CHARLES GUNN AND HIS ROLE IN ANGEL INVESTIGATIONS
There is something about one of the episodes of "ANGEL" that has always bothered me. My unease centered around an incident between two of the series’ major characters that occurred in the early Season 3 episode, (3.03) "That Old Gang of Mine". But to understand the nature of my unease, one has to return to two episodes from Season 2 - (2.10) "Reunion" and (2.12) "Blood Money".
As many fans of ”ANGEL” are aware, Angel had decided to fire his three companions – Cordelia Chase, Wesley Wyndham-Price and Charles Gunn – as a despondent reaction over his failure to save a human Darla from the manipulations of Wolfram and Hart and the vampire he had sired, Drusilla; in the episode ”Reunion”. Although upset over Angel’s actions, Cordelia, Wesley and Charles had decided to revive Angel Investigations in the episode, ”Blood Money”:
Gunn takes the card and looks at it.
Gunn: "That's a Angel? Looks like a - a lobster with a - growth or... We'll make our own logo."
Wesley: "Yes. Something sleek, but edgy."
Gunn: "Something that says: you need help, we're there."
Wesley: "Exactly. Danger is our business. (Cordy put a hand to her forehead and begins to stagger) We'll catch you when you fall."
While celebrating the successful conclusion of a case that involved a demon, the trio had a discussion on their agency’s new name:
Gunn: "Our new agency."
Wesley: "Wyndham-Price Agency."
Cordy and Gunn: "The what?"
Wesley: "You don't like it? - It's classy."
Cordy: "It's stuffy. - The Chase Agency! *That* has the right ring."
Wesley: "Why?"
Cordy: "Because it's my name."
Gunn: "Uh, Wes, Ms. Chase, alright, there is only one player here with a name that strikes dread in the demon heart."
Points at himself.
Cordy: "Gunn?"
Gunn: "Uh-huh."
Mind you, the above conversation that took place was nothing more than a spot of fun for the trio. They eventually decided to maintain the agency’s former name – Angel Investigations.
Now, according to many fans of the series, Cordy, Charles and Wesley had all decided that despite being equal partners in the updated version of the firm, Wesley would act as case leader. In other words, due to his past as a Watcher and extensive knowledge of the supernatural world, he would lead the other two when they were actually on a case. This did not make Wesley head of the firm altogether or the official boss of Angel Investigations. He would simply act as leader during a case. But after an early episode in the following season, a good number of people – including Joss Whedon and Tim Minear – had forgotten.
Then came the early Season Three episode, ”That Old Gang of Mine”. In this particular episode, Charles discovers his former comrades are murdering harmless demons for fun. When he tries to convince them to stop, he learns that - due to his association with Angel - he has lost their trust. One of his former associates gives Charles the opportunity to win their trust by killing Angel, who is unable to defend himself due to a spell. Near the end of the episode, Wesley had threatened to fire Charles if the latter ever goes against Angel Investigations again.
Here is the rub. Why in the hell would Wesley threaten to fire Charles? HE HAD NO RIGHT TO DO THIS. Charles was no longer an employee of Angel Investigations. He was one of three partners. I realize that he and Cordelia had voted to allow Wesley act as leader in their cases. But this gave Wesley NO RIGHT to treat Charles as an employee, instead of a partner. He should have told Charles that he and Cordelia would break their partnership with Charles if the latter ever pulled again what he did in "That Gang of Mine". Instead, Wesley treated Charles like a minion. Even worse, no one has protested against Wesley’s behavior this to this day:
Gunn: "Don't guess Rondell and his crew are gonna be crossing Venice boulevard again any time soon."
Wesley: "It's never easy - the pull of divided loyalties. - Whatever choice we do end up making we feel as though we've betrayed someone."
Gunn: "Yeah."
Wesley: "If you ever withhold information or attempt to subvert me again, I will fire you. - I can't have any one member of the team compromising the safety of the group, no matter who it is. If you do it again you will be dismissed, bag and baggage, out of a job onto the streets."
Just reading the above passage pisses me off. Did Wesley actually believe he had a right to treat Charles like an employee? Like some damn minion? Tim Minear – who wrote the transcript – and Joss Whedon obviously allowed Charles to accept the threat as genuine. And I do not understand this. What in the hell were they thinking? Both seemed to have forgotten that Angel Investigation 2.0 had been co-founded by Charles, Wesley and Cordelia. Because of this, Wesley had no right to treat Charles like some employee, instead of a colleague and co-owner of the agency. But since Minear and Whedon seemed to be stuck in their vision of Charles as some muscle-bound employee, they made a major blooper in regard to Charles' character. And worst of all, the majority of the Jossverse fans see nothing wrong in Wesley’s treatment of Charles or the idea that the Englishman was the African-American’s employer and not fellow colleague.
I am sick to my stomach.
Below is a look into (1.08) "I Will Remember You", a Season One episode from "ANGEL":
"ANGEL" RETROSPECTIVE: (1.08) "I Will Remember You"
One of the most popular episodes to air on ”ANGEL” is the eighth episode of Season One called (1.08) “I Will Remember You”. This particular episode served as a follow-up to the Season Four ”BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER” episode, (4.08) “Pangs” in which Angel, the vampire with a soul, had paid a surreptitious visit to Sunnydale in order to protect his former love, vampire slayer Buffy Summers, from a malignant spirit during the Thanksgiving holidays.
After Buffy had learned of Angel’s visit to Sunnydale, she pays a visit of her own to Angel’s detective office in Los Angeles. There, she confronts him about his surreptitious assistance back in Sunnydale. They are attacked by a Mohra demon. When Angel kills the demon, he is restored to mortality by its powerful blood. After The Oracles - a link to The Powers That Be - confirms that Angel is human again, Angel and Buffy spend a blissful night together. Unfortunately, Doyle receives a vision that the Mohra demon has regenerated itself. Instead of recruiting Buffy, Angel leaves her to kill the demon for good. In the ensuing battle, Angel discovers the consequences of having only human strength. Buffy must come to his rescue and slay the demon herself. Angel returns to The Oracles, who that if he remains human, Buffy will face the minions of darkness alone and die much sooner. They agree to turn back time, so that Angel, accepting the entire cost of the bargain, can kill the Mohra before its blood makes him human. They also inform him that Buffy’s memories of their day together will erase once time is turned back.
I might as well be frank. I really dislike this episode. I almost hate it. Honestly. And although I am not a fan of the Buffy/Angel relationship, the one thing I truly dislike about this episode is the paternalistic manner in which Angel treats Buffy, once he agrees to the Oracles’ bargain. One, I suspect that Angel could not deal having human strength. It still amazes me that many fans have castigated Riley Finn for being unable to deal with Buffy being stronger than him; and yet in this particular episode, Angel seemed to be suffering from the same problem. Then he does something even worse by making that deal with the Powers to resume being a vampire . . . after being told that Buffy would have no memories of their day together. As far as I am concerned, he committed psychic rape via the Oracles and the Powers to Be. Even worse, he only told Buffy about his decision . . . seconds before she lost her memories.
Some fans have used Buffy’s alleged desire for a ”knight in shinning armor” as an excuse for Angel’s behavior. Many of these fans still view Buffy as that 16-18 year-old featured in the series’ first three seasons. And apparently, so does Angel. I really do not see how this desire of Buffy is supposed to condone or excuse Angel's decision to becoming a vampire again at the expense of Buffy’s memories. Others point out that the Oracles had informed Angel that order to prevent circumstances from repeating exactly, he alone will remember all they have shared. Let me see if I understand this. Angel could not tell Buffy that he had erased her memories of their day together, in case the circumstances of that day repeat themselves. Yet, Angel went ahead and informed Buffy that she would lose her memories seconds before she lost them? If Angel wanted to avoid a repetition of that day repeating, he could have told Buffy what had happened . . . and add that they could not stay together, in case the circumstances of that day would be repeated. But Angel did not bother. In fact, he remained silent. Personally, I found his actions appalling.
To me, Angel was a selfish and controlling bastard who could not handle the lack of vampire strength needed to deal with the supernatural beings he had fought, in the first place. Without that strength, he could not be a hero. One, he was stupid enough to go after the Mohra demon when he lacked the strength to fight it. He could have easily allowed Buffy to do so in the first place. And when he found himself forced to depend upon Buffy’s strength to take down the demon, he turned to the Oracles to get his strength back. And all of this happened before he learned of the details surrounding his return as a vampire. I suspect that deep down, his act of sacrifice was nothing more than bullshit. I have always suspected that Angel was nothing more than a control freak, who got his kicks making decisions for others . . . without their consent. If he had really cared about Buffy, he would have never agreed to the spell in the first place. Or . . . he could have told her what happened after the spell went into effect, just as I had pointed out in a previous paragraph. Or he could have told her what he was considering, before he allowed the Powers to Be remove her memories and turn back time. But he did not, because he simply viewed Buffy as a child who had to be controlled . . . by him. And considering that Buffy ended up dead a year-and-a-half later (with Angel not around), it seemed that Angel had given up being a human for nothing.
”I Will Remember You” strikes me as a good example of why I have never been a fan of the Buffy/Angel romance. It has always seemed like an unequal relationship that was never able to develop into an equal one. This episode also reminded me that many seemed to prefer a fictional romance between an infatuated adolescent female and lovesick older man obsessed with her youth and his need to be controlling. To me, the relationship was nothing but a patriarchal wet dream. And Angel's actions in both the ”BUFFY” episode, ”Pangs” and this episode seemed to confirm this.
Below is a list of my ten favorite episodes of "ANGEL" (1999-2004), which starred David Boreanaz:
TOP TEN (10) FAVORITE EPISODES OF “ANGEL”
1. (1.19) “Sanctuary” - The second of a two-part episode about a burnt out Faith’s appearance in Los Angeles. Following her breakdown, Angel discovers that the Watchers Council and Buffy are after her.
2. (2.07) “Darla” - Angel tries to find a way to save a human Darla from the clutches of Wolfram and Hart, while she remembers her past as a vampire.
3. (5.11) “Damage” - Angel and Spike hunt down a psychotic Slayer who has escaped from an institution and believes that Spike is the man who drove her insane.
4. (2.02) "Are You Now or Have You Ever Been" - In this send-up on the post-World War II Communist witch hunts, Angel recalls a traumatic experience during the 1950s at the Hyperion Hotel.
5. (1.18) “Five by Five” - The first half of Faith’s appearance in Los Angeles has the rogue Slayer being recruited by Wolfram and Hart to assassinate Angel.
6. (3.09) “Lullaby” – Holtz, a demon hunter from the past, hunts down Angel, while Darla endures a difficult labor.
7. (4.10) “Awakening” - In an attempt to bring down The Beast and restore the sun, Wesley brings in a dark mystic to extract Angel's soul.
8. (5.08) “Destiny” - Spike is recorporealized, and the two souled vampires battle it out to drink from the "Cup of Perpetual Torment" to settle the renewed conflict of the Shanshu Prophecy.
9. (4.16) “Players” - Gwen Raiden enlists Gunn's help to steal a device to control her electrical abilities while Lorne attempts a ritual to restore his empathic powers.
10. (4.04) “Slouching Toward Bethlehem” - Cordelia inexplicably returns from her higher dimension, but she has no memory of who she is and who her friends are; and Lilah Morgan develops an interest in her reappearance, as well.
"THE FASHION SENSE OF GOOD GIRLS WHO GO BAD"
Recently, I came across an interesting analysis of the Jossverse character, Cordelia Chase, portrayed by Charisma Carpenter. Written by Jenny Crusie, "The Assassination of Cordelia Chase" gave an in-depth look into the changes endured by and inflicted upon the character from both "BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER" and "ANGEL". One of things I found interesting about Ms. Crusie's essay was a comment she had made about Cordelia's character in Season Four of "ANGEL":
"From there, things only got worse. Cordy came back dressed like Elvira Queen of the Night and slept with Connor, Angel's sulky son. (A good topic for another essay: Why do the Good Girls Gone Bad of the Whedon Universe--the Bad Willow, Buffy from Cleveland, Cordelia the Beastmaster, and Blue Fred--always wear too much eyeliner and dress like dominatrixes? Where's the subtext, the humor, the subtlety?) That Cordy came back with bad fashion sense was a real betrayal; that she came back and cuckolded Angel with a boy she'd considered her son was just gross."
Ms. Crusie pointed out an interesting thing about many of the female characters in the Jossverse. Whenever many of the "good" females turned dark or evil, they seem to adapt a rather bizarre appearance . . . or simply bad fashion taste. And this was not only apparent in two of the Jossverse television series - "BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER"and "ANGEL", but also in another WB series, "CHARMED" and the third Indiana Jones film - "INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE":
"ANGEL"
First, we have Cordelia Chase's metamorphasis from good/snarky leading lady to evil skank possessed by power-hungry deity and Winifred "Fred" Burkle (Amy Acker) inhales the essence of an old demon named Illyria, dies and has her body used by the latter, turning into a blue Seven-of-Nine without tits:
Cordelia, before her fateful decision in "Tomorrow" (3.22)
Cordelia, Queen of Skank in "Players" (4.16)
Fred . . . perky and pretty in "Just Rewards" (5.02)
A blue/leather Fred/Illyria in "Shells" (5.16)
"BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER"
In this series, Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Geller) goes butch in the dark alternate universe, created by Cordelia's wish for Buffy to never live in Sunnydale . . . and Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan) becomes the ultimate dominatrix when she turns dark and evil, following the death of her lover, Tara:
Buffy .. . before Cordelia's deadly wish in "The Wish" (3.09)
Buffy Goes Butch in "The Wish" (3.09)
Willow . . . Before Tara's Death in "Entropy" (6.18)
Darth Willow in "Two To Go" (6.21)
"CHARMED"
With the exception of Piper and Phoebe (Holly Marie Combs and Alyssa Milano) in the Season Three episode, "Bride and Gloom", whenever the Halliwell sisters became evil, their fashion sense goes out the window. Of course . . . to be honest, they never really had much fashion sense between Seasons Three and Eight:
Prue before marriage to a warlock in "Bride and Gloom" (3.13)
Goth Queen Prue following her marriage to an evil warlock in "Bride and Gloom" (3.13)
Piper and Phoebe before becoming influenced by Prue's marriage to the warlock in "Bride and Gloom" (3.13)
Piper and Phoebe remain tasteful, while evil in "Bride and Gloom" (3.13)
Phoebe and Paige (Rose McGowan) are evil and tacky from mirror universe in "It's a Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad World - Part I" (6.21)
"INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE" (1989)
Some critic once commented that the costumes for the Dr. Elsa Schneider character (Alison Doody) goes tasteful to tacky, following her revelation as a Nazi collaborator:
Elsa Schneider Meets Indiana Jones and Marcus Brody
Elsa Schneider, Nazi Commando
It is easy to see that Ms. Crusie knew exactly what she was talking about.
