Cangel Analysis Part 6: Season 3 Part 1
Ah, Season 3 - or as I like to call it, The Season of Cangel. Because Season 3 is so much more Cangel-Centric than any other season, I’m going to divide this one in quarters rather than halves. So Episodes 1-6 of Season 3, Coming right up.
Heartthrob opens with Angel returning home after taking a spiritual retreat to deal with Buffy’s death. The majority of the episode focuses on Cordy trying to get Angel to talk about his feelings in the matter, while a vampire from Angelus’ past pursues him looking for revenge. In the final scene of the episode, Angel admits to Cordy that he’s okay, and that he worries about the fact that he’s okay. Losing Buffy, Angel says, didn’t kill him. Why, one wonders, was Angel able to deal with losing the love of his life? I’ve heard some people compare Angel’s reaction with Spike’s reaction to Buffy’s death, usually in order to compare Bangel with Spuffy. While I definately lean towards the latter category, compare Angel and Spike’s situations in Season 5/Season 2. Angel has a job, good friends, a very important woman in his life (Cordelia) and hasn’t really seen Buffy in over a year. Spike has no job, lives a miserable chipped life with pretty much no friends besides Buffy and Dawn, and was hated by the only woman he loved at the time (Buffy); also he witnessed Buffy’s death first-hand, so of course his reaction is stronger. But on top of that, Angel had moved on from Buffy. He makes that much pretty clear with his actions in this episode. Even though he claims to James that Buffy was the one he loved, a part of me wonders if he only said that to keep James from harming Cordy. James had (and who can blame him?) mistaken Cordelia for Angel’s girlfriend (”I’m gonna kill the woman you love.”) Considering that the writers had already planned to take Angel/Cordy to the next level this season, that had to be deliberate on their part. And Cordy is there for Angel in this episode, and willing to do whatever it takes to move him through this time.
Angel mourns the idea that since losing Buffy didn’t kill him, perhaps he never felt love, like James told him. But the truth is, Angel just hasn’t found “The one” yet. Buffy mattered, and Darla was a major influence, but neither relationship had the closeness or intimacy of Angel/Cordy. When Angel loses Cordy in Season 5, it pretty much destroys him; you can see it in his actions and how he basically goes for a suicide run to destroy the senior partners, now that he has nothing left.
That Vision Thing is all about Angel/Cordy, with Lilah invading Cordelia’s mind with fake visions and torturing her to get to Angel. When Cordy goes to the bathroom to try and recover from her vision pain, Angel insists on checking in on her. Cordy tries to pretend that nothing’s wrong. This is a key aspect of Cordy’s personality - she wants to deal with her pain alone. Also, Cordy hates looking vulnerable. Anyone seeing that she has feelings, that she’s fallable, even her best friend in all the world, is a repugnant idea to her. Cordy is grateful whenever Angel helps her, but she won’t be a damsel and she won’t be a burden. One thing I’ve noticed about Angel’s love life is that he tends to go for short blonde gals who give of the impression of being vulnerable, just like Darla does, her trademark of pretending to be sweet and needy. But Cordelia is very different from Angel’s usual type. She’s tall, brunette, and tough as nails. Not that Darla and Buffy are weak, (or Nina, Spike and Kate, for that matter) but that they give off the impression of being that way, of being someone who needs rescuing. Nobody is going to mistake Cordelia for a damsel in need of saving, not if she can help it.
As Fred points out in this ep when she calls Cordy “Angel’s lassie”, Cordy is more than another damsel needing saving to Angel - she’s an equal and a partner. And Angel is more than a meal ticket to Cordy. She tells him “Sure, I hate looking and feeling like this, but if I lose the visions, I won’t be able to help you anymore. You wouldn’t need me.” Cordy can’t stand the idea of not being useful to Angel. She’s gone from trying anything she can to get rid of the visions to enduring them for Angel’s sake. Angel tells Cordy “That’s not why I need you.” Angel needs Cordy for her spunk and energy, for her support and connection to humanity, for her love and caring for him, and her strength and determination. The visions are just an add-on.
Angel finds out what Lilah’s been up to, and not only kills the guy she’s been using to hack into Cordy’s head, but threatens to kill Lilah too if she comes at him through Cordelia ever again. Now in Season 2, Angel locked a bunch of evil, but human lawyers in a room with killer vampires,and later on in that season realized his mistake. Angel has rules against killing humans. But when it comes to Cordy, those rules go out the door.
In “That Old Gang of Mine”, each member of Angel Investigations is put to a test to see where their loyalties lie. Wesley defends Angel against any cricism, Gunn’s loyalties waver in a criss, and Fred, the newest, most mysterious member of the gang, proves her loyalty in the clinch. But Cordy’s loyalties are never tested or even questioned, because at this point doing so would be ridiculous. Cordy is practically married to Angel Investigations; she took on the visions and sacrificed most of her career for the sake of helping the helpless. She shows some annoyance and jealousy towards the Three Furies, who Angel has some kind of a sexual history with - and specifically Angel, not Angelus. Cordy will continue to be annoyed at every one of Angel’s past dalliances over the course of Season 3.
In “Carpe Noctem”, Cordy confronts Angel about Fred’s crush on him and insists that he confirm to Fred that they didn’t go on a date the night before. In Cordy’s own words, she tells him “She’s got the big puppy love. I mean, who wouldn’t? You’re handsome, and brave, and heroic…” Angel perks up at these compliments, grinning big time; Cordelia dishing out complements is quite rare, and indeed she immediately backhands it with “Emotionally stunted, erratic, prone to turning evil, and let’s face it, a eunic.” Angel’s smile slips away and he immedately gets defensive, displaying how important Cordy’s opinion is to him. He agrees to tell Fred, but quickly jumps on any excuse not to. He shows jealousy towards Cordy when she flirts with the guys at the gym. Angel gets his body transferred with an evil old man throughout the majority of the episode, and of course Cordelia is the first to figure out what’s wrong - “Doing the mystery dance with some cheap blonde?” “Brunette, it was a brunette.” “You’re right. This isn’t like him.” The episode ends with Cordy revealing that Buffy is alive again.
In “Fredless”, Cordy opens the ep by mocking Angel and Buffy’s relationship, in a scene that I really enjoy, mostly because I always found Buffy/Angel to be very overblown in its execution. So seeing the oh-so big and important romance between them get taken down a peg is kind of satisfying. But from a Cangel point of view, this once again marks Cordy displaying hostility towards a romance of Angel’s that isn’t her. Later on in the ep, Angel is again over-sensitive to a criticsm of Cordy’s (”You think I’m fat?”) and way too eagar to get patched up by Cordelia after a fight (”Ooh! It’s my turn!”). I like the contrast in Angel and Cordy’s very casual, everyday relationship, which involves lots of little moments sprinkled throughout episodes, to Buffy and Angel’s melodramatic “big” romance, which tended to be composed of scenes like the one Wes and Cordy mock in the intro. The reason Angel and Cordy were never as overblown is because theirs is a relationship that’s built to last. Joss Whedon described Angel and Buffy as being “very Romeo and Juliet - it happens and then it’s over.” That was the problem with their relationship. It was the kind that worked well in between battle situations and dramatic confrontations, but would fizzle if they tried being together on a day-to-day basis.
In “Billy”, Angel starts training Cordelia in combat. The episode deals largely with sexism, and how men treat women. Angel is the only guy who is resistant to Billy’s primal rage powers because of his inherent lack of hatred for his victims. Even though he’ll always be there to protect her, Angel doesn’t see Cordelia as the damsel who needs saving, and Cordy won’t be that herself. She takes charge, learning self-defense, and even helps save the day in this episode .Cordy and WEs have a discussion that puts both their thoughts on dating into the spotlight. Cordy has gotten to the point where she thinks perhaps their all better off being alone. That’s a pretty depressing thought, but consider that apart from Groo, who lives in Pylea, Cordy hasn’t had a date since Season 1′s “Expecting”. Not exactly the best romantic impression.
Cordy inssits on staying at Angel’s side, even after he’s touched by Billy’s power and, as far as she knows, Angel will kill her. But Cordy is just that loyal to Angel - and I think Angel kept his speech ambiguous because he wanted to see how Cordy would react.
At this point in Season 3, Angel is almost conscious of being in love with Cordelia. He hasn’t quite had the epiphany yet, but he knows that she’s the most important person in his life, and that he shares a relationship with her unlike any he’s ever had. Darla was a kind of dark mistress, even a mother figure (ew) to Angelus and to Angel; Buffy was very much a “high school romance”, even though Angel wasn’t in high school. Bangel had all the earmarks of dramatic teen romance, the kind that’s exciting and dramatic while it lasts, but doesn’t promise much of a relationship in the long-run. Cangel, however, is an adult romance. Angel and Cordelia were best friends long before they realized they were in love, and ultimately that kind of slow-burn attraction makes for a partnership between equals - ultiately a more rewarding romance than one based on hormonal lust.
Cordelia too has Angel as the most important person in her life. But she has other friends, and other priorities, and a life outside of him too, which helps to make the relationship less co-dependent than a high school romance might be. Cordy has had lots of dates here and there, but only one serious boyfriend, her disastrous and lust-based fling with Xander. And just like Angel’s past relationships, that one was nothing like what she has with Angel. To Cordy, Angel is a friend and a partner. He’s someone she finds desirable, but also her ally in danger. Their relationship functions more like a marriage than a tryst or even a platonic friendship. Even though the universe contrives to keep them apart in later seasons, they still had the strongest relationship in either one of their lives.
PArt 7 will cover Episodes 7-11. Prepare for the son.
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