If I’m not mistaken, this was David Boreanaz’ debut as a director. And what a debut; if “Harm’s Way” can be likened to “The Zeppo”, then “Soul Purpose” is much like “Primeval” — or what it was the final episode of “Buffy”’s season four was called. Or rather, that’s what it reminded me of, and that’s more because of the surreal dream sequences, since this one was less prophetic than the “Buffy” one.

So, enough with the comparisons; those are rarely accurate anyway. Instead, let’s have a look at the specifics.

The most striking feature about this episode — however amazing Lindsey’s use of Doyle’s name and referrals to season one — is how true it stays to the season’s theme That is, Angel’s — and the rest of the gang’s, but Angel’s in particular — handling of their new situation. Obviously, Angel’s beginning to feel redundant, sitting there behind his desk, doing little beyond pretending to lead the others, a state that’s not being made easier or lighter by the huge dream slugs dining off him at night. Poor guy.

To contrast this, we get to see Spike in the role of Angel from season one. Just with crappier living conditions and a less fun sidekick. And, of course, with a different attitude towards the helpless he’s helping. (I mean, saving people and then telling them off for being morons? Priceless. XD) Anyways, Spike is the new vigilante in town, and Wes and Gunn’s visit to his humble dwelling is perhaps my favourite part of the whole episode. They play the part of the Devil, tempting Christ to join his side (just a tiny warning: I don’t know crap about Christian mythology, so I have no idea what the Devil tempted Christ with, although I seem to remember hearing once that he promised him dominion of the world or something like that. Anyway, my lack of knowledge in this field is most likely to ensure that my comparison is invalid) — in this case by trying to convince him that he can do more good from inside the offices of Wolfram and Hart than from the outside. Spike, of course, is not impressed, and as he’s spent quite some time watching them when he was incorporeal, he can inform them that he knows perfectly well how “the good fight” is fought over at W&H: By any means necessary. And even though he doesn’t say it, this is not in accordance with the mission statement, as phrased by Angel during a conversation with Kate after she tried to kill herself: “If nothing matters, all that matters is what we do.” Which is just another way of saying that the means are the goal, so if the means aren’t good, then the fight sure as Hell isn’t good, either.

Good stuff. Great episode.

Oh, and I just remembered that I haven’t watched the commentaries yet! Meaning that the above thoughts are very preliminary, and that I’ll add more to this (which I’m writing in Word, as I haven’t bothered connecting my laptop to the Internet, here I’m lying on the common room couch) when I’ve watched that.

So. Then the commentary was over and done with. And they were, like most of the commentaries, real interesting. David Boreanaz and Christian Kane are friends in real life, so they had a nice chemistry between them, and the writer, Brent Fletcher, had some good moments, too. Coincidentally, both Boreanaz and Fletcher were novices at this; the former had never directed before, and the latter had never written, at least not for “Angel”, and so they were both eager to enlighten the viewer about their intentions with every little detail. Kinda intriguing for us anal types. Especially fun to hear what Boreanaz intended with the use of certain angles and stuff, since I thought he succeeded very well in all cases. Or most of them, anyway.

Of the comments, there was one in particular that caught my attention, and that was an observation of Kane’s. In the first scene where Angel goes to his apartment, Kane said that he thought it was interesting that Angel lived atop the W&H building, while working in the same place, because that was almost like a prison for Angel. I’ve never thought of that before, and although he has always lived where his office has been, I think the prison allegory is much more potent here, what with the nature of W&H and all.

Furthermore, this was the episode that was shot just after Boreanaz had had his knee operation, and that put certain limitations on it all. For instance, Angel spends much of the episode in bed, or in a chair, and when he’s standing up or walking around, the scenes are always short and he doesn’t walk for very long. Apparently this was something they had to take into consideration when writing the episode. Which reminded me of something I’ve read about the “Buffy” episode “Conversations with dead people”, sometime in season 7. There, they had some scheduling problems, and decided to tell four different stories, revolving around four different characters, taking place one single night. I assume this was because the actors had no way of getting together on the same time, or something like that. The result it great, in any event, as is this one — and this one’s also limited by real life events.

Moreover, my earlier comparison between Angel’s haunt from season one and Spike’s apartment here was uncanny: The furniture from Angel’s place was actually recycled as furniture in Spike’s condo. How cool isn’t that?

Finally (not really; there’s lots of things I thought of underway, but am too forgetful to remember), mail cart Angel is perhaps the saddest figure I’ve seen. Too bad they didn’t have enough time to keep the entire shot of him walking away from the celebration of Spike. That would have been beyond awesome.