Is angel a jerk to cordellia on the "Were not doing this to make money" Bit?

[CordelliasHeart]

Just seems that way to me, How casually he wants to dismiss a case on "this isnt what we do" When they have bills to pay and such.

 

[Lyri]

It was never about the money as far as Angel was concerned. It was about making amends for the horrors that Angel inflicted as Angelus for hundreds of years. Yes, they have bills and rent to pay, but that will always come second to Angel, at least at the point of him saying that line. After Connor's birth, things change. But at that point, yes, it really wasn't about the money.

Angel may have been a bit of a jerk, saying it the way he did, but then again, at this point, Cordelia was pretty focused on the cash. She'd just lost everything she ever had and she couldn't stand living below the poverty line, so she wanted the money, she wanted to get paid. Yes, this is important, but it's also important to know that Angel has a mission and Cordelia slowly comes on board with this and learns to understand that money isn't everything.

 

[Xin Rong]

Just seems that way to me, How casually he wants to dismiss a case on "this isnt what we do" When they have bills to pay and such.

For me this was just one of those scenes that illustrates why team Angel, in its early stages, needed opposing forces. On the one hand we have Cordy who wants to keep the business going, and on the other it is angel who wants to do good. Both sides are needed and as long as no side over-dominates the other then the balance results in benefits for all...

It reminds me of a small charity I work with, on the one hand is a business savvy woman who constantly applies for funding, tries getting publicity, goes to meetings, is obsessed with reducing costs etc and on the other hand there is a lady who spends her time recruiting as many volunteers as possible and focuses on the actual mission statement. Both sides are needed and contribute to the overall success of the charity, even if their interests occasionally clash 🙂

 

[white avenger]

Just seems that way to me, How casually he wants to dismiss a case on "this isnt what we do" When they have bills to pay and such.

I don't know if "jerk" is the word that I would use, but Angel is definitely wrong in telling Cordy anything like that. Sure, he's all about wanting to in some way atone for all of the death, pain, and suffering that he has inflicted over the last hundred plus years, but in order to do that, he needs certain things, especially if he's going to have others working for him. There are expenses that have to be met, and, barring having some sugar daddy funding the operation, which he obviously doesn't have, those expenses require that he makes money somewhere, somehow. He might be able to live on rat blood from the nearest alley, but Cordy and the others aren't. They are helpinh him accomplish his mission. That deserves a certain amount of consideration and gratitude from him, and at least part of that consideration is that they have to support themselves while fighting his fight.. I seriously doubt that he would have been happy if they had all taken day jobs and only helped him when they had time to do so. Either he pays them, which means that what they do is, at least partially, about money, of he has to plan on being all on his own most of the time, and from what we saw in the series, Angel couldn't have done nearly as much good without his friends' help.

Saying that money isn't a consideration simply shows how poorly prepared and unrealistic Angel is in his so called mission. Without Cordy and Wes handling the business end of their activities, Angel Investigations, and everything that they ever accomplished, would never have lasted long enough to do the good that Angel wanted, and needed, to do.

 

[Ethan Reigns]

I can understand Angel's dilemma. There is much in religion about giving and not counting the cost being the ideal way to achieve salvation and atonement. Indeed, in Satanism, you are perfectly within your rights to help anyone, as long as you charge them for it. If you do good and you have received payment for it, you have received your reward - you don't get additional rewards after taking payment for the good you do. A business is not the way to salvation. A business is the way to money.