Watching Angel
I was watching an ep of Angel today on TNT. I realize Angel isn’t on the CW, and actually isn’t on anymore, except in repeats. But I’m using that same logic that allows to write about shows like Firefly on this blog. Angel was on the WB, which merged with UPN to make the CW. Therefore, I consider it fair game.
In any case, I was watching this episode, “Peace Out,” from the end of the fourth season. As I watched, for the first time, I felt sorry for Angel’s son, Connor (Vincent Kartheiser). I never really liked Connor much. I always felt that his story line messed up the show. Honestly. I used to think that somewhere in the middle of the third season aliens had taken over at Angel and I wasn’t happy with what they were doing. (Don’t even get me started on how miserable I am about what they did to Cordelia!) I just didn’t like the direction they took the show and I guess I kinda blamed Connor. Maybe I’m too old to just appreciate Vincent as being cute or whatever as well, but I just wanted him gone. I rejoiced when he finally left and we could have the fifth season mostly without him.
But today, for the first time, I really felt sorry for Connor. I stopped to think about his life for just a moment and see how he was constantly being manipulated by people he chose, unwisely, to trust. He’s stolen from his father, when just a baby, by Holtz, who raises him in a hell dimension. Holtz’s sole motivation is vengeance. He doesn’t care at all about Connor, but he is using him. Holtz even set up and uses his own death to manipulate Connor.
He is then manipulated by the Beast Master, parading around in Cordelia’s body, in as personal and intimate a way as possible. I mean he’s still just a young kid and he’s never had anyone close to him who just loved him and protected him. Angel would have, of course, but Connor never gave him a chance.
Finally, Connor is taken in by Jasmine. Of course, everyone is originally taken in by her, but it’s almost worst for Connor, because he knows what she is all along, but he was responsible for creating her and he feels bound to her in a way the others can’t. In the end, even through all that, he does the right thing in destroying Jasmine, but that basically drives him over the edge. He realizes that he can’t trust anyone and that there is no one who really cares for him.
For the first time, I’m glad he got to go live with a real family, and have all his bad memories wipe away so he could live a normal life. And not just glad that he was gone from the show.
