After watching last night’s Angel, I have a new theory based on the question of just what role each person has in the Devourer’s arrival or defeat. After all, Skip told us all of them were manipulated into being where they were.
(Spoilers follow)
Angel and Darla had to be brought back from hell and death to produce Connor, who would become “Jasmine’s” father and champion. Lorne’s connection to the Powers led Angel to bargain for Darla’s life, a bargain which made Connor’s birth possible. Cordy’s visions paved the way for her to become part-demon and then ascend to a higher plane, enabling the devourer to return with her and be born.
But Skip also specifically mentioned Fred and Gunn: her trip to Pylea and his sister(‘s death?): both events that led to them joining Angel Investigations.
Two shows back, it was clear that Fred’s purpose was to be the first to see the truth and start the revolution. But Wes and Gunn’s roles remained unclear.
Now it turns out that Gunn has a role in defeating Jasmine. Him knowing someone in the group they found in the sewers led them to stick around and find the demon from another world, giving them – as Wes said – their first break. And who but Wes could have gotten the creature talking long enough to find out she’s a Rumpelstiltskin without being killed?
A few weeks ago (at the end of the Angelus subplot), we were wondering just how evil Cordy was, and Katie theorized that she might not be evil after all: she might just be seeing the big picture.
Maybe there is no rogue faction among the Powers. Suppose all the manipulations both in favor and against Jasmine’s triumph were deliberately made by the same beings: Powers doing what they have to, risking a world in order to destroy a threat.
Sometimes when something unpleasant is inevitable, you’re better off making sure it happens on your terms instead of someone else’s. And just maybe the Devourer could not be defeated without first becoming incarnate.
So the Powers bring together a group of mortals with two purposes: to bring the Devourer to Earth, and to defeat her.
All in the service of the big picture.
Are the senior partners at Wolfram and Hart still intact? Consider their extensive interest and influence: They brought Darla back, they’ve been all over Angel from the start, they were obsessed with baby Connor, and the beast wiped out their earthly representatives when it stole the thingy from the girl in the white room.
So, they don’t want the Devourer on Earth because she can’t control them and will therefore want to annihilate them. Easy enough to understand why they would bring Darla back–they worked like crazy trying to figure out Lorne’s vision from Jasmine/Cordy and never did, so they couldn’t have had the whole story.
But they also used Cordy and her visions to get Angel to rescue Skip’s prisoner, the wealthy chauvenist demon in the fire cage (remind anyone of Caleb? Coincidence? And is it just me or does Jasmine represent everything bastards like Caleb fear in women? In either case, neither is a good representative of his or her gender).
Perhaps we’re seeing inklings of a larger epic battle between ancient rival evils? Such a story could easily unfold if the series continues.
W&H wanted to make Angel into Angelus, but so did the Devourer. She put up quite a fight when Willow re-ensouled him, and even tried to get Connor to kill him at that point. And it seemed like we didn’t get the whole conversation when Angel expressed his concerns about losing his soul again if he became too happy. Jasmine said something to the effect that she had a plan to deal with that, but we never heard it. Further, he’s been especially cold lately, and although we can easily attribute that to the circumstances, there might be more to it.
Maybe she can’t devour vampires (they lacking souls?) and they’re in competition for food. Or perhaps she has some other connection with their kind. Connor is a demon with a connection to vamps. Vamps feed on blood and are sired via blood. Jasmine’s blood is problematic and her former followers practice thaumaturgy. . .
Back to Wolfram and Hart. They seem to have quite an influence in Pylea and their agents were the ones advocating the comshack which would transfer Cordy’s visions to the Grusilag. Would this have merely prevented the Devourer’s arrival, or perhaps more?
And certainly Pylea has some significance for vampires, given that it brings out that scaly blue look for them. Was that just a rough draft of the Tulakhan that Joss scrapped, or something more. And speaking of the Tulakhan, we’re back to the First.
So where am I going with this? Just that I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Wolfram and Hart.