-More signs of Angelus’ return - Emotions vs. intellect – Sociability vs. security – Buffy & Spike – Conclusion – Spicy extras for James Marsters’ fans-

Compared to Part 1, What’s My Line Part 2 is less symbolism and more story. The identity issues explored in Part 1 remain, with continued references to names, labels, signs and the like, but they take a back seat to the action. Like the characters in the story, viewers find their emotions better engaged than their intellect in this episode, which includes scenes of fighting, passionate kissing, torture, seething jealousy and roaring flames.

When last we saw Angel in What’s My Line Part 1, he was struggling to escape from a cage while Buffy slept in his bed. It seemed an ominous portent of the escape Angelus will soon make while Buffy sleeps unawares. In Part 2, the foreshadowing continues: Angel has weakened and is near death when Willy pulls him from the cage. In a few weeks time, Angel will weaken and give into his lust for Buffy, experience orgasm (a classic metaphor for a near-death or mini-death experience) and be freed. Later in the episode, Angelus’ return is similarly foreshadowed when Buffy refers to her very brief death and Kendra’s activation - Giles tells her that it doesn’t matter how long she was gone; death is death and all it takes is a moment.

Notice that after he leaves the cage, Angel is dropped down into a sewer no less, and handed over to Spike. He ends up in Spike’s lair, eventually taunting Spike by claiming that Dru is not being sexually satisfied.

Mocking Spike’s manliness will soon become a favorite pastime for Angel(us), but for now, he doesn’t taunt the ultra-sensitive vampire for the simple mean pleasure of hurting him. He has a noble ulterior motive: if he can ignite Spike’s emotions, Spike will lose sight of his goal to use Angel to restore the dangerous Dru to health. It almost works; Spike’s emotions almost get the best of him. He is inches away from staking Angel when Dru stops him.

Goading. What a good word. It’s the perfect word for Angel’s attempt to trigger Spike’s temper, and for what happens over and over in this episode – some examples:

• Dru tortures Angel by teasing his guilt to the surface -reminding him very vividly of the way he murdered her family members, one-by-one.
• Cordelia & Xander provoke each other into such a fevered state that they end up in a spontaneous, passionate clinch (twice).
• Spike’s kidnapping of Angel pushes Buffy over the edge: "Spike is going down . . . nobody messes with MY boyfriend!" (bad news for Spike in Season 2, good news in Season 7).
• Buffy deliberately goads Kendra into anger by claiming she could "kick her butt."
• Taraka assassin Patrice unwittingly gives Kendra the extra oomph she needs to defeat her by ruining Kendra’s favorite shirt.
• Xander lures bug-man assassin Norman Pfister to his doom by taunting him: "Hey larvae boy! Yeah, that’s right, I’m talkin’ to you, ya big cootie!"

Emotions. Are they a weakness, as Kendra claims, or "total assets" as Buffy claims? Looking at the list above we see examples of both – and as the episode progresses, we see that success depends on finding the right balance between emotions and coolness, instinct and intellect, spontaneity and planning. As Buffy learns when Kendra’s dead serious approach saves her from Patrice, there’s something to be said for Kendra’s viewpoint as well as her own.

But it is not only emotion that Kendra claims to disdain. She also questions Buffy’s investment in her social life – the importance she places on friends and family. References to animals (dogs, horses, lions, monkeys) and frequent mention of the need for "a plan" are used to emphasize the instinct vs. intellect question. But if you listen closely, you will also notice a nearly continuous use of the word "friend" (buddy, amigo) in this episode, and the frequent mention of family members (e.g., Willy’s mother, Spike’s like a brother, Dru’s uncle).

So . . . are friends and family a threat to security and a distraction, as Kendra claims? Or are they essential to a Slayer’s success, as Buffy seems to feel? Again, we find that balance and discrimination are needed. Willy, who claims to be everyone’s friend, ends up helping no one. Buffy’s attachment to others makes her both vulnerable and stronger.

Note that bugman Pfister can only be killed in his disassembled state – again, the integration of all our parts and pieces into a harmonious whole is touted as the best route to success. To defeat Spike in this episode, Buffy needs her emotions and her intellect, her spontaneity and her plans, her friends and her ability to stand alone.

Parallels between Buffy & Spike continue to be drawn in this episode, and the heat between them is turned up another notch.

HANDBOOKS ARE OUT: BUFFY knows her stuff, but as Giles tells Kendra, Buffy is not one for following rules in a handbook. SPIKE learns the restoration ritual and performs it with appropriate solemnity, but right after a dramatic burst of light signals its success he adds: "Right then! Now we just let them come to a simmering boil, and remove to a low flame." Spike has apparently been using the back of a Rice-a-Roni box, as well as Dalton’s translation of ancient Latin text, to come up with his incantations.

JEALOUSY IS IN: SPIKE is jealous when he notices Dru’s attraction to Angel and his more practiced and patient sexual techniques - the pre-show is her favorite part; Spike’s not one for the pre-show (Dru, girl, I feel your pain). BUFFY is jealous when she notices Giles’ obviously high level of approval for Kendra’s more studied, planned Slaying methods. Giles loves to read and prepare; Buffy’s not one for the books.

FIRE IS ESSENTIAL: BUFFY tells Kendra a Slayer needs fire. At the end of the episode, it is SPIKE who is literally providing the fire by setting the church aflame with the toss of a torch. Fire & torches, torches & fire – this is not the last we’ll see of this symbolism for Buffy & Spike’s connection.

And the dialogue between Buffy and Spike also reinforces their link. Spike takes such undisguised pleasure in taunting Buffy. Noticing Buffy’s horror at the sight of Angel he says with delight: "It bugs me too, seeing him like that. Another five minutes though, and Angel will be dead. So I forbear. Don’t feel too bad for Angel though, he’s got something you don’t have . . . five minutes."

Later, Buffy, as she did in Halloween, takes uncharacteristically overt and unrestrained pleasure in her Slayerhood when she knocks out Spike by hitting him in the head with a heavy incense burner: "I’m good!" she gloats.

It’s no wonder then, that Buffy & Spike have this exchange when they first start fighting, right after Buffy and Kendra switch opponents at Buffy’s request:

Spike: "I’d rather be fighting you anyway."

Buffy: "Mutual."

There’s something there. They can feel it, even if they can’t yet name it.

And soon, Buffy & Spike both will find themselves sidelined by their respective lovers, Dru & Angel. Buffy makes a throwaway comment to Xander in this episode about his involvement with the Preying Mantis lady in Season 1. But is the mention of a creature that kills her mate after one coupling really a throwaway line? And poor powerless Spike – by the end of the episode the tables have completely turned. He is no longer Dru’s hero, but is suddenly the weaker half, the one in need of restoration.

This episode marks the first time Spike’s virility is openly questioned – by Angel’s suggestion that Spike doesn’t know how to keep Dru sexually sated. It will be Season 7 before the nearly constant assault on Spike’s manhood lessens, before the wheelchair and the chip are gone and the continuous allusions to softness and neutering come to an end. And this is Season 2! There are literally years of ceaseless references to his impotence ahead of him, and it will become a wonder that Spike manages to keep it up – you know, keep up his enormous appetite for the world, keep up his enormous fighting ability, keep up his enormous. . . fighting ability.

But there is a method to this madness, so let’s forbear.

Spicy extras for James Marsters’ fans

• If you have the Season 2 DVD, play What’s My Line Part 2 with the Marti Noxon commentary running in the background. When you get to the scene where Spike is cutting Angel’s ropes to take him to the church, listen for Marti to begin talking about James. She calls him very "dear" and tells us about how she had to reassure him he was "hot" and would have no trouble finding a new girlfriend after a difficult break-up.
• I also want to mention the nicely passionate kiss between Spike & Dru, the one that makes Angel turn his head in . . . what? Disgust? Guilt? Guilt because he sees the once chaste Dru in a lip-lock with the evil, lecherous Spike? Or does Angel feel some guilt for William’s fate as well as Dru’s, since he is indirectly responsible for it as well? This scene has always made me wonder about Angel’s feelings for both Dru & Spike.