In which Angel gets hijacked by a third-wave feminist screed

There is a legitimate complaint to be had about how the character of Cordelia Chase and her actress, Charisma Carpenter, were treated in the closing seasons of Angel, a.k.a. the greatest television show ever made. The short version is: Carpenter got pregnant, Season 4 was rewritten to make Cordelia possessed by a demon that would then give birth to itself, Carpenter was fired at the end of the season and then brought back for one episode in Season 5 just to kill her character off.



That wasn't really cool. And it's even more egregious because they'd already done the "Cordy gets impregnated by a demon" plot back in Season 1.

Now, I could defend the Season 4 plotline if I wanted to, because there are some things in it I like quite a bit. Namely, "Awakening" (the Owl-Creek-Bridge-esque "happy ending" episode where Angel loses his soul) and "Salvage," "Release," and "Orpheus," a.k.a. the Faith three-parter that introduces a much-needed shakeup into what by that point had become a stale dynamic. But that's not really what I'm here to do.

I'm here to dissect a pile of garbage.

Here's the thesis:

"Taken together, the show's treatment of its female characters is painfully similar to the pressures women experience in real life to sideline their own health, careers, and autonomy for the sake of their children."

Oh, you mean art imitates life? How dare it? But hold on: getting possessed by a demon fetus hell-bent on mind-controlling the world is "painfully similar" to (hang on, let me translate Third Wave Feminist to English here), um, being a mother.

"Everything she had done since moving to L.A. was revealed to be someone else's plan; every choice she ever made was canceled."

Which is the same as, um, being a mother. According to this person. And, by the way, Angel is a pawn of the Powers that Be the entire fucking time but that's not a problem because he has a penis, I guess.

It falls in line with the dire rhetoric of forced-birth advocates who insist that women must "face the consequences" of their sexual choices, whether that means trauma, unwanted parenthood, poverty, or death.

I just want to make sure I understand what you're saying here. Carpenter got pregnant and decided not to abort. She was fired because she decided to keep her child, which makes Joss Whedon a "forced-birth advocate" or someone who talks like one. No, that can't be it, and the context of the sentence suggests you're talking about Cordy the character, not Carpenter the actress. Again, poor fit, since Cordy didn't make a "sexual choice." (She sleeps with Connor after she's already been possessed.) But anyway, I can see you have an agenda. Let's see if the other cases you cite back up your claims.

With the deaths of Darla, Cordelia, and Fred, Angel says that a woman is a person until she gets pregnant, and that's the end of her story.

Wait what? Fred got pregnant? I missed that episode.

The last of the three was Fred Burkle (Amy Acker), whose body was hijacked and used as an incubator to bring the ancient god Illyria back to life. Fred doesn't literally give birth to Illyria, but the parallel is obvious. A foreign life form is placed inside her body by a man with whom she was briefly romantically involved. And when Illyria comes forth into the world, Fred is obliterated. It's a crushing, painful, ugly death. It's not the resolution of a character arc or even particularly relevant to the season's main plotline. Mostly, it gives the primary male characters an extra helping of grief, rage, and guilt to carry into the season's final battle.

Let's parse this bullcrap.

The last of the three was Fred Burkle (Amy Acker), whose body was hijacked and used as an incubator to bring the ancient god Illyria back to life... And when Illyria comes forth into the world, Fred is obliterated.

Okay so demonic possession is now in all cases forcible rape and impregnation. That is officially part of your argument. Well, Buffy and Angel haven't always been consistent as to what exactly vampires are, but the original telling was that they were demons inhabiting human corpses. So every vampire (including Angel and Spike) are now rape victims. Got it.

Fred doesn't literally give birth to Illyria

No fucking shit.

but the parallel is obvious. A foreign life form is placed inside her body by a man with whom she was briefly romantically involved.

 Whoa, whoa, heresy! Fetuses are now "foreign life forms," rather than "a clump of cells," "my body my choice." Good to know. (Again, a demon was placed inside Liam's body by Darla, a woman with whom he was briefly "romantically" involved, and he became the vampire Angel/Angelus. You're turning this into Alien, you crazy lady.) But beyond that, Knox didn't jab Fred with a needle or anything like that; Fred inhaled magic dust from a coffin. You're trying to get at a pregnancy metaphor without anything remotely resembling a penis this time.

It's not the resolution of a character arc or even particularly relevant to the season's main plotline.

It's been a while, but I'm pretty sure this "let's let Amy play a villain" plot was hatched long before they knew Angel was going to get axed a mere seven episodes later. And in fact, had the show continued, Season Six would have dealt with trying to separate Illyria from Fred. So you're trying to apply an already ill-fitting set of facts that would be even more ill-fitting had they been allowed to play out as intended to your thesis.

Mostly, it gives the primary male characters an extra helping of grief, rage, and guilt to carry into the season's final battle.

Actually, it mostly gives Amy Acker a chance to play a crazy villain, which is according to Joss the reason why he did it. As for the manpain, that's dealt with in the span of two episodes. Outside of "Shells" and "The Girl in Question," Illyria's presence doesn't inspire grief and guilt so much as questions of "what should we do about this nigh-invulnerable hellgod hanging around?" cf. particularly "Time Bomb." Did you even watch the show?

Again, if you want to be angry about how Fred's story crashed, blame the network for axing the show. Let's turn to the last example.

Julie Benz said in 2013 that she found the exit of her character profound, a final selfless deed by someone whose character had primarily been defined by self-preservation.

Gasp. Character development. In a supernatural soap opera. How terrible.