AtS 5.12 "You're Welcome"

[dlgood]

Well, that was interesting.

It seemed to me that we got the Mary Sue Platonic Ideal of Cordelia Chase, and everybody got to experience her exactly how they would have wished to remember her. The Powers that Be gave her a gift.

In the meta-sense, it's exactly as the fan would want to have remembered the character - the PtB at Mutant Enemy giving the fan a gift.

But, of course, it wasn't real. The real Cordelia Chase never left her bed, never awoke from her coma, never talked to the MoG, and died quietly offscreen.

Take her out of every scene, and nothing in the episode changes. Cordelia only voices ideas they're each thinking, but would need to hear from another source. Things we'd want them to acknowledge, but have told to them, rather than hear them say it themselves. But again, it's not Cordelia. It's a fantasy.

But I'm left asking once again - how much, if any of this, is real? Were the "Powers that Be" that benevolent force that Angel, Doyle, Cordy and Wes wanted to believe they were back in S1 - or are they something far murkier - as Jasmine led us to question?

It would have been interesting to see Cordy confront what her life was, rather than everyone else's life. But this episode was never really about Cordy's story. It was all about Angel & the MoG holding on to the fantasy that they can be confident in doing the PtB's mission while running W&H. And getting to remember Cordy exactly the way they (and we) would want to remember her. Except that the PtB is bogus, and W&H isn't really under their control. And that's not really what Cordelia's life was like for the past few years.

And you can't be saved by a lie.

So is "Cordelia" setting Angel on his path, or is this a new manipulation down the primrose path?

Comments

Cordy Sue

[elementalv.livejournal.com]

Take her out of every scene, and nothing in the episode changes.

I have to disagree. If she hadn't pulled out the old tape of Doyle, Angel wouldn't have remembered on his own — he was too lost in despair at that point. If she hadn't drawn the glyphs for Wesley, he wouldn't have known what to look for. If she hadn't been attacked by Spike, he wouldn't have mentioned Lindsey (because, hey, why would Angel bother communicating the only other vampire with a soul?). If she hadn't grabbed a sword from the wall, Angel would have been unarmed. If she hadn't removed the crystal from the machine, the beast would have been freed.

Cordy was corporeal in this episode, even though her body was elsewhere. Unlike Giles in S7, she physically interacted with everyone. And she used her Mary Sue Wand of Sunshine™ to make things right, to remind Angel of the mission, even as she made it clear that yes, he made a deal with the devil when he signed on to W&H.

I suspect the moment at which she died was right before she was going to get on the elevator at the end of the episode. She had a look that seemed to indicate that something had happened. And in her final talk with Angel, she said what he needed to hear — that he was worth saving as well.

Personally, I thought it was a nice send-off of Cordy, including the glimpses of Queen C we were given.

My Crazy Conspiracy Theory

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

It's certainly a nice send off to the character of Cordelia Chase. Except that what we saw wasn't Cordelia - either physically or in spirit.

It's quite possible that something was there after all - I just don't happent to believe it was Cordelia Chase.

Bringing up S7 Giles is a great point, and a neat juxtaposition.

With Giles, nobody touched him and he acted "off" - so they thought it wasn't the real Giles. Except that it was. This time, everybody touches her and she acts exactly like the Cordy they'd want to remember. Except, I don't think this is her at all. Physically, or in spirit. It's somebody else taking her form.

Because the PtB are morally ambiguous and not all that trustworthy - and let's remember that Cordelia got into this Jasmine and Coma situation because she made a deal with the devil herself. And if this were the real Cordelia Chase, she would have pointed that out. She would have been angry about how much she'd been manipulated into this position by the PtB. And about how much her life had collapsed because she bought into what Skip offered her, without asking questions either before she took his deal, or after she took his deal.

The PtB wouldn't want Angel to think about how much they'd all been duped - not for the good of humanity - but for the furtherence of the PtB's ends. (Which none of these folks have questioned). And Angel & the MoG don't want to think about that either. It's no mistake that they reference Doyle, and Lindsey's rather ambiguous purposes for Spike. Angel & Crew want to feel like they're in control - like they're doing the right thing.

But maybe they aren't in control, and maybe they aren't doing the right thing.

Re: My Crazy Conspiracy Theory

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

With Giles, nobody touched him and he acted "off" - so they thought it wasn't the real Giles. Except that it was. This time, everybody touches her and she acts exactly like the Cordy they'd want to remember. Except, I don't think this is her at all.

I dunno why, but watching it just now all I kept thinking was "This is so not really Cordy." And, yes, the hugging immediately brought to mind the thing with Giles on BTVS, like it was entirely there to say "No, she's not evil!" And then we get it spelled out when Spike goes for her neck.

'Course, maybe I just don't like Cordelia enough to want to believe it all.