Sleep Tight

Sleep Tight
Written by David Greenwalt
Directed by Terrance O'Hara

Original Airdate: March 4, 2002

Plot:Angel's increasingly erratic behavior and the signs from the prophecy, lead Wesley to become increasingly desperate to get Connor away from his father.

Review

Warning: I am going to spike this entire review full of SPOILERS. If you've not yet seen the latest episode of Angel, "Sleep Tight" and want to see it unaware of some of the twists and turns (which I'll admit that this is one episode that it's better to go in SPOILER free), please turn back now...

In short: Man, it's going to be a long five weeks.

Last season on Angel, we saw our favorite vampire make a walk on the dark side. At the start of the season, we saw Angel and company start off with the best of intentions to help Angel fulfill his destiny--to save enough souls to finally become human again. However, as the season went along, we saw Angel get on the slippery slope to hell, paved with the good intentions of saving souls. Angel's downfall was his obsessive need to save Darla from herself. We watched Angel slip into darkness and slowly alienate all those around him--but yet, he had the best of intentions going into the situation that developed.

Luckily, Angel hit rock bottom and was able to come back into the light as it were.

This year, we've slowly watched another character start off on the slippery slope to hell, all because of his good intentions. This year's candidate is Wesley Wyndham Price.

I'll admit that it didn't hit me until this week of the way the producers are creating a parallel structure of Angel's arc last year and Wes's arc this year. As most of you know, I've been a bit caught up in slinging barbs at Angel for going awry with the whole "Angel and Cordy should get together" romantic comedy plotline and was overlooking what was actually developing and came to full fruition here in "Sleep Tight." Leave it to Joss Weldon and David Greenwalt to pull a Farscape on me--namely, the old magic trick of distracting you with the left hand so you don't see what the right hand is doing and then leave you breathless when the trick works and works well.

All season long, we've seen poor Wesley desperately trying to do the right thing.

Early on, we saw him trying to reconnect with his father, only to be rejected. We see him trying to connect with Fred, to build a romance on the depth of friendship that he senses between them. However, in the time he takes to get up the courage to tell the woman he cares for how he feels, his friend steps in and beats him to the punch. And, for the most part, rather than being overly petty and trying to fight for Fred's affection, he has stepped aside for the relationship--and I get the feeling he's only doing it because it makes Fred happy. We've also seen Uncle Wes try and connect with Angel and baby Connor--to be a kind, caring friend. Wes has the best of intentions in finding the prophecies about Connor--he wants to protect him and find out what the future might hold. (What parent wouldn't love to have a prophecy that guides them on how their kid's life might develop, I wonder.) As he's found out bad news, he's taken it upon himself to find a way out--to keep Angel from destroying the one thing in the world that seems to truly bring the vampire a sense of happiness, peace and contentment.

However, unknown to Wes, his attempts to save Angel from himself are slowly being counteracted by the usual behind the scenes mechanization of Wolfram and Hart. Because of this, Wes is backed into a corner and forced to take drastic action. He can't stop the prophecy--or so it appears--so he chooses the lesser of what he sees as two evils--taking Connor away from Angel and going on the lam.

We had hints earlier this year that Wes has a dark side--it was pretty obvious all the way back in "Billy" when we saw Wes under the influence of Billy. And over the past couple of episodes, we've seen how dark Wes can be--from his scathing comment to Fred and Gunn about the proper use of the company cell phones to his secret meetings with Holtz to attack on Lorne in order to get Connor to safety. It's even shown up in the way Wes is attired--his usual clean-shaving image is gone, replaced by one that is disheveled and shows signs of having worn the same clothes for several days straight. Wes is a man with a problem and he can't see any easy solutions.

The problem is that Wes isn't seeing the whole picture. Had he talked to Angel of his fears at the prophecy early-on, they might have figured out Wolfram and Hart wouldn't let things rest--heck, they have never let Angel had a moment's peace before, so why start now?. He might have figured out a way to work with the group to keep him from having to turn to the man is obsessed with Angel's destruction and will kill he and his friends in order to get to it. He might have even seen through Justine's lies, though I doubt this one was as obvious to see coming. Justine's questioning of Holtz's methods might have been better served a few weeks ago after he pinned her to the table with his knife, but now it smelled too much of a set-up. But I will admit that on a character level, I liked where it got Wesley and showed his increasing desperation to latch onto any possible solution or way out of the current crisis.

All of this lead to a final two acts that moved at breakneck speed toward a big-time cliffhanger that's going to raise a lot of questions over the next five or so weeks as we wait for new Angel. (Why WB why?!?)

David Greenwalt certainly knows how to bring all the figures into play for the story and he did so here effectively.

The final act was a thing of beauty, as we see plotlines run into each other like a car wreck.

The standoff was superbly done and it really reached new heights. At long last, I finally see why Holtz showed mercy to Angel way back when. Holtz realized that he could take from Angel the one thing Angel took from him. It's a beautiful moment--especially when Holtz got Angel to promise not to come after Connor or he'd kill him. At long last, Holtz had the power of life and death Angelus held those many years ago and he could now use it. I am sure that at some point, Holtz will try and kill Angel, but as he stated last week, Angel has a soul and now it's time to suffer because of it.

The scene with Holtz taking Connor and attempting to run off with Justine finally crystallized a lot of things and made the ending of Lullaby not seem as bad as I originally thought it was.

But, as usual, other things cropped up. Wolfram and Hart interfered yet again. I'm not sure if Lillah had the support of her bosses on this--the dialogue last week seemed to indicate she didn't. So, beyond the Wolfram and Hart show up with guns and try to take out Connor, we've got the potential has Lillah gone too far plotline to consider. (Part of me imagines this is sanctioned since she had the commandos out (and did anyone think--dear heavens, the Initiative is back?) but this could be her doing things on her own authority and not with the blessing of Wolfram and Hart).

But the biggest twist is Sejohn and how far he's willing to go to see Angel suffer. I will admit that I was disappointed that yet again we didn't get any reason for his apparent blood feud with Angel, but at least we saw him willing to act on it. Seeing him open up the hell dimension and threaten to destroy the planet was nicely done and it really notched up the suspense for the final few moments--as if I wasn't already on the edge of my seat as it was. I still think the being cryptic about Sejohn's insane need for revenge is a bit silly and we need to find out why he wants to destroy Angel so badly. I have a feeling the longer this goes on, the harder and harder it becomes to make it plausible. I hope we don't get to his reasoning and go--that's it? That could be bad. (If you want to see how to make an audience understand a villain and his reasoning without making him too "human" see Farscape with the Scorpius plotline. If you want to see a bad example, look at X-Files and the CSM pretty much anytime after season five.)

So, we're left hanging, wondering what might happen next.

And it's a good thing. It's built some momentum that should carry us through the next five weeks without even repeats to get us all speculating. It's a shame really because I think the hints are there and it'd be fun to go back and find them. Guess that's why I've got video tapes, huh?

Well, that's about it for now, except a few small things...

--Interesting to see the gang want to bring Groo into help. I hope that he doesn't become a semi-regular as I really don't like the character.

--In case I forgot, let me put in my weekly plea for Alexis Denisof to get Emmy nominated. His work as Wesley has been superb.

--So, apparently Justine and Holtz are more than just friends...or headed down that path.

--In the end, Angel is rejected from going into hell after Holtz. That's interesting. Could it be because he's already been and spent several hundred years there suffering. And would it change him somehow like it did last time he went?

--Boy, I sure don't want to be Wesley and have to go back and face the gang. The circumstances leading to Connor being in Holtz's hands don't look good for him. But that is a scene that I can't wait to see.

So, that's about it for now. Overall, these last two episodes have restored my faith in Angel to the levels it was at in the early goings of season three. Can't wait to see how this all plays out.

My rating: 9.0 (out of 10.0)

Next up: Well, five weeks of nothing and then the fallout begins....See you then!