Angel, "Belonging" Review (2x19)

Brief Synopsis: “When a savage demon emerges from a magical portal on the stage at Caritas, Lorne turns to Angel for help in destroying the beast before it cuts a bloody swath through Los Angeles. After Angel discovers that the beast is from Lorne’s home dimension, Pylea, he is reluctantly pressed into service, but the answer to his problem may come from yet another mystical portal.”

"Dead End" (2x18) quick link here                                                                                                             "Over The Rainbow" (2x20) quick link here

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1) This review will almost definitely contain spoilers for episodes after this one.

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With that being said, let’s get started, shall we? 



“Belonging” isn’t the greatest episode of the season, nor is it the worst. It’s the start of a four-episode mini-arc known as ‘the Pylea arc’. The Pylea arc uses Lorne’s home dimension (Pylea) to test the members of Angel Investigations. To highlight how much they’ve grown since joining the group, and to give glimpses into where these characters are heading over the next couple of seasons. A perfect example of this is Wesley sacrificing some of his men during the battle against the Covenant of Trombli while they’re in Pylea. He knew that they’d die, but he did it anyway for the greater good. After struggling to fit into his new leadership role, he finally starts to accept it and realise that sometimes negative things need to happen for the greater good. One could argue that this is a prelude to Wesley stealing baby Connor in the next season. “Belonging” is the setup, and the next three episodes (which take place in Pylea itself) are the execution. In this episode, we discover just how lonely the members of Angel Investigations are outside of their work. None of these people belong in the regular world anymore. They only seem to belong in a world that battles the forces of darkness. Angel, Cordelia, Wesley, and Gunn are all struggling to make a connection with anyone outside of Angel Investigations. It reminds me of season one’s “Lonely Hearts”, only this time it’s not adult life that’s causing their loneliness, it’s the fact that their choice to fight the good fight has left them numb to the real world because shallow friendships and going out to watch movies doesn’t seem as important as saving the world. Look at Virginia leaving Wesley, look at Cordelia having no friends or date nights like she did in the last season, notice how Angel instantly assumes that a regular, normal woman wearing a shawl is a Voltar Witch. Angel, like the other members of Angel Investigations, lives, eats, and breathes (so to speak...) his job. It’s not an occupation where you can go home at 5pm and forget about it until the next day. It’s crept into every aspect of their lives, and it’s causing them to not belong in the regular world anymore. Sure, everyone seems happy that Angel has returned to the gang and they’re a team once again, but things are far from harmonious. Angel feels out of place in his new non-leader role, Wesley feels out of place in his new leadership role, Gunn feels conflicting loyalties between his old life and gang, and his new life with Angel Investigations, Cordelia’s biggest dreams of fame, wealth, and superstardom are falling at her feet, and we get some much needed character background and development for the newest member of the team, The Host, who we discover is actually called Krevlornswath of the Deathwok Clan, or ‘Lorne’ for short. Throw in a mystical portal, a villainous foe, and the briefest of appearances by Amy Acker, and you have an episode that is most intriguing, if not a little slow-paced.

As this episode has five distinctive voices and stories, I’m going to look at each character individually, instead of my usual chronological review...with some amusing quotes thrown in, of course.


Angel

Our hero is not adjusting well to being a follower as opposed to a leader. However, this isn’t Angel’s only challenge. Since having his epiphany in the aptly named “Epiphany”, Angel has been struggling to find his identity. Where does he end and Angelus begin? If Earth really is the ‘Home Office’ (Hell), why fight to save it? More than ever, Angel is desperate to reclaim his once beloved search for humanity. He’s trying to make connections with the people he’s saving again, which is something we’ve rarely seen him do since episode nine of this season, “The Trial”. Angel steps into the fake sunlight on Cordelia’s commercial set and is overcome with happiness. He wants nothing more than to be a human. To walk in the sun, to feel his heartbeat, to see his reflection. Ironically, Pylea offers Angel two of those three things (sunlight and a reflection), but it’s at the cost of his inner-demon being much more savage and uncontrollable.

After being told about the Shanshu Prophecy in the season one finale, “To Shanshu In L.A.”, Angel’s focus went from helping the helpless because he wanted to help people, to doing it for a reward down the line. One could argue that helping people for a reward isn’t a bad thing as the helpless are still being saved body and soul, but it’s not what Angel Investigations is all about. It’s about making amends. It’s about helping people because they deserve to be helped. Since Darla was ripped out of her afterlife and dangled in front of Angel’s face like a syphilis-covered carrot, Angel has taken a humongous step backwards in his progression. Under Wolfram & Hart’s encouragement, he began to resent the world and the humans that inhabit it. Why should he help people who don’t help themselves? Who commit horrific acts such as war, rape, and murder? That answer can be found at the end of “Epiphany” during Angel’s conversation with Kate...“I want to help because I don’t think people should suffer as they do, because if there’s no bigger meaning, then the smallest act of kindness is the greatest thing in the world”. So, Angel reached out to his former team, rejoined them as a non-leader, and has been working towards helping the helpless for the right reasons again.

In addition to these struggles of identity and desperation to walk in the sun, Angel is having trouble fitting back in to his former home and life. As we discover early in this episode while the gang are having dinner together, Wesley, Cordy, and Gunn have bonded big time while Angel has been away being dark and broody. Wesley and Gunn are brothers in arms now. Wesley took a bullet for Gunn! Before Angel left, these two characters did nothing but bicker, but now here they are as legitimate best friends. Angel is no longer the leader and he’s something of an outsider in the team that he once established. However, what does Angel have outside this group? He has no friends, no job, no life. Just a desire to help the helpless. Angel’s search for answers won’t come easy and it won’t come quickly. The Pylea arc will start to explore the good vs. darkness inside of Angel, but Angel’s new reason to fight the good fight and strive to be a better man won’t appear until almost the middle of the next season, when Darla returns pregnant and gives Angel a son, something Angel was never supposed to be able to have.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom for Angel in this episode. He’s still a cheap bastard...

Cordy: “I feel a little guilty.”
Angel: “Don’t. I mean, nineteen dollars for a sashimi couscous appetiser is money well spent...how was it, anyway? Pretty good? I mean, it ought to be pretty...”
Cordy: “It’s delicious, but that’s not what I feel guilty about.”
Angel: “Oh (*sees the gang looking at him*)...I’m not cheap, I’m just old. I remember when a few bob got you a good meal, a bottle, and a tavern wench...you were saying?”


Cordelia

Cordy finally receives something she’s wanted since moving to Los Angeles...a break. An opportunity to kick-start her career in the world of acting. Sadly, she discovers that this life she’s always wanted is dirty, sleazy, and not the glamorous, exciting notion she’d created in her head. For a while now, Cordelia’s been battling a choice. A choice between a career and superstardom or a life of helping the helpless. One offers Cordelia wealth, fame, and the finer things in life, which she’s grown up with, the other offers her little money and little recognition, but a sense of purpose and pride. While we’ve watched Cordelia grow more and more empathetic over the past couple of seasons, she’s still Cordelia. She still wants the fame and the riches. After landing a fairly high profile commercial role, she realises that this life doesn’t offer her the same level of satisfaction that Angel Investigations does. Let’s face it, the director is an absolute asshole. All he’s interested in is Cordelia’s body. He has her wearing almost nothing (which teenage Shangel appreciated, to be fair to him), he barks orders at her, and generally treats her like a walking meat suit. To quote the Spider Demon, “YOU TALKY MEAT!”.

Angel: “Do you want me to rip that guy’s head off for you? Because, you know, I can. I can actually just rip his head right off his body. I can do that.”
Cordy: “Are you trying to ruin my career? I mean, is this like a conscious effort on your part?”
Angel: “No, I just...”
Cordy: “You need to go. Now. Why are you still here? Go!”
Angel: “Look, I have to ask you a question.”
Cordy: “What?”
Angel: “In your vision, the Haklar demon that you saw, did he eat his victim whole or did he just rip out the liver? ‘Cause, I mean, it’s a funny story, according to my informant, liver-eating Haklar’s have different feeding grounds than people-eaters, and I need to know what kind it was so I can track it down and kill it.”
Cordy: “...I hate my whole life.”

...Does anyone else think that Angel is way more protective of Cordelia here than he has been historically? Is this a prelude to Angel’s romantic feelings for Cordy in the next season or is this a simple case of Angel trying too hard to win Cordelia’s friendship back. Cordelia has accepted Angel back into the group, but there’s no closeness yet. There’s no love yet. Angel has been known to try too hard, so both of these theories have validity. All of the members of Angel Investigations are having a hard time in this episode, but it’s Cordelia’s story that is the most heartbreaking. She just seems so miserable. Her dreams of Hollywood superstardom aren’t materialising, and even if they did, the acting world is a lot less glamorous than she once thought. Just watch the scene right after Cordy’s “I hate my whole life” line. She’s so dejected. She’s trying to walk in two different worlds, but she’s realising that she belongs in neither. The visions are forcing her to remain in the supernatural world (even though she enjoys helping the helpless), while the Hollywood world just gave her the biggest bitch-slap back to reality. Comparingly, the visions are starting to really take a toll on Cordelia’s mental and physical health. The migraines that accompany them are lasting a longer time and the visions themselves are becoming more consuming and real for Cordy. Like Angel, this will be resolved in the short term in Pylea, where Cordy is offered the chance to rid herself of the visions, but it’s not until the next season that Cordelia truly has to make a choice between Angel Investigations and her acting career (“Birthday”).

Cordy: “How was the big fight? All big and fighty?”
Wesley: “We managed to kill the Haklar just as it was about to devour a group of power walkers.”
Angel: “It was horrible.”
Cordy: “I know. I saw it in my stupid vision, remember?”
Angel: “No, not the Haklar, the power walkers. I mean, walking I get, but power walking? Why not just run for a shorter time?...Weird. Plus, one of them hit him.”
Cordy: “A power walker did that?”
Wesley: “Apparently, she felt I’d disrespected the Haklar’s culture by killing it.”
Cordy: “...This town sucks.”


Wesley

Poor, poor Wesley. As I mentioned in the introduction of this review, Wesley is having severe problems settling into his leadership role. He didn’t really choose to be the leader; it was thrust upon him by Angel walking away from his responsibilities. We’ve seen Wesley take some of these leadership duties and thrust them back into the hands of Angel, such as getting more information out of Cordelia about a vision she had in “Dead End”. What “Belonging” affirms for us is why Wesley is so insecure about being a leader. It shows us why Wesley lacks basic self-confidence. These answers come in the form of Wesley’s father. When Wesley calls his father to tell him that he’s now the leader of his group, Wesley’s father shows no pride or enthusiasm over the phone, just resentment and disappointment.

So, what do we know about Wesley’s father from before this episode? Not a great deal. What we do know is that Wesley’s father used to lock him under the stairs as a child, like Harry Potter (“I’ve Got You Under My Skin”), and we’ve listened to Wesley indicate a few times that his father views him as a disappointment. Wesley was fired from the Watcher’s Council and this was seen as yet another disgrace by his father. Much later in the show (the final season), we get to see this relationship dynamic firsthand, as Wesley’s father visits him in Los Angeles. Sure, it turns out to be a robot, not Roger, but if it’s convincing enough to fool Wesley, it must be a rather realistic representation of their relationship. Does Roger not realise how fantastic his son is? Has he not realised how much Wesley has grown? Under Angel’s guidance, Wesley has transformed from a weak, cowardly man who yelps like a puppy if tapped on the shoulder from behind, to a man who is helping the helpless, saving lives, and taking command slowly. Like Angel and Cordelia, Wesley’s story here will be explored in much more depth in Pylea. While in Pylea, Wesley is forced into making leadership decisions. He doesn’t have Angel to hide behind, so he has to do what is needed by himself. You need to look no further than Wesley shutting down Gunn in Pylea with “I’m leading this charge” to see how much Wesley grows in such a short space of time.


Gunn

Gunn has been battling the same internal war all season. Does he remain loyal to his former gang, his family and history, or does he fully establish himself as a member of Angel Investigations. Ultimately, Gunn chooses Angel Investigations as it offers him the chance to help more people...but what is the cost of this choice? Gunn hates vampires, yet he’s working for one. He loves his work, but he’s now helping the helpless at the expense of his former gang. He rarely sees Rondell and George and he hates going back to his old crew because it reminds him of his dead sister, Alonna. Something to note is the similarities between Angel and Gunn’s stories over the second season. Angel turned his back on his adopted family in order to hunt down Wolfram & Hart and Darla. Gunn was the least accepting of Angel’s reintroduction to the group after this, yet isn’t Gunn doing the same thing to Rondell and George? He didn’t fire them or treat them badly, but he did walk out on them. He did turn his back on them whether he meant to or not. What Gunn discovers in this episode is that his old gang is functioning successfully without his leadership or guidance. Gunn realises that he’s been neglecting his former gang and arranges to go with them on a vampire hunt. At the same time, Angel needs Gunn to help him with a demon. Gunn chooses Angel Investigations and the result of this decision is that his friend, George, is killed by vampires. This loss must be particularly brutal for Gunn for two reasons. Firstly, his sister was killed by vampires so this will clearly echo that in his head. Secondly, Gunn was supposed to be there. He arranged to be there. If he had chosen his gang over Angel Investigations, would George have lived? Gunn starts suffering from a serious case of survivor’s guilt. So much so that Gunn initially refuses to go to Pylea with Angel, Wesley, and Lorne because he realises that his loyalty should be to his old gang, not his new one.

Much like the rest of Angel Investigations, Gunn is struggling to belong. Like Cordelia, like Angel, Gunn is trying to half live in two worlds and in doing so he’s alienating himself from both of them. Unlike the other four members of the team, Gunn’s story doesn’t really get addressed in Pylea, it gets addressed at the beginning of the next season (“That Old Gang Of Mine”).


Lorne

This is the first episode that really gives us any information about Lorne outside of the fact that he’s an empath demon with a love of sea breezes. Hell, he’s been in the show for almost an entire season and we didn’t even know his real name! I was starting to think that his birth certificate would really read “The Host”! While giving Caritas a glorious rendition of “Superstition”, a Drokken demon emerges on stage through a portal. This is particularly worrisome for Lorne because Drokken demons are native to his home planet of Pylea. A place that Lorne has been running away from since arriving in Los Angeles. Quickly after this, Lorne’s own cousin, Landok, also arrives in Los Angeles through a portal, and it leads to a very uncomfortable family reunion.

 
Lorne didn’t belong in his own world because he’s a lover, not a fighter. He could hear music in his head in a world where music doesn’t exist. COULD YOU IMAGINE LIVING IN A WORLD WITHOUT MUSIC?! He didn’t want to fight or go to war because he understood both sides of the argument. He grew up in a world where fighting, strength, and power made someone honourable and respected, but Lorne himself resented all of those things and refused to partake in them. While his brothers were off fighting, Lorne stayed behind to chat up the senoritas. Kudos. In Pylea, Lorne is a disgrace. His own ‘mother’ is ashamed of him and Lorne was very much a mockery in his home village. Therefore, when the opportunity arose and a portal opened in front of him, he jumped through it and landed in Los Angeles. He created Caritas on that very spot.

However, due to Lorne’s, erm, colourful appearance and the fact he has horns, he doesn’t belong on Earth...not even the wacky world of Hollywood. Are you starting to notice a pattern yet? Lorne is another character that literally walks in two worlds but belongs to neither. Lorne uses his empathic powers to help people, not to hunt demons like the rest of his kin. Lorne is a demon filled with creativity, passion, and what must be 50% alcohol by this point. What’s wonderful about this episode is that it gives Lorne’s character some meaning. Some semblance of purpose and motivation. How did Lorne arrive in Los Angeles? Why does he have empathic abilities? Why did he create a karaoke bar that serves as a sanctuary for vampires, demons, and humans alike? Why does Lorne feel the need to help people on their path? All of these questions are answered in just 42 minutes of television. After understanding what life was like for Lorne in Pylea, his behaviour in this episode is completely understandable. He wants the Drokken dead and his cousin sent back to Pylea instantly...

Angel: “You know him?”
Lorne: “Yeah, but just because I know his name doesn’t mean you can’t knock him unconscious. Please, continue.”
---------------------------------
Landok: “The Drokken goes this way. The aura is strong, it’s not far.”
Lorne: “...What do you want, a medal?”

Does his sassiness know no bounds?

Lorne’s opinion on the matter is very simple...why go back to a world where he’s disrespected and ridiculed, when he can help people and find a place to belong here? Well, gentle readers, the answer to that question comes in the next episode...

“Belonging” closes on Angel Investigations sending Landok back to Pylea to be healed from the wounds he suffered while fighting the Drokken. There’s just one problem...Cordelia got sucked into the portal with him. Oops.


Quote Of The Episode

Angel: “Acting is her dream job? I mean, that’s the world she really wants to live in? With people like that? I don’t get it!”

Wesley: “Who are you talking about?”

Angel: “Mr. ‘Hey, I’m an L.A. director, you know, shooting a commercial so I must be the centre of the universe’ guy. It’s just, like, if you wanna make it in show business you just pretend you’re on the food chain. I mean, all we do is save the world. And the way he talks to her! It’s like she’s his commodity. Like she’s his slave or something. And you know what the worst part is? She took it. When was the last time Cordy took crap from any of us?”

Gunn: “Never. And the day after never.”

Angel: “Exactly! He’s also got her wearing this flimsy swimsuit that covers, like, nothing.”

*All three guys drift off into daydreamland before quickly snapping out of it.*

Wesley: “Appalling.”

Gunn: “Disgusting.”

Angel: “Right.”


FINAL SCORE: 6.5/10

What are your thoughts on "Belonging"? Did you enjoy this episode? Dislike it? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments section below!

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