chani | DVD time (Reply)

Instead of watching BTVS season 3, re-watched Why We Fight from Ats season 5. I remember that fans weren't very into it at the time. But I liked it despite the fact Spike sounded like a stupid brat during the flashbacks and I think it's an underrated episode.

Besides the comic effects (The Prince of Lies, Spike who wnats to play with a submarine, the nod to The Initiative and Spike's chip)and the obvious message about purpose and doing what is right, there's some interesting stuff in that episode.

First, Angel is still at the bottom of the ocean in W&H, the Law Company being the new submarine, and he's still the boss, or as Lawson calls him, the chief. In French we could say that Angel is "dans la même galère!" which fits in the ship metaphor ! Spike is still there and to point out the similarity of situation the writers made him say in the end: They'll let anybody in here, won't they?

That line echoes what he told Angel first in the submarine:

Angelus. They'll let anyone in here

So they are still stuck with monsters and innocents (the sailors in 1943, Gunn, Fred and Wesley)in an evil but powerful thing (the german submarine, or W&H firm), and Angel is still a puppet whose strings are pulled by others ( the men in black serving American agencies, the Senior Partners). And Angel still behaves the same, keeping informations for himself about what Lawson calls the mission (he doesn't need him to know the details), just like he kept Wes, Feed and Gunn in the dark about Connor and his contract with W&H!

Why does Angel find himself at the bottom of the ocean? Well apparently it isn't clear why he agreed to go on that mission in 1943...but we know why he agreed about running W&H: Connor, his boy, his son.

And once, he was at the bottom of the ocean because of Connor too since the young man sent him there (so of course Angel saying I'm not getting trapped at the bottom of the sea in 1943 is as comical as Spike saying And I'm not getting experimented on by his government !).

So what I mainly see in WWF is Angel and his boys!

Those boys being Spike and Lawson, avatars of his real son, Connor. That's why he fights even though sometimes it means fighting them!

In the first flashback we see Angel sitting depressively in his chair. He embodies the idea of not fighting! He's obviously not interested in the men in black's offer. But he reads the top-secret file about what attacked the submarine and then something changes in his look. It can't be the mention of vampires, that wouldn't make any sense. I think that Angel changed his mind because he read a name. Spike!

Once again the lines are meaningful. The military guy said: We think we know what attacked our boys

Our boys!

Angel wasn't in a patriotic phase (he didn't care about the war at the beginning of the flashback) and apart from Lawson, Spike is the only one showing some patriotic feelings during the episode when he sang God Save The King in the face of the nazi. Angel had his own agenda. He did what he did for personal reasons just like when he took over W&H.

He isn't surprised to see Spike aboard, and when Lawson calls Spike a nazi, Angel feels the need to "defend" the younger vampire and to explain that Spike only likes wearing the jacket!

Of course the episode mostly focuses on the Angel/Lawson relationship but Spike and Connor are in the background. Not only Angel often calls the sailor, son, but he ended up siring him, making him his childe and the character's name is significant: Law-son. As the boss of the American W&H, Angel is the LAW now, and in the submarine he was the one giving directives. BTW Spike always obeyed him then. He was his usual annoying self but he obeyed Angel's orders.

Speaking of name, Lawson's first name is Sam. He embodies the American patriotism indeed, and when Spike accuses the Yankies' goal, Lawson says they would never use the nazis' research (and we know he's wrong). But Spike himself displays patritoism when singing God Saves the King. And the scene is interesting because the Nazi is questioned by the two of them, Spike distributing the roles: I'll menace. You talk. Lawson and Spike are actually pretty alike. And when Lawson is turned into a monster by Angel, the analogy is complete. By the way Spike uses the expression your new boy when mentioned Lawson to Angel afterwards.

And both boys are both sent outside the ship by Angel who obviously can't kill them !

But Lawson comes back as a the non-prodigal son, foreshadowing the return of Angel's son, Connor, a few episodes later!