Angel’s still crazy, Faith’s still frantic, and Spike’s making a guest appearance in this month’s issue of the comic. The fact that Spike seems not that concerned about his Grandsire’s mental state masks how much he cares for Angel. I mean, they’re not best friends or anything, but they’re reluctant family. Sometimes, you have to step up, even when you don’t want to.
Note: This recap may contain spoilers!
Alasdair got to have his brief moment of madness, yelling at Faith over the fact that she didn’t prevent the whole “Angel has three personas inside him now”, but he’s soon shut down on that and put back on track of finding an actual solution. In the meantime, they need to put Angel somewhere safe, where he can’t harm himself or others, if Angelus deems to come out to play. Spike’s not so convinced that Alasdair’s not already got the solution stashed somewhere in his magical items, and perhaps the vampire is partly right. If they had the Essuary, then they could begin the attempt to separate Giles and Angel, but that magical object is currently owned by a coven of Enders. Those monsters are really bad news, and their reputation precedes them. They don’t just harvest souls, they eat them. Of course Spike and Faith have to go up against impossible monsters, of course they do.
Upon initial attack, it looked like Spike’s soul might be in danger, but miraculously he managed to escape still intact. Well, his soul was, but his pride starts a continuous bruising, first at the hands of Faith who turns down his attempts to flirt with the notion that he’s no longer the bad boy, but instead more like Angel than he cares to admit. Yes, Spike is a vampire with a soul who is hung up on Buffy, but that doesn’t make him Angel. I can empathize with the outrage Spike felt at that implication, and I very much liked that he utilized that rage into slaying every single Ender that they came up against. Use the anger, it will serve you well, Spike.
And poor Spike’s pride gets another beating when they return to the house and his attempted flirting with Giles’s aunts gets shut down, too. Alone and sad, he retreats to a side chair to drown his sorrows in alcohol as the rest of the group figures out how to conduct the spell that will solve their problems, albeit temporarily. And if that seclusion wasn’t enough, he’s then sent downstairs to sit with crazy Angel to make sure he doesn’t escape while they put their plan into action and attempt to extract the Watcher’s soul from the vampire’s body. Alcohol plus Spike plus bruised ego equals lots of depressing revelations over how Buffy has ruined his life and he will never be the same as he once was. Neither he nor Angel really got over the Slayer, but Angel’s been slightly better at covering his pain. Then again, I’ve always thought Angel was permanently sad, so it’s hard to tell when heartbreak is affecting him.
Once the whole soul-removal thing goes off without a hitch, everything seems to be in place for the next stage of “Operation Resurrect Giles.” Honestly, I was surprised that it did seem to go off without any negative ramifications, like we skipped over all the exciting parts and just rushed back to the boring portion of the storyline. The only uptick we got, right at the end, was the reveal of a naked Harmony and Spike in the bathroom where they were getting their sexy times on. Yes, apparently Spike’s therapy for getting over Buffy is to have sex with Harmony again. I don’t know why, I don’t want to fathom it, but it happened and we can just move on, looking forward to the future where Giles will hopefully be back in his body and Harmony will be back in her clothes. Until then, the mental scarring will remain.
Rating: 3 / 5 Stars
