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In the Dark is a crossover episode of Angel, the Part 2 to Buffy’s The Harsh Light of
Day.
I consider it a sort of trilogy with the first three episodes in the show, resolving a few
lingering details with Angel’s character and, with In the Dark, setting up his future
arc.
And in the third episode of the show Angel rescues another blonde in an alleyway.
Perhaps his mind is fixated on something.
The whole scene again, plays like a hyperbolic noir superhero scene.
Spike certainly seems to think so.
“Now I’m just a big fluffy puppy with bad teeth.”
This is the third reference to Angel as a puppy in the Whedonverse.
For more info, checkout the Buffy guide.
So Spike has figured out what Buffy decided to do with the Ring of Amara after “The
Harsh Light of Day” and has followed Oz to LA to retrieve it.
Speaking of…
“Hello LA.”
Oz gives Angel the Ring of Amara, making Angel more or less unkillable.
Angel seems distracted by the implications of the ring, as well as the fact that Buffy
sent Oz instead of coming herself.
He descends into the sewers and hides the ring.
The next morning Doyle is suffering the effects of a night out on the town and Angel is doing
Tai Chi again.
Ha ha.
Throwback joke.
Angel rushes to the rescue of the blonde from earlier and Spike attacks him by his car trying
to get the gem.
“12:00” What's next, vampire fireman?
Vampire cowboy?
Vampire ballerina.”
Angel bests Spike who escapes and Angel suggests Cordy hole up with Doyle for the day.
Even with Spike in town, Angel visits the blonde from earlier she saved who mentions
she can’t help but fall back in with her ex all the time.
Doyle gives Angel a tip towards someone who might know where SPike is and Angel goes on
a gumshoe hunt for information.
Finding Spike in an alleyway eating.
19:30 “Guess there’s nothing I can do now but pay my debt to society.”
Turns out it was a trap and Spike has recruited the services of a vampire agent of torture,
Marcus.
Marcus makes some statements suggesting he has similar perceptive abilities to Drusilla,
if she hadn’t had the sanity tortured out of her.
He can sense Angel’s soul and his history.
He can read whether Angel is telling the truth or not.
He begins the act of torture with a very simple question.
22:00 “What do you want Angel.”
Marcus proceeds to skewer stab and crush Angel repeatedly.
But the stab that seems to do the most damage is Spike telling Angel about Parker.
24:00 “Used her shamelessly.
She is cute hurt isn’t she?”
*flash to Angelus*
Spike goes looking for the ring leaving Angel and Marcus to it.
Marcus points out that Angel hid the ring.
He could be walking in the light but clearly that is not what he wants.
26:00 “It’s through the pain that we find the truth of who we are.”
Spike tells Doyle and Cordy to find the ring for him or Angel dies.
27:00 “You did terrible things and now you’re trying to do good.
But Angel there’s nothing neither good nor bad but thinking makes it so.”
28:30 “I want, forgiveness.”
- “Yes, that’s the truth.”
Cordy and Doyle find the ring and trade Spike for Angel.
But Marcus double crosses and takes it for himself.
As Oz is driving the getaway Angel makes him turn it around to go after Marcus.
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“He likes kids.”
Oz j-turns the hell out of his van and drives down to the pier where Angel, rushes out of
the van into the harsh light of day and takes Marcus down.
And Angel dons the ring and steps out into the light, with a clearer vision of what comes
next.
39:00 “This ring is your redemption man.”
- “No...it just looks like it.”
No shortcuts to redemption.
41: “Girl with the crazy boyfriend called and said to say thanks.
She found a little faith.”
And the episode ends with the weirdest last line of any episode.
Most likely a Boreanaz imrpov they left in.
But it signifies to me that Angel has a little more light and direction now.
A path.
A reason.
Analysis
I like this episode quite a bit.
In fact other than an upcoming two parter this may be one of my favorite episodes of
this season.
But I feel like it’s a bit of a borrowed glow by virtue of the two guest appearances
from Buffy alumni Spike and Oz.
In fairness Oz doesn’t do much but James Marster’s as Spike just chews up the scenery
and is a delight to watch.
Consequently this episode feels like a bit of a detour for the Angel cast, if not for
Angel himself.
The scene’s between Marcus and Angel are the meat of the episode, and here again we
have a villain handed some of the more meaningful lines in the episode:
“It’s through the pain that we learn the truth of who we are.”
Marcus is, of course, talking about the torture but his words have a very relevant double
meaning.
Painful experiences are quite often the most revealing moments of character and self examination
we experience in our lives.
When things are going great, there simply isn’t any reason to looking inward.
It’s when things are at their worst that we stop to examine what brought us to this
moment, and what if anything, comes next.
Or, to put it another way:
“What do you want Angel?”
Angel is suffering, bathing in self hatred every night with all the lights out.
As we talked about in the previous video it got so bad he once even tried to off himself.
And he’s been moving forward thanks to the momentum granted him by the love of a certain
Slayer.
But I don’t think it is until the words are tortured out of him that he’s clear
on what he’s been missing.
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“I want...forgiveness.”
“And you want to earn it.”
Purpose.
In this context Angel smashing the ring in the final scene makes sense.
The ring is a symbol for his final goal.
For all intents and purposes, the restoration of his humanity through his redemption - implying
that he considers the vampire side of himself sin.
Something to be expunged.
The ***, the hunger, and somewhere beneath the surface, Angelus.
But the ring is an unearned shortcut - it is not the outcome he’s looking for.
So, sure, symbolically I’m fine with the rings destruction.
Pragmatically is a different story.
The blonde who keeps calling Lenny her boyfriend even though she knows he’s unhealthy for
her works as an obvious parallel to Buffy and Angel’s relationship in Season 2 and
a bit of Season 3.
Angel’s takes Rachel’s side in telling her to dump him and that, with a little faith
in herself she can move on.
17:14: “You’re at a crossroads.
I know.
It’s either go for the easy fix or take the hard road and go with Faith.”
This is something I’ve suggesting Angel has been lacking in the previous episodes
as well but by the end of this one he’s found it too.
Rachel also acts a reminder to Angel of who he needs forgiveness from in his life.
It’s a great pairing of episodes that I enjoyed quite a bit.
I loved the idea of giving the villians the meaningful bits of dialogue and the inclusion
of Spike and Oz infused some much needed levity into the shows broody atmosphere.
Interesting that the titles of both episodes in the crossover could easily be reversed.
After Parker’s manipulation Buffy ends the episode decidedly unclear and in the dark.
While Angel, after his moment of clarity at the torturous hands of Marcus rushes out into
the harsh light of day to stop him.