After the blistering and gritty 'Five by Five',
'Sanctuary' attempts to pick up the pieces and move everyone forward.
I love these kinds of morning-after stories.
Morning after the happily ever after.
Morning after the collapse.
But I think they’re episodes that beg for an intimate character study
because trying to maintain the same level of action, emotion, and scale can too often creates a sense of anti-climax.
For example, the most familiar icon from one of my other favorite shows
Star Trek: The Next Generation
is 'The Best of Both Worlds'.
In it, the Borg capture Picard,
brainwash him
and use him to destroy most of Earth's defenses.
In the episode that follows, 'Family', one of my favorites,
the crew takes shore leave
and Picard returns to France and his brother to try and process his trauma.
The morning-after story is SUPPOSED to be overshadowed by what came before.
Generally speaking, they’re stories about consequences.
Unfortunately, despite a wonderful opening 10 minutes,
'Sanctuary' doesn’t give its characters enough time to breathe
...after the stunning 'Five by Five'.
Instead, it favors a plot driven story
...that ends in a shootout,
...misses an opportunity,
...and has some characters driving drama by not behaving them like themselves.
It’s a fun-at-times, adequate episode.
But after what came before, it feels like it could’ve been something special.
"Angel."
"I get...visions."
"We do things a certain way in L.A.."
"I'M BAD!"
" I-I'M BAD!"
In a lovely contrast to the brutal violent ending of the previous episode,
'Sanctuary' opens
...quietly.
Faith and Angel wearing the evidence of their battle on their faces and a shell shocked silence between them.
Things are now different and you can even see it in how out of place her outfit feels.
The black leather pants, the high boots.
The super-villain clothing no longer appears to fit her.
Kind of awesome really, as it makes her seem somehow even MORE emotionally vulnerable in the opening sequence.
Faith’s armor is now transparent.
Angel! Please get her an oversized sweater, some HUGE baggy sweatpants, and a pint of ice cream
STAT.
She NEEDS some comfort clothing.
Angel puts her in his bed and wraps a warm fuzzy around her.
As he steps away we get a vision into the cauldron of violence still playing out inside her mind.
"Angel?"
"Yeah?"
Is she stabbing him in the face with a BUTCHER KNIFE?
YEESH.
"Nothing."
"Uh, Buffy?"
"Yeah?"
"Nothing."
The violent cutaways are appropriately horrifying, and setup via contrast to Angel’s compassion.
Upstairs, the two brutalized other members of Angel Investigations are mending their wounds together,
feeling resentful that their attacker is getting a hug for it.
“She’s still here I assume.”
“He gave her his bed.”
This is a crackling little scene that I could watch on repeat if I had to.
Wesley, understandably irate
...after nearly being tortured and murdered the night before,
...is confused as to why Faith is receiving no punishment for what she’s done.
"There are far more humane ways to deal with a rabid animal."
“She’s not an animal,--"
--"No?"
"--she’s a person."
"And in case you've forgotten,"
"...we’re not in the business of giving up on people.”
THAT one stings.
Their exchange essentially sets up the moral and philosophical questions of the episode.
Judgement vs rehabilitation.
Punishment vs atonement.
“There is evil in that girl, Angel."
"It doesn't matter what she wants or says she wants."
"You set her free, she’ll kill again.”
“You can’t just arbitrarily decide whose soul is worth saving and whose isn’t?”
Back at the loft, Kate has taken an interest in the destruction from Faith and Angel’s fight.
Her spiral from her father’s death and investigation into the paranormal
has clearly had an impact on her status with the rest of the police.
"Everybody knows you’ve gone all Scully.”
"Anytime one of these weird cases crosses anyone's desk you're always there."
“Scully’s the skeptic.”
The English Goober Squad, that captured Buffy in the previous two-parter,
try and cut a deal with the spurned Wesley to let him back into the Watchers again,
in exchange for the capture of Faith.
There’s a minor bit of lore raised here that I couldn’t help but notice.
“All those alchemists on the Board of Directors and they still make us fly coach.”
Nor do they bother paying the living expenses
of the current Slayer which, presumably, would help them keep her under their wing.
Faith was living in a rat trap motel.
The first thing the Mayor did was put her in a nice place.
The Watchers aaaaarrre STUPID.
Back at Angel’s, Faith appears to be having some dissociative episodes.
“I need you to give me that knife.”
The memories she has been using violence to numb herself from are pouring back.
She tries to leave and Angel appeals to her familiarity with running away and its lack of effectiveness.
You can’t clean a slate by moving or running.
Not when that slate, is YOU.
“...it’s supposed to hurt."
""All that pain, all that suffering you’ve caused is coming back on you."
"Feel it."
"Deal with it."
Then maybe you’ve got a shot at being free.”
There is some good stuff here.
Some emotional and philosophical morsels that I had HOPED would make up the meal of the entire episode.
Instead, it’s all compressed into this short little scene which makes it land more like treacly pablum
Faith’s journey from suicidal sadist in the previous episode
to guilty hand wringing in a single day doesn’t feel grounded or earned to me.
There’s no weight to this scene.
Worse, and in a bit that foreshadows the episode's real priorities,
it’s all capped off by her accidentally revealing that Buffy has a new beau
which, by virtue of the added musical stinger, carries more dramatic weight than anything else in the scene.
"No, not you, the new one."
No, no, 'Sanctuary'.
You’re forgetting one night ago there was a gruesome torture and suicide attempt.
Let's keep our priorities here.
Faith and Angel battle a Wolfram and Hart assassin
and the blood on her hands brings on a panic attack.
As Angel comforts her in the face of it, in comes the Sunnydale Slayer.
“We were attacked.”
“We?
"You and..."
"Faith."
"You and Faith.”
“Oh, it’s not what you think.”
We’re going to have to talk about this episode's portrayal of Buffy
but, for the record, I think righteous anger is...
well pretty much justified here after the two-parter in her own series.
But there’s a point where Buffy doesn’t feel like BUFFY anymore.
Faith attempts to apologize.
Angel steps in.
Faith flees.
Buffy goes to chase.
Angel grabs her arm.
And she punches him in the face.
And THEN goes to punch him in the face AGAIN.
Angel deflects and hits back and we get her
“How DARE YOU!?!” expression as a reaction.
"I'm sorry."
...really?
But you just...
Twice.
[punch]
[attempted punch]
Angel apologizes repeatedly but HOLY HELL does this moment NOT PLAY RIGHT.
Cue some more hearty Bangel fighting in which Buffy feels totally out of character and Angel eminently rational.
Faith runs into Wesley and Wesley guides her back to the basement
where he shares the Goobersquad’s plan to capture her.
“Angel,"
"...it wasn’t for her.
“I know.”
“I love you.”
“I know.”
Lindsey and Lillah realize Angel has given Faith shelter
and turn the police his way for harboring a known fugitive.
On the roof, Buffy and Faith have the argument most convincing of Buffy’s perspective and behavior in this episode.
"I gave you EVERY chance."
"I tried SO HARD to help you..."
"...and you SPAT on me."
"Anything that you could take from me, you took."
"I've lost battles before."
"But nobody else has ever made me a victim."
That’s a great speech and Faith makes an existential appeal after it.
"You have no idea what it's like on the other side. Where nothing's in control. Nothing makes sense.
"There's just pain and hate and nothing you do means anything."
"You can't even--"
"--Shut up!"
The Goobersquad attacks and are repelled.
Kate does her now frustrating delight at Angel’s expense.
Buffy tries to step in.
And everyone turns to discover, Faith has turned herself in.
"I’d like to make a confession."
And then what might be the best and worst scene in the episode happens between Buffy and Angel.
Worst because the way Buffy is written she learns nothing from the episode,
acts like a jerk saying ‘Haha, I have a new boyfriend now who is better than you,’
and walks away with an ‘I told you so’.
Let's tackle that first.
There is some precedent for Buffy being bratty with Angel
but it has always been counterbalanced by a consequence or redeeming action of hers.
In 'Homecoming', in a scene which echoes this one,
she tells post-traumatic-hell-dimension-tortured Angel that she has a new boyfriend who now treats her right.
It always seemed kind of mean spirited to me
but that scene is IMMEDIATELY followed by:
“I don’t think we should see each other anymore.”
In 'The Prom', Angel says his heart is telling him they need to breakup and Buffy says:
"Heart?"
“You have a heart?
"It isn’t even beating.”
That scene is immediately followed up by Buffy confessing to Willow.
“But he’s right.”
"I mean I think..."
"maybe in the long run that he's right."
"Yeah."
And in Graduation Day (Part 2), *Graduation Day (Part 1),
when Buffy acts out against Angel to try and replace her heartache with anger,
"Are you just making this harder to make this easier on yourself."
He is shot by a poison arrow
and she saves his life in another act of self sacrifice.
Finally, after all their talk,
when Angel tries to talk even more in Graduation Day (Part 2) Buffy silences him.
"There's just too much too--"
The moment suggests to me she’s ready to move forward.
You can’t think your way into letting go of something or someone.
That’s like trying to drop a ball by squeezing it tighter.
I’ve always enjoyed that bit.
And this.
Episode.
Backpedals.
On every one of those moments,
under the guise of Buffy seeking justice for all the wrongs Faith did to her.
Which leads to the part of the scene I actually like where Angel redefines what his show is about.
“That you went behind my back--”
--“Buffy this wasn’t about you."
"This was about saving somebody's soul."
"That’s what I do here and you’re not a part of it.”
And that’s the line between them and their two shows.
Buffy is the Slayer, the one in all the world
...(kind of).
As of this episode, the paragon judge when it comes to all things mystical,
and Sunnydale is her courtroom.
L.A. is where people come to be redeemed.
To atone and seek forgiveness.
And Angel is their champion whose own wrong doings eliminate him from laying down judgement.
Hmm...it all smacks of something.
Where 'Five by Five' had a fairly singular focus
(even Angel’s flashbacks were really about Faith),
'Sanctuary' takes on trying to wrap up the events of 'Five by Five',
'Who Are You?'
AND Graduation Day (Part 2) with varying degrees of success.
The relationship between Buffy and Angel has been in a sort of undistinguished limbo since 'Graduation Day'.
'I Will Remember You' showed that any change in their circumstances might drive them back into each other's arms.
Their breakup was one of responsibility, not one of desire.
But in this episode, Angel draws a hard line to indicate that their relationship is over.
“You don’t know me anymore, so don’t come down here with your great new life and expect me to do things YOUR way."
Because neither of them are the people they once were anymore.
Somehow, this element of the episode is both the most emotionally satisfying and the one I was least interested in.
It ends up being the most significant development of the episode but at this point,
I’m over the Bangel drama and
YE GADS did its insertion at this moment in time feel tonally inappropriate.
Both Buffy AND Angel have established themselves now as independent entities
and the punch for punch scene in the episode felt both silly and overwrought.
But by the end, FINALLY an adult boundary between them.
The episode also tries to address the events of 'Who Are You?'
but does such a BAD job of it that it ends up making Buffy
(who was raped and whose boyfriend was also raped by Faith,
whose mother was kidnapped by Faith,
and whose friends were all assaulted by Faith)
into the BAD guy.
There is essentially no difference in this episode between Buffy
... and the Goober Squad.
They are both COMPLETELY assured of themselves and morally inflexible.
She both begins and ends the episode as the aggressor,
somehow using the events of the episode to justify her perspective with an ‘I Told You So.’
“See?"
'Faith wins again.”
I’m not suggesting that anyone in her position should be expected to just forgive and forget
but from a storytelling perspective revisiting the beats I mentioned from her series
without developing her at all makes the crossover feel a little cheap.
It’s Angel’s show,
but the universes are so intertwined that Buffy and Angel BOTH feel like main characters.
Something to consider as a thought experiment:
Would someone who’d only watched 'Angel' have an accurate representation of Buffy’s character?
Or even, would someone who’d watched only Angel have an accurate sense of ANGEL’s perception of Buffy?
Buffy who saw good in him early in their relationship.
Who Angel saw sacrifice herself to save the world?
Who risked her own life to save his before, again, saving the world?
Or…
"Who do you think you are coming to my town following me around behind my back."
[punch]
[attempted punch]
[WHAM]
“See?
"Faith wins again.”
Lastly there is the resolution to 'Five by Five', the element of the story I was MOST invested in
...that ends up dwarfed by all the Bangel bits.
The first ten minutes of the episode are, to me, the most compelling.
Angel being Faith’s sponsor on the road to evil-rehab had such rich potential.
There was a chance to do something genuinely interesting with Faith’s character and, by association, his.
[melancholy chuckle]
"I got to be the first Slayer in history to be sponsored by a vampire."
Faith’s attempt at suicide in 'Five by Five' echoed Angel’s in 'Amends'
but, remember, I mentioned in the 'Amends' review that that episode didn’t represent Angel choosing anything YET.
That comes after much soul searching
(see what I did there?)
in 'Season 3' before he makes the choice to not take comfort in Buffy and a relationship that can never be,
...but rather to leave Sunnydale and pursue his redemption.
The Faith parallel here is her turning herself into the police at the end of the episode,
...but the journey to get there occurs in the shadow of the Bangel
...and in the bombastic noise of the Goober Squad B-story.
I’m not entirely sure when Faith’s moment of clarity in the episode happens
because there is so much superfluous stuff here that it may actually occur offscreen.
The Bangel bits WERE important as was addressing Buffy’s feelings after 'Who Are You?'.
But they’re so inadequately handled here that there is a wonderful, if completely tangential, Angel cameo in the next 'Buffy' episode,
'The Yoko Factor',
...in order to properly tie everything off.
And in a manner that actually feels IN CHARACTER for them both.
Somewhere in the middle of the two perspectives is Wesley.
Who is initially tempted back to the absolutes of the Watchers Council.
But, after having had to come to grips this season with his own fallibility,...
“I’m a fraud.”
...embraces Angel’s mission and, in doing so, his own journey for redemption.
'Sanctuary' is such an oddly mixed bag.
There is a lot here that I enjoy
...but it never feels like it gels and comes together.
The writing credit for the show went to both Joss and Tim Minear,
...who both have very distinct voices.
I think you can hear them alternating in this one rather than singing in harmony.
But it’s possible what I wanted 'Sanctuary' to be had some undue influence
...on my experience of what it actually was.
It is a VERY different episode from 'Five by Five'.
In fairness, Angel had the bulk of a season to make the journey from 'Amends'
to 'Graduation Day'.
And maybe there was no way to deliver that same story with Faith and have it be satisfying.
So, they reached for the threads they knew they could handle
...and ended the episode with Faith’s first step
(in her own body at least).
It works well enough.
After all, the decision to change, to be better, is usually not something that happens in sharp turns
...but by degrees.
We are creatures of habit
that have carved familiar avenues in our brains by making the same mistake
over
and over again.
At some point, those avenues may call to us for the rest of our lives.
But true freedom is choice.
And choice is something that flickers only ...in the present moment.
WESLEY: “I hope she’s strong enough to make it.
"Peace is not an easy thing to find.”
[calm]