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.
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 earths
defenses.
In the episode that follows, Family, one of my favorites, the crew take shore leave and
Pircard 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 it's
characters enough time to breath 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.
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In
a lovely contrast to the brutal violent ending of the previous episode, Sanctuary opens...quietly.
I was immediately taken by the opening shot of the awkward elevator ride.
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 now
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 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 in
Faith's head.
Is she...stabbing him in the face with a butcher knife?
YEESH.
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.
4:00 "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.
5:00 "I know what to do with a rabid dog."
- "She's not a dog she's a person.
And in case you forgot, we're not in the business of giving up on people."
THAT one stings.
*torture cutaway
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.
You set her free and 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.
8:00 "Come on Kate.
Everyone knows you've gone all Scully."
- "Scully's the skeptic."
The English goobersquad that captured Buffy in the previous two parter try and cut a deal
with the spurned Wesley to let him back into the Watcher's again, in exchange for the
capture of Faith.
There's a minor bit of lore raised here that I couldn't help but notice.
14:00 "All those alchemists on the board of directors and they still make us fly coach."
Nor do they bother to 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 are stupid.
Back at Angel's Faith appears to be having some dissociative episodes.
"I need you to give me that knife."
201
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 it's lack
of effectiveness.
You can't clean a slate by moving or running.
Not when the slate, is you.
18:40 "It's supposed to hurt.
All that pain.
All that suffering you've caused.
It's all coming back on you.
Feel it.
Deal with it.
And 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.
18:20 "There are some scenes you just can't take back no matter how sorry you are right?"
Faith's journey from suicidal sadist in the previous episode to guilty hand wringing
in a single day doesn't feel grounded or earned.
There's no weight to this scene.
Worse, and in a bit that foreshadows this episodes 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 no, Sanctuary.
You're forgetting one night ago there was a gruesome torture and suicide attempt.
Lets keep our priorities straight 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.
"Buffy...we were attacked."
- "We?
You and Faith?"
- "It's not what you think."
We're going to have to talk about this episodes 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 to Buffy:
26:00 "Buffy, I'm sssssorrry…."
- "If you apologize to me I will beat you to death."
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 sir!?!"
expression as a reaction.
...really?
But you just.
Twice.
Angel apologizes repeatedly but holy hell does this moment just 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.
29:30 "Angel, it wasn't for her.
It's because I trust you."
- "I know."
Star Wars: "I love you."
- "I know."
#WANGEL
Lindey and Lillah realize Angel has given Faith shelter and turn the police his way
for harboring a known fugitive.
On the roof Buffy and Angel have the argument most convincing of Buffy's perspective and
behavior in this episode.
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B: I gave you EVERY chance.
And you SPAT on me.
My life was just something for you to play with.
Angel.
Riley.
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.
**FAITH'S LINE
The Goobersquad attacks and are repelled.
Kate does her now frustrating delight at Angel's expense.
Buffy steps 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 the 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 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 now who 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 go out anymore."
In The Prom, Angel says his heart is telling him they need to breakup and Buffy says:
"You have a heart?
It isn't even beating."
That scene is immediately followed up by Buffy confessing to Willow.
"He's right Will."
And in Graduation Day Part 1, when Buffy acts out against Angel to try and replace heartache
with anger 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.
"I'm just going to leave.
After Graduation."
The moment indicates 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 like where Angel redefines what his show is about.
38:30 "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
"I'm sorry I can't be in your club.
I've never murdered anyone."
- and Sunnydale is her courtroom.
LA 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...feels oddly familiar.
*Civil War Shot
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.
401
-The relationship between Buffy and Angel has been in a sort of undistinguished limbo
since Graduation Day.
Angel told Buffy he was leaving in The Prom, they experienced their last dance, and Angel
walked away, but the spectre of their relationship has remained for them both.
*Angel hanging up the phone.
*Buffy coming to LA in I Will Remember You.
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
and done with because neither of them are the people they once were anymore.
"You don't know me, so don't come down to my city…"
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 it's 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 by the end.
-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 Goobersquad.
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 and 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 those beats from her series here without developing
her at all makes the crossover feel a little cheap.
It's Angel's show but the universes are so intertwined 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…
501
"What gives you the right?"
*WHAM "I have someone now."
"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 these 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 rich potential.
There was a chance to do something genuinely interesting with Faith's character and,
by association, his.
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
a path 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 goobersquad 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 Watcher's 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.
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41:00 "I hope she's strong enough to make it.
Peace is not an easy thing to find."
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