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

[mrs-underhill.livejournal.com]

OK, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out Lindsey's motivations when I rewatched Angel-5 2 years ago.

Yes, I know they just threw him in to be there and to dramatically kill him in the end. But I love Lindsey and can't just go with it.

So that's what I came up with.
Lindsey always had 3 defining motives for his actions: 1) not to be stepped upon, matter in the large scheme of things, 2) matter to Angel, in whatever way - partially because of 1) as he sees Angel as the biggest player of them all, someone never stepped upon - see him admiring his "brass balls" in NFA, 3) genuine humanity which never died in him. We can see the mix of all 3 in each major decision he took in his life.

In Blind Date it's all 3 - he does it because he feel for children, to impress Angel and to stick it to W&H - and eventually goes back to W&H because of 1).

In leaving W&H it's again all 3 - he felt for those whose organs were taken, he wanted to matter to Angel again, and also he was offended by W&h "stepping" on him with giving him that junk hand.

But after he left W&H we learned another thing about it in seasons 4 and 5 - you can't actually leave it, even after death. There are binding undestructable contracts for souls of any major W&H player.
I can't believe Lindsey didn't have one, and he probably discovered it after he left. I can see all those runes, hiding in Japan, etc. as an attempt to beat W&H and get around that contract - to be a bigger player then W&H management eventually.
He wanted to challenge W&H like Manners gave him credit for in the end of Blind Date.

And then, while doing that, he discovers that Angel, of all things, is now CEO of W&H! That would increase his motivation to beat W&H hundred fold - because now he is both jealous of Angel and also hurt and betrayed by him - as Angel never let him in, never gave him a quarter - exactly because Lindsey sold himself to W&H. There was always this moral superiority in Angel - but what of it now?
In light of that I can see Lindsey being as conflicted as ever in S5 and in NFA - he wants to both undermine Angel, matter to him, take more power than Angel and W&H both, thwart them both, and be accepted by Angel as an equal player. And humanity is in there too - with Eve, and I believe in his final decision to join Angel in NFA.
There, again, all 3 motives were intertwined - to play the biggest game of all, to be bigger than W&H and maybe than Angel - but also be alongside Angel and matter to him - and also a human desire to belong and to do something right under Angel's lead.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I can't believe Lindsey didn't have one, and he probably discovered it after he left. I can see all those runes, hiding in Japan, etc. as an attempt to beat W&H and get around that contract.

This is also part of my own fanwank/scenario, because I can't see why this wouldn't be the case. If everyone else had contracts, why wouldn't he?

I may even work that fanwank into Eve. As Lindsey had to have met her at some point prior to Season 5.