Inspired my Michelle’s post, which mentioned the little things that “Are You Now…” borrowed, I want to call attention to the man, the man who killed himself. I think his character’s choice and Angel’s reaction to it, as Michelle also notes, play a huge role in the character that Angel is becoming.
This episode is very much about Angel facing something. He is facing the person he used to be, in the physical location of where he was when he was that different person. When he says that “maybe it was the wallpaper that drove him mad” I felt an intense sense of empathy emanating from Angel himself. He knows this feeling, you can tell it from the way he looks around and the way it so easily comes to him.
It is horribly ironic when you think about how much Angel must want to end his life sometime. Think about it. A lifetime of being a soul-less dead things, cursed to never have love, or any type of human connection. We see Angel heartlessly taking a sip of his “cocktail” as he hears the music grow louder, and the gunshot go off. I almost felt like he was about to raise his glass in mock salute to the salesman, as if to say, “At least you made a choice, here’s to fate, man.”
It is also remarkable to see the growth that Angel has made. Now, in present day Whedonverse, he would have run up the stairs and made an anonymous tip to the police, instead we have Angel as an apathetic bystander who makes no action.
But WHY does he not react? Is it because he is afraid of becoming that desperate, does he recognize the ability to have nothing left to lose in himself? Maybe, is he afraid? Not likely, but is there something he could be afraid of?
This episode features SO much contrast between current Angel and 1950s Angel. I think that using the dead man as a metaphor for Angel, his reactions, and how he changes, can easily be done.
