Analysis #2

Angel episode:Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?
The title of this episode suggests the time in which this episode takes place, the 1950s, specifically making reference to the question posed to many witnesses testifying in the McCarthy hearings on Communism. The title hints to the main idea or plot of this story, which is, I believe, how easily people are manipulated when they are fearful and paranoia infiltrates the environment they are in.

In this episode Angel asks his investigative team to look into the history of The Hyperion Hotel in Los Angeles. In the flashback scenes we learned that he(Angel) was once a resident at this hotel and that his presents was not exactly welcome. We learn further that there is a demon that inhabits the hotel, he feeds on the negative emotions of the hotels occupants, specifically fear and hate. I felt that in the period of time Angel was living in this hotel he was very much in the midst of a personal struggle, in transition from the vampire he was to the being what he is at present and perhaps this was the reason behind his less than forthcoming attitude toward this particular investigation. Possibly he was embarrassed or ashamed of this period in his life.

Angel, eventually leaves the hotel and its occupants to the Demon. This was the part that puzzled me the most. Angel knew that the Demon was highly manipulative and he even told Judy that "There's something in this Hotel, something that's making people crazy." So, it seems somewhat strange to me that Angel is surprised when Judy betrays him as being guilty of the murder of the candle salesman, after all he must have had some idea that the suicide was provoked by this presence, especially given the fact that there had been two other suicides at the hotel in the past 3 months. a If this Demon could drive someone to kill himself it could certainly be the primary reason Judy betrays Him in the end. Also, while consoling Judy when she is recanting the reasons she was fired from her position at the bank in Kansas, Angel stated "Fear makes people do stupid things." in reference to Judy's supervisors. This also seemed a little out of place given how Angel behaves during his first interaction with the Demon after his attempted hanging. Is Angel manipulated by the Demon? I would say not in the scents that the Hotel guests are. Watching the first exchange between the Demon and Angel it would certainly seem, by the look on Angels face that he did feel let down by his new friend. I would say that most certainly the Demon was manipulating Angel but I would also say that Angel allowed himself to be manipulated, because the Demon certainly didn't have the same power over Angel as he did over the Hotel residents. Maybe this is going out on a limb here but for one moment consider what the life of a vampire must be like, I wonder how many unpleasant encounters with people Angel has had up to that point in his life, probably quite a few. I would guess that his unpleasant dealings with people were the reason he was portrayed as so reclusive at the beginning of the episode.

I believe that Angel was patially if not fully aware of the Demon's intentions to manipulate him. After all he was returning to the Hotel(1952 Angel)with implements to kill the Demon, clearly the Demon was aware of this and I would suspect that Angel would have known that the Demon would try and resist his own destruction, by using his stongest weapon, his influence on the people surrouning Angel. Given the above sited points I found it strange Angel would have given up so easily. The conclusion that I came to was that he left the hotel and its occupants to the Demon because he just didn't care about people enough at this point in his life to stick around and defend them, especially,one could assume, after a lifetime of being persecuted by people. Wanting to correct this wrong, and I believe having changed over time, led Angel back to this hotel to confront this demon and possibly his own demons.

There is, however, another way of looking at this. If you believe that the power of manipulation the Demon had over Angel was complete than it would stand that the majority of Angel's actions in this episode are influenced by the Demon. From Angel's initial defence of Judy to his purchasing of items to kill the Demon. One thing that Angel said that may support this idea was in response to the bookstore owner's question So why does a vampire want to help a bunch of humans? Angel responds that he wasn't sure. It could be that the Demon would benefit from equally or possibly more to Angel's fear,paranoia and, eventually hatred even though his fears and paranoia were based in reality. If you think about it Angel's behavior could be compared to the behavior of the other hotel residence. The difference being that he was somewhat aware of what was taking place and the occupants of the hotel were not.

If I had to guess I would say it's more the former rather than the latter but it is impossible to say with any type of accuracy due to the fact that we are not vampires or demon nor do we live in 1952. So our analysis is only as good as our own personal experiences and while I feel this episode is a metaphor and obviously not based on events that could take place, one could still place yourself in the shoes of the characters and try and think like they think or might think if they weren't fictional.