In short: I like where it took us, just not so sure about the journey.

Hope—sometimes its all that sustains us. In a dark moment in life, many of us have a hope—a vision of just how things could get better. It’s something that we cling to in times of need and that we hang our hats on when things are going well.

Which is why it’s so tragic when we lose hope. If we lose hope, we sink into a downward spiral. The world looks bleak and while we might be out there fighting out own good fight, there are times when we question—why do I bother? And I really making a difference? Or am I just going through the motions?

Angel gives us a tale about two heroes who have lost hope this week with “The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco.” We’ve got the titular Numero Cinco, who was part of a group of Mexican wrestlers fifty years ago. They entertained people, bringing smiles to their faces. They had it all—the admiration of children, the respect of men and the love of women. In addition, they took on a demon that was eating the hearts of heroes—stealing them away and cutting them down. They defeated the demon, but at a high price—all but one of them died in the battle. And that one was left questioning things. Why wasn’t’ he worthy of dying? Did he not have the heart of a hero? Wasn’t he worthy of redemption? Was life now just a series of events that he must find a way to survive? Could he find a way to rise above them and regain his hope?

In the case of Numero Cinco, we see a man who was considered a hero, who has lost his hope. In the old days, he had the promise of fame, fortune, riches and the adulation of the crowd. Now, he’s simply the guy who delivers the mail at Wolfram and Hart—doing what he can to get by. The teaser shows us the tedium of his daily job as we follow him. He collects the mail and while he’s physically there in the offices of Wolfram and Hart, the ghostly version of Spike has more interaction with the world than he does. We see this illustrated early on with Lorne attempting to ask his opinion, but switching to Fred once she wanders into the scene. Numero Cinco is quickly forgotten—and while some might wonder, why does he wear a wrestling mask all the time, no one really takes the chance to get to know him, to draw him out of his self-imposed shell. In the end, he gets fired and they wouldn’t have thought twice about him again if they hadn’t needed the information he had about how to defeat the demon that is stalking the streets of L.A.

The story of Numero Cicno is meant to parallel the story of Angel. Angel once had it all—he had a mission he believed in, an objective and goal, a woman he cared for and a son. But slowly, he’s had all of that eroded away from him. Now he’s left fighting the good fight not because he cares about it in any way. He’s fighting it simply because he doesn’t’ know what else to do. He’s going through the motions. He’s lost Cordy, he’s lost Connor and with Spike showing up, he’s lost faith that the prophecy that he felt sure referred to him becoming human again and fighting an epic battle might not pertain to him any longer. With Spike there, Angel has lost his unique place in the world (so ably illustrated by how little Wes and company knew about Spike and his predicament in “Conviction”) and he feels like he’s lost all hope. He’s fighting, but he doesn’t really have anything he’s fighting for.

This reaches a breaking point for Angel when the demon attacks him and won’t take his heart. Angel feels insulted that his heart isn’t in the battle enough to be considered worthy of harvesting. Yes, we have Gunn telling him that maybe it’s because his heart is old and like beef jerky, but I believe that Angel thinks he’s not worthy of being killed in the good fight. He’s lost the battle, so he thinks he’s lost the war. So why not just give up and give into the inevitable?

Luckily, Angel meets up with Numero Cinco and gets a glimpse of what his life could be if he loses hope? It’s also interesting to note that Angel has put little time or research into the Shanshu prophecy. How can he know that it doesn’t apply to him or that it applies to Spike if he doesn’t bother to look into it? In the end, we see Angel getting some hope back by going to the b books and trying to find out what he can about his future. Maybe Angel has been given a glimmer of hope back and now he can continue his quest again.

Which brings up some interesting speculation on my part.

The Senior Partners have been shown to be a pretty sneaky bunch. The fact that they’d give up the L.A. office to Angel and declare him the winner is a bit suspect. I wonder if they knew of the prophecy and figuring that they couldn’t control Angel as a loose canon they decided to keep him under a tighter leash. Looking at the series, we see how much Angel has lost. And then to bring in Spike—a vampire with a soul who fulfilled the role of hero in an apocalyptic battle, that is just enough to make Angel doubt that he will have a meaningful role in the final battle that is to come. In essence, the Senior Partners have sidelined Angel, they are able to keep their eye on him and they have taken away all of his hope, thus possibly throwing a monkey wrench into the prophecy. It’s an interesting idea to speculate on and I will be interested to see if they continue to affirm this as the season goes along.

Another long term idea that has come to me is this—just who exactly remembers Connor? It’s almost like Dawn in reverse—suddenly everyone remembers Dawn. This time around everyone has forgotten Connor, except Angel. But if Connor were never around, then Wes doesn’t betray Angel, thus he never leaves the battle, hooks up with Lillah, etc. Now, some of us have speculated on where Lillah is this year and certainly I think Eve doesn’t hold a candle to her. But if you don’t have Lillah and Wes, you don’t have W&H having an inside track on things at Angel Investigations and you don’t’ have Lillah using her position there to keep herself in the project to stop Angel. Maybe she outlived her usefulness to them earlier in this reality and she’s been long gone. Of course, that might relieve Wes of some guilt at not having to kill her off, but I doubt the senior partners would take that away. It’s interesting and it certainly does give us some reason as to why Eve is on there instead of Lillah. (And if Joss Whedon likes my idea and wants me to script an episode around all my speculation, he just has to call!)

So, I like where the journey took us in “The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco” but I didn’t necessarily like the ride.

The biggest drawback was how the plot came to a screeching halt at times. We’d build up some momentum, only to see it come to a huge halt. I refer specifically to the backstory of the hombres numeros. While I understand why we got their backstory and what it meant to the overall show, I still found the second act to be a bit yawn inducting and to make me zone out a bit. If felt like too much of an unnecessary side trip. Almost as if Jeffrey Bell wanted to share his love of Mexican wrestling with us, whether we wanted to hear about it or not. I don’t fault him too much—heaven knows I’ve bored friends and family to tears over the years trying to share my excitement for Doctor Who with them. But it did serve to drag the plot down a bit and it made the episode seem wholly unfocused.

Which is a shame because Bell got a lot of little things so right.

I loved seeing Spike trying to find out what he could about the Shanshu prophecy. Interesting that he revels to Wes that Angel has lost faith in it and not Angel. Also, hearing Spike be his usual snarky self was fun. I loved the scene in the car where he said he got the front seat because he’d called shot gun. Also, his take on his lot in life was a nice touch and it all worked well. I’ve really liked the addition of Spike on Angel, but this is the first time I’ve felt like they’ve gotten the attitude that is Spike down consistently in an episode. Also, having Spike come up with the possible way to defeat the monster was nicely done.

And as for the monster, it was interesting to see that the series looked outside of the usual range of demons for a monster. I liked seeing the references to the day of the dead and the Aztec mythology. Sure, they could have made it all up for all I know, but it was nice to see that other cultures were given some spotlight. Sure, the monster was pretty much a standard monster of the week in the end, but at least the monster served to be part of the character journey for Angel and not just something to be killed off in the end.

So, I guess that’s about it for now, except a few small things…

--I love how much Gunn and Lorne are fitting in at Wolfram and Hart but Angel and Wes don’t’ seem as taken by the whole experience.

--I really liked the scene where Angel mentioned the prophecy of the father killing the son and Wes had no clue.

--Interesting how we slipped in a Holland cameo without seeing his face. Very creative.

--So, one obvious plot point—when we saw the amulet, I said to myself, “I bet that is part of what drives the monster” and I was pretty much right. Man, I’ve been watching Mutant Enemy shows too long now!

So, that’s it for now. Overall, this episode had some strong character work and I think it’s set up some interesting threads for the rest of the season (Jeffrey Bell just seems to be the guy on the staff who can tie loose threads together and tear off in a whole new direction). But while I liked where we went on the journey, getting there wasn’t nearly as much fun as it should have been.

My rating: 7.0 (out of 10.0)

Next up: Wes’s dad shows up in L.A. (Man, I can’t wait!)