Daddy's Second Chance: Angel, Angelus, and Neo’s Fall

[pirate_anon]

Daddy's Second Chance:
Angel, Angelus, and Neo’s Fall

Angel actually comes back a few times, but only for brief
instants. He harasses Buffy II on her Johari Window while living
with Seven (Buffy II, 2006), signs a comment "N/A/G" for Neo,
Angel, and Greg House (citation available upon request).
Nothing of importance.

But a few months after the failed Nebraska venture, Angel
and Angelus come back again for a little longer. In April 2009,
they create a secret Livejournal with the dubious title of
“Redeeming Angel.” Angel’s first entry makes the new account’s
purpose explicit: "I'm here to reconnect with my son." (April 17).
"I made a whole new Journal, just, mostly, to interact with you
and maybe try and reconnect with some of the people who
always loved you?"

I'm not sure if that’s a typo and he means to say "people
who always loved me," or if he’s arguing that his system's
behavior towards Connor has been loving the whole time and
that Connor should be reconnecting with him.

In that same entry, Angel makes a reference to being
"hyper" from "Slayer blood." Does that mean that Trinity is now
hosting a Buffy IV, or another Faith? Is it all more role-
playing/"bi-location" shenanigans? It's never brought up again, so
who knows.

Regardless, after five years of abuse and neglect, Connor
finally gets showered with affection again. "Here I am, Junior
Kiddo," Angel writes (April 17). "Your Dad... your Dad's here
now." (Emphasis his.) They make her a video, entitled "Daddy's
Second Chance: My Good Son." In the video description, he even
shows some semblance of regret, describing himself as "broken-
hearted by his repeated failures," though not enough to actually
describe what those failures are, never mind apologize. The
video description ends with, "This is dedicated to my 'real-life'
son. I love you, Kiddo."

Conveniently, the video is twenty seconds too long to post
to Youtube. Rather than cut any of it and risk making a public
statement about Angel's existence and relationship with Connor,
Angel instead makes it a private download for Connor alone.
Connor is over the moon at first, and who can blame her?
After years of waiting, things look like they are finally going back
to the honeymoon days. "I'm just...so glad to have you back,"
Connor says. "I love you" (April 17). Even Anakin starts treating
her arguably better, joking about spanking her like House did
years prior (citation available upon request). It seems like their
relationship is finally repaired.

But then things go awry, somehow.

Maybe Angelus is the sticking point. Angel pleads for
Connor to reconcile with Angelus, insisting, "We're not separate
people. We never were... we never can be" (2009 April 17). This
is not a light statement to make, considering that Connor herself
described Angelus as "evil,duh!" and insisted “ANGEL ISN'T
ANGELUS.Don't let me ever catch anyone say any different,got
it?!” (2003 March 8). Combined with Angelus's own jokes about
murdering Angel's wife and getting erections from breaking
spines, I'm not sure how they expect Connor to react. But still,
Angel hammers home that they are a package deal, stating "I -
well, um, we, actually, [...] are here" (2009 April 19).

"When you said we," Connor replies in the comments,
"you ment [sic] Angelus, didn't you..." She doesn't seem
enthusiastic.

In that same third entry, two days after the secret blog’s
creation, Angel announces, "I may be incommunicado for...
mmm... just a couple hours, maybe" and him and Angelus vanish
again, seemingly for good this time. Did they integrate? Who
knows?

Meanwhile, Connor makes her own post a couple days
later, mentioning she's going to a doctor (citation available upon
request). Despite her recent contact with Angel, she seems
unhappy; she writes, "This may sound horrible; but I hope there
IS something wrong with me...cause at least then it'll explain why
my life is so fucked up, ya know. Because I honestly, sincerely
don't get how I ended up like this." Even then, though, she signs
her blog post with, "A harsh, cruel world is still one worth
fighting for," a lesson that none of Draven ever seem to learn.
Despite all they have done to her, Connor still seems to retain a
basic goodness at her core; over the course of my research, I have
read countless posts and comments from her, and never once do I
see her expressing cruelty or malice, not even to Draven ex-
followers or ex-partners.

The same day Connor posts about going to the doctor,
Neo posts a Youtube video with the subtitle "Neo's Broken
Heart," asking why people have forsaken him (April 21). "I woke
up screaming last night, screaming in the night, crying, begging,
pleading, what have I done? [...] how have I failed you all so
badly? [...] Please, somebody tell me, I’m screaming into the abyss.
What have I done so wrong to lose you, if I’ve lost you? What
have I – where have I gone wrong? What have I not shown you,
what have I not done for you? Is it not enough? Those of you
who believed in me once. What have I done?"

Is he talking about his cult, or Connor? Regardless, the
guilt trip fails. Nobody is there to watch the video. There are no
comments, and even now, after eight and a half years, there are
only 135 views. Neo’s audience, his mirror, is gone.

"Was it a fad? Am I over now? Am I a has-been?" Neo
laments (ibid). Yes, he is. People stop commenting on his LJ
posts. His biggest community, for_zion, is never updated after
2010. Neo keeps making grandiose plans, but nobody responds.
It's been five years, and despite immense amounts of financial
support and labor from followers, Neo has achieved very little
except two accidental bomb scares and a string of legal
difficulties and evictions. His least negative accomplishments are
a self-published book, two computer games, a radio show, and a
website, all of which followers helped with and all of which are
used solely for recruitment—a start, rather than a finish.

Neo's second-to-last Youtube video mentions that he's
now spreading his Mission in-person, through magic shows and
busking (2009 April 29). "The current moniker Trinity and I [...]
are recording under is DELIRIUM SYMPHONICA," Neo says.

This is true, but Neo isn't the one doing them. He's giving
way to Erik Dessler, the Phantom of the Opera.