Does the Shanshu thing mean that Spike gets the prize? Of course, he'd have to survive the fight.

I'm not so sure Angel could sign away the Shanshu if it's his destiny. Somehow "The House Always Wins" left me with the feeling that Angel would avert the Apocalypse and he would Shanshu, no ifs, ands or buts. It's Prophecy. Buffy found out the hard way that Prophecy happens. You can subvert it after the fact, but not before.

The certain thing is that some souled vampire is going to get the Shanshu - so it could be neither Angel nor Spike. Or people could be working off an incorrect translation and it actually means something entirely different - not that he'll just be made human, but that he'll be returned to his human life before he was turned.

not that he'll just be made human, but that he'll be returned to his human life before he was turned.

Maybe Angel's already Shanshu'ed, and he got sent back it time to become Liam again, and that's where we picked up the story. Bum bum BUM!

I was doing okay and dealing with my grief and then the WB's thank you came up and ...

uh, yeah, that's when the large font and the boldface happened.

Anyway. Slowly collecting thoughts:

There's a lot of fruitful ambiguity in key moments to chew over, but I come down in favor of Angel having told Lorne to kill Lindsey, because of the bitterness in the last Angel/Lorne exchanges and because of the way Angel told Eve Lindsey wasn't coming back. And I think that this offers a final twist or a final confirmation on the corruption that's seemed to be going on this season, that actually was going on this season -- the corruption or the pragmatism, take your pick.

Angel had good reason to suspect Lindsey would flip sides; the only way to make sense of Lindsey's motivation for this season is to go back to S1 and the beginning of S2, and how it was squeamishness more than conscience that drove Lindsey to good deeds in S1, and personal loss and betrayal more than morality that drove Lindsey to walk out on W&H in S2. When we first met Lindsey, he was a scholarship boy eaten up by wanting the things he'd never had, and staring in the abyss of his own hunger even after he'd taken that sweet-sour bite; so he left it all behind, but ambition and resentment and wanting (Angel, or W&H, or just whatever prize he could get)--these things took over.

I could have used more backup for that interpretation this season, but I'm willing to go with it.

So we have Lindsey, and he's unreliable. And even if he's reliable, he wants W&H. He wants to be the new king after the old one dies. Killing him off delays W&H's recuperation, even if only for a little while. Killing him off stretches out that pyrrhic victory, just a bit more.

And at the same time, it's Angel sacrificing an ally, if not an innocent. Like Angel sacrificed Drogyn. Angel choosing the lesser evil for a greater goal. If his dearest friends are potential sacrifices on the altar of this victory, damn sure he's gonna throw Lindsey on the pyre, too.

Lorne's bitterness may be that he's not the guy who likes violence; that he can't stand seeing the good guys make bad choices; that people he cared for are dead, and he's left with nothing, not even who he thought he was.

That was beautiful. What a send-off. For me, it was note-perfect.

t sigh And now I really do have to study. But, so good.

Had a great time at Trudy's viewing party (thanks Trudy and guests!).

Alas, plane to catch in the morning so no time to read the comments or sum up my feelings, except I thought it a flawless end to a great season. (And, y'know, series.)

I thought the "thanks from your friends at the WB who stabbed you in the back" was also sort of fitting in a Bush's America kind of way.

When I get back I promise to read all gazillion Angel posts I missed. (Or maybe not ALL...)

What Micole said.

I'm sifting through old Angel-related LJ entries, and I found this exchange between Cindy and me, from right after the cancellation was announced:

Cindy: I'd like him to reach a decision that he doesn't want to Shanshu--that he'll deliberately remain a vampire.

Me: I think I'd like that too.

I wanna tell you how it?s gonna be

You?re gonna give your love to me

Love that lasts more than one day

Well love is love and not fade away

Well love is love and not fade away

Well love is love and not fade away

Well love is love and not fade away

Not fade away

Not fade away

And love is why they fight: love for the world and the people in it, love for what might be better than it is. Cf. Angel's speech to Illyria in "Shells," before Wesley shoots Knox.

Or:

Go out in a burst of glory; don't fade away.

Or:

"Why We Fight" prefigured the season's end thematically, the way we all kinda suspected it did: because death isn't the worst thing that can happen to a hero. Because heroes are willing to die, if their cause is just. Lawson dies, and (unknowing) sells his soul, to complete a mission; Angel kills him, and damns him, for a greater cause. So Wesley dies, and Lindsey's damned, and Lorne damns himself, and Angel goes down fighting a dragon (you know he always wanted to be a knight in shining armor), and they all go down fighting the good fight, in the end.

They're compromised knights in stained armor. Angel arranged for the death of one ally and killed another himself. He violated what he wanted to be, he betrayed the ideals he proclaimed when giving speeches to Cordelia and Illyria, and he did it for the same reason the security head in "Conviction" fought him: for conviction. For his ideals.

And Gunn has the wrist stakes, like Wesley in S4, like Angel in "City of"; he's inherited the fight. And Connor lives; there's something worth fighting for, maybe there's someone out there who will take up the fight.

I don't see this as an unambiguous triumph. But I do see it as a triumph just the same.

I said I'd be happy with a tragic ending as long as it was a heroic tragedy and not a nihilistic one; a heroic tragedy is what I got, and I'm happy with it.

Except for the part where the WB cheated me of an extra year because they're FUCKING BASTARDS.

For people who've been avoiding entertainment news for fear of spoilers, in an interview earlier this week, Joss said that the theme/arc of S6, had they gotten one, would have been:

"If you buck the system and do your best to make it collapse, what if it does?"