{{distinguish|text=Destiny Angel, a character from Captain Scarlet}} {{Use American English|date=January 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox television episode | series = Angel | image = | caption = | season = 5 | episode = 8 | director = Skip Schoolnik | writer = * David Fury * Steven S. DeKnight | production = 5ADH08 | airdate = {{Start date|2003|11|19}} | guests = * Sarah Thompson as Eve * Mercedes McNab as Harmony Kendall * Juliet Landau as Drusilla * Christian Kane as Lindsey McDonald * Michael Halsey as Rutherford Sirk * Justin Connor as Jerry * Mark Kelly as Reese | prev = Lineage | next = Harm's Way | season_article = Angel season 5 | episode_list = List of Angel episodes }}
"'''Destiny'''" is the 8th episode of the fifth season of the American television series ''Angel''. Co-written by David Fury and Steven S. DeKnight and directed by Skip Schoolnik, it was originally broadcast on November 19, 2003 on the WB network. In the episode, Angel and Spike duel over a mystical grail to decide which one will be the champion, as flashbacks show the complex relationship between the two vampires. Guest star Juliet Landau reprises her role as Drusilla, and Christian Kane makes an uncredited appearance at the end of the episode playing Lindsey McDonald. The episode is notable for its large scale battle between the two vampires, as well as for being the focus of an indecency complaint by the Parents Television Council for sexual situations.
==Plot== Flashbacks to London in 1880 show William (not yet Spike) and Angelus meeting for the first time. They become good friends until William discovers Angelus having sex with Drusilla.
In the present day, Harmony opens a package for Spike from an unknown source, producing a flash of light. Spike finds he is corporeal again and celebrates with Harmony. Eve announces that Spike now qualifies as a champion and because there are two possible candidates for the fulfillment of the Shanshu Prophecy, "the wheel of destiny starts to spin off its axis". According to the prophecy, "The balance will falter until the vampire with a soul drinks from the Cup of Perpetual Torment." Sirk says that the cup is now in a destroyed opera house in Death Valley, Nevada. At the opera house, Spike and Angel battle it out for the cup. Spike emerges victorious, only to find that the cup was a set-up and Sirk has disappeared.
==Production== Although credited, Alexis Denisof doesn't appear in this episode. This was due to his and Alyson Hannigan's wedding at the time of filming.<ref>{{Citation|url=http://tv.zap2it.com/sciencefiction/otherworlds.html?30790 |title=Hannigan and Denisof Find Love in the Whedonverse |date=January 20, 2003 |first=Kate |last=O'Hare |url-status=dead |access-date=2017-02-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030416123950/http://tv.zap2it.com/sciencefiction/otherworlds.html?30790 |archive-date=2003-04-16}}</ref> This is the only episode from which he is absent following his first ''Angel'' appearance in Season One's "Parting Gifts".
In the season retrospective, Joss Whedon says the battle between Angel and Spike in this episode is the highlight of the final season.<ref>Whedon, Joss. "Angel: The Final Season," Angel Season Five, 20th Century Fox DVD, Disk 6, 2004.</ref> That battle, Scott McLaren argues, "succeeds in portraying an almost perfect balance between the concepts of the soul as existential metaphor and ontological reality." Since the Shanshu prophesy destines the ensouled vampire to a pivotal and dangerous role in the ultimate battle between good and evil, Spike and Angel's souls function both as "heavy burdens and precious baubles."<ref>{{Citation |first=Scott |last=McLaren |title=The Evolution of Joss Whedon's Vampire Mythology and the Ontology of the Soul |journal=Slayage |volume=18 |url=http://www.slayageonline.com/essays/slayage18/McLaren.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141102020740/http://slayageonline.com/essays/slayage18/McLaren.htm |archive-date=2014-11-02 |access-date=2017-02-27}}</ref>
Nancy Holder says this episode marks the transition from Spike's characterization as it was in the seventh season of ''Buffy'' to a new, "never-before seen" version, defined by his relationship with Angel instead of Buffy. When Angel tells Spike that "Buffy never really loved you, because you weren't me", and Spike responds with "Guess that means she was thinking about you all those time I was puttin' it to her", Holder says that Spike is "betraying all the soft emotion he had for her in his eagerness to deal Angel a blow." Rather than reacting out of love for Buffy, the new Spike cares only about putting down Angel.<ref>{{Citation |title=Five Seasons of Angel |chapter=Angel by the Numbers |last=Holder |first=Nancy |pages=162 |isbn=1-932100-33-4 |editor=Glenn Yeffeth |publisher=BenBella |year=2004}}</ref>
Adam Ward, the first assistant/focus puller, says the scenes at the abandoned Opera House were unexpectedly difficult to film. "It's one thing to see it on camera and another being on location in this theater that hasn't been used other than for film shots for decades. You get in there and the matter that floats around looks great on camera but you just don't want to breathe it in."<ref>{{Citation|url=http://www.cityofangel.com/behindTheScenes/bts4/adamWard2.html |title=Through the Lens: An Exclusive Interview with Adam Ward |first=Tara |last=DiLullo |publisher=CityOfAngel.com |access-date=2007-09-20 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071105064646/http://www.cityofangel.com/behindTheScenes/bts4/adamWard2.html |archive-date=2007-11-05 }}</ref>
===Acting=== Christian Kane returned as Lindsey McDonald in the last moment of the final scene of this episode, which Sarah Thompson describes as "a secret scene" that didn't appear in the original script. She says, "I heard rumors there was going to be a big reveal, but I didn't know what was going to happen. David Boreanaz was like, 'Maybe you're going to turn out to be a lizard.'" She received the scene in an envelope marked 'confidential' shortly before filming, with strict orders not to reveal Kane's return.<ref>{{Citation|url=http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,271 |archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20090713033033/http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,271 |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 13, 2009 |title='Angel's' Sarah Thompson Just Wants to Sing |first=Kate |last=O'Hare |date=December 31, 2003 |access-date=2007-12-20}}</ref>
Juliet Landau, excited to return to ''Angel'', says, "this is a particularly fun episode... There are so many different colors and dimensions. Even though [Spike and I] are the villains and we are evil, there always has been this very sweet love story between us."<ref>{{Citation|url=http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,271 |archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20090713033033/http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,271 |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 13, 2009 |title=Landau Is 'Angel's' Queen of Flashbacks |first=Kate |last=O'Hare |date=November 18, 2003 |access-date=2007-12-20}}</ref>
==Reception== The Parents Television Council filed a complaint against a WB station for the flashback sex scene in which Angel's hips can be seen "moving back and forth." The PTC was also disturbed by the "heavy breathing" in an earlier scene between Darla and Drusilla.<ref>{{Citation|url=http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,271 |archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20090713033033/http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,271 |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 13, 2009 |title=FCC Absolves 'Angel' of all Sins |date=February 27, 2005 |publisher=Zap2it |access-date=2007-09-20}}</ref> However, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) later ruled that the scene was not indecent, as it was "brief, contained no nudity and was not sufficiently graphic or explicit to render the program patently offensive."<ref>{{Citation |url=http://www.wileyrein.com/publication_newsletters.cfm?ID=11&year=&publication_ID=12055&keyword= |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130209182007/http://www.wileyrein.com/publication_newsletters.cfm?ID=11&year=&publication_ID=12055&keyword= |url-status=dead |archive-date=2013-02-09 |title=Indecency Update |first=Kathleen A. |last=Kirby |date=April 2005 |publisher=Wiley Rein LLP |access-date=2007-09-20 }}</ref>
This episode, which ran during sweeps, was praised by TV Guide for the writers' decision to finally make Spike corporeal again. Reviewer Matt Roush says this episode stands with "the best of Buffy."<ref>{{Citation |url=http://www.tvguide.com/News-Views/Columnists/Roush-Dispatches/default.aspx?posting={F5F2FA66-8439-47E5-811A-FE93294B44E9} |title=Roush Dispatches |first=Matt |last= Roush |date= November 19, 2003 |journal=TV Guide |access-date=2007-09-18}}</ref> Author Peter David agrees that the producers had perfect timing: "Just when we're getting sick of Spike as a ghost, suddenly, just like that, poof, he's not anymore."<ref>{{Citation |url=http://peterdavid.malibulist.com/archives/000828.html |title=COWBOY PETE'S TV ROUNDUP, VOLUME II |first=Peter |last=David |author-link=Peter David |date=November 22, 2003 |publisher=PeterDavid.net |access-date=2007-09-20}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist|2}}
==Further reading== * {{Cite book |last=Abbott |first=Stacey |title=Angel |publisher=Wayne State University Press |year=2009 |isbn=9780814335598 |pages=66–67}} * {{Cite book |last=Muir |first=John Kenneth |author-link=John Kenneth Muir |title=The Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film and Television |publisher=McFarland & Company |year=2008 |isbn=9780786437559 |edition=2 |page=71}}
==External links== {{wikiquote|Angel (TV series)#Destiny|Destiny}} * {{IMDb episode|0512843|Destiny}}
{{Angel episodes}}
Category:Angel season 5 episodes Category:2003 American television episodes Category:Television episodes set in London Category:Television episodes written by Steven S. DeKnight