Angel Investigated - 5.13 Why We Fight

Posted by Jason Chamberlain on 01.04.2012

Angel receives a visit from an old friend from the Second World War!

5.13 Why We Fight
Writer: Steven S. DeKnight and Drew Goddard
Director: Terrence O'Hara

Whedon Speak

Nostroyev: Angelus. Used to be quite the terror back in the day. Haven't heard much of you lately, though.
Angel: Haven't heard much of you, ever.
Nostroyev: Nostroyev! Scourge of Siberia and butcher of Alexander Palace.
Angel: Sorry.
Nostroyev: I was Rasputin's lover!

Angel: Pipe down. I'm trying to work.
Spike: Oh, "pipe down." That official sailor talk, is it? Well, ahoy, matey. You can just swab my deck.

Case Files

Camden Toy (Prince of Lies) has also appeared on Buffy as the Ubervamp, Gnarl and one of the Gentlemen.

Here we are, back from our extended (and unannounced – sorry about that) holiday break. I know our reviews have been infrequent of late, but we’re back on track for the rest of this great series.

Jason Chamberlain has the full review!

I think that this episode generally gets a bad rap, and it’s not hard to understand why. It’s sandwiched between the epic 100th episode and the equally epic (albeit for different reasons) Angel as a puppet episode. In contrast to those two efforts, this one doesn’t stand up so well, but it’s actually not a bad little standalone episode, IMO.

Firstly, I always enjoy glimpses at Angel’s past, and we also get a bonus as Spike is in this flashback as well. You might say he’s shoe horned in just to get James Marsters into the episode, but I will never complain about too much Marsters.

“What was Angel doing during World War Two” is an interesting premise for an episode. He’s moping, of course, but it’s really cool to see an early iteration of Buffy Season 4’s Initiative bust in on him and force him to help with the war effort. Given their supernatural powers, it’s easy to understand why our boys in uniform would want some vampires on their team. Of course, Hitler had the same idea, bringing together a motley crew that included Spike, Nostroyev (Rasputin’s lover!) and the Prince of Lies. Come on. How awesome is Prince of Lies? How awesome is Angel yelling “Prince of Lies!”? Awesome, awesome character.

With the framing device of Angel’s old sailing buddy Lawson coming back to haunt him in the present day, it gives the WW2 stuff a ticking bomb element. We know the poor guy is gonna get vamped, but by who, and how? The realization that Angel himself is forced to turn Lawson so that he can ‘live’ long enough to save the failing sub is a powerful one, even though the concept of Angel ‘passing on’ part of his soul in the turning process is a little unexplained. Lawson’s treatise on how much his vampire life has sucked because of this is another reason to wonder why he waited so long to take his revenge on Angel (or, as seemed to be his real intention, simply to die at his hand).

Nevertheless, the final moments between them (“Give me a mission”) are actually pretty touching. It’s easy to see why Angel is always so broody when he is constantly reminded of the lives he has destroyed, even when trying to do the right thing.

The gang, of course, is relegated to hostage duty this week, and Spike (in the present) is conveniently absent until the end. But the show is called ‘Angel’ after all.

Jeremy Thomas	In retrospect, I always looked on "Why We Fight" as a lesser episode in the Season Five catalogue. The whole thing just always seemed gimmicky to me when I was remembering back and I thought they were trying to rein it back after the amazing "You're Welcome" in order to pace the season. Rewatching it I still think it's not one of the best episodes by any stretch but it was better than I thought. This is an episode that on the surface is very similar to "Somnambulist" in Season One where one of Angel's past sirings comes back to haunt him. However, this one has the added context of touching on what happened to someone sired while Angel had a soul. It seems to have some spiritual repercussions, though they're not delved into fully. Overall I didn't hate this; there are problems but it works fine as a relaxation after the emotional highs and lows of the previous episode. There's nothing wrong with the occasional break.	6.5
Ronny Sarnecky	The “Why We Fight” episode was a stand-alone show during this season of “Angel.” After watching this episode, it should have been a “left alone” episode, as opposed to a stand-alone episode. For once, Joss Whedon presented a flashback episode that was boring. We learned that Angel sired a vampire after Angel regained his soul. Did this guilt impact Angel in any way? No. Does this revelation have a lasting impact on the rest of the series? No. Then, does anybody really care about it? I know that I do not. The only thing that I found ironic in regards to “Why We Fight” was that Angel talked about not getting trapped in the bottom of the sea, and Spike discusses not being experimented on by the US government. Both of these incidences would wind up eventually happening. Connor would trap Angel in a box, and toss him into the ocean. The Initiative would capture Spike, and implant a chip inside his head in order to neuter him from attacking humans. If you decided to skip this episode, you didn’t miss much. Now, if you miss the next episode, you need to grab a DVD of that show.	5
Mike Gorman	The problem with "Why We Fight" is not that it is yet another Whedon flashback episode. I actually tend to really enjoy learning more about our heroes back stories, but not this time. Instead of flowing organically from the current storyline, this episode always felt more forced to me. Like it was a failed attempt to shoe-horn a Spike appearance into yet another part of Angel's history. I am not really 100% sure why but this time around it falls very flat. It could also be that this episode had the unfortunate lot in life to fall immediately after the fantastic "Your Welcome." It would be near impossible to top last week's story. "Why We Fight" left me with a trite feeling of "meh." .	6

GRR!!! ARGH!!!

The 411: A solid if unspectacular episode. Gotta love the flashbacks.

Final Score:  7.0   [ Good ]