AtS Season 5 Question

[shipperx]

It's a question that came up for me when working on my WIP. I even went back and re-watched "You're Welcome" to see whether I had forgotten something, but the answer isn't in "You're Welcome."

Exactly why was Lindsey doing what he was doing in Season 5 AtS? In "You're Welcome"s big Angel/Lindsey fight scene he says he was pissed that Angel was handed everything that Lindsey had worked for... except... huh?

In the evil hand episode, Lindsey was given the job of head of the L.A. Branch. He turned it down and said to give it to Lilah instead.

So he's back in AtS 5 pissed because... Angel got the job? Huh?

I know that Lindsey long had a chip on his shoulder regarding Angel. And I know that there was also the issue of Darla (not that it was mentioned in AtS 5). But it just feels to me that Lindsey's motives and goal weren't well developed or identified in AtS 5.

This isn't really an issue in my WIP, other than it might be nice to know. Angel doesn't even appear in this story, and I know what Lindsey's motivation is within the context of my own story. But it does have me pondering Lindsey's Season 5 purpose. He went to a lot of trouble (including resurrecting Spike). But why and what he hoped to gain wasn't particularly well defined... at least from what I remember... and other than 'to piss off Angel.'

Am I forgetting something?

Comments

[elisi]

Re-reading the end of 'Underneath' I think a lot of it comes down to Lindsey having discovered how W&H's apocalypse is unfolding. Obviously Angel is a player in that, and I think Lindsey maybe sees himself as a player too - a counterweight to Angel. He wants the big fight, the epic showdown - he wants to matter, to change the world. His tragedy of course being that in the end he doesn't matter at all...

(Does this make sense?)

This is all rather well illustrated in obsessive24's Cuckoo.

ETA: I think the thread connecting S2!leaving!Lindsey and S5!returning!Lindsey are these words: "The key to Wolfram and Hart: don't let them make you play their game. - You gotta make them play yours."