about it, but Fred insists that he’s amazing, and look how wonderful the world is because of him! They all dramatically gesture at the window in sync. Outside is a lovely fairytale castle. Then Gunn announces it’s time for his reward. Spike says he didn’t do it for a reward! Wes says that’s the point! Here comes the Blue Fairy to turn Spike into a real boy. Everyone’s really excited to listen to Spike’s heart. Angel is now just the guy who pushes the mail cart, and nobody cares about him. He shuffles off with the mail in his embarrassing short-sleeved shirt.
 
Wes and Gunn pay Spike a visit in his new flat. They wonder what he’s up to and why he didn’t go to Europe. He pops open a beer and tells them he changed his mind. He raises his beer to their being corporate sell-outs. They don’t appreciate him moving in on the good fight. Specifically, why he didn’t feel like he could do that at W&H, which is good now. Spike rolls his eyes and tells them you don’t change places like W&H; they change you. Gunn insists they’re making a difference for good. Spike realizes that they didn’t consult Angel before coming to try and recruit him. He thinks it’s because they’re not so sure about Angel as their leader anymore.
 
Eve and Lindsey are making out in their warded apartment again. She’s pretty pleased with how their plan is going, but Lindsey wants to talk shop. It seems their goal is to trick the Senior Partners into thinking they should really be focusing on Spike, not Angel. Wait, how is that an evil plan if they want the Big Bads to fall for a decoy? Unless they’re going to get Angel killed in the process. The tattoos on Lindsey and symbols on the walls are what hide him from the Senior Partners’ gaze. Lindsey is finally done with the shop talk, so they can have sex like Eve wants. They’re about to step up their assault on Angel’s mind with something inside a mysterious box.
 
Wes and Gunn get back to W&H, where Fred finds them. They tell her Spike thinks they’re sell-outs who are becoming corrupted, and that they’re not good enough for him. Fred huffs a bit, and she wants to tell Angel. Gunn doesn’t think he’d want to hear that Spike is playing his old game right in his town. Fred asks Harmony about Angel. She hasn’t heard from him. Fred gets her to try calling him.
 
Up in the penthouse, the phone rings, but Angel’s still in the parasite-induced dream. His eyes snap open, but this isn’t reality. Lorne isn’t a tobacco-spittin’ saloon pianist in reality. (Actually, can I stay in that reality? That was awesome.)
 
Eve tries to bust Fred’s butt about the Senior Partners’ ancient relic thing in order to stop her from going to see Angel. Who is still dreaming about saloon Lorne. Harmony sidles up, dressed like a Copacabana waitress, and hands Lorne a cocktail. Lorne tries to get Angel to sing so they can figure out what’s wrong with him. A blinding spotlight snaps onto Angel. He tries to sing, but no sound comes out. Except a couple of squeaks. Fred, Wes, and Gunn are there. Fred and Wes are very disappointed, because they paid blood for this. Gunn seems to be turning into the White Room panther. Then Eve is there. Lorne asks Angel about the thing on his shirt. He notices the parasite and pulls it off, then returns to reality, where he’s squishing it in his hand.
 
Eve is still there. She firmly tells Angel that he’s dreaming, and then she opens her box, which contains a much larger parasite. Ewwwwwwww. Angel watches, helpless, as the bigger thing crawls up towards his chest. Eve leaves. Angel musters the energy to throw it off.
 
Spike returns to his flat with more beer, and he finds Lindsey there. He tells him to sod off. Lindsey looks like he’s going to sneeze, but then it turns out he’s pretending to have a vision. Spike’s annoyed. He doesn’t want to run errands for the Powers. Lindsey thinks he might feel differently about this one.
 
Angel struggles to reach the phone, but the parasite catches up to him and digs in. Man that thing is horrifying. Instantly, Angel is sitting on a recliner in a sunny field. Fred’s there, her hair down, wearing a light dress. Wes, Gunn, and Lorne are there too. They all tell him he’s done with his destiny if he wants to be; they’ll all be fine. He just needs to stop caring. But then they all start making ungodly shrieking noises.
 
That would be because Spike is killing the parasite and ripping it off Angel. *shudder* Angel is barely conscious enough to realize what happened, but he doesn’t feel awesome about being the helpless Spike was helping. Later, while Angel’s recovering, Wes explains what the parasite was. Angel’s still having trouble sorting out what was real and what wasn’t. He tells the team a little about his weird dreams, including coroner Fred and honky-tonk Lorne. Wes says that if the parasite had held on much longer, Angel would have been trapped in a permanent hallucination coma. So yay for Spike!
 
The conversation turns from Spike to how the parasite even got to Angel to begin with. The team tosses theories around, but Angel remembers through all the muddle that Eve was the one who brought the bigger parasite. She pretends she thinks he’s just talking about the hallucination still, but he holds firm. She definitely put the big parasite on him, and there was definitely a little one first. He also noticed that Eve changed her clothes, but not her earrings. She keeps trying to pretend nothing’s suspicious about her, but Fred is now on Angel’s side. The other three stand up too. Angel tells Eve he’s pretty sure the Senior Partners won’t be happy with her trying to incapacitate him. She acts like the indignant scapegoat and walks out, suggesting he looks at his own team (or himself) for the culprit.
 
“Soul Purpose” has always seemed like a really strange episode to me, and I think that’s partly because I accidentally skipped it the first time I watched this season. It’s a fascinating episode. In Angel’s side of the story, he has to watch as Spike takes over his destiny. Angel being attacked by a parasite that makes him hallucinate was a really clever way for them to work around David Boreanaz’s limited mobility after a knee surgery. Even though Spike is the dupe of Lindsey and Eve, it’s really interesting how he’s not just Angel’s foil now, but a foil for the entire team. Lindsey posing as Doyle and leading Spike through some basic early S1 cases emphasizes how different A.I. has become from how it started. They’re all growing increasingly blind to the dangers of working for W&H, and even if he doesn’t care about fighting the good fight, he isn’t willing to be affiliated with an evil law firm. I don’t think this would have sunk in quite as well without the scene where Wes and Gunn visit Spike in his hero flat. The way it’s filmed, you could probably put the scene side-by-side with one of the scenes where W&H lawyers came to bug Angel in the early seasons. Wes and Gunn really are acting like W&H goons now, and they can’t even see it.
 
The Characters
The way Angel responds to Spike taking over his destiny in the hallucinations is really sad; it’s like he isn’t confident enough that it’s his destiny to do more than feebly protest. He doesn’t like it, but he’s just not sure enough of himself to put a stop to it. It just proves what I was saying in the “Destiny” review, that Angel always has a very hard time believing he deserves anything good. And I’m particularly intrigued by the way that destiny plays out for Spike in the dreams. He gets the reward because he wasn’t doing it for a reward. On the surface, that sounds like a paradox—I mean, aren’t we allowed to want good things for ourselves? But I actually agree that that’s how it should work. A hero’s only motive can’t be his own prize at the finish line; he has to genuinely care about the people he’s helping and the causes he’s fighting for. The prize at the end is there to be something that gives him hope when the battle becomes unbearable, and it keeps him steady when he’s tempted to stray and settle for the easier path of seeking more fleeting and selfish forms of happiness.
 
So, if left to his own devices, Spike won’t go find Buffy, but he will lounge about at strip clubs and not even bother to get himself a place to live. I wonder how annoying Lindsey found it to try pulling off this part of the plan. Doyle had it much easier with Angel, who already had an apartment, a car, and the willingness to save people from vampires. Angel only needed to be convinced of the importance of human interaction. Spike has to be convinced not to be a selfish, lazy lump who can’t even secure lodging for himself. If Lindsey hadn’t shown up with fake assignments from the Powers, would Spike ever have made something of himself? Did all the time he spent fighting alongside Buffy really leave him with no motivation to fight the good fight for the sake of the good fight itself, rather than how much he can impress Buffy with his displays of heroism? I’ve been saying all along that Spike’s whole persona is an act, and we never really see who he is. Until Lindsey finds him, for the first time in possibly forever, he kind of doesn’t have an audience for his performance. Is the real Spike just a vitriolic drifter who becomes utterly useless when he doesn’t have anyone to impress? Does he really think that he can save the world one time, go back to being a selfish jerk, and still deserve some kind of reward? Also, for all that Lindsey tries to get him in the selfless hero mindset, I don’t think he’s there. I think his primary motivation is a sense of smugness at commandeering Angel’s destiny. Which is why he was so keen to go save Angel, but wouldn’t have cared if it had just been some other random helpless civilian. He’s definitely right about the A.I. team, though. They’re incredibly naïve if they think W&H isn’t changing them.
 
Gunn doesn’t realize it, but he’s definitely the W&H mole in the team. Without at least one trusted friend being enthusiastic about the possibilities at W&H, I doubt the rest of them would have started to feel so comfortable there. But his conviction that they’re doing serious good validates Fred’s and Lorne’s feelings, and now he’s finally got Wesley seeing the value of throwing money at problems.
 
Fred seems to be the most innocent of the team, in regards to attitude about W&H. I think Gunn is forcing himself to only see the positives, Lorne is genuinely having so much fun working with all his favorite celebrities that he thinks the evil environment is worth it, and Wesley is slowly but surely coming around, but Fred genuinely believes in their ability to use W&H to do good. This is leaving her extremely vulnerable.
 
Honky-tonk Lorne is seriously the best. Too bad he’s a hallucination. Actually, if Angel sang for the real Lorne, would he be able to see what he was like in the hallucination? Because that would be great. On a more serious note, why wasn’t Lorne the first one to pick up on the suspiciousness of Eve? Or the source of Angel’s illness? Is it just that there’s so much evil in every direction at W&H that it’s hard to pick Eve out in the din?
 
I don’t know if Wesley would have been so easy to sway to W&H’s methods if it hadn’t been for the ordeal with the cyborg pretending to be his father. His confidence in his own morals have been sorely shaken, so he’s more vulnerable to the influence of W&H, particularly when it’s coming from as close a friend as Gunn. What’s especially interesting about that is the way Wes has always been kind of Mr. Moral High Ground. I don’t mean with his behavior; even he is fully aware that things like his relationship with Lilah and some of the approaches he used for getting information out of sources were pretty shady. But as far back as “Choices” in Buffy S3, he’s always had extremely firm convictions about what actually constitutes right and wrong. He’s the character who has always been the least susceptible to Protagonist-Centered Morality (prioritizing characters you and the audience care about over nameless, faceless civilians). That conviction seems to be dimming now, which is rather worrying. And ironically, it coincides with him becoming less aware of Angel’s struggles. He’s been the one most conscious of how badly Angel was handling the move to W&H, but now he barely notices when Angel is clearly not physically well for Plot A reasons.
 
Favorite Quotes
“I’m just a working-class bloke fulfilling his destiny. It was nothing, really.”
“Nothing? Spike, you single-handedly ended Armageddon and turned the world into a beautiful, happily-ever-after, candy mountain place where all our dreams come true.”